The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

his friends had already been arrested? Perhaps that would explain why there was no signof Amin’s people watching the building.When Starostin returned to the embassy, he saw a Mercedes with Afghan licenseplates parked in front of the office building. He ran up the stairs to Osadchiy’s office toreport that the meeting with the Khalqis did not take place for reasons unknown. Hethought that everything had been done correctly, as per the agreed-upon instructions, butGulabzoi never came out of the house.“They’re all here,” said the resident. “The whole gang of four is sitting in our embassywaiting for the situation to be resolved.” Osadchiy cracked the window and pointed to theMercedes that had been parked in front of the building. “They came here to talk with theambassador, but he had already left for a meeting with Taraki and Amin. These four claimthat Amin is planning to kill them tonight, and that Taraki may be removed from power bytomorrow.”“Do you really think it’s possible?”Osadchiy looked at the car in front of the building before he turned to Valery and said,with a very serious expression, “Yes. I think that scenario is possible.”“But we can’t just sit and do nothing,” said Valery with despair. “We should dosomething.”“What can we do? Puzanov just spoke with Moscow and received clear instructions totry to make peace between them all, by any means necessary.” Osadchiy continued lookingout the window. “At whatever cost,” he said gloomily.“Even at the cost of the lives of these ministers, who are the recognized heroes of theApril Revolution?”528