I'd rammed the radio into the pocket of my coat when I'd abandoned the Pobeda but there wasn't time to use it as the limousine got up speed and I swung left at the first intersection and brought the power on and settled down. The mirror grew bright but I'd got a hundred-yard lead and swung left again to work my way back to the ring road and away from the Kremlin. Time check: 6.07. 1 began thinking about Schrenk. He couldn't be far away. I tugged the radio out of my pocket and hit the button. A-Able to C-Charlie . . . Location approaching Solanka fork road from south. I am now on board the Zil. Has anyone seen Schrenk? Has anyone seen Schrenk? The lights were still in the mirror but there was no siren going. Calling A-Able. You have three of us in your immediate area. Anyone identifying Schrenk report immediately. I watched the mirror. The car behind me wasn't trying to close up. It was probably D-Donald or E- Edward but it could be Schrenk. Who is behind me? Who is behind me? Schrenk had planned to radio-detonate the charge and the only way he could do that was to join the Zil on its way in to the Kremlin and then peel off and circle the area and wait for the Zil to come back through Spassky Gate. But Schrenk was a man to cover his risks and he would have done that. D-Donald calling . . . I'm following the Zil. I acknowledged and turned right and headed for the boulevard ring. Sirens were loudening from the left and a flood of light came into the limousine as I crossed the intersection. Schrenk would have covered his risks and made sure the Zil would blow, even if something stopped him doing it by radio beam. I knew that. I knew him well. The ruts of the snow were sending the big front wheels too far to the nearside and I brought them out and felt the rear end go and had to throttle up and break the ruts to get any bite from the treads; my speed was a rising sixty kph and there were two vehicles ahead of me in the nearside lane. A patrol car came in from the left and its lights filled the interior again; its siren was wailing and I throttled up to clear it as the driver tried to cross my bows near the Solanka fork road. There was no time to think but I'd have to. Schrenk would have covered his risks and the only way to be quite sure the Zil would blow would be to time the charge. And he would have timed it for five or ten minutes after six o'clock, when the Soviet chief of state would be on board. Time check: 6.o8. The sweat broke out on me and I had the urge to slide the limousine into the kerb and get out and run for my life but I couldn't do that because I wasn't certain of the facts and if I abandoned the Zil and it didn't blow, it would remain an appalling danger on the open streets of the city. I would have to blow it myself. Calling D-Donald . . . D-Donald . . . The Zil could explode by timer at any minute. Keep your distance. My scalp was shrinking and my palms were wet on the wheel. I'd have to blow it myself and that meant crashing it and I was trying to remember where I'd passed the construction site on the way from the ring road. D-Donald acknowledging. C-Charlie calling all stations. Keep your distance from the Zil. I'd passed the big construction site not far from the boulevard ring, after turning on to Obucha ulica and heading west. I made for there now. The night was full of sirens wailing as other police patrols began focusing on the area. I saw two cars going fast across the inner boulevard ring and a third in a controlled slide coming from the south and turning in my direction. It was past me before the driver recognized the image of the Zil behind my headlights and the note of the siren died away behind me. Two cars now in my mirror: D-Donald and a smaller Moskvich, possibly Schrenk. He would have been looking out for the Zil and once he'd seen it he'd track it by cutting through some of the minor streets and my scalp contracted again because he'd come out of Lubyanka half crazed and if he realized I'd taken over this thing from Morosov he might use his radio beam to detonate in a final access of rage. I crossed the outer boulevard ring at close on seventy kph and saw a group of cranes poking into the night sky over to the north. I was going too fast for the intersection but the surface had sand on it and I brought the speed down and swung left at the next side road and straightened up with lights moving into