The Case of the General's Thumb Read Free Page A

Lvovich waiting outside the chalet.
    â€œThought something had happened,” he complained. “You couldn’t possibly have slept through my knocking!”
    â€œBack in a day or two, you said.” Nik reminded him, getting out the key.
    â€œYes, but situations can change, and fast. You go and sit down, I’ll put on the kettle.”
    Nik dutifully went and sat down in the sitting room.
    â€œFound a bug behind my kitchen radiator,” Ivan Lvovich continued, joining him. “Someone’s digging. You haven’t, I trust, been fraternizing with the natives.”
    â€œNo,” Nik lied.
    â€œSee that you don’t. Things are moving, and we must get our skates on. No more recuperating.”
    He went to attend to the kettle, and when he returned with the tea his hands were shaking slightly.
    â€œTo be honest, we had not intended to brief you straightaway,” he said. “At least, not fully. Now we must. Our former KGB is facing reforms which aren’t to some people’s liking. But what matters is, that we have the President’s go-ahead.
    â€œTop priority is the setting up of a Ukrainian Federal Bureau along the lines of the FBI. What’s needed are two services in place of the one, so as to ensure greater control over the loyalty and accountability to the government of both.
    â€œOfficial moves in this direction have been killed off by Parliament. Not to their advantage, they say. Heads would roll. You see, at present, Ukrainian Security has the monopoly of incriminating evidence to exploit as it sees fit, regarding its interests as identical with the State’s. But a monopoly shared is a monopoly impaired – hence the antagonism.
    â€œSo what’s the problem?” Ivan Lvovich continued. “Simply that we do not have the funds for setting up a Federal Bureau. Funny, if it weren’t so serious! I’m Security old style. What I see being recruited nowadays is garbage. Straight in off the street. No principles. Out, at best, to make a career; at worst, to use Security for cover. Our Federal Bureau, when achieved, will be to Ukrainian Security what the KGB once was to the militia – more above board, and dedicated to the State’s interests. Would, I ask you, anyone in the old days have got away with trying to kill the Prime Minister? Or gunning down a deputy at the airport and calmly driving off?”
    Raising his cup to his lips, he blew on it before taking a gulp.
    â€œAll this goes no further, and for reasons other than your being duty-bound to secrecy. It’s bigger than us. It’s dangerous, potentially fatal, stuff. It’s State’s interests über alles now, human frailty included. Sentimentality, emotion, they’re out. Absolute devotion to duty, instant, unswerving obedience, they’re what’s needed. As in any security service.
    â€œAs to funding: Russia, as you’re probably aware, has appropriated all Soviet property abroad, acting as self-styled lawful heir of the Great and Indivisible. But that other Great and Indivisible, the KGB, was possessed of even more property and investments abroad which have never been heard about. KGB colleagues of mine from former Soviet republics tried to raise the matter officially. I didn’t even make it to their funerals. I was advised against going. It’s a delicate subject which no-one at State level will touch, even though Ukrainian Security’s fair share of the proceeds is conservatively estimated at not less than a billion dollars.
    â€œIn the main, it’s active property: banks, businesses, factories, hotels – at least one in Switzerland – all operationally financed originally, and thereafter generating income, even spawning independent operations. One per cent of that lot would put us in business.
    â€œStill, enough for today. Chew it over. Relaxing’s done with. You’ve work to do.”
    â€œWhat?” Nik