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Page 328
I must call Caidin immediately, Cherny thought, as the shock army colonel and his men took custody of the prisoners. And I must speak with Ian Halloran. For some reason, fear had gone, and his mind was working quickly and clearly. "Gallikov, have we any personnel qualified to disarm the missile at our mission in Canada? Or Washington?"
"No, Honorable President. Only at the Kola Naval Base."
"Very well. Order Kola to assemble an underwater nuclear weapons disposal team and fly them to Montreal at once. Then convene a consultation with your best experts about how best to deal with this abomination."
"Sir."
The soldiers guided Aleyev, Kalinin, and Suvorov, along with the two academicians from the Design Cadre, out of the door, but paused there in confusion.
Cherny pushed his way past the prisoners into the anteroom. There, in the custody of four of the shock army guards, stood General Piotr Kondratiev. His Black Berets uniform was rumpled and showed evidence of a struggle upon his arrest, but he seemed unperturbed.
"I heard what you said just now, Aleksandr Borisovich," Kondratiev said, laughing. "You had better go to your shelter and allow the state to be run by those competent to do Mother Russia's business."
For the first time, Aleksandr Cherny's anger and contempt overcame his diffidence when dealing with Kondratiev. "You egotistical bungler, this disaster is on your head, yours and your stupid sycophants." He waved at the guards. "Take thisthismurdereraway."
One of the soldiers shoved Kondratiev so hard that he almost fell, then grasped him by the coat collar to pull him upright again. As his guards began to hurry him back along the corridor, he shouted over his shoulder at Cherny, "I'll not do you a favor like Sergei Akromeyev did for Gorbachev and hang myself. I'll not shoot myself like Boris Pugo, nor jump from a high window like Nikolai Kruchinaunless, of course,

 
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