to think, meant nothing to her. He seemed a genuine and sincere individual thrust into something extraordinary. They'd so far spent five nights together and never once had he even intimated anything improper. That was unusual for her, since the men in the circus, and the few she associated with outside work, seemed fixated on sex.
"Akilina."
She looked at Lord.
"Where were you?" he asked.
She didn't want to tell him what she was really pondering, so she said, "Filip Vitenko seemed sincere."
"He did. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything."
Lord sat on the edge of the bed. He was holding the Faberge egg. "We must be missing something. A part of the secret has been lost. Clearly, we're at a dead end."
She knew what he really meant. "You are going to the consulate?"
He stared at her. "I don't think I have a choice. If somebody is trying to manipulate the commission, I have to help where I can."
"But there's nothing you know."
"I'm curious to see what I can learn from the Moscow representative. The information might be helpful to the man I work for. Don't forget, my original purpose was to ensure Stefan Baklanov's selection. I have to do my job."
"We'll go together, then."
"No. I may be taking a chance, but I'm not going to be foolish. I want you to take all this stuff and check into another hotel. Leave through the parking garage. Don't use the front or the lobby. This place could be watched. You never know, you might be followed, so take a roundabout path to the new hotel. Use the subway, a bus, maybe a taxi, too. Take a couple of hours to move around. I'll go to the consulate at two thirty. You call at three thirty. Use a pay phone somewhere. If I don't answer or they say I'm unavailable or I've already gone, go to ground. Stay low."
"I don't like this."
Lord stood and walked to the wall table where the velvet bag lay. He slid the egg inside. "I don't either, Akilina. But we have no choice. If there are direct Romanov heirs still alive, the Russian government needs to know that. We can't govern our lives with what Rasputin said decades ago."
"But we have no idea where to look."
"Publicity might bring any descendants of Alexie and Anastasia out into the open. DNA testing can easily weed the real thing from frauds."
"We were told to do this alone."
"We're the eagle and the raven, right? So we can set the rules."
"I don't think we can. I believe that we must find the tsar's heirs as thestarets predicted."
Lord leaned against the table. "The Russian people need the truth. Why is openness and honesty so foreign a concept to you folks? I think we should let your government and the U.S. State Department handle this. I'm going to tell the guy from Moscow everything."
She was uneasy about the course Lord was about to take. She preferred anonymity, the protection that a city of hundreds of thousands could provide. But maybe he was right. Perhaps the proper authorities should be alerted and something done before the Tsarist Commission selected Stefan Baklanov, or anyone else, as the next Tsar of All Russia.
"My job was to find anything that might affect Baklanov's claim. I think this definitely qualifies. The man I work for needs to know what we know. There's a lot at stake here, Akilina."
"Perhaps your career?"
Lord went silent for a moment. "Perhaps."
She wanted to ask more, but decided not to. It was obvious he'd made up his mind and he did not look the sort to change it. She would just have to trust that he knew what he was doing.
"How will you find me after you leave the consulate?" she asked.
He lifted one of a brochures stacked with several others. It was a colorful pamphlet with pictures of a zebra and tiger on the front.
"The zoo stays open till sevenPM. I'll meet you there. At the Lion House. Your English is good enough to get you there. If I'm not there by six, go to the police and tell them everything. Ask for a U.S. State Department representative to be called. The man I work for is Taylor Hayes. He's in Moscow with the commission. Have the American representatives get in touch with him. Explain it all. When you call at three thirty, unless I personally come on the phone and speak with you, don't believe a word you are being told. Assume the worst and