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But both the hunting and the fishing would have to wait for a while, because to the left a boat<br />
was coming into view. A large one, with both the flap of sails and the dull drone of an engine,<br />
boasting a deep navy hull and sparkling white fittings. It bore no flags, but the craft was too fine<br />
boned and graceful to have been designed for any practical purpose. A yacht, a pleasure ship of some<br />
sort, and across the bank the hunters all shifted to watch it pass. One of the fools even saluted,<br />
although there was no evidence of whom the vessel might carry or what purpose it might serve. Just<br />
as it passed Vlad, a figure appeared on the deck. A young woman with red hair, dressed entirely in<br />
white and then, emerging from behind her, a plump pigeon of a man, raising his hand to squint into the<br />
sunlight, a gesture the cheering hunters mistook for a return of their salute.<br />
They don’t look like aristocrats, Vlad thought, but who could tell? Oppression, like the devil,<br />
had the ability to assume many forms.<br />
Vlad lay back on the bank. More of the titled and wealthy seemed to come to St. Petersburg<br />
every day, with their tennis rackets and valises, their crates of champagne, well-starched servants,<br />
and small yapping dogs. These people thought differently from the members of Volya – they were<br />
frightened and pleased and motivated by different things. It was beginning to occur to Vlad that, at<br />
least for now, the energies of the revolution were perhaps better spent looking for ways to influence<br />
the tsar than for ways to replace him. Alexander was not a man to be shaken by petitions or riots or<br />
strikes. He would be controlled only by a different sort of means.<br />
We must take something that he loves, thought Vlad. Something that not even he will find so<br />
easy to replace.<br />
A kidnapping. A hostage from within the inner circle. The bear will not bend his ear toward<br />
his people even if we bring a thousand petitions, Vlad thought. But will he bend it if he knows we<br />
have the girl in the red sash?<br />
The Royal Yacht – The Victoria and Albert<br />
4:12 PM
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