he's an Englishman, his Russian shouts with it. When he mentioned your name I pretended to be shocked, angry that our people would think me capable of harboring a fugitive.... I said I wanted to telephone my superior. He refused to let me. He said 'We have all we want from you.' Those were his exact words." Vasili looked at her. "Would you have called your superior?" "I'm not sure," replied Lodzia, her hazel-green eyes steady on his. "I suppose it would have depended on what he said. It's very difficult for me to believe you're what they say you are." "I'm not On the other hand, you must protect yourself." "I was hoping it wouldn't come to that." "Thank you... old friend." Taleniekov turned back to the man on the floor and started toward him.
He saw it. He was too latel Vasili lunged, diving at the figure by the chair, his hands ripping at the man's mouth, pulling it apart, his knee hammering the stomach, jamming it up into the rib cage, hying to induce vomit.
The acrid odor of almonds. Potassium cyanide. A massive dose. Oblivion in seconds, death in minutes.
The cold blue English eyes beneath him were wide and clear with satisfaction. The Matarese had escaped.
'We have to go over it again," insisted Taleniekov, looking up from the naked corpse. They had stripped the body; Lodzia was sitting in a chair checking the articles of clothing meticulously for the second time.
"Everything he said." "I've left out nothing. He wasn't that talkative." "You're a mathematician; we must fill in the missing numbers. The sums are clear." ,,sumsr, "Yes, sums," repeated Vasili, turning the corpse over. "He wanted me, but was willing to kill himself if the trap failed. That warrants two conclusions: first, he could not risk being taken alive because of what he knew. And second, he expected no assistance. If I thought otherwise, you and I would not be here now." "But why did he think you would come here to begin withr' "Not would," corrected Taleniekov. "Might. I'm sure it's in a file somewhere in Moscow that you and I saw a lot of each other. And the men who want me have access to those files, I know that. But they'll cover only the people here in Leningrad they think I might contact. They won't bother with the sector leaders or the Ligovsky staff. If any of them got wind of me they'd send out alarms heard in Siberia; those who want me would step in then. No, theyll only concern themselves with people they can't trust to turn me in. You're one of them." "Are there others? Here in Leningrad?" "Three or four, perhaps. A Jew at the university, a good friend I'd drink and argue with all night; he'll be watched. Another at the Zhdanov, a political theorist who teaches Marx but is more at home with Adam Smith. One or two others, I suppose. I never really worried about whom I was seen with." "You didn't have to," "I know. My post had its advantages; there were a dozen explanations for any single thing I did, any person I saw." He paused. "How extensive is their coverageT'.'I don't understand." "There's one man I do want to reach. They'd have to go back a great many years to find him, but they may have." Vasili paused again, his finger on the base of the spine of the naked body beneath him. He looked up at the strong yet curiously gentle face of the woman he had known so well.
"What were the words again? 'We have all we want from you."' "Yes. At which point he grabbed the telephone away from my hand." "He was convinced you were going to call headquarters?" "I was convincing. Had he told me to go ahead, I might have changed tactics, I don't know. Remember, I knew he was English. I didn't think he would let me call. But he did not deny being KGB." "And later, when you put on the dress. He didn't object?" "On the contrary. It convinced him you were actually coming here, that I was cooperating." "What were his words, then? Ile precise words. You said he smiled and said something about women being all alike; you didn't recall what else." "It was trivial." "Nothing is. Try to remember. Something about 'whiling away the hours,' thafs what you mentioned." "Yes. The language was ours but the phrase was very English, I remember that.