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"He will recall only going to bed when he wakes up ten days from now"

"You can do this thing, really do it?" Suvorov questioned with a security man's persistence

"Yes," Lugovoy said with a confinent gleam behind his eyes

"And much more"

AMAD FLAPPING OF WINGs broke the earlystillness as two pheasants broke toward the sky Soviet President Georgi Antonov snapped the over-and-under Purdey shotgun to his shoulder and pulled the two triggers in quick succession The twin blasts echoed through theand fell to the ground

Vladimir Polevoi, head of the Committee for State Security, waited an instant until he was sure Antonov had ht it doith one shot

Antonov fixed his KGB director with a hard-eyed stare "Showing up your boss again, Vladimir?"

Polevoi read Antonov's er correctly "Your shot was difficult, Comrade President Mine was quite easy"

"You should have joined the Foreign Ministry instead of the Secret Police," Antonov said, laughing "Your diplomacy ranks with Gromyko's" He paused and looked around the forest "Where is our French host?"

"President L'Estrange is seventy meters to our left" Polevoi's stateudshots sorowth

"Good," grunted Antonov "We can have a few minutes of conversation" He held out the Purdey to Polevoi, who replaced the empty shells and clicked the safety switch

Polevoi moved in close and spoke in a low tone "I would caution about speaking too freely French intelligence has listening probes everywhere"

"Secrets seldoh

Polevoi cracked a knowing s between L'Estrange and his Finance Minister last night"

"Any revelations I should know about?"