The Red Dragon

By Frank Tremayne

Patin thanked the translator and glanced at his watch. Pause for thought time. It would be interesting now Tramp was President again. He certainly adds colour to the picture. Looking out of the window the snow was falling gently in the Kremlin. Red Square was beautiful with snow. This weekend he would be at his dacha. As he had got older he had become to enjoy the four seasons. Freezing in the winter and boiling hot in the summer.

He pondered on Tramp. Chaos is the name of the game with Tramp. Patin had tried to mind read Tramp but he was an enigma. Unpredictable and yet obviously clever the way he played the game. He admired that Tramp had been one of the first politicians to realise the power of AI as an influencer. Also, he seemed to be able to speak to the simple minds with his slogans. The public doesn’t like to think too much. Keep It Simple Stupid. Patin knew from Tramp’s first term in office he would have to be careful. Even though he appeared crazy as a fox, Patin was of the opinion Tramp was an American patriot which suited Patin.

Patin had been turned back in the 1980s by a British spy, Augustus, posing as a journalist for the Daily Telegraph. Patin had become more and more disillusioned with the old Soviet system and he admired Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as politicians and their free Capitalism ideas. And the money helped as well.

Augustus had given Patin the code name of the Red Dragon which he enjoyed. It was not an easy time being a spy for the West. Korla had eyes everywhere and the KGB had been full of individuals with competing agendas. Also it was life or death. No trials as a traitor. Just an obituary in the paper saying Alexei had died in a car crash. The truth was different. A bullet to the head and that was the end of the story.

And then the gangsters had taken over the Soviet Union. Even now he struggled with the complexity of it all. In hindsight it had become clear to him that it had been a putsch. Within a few years the Soviet Union was gone. The oligarchs took over the banking and oil and gas fields and military and lunatics like Boris Yetsin had appeared out of nowhere. He definitely had to go. Russia had been in danger of becoming a laughing stock.

Patin could see there must have been a hidden hand behind the takeover and he wondered who the puppet master pulling the strings was. At the same time as the Soviet Union collapsed he had a personal change. He was moved from the British to the Americans and his new boss was now a man he only knew as Langley. He was told to become a politician and then Whoosh. Up the greasy pole at a rate of knots. One minute a KGB operative and then in a relatively short time he was the President of the new Russia.

Anyway, back to Now he thought. The war with Ukraine was tying up resources nicely and keeping Russia in the mire. He wasn’t too sure of the exact plan as to how long it would last and he awaited orders from Langley. The military likes a fight so they were happy. He still wished that Russia could metamorphosise into a civilised country like the USA, Britain or France. That was his private aim whatever the higher ups wanted.

The world was corrupt and he hoped that out of the darkness would come light. He saw Tramp as a kindred spirit. He was a historian and knew empires rise and collapse . Patin wondered about the new powers such as China and India but that didn’t keep him awake at night. They were corrupt as anywhere else and at present were focused on trade and money. That tends to be how empires rise. First, becoming rich enough to effect the outer world and then once they reach a certain point, they are able to influence the mindscape of the world.

At times Patin felt jealous of the little people. They are simply born and are then programmed to keep the machine going, beavering away through out their lives. And reproduce their clones who do exactly the same as their parents. And at the end, Death. Birth to death. A simple life. Sometimes Patin wondered if he was doing exactly the same. Just another cog in the wheel. Maybe it doesn’t matter whatever an individual does in their life. Even power players such as Patin and Tramp. Just slaves to the rhythm. He felt at times that even being a spy for the West was simply him playing a role in a bizarre John le Carre novel. ‘Play the part’ Patin thought. What else is there to do?

The talk with Tramp had gone well. He looked forward to meeting with Tramp again. He knew Langley would have monitored the conversation and he waited with interest, for the next move. Being Russian, Patin saw the moves as a game of chess. Black Knight takes White Bishop. Americans are simpler he thought. Was Patin the King or was he a pawn? And where does the Queen fit into the picture?

Patin kept bees at his dacha. From childhood he had a strange symbiotic relationship with the bees. He saw the Bee Hive as a mirror of the human world. Maybe it’s the Queen who is really in charge. Mother Nature simply doing her thing and humans were pawns on the chess board. Humanity though seemed to be the major player. In areas around the world where there are only a few humans, the natural world was in balance and it was humanity that upset the apple cart. Interestingly he had developed an immunity to bee stings over the years and believed in the world of Realpolitik, this was a big plus.

Russians liked dictators he had decided and that was the image he chose to project and it had worked. Vadim was still popular with the people. Part of his decision to agree to become an agent for the West was from love of his own people. With the help of the West he hoped to be able to change the Slavic peasant mentality to a more democratic mind set. Part of the problem he now understood was actually the Russian people themselves. They didn’t want change.

Tramp was a business man which he liked. Business men were easier to deal with than idealogues. Tramp enjoys deals and haggling. Nothing personal. At first, Patin thought the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ very simplistic but had realised over time that Americans were less cynical than older countries and it spoke to something within the American psyche. And Tramp seemed to be genuine with MAGA. Definitely a kindred spirit thought Patin.

Make America Great Again. Make Russia Great Again.