was being persuasive. Too persuasive. It was not in char- acter between professionals. "The fact that you came in voluntarily will be in your favor. Heaven knows, you'll have our support. We'll ascribe your flight to a temporary aberration, a highly emotional state. After all, Scofield killed your brother." "I killed his wife." "A wife is not blood. These things are understandable. Do the right thing.
Come in, Taleniekov." The excessive persuasion was now illogical. One did not voluntarily turn himself in until the evidence of exoneration was more concrete. Not with an order for summary execution on one's. head. Perhaps, after all, the former friendship could n6t stand the strain. "You'll protect me?" he asked the pradavyet.
"Of course." A lie. No such protection could be promised. Something was wrong.
Across the street, the man wearing tinted glasses approached the coffee shop. He slowed his pace, then stopped and went up to the window as if studying a menu affixed to the glass. He lit a cigarette. From inside, barely seen in the sunlight, there was a flicker of a match. The Frenchman went inside. Prague and Marseilles had made contact.
"Thank you for your advice," said Vasili into the phone. "I'll think it over and call you back." "It would be best if you didn't delay," answered the diplomat, urgency replacing sympathetic persuasion. "Your situation would not be improved by any involvement with Scofield. You should not be seen down there." Seen down there? Taleniekov reacted to the words as though a gun had been fired in front of his face. In his old friend's knowledge was the betrayall Seen down where? His colleague from Riga knew! The hotel on Nebraska Avenue. Scofield had not exposed the Bern depot-unwittingly or otherwise.
KGB had! Soviet intelligence was a participant in Beowulf Agate's execution. Why?
The Matarese? There was no time to think, only acL... The hotel! Scofield was not sitting alone by a phone in some out-of-the-way place, waiting to hear from intermediaries. He was in the hotel. No one would have to leave the premises to report to Beowulf Agate, no bird could be followed to the target. The target had executed a brilliant maneuver: he was in the direct range of fire, but unseen, observing but unobservable.
"You really must listen to me, Vasili." The pradavyet's words came faster now; he obviously sensed indecision. If his former colleague from Riga had to be killed, it could be done any number of ways within the embassy. That was infinitely preferable to a comrade's corpse being found in an American hotel, somehow tied to the murder of an American intelligence officer by foreign agents. Which meant the KGB had revealed the location of the depot to the Americans, but had not known the precise schedule of the execution at the time.
They knew it now. Someone in the State Department had told them, the message clear. His countrymen had to stay away from the hotel-as did the Americans. None could be involved. Vasili had to buy minutes, for minutes might be all he had left. Diversion.
"I'm listening." Taleniekov's voice was choked with sincerity, an exhausted man coming to his senses. "You're right. I've nothing to gain now, only everything to lose. I put myself in your hands. If I can find a taxi in this insane traffic, I'll be at the embassy in thirty minutes. Watch for me. I need you." Vasili broke the connection, and inserted another coin. He dialed the hotel's number; no second could be wasted.
"He's here?" said the old woman incredulously, in response to Taleniekov's statemenL "My guess would be nearby. It would explain the timing, the phone calls, his knowing when someone was in the suite. He could bear sounds through the walls, open a door when he heard someone in the corridor. Are you still in your uniform?" "Yes. I'm too tired to take it off." "Check the surrounding rooms." "Good heavens, do you know what you're asking? What if he..." "I know what I'm paying; there's more if you do it. Do it! There's not a moment to be lostl I'll call you back in five minutes." "How will I know him?" "He won't let you into the room."
Bray sat shirtless between the open window and the door and let the cold air send shivers through his body. He had brought the temperature of the room down to fifty degrees, the chill was necessary to keep him awake.
A cold tired man was far more alert than a warm one.