The book begins with the story of how Napoleon Bonaparte found himself in the house of Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, the Duke of Richelieu and governor of Odessa, in 1807. A brief liaison with the duke’s 19-year-old Italian servant girl, Luisa Ravelli, resulted in the birth of a son. The bombing of Odessa by an Anglo-French squadron in 1854 and the landing of French troops in Odessa in 1918 had the objective of finding that illegitimate son. The protagonist of the book, Yevgeny Rivilis, is Bonaparte’s great-great-grandson and a Russian emigre who landed in New York in August 1996. His personal drama is compounded by the fact that his ex-wife, Sophia, from whom he is not formally divorced, proves to be the mistress of one of the terrorist leaders… This fact explains the additional interest that the security services have in him… Part two of the book recounts the cooperation and opposition between the FBI and the FSB, one of the successors to the KGB. The security services’ clandestine operations culminate in murders. Both sides suffer losses. An FBI agent and an FSB agent operating under diplomatic cover are victims of the secret war in New York. Sometime later two related murders occur: the killing in Moscow of Yuri Shchekochikhin, an opposition journalist and a member of the State Duma (July, 2003), and the slaying of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the vice-president of Ichkeria in Doha, Qatar (February, 2004). Both events are indirectly linked to Sophia. The story unfolds in New York, Washington, Las Vegas, Paris, Copenhagen, Baghdad and Damascus.
Оглавление
Рафаэль Гругман. Napoleon Great-Great-Grandson Speaks
PREFACE
NAPOLEON'S GREAT-GREAT-GRANDSON SPEAKS
CONEY ISLAND LAUGHS LAST
PART ONE
SOME STRANGE THINGS HAVE BEEN HAPPENING RECENTLY
A VISIT TO THE PAST
AN INTELLIGENCE AGENT’S CAREER BEGINS IN GUANTÁNAMO
AND THERE'S ICE CREAM AT INTERMISSION
A VISIT TO THE «ISLAMIC CENTER»
CAMILLA WANTS TO GET MARRIED
NICE FBI AGENT SEEKS WOMAN
WAITING FOR THE BANQUET
TED'S MURDER
THE CHECHEN TRAIL
EX-WIVES POP UP AT THE WRONG TIME
A PARIS WEEKEND
DENMARK SAYS: «NO»
A BRIEF INTERLUDE
THE IRAQI SYNDROME
2003 BEGINS WITH A HEADACHE
WAR BREATHES DOWN OUR NECKS
IN MEMORY OF YUROCHKA DUBOVTSEV
IN SADDAM HUSSEIN'S PALACE
THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND GNAWS HER ELBOWS
DOROSHENKO'S RETURN
YURY SHCHEKOCHIKHIN. MURDER OR ACCIDENT?
PART TWO
A BALL ON THE BOARDWALK
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
THE FOUR-HEADED DRAGON
GULYA, GULENKA, GULNARA
THE TRANSACTION
BRIGHTON BACKWATERS
THE MUJAHEDIN PERISH IN IRAQ
SPY GAMES
THE LIGHTS OF LAS VEGAS
«THERE, IN A FAR-OFF LAND, I'LL BECOME YOUR WIFE.»
REQUIEM
A CALL FROM VANUATU
Отрывок из книги
This amazing story began in December 1995, when a man showed up at the Odessky Vestnik newspaper office and introduced himself as Yevgeny Rivilis, Bonaparte’s great-great-grandson. I was skeptical about his statement. Ever since humanity started documenting its history in writing, every civilization has witnessed the birth of imposters who have tried to take advantage of someone else’s name and glory for selfish or political purposes. One after the other, the world has seen the appearance of false gods and false messiahs, false Christs and false prophets, and after them, a long parade of swindlers, opportunists and adventure seekers passing themselves off as dead or slain emperors and kings (or members of their families).
The temptation of fame and power is great. Russian history, which is relatively young (compared to world history), has not escaped invasions of pretenders. There have been three false Dimitris, several pseudo-Peter the Thirds (the most famous was Yemelyan Pugachev), and numerous false children of Tsar Nicholas II, who supposedly escaped after the royal family was shot (pretenders claiming to be Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga or Alexei). These were followed by the swindlers of modern times, people of lower rank who became false veterans and false heroes of the Great Patriotic War in order to receive social benefits. The atmosphere of the Soviet land encouraged their «glorious deeds».
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In order to exert psychological pressure on the «spy,» he was ordered to appear every week at the police station.
For several years, poor Ravelli conscientiously carried out this order from the authorities, until, convinced at last of his honesty, the counterintelligence officers left the merchant in peace.
