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it anymore?" Kalinin asked him. |
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Kondratiev shook his head. "That was quite a gathering of vultures on the mausoleum. And to see the Jew Milstein in that place of honorit is enough to make one puke." He refilled Kalinin's glass and lifted the bottle. "Nazdrovya." |
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Kalinin raised his glass and drained it, letting the icy vodka cut the stale taste in his mouth. His spirits rose and his doubts about Kondratiev's motives vanished. Kondratiev knew how to solve problems, who to recruit. "Have you heard from the Chechen mafia? Will they be with us when the time comes?" |
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"Not yet," Kondratiev said, and spat on the ground to show his distaste of the gangsters and criminals who dominated black marketeering in Russia. "They're coythey're waiting until we succeed. It's just as well. The last thing we want is for our enemies to claim that we have been party to mafia crimes. But they'll come around, the gypsies, the Lyuberts and the Baumanskaya, and all the rest. They'll have toor else we will finish them." |
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"What about the other six hundred or so political parties, if they can be called that?" |
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"Most of them we don't want under any circumstances. They may be at the mercy of Masonic conspiracies, for all we know. Following the lead of the arch-Mason, Kellner." |
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"And the moneyhave the Iraqis sent the money? I'm told that the Iranians and the Libyans have contributed." |
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The ex-chairman of the KGB smiled. "We have all we need." He lifted the vodka bottle and inspected its contents. "So, you are to be appointed Air Defense commander for the Greater Moscow Area, as of the first of the month, Kalinin." |
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The postings of senior officers were supposed to be the highest secrets of state. But nothing was secret in Cherny's Moscow. Of course Kondratiev would have been informed. "Yes," Kalinin said. |
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"I don't believe you've been brought up to date on the latest developments, my son," Kondratiev said, his voice hushed. He looked around carefully, then draped his arm |
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