The Hidden Man - Charles Cumming [123]
Kostov, dreaming of Mischa, is never conscious of the shot. Asingle bullet to the head, and then perpetual sleep. He is stripped of himself, of his teeth and fingers, while Tamarov soaks the vehicle in petrol. Within five minutes the brand-new Audi and Kostov and his canvas bag are ablaze in a brilliant column of fire that flares and heats the trees. The Russians are already on their way home. Now they can go back to business.
Acknowledgements
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Pierce Loughran, poet and attorney-at-law, and to my editor at Michael Joseph, Rowland White.
My thanks also to Tif Loehnis and everyone at Janklow and Nesbit, to Dr Ursula Pretzlik, Indra Jefimovs, Ben Stephens, Rupert and Kate Harris, Johnny Sutherland, Richard Prior at The Risk Advisory Group, Kate Mallinson, Jeff Evans, James Holland and Claire Pollock, Otto Bathurst, Bettina Raffle and Beric Livingstone, Pippa Davies, Trevor Horwood, Sarah Day, Elisabeth Merriman, Luke Martineau, Christian Spurrier, JJ Keith, Annabel Hardman, Ed Bettison, Jamie Owen, Melissa Hanbury, Boris Starling, Nick Lockley, Rupert Allason, Jessica Barrington, James Petrie and Carol Barrett, Carolyn Hanbury, Cassandra Goad, Benedict Bull, Polly Hayward, Henry Wilks, and everyone at PFD.
The American writer referred to in Chapter 38 is Paul Auster; Vladimir Tamarov quotes from Auster’s book The Invention of Solitude (Faber, 1989). I am also indebted to the following authors and their works:
Inside the Soviet Army in Afghanistan (RAND, 1988), by Alexander Alexiev; 9-11 (Seven Stories Press, 2001), by Noam Chomsky; Comrade Criminal: Russia’s New Mafiya (Yale University Press, 1995), by Stephen Handelman; Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the CIA’s Secret War in Afghanistan (Regnery Gateway, 1993), by Kurt Lohbeck; Lenin’s Tomb (Vintage, 1994) and Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia (Picador, 1997), both by David Remnick; The Laundrymen (Simon & Schuster, 1998), by Jeffrey Robinson; UK Eyes Alpha (Faber & Faber, 1996), by Mark Urban; and The Third Secret (HarperCollins, 2001), by Nigel West. Rajan Datar’s 2001 film for the BBC’s The Money Programme, Big Business Beats, was also very helpful.
C.C.
Madrid,
January 2003
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
The Hidden Man
Winter
1
Autumn
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
Spring
49
Acknowlegements