“That’s true,” Blaze said, keeping his gaze steady on her eyes. “But you need a military strategy to launch asuccessfulcoup.”
Mary Varvara Bell flipped her fingers at Skull Trim and the other mercenaries. “I have plenty of muscle.”
“You need more than muscle. You’re planning better this time, aren’t you? Last time, the amateur pipe bombs didn’t detonate, so that’s why you want military-grade weapons for this attempt, right?”
She raised one eyebrow.
He jutted his chin toward Twist, who was standing behind her. “Looking around, I’d say that this time, you have computer technical support to impede the military and civilian police response.”
She was watching him closely.
Blaze indicated Micah with a nod. “And you have certain criminal elements who will round out the crowd, but you don’t have institutional knowledge. You’ve never launched a coup before.”
“I did four years ago,” she said.
There it was.“My mistake. You ran afailedcoup. Did your nephew Logan run that one? Because it has all the hallmarks of an amateur operation.”
Standing beside Micah and behind Dr. Bell, Logan lowered his chin and glowered at Blaze.
He pressed on. “Did Logan put together the plan to incite violence in a mob of racist Americans cosplaying revolutionaries?”
She was watching him more closely. “The rough plan was devised with my lawyers. Logan interfaced with the white supremacist militia groups to provide muscle for the attempt. And next year, we will have professional troops in the crowd.”
Andthere.She’d implicated both herself and Logan.
If Blaze could get Logan to confirm it, that would be perfect.
Either way, he had to get them both downstairs to the building’s lobby, which seemed impossible, on his knees in Bell’s stark-white office in the Manhattan clouds.
He asked, “Professional troops? Do you mean the Koch Group mercs? They couldn’t even take over Ukraine, a tiny country with barely a standing military, and that was with the entire Red Army at their backs. I’d hardly call them professional troops.”
Skull Trim glared at him, and Blaze did not give a fuck.
Mary Varvara Bell tilted her head. “What are you suggesting?”
Blaze had to be careful not to entrap Bell.Shehad to say it.
He lifted his chin, indicating his three best friends standing behind her. “You’ve almost got a full set. Twist is tech support. Micah will provide civilian cover. Logan has international criminal connections. Together, the four of us are the Coup Starter Pack.”
Her testy tone indicated Blaze only had minutes left to win her over. “Yes, thank you for explainingmyorganizational structure tome.”
“ButI,Dr. Bell,Iam Lieutenant Commander Blaze Robinson, DEVGRU. I was trained at the US Naval War College in Newport and the National War College at Fort McNair in DC. I have the professional acumen and skills to launch this coup. I’ve taken down democratically elected governments multiple times when ordered to do so. You don’t have anyone else here who hassuccessfullyoverthrown a government.”
“We have military advisors,” she said.
“Not like me.”
“Yes, but we’ll manage.”
“Vladimir Lvov hasn’t successfully orchestrated a coup in decades. He’s tottering. If you want to rule the US from behind the throne, you need better support than Lvov.”
Mary Varvara Bell’s eyes narrowed at him. “How do you know all this?”
If he admitted that Sarah had overheard it on the plane and told him, Bell might not let her go, and she might eliminate Sarah as knowing too much.
He said, “The Koch Group are Lvov’s personal shock troops, and you have their support. The firehose of falsehoods propaganda on social media is obviously from the Trolls from Olgino, the Russian ‘Internet Research Agency.’ It’s blindingly obvious who was behind the first coup attempt.”
She tilted her head, still examining him. “If it were so obvious, the FBI would be here.”
