Rosenberg, Joel C - The Kremlin Conspiracy by Rosenberg Joel C

Author:Rosenberg, Joel C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Thrillers / Political, FICTION / Thrillers / Military
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2018-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

Marcus said nothing.

He just stared at the TV as batter after batter struck out, stranding two runners on base.

“The senator called me a few hours ago—he said you told him no,” Pete continued. “I said I’d take another run at you. So here I am. Come on, Marcus. You know Brussels and Berlin better than anyone. You’ve certainly been there with the president and VP enough times over the years.”

It was true. Marcus thought about the last time he’d done an advance for a G7 summit in London but then stopped as abruptly as he’d started. He looked at Pete. “Us?”

“Sorry?” Pete asked.

“You said come with us,” Marcus repeated. “The senator didn’t say anything about you going.”

“He only asked me after you said no,” Pete admitted, setting down his beer and sitting forward on the couch. “Come on, man, what do you say?”

Marcus looked back at the television. Now the Rangers were rallying. The first batter up hit a double. The second hit a triple on a high fastball.

“All right, I’ll go,” he said finally, turning the television completely off and facing Pete directly. “On three conditions.”

“Who are you? Aladdin?”

“You gonna hear me out or not?”

“Fine—name your price.”

“First, skip London, Brussels, and Berlin—been there, done that. It doesn’t get you anything. Go to Kiev, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius instead.”

“Why?” asked a bewildered Pete. “Most Americans can’t even locate those cities on a map.”

“That’s precisely why,” Marcus said. “If the senator’s real concern is the threat posed by Russia, then go talk to people who actually feel threatened by Russia. The British don’t. Neither do the Belgians or the Germans. They ought to, but they don’t.”

“Go on. I’m listening.”

“Every politician with national ambitions goes to 10 Downing Street, especially if you’re on the Intelligence Committee. But who ever talks to our most exposed and vulnerable allies? I worked on the PPD for years. We never once went to the Baltics. Yet I hear Luganov just ordered exercises in the Western Military District. And the Ukrainians? After the whole thing in Crimea, everyone’s forgotten about them. But the Russians have massed something like fifty thousand troops on the Ukrainian border, maybe more. They’re saying it’s only an exercise, but what if it really is the prelude to an invasion? So get ahead of the story. Meet with the leaders in Kiev. Go see the Ukrainian troops on the front. Take your buddies from CNN and the rest and go make some news.”

“Interesting,” Pete conceded. “Keep going.”

“Second, go to Moscow.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me. Ask for a meeting with Luganov, in the Kremlin, one-on-one.”

“Marcus, have you lost your mind? Luganov and Dayton hate each other. Everyone knows that.”

“All the more reason to meet with him, mano a mano.”

“Are you going to be the food taster?”

“If I need to be.”

“Marcus, this guy once ordered his people to slip radioactive poison in the tea of one of his political enemies.”

Unfortunately, Marcus knew, that was true. “You want your man to make headlines, right, to show himself a leader?”

“Right.

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