Belov"s mother survived and made her way to Moscow, where she had relatives. What saved Belov in the years after he finished state schooling was conscription. Whatever else one could say about communism in the Soviet days, it did not waste people and their potential. It was the Red Army that discovered that Belov had a brain, nurtured him, tested him in various ways and sent him to officer cadet school, then a special department at Moscow University, where he particularly found his niche in social psychology, the science of people interacting in groups. Combined with moral philosophy, it made for an interesting mixture that, together with a flair for languages, inevitably led him into the KGB.
After 1979, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, he found himself heavily involved in that theater of war, and for many years he encountered an enemy, spurred on by the Taliban, who were experts in skinning alive the young conscripts who fell into their hands. Emasculation was simply a side product. At least it gave him the chance to add Arabic to his languages, but the brutality, the cruelty, the sheer barbarism, had an effect on his very soul that would not go away.
There was no time for marriage, the decencies. He was always busy - working on behalf of Department 3 in Northern Ireland, for example, feeding the Irish conflict with arms for the IRA. There were useful contacts there, especially in the Drumore area of County Louth, where the local IRA commander, a particularly hard article named Dermot Kelly, became more than useful to him over the years.
And then, in 1988, at the age of forty-five, and a major, he met Ruth.
She was twenty years younger than he and the very opposite in nature: deeply religious, as befit her biblical name, a schoolteacher and social worker concerned only with the good of others. Belov, the hard man, the soldier who had killed when necessary, adored her for her sweetness, her simplicity, her kindness.
When she had found she was pregnant, he had been over the moon, and then it had happened. She had attended a school meeting for parents one night. He"d arranged to pick her up, but then something serious had come up, KGB business, and that came first.
She"d started for home on foot in the driving rain and sleet, and somewhere on the way had been abducted, her half-naked body found in an alley close to Red Square the following morning. Standing in the mortuary looking down at her bruised and beaten face, Belov knew a horror and an anger that would never go away. It froze the soul in him, took away all humanity.
He used no police, no militia. He pulled in all the terrible power of the KGB, found the two men responsible and had them brought before him, looked on their drunken, drug-ravaged faces and knew what he must do.
They could have been charged with several offences including her murder, could have been sent to the Lubianka, but that would have meant trials, paperwork, courts. Instead, he sent for a young lieutenant who had been allocated to him after severe wounds in Afghanistan.
Yuri Ashimov had been born in Siberia. Like Belov, conscription had been the making of him and he"d followed a similar route, which had, in the same way, taken him to Afghanistan, a terrible war, but one in which a man like Ashimov could make his mark. He couldn"t believe his luck when he was allocated to Belov at Department 3, for Belov"s exploits in Kabul had made him a legend.
Standing before Belov"s desk, he could feel the pain, felt it as personally as if this man were a brother.
"Major, what would you like me to do?"
"I will sign an order, releasing these two animals from the Lubianka. There will be no guards, just handcuffs. Then I will wait for them at an appropriate place by the river. I will kill them personally, Yuri. What happens afterward doesn"t matter to me. If I have to meet the consequences, I will."
"Well, it bothers me, Major. With due respect, I"ve no intention of seeing anything bad happen to one of our greatest heroes. Leave it to me, I"ll get them released and your name won"t be on it."
"How will you do that?"
"I have contacts, Major. And then, you said by the river? I"ll bring them to the Gorsky Bridge, take the cuffs off and you can finish them."
"You would do that for me?"
"Of course, Major. It would be an honor."
And so it became a relationship that grew and flourished over the years, and when the government forces collapsed in Afghanistan in 1992, Belov, by then a colonel, and Ashimov, a captain, were among the last to leave, accompanied by another KGB colonel named Putin.
It all seemed to blur around that time, the Chechen Republic declaring independence, the carnage of the civil war, Gorbachev, the USSR ceasing to exist, the wall down in Berlin and then the mad boom years of the Russian Federation and Yeltsin, years that for the strangest of reasons were the making of Josef Belov into one of the greatest oil barons in the world and the creator of Belov International.
As the man responsible for subversive activities in the Western world, for the creation of chaos and uncertainty and fear, the events of 1991 and the first Gulf War had provided Belov with a whole new field of enterprise.
Belov had been active in Northern Ireland for some years, supplying the Provisional IRA with weaponry, linking various dissident elements with Muslim terrorist groups in the Middle East, and so on. An interesting thing about the IRA was that as the momentum of its own struggle had died down, it had left seething discontent among many of its members who, as had been the habit of the Irish over the centuries, then sought service as mercenaries overseas where their skills could be put to good use, money on the counter - and where better than the Middle East, particularly Iraq after the war. So Belov"s contacts on both sides grew and flourished.
Then, after the roller-coaster years of Boris Yeltsin, everything changed. Privatization of a great deal of the Russian economy became the order of the day, and Belov didn"t like it. He preferred order, discipline, a strong hand. Perhaps all the books he"d read about Oliver Cromwell had affected him more than he"d realized. So he pulled strings and moved to Baghdad, taking Ashimov with him.
It was a turbulent time, Saddam ga.s.sing the Kurds and putting down the Shiite rebellion with an iron hand. The country, of course, was suffering economically and not only from the oil embargo, and Belov could see the results. In fact, it got him interested in oil in a way he had never been before.
Sitting on the terrace at the Russian Emba.s.sy by the River Tigris having a vodka one evening, he said to Ashimov, now a major, "Yuri, have you any concept of the wealth of the oil business in western Siberia? Of the natural gas and coal and some of the richest mineral deposits in the world? Yet little of it is being developed right. Too much government interference. It"s a waste, just like what"s happening here in Iraq."
"I don"t know about Siberia, but there"s little you can do about it here, I"m afraid. If Saddam lives up to form, he"s going to end up goading the Yanks and the Brits into another invasion."
"You really think he could be that insane?"
"Absolutely."
Ashimov stood up. "Now, if you"ll excuse me, I have a date. Dinner and possibly dancing at Al Bustan."
"Ah, the new GRU girl, the lieutenant?"
"Greta Novikova. Quite special. Why not join us?"
The telephone on the desk rang and Belov answered, then switched into Arabic. He paused, listening, then put the phone down, frowning.
"Now, what in the h.e.l.l does that mean?"
"Well, I can"t comment unless you tell me."
"That was the man himself, Saddam. He wants to see me at the presidential palace."
"Which one?" Ashimov asked dryly.
Belov ignored him. "You can forget dinner. Better phone this Greta and cancel. I"ll need you with me."
Ashimov was all attention now. "Of course, Colonel, at your orders," and he reached for the phone.
They drove through the city in a Range Rover, found a small crowd of people at the presidential palace and a few cars. They paused at the gates, where Belov presented his ident.i.ty card and they were pa.s.sed through with an efficiency that indicated they were expected. They stopped at the bottom of the huge steps leading up to the palace.
Belov said to Ashimov, "You"re carrying?"
He took a Walther from the shoulder holster under his left arm and Ashimov produced a Beretta. "Of course."
Belov opened the glove compartment and put the Walther in. "And you. If we take the hardware inside, we"ll set every alarm bell in the palace ringing."
They went up the steps to the entrance and found an army colonel waiting impatiently. "Colonel Belov, he keeps asking for you. This way. I"m Colonel Farouk."
The lighting was subdued, the statues in the marbled corridors only half visible in the dusk. They halted at a beaten copper doorway, a sentry on each side. The colonel went in. A moment later, he came out.
"He"ll see you now, gentlemen," he said, and leaned forward and murmured in Belov"s ear, "For the sake of all of us, take care, Colonel. He"s in one of his manic phases. Anything is possible."
He opened the door and ushered them in. Saddam sat behind a huge desk with a shaded light as he looked up from some papers. He wasn"t in uniform, and he stood up and came around the desk and spoke in Arabic, extending his hand.
"Colonel Belov, good to see you, and who is this?"
"My aide, Major Yuri Ashimov."
"Also of the KGB or the Federal Service of Counterespionage or whatever you"re calling it now. Does Department Three no longer exist? I rely on Moscow."
"Excellency, you may be sure it still exists for the specific purpose for which it was created, however much our masters juggle around with changes."
Saddam"s eyes glittered. It was as if he was on something, and he paced around the desk restlessly. "Sit down." He gestured to two chairs.
"It"s good to know you are still operating, Belov. I have always looked on you as a friend, but these days, times are uncertain, the Americans waiting for any excuse to pounce. I"ve done everything they"ve asked for in the treaty, and what happens? The oil stays in the ground, no way of getting it out." Which was not strictly true, but he carried on. "And the exclusion zone, I"m constantly harried by their air force."
At that moment, a siren sounded in the distance and the palace was plunged into darkness. He hurried to the great windows and watched as lights turned out in patches.
"Curse them. I"ve never felt so impotent. And what can I do?" He turned, hands wide. "Tell me, what can I do?"
He was smiling madly, sweat on his face, turned, picked up a vacant chair and hurled it across the room in a rage and then seemed to pull himself together.
"But no, I"m a poor host. Now what about that? Women or wine? Boring. Action, pa.s.sion, that"s the thing. Tell me, Colonel, did you come in an emba.s.sy limousine?"
"No, Excellency, Major Ashimov drove us here in a Range Rover."
"A Range Rover?" The lights came on again, extending across the city. "It"s been a long time since I drove one of those. I"m sure you"ll lend it to me."
"Of course, Excellency."
"Then let"s go," and Saddam led the way out.
It was a fact known only to intimates that he frequently roamed the city late at night, driving himself, often with no guards of any kind, even though Belov had heard that guards did usually attempt to follow him. Farouk was half running to keep up with him as Saddam plowed ahead.
Belov tugged on Ashimov"s sleeve and they held back. "He"s in one of his mad moods, so we just go with the flow. Anything can happen. We"ll arm ourselves the moment we get in the Range Rover."
"As you say, Colonel."
They pa.s.sed outside the main door at the top of the steps while Farouk pleaded. "Allow me to bring an escort, Excellency, that at least."
"It"s a shameful thing if I can"t drive through my own city without an armed guard. You will wait here."
He started down the steps to the Range Rover, and Belov paused by Farouk. "Give me your pistol." Farouk took a Browning from his holster and handed it over. "Good. Now, my advice is to follow us at a discreet distance."
In later years, he often wondered whether Saddam had seen himself as the great Caliph Haroun al Rashid in the Baghdad of old, mingling with the common people in disguise by night, but that couldn"t be true, for he drove the Range Rover like a madman, scattering the crowd outside the palace, and bouncing three cars out of the way.
He laughed harshly. "I am an excellent driver, is it not so, Colonel?"
"Of course, Excellency."
Belov had the Browning in his pocket and now opened the glove compartment, pa.s.sed Ashimov his Beretta and slipped the Walther into his shoulder holster.
They carved their way down into the city, swerving from one street to another, colliding with a number of vehicles, people jumping for their lives, and Saddam, in high good humor, drove even faster.
Ashimov murmured to Belov, "We"re being followed."
"I know. I suggested it to Farouk."
"They"re not military vehicles."
Saddam, oblivious to all this, crossed an intersection that led him onto a four-lane highway.
"Now for some real speed," Saddam cried, but at the same moment a red Ferrari accelerated beside them, a man leaning out of the rear window with a machine pistol. As he started to fire, Ashimov shot him in the head.
Another man in the front pa.s.senger seat beside the driver sprayed the Range Rover again, bursting one of the front tires. Saddam cursed, working the wheel furiously, and the Range Rover rammed into the metal road barrier and came to a halt.
A number of pa.s.sing vehicles accelerated out of the way, but the Ferrari swerved, braking ahead of the Range Rover, and three men got out, all armed. At the same moment, an old white van pulled in, the rear doors opened and three more men joined the others.
Belov got out of the Range Rover and pulled Saddam with him. "Stay down, Excellency."
Ashimov joined him, his face sliced open from one eye to the corner of his mouth. "Are you all right?" Belov asked.
"Not really." Ashimov fired twice at the ones who crouched behind the van and the Ferrari. "Traffic seems to have ground to a halt back there."
"Who can blame them."
Saddam also had blood on his face and seemed dazed. "In my own city," he said. "In Baghdad."
Belov weighed the Browning in one hand, the Walther in the other. He smiled slightly at Ashimov. "Shall we get it done?"
"Why not?"
"You take the left, I"ll see to the right."
A burst of machine-pistol fire thudded into the Range Rover and he called in Arabic, "No more, Saddam is dead. I"ll come out with my friend."
There was a pause, excited conversation. A voice called, "Throw out your weapons."
"We only have one gun," Belov shouted, stood up with the Walther in his left hand, and threw it toward the other vehicles, Ashimov rising beside him.
"Now," Belov said, as the six men moved into the open, and he fired very rapidly, knocking down the three on the right while Ashimov took out the three on the left. There was a movement in the van, its driver peered out and Ashimov shot him.
It was then they heard vehicles approaching fast. "Farouk and his boys," Belov said. "The cavalry arriving rather late." He took out a pocket handkerchief and gave it to Ashimov. "Best I can do."
"I"ll treasure it, Colonel," and Ashimov held it to his face.
In the Amba.s.sador"s office the following morning at the Russian Emba.s.sy by the Tigris, Belov and Ashimov faced an angry man.
"You had no right to become involved," the Amba.s.sador said. "This has gone all the way to the President in Moscow. It may not have occurred to you, Colonel, but our government"s position in the Iraq situation is a very delicate one."
"I see," Belov said. "You"ve been informed of the circ.u.mstances. Should I have refused Saddam"s invitation to the palace? I think that would have been difficult. Should I have refused to accompany him on his drive? I think not."
"Good G.o.d, man, no one appointed you to be his guardian angels. Eight men - you killed eight."
"I believe so. I would like to bring to your attention Major Ashimov"s gallant conduct in this affair. As you can see, his face will never be the same again. He"s lucky not to have lost an eye. I suggest he be recommended for a decoration."
"Denied," the Amba.s.sador said. "And for the excellent reason that it never happened. That will suit Saddam, and it certainly suits our government." He paused and then carried on. "A sense of self-importance can be considered a sin in some quarters. You go too far, Colonel, and this could seriously affect your career."
The threat was implicit, but at that moment, the phone on his desk rang. He answered, listened, and the change on his face was plain.
"Of course, Excellency," he said in Arabic and put down the phone. "That was Saddam. He wishes to see you both at once."