there, his wrinkled face still flushed from the cold outside, his eyes behind the thick lenses of his spectacles wide, questioning and afraid. He gestured for Vasili to come in quickly, shutting the door the instant Taleniekov was inside.
"Vasili Vasilovichl" The old man's voice was part whisper, part cry. He held out his arms, embracing his younger friend. "I never thought I'd see you again." He stepped back, his hands still on Taleniekov's overcoat, peering up at him, his wrinkled mouth tentatively forming words that did not emerge. The events of the past half-hour were more than he could accept. Halting sounds emerged, but no meaning.
"Don't upset yourself," said Vasili as reassuringly as he could.
"Everything's fine." "But why? Why this secrecy? This running from place to place? Can it be called for? Of all men in the Soviet... you. The years you were in Riga you never came to see me, but I heard from others how respected you were, how you were in charge of so many things." "It was better that we did not meet during those daysI told you that over the telephone." "I never understood." "They were merely precautions that seemed reasonable at the time." They had been more than reasonable, thought Taleniekov. He had learned that the scholar was drinking heavily, depressed over the death of his wife.
If the head of KGB-Riga had been seen with the old man, people might have looked for other things. And found them.
"No matter now," said Mikovsky. "It was a difficult period for me, as I'm sure you were told. There are times when some men should be left to themselves, even by old friends. But this is nowl What's happened to you?" "Ifs a long story; I'll tell you everything I can. I must, for I need your help." Taleniekov glanced beyond the scholar; there was a kettle of water on the coils of an electric plate on the right side of the desk.
Vasili could not be sure but he thought it was the same kettle, the same electric burner he remembered from so many years ago. "Your tea was always the best in Leningrad. Win you make some for usT' The better part of a half-hour passed as Taleniekov spoke, the old scholar sitting in his chair, listening in silence. When Vasili first mentioned the name, Prince Andrei Voroshin, he made no comment. But he did when his student was finished.
"The Voroshin estates were confiscated by the new revolutionary government. The family's wealth had been vastly reduced by the Romanovs and their industrial partners. Nicholas and his brother, Michael, loathed the Voroshins, claiming they were the thieves of all northern Russia and the sea routes. And, of course, the prince was marked by the Bolsheviks for execution. His only hope was Kerenski, who was too indecisive or corrupt to cut off the illustrious families so completely. That hope vanished with the collapse of the Winter Palace." "What happened to Voroshin?" "He was sentenced to death. I'm not positive, but I think his name was announced on the execution lists. Those who escaped were generally heard from during the succeeding years; I would have remembered had Voroshin been among them." "Why would you? There were hundreds here in Leningrad alone. Why the Voroshins?" "rhey were not easily forgotten for many reasons. It was not often that the tzars of Russia called their own kind thieves and pirates and sought to destroy them. The Voroshin family was notorious. The prince's father and grandfather dealt in the Chinese and African slave trades, from the Indian Ocean to the American South; they manipulated the Imperial banks, forcing merchant fleets and companies into bankruptcies, and absorbing them. It is said that when Nicholas secretly ordered Prince Andrei Voroshin from the palace court, he proclaimed: 'Should our Russia fall prey to maniacs, it will be because of men like you. You drive them to our throats.' That was a number of years before the revolution." "You gay 'secretly ordered' him. Why secretlyT' "It was not a time to expose dissent among the aristocrats. Their enemies would have used it to justify the cries of national crisis. The revolution was in foment decades before the event. Nicholas understood, he knew it was happening." "Did Voroshin have sonsT' "I don't know, but I would presume so--one way or the other. He had many mistresses." "What about the family itself?" "Again I have no specific knowledge, but I assume they perished. As you're aware, the tribunals