Read Online December by James Steel - Free Book Online Page B

get a grip on his conflicting feelings of shock that the woman was actually part of their faction, mixed with the physical impact of seeing her again. He did his best to cover it as he shook hands firmly and repeated, ‘Alexander Devereux.’
    She flashed a glance up at him; her blue eyes set above sweeping cheekbones to give her a look as wide and dazzling as the sky over the steppe.
    As she moved away, Alex found himself watching the body language between her and Sergey; his hand rested lightly on the small of her back in a proprietorial manner as the two stepped past each other to sit down.
    She sat next to Alex and looked at Sergey at the head of the table. ‘OK, let’s go!’ She beamed at them all; she seemedto have resolved whatever issues she’d had the night before and leavened the previous sombre mood.
    ‘OK.’ Sergey looked at Alex. ‘Lara and Grigory are the media side of this coup. Now, they are vital because in this game it’s not about who has the real power, it’s who appears to have the power. Krymov has many more soldiers than us, but when this all kicks off, people will sit on the fence and wait to see which way the wind is blowing. With the control of the TV stations we can get the images out there that can make it look like we have popular support on the streets of Moscow and then swing the army behind us.’
    He looked at Grigory for comment, who spoke with the confident manner of someone who knew his job.
    ‘Sergey is absolutely right, media coverage was where the KGB really fucked up in 1991 when they rebelled against Gorbachev. Everybody was watching TV to see what was happening and Yeltsin managed to get just a few minutes of airtime on the news of him standing on a tank. It broke their image of invincibility, someone had stood up to them and suddenly it was the emperor’s new clothes time and everybody turned against them.
    ‘Apart from that, Russia is the world’s largest country, more than twice the size of the US.’ He spread his hands across the table. ‘It’s nine thousand kilometres wide, over seven time zones. So to win, we will also need to get support from a majority of the eighty-eight regional governors and the politicians from those zones; as well as carrying business, the international community and the UN with us.
    ‘We can’t guarantee what will happen on the ground. It will be tough—Krymov is not going to give up without a fight—and a lot of people will wait and see, but with Sergey’s TV channels we can at least make the wind appear to be blowing in our direction and that will be a big factor.’
    Sergey broke in enthusiastically. ‘Yes! And Lara will help us achieve it because she is the most popular TV presenter in Russia at the moment!’ He glanced at her admiringly and she smiled and looked down modestly.
    Sergey preened himself a little. ‘Of course, I discovered her when she was…’ Lara looked up and interrupted him with a venomous glance; Sergey continued, ‘…doing other things. I put her on Deal or No Deal , everybody loved her and it all started from there. So now she fronts Big Brother , Star Factory , all the big national festivals…’ He gestured to her to continue.
    She turned to Alex. ‘I’m the nation’s favourite girl-next-door, you know. I’m down to earth—I’m not a Muscovite; I have a provincial accent—’
    Sergey leaned forward to interrupt her. ‘Same hometown as me—Voronezh—only the best…’ he winked.
    ‘Hmm.’ Lara smiled graciously, taking the interruption in her stride. She seemed used to Sergey’s manner. ‘I do flash my boobs,’ she gestured unselfconsciously to her sculpted cleavage, ‘but I’m very sweet as well. All the dads fancy me and all the mums wish I would marry their boys.’ She tilted her head on one side, looked up at Alex with her steppe-sky eyes and gave a coy smile.
    To Alex it felt as if the earth had tilted slightly. He nodded as professionally as he could but in his head he