The voice of General Kovalenko drifted upwards into the great dome of the rotunda, left echoes rippling.
'... Colonel Rui Zhong... Colonel Wang Yongchang...'
Then they were moving towards the chairs, ushering gestures the order of the day as the senior ranks were given precedence and Marshal Trushin was invited to sit at the ornate redwood desk in the place of the Chinese.
I cleared the balustrade and dropped.
Talyzin had been directly below me on the lower gallery but I went down in a slight arc because of the balustrade and caught his shoulder, spinning him round on the chair as his hand went out for the detonator. He reacted with great strength, empowered by shock, rage, dementia, and smashed his knee into my ribcage as we went down together, the breath coming out of me in a soft explosion as I twisted over and felt for a target, not in the killing area because I didn't think it would be necessary, just in the nerve -- centres to incapacitate.
Heard shouts from below, boots on the staircase, Talyzin's hand on my throat and squeezing strongly, triggering reflex and freeing my arm for an elbow strike that reached the side of his head and he lurched and went down and I thought it was over but he came up suddenly like a diver surfacing and went for the table and got his hand on the detonator and I couldn't reach it, went for the throat, for the kill, the fastest way, the only way to get the strength out of his arm, out of his fingers as his weight dropped and the table crashed over and the detonator hit the floor and he reached for it again but his arm was exposed and I doubled it backwards at the elbow and heard it snap, dropped him against the bookshelves and picked up the detonator and backed off as the first two guards reached the top of the stairs and aimed their rifles, shouting.
Talyzin didn't move.
'One of you look after this man,' I told the guards.' He's injured but watch him. I want the other one to follow me down the stairs -- now move!'
There were more of them waiting for me in the well of the chamber but I told them to get back, called out to the generals.'You know what this is?' Held the thing up.
It seemed to fox them, understandably. Here they were planning the creation of the new world order and suddenly there was a dishevelled -- looking clown standing in front of them holding up a remote control for their TV set.
No one said anything, didn't matter, I'd spell it out for them. 'Marshal Trushin, this is a remote -- control detonator for the bomb . installed in the desk you're sitting at now.' I gave it a couple of beats to let him think about it, and they woke up, all of them, I could hear the body movements going on, the rustle of uniforms as they shifted on their chairs, reacting.' I am not going to detonate that bomb if you agree to follow my instructions. Do you agree to follow my instructions, Marshal Trushin?'
In a moment he asked in a flat voice, 'Who are you?'
'Do you agree?'
Trying to get my breath back under control, I think he broke a rib up there, Talyzin, with that knee strike, the lung didn't feel as if it had much room on that side.
I waited.
If the marshal didn't agree, I was done for. I couldn't detonate that bloody thing anyway, I wasn't tired of life and we'd still got a mission running, I wanted information out of these people, the information that Kovalenko had told the Chinese delegates he'd give them later.
But all he would need to say, Trushin, was Take that man, and there'd be nothing I could do.
Behind me I heard the guard coming down the staircase, his boots thudding laboriously under a weight: Talyzin. I didn't know if the killing strike I'd made had got right through to the larynx; he'd moved a little after I'd made it, tried to reach the detonator. I took four paces back to bring him into sight; he was hanging across the guard's shoulder, the broken arm dangling.
From the centre of the rotunda Marshal Trushin was staring at me, stone -- faced, jowls of a bulldog, black eyes locked on mine as he listened to one of the generals' aides, the one who had framed me on board the Rossiya for the death of Zymyanin. His voice was unintelligible at this distance because he was speaking softly, urgently, saying -- 1 very much hoped -- Marshal, this man was on board the Rossiya two days ago, and could well have set that bomb. Perhaps we should listen to him...
A log tumbled in the hearth and I heard a man catch his breath.
I went on waiting.
Marshal Trushin was still watching me. The aide was silent now.
'I agree to follow your instructions.'
Et voila.
'Very good. If anyone in this chamber leaves his chair, I shall detonate. Is that clear?'
Silence.
'Is that clear?'
'It is clear,' Marshal Trushin said.
I turned round so fast that the guard flinched, his eyes on the detonator. 'Make him as comfortable as you can,' I told him.'tell him there's a medical officer coming.' those bastards over there had wrecked Talyzin's brain and I didn't thank them.
There was a telephone in the first office I came to and I picked it up, watching the well of the chamber through the doorway as I dialled.
'Military Barracks,' the woman at the switchboard said.
I asked for Ordnance Unit Three.
Took an age, stood listening to the static on the line.
I shall resist arrest. I shall resist very strongly.
But it wouldn't do any good. He'd be outnumbered, and -- 'Captain Rusakov.'
'Vadim,' I said,' this is Viktor Shokin, and I'm with the generals. You know where they are?'
'Yes.' A lot of energy in his voice, a lot of questions I didn't have time to answer.
'I need you here. We've got to contain the generals' military escort -- their orders are to protect the generals and they're not going .to listen to me. Do you trust them, Vadim?'
In a moment, 'Not necessarily.'
'How many trusted men can you muster for an emergency sortie?'
'Two hundred, under my own command.'
'Tanks?'
'One squadron.'
'All right. I need you to surround this building and take the generals out and put them into detention. At the moment they're inn under my control. Bring a medical officer, will you? We've got a man with a broken elbow. And a bomb disposal unit. I've got some work for them. How soon can you get here?'
'Allow forty minutes.'
'I can handle that. Any questions, Vadim, even from your CO, tell the officer commanding the military police to put him under arrest -- this is a national emergency.'
'I understand.'
I put the phone down and opened up the radio.
'Frome?'
'Hear you.'