Icon (66 page)
Authors: Frederick Forsyth
Tags: #Mystery & Detective, #Russia (Federation), #Fiction - Espionage, #Suspense, #Espionage, #Thriller, #Suspense Fiction, #Historical, #Spies, #mystery and suspense, #Fiction, #Thrillers, #Intrigue, #General, #Moscow (Russia), #Historical - General, #True Crime, #Political, #Large Type Books
Irvine’s third precept was not to try to persuade his enemy there was no campaign against him, which would have been impossible, but to convince him the danger lay somewhere else and, having been coped with, had therefore ceased to exist.
Following his second visit to the residence, Irvine had been forced to stay on to give Grishin and his thugs time to raid his room in his absence, discover his briefcase, and photograph the incriminating letter.
The letter was a forgery, created in London on real Patriarchate writing paper and with calligraphy samples of the Patriarch’s own hand, obtained by Father Maxim and handed to Irvine on the previous visit.
In the letter, the Patriarch apparently told his correspondent that he warmly supported the idea of a restoration of the monarch of Russia (which was not true, since he was only considering it), and would urge that the receiver of the letter be the man chosen for the post.
Unfortunately it was addressed to the wrong prince. It bore the name of Prince Semyon, living in his stone farmhouse with his horses and girlfriend in Normandy. Of necessity, he had been deemed expendable.
It was Jason Monk’s second visit to the Patriarch that had unleashed stage four—the encouragement to the enemy to overreact violently to a perceived but nonexistent threat. This had been achieved by the tape recording of the supposed conversation between Monk and Alexei II.
Genuine voice samples of the Patriarch had been obtained during Irvine’s first visit, because his interpreter Brian Vincent had been wired for sound. Monk had recorded hours of tape in his own voice while at Castle Forbes.
In London a Russian mimic and actor had provided the words that Alexei II apparently spoke on the tape. With computerized sound technology the tape had been created, right down to the stirring of coffee cups. Father Maxim, to whom Irvine had palmed the tape as he passed in the hall, had simply played it from one recorder into the one given him by Grishin.
Everything on the tape was a lie. Major General Petrovsky could not have continued his raids on the Dolgoruki gang because all the knowledge Monk had gleaned from the Chechens about the rival mafia had already been passed to him. Moreover the papers from beneath the casino contained no evidence of Dolgoruki funding of the UPF election campaign.
General Nikolayev had no intention of continuing to denounce Komarov in a series of interviews after New Year’s Day. He had said his piece, and once was enough.
Most important, the Patriarch had not the slightest intention of intervening with the acting president to urge that Komarov be declared an unfit person. He had made it quite clear that he would not intervene in politics.
But neither Grishin nor Komarov knew this. Believing they had the opponents’ intentions in their grasp and faced a fearful danger, they overreacted badly and launched four assassination attempts. Suspecting they were coming, Monk could warn all four targets. Only one refused to heed the warning. Until the night of December 21, and possibly even later, Komarov could still have won the election with a handsome majority.
After December 21 came stage five. The overreaction was exploited by Monk to broaden the hostility against Komarov from the tiny few who had seen the Black Manifesto into a raging torrent of criticism from the media. Into this exploitation Monk filtered disinformation to the effect that the source for all Komarov’s growing discreditation was a senior officer of the Black Guard.
In politics as in so many affairs of men, success breeds success, but failure also generates further failure. As the criticism of Komarov increased, so did the paranoia dormant in all tyrants. Nigel Irvine’s final gambit was to play upon that paranoia and hope against hope that the somewhat inadequate vessel of Father Maxim would not let him down.
When the Patriarch returned from Zagorsk, he never went near the acting president. Four days before the New Year, the organs of the Russian state had not a shred of intent to fall upon the Black Guard on New Year’s Day and arrest Komarov.
Through Father Maxim, Irvine used the old precept of persuading the enemy that his opponents are far more numerous, powerful, and determined than they really are. Convinced by this second “sting,” Komarov decided to strike first. Forewarned by Monk, the Russian state defended itself.
Though not much of a churchgoer, Sir Nigel Irvine had long been an assiduous reader of the Bible, and of all its characters his favorite was the Hebrew warrior Gideon.
As he explained it to Jason Monk in the Highlands of Scotland, Gideon was the first commander of special forces and the first proponent of surprise night attack.
Presented with ten thousand volunteers, Gideon chose only three hundred, the toughest and the best. In his night attack on the Midianites camped in the Valley of Jezreel he used the triple tactics of violent awakening, bright lights, and shattering noise to disorient and panic the larger force.
“What he did, m’dear chap, was to persuade the half-awake Midianites that they were up against an enormous and very dangerous attack. So they lost their nerve and ran.”
Not only did they run, but in the darkness they began hacking at each other. By another kind of disinformation, Grishin was persuaded to arrest his own entire high command.
Lady Irvine came in and switched off the TV.
“Come along, Nigel, it’s a lovely day and we have to dig in the early potatoes.”
The spymaster pulled himself to his feet.
“Of course,” he said, “the spring earlies. I’ll get my boots.”
He hated digging, but he did love Penny Irvine very much.
¯
IT was just after midday in the Caribbean when the
Foxy Lady
came out of Turtle Cove and headed for the Cut.
Halfway to the reef Arthur Dean swept up alongside in the
Silver Deep.
He had two tourist divers in the stern.
“Hey, Jason, you been away?”
“Yep. Went over to Europe for a spell.”
“How was it?”
Monk thought that one over.
“Interesting,” he said.
“Good to see you back.” Dean glanced into the afterdeck of the
Foxy
Lady. “You don’t have a charter?”
“Nope. There are wahoo running ten miles off the Point. I’m going to take some just for me.”
Arthur Dean grinned, recognizing the feeling.
“Tight lines, man.”
The
Silver Deep
opened her throttle and sped away. The
Foxy
Lady moved through the Cut and Monk felt the thump and surge of the open sea beneath his feet and the sweet-smelling salted wind on his face.
Pushing on the power he turned the
Foxy Lady
away from the islands and out toward the lonely sea and the sky.
THE END.
About the Author
FREDERICK FORSYTH
is the author of nine bestselling novels:
The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Devil’s Alternative, The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiator, The Deceiver, The Fist of God,
and
Icon
. He lives outside London.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents