Champions Game

Wed 28/11/90

02.46 - Jane got herself arrested last night. Looks like some celebrity spotted who she was at the Fate Club. Charles says she had an argument with the bouncers and got thrown out. They didn't hurt her though.
We went looking for her, but some locals said they saw the police pick her up just outside the club. Somebody in there has got important friends, then...
Hopefully the police will just let her go in the morning.

Anyway, while we were in the club, Drongo and I went exploring in the corridors at the back. Luckily nobody saw us so I didn't have to test out how believable my "Where's the bathroom?" excuse would have been.
We overheard someone saying that "The Brit got mixed up in something, and he dealt with it, but we had to take him to the Bellevue afterwards."
I tried to look through the keyhole, but I couldn't see who was talking.
It was scary there - I got that creepy feeling that I had at George Lindsay's club in Edinburgh.

11.29 - Well, Jane wasn't arrested for celebrity stalking after all. Apparently it was for swearing in Arabic. They thought she was a Libian terrorist or something.
(Jane's letter to the club management)

The Bellevue is the local asylum, so we're going to head over there just now and see whether Bob really is there or not.
I hope he's okay.

14.05 - Bob's alive but catatonic. Apparently he's had a huge shock, but there's no obvious physical damage. The doctors seem to think he'll recover eventually, but they can't say when.
We need to sort out medical insurance, flights home, etc, etc. It'll take a few days so I guess we can continue to investigate the Krylov case while we're here.
Maybe we'll find out why Bob's in the state he's in.

Thurs 29/11/90

14.57 - How many more forms do we have to fill in to get Bob home? Seems like every time we turn around there's another envelope full of documents waiting for us.

18.00 - Something big is going to happen soon.
According to Reuters there's been another UN Resolution about Kuwait (it's number 678, and the previous one was UNSC Resolution 660). It authorises the use of "all necessary means".
So that'll be a war, then.
Have written a piece for the Scotsman. They'll probably take Graham's version instead, though, knowing my luck.

Fri 30/11/90

10.55 - Had a meeting with Eli Reubenstein, a paralegal at the Simon Weisenthal Centre this morning. He's never heard of Pravosudia, but he gave us a lot of background information on Bogdashkovich.
Bogdashkovich was born in Obodovka in the Ukraine in 1917, his family were members of an extremist Christian group called the Skoptsi who practice mutilation as a religious act. Bogdashkovich was anti-semetic and volunteered to serve at Babi Yar. He escaped from Russia in 1946.

No change in Bob's condition.

Sun 1/12/90

17.18 - Phonecall from Eli Reubenstein. He wants us to talk to a couple of people in Florida about the Krylov case. My guess is they'll be part of MOSSAD (the Israeli Secret Service), but I wasn't going to ask about that over the phone line.

Bob still the same. Tried talking to him about the Krylov case, in case that was important enough to get through to him, but he didn't respond at all.

23.01 - Agency just phoned. Yaz had called them asking if I'd do a human-interest angle on the Channel Tunnel link up. Had to decline. Unlikely to be anyone here in New York I could get quotes from.

Mon 2/12/90

20.35 - Met the two men in Key West. They called themselves David Cohen and Benjamin Gazit.
There was police tape around the house opposite. Apparently they were watching the real Bogdashkovich there for four weeks, but before they could arrange to arrest him some friends of his came to collect him (or at least he left the house with them without a struggle, so presumably he thought they were friends). Mr Cohen said they spoke in Russian together.
The official story is that he was kidnapped too.

Have interviewed the local shopkeepers etc and put together a piece linking the two 'kidnappings' (not mentioning what Mr Cohen said about Bogdashkovich leaving willingly, of course) and using Bogdaskovich's assumed name. Put pictures of Bogdashkovich and Krylov together so they can be compared.

Senior KGB man gunned down outside Kremlin today. This does not look good.

Tues 3/12/90

8.31 - My piece on Bogdashkovich and Krylov made page 5 of a New York paper and third page of some local paper down in Key West.
I hope this does poor Mr Krylov some good.
And maybe someone with an interest in the case might come to me if they see the story. Not sure if that would be a good thing, though. The Skoptsi do not exactly seem like the type to respect freedom of the press.

Wed 4/12/90

18.07 - Explosions, insanity, jetlag.
Need sleep.

Thurs 5/12/90

10.16 - Am late in to the office, but after what happened yesterday nobody's questioning it.
No answer at Drongo's place yet, but he could still be sleeping off a hangover. Will check later.

We were only just back at the Agency when there were bangs from the High Court in town. Daisy, Jane, Drongo and I headed over there. Looked like a rocket attack and a prison transport van had its doors blown off.
Police chased me off, but eyewitnesses said that the rockets were fired on the prison convoy from roofs on both sides of the Royal Mile (Jane agrees, based on looking at the scene and the few photos I took), then men came running out of an alley, shot some police and innocent bystanders, blew the doors off the prison transport van and left down a close with the prisonners.

Yesterday was, of course, the day that the men who tried to steal the Honours were due in court. Police won't confirm, but that's our best guess. They used rockets on the castle, after all.
No names on suspects (apparently they've been silent since arrest), but photos have been released.

19.56 - Drongo's in a critical condition in hospital. Apparently he was attacked at home last night.
I interviewed his Mum at the hospital, but B****d Graham got his story in to The Scotsman first.
Got a "Mother of Hero in Bedside Vigil" story into Women's Weekly. Hope she doesn't show him, as it's got baby pictures and all sorts of cutesy stuff.

Fri 6/12/90

14.44 - Daisy forged an ID, disguised herself as a nurse and got past the police guard on Drongo's door. He's still in a coma. She says he has three bullet wounds in his abdomen as well as two rectangular burns on his chest.
He had emergency surgery last night and is still in serious danger.
Charles thinks the burns might be electrical, from some sort of glove used to punch him.

Police still putting a hold on the story. Damn.

21.03 - Charles can't get visas for Russia through the usual channels. Will see if Sara has a line on Ivan that I can use...

No change in either Bob or Neil's conditions. I'm sure Bob would have been amused about the baby pictures of Drongo, but there was no sign that he heard me when I told him about them.


Tues 10/12/90

19.35 - Got a deadline for 6.30am tomorrow for the human-interest story on released Iraq hostages' families. Better lay in the coffee and Rich Tea - this could be a long night...
Still, it's good news at last. Had no trouble finding parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, colleagues and old school friends who are willing to say how great it is that they're safe.

Thurs 12/12/90

13.52 - Pravasudia say the trial for Krylov will be on January 5th. Visas came through at last (from the 15th for two months).
Pravda and TASS won't touch my story about the Florida abduction, though.

16.11 - Drongo's out of hospital. He says the guy who attacked him was a German claiming to be the brother of the guy who shot him on Leith Links (who is apparently still in a coma). Used the electrical things on him, then shot him repeatedly when he was down.

Bob and Neil still in hospital. Still no change. Helped out with the WRVS handing out teas to the other patients in the ward next to Neil's at the Infirmary today. They seem like nice women, although incredibly dowdy.

7.15 - Friday the Thirteenth.
I wonder what will go wrong today?

Sat 14/12/90

19.45 - Just about to head for the airport.
Am quite nervous about going to Russia. It's so different, and so unstable at the moment too.
I don't know who we'll find to talk to, or what is going to happen there.
Thank goodness at least Charles speaks some Russian.

Sun 15/12/90

15.07 - Have just got settled into the hotel.
Drongo seems to have bought no changes of clothes but loads of counterfeit jeans and tapes to sell. How embarrassing.
We are just about to go and look at the shops here. It's colder than we expected so we'll need more clothes.

18.59 - I found a beautiful, full length lambskin coat at a very reasonable price. And some rather charming amber too.

Tues 17/12/90

22.45 - Our appointment with the MVD press officer went about as expected. He insists that there is no link between the killings on Oct 10th and Dec 2nd [of a politburo member and a senior KGB man] and no other similar murders at all in the city.
Oh, and he described Pravasudia as "a small and disorganised group of malcontents".
It would be really useful to have Bob here now. He seems to have a talent for finding out what's true and what's lies.

Wed 18/12/90

8.31 - Charles is going to spend the day in the library looking through press cuttings to see what he can find out.
Drongo seems to be finding Ladas to fix for people, whether they want them fixed or not...

19.55 - Just back from expatriots bar.
Jane and I met the Reuters stringer for lunch at the hotel and he gave us quite a bit of information on gangland killings. Also the government is split between the old style hardliners and the progressives.
Pravasudia have been around for about ten years but have not done anything overtly political before. Apparently they weren't always associated with the Jewish causes here either. The rumour was that they were specialists in "problem removal" - hired by the underworld to do their dirty work.
The current action is completely out of character, a much bigger job than they've done previously, and also it's attracted police (and government) attention and made Pravasudia very unpopular with their old associates.
This is the first time Pravasudia have acted under their own name. We wondered if the stuff they were doing before was fundraising for this?

The general attitude in Russia seems to be to not discuss Nazi collaborators at all. There's a small amount of interest in the Bogdashkovich trial, but not as much as we'd expect if a similar thing happened in the UK.
The government is mostly embarrassed by the whole episode. They really don't want to open up the can of worms about anti-semitism in Russia and the stuff that happened during the war.
Pravasudia is making an unstable government more unstable.
Nobody seems to know of any other groups that might have an interest in the situation.

There's recently been a Nationalist resurgence here. General Lupold Korepino, the officer in charge of the 12th GUMO (and a renowned military tactician), seems to be involved. That's particularly frightenning.

23.08 - Bob's here. I don't know how.
He doesn't seem to know either.

I was in the bath and there was a sort of tearing noise, a blackness at one corner of the room and then Bob stepped out of it.

Am I going mad? He seems real enough. Charles seems to think he's real. Jane's too drunk to wake up and we can't find Drongo anywhere.

I shouldn't have called Charles on the hotel phone. That was silly of me. If anyone was listening they'll know something's happened here... although the reality is so unbelievable.

Charles got Bob some cigarettes, some food and some clothes. He's asleep in my bath now - too risky for him to leave my room, he might be seen by someone.

Is it really Bob? He seemed confused, not like himself, but then so many things have happened. But he looks like Bob and he could answer all the questions Charles and I asked him.

Thurs 19/12/90

10.17 - Well, that's got Bob safely to the British Embassy. I hope his contacts can sort him out with a passport and a visa. I think I lost my tail before I met up with him, presumably Charles and Jane didn't lose theirs or they'd have joined us.

15.01 - I was heading back to meet Charles and Jane at the hotel when a car went past the MVD station and the people in it opened fire with a machine gun.
I didn't see exactly what happened next because I'd ducked down behind some parked cars. I think the car's tyres were shot out and it flipped over. The people inside it got out rifles and started shooting. The police followed them as they ran away.
I managed to get to the car. The driver was still in there, dead. He was wearing a crucifix. I took that and a book and his papers.
I wish I hadn't remembered that the Skoptsi practice ritual mutilation. I checked, and yes, the chap had been castrated - everything taken off. Ick.
I think they call that the Greater Seal. Ugh.

I got away from there without being stopped. I don't think the police saw me, they were a bit busy with the people who were still firing machine guns at them.
I was a bit dirty from the ground, but there wasn't much blood on the dead chap (the crash had killed him, not a bullet) so I avoided getting blood on me.

We can't get the book open. There's some sort of weird lock on it. Charles's bag of tricks is no help with it, and Drongo bent a crowbar trying to prise it open. The leather of the binding can't be cut, or even scratched. We tried my diamond ring on it too, and not a mark on it.
Bob's still away at the embassy. Maybe he has something that can help.

The other papers are apparently five different sets of identification with the chap's photo on - one of which is MVD, two from Moscow, one from Siberia and one from Kiev.
They could all be fakes of course.

Susan Phillips - former fashion and beauty journalist, currently trying to move in to hard news stories (and not just as a way of annoying her ex-boyfriend).
Blonde, 6'2" tall in her stiletto heels and with a tendency to find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bob Fudge - cynical serious news reporter, unpopular with some important political figures. Interested in the occult.

Drongo, or, as he is known on more formal occasions, "The Accused", spends his time drinking; modifying, repairing and occasionally riding motorbikes; listening to loud rock music and getting in to fights. He's employed as a technician and bouncer by the news agency and various Fringe shows.
His mother calls him James Bell.

Jane Stuart - paparrazzi photographer, unpopular with many celebrities, has an alcohol problem.

John Huang (deceased) - reporter, known for his integrity, but also, unfortunately, for his belief in UFOs

Charles Reynauld - former reporter of international criminal affairs. Taking a break from chasing Columbian arms dealers in favour of a more peaceful life dealing with Glasgow gang wars.

Martin Farmer - industry and industrial relations journalist.

John Cassidy - anthropoligist, reporter and Renaissance man... Has travelled extensively in the Third World (mainly to avoid university funding authorities and his ex-wife).