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Captain Zhilnikov's face clouded. "I do not understand," he said.
"Gennady," the ex-premier said, "do you know the cost of keeping this one
vessel afloat? We can barely afford it as it is."
"Finance is something capitalist Americans fret over."
Garbegtrov nodded. "You are lying to yourself if you believe communism cares
nothing for money. If we did not, this ship would never have been
decommissioned. She was left to rust because Mother Russia could no longer
afford her. Capital has always been as important to Russia as it is to
America. Except they knew better how to spend it."
Captain Zhilnikov didn't like what he was hearing. "Respectfully, Comrade
Premier, the pursuit of money is not the goal of a good Communist."
Garbegtrov smiled sadly. "You and your men are being paid well, are you not?"
Zhilnikov frowned. "Yes," he admitted. "But that is because we are the new
chosen ones. The vanguard of the new order."
"You are. But it is not the order that you think." And Garbegtrov went on to
tell the captain how he had gone to a meeting not long before the theft of the
Novgorod. At this meeting he found a group of people who had given him hope
for a new future for the global Communist movement.
"Was it in Moscow?" Zhilnikov asked hopefully.
"California," Garbegtrov replied.
He explained to the former Russian navy captain about environmentalism and an
organization called Green Earth. How the Green Earthers were more devoted to
socialist dogma than any Duma member. Garbegtrov told the captain that the
people who had been ferrying supplies out to the Russian sub were wealthy
Americans who belonged to the organization.
"They hate their country, these rich, spoiled children of privilege,"
Garbegtrov explained. "They hate its freedoms and strength. They loathe the
military. Anything that weakens American power and prestige in the world gives
them joy. When I mentioned Russia's own diminishing military strength, they
were crestfallen. There was a time, Gennady, when we would have destroyed
their way of life-crushed the very freedoms that allowed them to act like the
stupid children they are-and these people were actually upset that Russia was
no longer a threat to their survival.
"It was when I told them about the situation with our decommissioned warships
that they became particularly interested. One got it in his head that it would
be a fitting slap in the face of his own country if Green Earth could have its
own Soviet submarine. A way to strike fear in the hearts of illegal dumpers,
whalers, oil tankers and the like. Before I knew what was happening it was
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being voted on by the Green Earth board. The project was green-lighted, I was
put in charge and-not long after-you and your men stole me my submarine."
Captain Zhilnikov couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was absolutely
crushed. His legs were wobbly. He had to sit down in the little chair near the
bolted-down desk in the corner of the tiny cabin.
"We will not use the Novgorod to take back Mother Russia?" he asked weakly.
Garbegtrov sighed. "Russia is not as strong as she once was," he admitted.
"But Moscow will not surrender to one little obsolete submarine that has to
beg for its supper."
And that was that. Out of financial necessity, Captain Gennady Zhilnikov had
become a tool of environmental zealots.
For several years the Novgorod was kept afloat by Green Earth money. During
that time, Garbegtrov moved up the ranks of the organization just as he had
risen to the top position of the Communist Party. As time went on, the former
premier spent less and less time involved in matters of the Novgorod, he was
too busy staying in plush hotels paid for by Green Earth. Funding and
supplying the sub was turned over to a minor American Green Earth member. The
ultimate insult.
By now the men on board knew the truth. Though it sickened them, the pay was
good and the work was undemanding. In fact, it was almost as if they had been
forgotten.
Then one day two weeks before the Globe Summit in Mayana, Captain Zhilnikov
learned that this was indeed the case.
His American Green Earth contact had met the sub in international waters off
the coast of Florida. With him was one of the ranking members of the Green
Earth board.
The board member was a dotcom millionaire who had cashed out before his online
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