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Back A Shadow Intelligence Save as PDF
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Oliver Harris
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. THIRTY-FIVE
  38. THIRTY-SIX
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. THIRTY-NINE
  42. FORTY
  43. FORTY-ONE
  44. FORTY-TWO
  45. FORTY-THREE
  46. FORTY-FOUR
  47. FORTY-FIVE
  48. FORTY-SIX
  49. FORTY-SEVEN
  50. FORTY-EIGHT
  51. FORTY-NINE
  52. FIFTY
  53. FIFTY-ONE
  54. FIFTY-TWO
  55. FIFTY-THREE
  56. FIFTY-FOUR
  57. FIFTY-FIVE
  58. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I stood at my window and tried to understand where I was. Across the business district, entire buildings masked themselves in LED displays, others flickering up their height in coloured sequences. A lot of cities can appear utopian from a hotel window at night, but Astana is particularly dreamlike. Flakes cluttering the air added to the sense of unreality, of looking at an architectural model put together by a teenager with ADHD and a love of science fiction. Only the Central Mosque refused to blink, steadfast in its floodlights like an admonishment.

I remembered why I had loved the country the last time I was here: its sense of newness, of gazing out to a future as unencumbered as the steppe. But it wasn’t entirely without baggage. The President’s excuse for creating a new capital was that the old one sat in an earthquake zone. One look at a map showed you the more pressing threat. Almaty was way down south, tucked into a corner near China. That left a huge tranche of northern Kazakhstan looking lonely and neglected next to Russia, and ripe for the taking. Shiny new Astana was a flag stuck firmly in the north. Ours.

I put my less sensitive paperwork in the room’s small safe, then found a communal bathroom at the end of the corridor. There were cisterns, vent units, loose ceiling panels. I went for the ceiling, stashing six thousand dollars in cash and the more incriminating equipment up among the pipes. Back in my room, I searched online for car hire establishments and selected the one with the lowest TripAdvisor review, on the principle it would show least interest in me. Finally I mapped a route to the flat the phone calls had come from.

TEN

Snow filled my mouth when I tried to breathe. Skin burned with the cold anywhere it was exposed. Ears were the worst. I pulled my hat down, used the act of turning away from the wind as I zipped up my jacket to check behind, in case anyone had followed me from the hotel. I could see about two feet. My nostrils stung as the mucus began to freeze. I covered my face with my scarf, moved on. I wanted to feel out Astana’s energy.