Read Kings of Many Castles Online
Authors: Brian Freemantle
Kings of Many Castles (40 page)
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings
To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings
John Dryden,
Absalom and Achitophel
Absalom and Achitophel
On August 19, 1991, a group of hardline Communists staged a vodka-fuelled coup against reforming Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev Among the plotters, who included the prime minister, the defense minister, and the interior minister, was Vladimir Kryuchkov, chairman of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, the KGB.
After the immediate failure of the coup, the KGB was broken up and redesigned between external and internal intelligence agencies in exactly the same way as America’s CIA and FBI and the United Kingdom’s MI6 and MI5. Russia’s foreign intelligence organization is the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, the SVR. Its internal service is the Federalnaia Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, the FSB.
All intelligence organizations commit murder, although all strenuously deny it. The topmost classified assassination division of the KGB was the Executive Action Department—Department V—of the First Chief Directorate.
Department V survived the reorganization and the redesigning and exists to this day. Both the SVR and the FSB deny that existence as they vehemently deny its purpose.
Winchester, 2002
The Watchmen
Little Grey Mice
Comrade Charlie
Button Man
Charlie’s Apprentice
No Time for Heroes
Bomb Grade
Mind Reader
Little Grey Mice
Comrade Charlie
Button Man
Charlie’s Apprentice
No Time for Heroes
Bomb Grade
Mind Reader
KINGS OF MANY CASTLES. Copyright © 2002 by Brian Freemantle.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y 10010.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
eISBN 9781429974080
First eBook Edition : May 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Freemantle, Brian.
Kings of many castles: a Charlie Muffin thriller / Brian
Freemantle.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-30412-9
1. Muffin, Charlie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Intelligence service—Fiction. 3. British—Russia—Fiction. 4. Moscow (Russia)—Fiction. 5. Assassination—Fiction. 6. Defectors—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6056.R43 K45 2002
823’.914—dc21
823’.914—dc21
2002069280
First Edition: December 2002
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