Shadow WIngs (Skeleton Key) (25 page)

DESPITE WHAT SHE’D said to Raguel, when they reached the KGB headquarters at Lubyanka, Ilana’s heart was thudding behind her ribs. She braced herself to be stopped as they approached the security gatehouse.
 

Everything she’d told him had been true, but it hadn’t exactly been the whole story. Karkoff could have put out a general notice to bring her in, along with her photo.

Even so, at base, she knew she was right––anyone who knew of Karkoff’s accusations would not be looking for her here. They would expect her to run.

They got past the gate without incident.
 

Ilana let out the breath she hadn’t known she’d held, as soon as they entered the main building. Once inside, the heightened level of activity immediately got her radar up, however.

“I think we might find out fairly easily what the demon is up to,” she muttered to Raguel, who followed close behind her.

Truthfully, it was more activity than she had seen at Lubyanka in months, perhaps longer. Stranger still, everyone ignored her and Raguel as they rushed by, holding reams of papers as they talked quietly in small groups.

Seeing a fellow agent, a man named Yakov she considered a friend, she stopped him with a raised hand, forcing him to look at her. He did a double-take when he saw her, his eyes widening in obvious shock. Glancing around the busy corridor, he walked over to her and Raguel, motioning for them to follow him. He gave Raguel barely a glance before he brought both of them with him into an unused office off the main corridor.

“Ilana!” He spoke in a loud whisper, his voice urgent. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came to see Karkoff,” she lied, deciding to play dumb. “What is going on?”

He frowned, glancing at the busy corridor, where people still walked by rapidly in hushed groups on the other side of that smoky glass. Still frowning, he seemed about to say one thing to her, then changed his mind. His voice grew gruff, more business-like.

It was enough that Ilana knew he’d spoken to Karkoff already.

“Karkoff is not here,” Yakov said. “He will be at Staraya Square by now, Ilana.”

“Staraya? The Politiburo is meeting? Why?” Ilana stared at him, confused, then glanced in the direction of the busy corridor. “What happened? What is going on here today?”

“Chernenko is dead,” he said, his voice still low. “They are there to pick the new General Secretary for the Soviet Union.”

Ilana stared. She looked at Raguel, who frowned.

This had to be it. It had to be what the demon was up to.

“How?”

“How?” Yakov let out a snort. “He has been on his death bed for months, Ilana. There is no foul play... not with Chernenko. His doctors are surprised he lasted as long as he did. He went into a coma yesterday afternoon, around 15:00. He died several hours later.”

“They are picking the successor,” she muttered, again glancing at Raguel.

“It is rumored they already have chosen,” Yakov said.

“Who?” Ilana demanded, looking at him.

“Gorbachev.” Yakov shrugged, his voice growing more calm. “Most are happy with the decision. There are some hardliners who do not trust him... who think he might be too reformist, too young... a little too enamored of the West. Some are saying the Politiburo was in too big of a hurry to decide, that they are too worried about leaving a leadership gap because of public relations.” He grunted, glancing at her. “Karkoff felt there might even be an attempt on him today. He doubled security.”

“An attempt on Gorbachev?”

“Yes.”

She again glanced at Raguel.

She still couldn’t fully make sense of this. Gorbachev was the leader the moderate camps would have most wanted. He was younger than their last two General Secretaries had been. He was considered a good Marxist, but not a war-monger. A born diplomat, it was thought he would be better at negotiating with the West, and yes, that he might introduce much-needed economic reforms. More and more unrest had been building around what was perceived as a gap between the standards of living in the West as compared to that of Russia.

If pressed prior to now, Ilana would have thought the demon would be trying to
prevent
the rise of Gorbachev... not orchestrate it.

“And Karkoff is there to
protect
Gorbachev?” she said, puzzled. “Has there been a credible threat against him?”

Yakov shrugged, but she felt his scrutiny on her intensify.
 

“Some think so, yes.”

“Who?”

Yakov stared at her, then let out a humorless snort.
“You,
Ilana. Karkoff has people looking for you all over Moscow! It is said that you had something to do with the murders in Red Square, that it was some kind of message or threat...” Staring at her, his hands on his hips, he shook his head. “I should take you into custody right now. But the fact that you are here, looking for Karkoff...” He hesitated, as if at a loss.

Then, motioning with his head for her to follow him, he sighed, giving her a serious look.
 

“I will put you in custody,
da?
It will look good for you that you came here. I will vouch for you, Ilana. So will many others. This must be a misunderstanding of some kind––”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “There is no misunderstanding. Karkoff is behind this.”

Yakov let out a disbelieving noise. Then he did a double-take, his smile fading.

“You are serious, Ilana?”

Ilana looked at Raguel, who nodded perceptibly, his eyes glowing a sharper gray.

“I am,” she said. “You need someone to keep an eye on him in there. Based on what you are saying, there is a good chance he will try to take Gorbachev out himself...”

Yakov frowned, glancing at Raguel. “Who is this?”

“He is a friend...” Trailing off as she tried to think how to frame Raguel’s involvement in this, she started to go on, when Raguel cut her off.

“We have to go, Ilana.”

Yakov looked at him, then at Ilana. “No. Were you not listening to me? You cannot go. You need to be here, at least until they have announced Gorbachev as the new General Secretary...”

But Raguel acted as though he hadn’t heard him at all.

“We have to
go,
Ilana... we are out of time!”

He caught hold of her arm and began pulling her towards the corridor. Yakov grabbed her, but Raguel shoved him off, standing between them.

“I don’t wish to hurt you,” he said, his voice cold.

Yakov reached for his sidearm, but Ilana already had hers out and pointed at him.

“I’m sorry, Yakov,” she told him. “But my friend is right. We must go.”

“Ilana... if you go now, you are
finished
here. Do you understand this? And if you are anywhere near the Staraya––”

“Ilana!” Raguel said, sharper, opening the office door behind her. “Hurry!”

Swallowing, she nodded, even as Raguel began to pull her through the open door.

“I understand, Yakov,” she said, still holding the gun on him. “And I know you will have to call your people when I leave, and tell them to look for me.” She inclined her head sideways. “Just tell them to keep an eye on Karkoff too, okay?”

“Ilana, don’t do this!” Yakov snarled.

But the door was already closing between them.

“NO!” ILANA SHOUTED, waving Raguel away from the parking lot where she’d left her car. “They will lock the gate! There is no time!”

They walk-jogged to the gate, flashing their ID’s briefly and then exited out on the street. They’d barely gotten past the gatehouse walls when Ilana heard the alarm go off in the KGB building behind them. She looked back right as someone let out a shout.

Now she and Raguel sprinted down the sidewalk towards Staraya.

They made it a few blocks and now Ilana looked for a taxi, worried about time and about being picked up on the street. Before she could get close enough to wave a cab down, a bus pulled to a stop not far from where they ran. Remembering that particular bus’s route would bring them close to the square, she waved to Raguel and pointed, running faster.

“There!” she said.

They caught it just in time, Ilana swinging up on the steps and fumbling for money to pay for her and Raguel while both of them panted, fighting to catch their breaths. They only rode it for a few blocks, then got off on the edge of the Square. They were still a long block from the Politiburo building itself, but at least this side wasn’t cordoned off by security.

“It will be sheer damned luck if we get past this,” she muttered. Glancing down at her holstered weapon, she wondered if she should get rid of it, hide it somewhere.

“No,” Raguel said, meeting her gaze when she looked up. “He will want you here. Lahash. He is likely hoping we will be there, so he can pin it on us. They will let us in.”

Ilana nodded grimly, realizing he was probably right.

Her mind churned over options, her hand sliding into her pocket as she thought about what they could do. When it did, her fingers closed over the glass key. She’d brought it with her at the last minute, snatching it off the coffee table without thinking about why.

“We have to try,” she said finally, meeting Raguel’s gaze.

He nodded. “Yes. We do.”

They began to walk fast, heading for the Politiburo building as they made their way along the square. Ilana kept expecting to hit the perimeter. She expected to see where the security began, to see evidence they had scoped rifles in the nearby buildings, some kind of barrier to keep out pedestrians. She figured she and Raguel would turn once they hit the edges of that perimeter, walk around the building itself until they found an opening or a way in––but if there was extra security there, she could not see it.

She and Raguel walked all the way up to the double doors of the Staraya building itself, with no one stopping them at all. Ilana saw windows open above, but no guns. She didn’t hear the squawk of radios, either. Despite what Yakov said about added security––she saw no evidence of a KGB presence at all, even the ordinary amount for a meeting among government leaders.

No one stopped them as they walked inside, either.

Inside the doors, two guards saw them, but only stepped out of the way to let them pass. When they reached the blocked off hallway that led to the part of the building where the Politiburo would be meeting, another guard held open the door.

“Do we just go inside?” she whispered to Raguel.

He frowned, glancing at her. “What choice do we have?”

She was utterly unnerved at how quiet it was. Still, she knew he was right.

They walked through the small gateway and entered a dimly-lit hallway. Walking together in silence, she didn’t speak until they were approaching the closed doors of the meeting room itself.

No guards stood outside those doors at all.

“This isn’t right,” she whispered to Raguel, shaking her head. “This is all wrong.”

“What do we do?” Raguel said. “Do we go inside?”

But someone else answered his question before she could.

“No,” that other voice said. “No, I think this is quite far enough, comrades.”

Ilana turned, feeling her heart leap into her throat.