‘By name? Did Vladimir ever say if people from the American embassy asked for him by name?’
Again there was a delay, while Natalia apparently considered the question. Abruptly she said: ‘No, never.’ There was a hesitation, to gain courage. ‘What is this all about? Please tell me. What did Vladimir do wrong at the American embassy?’
‘Nothing,’ said Cowley, urgently. ‘There’s not going to be any trouble. You’ve been very helpful.’
Back in the car on Leninskii Prospekt, Danilov said: ‘It would be a mistake to attach absolute importance to what she said; it
could
still be a coincidence.’
‘Or it could be something else,’ countered the American.
Danilov realized for the first time that somehow Pavin had got the windscreen wipers replaced on the car. There was another far more important function he had for Pavin: one he didn’t intend discussing with Cowley. The American should have thought of it himself, but he hadn’t. Or perhaps it was something else he was keeping to himself.
Senator Walter Burden didn’t like irritation, so he always travelled with an organizing entourage. Beth Humphries was an extremely efficient secretary. She was also a strikingly attractive, blue-eyed blonde who very obviously needed a 36 D-cup: Burden took a middle-aged man’s pleasure in the close presence of beautiful women and the misconception of other men that he slept with them all, which he didn’t and couldn’t since the precautionary prostate operation for a malignancy that had proven benign. John Prescott, one year out of Harvard, was eager to put the political degree to practical use and believed the patronage inherent as Burden’s personal assistant to be invaluable; his true ambition was actively to run for office in his native New Hampshire, but realistically he recognized the uncertainty of elected office against the better and longer-term career prospects as a Capitol Hill lobbyist. At the moment, he didn’t know which way to jump.
Charles Easterhaus had been baptized Carlos and was included in the circus because Burden liked to convey to the influential Hispanic electorate in his constituency that he did not hold the racial prejudices that he actually did. Easterhaus’s function was difficult to define. The job description was also that of personal assistant, but his graduation had been from the streets of New York’s Little Italy, although no evidence of the background remained, either in his appearance, behaviour or accent. He was more basically a fixer than the Harvard graduate and usually better at it. Easterhaus got favoured tables at restaurants with month-long waiting lists, theatre tickets for blocked-out shows and presidential suites in hotels which had months before confirmed the reservations to other guests. He was a dark-haired, archetypal Latin who possessed an enviable address book to supplement necessary public events with girls who looked every bit as good as Beth Humphries and sometimes better. Some were professionals. Burden paid and Easterhaus slept with them: he was a man who enjoyed complete job satisfaction.
James McBride had been with Burden since his earliest days as a Congressman, which made him invaluable as a media organizer. McBride knew every favour received or bestowed, every deal struck or broken, every trick practised and played and every shortcut Burden had ever taken to become the power he now was in Washington, DC. It meant McBride was always ahead when some ambitious journalist tried to rake the muck, which they sometimes did. He had a book, like Easterhaus, but McBride’s tome recorded the indelicate embarrassment of those who tried to expose the embarrassments of the Senator. He called it his shield, which it was. He was the only man who, late at night when they were drinking, could openly call Burden an asshole to his face and get away with it because no matter how drunk Burden became, he knew McBride could never be replaced. Deep down Burden knew it was true, anyway.
Despite the individual expertise and the team’s cohesive efficiency, their Moscow arrival was disorientating. Each and all of them were accustomed to special receptions and it didn’t happen at Sheremet’yevo airport. They had to stand in the immigration line like everybody else and wait interminably in the Customs reclaim for their baggage. Ralph Baxter did succeed in getting to them there, but there were no porters, so they had to pay a foreign currency dollar each for a cart to wheel their own cases into the crowded, jostling concourse.
Easterhaus was left to guard the carts while the rest, led by the Senator, ascended to the VIP lounge on the first floor for the Burden-convened press conference.
It was exclusively for Western correspondents and television reporters and cameramen. Burden agreed to the print media conference first and television interviews afterwards. He had come personally to Moscow to find out what had happened to his niece; until now he felt he had been denied information by American officials and looked for more cooperation in Russia. He was determined the killer would be brought to justice. Meetings were scheduled with a number of Russian officials and ministries. Towards the end of every interview, he introduced his favourite speculation, wondered if it were coincidence that the victim had been his niece. The reference was sufficiently intriguing to guarantee headlines across America. Burden was extremely pleased with the coverage.
Chapter Nineteen
Danilov hadn’t expected the Security Service’s Colonel to agree to an immediate meeting, but Gugin had insisted he was free, so Danilov had obviously accepted. The monolithic, yellow-washed headquarters of the disgraced and much reduced State Security Service formed before him as Danilov drove up the hill from the direction of the Kremlin. Of all the changes to Moscow squares and streets and boulevards, supposedly to erase the discredited legacies of communism, Danilov found the renaming of Dzerzhinsky Square the most illogical. Although Lubyanka was the pre-revolutionary original, Danilov considered the word far more emotive and reminiscent of past horror: Lubyanka, the prison which the KGB had grown to absorb, was infamous as one of the centres of Stalin’s slaughter, the title indelible in every Russian’s mind.
He had to stop, for the circulating traffic flow, so he had a complete view of the building occupying one entire side of the square. Above ground, in his obvious view, the building at its highest reached eight storeys. But Danilov knew that below ground it was more than twice that size, a vast underground city of separate buildings and offices and streets and command and communication centres, complete with its own underground train system constructed deeper than the publicly known metro, linked directly to the Kremlin. So what he could see was the tip of the iceberg. Which was fittingly accurate. Apart from the reduction in control upon the ordinary people of the country the new security organisation hadn’t changed dramatically, despite the supposed divisional and staff purges. It had adapted
to
the changes, like a chameleon adjusting quickly to changing surroundings, colouring itself to conform. For once, Danilov found himself hoping that even the internal surveillance had not diminished too profoundly.
Danilov edged into the traffic swirl and drove to the side of the building, as Gugin had directed. Danilov’s name was listed at the checkpoint. An escort got into the car to guide him to a parking area and then took him through two separate admission procedures at which his credentials were checked and listed.
Gugin was sitting, waiting, when Danilov was finally ushered into his office, a small man behind a large desk. He was in uniform, the left of which was marked with more decoration ribbons than Danilov would have expected. The man was too young for any of the obvious wars, and Danilov wondered how the man had achieved the decorations. Perhaps in other wars, the sort that no one knew about. Despite the honours, Gugin’s office was at the rear of the building, overlooking the original prison exercise yard. Not just the exercise yard, Danilov remembered. The conveyor belt executions had been carried out against those grey walls. Would the concrete slabs and blocks still be pitted by the bullets? It would probably be the sort of obscene monument the KGB would want, for their never
really
interrupted posterity: pockmarked macho. What Gugin’s room lacked in outlook it compensated for in fitments. Danilov realized the huge desk comprised part of a furniture set, all heavy and ornately carved, a towering, close-fronted bureau, a ceiling-to-floor bookcase and a side-desk with a roll-top covering, which was pulled down. If it was opened, would Stalin emerge, moustached and glowering, wanting to stand at the window for the bullet-spattered display down in the courtyard?
‘So?’ demanded Gugin and smiled, because this meeting was precisely what he had wanted. He was sure the benefits would be considerable: the stupid policeman wouldn’t realize the manipulation.
Danilov realized he should have been surprised by the quickness of the appointment. Gugin doubtless saw it as confirmation of the old KGB belief in Militia inefficiency, a cap-in-hand visit for help that could be laughed over later in some services’ club. Danilov smiled back, hoping the grimace didn’t appear as false as it was. ‘Our investigation is progressing extremely well,’ he lied.
Gugin’s smile remained, a disbelieving expression. ‘No problem with the American?’
Eager to show the security service’s awareness of everything, gauged Danilov. His mind ran on, worryingly. He’d known from the beginning that the investigation had the self-protective interest of the former KGB. So how closely were they monitoring him, personally? There wasn’t any real reason for him to be concerned at their discovering his affair with Larissa, but she was the wife of another Militia officer. It would give them an advantage over him if ever they needed one. ‘None that has arisen so far. Everything seems to be going quite well.’
‘Sure you can trust him?’
Was that an instinctive question? Or did Gugin have some private information? ‘Can he trust me?’ That was wrong, too: pretentious.
‘You tell me,’ demanded Gugin, enjoying himself. ‘I have no idea what’s going on.’ The policeman
was
stupid: it was going to be easy.
‘When it’s convenient.’ Pretentious again. But quite truthful.
‘I would have thought trust was necessary,’ said Gugin.
Was
there a point in this discussion? ‘Nothing has occurred so far to make me mistrust,’ Danilov lied. It was why he was here at security headquarters.
‘There is going to be an arrest, soon?’ It was more of a smirk than a smile.
‘As soon as possible,’ said Danilov, regretting the emptiness.
Gugin picked up on it at once. ‘I’m sorry it’s not going better.’
There was nothing to be gained by creating an argument. ‘I appreciated the assistance you gave, with the photographs. And the telephone log.’
‘Now there is something else?’
‘Not exactly something else,’ said Danilov. ‘Something to complete it.’
It was like operating puppet strings, thought Gugin. ‘Complete what?’
‘The telephone lists,’ said Danilov. ‘More than telephone numbers were recorded, weren’t they?’
‘You only asked for numbers.’ He had to play for a while, to avoid the Militia Colonel guessing the manoeuvre which had already brought congratulations from the chairman himself.
‘I am extending that request,’ persisted Danilov. Continuing formally, in the way of Russian bureaucracy, he added: ‘I repeat the same understanding as before – I will have it reinforced by the Director if you wish – that at no time will there be any disclosure of the source of the information.’
‘There wouldn’t have to be a disclosure. The source would be obvious to a child of five!’
‘I need to know.’ Danilov supposed that first by the telephone call and then by agreeing so quickly to come to see the man he had shown his desperation. Contradicting the earlier assurance, he admitted: ‘I think we are being lied to, by the American.’
‘
We?
’ queried Gugin.
‘
I
am being lied to,’ Danilov further conceded. ‘I need the information to compete! To win!’
For several moments the small, bubble-fat man regarded Danilov over the expanse of table, like a mole emerging from the far side of a field to find the cause of heavy footsteps overhead. ‘If I continue to refuse, would you try through your Director? Go as high as you could?’
Danilov was unsure what answer the man wanted, guessing the wrong reply would terminate the negotiation. ‘Yes. And the argument would be that I didn’t want the American FBI coming to Moscow and resolving right under our noses a murder inquiry that I could have probably solved ahead of them, had necessary information not been withheld from me.’
There was a further silence, of continued examination across the desk. Eventually Gugin smiled again, a vaguely admiring expression this time. ‘That’s good!’ he congratulated. ‘That really is very, very good.’ It was almost time for the apparent concession.
‘Wouldn’t you say that in my place?’ asked Danilov, anxious not to alienate the man a millimetre more than he believed necessary.
‘That’s exactly what I’d say,’ Gugin admitted.
‘So?’ Danilov was echoing the greeting he had received when he first arrived. They’d virtually turned the complete circle.
‘That’s all you get,’ Gugin insisted.
‘You mean there’s more?’ snatched Danilov. The balance had shifted, putting him in control now.
‘No more,’ the officer repeated, worried he had been careless. He didn’t want it all to go at once: the information had to drip slowly, like water eroding a rock.