Night Soldiers (33 page)

“You've had somebody watching the Matrimonials all this time?”

“Oh yes. Since the day after you left Spain, in fact. Don't be too flattered, though. We have many hands, and the busier they are kept, the less mischief they cause us.”

“Ilya, I must ask you. Are they getting close to me?”

He didn't answer for a time. “They are looking, I can promise you that. Looking hard. But I am not in the Paris residency, you see, and I don't know what they're doing here. For the purposes of SHOEMAKER I am permitted to travel. Now, at my
rezidentura—
Copenhagen at the moment, but I may be moved any day—you are safe enough. We have a very long list. Since the
Yezhovschina
purges we seem to leak defectors everywhere. Finding them takes a cursed amount of time.”

“And you? How safe are you?”

He shrugged. “Who can say, who can say. They've shot ninety percent of the army generals, eighty percent of the colonels.”

“Who will fight the war?”

“There won't be one. Stalin will keep us out of it, I can promise you that. We haven't the officers to fight a war. There are some who say that the doubt cast on the loyalty of the army—generals' plots and what have you—was in fact the work of German intelligence, Reinhard Heydrich and his so-called intellectual thugs. Quite good they are, quite, quite good. Meanwhile, on our side, the old guard is just about gone. Berzin, who ran things so well in Spain, was recalled ‘for discussions.' He went, thinking that all could be
explained
, and they killed him, of course. All the Latvians, in fact—Latsis, Peters, the whole crowd. The Chekist Unschlikht is dead. Orlov has defected and is said to be writing a book. A grand housecleaning has been undertaken. All the Poles, Hungarians, Germans. We're to be quite thoroughly Russian in future.”

“Will they purge Romanians?”

“Like me, you mean.”

“Yes.”

“One would suppose so, though here I am. Hard to say for how long. However, I do not intend to die. And that's where you come in, my friend. The time may come when I will need your help. I sleep a little better having a friend on the outside, someone I can trust, for the day when I have to scamper.”

“You saved my life in Spain. Anything you want …”

“Thank you. They realized you had been warned—Maltsaev and his pals—but they stuck that one on Lubin.”

“Did his family connection save him?”

“No. They died too. One is never quite sure which way it will go.”

Khristo mused for a time, then shook his head. “We should kill him, Ilya. Somebody should.”

“Stalin? The Great Father? Yes. Will you do it, Khristo? Die for the good of all mankind?”

“If I thought one could actually get at him, perhaps I would. By joining the Guards division or something of that sort.”

“A little late for you to join the Guards division.”

“He must be insane. A mad dog.”

“No, you are wrong about that. That's what Europe thinks—those who aren't in love with him. Here he might be mad, but in truth he is no more than that lovable old character, the wicked peasant. I'm sure you've known one or two. He hits his neighbor on the head, steals his gold, rapes his wife, and burns his house down. Who knows why. If he is reproached, he swears that a fiery angel forced him to do it.”

They strolled for a time, two acquaintances in mourning, through the maze of pathways lined tightly with the tombs of aristocrats and artists, some of which had received Sunday flowers.

“What of the others?” Khristo asked.

“Well, Kulic is alive.”

“Was he arrested?”

“No. He was blown up by a mortar shell in the Guadarrama, leading an attack of partisans. The Germans had him for a time, but we found a way to get him out. A Yugoslavian fascist group, the Ustachi, asked to collect him for interrogation. They are Croatian and Kulic is Serbian and the Germans appreciate such differences, so they released him and we got him back.”

“How?”

“It's our group—this particular band of Ustachi. You know this business, Khristo. One needs a little of everything.”

“He must be well regarded.”

“Somebody thinks he might be of use. Otherwise …”

“And Voluta?”

Ilya paused for a moment. “Probably I shouldn't tell you.”

“Well, don't if you can't.”

“No, it doesn't matter. You of course recall that girl, Marike, at Arbat Street. You knew her somewhat, I believe.”

“Yes.”

“One day she disappeared. Well, it seems that somebody had hidden a list of the names of the Brotherhood Front of 1934 in a most ingenious place—scratched on rubber, washed down the sink, but the rubber was just heavy enough to stay caught in the trap. Marike's bad luck was that some fool tried to get rid of a condom in the sink—no doubt the throne was occupied and he was in a hurry—and
that
stopped it up but good. Next, an unfortunate miracle: a plumber actually appeared one day and unplugged the drain. He knew what he had, went and barked his head off in the right places and down came the counterintelligence types. They pinned the thing on Marike, I don't know why, and away she went. Ozunov as well, of course. Later, much later, they found out some other way that it had been Voluta all along. Now, the best part. He was a priest! Part of a Polish nationalist movement called NOV, made up of priests and army officers. Not fascists—though Moscow would certainly call them that. Patriots, I think, in a conspiracy to preserve Poland as a national entity. They are very much on our Watch List, because they are very dedicated and have enjoyed some significant success. Witness Voluta: he penetrated the Arbat Street training facility, noted every personality and physical description in the place and then, when he was assigned to the
rezidentura
in Antwerp, simply got off the train and has not been seen since. The problem with this NOV is that it spreads among the priests—I mean outside Poland, among other nationalities—and there is reason to believe that the army officers have made similar connections. This is not exactly the Polish government, you understand, but a conspiracy that hides in its shadow. Thus our assets in Warsaw can do nothing about it. Our friend Voluta is quite a famous priest in Moscow.”

“My God,” Khristo said, truly amazed that he'd been deceived along with everybody else. “I never thought …”

“He was very much in himself, you'll remember.”

“Yes. And always helpful, willing to do more than his share.”

“Priestly, eh? And we suspect that this NOV shares information with Poland's dearest ally—British intelligence. Heaven only knows where it might go from there. I expect we are all quite famous by now.”

“Where do you think he is?”

Ilya smiled and spread his hands to include the entire world. They walked for a time, past the tomb of the Rothschilds, the graves of Daumier and Corot and Proust.

“Do you know the Mur des Fédérés?” Ilya asked, standing by the cemetery wall.

“No.”

“The last of the Paris Communards died here, in 1871. They fought all night among the gravestones, then surrendered at dawn. The soldiers put them against this wall, shot them, and buried them in a common grave.”

“Are you a communist, Ilya? In your heart?”

“Oh yes. Aren't you?”

“No. I just want to live my life, to be left alone.”

There was a moment's silence, then Ilya said, “Now, a matter of some delicacy.” They turned and began to walk again, their steps audible on the gravel path.

“What is that?”

“This business of the assassination of our courier.”

“On May Day?”

“Yes.”

“What about it?”

“The
rezidentura
here is frantic—they are under the gun, believe me, Moscow is entirely outraged. They've sent in thugs from everywhere, specialists, and activated every net in Paris. So far, no fish.”

“Perhaps that was why it was done. To see who showed up, to learn from the activity.”

Ilya looked at him sharply. “The old Khristo,” he said. When there was no response, he went on. “Anyhow, they really
want to know
. What's come in to date is the usual plateful of crumbs—White Russians, phony princes, Cossack doormen, a Mills grenade with Stalin's name painted on it—but Yezhov's not buying any of that.”

“And so?”

“If you should happen to hear something …”

“Then what?”

“I believe you mentioned being left alone to live your life?”

“Yes.”

“That's what.”

Khristo spoke carefully: “I asked you earlier if they were getting close to me. Is this your answer?”

Ilya shook his head violently, like a wet dog. “No. Do not misunderstand me. I said they were looking for you. I don't know they are, I assume it. But you had better assume it as well. A favor might turn the pressure off, though nobody can guarantee it—not me, not anybody. On the other hand, what have you got to lose?”

They talked for an hour after that, reminisced: Arbat Street, Belov, Spain, Yaschyeritsa, Sascha. Then they parted. Khristo returned to the room. Aleksandra wasn't there. It was Sunday—she'd mentioned something about a picnic in the park. But he had talked to Ilya longer than he'd intended, perhaps she had given up on him and gone to the
cinéma
. That was probably what she'd done, he decided.

He waited for her, smoking Gitanes, watching the square of sky in the window turn slowly from blue to dark blue, from hazy lavender at sunset to the color of dusk, and then to night. At first, he expected her to return, and waited. Later, for a time, he hoped for it. The hour for him to go to work passed unnoticed. He paced the room, moving from the battered armoire that served as their closet to the open window. He would pause there and look out, sometimes seeing, sometimes not. The shops were closed, their metal shutters pulled down. A few people hurried along the sidewalk, one or two cars went by. Sunday night, and everyone was locked up in their apartments, hiding from whatever it was they hid from on a Sunday night. He could smell potatoes frying and the damp scents of the Paris street. It was so quiet that sounds of clinking plates and bits of conversation—once a laugh—floated up to him. Then he would turn away from the window, move to the foot of the bed and back across to the armoire. At one point he opened it, found all her clothing in place, including the white Marlene Dietrich trenchcoat—a fashion necessity that spring in the city—her pride and joy. But it had been warmish in the afternoon, she could have worn only a sweater. In the drawer of the night table she kept a box of small things she believed to be valuable. Bits and pieces. A silver button, an American coin, a cameo of Empress Josephine from a souvenir shop. Her perfume was heavy on the treasures, as though she had once kept the bottle among them. On one of his trips past the small mirror, he discovered a red, angry mark on the skin beside his eye, realized it hurt, realized he had put it there himself. He looked at his hands, knew for a certainty that if he had a gun he would kill himself. She was lost, he knew; he had lost her, he would not see her again. He lay down on the bed, on his side, and drew his knees up to his chest and pressed his fingers hard against the sides of his head to stop the pain behind his eyes, but that didn't work.

Later, he woke up with a gasp, dizzy and lost, and felt the weight of sorrow return to him. Discovered the side of his face was wet. He forced himself off the bed and started searching the room, but he missed it on the first search, found nothing out of the ordinary. A ten-franc note hidden in a shoe, that was all. At 1:30 in the morning he opened the door and listened for a long time at Dodin's room down the hall, heard only silence. He kicked the door open, went over the room slowly and carefully, as he'd been taught, but there was nothing there at all, only dustballs beneath the bed. Nothing in the drawers. Nothing in the armoire. Nothing taped anywhere out of sight. Nothing. He tried to close the door, but the lock mechanism wouldn't work anymore where he'd sprung it, so he simply left it open. He checked the light fixture in the hall, took his money out, and put it in his pocket. That was all he could do.

He went back to his room and watched the night as the hours passed by. Sometimes he swore revenge, quietly, under his breath, a stupefying and obscene anger that meant nothing. At dawn, moving mechanically, he began putting his own things into a pillowcase. When everything he wanted was there and he was ready to go—though he didn't know where—he forced himself to search the room once again. He willed his mind clear and did the job as he knew it should be done: an inch at a time, starting in a corner and expanding outward and upward in imaginary lines of radiation. He got down on his knees, the lamp by his side wherever the cord would reach an outlet.

He found it an hour later. There was old wainscoting by the door, poor-quality wood with the varnish flaking off, and as he moved the lamp the shift of angle in the light revealed the marks. He moved his fingers across the wood, confirming what he saw. She had, after all, left him a message. He sat down heavily and cried into his hands for a long time. He didn't want anyone to hear him. Time and again he touched the wall, traced, with agonizing slowness, the faintly marked outlines of the four scratches her fingernails had made as she'd been taken through the door.

The guys out in Clichy absolutely loved it when Barbette came around. They'd run their
poules
off and set him up at one of the tables at Le Maroc or the Dutchman's place on Rue Truot that everybody called the
cul de cochon
and let him buy them drinks all night. He was the strangest thing they ever saw out there—where
people
didn't come unless they had to, and then always in daylight—because he had the money and he liked to spend it and he liked to spend it on them. He was tall for a Frenchman, and he stood straight up and looked at you with those little dark eyes that always seemed to catch the light and he had a big, false laugh. You could tell him you just stole your mother's teeth and he'd laugh. Even his name, Barbette, what did that mean? A nickname? The word meant “little beard” and he had one of those, a devil's beard, from side-burn tight along the jawline sweeping up to join the mustache, so closely pruned he must have nipped it with a scissors every night.