Sheldon, Sidney - The Doomsday Conspiracy by Sheldon Sidney

Author:Sheldon, Sidney
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2006-04-23T03:09:49+00:00

8. OLGA ROMANCHANKO-KIEV

END OF MESSAGE

That afternoon Robert was on an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu154 jet to Paris.

When he arrived three hours and twenty-five minutes later, he

transferred to an Air France flight to Washington, D.C.

At two A.M. Olga Romanchanko heard the squeal of brakes as a car pulled

up in front of the apartment building where she lived, on Vertryk

Street. The walls of the apartment were so thin that she could hear

voices outside on the street. She got out of bed and looked out the

window. Two men in civilian clothes were getting out of a black Chaika,

the model used by government officials. They were approaching the

entrance to her apartment building. The sight of them sent a shiver

through her. Over the years, some of her neighbors had disappeared,

never to be seen again. Some of them had been sent to the Gulags in

Siberia. Olga wondered whom the secret police were after this time, and

even as she was thinking it, there was a knock on her door, startling

her. What do they want with me? she wondered. It must be some

mistake.

When she opened the door, the two men were standing there.

"Comrade Olga Romanchanko?"

"Yes."

"Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye." The dreaded GRU.

They pushed their way past her into the room.

"What-what is it you want?"

"We will ask the questions. I am Sergeant Yuri Gromkov.

This is

Sergeant Vladimir Zemsky." She felt a sudden sense of terror.

"What's-what's wrong? What have I done?"

Zemsky pounced on it.

"Oh, so you know you have done something wrong!"

"No, of course not," Olga said, flustered.

"I do not know why you are here."

"Sit down," Gromkov shouted. Olga sat.

"You have just returned from a trip to Switzerland, nyet?"

"Y-yes," she stuttered, "but i~it was. ... I got permission from-"

"Espionage is not legal, Olga Romanchanko."

"Espionage?"

She was horrified.

"I don't know what you are talking about." The larger man was staring

at her body, and Olga suddenly realized she was wearing only a thin

nightgown.

"Let's go. You are coming with us."

"But there is some terrible mistake. I'm a librarian.

Ask anybody here whoHe pulled her to her feet.

"Come."

"Where are you taking me?"

"To headquarters. They want to question you." They allowed her to put

on a coat over her nightgown.

She was shoved down the stairs and into the Chaika. Olga

thought of all

the people who had ridden in cars like this before and had never

returned, and she was numb with fear.

The larger man, Gromkov, was driving. Olga was seated in the back with

Zemsky. He somehow seemed less frightening to her, but she was

petrified by who they were and what was going to happen to her.

"Please believe me," Olga said earnestly.

"I would never betray my-"

"Shut up," Gromkov barked.

Vladimir Zemsky said, "Look, there's no reason to be rough with her. As

a matter of fact, I believe her."

Olga felt her heart leap with hope.

"Times have changed," Comrade Zemsky went on.

"Comrade Gorbachev doesn't like us to go around bothering innocent

people. Those days are past."

"Who said she's innocent?"

Gromkov growled.

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. They'll find out soon enough at

headquarters."

Olga sat there listening to the two men discussing her as if she were

not there.

Zemsky said, "Come now, Yuri, you know that at headquarters she will

confess, whether she's guilty or not.

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