Sacrifice by Graham Masterton

Author:Graham Masterton [Masterton, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838935771
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Yeremenko was about to go to the mess to meet B.Y. Serpuchov, the political Commissar of the Western Strategic Direction, when Colonel Chuykov came running along the corridor, his polished boots clattering like a horse at the gallop.

‘Well, comrade colonel, you’re in a hurry,’ he remarked.

‘I have to see you confidentially,’ Chuykov panted. He was sweating, and he had obviously run a long way. It suddenly occurred to Yeremenko that Chuykov was supposed to be in Haldensleben with Golovanov; and that only a few minutes before he had looked up from his desk as a Mi-14 had come roaring over the headquarters in an unusually low pass.

‘Something’s wrong?’ asked Yeremenko.

‘Please, sir. I was specifically told that I should pass this intelligence on to you personally, and in private.’

‘Very well,’ said Yeremenko. He looked at his watch. He was already five minutes late for his meeting, and he knew that by now Serpuchov would be growing distinctly irritable. Serpuchov considered that anyone who treated him discourteously was ipso facto being discourteous to the Party. Yeremenko opened the door of the office marked Duty Officer, and waved Chuykov inside. ‘Well,’ he said switching on the fluorescent lights, ‘is something wrong with Marshal Golovanov? His heart?’

Chuykov said, breathlessly, ‘No, sir; not his heart, sir.’

‘Then…?’ asked Yeremenko, encouragingly.

‘He’s disappeared, sir. The GRU officers at Haldensleben think that he may have been abducted.’

Yeremenko stared at him. ‘Golovanov? Abducted? Golovanov is a marshal! Golovanov is a Hero of the Soviet Union! How could he possibly have been abducted? Nobody abducts men like Golovanov! This is preposterous! I refuse to believe it. He’s probably – I don’t know – shacked up somewhere with that girl of his.’

‘I’m afraid it’s true, sir. I flew straight back from Haldensleben as soon as I could. Major Grechko is helping to co-ordinate the search with the KGB and the GRU, as well as the German police.’

Yeremenko sat on the edge of the desk. ‘Damn,’ he said, out loud. But then he almost smiled. ‘It was that Inge, wasn’t it? I suppose there’s no sign of her.’

Chuykov unhappily shook his head.

‘Well, in that case,’ said Yeremenko, ‘I suppose that we are all to blame for the marshal’s disappearance. Every one of us who was prepared to see Marshal Golovanov make a fool of himself with a girl like Inge. Oh, what a tremendous laugh, hm, colonel? – to see him go bug-eyed for a girl who wouldn’t have looked twice at him if he hadn’t been a marshal, and she hadn’t been an intelligence officer for the KGB! And now of course we have to eat our laughter. She doesn’t work for the KGB at all; unless she tried to protect Marshal Golovanov and was killed, and I very much doubt that.’

‘But if she’s not working for the KGB, sir—?’

‘I don’t know. She’s not working for the Americans, at least I wouldn’t have thought so. She certainly doesn’t belong to the usual espionage community. They are like an exclusive club, that won’t let anybody in unless they have all the right credentials.

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