and you expect to find him?" "I thought that might be your reaction." "What other could I possibly have?" Kassel laughed again. "What is the name of this man?" "For your own good, I'd rather not tell you." "Then how can I help you?" "By telling me where you would look first if you were me." "In Russia." "I did. The Revolutionary archives. In Leningrad." "You found nothing?" "On the contrary. I found a detailed description of a mass family suicide so patently at odds with reality that it had to be false." "How was this suicide described? Not the particulars, just in general." "The family's estate was stormed by the mobs; they fought all day, but in the end used the remaining explosives and blew themselves up with the main house." "One family holding off a rioting mob of Bolsheviks for an entire day?
Hardly likely." "Precisely. Yet the account was as detailed as a von Clauswitz exercise, even to the climate and the brightness of the sky. Every inch of the vast estate was described, but outside of the name of the family itself, not one other identity was entered. There were no witnesses listed to confirm the event." The attorney frowned again. "Why did you just say that 'every inch of the vast estate was described'?" "It was." "But why?" "To lend credibility to the false account, I assume. A profusion of detail." "Too profuse, perhaps. Tell me, were the actions of this family on that day described in your usual enemiesof-the-people vitriol?" TaIeniekov thought back. "No, they weren't actually. They could almost be termed individual acts of courage." Then he remembered specifically. "They released their servants before they took their own lives... they re- leased them. That wasn't a normal thing." "And the inclusion of such a generous act in a revolutionary's account would not really be all that acceptable, would it?" "What are you driving at?" "That account may have been written by the man himself, or a literate member of the family and then passed on through corrupt channels to the archives." "Entirely possible, but I still don't understand your point." "T'he odds are long, I grant you, but bear with me. Over the years I've learned that when a client is asked to outline a deposition, he always shows himself in the best light; that's understandable. But he also invariably includes trivial particulars about things that mean a great deal to him. They slip out unconsciously: a lovely wife or a beautiful child, a profitable business or a... beautiful home. 'Every inch of the vast estate.' That was this family's passion, wasn't it? Land. Property." "Yes." Vasili recalled Mikovsky's descriptions of the Voroshin estates. How the patriarchs were absolute rulers over the land, even to holding their own courts of law.
"You could say they were excessively addicted to property.,, "Might they have brought -this addiction to Germany?" "T'hey might have. Why?" The attorney's eyes turned cold. "Before I answer that, I must ask the old conspirator a very serious question. Is this search a Soviet reprisal of some sort? You say you're unemployed, that you're not working at your former occupation, but what proof do I have?" Taleniekov breathed deeply. "I could say the word of a KGB strategist who altered an enemy's file twelve years ago, but I'll go farther than that.
If you have connections with Bonn intelligence and can inquire discreetly, ask them about me. Moscow has sentenced me to death." "Me coldness thawed in Kassel's eyes. "You wouldn't say such a thing if it weren't true. An attorney who deals every day with international business could check too easily. But you were a dedicated Communist." "I still am." "Then surely an enormous mistake has been made." "A manipulated mistake," said Vasili.
"So this is not a Moscow operation, not in the Soviet interestT' "No. It's in the interests of both sides, all sides, and that is all I'll say. Now, I've answered your serious question very seriously. Answer mine. What was your point regarding this family's preoccupation with the land?" The lawyer pursed his thick lips. "Tell me the name. I may be able to help you." "How?" "The Records of Property that are filed in the State House. There were rumors that several of the great estates in Rellinghausen and Stadtwald-those on the northern shores of Lake Baldeney~were bought by Russians decades ago." "They would not have bought in their own name, I'm certain of that." "Probably not. I said the