Read Online October's Ghost by Ryne Douglas Pearson - Free Book Online Page A

a warning glare. “Where this information comes from is beyond compare, especially because it is given...how would you say?...unwittingly. Without embellishment or filtering. To let on that we have access to this information would surely end its availability. Hence the extreme precautions. I alone make the decision as to how the information is to be used.”
    “This could be trickery,” Bogdanov suggested.
    “Not with what has been allowed to slip out,” Yakovlev responded. “We have learned such secrets that you would not believe.”
    “And those may be useful in the future,” the president said, knowing the value of inside knowledge during negotiations in the international arena. “I tell you all this only to stave off any foolish moves by ‘other parties.’ You must convince them that such would be a grave mistake, and you must do so without revealing what you have been told.”
    Shergin caught the president’s attention with his stare. “I trust that you are right to believe this information. Inoperable radars will do little to protect the Motherland.”
    “As will malfunctioning ones,” the president shot back. “A safer tomorrow will come only from trust today.”
    Interior Minister Bogdanov, in a position of allegiance that was odd considering his seemingly benign place in the government machinery, had to decide whether to report in the positive or the negative to his fellow dissenters back in Moscow. The 106th Airborne Division, a unit that had saved the president once by refusing to participate in a failed effort to unseat him, was poised to move into the capital with just a word from General Shergin, its allegiance this time opposite of the past by way of a new, conversely loyal unit commander. Would Bogdanov set such a thing in motion? Could he?
    “The next two weeks will be somewhat tense,” the interior minister theorized, his decision sure to disappoint many of his political bent. “I hope events bear out your trust in the Americans.”
    “I have no doubts,” the president said confidently. “All will go well.”
    “I hope so,” Bogdanov said. “For the sake of the Motherland.” And for yours .
    *  *  *
    “Tomás, look. Quick,” Jorge said, the CNN anchor’s words sounding much too awake for such an early hour, then reminded himself that he was on the West Coast. He had been out here too long, he knew. “Turn it up, Tomás. Turn it up.”
    Tomás set down the plastic cassette case and jeweler’s screwdriver and rolled off the motel bed. He twisted the volume knob until the sound came up. No fucking remote, he thought, realizing that fifty-six bucks a night didn’t necessarily guarantee the latest in amenities.
    “ Early reports from Havana indicate that the apparent coup has caused widespread disruption of communications systems. ” The anchor fiddled with papers that were being fed to him, obviously trying to sort out that which was before him and the flow of words through his earpiece. Fast-breaking news was never as pretty as the produced stuff. “ And, uh, we are now getting some confirmation on an earlier report that this may be a very large and a very well organized uprising. Sources at Guantanamo Naval Base near the eastern end of the island are reporting that there is heavy fighting in the nearby city of Guantanamo. Flashes... I am reading this as I receive it, so bear with the roughness of it. Flashes are visible from the north and... If these reports are correct, and we believe they are, then this fighting is hundreds of miles from the initial reports from the area near the country’s capital of Havana. And... ”
    Jorge switched the set off. “I don’t believe it.”
    “Shit. No wonder they want this thing out of circulation.” Tomás tightened the last of the small metal screws that held the cassette together. “Does this do anything to us?”
    Jorge’s head shook. “Fee up front, Tomás. We have our money, we do the job.” He looked at the work his