Chapter 2716: 2690: Not to Be Repeated
Back to Sochi again, back to Yarebin’s home again.
The trip to Moscow was for nothing, but there’s nothing to complain about. As long as the goal is achieved, to be honest, just one extra round trip is nothing at all.
Gao Yang sat down beside Yarebin’s coffin. He was too tired and couldn’t help dozing off for a while, but just as he fell asleep, the phone rang.
The call was from Pavlovich. When Gao Yang picked up, Pavlovich spoke extremely fast: “Putin has decided to bury the Captain according to your request. The KGB Headquarters has been put in charge of this. The KGB will send a plane to Sochi to bring the Captain’s coffin back. The funeral will be held tomorrow.”
Pavlovich couldn’t come to Yarebin’s funeral, but Gao Yang had him make a few calls. To negotiate using the Black Demon’s identity with the contact number Baranikov provided was no problem.
KGB Headquarters is just the same as the Federal Security Service’s headquarters, it’s only a habitual way of calling it. But having KGB Headquarters responsible for Yarebin’s funeral is really the best possible arrangement.
Everything fell into place, naturally and smoothly, and that was that.
Once Yarebin’s funeral entered Putin’s field of vision, the matter became simple, extremely simple. No one would refuse Putin’s request, no one would dare raise any questions, so this matter became very easy.
But getting Putin to know about it, that was the hard part.
Getting Putin to personally intervene was even harder, as hard as climbing to heaven. Yet Gao Yang had done it.
Gao Yang went to Grand Ivan, and Grand Ivan delivered. He found Baranikov, and Baranikov knew Putin; he was the one who made all of this real.
In an instant Gao Yang’s eyes welled up. He looked at Yarebin in the coffin and said, “Teacher, you’re going home, to your real home!”
On the phone, Pavlovich said in a low voice, “It’s time to pull out now. Don’t come face to face with the KGB people.”
Gao Yang said quietly, “What about the details? How do we hand over the coffin?”
“They’ll assign someone specifically in charge of it. Someone will contact me, and once I get the call I’ll inform you. For now, Putin has shown respect and the greatest tolerance toward the Black Demon, and has clearly stated he won’t try to use this opportunity to track down the Black Demon members. The specifics will be decided after further discussion.”
Gao Yang let out a breath and said softly, “Okay!”
After hanging up, Gao Yang exhaled deeply, then nodded to Joseph and Uriyangko and said in a low voice, “It’s done!”
Uriyangko clenched his fist and gave it a little swing, exhaled, and said, “Mission accomplished at last, we pulled it off. So how do we move specifically?”
Gao Yang stood up and said in a deep voice, “We leave here. The KGB will send people to take over the coffin, and it’s not convenient for us to meet them. The concrete arrangements aren’t fixed yet.”
Just then, Gao Yang received another call. He raised his hand to signal for silence, then answered and said quietly, “Hello.”
Baskov said in a low voice on the phone, “I just met with the President, regarding the Captain’s funeral.”
Gao Yang kept his voice flat. “And?”
“The President asked me if I knew about Yarebin’s death. I told him no one had informed me. Then he asked if I could take charge of this, and I agreed.”
Gao Yang was silent for a moment, then said quietly, “That wasn’t very smart of you, was it?”
Baskov sounded exhausted. “There’s nothing unwise about it. The President knows how I feel about the Black Demon; he also knows why Yarebin ended up in the nursing home. He asked me why Yarebin left the nursing home and appeared in Sochi. Some things simply can’t be covered up.”
Gao Yang asked, slightly worried, “So how did you answer?”
“I said Yarebin just wanted to go out for a walk and then came back to Sochi, that’s all. There’s nothing more to explain. The only reason the President asked was that he wanted to know whether I, as a traitor, was willing to attend the old Captain’s funeral.”
Gao Yang was quiet for a moment, then said softly, “Stop calling yourself a traitor.”
Baskov said in a low voice, “The Black Demon thinks I’m a traitor, the President thinks I’m a traitor, the whole world thinks I’m a traitor, including the Captain. And in fact, I really am a traitor.”
He exhaled heavily, then went on in a low voice, “But the President knows how I feel about the Black Demon, that’s why he asked whether I was willing to attend the Captain’s funeral. I agreed, and I took on the task of going to bring the Captain home. By the way, the farewell ceremony will be held in the auditorium of KGB Headquarters. General Vasilyevich will preside over the funeral ceremony, and the headstone is already being made in haste—black marble.”
“That’s good, very good. Now I can rest easy…”
Baskov continued quietly, “I’ll go to Sochi, with only a few people, all my own men. You don’t need to leave. Wait for me there. I think that’s better.”
Gao Yang said in a low voice, “All right, I’ll wait for you.”
Suddenly Baskov asked, “How did you get the President informed of this?”
Gao Yang said in a deep voice, “Just through normal channels. I made the call to where it needed to go, and it was reported up level by level. Of course someone helped along the way, but I can’t tell you who.”
Baskov said gravely, “That’s beyond what I expected. The fact that you could get directly through to the President is even more unexpected. It’s very difficult, but it’s indeed the best solution, you could even say the only solution. Because apart from the President, no one would dare make the same decision, no one would even care about it. An old man whom no one knows—no one would bother the President over the trivial matter of how to arrange his funeral.”
“Why are you saying this?”
“I can contact the President directly, but I can’t have any private contact with the Black Demon. So I’m stuck in a dilemma, and you’ve spared me that dilemma while still giving me the chance to attend the funeral. That matters a lot to me.”
Baskov paused for a moment, then suddenly said, “All right, to be honest I wanted to find out who helped you. Anyone who can get a message onto the President’s desk and yet has ties to foreign underground forces—that kind of person must be thoroughly investigated and rooted out, and it’s not hard to do. But I’ve changed my mind. For your sake, I can let this one go. Just don’t make a habit of it. I’ll say it again: don’t do anything harmful to Russia’s interests.”
If that covert asset Grand Ivan used knew about Baskov’s existence, he would never have gotten involved.
Cold sweat broke out all over Gao Yang. He had almost ruined Grand Ivan’s covert line. If Baskov decided to pursue it, it really wouldn’t be hard to trace, and even though Baskov’s hands aren’t clean either and his ties to the Black Demon go deeper, he has plenty of ways to clear himself.
Gao Yang said in a deep voice, “Don’t worry. This was only for my teacher’s funeral. For your sake, I promise I will never do anything harmful to Russia’s interests.”