' The Longest Night ' & ' Crossing the Rubicon ': The Original Map Illustrated and Uncut Final Volume (Armageddon's Song) (67 page)

I can see him sat on the end of his bed, sporting the haircut to end all haircuts as he polishes his boots for the first time, wondering what the hell he has let himself in for.

Colin is 6’ 2”tall, so initially he would have been posted to 4 Company on arrival at Victoria Barracks, Windsor.

Selection takes place on height alone when you are a lowly and buckshee Guardsman. The tallest go into 1 Company; the next go to 4 Company. The short arses, 5’10” dwarves in comparison, find themselves in 3 Company. 2 (Support) was a mixed bag which could reduce a Drill Pig to drink as they were the specialists, the Mortarmen, Recce Platoon, Anti-Tanks and Assault Pioneers. They came in all shapes and sizes.

With promotion and courses such as Section Commanders, Platoon Commanders, and the All Arms Drill Wing, Guardsman Probert has become a Warrant Officer.

Sergeant Osgood.

Nobody knows his first name, and even Mrs Osgood calls him ‘Oz’, but he joined the army from the coal mines, tired of strike pay and bleak prospects.

Oz is already married when he joined the army, and Sarah had a baby on the way back then.

The Osgood’s and Colin will have quickly to become friends. When Janet and Colin eventually marry, Sarah would take the newly wed under her wing and show her the ropes, guiding her away from pitfalls such as those purveyors’ of innuendo, and assassins of character, the pad-hags.

With Colin and OZ away on exercise or deployed on operations the wives support each other.

Christina Carlisle/Svetlana Vorsoff. 

I recall once seeing Anna Chapman, before she was notorious, and being struck by the way she stood out in a room, at complete odds with spooks such as Terry Jones in the book, but I fancy Svetlana would have that same effect. 

At 5’10” tall, with curly chestnut hair to the backs of her legs and a dancers physique, Christina/Svetlana, is too strikingly beautiful to be a spy.

Having been robbed of a normal life and set to bedding whichever men and women the state required Caroline/Svetlana still had greater expectations. She does not object to the bedroom gymnastics it is just that it is not on her terms.

The Seventh Chief Directorate, into
which she had been recruited, dealt with visiting foreign diplomats, politicians and businessmen. Her mind and high IQ are of little importance to her employer, it is her talent as a seductress and her talents between the sheets that are the only assets they value.
Somehow, Christina/Svetlana winds up in London with a flat in Knightsbridge and a legitimate six figure salary job at a leading merchant bank in the City.

She is living the life, or is she?

Major Constantine Bedonavich.

Constantine was an able and courageous pilot. He drove the SU27 Flanker until younger pilots were on the verge of making the old man of the regiment look precisely that.

His wife, Yulia, until recently the Prima Ballerina at the Moscow State Ballet, had friends in high places and instead of Constantine leaving the service he instead moved to London to take up the post of Deputy Military Attaché at the embassy of the Russian Federation.
The good major did of course need to undertake a course in fieldcraft and trade craft for ‘new agent and asset handlers’ at the embassies.

Yulia’s involvement with a billionaire entrepreneur and the divorce which followed, served to drive Constantine into his work rather than into a bottle, and the major developed into a highly capable spy handler.

Sir Richard Tennant.

Sir Richard wears two royal jubilee medals, his ‘undetected crimes’ medal aka Long Service and Good Conduct medal, along with the Queens Police Medal, but two other ribbons occupy the first two spaces. The General Service Medal with Northern Ireland clasp, and the South Atlantic medal. The Commissioner had not always been a copper; he had spent six years in the Blues and Royals, serving in the Falklands War as well as a couple of tours in Ulster.

Rather than sign on for another three years Corporal of Horse Tennant became Constable Tennant and attended the Metropolitan Police Training School at Hendon.

Theodore Kirkland (The President).

I have not given Mr Kirkland a political party affiliation. It does not really have any bearing on the story whether he is a Republican or a Democrat, he represents America in this story.

At the start of the tale th
e President
has no affection, nor enmity either, for the military as he is just an academic who found himself in politics without actually encountering the military along the way.

I have left him as a good man but with a few flaws, because he is only human, and one who happens to be in the chair when a war starts.

Vadim Letacev (The Russian Premier).

My apology for coming up with a wholly unoriginal villain. He is Charles Dance (with his bad head on)  and Vlad the Impalers more sadistic brother.

A man with no redeeming features, megalomania, a serious case of psychosis and probably halitosis too!

Lieutenant of Paratroops,  Nikoli Bordenko.

“Ey, kak dela?” (“How are
you
doin’?”)
I had a platoon commander once who was pretty much the suave and dashing Nikoli. The Joey Tribbiani of British Airborne Forces, until injury forced a change of pace, and he came to us. I was never quite sure whether the injury was caused by landing badly after jumping out of an aircraft, or a bedroom window?

Good officer and a
good
soldier.

Flight Lieutenant Gerry Rich, RAAF.

Flt Lt Rich is very similar to a former double glazing salesman from Melbourne who joined my team in the 80’s. He spoke about Australian celebrities as if they were friends and neighbours. He had the gift of the gab and Paul Hogan should have charged him royalties for all the lines Neil stole. He developed into a pretty good copper too.
 

Anthony Carmichael.

The only Russian spook I have ever met, knowingly, wore a pinstripe suit, the regimental tie of the Hampshire Regiment and spoke English with an accent a 1950’s BBC newsreader would have been proud of.

The Cast