“I must sit,” says Andrei, and he finds a bench at the Kay center’s plaza. “You must forgive a tired old man.”
I sit next to him. “I forgive you, old friend. But does this mean the Russians are trying to blackmail President Francis?”
Andrei takes a minute to catch his breath. He lets out a painful cough and apologizes. He’s not doing well, that’s clear.
“I cannot possibly know such a thing,” he says. “Certainly, I know nothing of this president.”
I don’t, either, but I probably follow the president a lot more closely than Andrei does. Blake Francis and Libby Rose Francis seem about as compatible as Jerry Falwell and Paris Hilton. It’s always looked to me more like a marriage of convenience. The president stepping out on Libby? Not a hard swallow at all.
“But you do know the Russians,” I say. “Why would they want to blackmail Blake Francis?”
Andrei lets out a chuckle, which I mistakenly take as a cough at first.
“Why wouldn’t they?” he muses. “Having control of the leader of the free world?”
Fair enough. That’s probably true.
“But you are correct, Benjamin, that such a thing could not have permanence. Certainly not even a compromised president could allow another powerful country free rein to do whatever it wished. There would have to be limits, surely.”
“You mean, like maybe there could be one thing.”
He cocks his head to the side. Like I’m getting warm.
“What would be the one thing?” I ask. “What are the Russians trying to do?”
Chapter 74
My former professor looks at me as if we have reverted to old roles, like I’m back in undergrad and he’s giving me a lesson.
“I have no idea whether the Russians are blackmailing our president, or even attempting to do so,” says Andrei. “But I do believe I have a good assessment of Russian leadership these days. So let us assume that there is blackmail taking place.” He opens his hands. “What is the one thing Russia wants?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Oil? Power?”
Andrei stares at me, blank-faced. I feel like I’m in an episode of that old Kung Fu show, where Andrei is blind Master Po and I’m David Carradine. You disappoint me, Grasshopper. Yet it is not I whom you have failed. It is you. Look within, Grasshopper.
“Land,” I say.
“Land,” he says in agreement.
You have done well, Grasshopper.
“And if the Russians wanted land, Benjamin, where would they go?” Andrei wags his finger at me. “History, Benjamin, is the best teacher.”
“Afghanistan,” I say, but immediately I know I’m wrong. What was true in the 1970s and ’80s is no longer true today. Since the breakup of the Soviet union , a number of independent countries now stand between Russia and Afghanistan—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, I think, and probably some other hard-to-pronounce names.
“More recent history, Benjamin.”
Oh, right. Of course. “Georgia,” I say. For years, Russia has been backing independence movements in various republics in Georgia. In 2008, there was an armed conflict between Georgia and two of its would-be breakaway republics in South Ossetia, which most observers saw in reality as a war between Georgia and Russia.
And how quickly I forget what I saw just last night on CNN, before I went over to Anne’s place and had mind-altering sex. “The Russians just arrested a Georgian spy in Moscow.”
Andrei nods his head. “Supposedly,” he says. “Conveniently. Next, expect a terrorist act in a major Russian city that is blamed on the Georgians.”
Ah. So the Russians are setting the table for a war with Georgia.
“If Russia really wanted to take Georgia, Benjamin, would it be hard?”
“Militarily? No.”
“But diplomatically, Benjamin.”
“Diplomatically, yes. Georgia has a relationship with NATO now.”
“A problem,” he acknowledges. “Tell me this, Benjamin. How much would the American public care if Russia invaded Georgia and overtook it?”
I let out a sigh. “I mean, for some of us who’ve been around awhile, it would conjure up images of the old Soviet union . But these days, our military is stretched thin—”
“Just so.”
“—and we probably have bigger things to worry about.”
“Probably.” Andrei nods slowly. “But certainly? Could the Russians be certain how we would respond? Remember, Benjamin, NATO is a presence in this conversation. There could be pressure on an American president to resist this aggression. If not by force, then by sanctions, at a minimum.”