Snow Wolf (61 page)

"Where am I'? What's the meaning of
this outrage?" Lebel demanded.

"To answer your first question,
you're in the Lubyanka prison."

Lebel looked at Romulka in disbelief.

"As to the second, I think the
reason for your presence ought to be obvious."

Lebel shook his head. "I ... I don't
know what you're talking about."

"Really, Lebel, you're wasting my
time. I know all about your connection to Massey. So let's put the pretense
aside and get down to business, shall we? My time is limited." He stepped
closer. He held a riding crop in his left hand and he put the tip of it under
Lebel's chin.

"Your intention in Moscow was to
help a certain couple. I want to know how, when and where you were to meet them
and who your accomplices are."

"You're out of your mind."

"Something else disturbs me that's
turned up in my investigation. A man named Braun who used to work for us, who's
now unfortunately dead. You made certain inquiries about him from an employee
at the Soviet Embassy in Paris in return for a considerable sum of francs. Do
you deny it?"

Despite his best effort, Lebel went
noticeably pale. "I really don't know what you're talking about. This is
some sort of conspiracy-"

The riding crop flicked back and struck
Lebel a stinging blow on the face. He cried out and put his hand to his cheek.
He felt a gash and saw blood on his fingers.

"How dare you. You have no right to
treat me like this. I have important connections in Moscow. I demand to see the
French Ambassador."

Romulka's crop prodded his chest.
"Shut up, you filthy little Jew, and listen to me. You can demand all you
like but I want answers and I want them quick. Talk, and I have you back in
Paris on a plane before you can say goodbye. Refuse, and I'll grind you to dust.
Understand? Now, are you going to talk?"

"I told you ... I don't know what
you're talking about .. You're making a dreadful mistake."

"Very well, play it your way."
Romulka turned and snapped his fingers. "In here."

Two brutal-faced men in black KGB
uniforms came through the door and crowded into the cell. They each grabbed
Lebel by the arms.

Roniulka said, "Take him down to the
cellars. A little Lubyanka hospitality ought to soften him up."

"I tell you, this is a
mistake!"

As Lebel protested, Romulka smashed a
fist hard into his face, and the men dragged him from the cell.

Lukin stood at his apartment window.

Across the river he saw the lights of the
late evening traffic moving across Kalinin Bridge, headlights probing the thin
icy fog that had descended on Moscow.

Nine P.m.

He had arrived home an hour ago, needing
to get away from headquarters and from the powerful grip of hopelessness he
felt crushing him.

And he needed to see Nadia.

She had made supper for them both, soup
and cold sausage and a half-liter of Georgian wine. The wine had lifted his
spirits just a little but now its effect had worn off and he felt wretched
again.

To make matters worse he had hardly
spoken to Nadia during the meal.

He saw her reflection in the window as
she cleared away the supper plates. She looked over at him for a moment, then
went into the kitchen. When she came out again he was still standing at the
window.

"Yuri."

He looked around absentmindedly. She
stood watching him. She wore a cardigan over her shoulders, and as she brushed
a strand of hair from her face, she said, "You hardly touched your
food."

Lukin smiled weakly. "The soup was
good. I just wasn't hungry. I'm sorry, my love."

"Come. Sit with me."

She went to sit on the couch. Her brow
was creased in a worried frown and the corners of her mouth were turned down
with tension. He hadn't helped to improve her mood. His own was worse. He felt
desperate, totally lost.

Anna Khorev still hadn't talked. And now
there was nothing he could do to save her. That prospect troubled him.

The roadblocks and the searches to find
the Wolf had turned up nothing. If the man was still alive, Lukin felt certain
he was in Moscow. But where? And how did you search a city of five million
souls?

Nadia's voice brought him back. "Sit
beside me, Yuri."

Lukin went to sit next to her on the
couch. She touched his arm. "This is the first time I've seen you in four
days. But you're not really here in spirit, are you, Yuri? Is there anything
you need to talk about?"

Lukin reached for her hand and kissed it.
He never talked to his wife about his work. It was a rule he had made with
himself. But right now he had a powerful urge to tell her everything and
lighten the terrible weight that crushed him.

"I'm sorry, my love. It's not
something I can talk about."

"I understand. But you worry me,
Yuri."

"Why?"

"Because whatever's troubling you is
tearing you apart. I've never seen you like this before. Distracted. Lost.
Dejected. You're like a different man."

He let out a deep sigh of frustration and
stood. His body ached all over. He had gone almost three nights without sleep.
He looked down at his wife and shook his head. "Please. Not now,
Nadia."

"What time do you have to
leave?"

"Six A.M."

She stood. Her hand gently touched his
face, then fell away. "You're exhausted. You need to sleep. Let's go to
bed."

Lukin went into the bedroom, undressed
and got into bed.

When Nadia came in she removed her
clothes and lay down beside him. He felt the heat of her body as she snuggled
up close, her small, hard nipples brushing against his bare chest.

"The baby is kicking. Can you feel
it, Yuri?"

He laid his hand on his wife's belly and
felt the rise, and then suddenly a feeling like a sharp jolt. He put his head
on Nadia's stomach and kissed her bump.

For a long time, as he lay there
silently, Nadia's hand stroking his hair, he thought of Anna Khorev in the park
that afternoon. Her screams when they took her daughter away. The memory
playing over and over in his mind until it almost crushed him and he felt
smothered by a wave of remorse. He sighed, a long, troubled sigh.

Nadia whispered, "Tell me, Yuri. For
God's sake, tell me what's troubling you before it breaks your heart."

For several long moments he didn't speak,
then he said, "I can't. Please, don't ask me."

He heard the anguish in his own voice and
then her arms went around his neck and she held him close.

Something seemed to break then, like a
dam bursting inside his head. His whole body shook and his shoulders trembled.

In the darkness he heard himself crying,
for Anna Khorev, for Nadia, for his unborn child, for himself.

Stanski sat in the kitchen at the back of
the dacha. Irena sat facing him. She had returned from Moscow in the Skoda
minutes before, carrying a large shopping bag and looking exhausted.

Stanski said, "OK, tell me what you
got."

She searched in her pocket and placed a
slip of paper on the table. "The most important thing first. Have a look
at that."

He picked up the slip of paper, read what
was written on it, and smiled. "Did you have any problems?"

"There were over a dozen Yuri Lukins
listed in the city telephone directory in the post office in Gorky Street. I
called them all just to be certain, but when I got to the last I was pretty
sure I might have got the right one."

"How?"

"A woman answered. I asked for Major
Yuri Lukin. She said he wasn't there and asked who was calling. I said I was
with the army pensions office. Some of our files had got mislaid and I was
trying to trace a Major Yuri Lukin who had serve, with the Third Guards
Division of cavalry during the war. said it couldn't have been her husband; he
was certainly a man. but he hadn't served with the army. I apologized for calling
the wrong number and put down the phone. Only one other Major Yuri Lukin turned
up in all the calls I made. But he was attached to an artillery battalion in
Moscow."

"What happened then?"

"I went to the address given in the
phone book. It's an apartment off the Kutuzovsky Prospect. I spoke to one of
the neighbors' children. It must be the same Lukin. He drives a green German
BMW. And the long and the short of it is, he's marrie( with a wife and no kids.
The apartment is on the second floor.' "Good. Did you get to see his
wife?"

"Are you joking? I wasn't going to
knock on the door an@ let her see my face. That might've been tempting fate too
far."

She hesitated. "You're a very brave
man but something tells me this could get us both killed."

Stanski shook his head. "Relax,
Irena. You're not going to be in any real danger."

"What you're going to do is still
crazy and you're playing with fire. You said your friend in the Lubyanka knew
nothing. Why try and rescue her?"

"Because the plan's simple and with
a little luck it can work. Just open the bag, Irena. You got everything I
asked?"

She opened the bag and spread the
contents on the table. "it wasn't easy. But you can get anything you want
on the black market once you have the money."

"Let me have a look."

He examined everything carefully. There
was a heavy-duty army flashlight with two sets of batteries, several thin ropes
and an army penknife. There was a hypodermic syringe and two small glass
bottles, one of clear glass and the other opaque brown. He picked up both. They
each contained clear liquid. He examined them, then put them down again.

"You did better than I hoped. Had
you any trouble getting these?"

"The Adrenalin and the hypodermic
were easy enough."

She picked up the brown bottle of liquid.
"But this was difficult. Ether isn't easy to come by. It cost two hundred
rubles. I could live for a month on that."

Stanski smiled. "I'll remember you
in my will. Did anyone ask why you needed this stuff?"

She laughed. "Are you joking? The
gangsters in the Moscow black market would deal with the devil himself if he
had a wallet full of rubles. And they keep their mouths shut. A loose tongue
means a trip to the Gulag or the firing squad."

"What about the rest of the
things?"

"Viktor's old uniform I've taken in
so it should fit. The divisional markings are probably out of date but you'll
have to live with that. Considering what you're going to do, Viktor is probably
turning in his grave right now and it serves the bastard right."

"The man didn't deserve you. Thanks,
frena,"

"I must be mad to go along with
this."

He had explained everything to Irena that
afternoon because he needed her help. He had lost his chance to rescue Anna but
now he had a plan. A simple plan. When he told Irena she had turned pale.

"What'? Now I know you're really
insane." She had shaken her head resolutely. "I'm not getting
involved. If you want to risk your life, you go ahead. Me, I'm taking enough
risks as it is. I don't want more trouble."

"There won't be any trouble if you
do as I tell you." When she still refused, Stanski said, "The woman's
your passport out of here. You think Lebel is going to like it when you turn up
without her?"

Irena had hesitated then, doubt on her
face. It had taken Stanski another half an hour to convince her and to go over
the details of the plan, but even though she still didn't like it, in the end
she reluctantly agreed.

"On one condition," she
demanded. "If it fails, you forget about her and I leave Moscow
alone."

"Agreed."

The plan had come to him as he walked
back to the Boishoi. The image that kept coming into his mind was of Lukin
sitting there in the car, tapping the steering wheel impatiently with his
fingers. And then Stanski remembered the ring. A gold wedding ring on his hand.
Major Yuri Lukin was married. He had a weak point that could be exploited. If
the plan worked Anna would be free and Lukin dead.

if it worked.

He danced at his watch and looked back at
lrena.

"You'd better get some sleep. We've
got a busy day tomorrow." He saw the fear and strain on her face.
"Thanks for helping."

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think maybe you love this
woman."

Moscow. March 1st Lukin arrived at
Dzerzhinsky Square the next morning at six.

While he drank his first coffee of the
morning, he spread out the map of Moscow and laid several sheets of paper on
his desk. He looked at the map. If the Wolf was in Moscow, as he suspected,
people had to be helping him. Perhaps Romulka was right about the Frenchman,
Lebel. He had phoned Romulka's office the previous evening but so far he had
not returned the call. He would deal with that later. Right now there were
other avenues to explore.