siblings.’
The tsar fell silent, deep in contemplation. Iuda studied his face, imagining his thoughts as his mind wandered over each of his nephews and nieces, dismissing those he loved, dismissing all who had a title, and then considering those born out of wedlock – pondering those of whose existence Iuda was not even aware. For his part, Iuda had no specific individual in mind – any of them would do.
‘How distant can they be?’ he asked. ‘Pyotr must have descendants all over Russia by now.’
‘True, but there is the question of certainty. There have always been pretenders to the Romanov name – look at the False Dmitrys who plagued your predecessors in the Time of Troubles. If we attempt this on someone who does not, in truth, carry Pyotr’s blood then Zmyeevich will detect our ruse and will not fall for it a second time. The closer our subject is to you, the safer we shall be.’
Aleksandr lapsed into silence again. For over a minute there was no sound in the room. Then he looked up.
‘I shall consider what you have said. Come back to me, here, in two weeks’ time. I’ll let you know my decision.’
He turned and made for the door. Before leaving, he tugged on a bell pull. Then he was gone. A moment later Iuda heard the bolts being drawn on the door behind him. He smiled. He had achieved all he could hope for. Aleksandr would come round, he felt sure of it. Even so, a fortnight was a long time to wait. Given all that Iuda had heard about the activities of the People’s Will, His Majesty might be dead within days.
The cowering body was dragged before the committee. He still wore the hood that had been used in his abduction, tied at the neck so that he could not remove it and might fear strangulation, though there was no real danger of it. They’d stripped him to the waist so that the cold would weaken him too. And then they’d left him – for almost a day.
Now he would be ready to answer their questions.
‘What do we know of him?’ asked the chairman.
Sofia replied. ‘We’re reasonably certain that he is the same man as the sapper who worked on the undermining of Geok Tepe. He was born in Saratov and studied at the Imperial Technical School in Moscow. While in the army he is not known to have expressed strong political views in any direction. However, he did with apparent spontaneity assist Yevdokia Yegorovna with her cover story when she was transporting explosives from Rostov.’
As Sofia spoke the chairman noticed how she nervously rubbed the outside edge of one hand with the other. Beneath her fingers he could see the red scab of a crescent-shaped lesion: a bite mark – caused by a human rather than a voordalak. It was too deep a wound to have been inflicted by Zhelyabov as part of some sexual frolic, but the chairman could take a good guess as to the terrified individual whose teeth had inflicted the injury.
‘You think he was aware of what she was doing?’ he asked.
‘She’d been careless,’ interjected Kibalchich. ‘I’d have been able to spot what she was up to. I’m sure he would.’
Sofia continued. ‘We also suspect that he was the man that Rysakov and I witnessed accosting Konstantin Nikolayevich as he left the Marble Palace. He was arrested and taken to Fontanka 16, but released the following day. He then made contact with the traitor Luka Miroslavich.’
‘Let’s begin there then,’ said the chairman, nodding at Zhelyabov, who gave Lukin a hefty kick in the ribs. Lukin fell on his side.
‘Why did you visit Luka Miroslavich?’ demanded the chairman.
‘I’d heard his name.’
‘When?’ asked Sofia.
‘When I was a prisoner – at Fontanka 16. I overheard that Kletochnikov had been arrested, and then they mentioned Luka.’
‘So you knew he was a traitor?’
‘No. I thought they were going to arrest him too. I went to warn him.’
‘Why would you care what happened to him?’
Lukin didn’t answer. Zhelyabov kicked him again and he coughed, but then spoke. ‘I thought he’d be grateful; let me help him.’
‘Help him to do what? Betray our entire group?’
‘I didn’t know that!’ Lukin shouted through the bag. ‘I wanted to help you to … to change Russia.’
‘Change Russia how?’ asked Sofia.
Lukin’s mumble was inaudible. Zhelyabov kicked him again. ‘By any means necessary,’ he said.
‘So why had you already made contact with Dusya?’ asked the chairman. ‘You expect us to think