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Page 315
Do they know about my part in the missile sales abroad? Surely Aleksandr Cherny would not execute me out of hand for something so common, he thought hopefully. A man must look to his future, and, of his own knowledge, he could name at least a hundred military men who had done the same, including Kondratiev.
Kalinin glanced at the expressionless peasant face of the provost officer who had him in charge. Zenobiev gave him no clue as to what came next. The limousine rounded into the parking area behind the bell tower. Kalinin's heart sank. Instead of the familiar uniform of the men of the Kremlin guards, the regiment had all been replaced by a very hard-looking detachment of soldiers from the Thirtieth Shock Army, dressed in full battle gear, including flak vests and steel helmets. The showy guards were nowhere to be seen. Kondratiev had once scoffed at them, called them "chocolate soldiers," and he had pressured old Yulin to replace them with a regiment of Black Berets, Ministry of the Interior security troops. But Yulin, as present commander of the security forces, had dithered over the order until it was too late.
Looking at the shock army soldiers standing guard now, Kalinin was envious. Oh, how I wish the air force regiments had troops like these instead of insolent bastards like those at Bykovo, he thought mournfully. It might have made all the difference in the world. Kondratiev should have struck that bargain with the Communists, combine forces. He could have dealt with them later, after the takeover.
Was it also too late to get himself out of this mess? Success of the Soyuz putsch had depended almost entirely on secrecy and surprise. Perhaps, when pressed, he could confess the sins of the plotters, with the full understanding that the guilt lay with Kondratiev and the others, not with an upstanding, patriotic officer like himself. Could he convince them that he was just an innocent bystander, somehow drawn into the plot against his will?
The car had stopped and Colonel Zenobiev held the door

 
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