|
|
|
|
|
|
"What about Aleksandr Cherny? Why hasn't he acted to stop them before this?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Ignorance. Weakness. Reasonableness. Denial. Probably all of those. He's a schoolteacher by trade, Charlotte. An intellectual, an idealist, not a man of action." Kellner paused thoughtfully. "He is not the type to challenge the group, most of whom he has considered colleagues up to this time. Remember how horrified he was when Yeltsin blew the first parliament out of the White House with artillery? If Cherny knows of the plot, he'll try to handle it by diplomatic means, secretly." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"He can try," Kellner said. "But I suspect the Soyuz crowd learned something from the Yaneyev attempt in '91. There's an old proverb in almost every European language that says 'If you strike at a king, make damned sure you kill him.' The Yaneyev conspirators dithered, and Boris Yeltsin climbed up on a tank and faced them down. Kondratiev won't make that mistake." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Then President Cherny must be warned. The plotters may have isolated him, cut off his political intelligence. We have to alert him." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kellner regarded Charlotte Conroy evenly. "If we do that, we may cause Abramov's death. Do you understand that?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charlotte sat for a moment in silence. Then she said slowly, "Nathan sent me these documents. He intended for me to make the best use of them." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"We must show them to the President," Kellner said. "He's been very concerned about Mrs. Neville's odyssey, thinking as we all did that it was only a propaganda effort, a political ploy." He sat for a moment in thought, his face drawn, pale. He reached over to open a wall panel and lifted a telephone handset from it. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Presently he said, "This is the Adviser. I have Ambassador Conroy with me. We need to see the President at once. Please arrange it." |
|
|
|
|
|