Into the Out Of by Foster Alan Dean

Author:Foster, Alan Dean [Foster, Alan Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Adventure
ISBN: 9781497627208
Amazon: 1497627206
Goodreads: 21852182
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi Fantasy
Published: 1986-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Gstaad, Switzerland—23 June

Alexis Bostoff was the fastest-rising star in the Soviet firmament. A full member of the Politburo at the unheard-of age of thirty-four, he held the important post of assistant minister of armaments. Because of his military connections, he understood not only the needs of the vast Soviet military complex but its operational stratagems as well. In this respect he was unique.

He was also brilliant, articulate, and handsome enough to have had a career as a movie star in the Russian cinema. It was premature to speak of him as a successor to the still young Dorovskoy, but already the whispering had begun. Here was a young man who someday might be able to charm the West into a reasonable disarmament without concurrent weakening of the motherland, a man who could keep both the party and the generals happy. He was totally dedicated to his work. Most important, he got along well with Dorovskoy himself. The Premier valued the young assistant minister’s advice. Everyone was amazed that Bostoff had not succumbed to the disease, which had aborted so many similar promising careers: that of premature ambition.

This was his first visit to the West and he’d immediately set about charming both his Swiss hosts and the media. The sight of a Russian armaments minister tearing down the ski slopes with the slickest of the Beautiful People was a novelty the press was quick to seize upon. It was nothing remarkable to Bostoff, who’d grown up in the northern Urals. He’d had to learn how to ski at an early age in order to get to school in the depths of the raw Russian winter. He’d continued skiing on into maturity for both exercise and recreation. Perhaps incidentally, it made him stand out in a cluster of typically overweight officials.

Earlier that week in Bern he’d shown himself to be as comfortable at a press conference as he was on the slopes. When one of the reporters had inquired if he had any personal problems that were giving him trouble he’d replied that some people suffered from a persecution complex, others from an inferiority complex, but that he was burdened by a military-industrial complex. From that point on the attitude of the media had changed from hostile to sympathetic. No one had even asked him about Afghanistan.

The conference itself had gone better than anyone in the Soviet delegation had hoped, due in no small part to his own aggressive analysis of the world economic order. He was feeling very pleased with himself as he schussed down the medium-degree-of-difficulty slope toward the town below. He was also enjoying a rare morning of solitude, since none of the KGB men assigned to watch him knew how to ski. They could only grumble and watch him depart unescorted from the top of the lift. Others waited below, he knew, surveying his progress from time to time with high-power binoculars. But out on the slope, he was free.

All vacations eventually came to an end, even working ones.

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