Russian Government / FSB¶
The Russian Government / FSB is the Russian state apparatus that abducts Dick "The Biz" Baxter from his hospital bed, holds him at the Vorkuta labor camp and flies him to Moscow to be questioned by Boris Yeltsin.
| Type | Government / intelligence service |
| Aliases | FSB; the Russians |
| Leader | Boris Yeltsin (President) |
| Base | Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp; Moscow |
| First appearance | Roulet Estate 03 |
Overview¶
After the Brooks Pharmacy siege, the Biz is wounded and taken to a hospital, and in the epilogue of Roulet Estate 03 he vanishes from it. Ezra, deciding what becomes of the Biz after the task force is disbanded, suggests that this is the time for "consequences for fucking up," and Andre rules that he was "abducted and still in custody." The rest of the task force knows only that the Biz disappeared from the hospital, and assumes he simply ran off. (Roulet Estate 03)
History¶
- Vorkuta. The Biz is held in a freezing stone cell at the Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp, a sign outside giving the date "abandoned since 1962". The cell has a barred window and a slot in the door through which bread is pushed. His leg was patched up at the best hospital in Russia before the torture began. About two weeks after the guards stopped beating him with any enthusiasm and stopped interrogating him, he passes the time by making up increasingly unhinged sea shanties and talking to a cockroach. (Roulet Estate 03)
- The officer. A new, senior-looking man with a mustache, steel eyes and a red, slightly runny nose looks through the slot. The Biz greets him in polite Russian ("Dobro pozhalovat'. Zakhodite, pozhaluysta."). The officer turns to one of the guards and orders, in a line subtitled "Get this man on a plane." (Roulet Estate 03)
- Moscow. After a better shower than his processing one, the Biz flies first class, handcuffed beside an FSB officer who eats his steak but lets him keep the rest of the meal. They land and drive in an FSB car to the former Soviet Parliament building, where he is handcuffed to a chair by both hands and an ankle. Yeltsin sits across from him, offers a Cuban cigar, cuts the end off, lights it for him with a small silver lighter and says, "Tell me everything you know about the humanists." (Roulet Estate 03)
Meanwhile, when Diane phones Andrew in New York to ask after everyone, he says he hopes the Biz is not "ruining another presidential election," and suggests the US government may simply have grown tired of him. (Roulet Estate 03)
What remains unknown¶
- Who "the humanists" are; nothing else is said about them.
- How the Biz was taken out of the country and whether Yeltsin's government acted on its own initiative.
- What happens to the Biz after this scene. Russian government figures appear again in later arcs; see Russian government and The Radford Horrors.