Bomb Grade

Bomb Grade Read Free Page B

Book: Bomb Grade Read Free
Author: Brian Freemantle
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longer. ‘You still shouldn’t have done it.’
    Popov shrugged the protest aside. Able, from the way he was standing, to conceal the heavy seriousness between them from other parents in the room he said, simply, ‘Hello.’
    â€˜Hello,’ said Natalia, just as serious. Should she, could she, take another chance?
    Stanislav Silin knew he had them rattled, Sobelov most of all. It was a good feeling, like it had been a good feeling watching the bombast leak from the man when Sobelov realized how easily the size of the robbery would re-establish things in their proper order.
    Silin had guessed, of course, about the money involved but he didn’t think it was an exaggeration to value 250 kilos of weapons-graded material, which was what he’d been promised, at $75,000,000 at least. They’d been dumbstruck by that, as he’d known they would be because he had been when the size had been put to him. Sobelov had tried to recover, questioning both the amount and the profit, but the others hadn’t doubted him. They hadn’t just believed him, they’d backed him, not even Bobin or Frolov supporting the demand that there should be a change in the system to involve all of them in the negotiations instead of leaving it to him alone, which was his agreed right as the boss of bosses. Silin had been worried at that insistence, unsure how much ground he’d lost: the fact that everyone apart from Sobelov was prepared to leave the brokering to him, like it had always been in the past, had to be the best indicator he could have wished that he could defeat Sobelov’s challenge.
    But he still couldn’t afford to relax.
    He’d always protected his sources but this time the secret had to be absolute, not just for their benefit but to prevent Sobelov trying to take over, which the man might attempt in his desperation. Just as secretly as he had to set things up in Berlin and for the same reasons.
    And when he’d put everything in motion he could start planning how Sobelov was going to die. He was going to enjoy that.
    Silin looked to the side of the room at Markov’s re-entry, for the nod of assurance that Marina’s guards had been properly briefed.
    Everything was working out perfectly.

chapter 3
    Q uestions crowded in upon him but Charlie Muffin was too experienced to interrupt. It wasn’t just what Rupert Dean was saying. Or the awareness that he had been professionally reprieved. There was the overwhelming personal implication. But which couldn’t be allowed to become overwhelming. Anything personal had to be blocked off, later more calmly to be assessed. For the moment the posting was the only thing he could afford to let into his mind.
    So Natalia had to be forgotten.
    Dean’s presentation, like his demeanour, was that of a lecturer concisely establishing with facts and assessments and analyses a problem that phrases and words like ‘potentially catastrophic’ and ‘cataclysmic’ and ‘nightmare’ did not exaggerate. He also referred to ‘political sensitivity’ and ‘extreme caution’ and ‘essential cooperation’ and Charlie knew they weren’t exaggerations either. Dean concluded, ‘So that’s your brief, to liaise with the Russians and with the already appointed Americans to do everything you can to stem the flow of nuclear material to the West.’
    Charlie wondered if the telephone boxes in Moscow would be large enough for him to change into his Superman outfit. ‘There are officers from this department already attached to the British embassy in Moscow. Others from SIS, too.’
    â€˜Engaged in their normal functions, which remain quite separate from what you are being appointed to achieve,’ said Dean. ‘Our role was extended years ago to combat the terrorism in Northern Ireland. Now it’s being widened even further. And what’s coming out of Russia and its former

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