The Outlaws (Presidential Agent 6)

“So they begged Ivan to reconsider, to remain the tsar. He told them what that would take: the establishment of something, a ‘separate state’ called the ‘Oprichnina,’ within Russia. The Oprichnina would be made up of certain districts and cities, and the revenue from these places would be used to support Ivan and his oprichniki.

“To make the point that it would be unwise to challenge this new idea, Ivan first had Philip, the Metropolitan of Moscow—who had said the Oprichnina was un-Christian—strangled to death. Then Ivan moved to Great Novgorod, Russia’s second-largest city, where the people had complained about having to support the new state-within-the-state.

“There he killed all the men and male children, raped all the women, seized all the crops and livestock, and leveled every building. No one ever questioned the Oprichnina again.”

“Not once, in the next—what?—four hundred fifty give-or-take years?”

Murov ignored the sarcasm, and went on: “In 1825, after Tsar Nicholas the First put down the Decembrist Revolution, he realized the revolution would have succeeded had it not been for the assistance—more important, the intelligence—provided by trusted elements of the Oprichnina, so he made them into a separate state within the separate state. He called this the Third Section, or sometimes the Special Section.

“When the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and, finally, the Communists took over, Lenin, on December 20, 1917, formed from the tsar’s Special Section what was officially The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage, but commonly known by its acronym as the Cheka. He placed an aristocrat named Felix Dzerzhinsky in charge.”

“The tsar’s secret police became the Cheka under an aristocrat named Dzerzhinsky?” Lammelle asked incredulously.

Murov nodded.

“Dzerzhinsky’s father had been one of the more important grand dukes under the tsar. One of the oprichniki. There were no more grand dukes, of course—or any ‘nobility.’ But there was the Oprichnina, and Dzerzhinsky was one of them.

“He apparently decided he could best serve Russia by serving Lenin. The family still lives on the estates they had under the tsar. That’s the point of this history lesson, Frank. To make sure you understand how important the Oprichnina remains even today.”

“I guess you wouldn’t know all these fascinating details if you weren’t one of them, huh, Sergei?” Lammelle said, more than a little sarcastically.

Murov either missed the sarcasm or chose to ignore it.

“My family has been intelligence officers serving the Motherland for more than three hundred years,” Murov said with quiet pride. “We have served in the Special Section, the Cheka, the OGPU, the NKVD, the KGB, and now the SVR.”

“And Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is one of you, too, I suppose?”

“I’ve answered your question truthfully. Now answer mine: You’re not going to deny that Colonel Castillo works for you, are you?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Castillo does not now, nor has he ever, worked for the agency. That’s the truth, Sergei.”

“But you’re—how do I put this?—in touch?”

Lammelle shook his head. “No.”

“Do y

ou know where he is?”

Lammelle shook his head again. “No, but if I can find out, I’m going to warn him that Putin’s after him.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to,” Lammelle said. “Are you going to tell me what that’s all about? Why does Putin want his head?”

“I didn’t say President Putin is in any way involved in this, Frank.”

Of course you didn’t.

Those cameras and microphones also are recording everything you say, aren’t they?

“Okay. Let me rephrase. Why does He Who Wants Castillo want him? And please don’t tell me ‘wants’ isn’t shorthand for ‘wants eliminated.’”

“There are several reasons, most of which—probably all of which—have occurred to you. For one thing, Colonel Castillo has left a great many bodies behind him in his travels around the world. Do I make my point?”

“That accusation would be a good deal more credible, Sergei, if you put names to the bodies,” Lammelle said.

“If you insist,” Murov said. “I suppose the first was Major Alejandro Vincenzo of the Cuban Dirección General de Inteligencia. You’re not going to deny Castillo was involved in that, are you?”