Coercion Read Free Page B

counterattacked?  How do you thrust a sword when you don’t know who is friend and who is foe?  Where do you turn when you can’t trust anybody?  If they could reach a Deputy-Minister, why not a Minister?  Why not a President?  Gorbachev has a daughter.  It was an agonizing situation for a soldier and a patriot to be in, to have the knowledge that the Devil was at work in your beloved country, and yet be powerless to crusade against him.
    Despite these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Leo hesitated in turning to his friend only because he knew that Andrey had a profound sense of duty.  Whatever Leo’s excuse, and regardless of his circumstance, with all that he had done for his masters, Leo was now a traitor and a criminal, and Andrey would feel duty-bound to turn him in.
    Leo clung to the hope that Andrey would not choose that course.  He was counting on his friend to find another means of satisfying honor, gambling that Andrey would defer to a duty that came before career and country.  Andrey also had two children, children the same ages as Maya and Georgy.  Because of them, Leo figured that his chances of enlisting Andrey were fifty-fifty, and he knew that those were the best odds he would get.
    Leo had been on the verge of b roaching the subject in the bar, and found himself feeling like Eve about to hand Adam the apple.  Then Sugurov’s call had disrupted the collegial atmosphere, crumbling his will and providing a welcome chance to procrastinate.
    Perhaps now was the time?  They were still three hundred kilometers from Novosibirsk.  It would normally take the Mi-28 only an hour to cover that distance at full throttle, but to avoid radar Leo was flying contour to the ground at low-altitude so their flight time would be closer to ninety minutes.  Would that be long enough? 
    His alternatives were very limited at this point.  To save his friend, Leo had to find a way to make sure his masters did not see Andrey arrive with him.  One option Leo had was to tell Andrey the truth, hoping to enlist his help but at least gaining enough understanding that he could then drop Andrey off somewhere before anyone saw them together.  Alternatively, if Leo did not confide in Andrey, he would then have to contrive some inevitably far-fetched reason for getting his colleague out of the helicopter prior to reaching the airport.  What could that possibly be?  Leo started to brainstorm, but stopped himself abruptly.  Who was he fooling?  The time to talk had arrived.
    Leo tried to imagine how he would cold-start the discussion without a vodka-lubricant.  Andrey, you probably think I’m flying this way for practice, but actually it’s to avoid radar.  You see, this is an un-logged flight and I’m …  No, that was no good.  He would just have to open his heart and let it all tumble out.
    Admittedly, the setting was ideal for such a discussion.  With Andrey down in the gunner’s seat and Leo above in the pilot’s, neither could see the other’s face.  And it was dark.  All in all the conditions mimicked those of a church confessional.  So why not?
    Leo took a deep breath and began.  “Andrey.”
    “Yeah.”
    “It’s time I told you how Maya died.”
    For a second there was a silence as, Leo assumed, Andrey tried to digest the implication of what he had just heard.  Then the world erupted around them.
    After an explosive crash somewhere behind them, a proverbial starter’s cannon, the helic opter shook violently and then dropped into a plummeting spin.  Time slowed down as Leo’s mind raced and the rotors passed one by one.  Had another aircraft hit them?  Did a fuel leak catch fire?  Were they fired upon?  The helicopter was behaving as though the whole tail were gone.  It was uncontrollable.  He knew it didn’t matter at this point what was causing the ground to come up so fast, what counted was the effect.
    As a veteran pilot, Leo knew that the only thing you could do without a tail