The Red Coffin (18 page)

When, at last, his breathing had returned to normal, Pekkala left the keys in the glove compartment, got out of the car and walked across the street to Kirov’s building.

It had been freshly painted in a cheerful shade of orange. Large windows, trimmed in white, looked down the tree-lined avenue.

Pekkala knocked on the door to Kirov’s apartment, then took two steps back and waited.

After a minute, the door opened a crack and Kirov peered from inside. His eyes were squinty and his hair stuck up in tufts. Behind him, on the walls, were dozens of awards and certificates from various Communist Youth Organisations. Kirov had been collecting these certificates of merit since he was five years old, when he had won a prize for a week of community service in the Young Pioneers. After this, he had gone on to win awards for best orienteering, best science experiment, best tent-pitching. Each certificate bore a hammer and sickle, nestled between two sheaves of wheat. Some of the certificates had been ornately hand-lettered. Others were no more than scrawls. But all of them had been framed and they hung from every vertical surface in his apartment. ‘What are you doing here?’ asked Kirov.

‘Good morning to you, too,’ replied Pekkala. ‘Get dressed. We have to go.’

‘Where?’

Pekkala held up the piece of paper Lysenkova had given him. ‘To talk to the scientists at the facility. Maybe they can decipher this. There may be a link between the equation and the man who escaped, but we won’t know until we understand what’s written here.’

‘Who is that?’ asked a woman’s voice from inside the apartment. ‘Is that Inspector Pekkala?’

Kirov sighed heavily. ‘Yes.’

‘So that’s why you didn’t come back!’ spluttered Pekkala. ‘Damn it, Kirov, I thought you’d been arrested!’

‘Arrested for what?’ asked Kirov.

‘Never mind that now!’

‘Aren’t you going to let him in?’ asked the woman.

Pekkala peered into the room. ‘Major Lysenkova?’

‘Good morning, Inspector.’ She was sitting at the kitchen table, wrapped in a blanket.

Pekkala gave Kirov a withering stare.

Lysenkova got up from the table and walked towards them, bare feet padding on the floor. As she approached, Pekkala realised she wasn’t wearing anything beneath the blanket. ‘Major Kirov told me the good news,’ she said.

‘Good news?’ asked Pekkala.

‘That you’ve allowed me to keep working on the case,’ she explained. ‘I’ve already got down to work.’

Pekkala mumbled something unintelligible.

‘I found some more information on the White Guild,’ said Lysenkova.

‘You did? What did you find out?’

‘That they’re gone.’

‘Gone?’ asked Pekkala.

‘Finished. They were closed down a few weeks ago. All their agents got reassigned.’

‘Do you think you might be able to find out where they are now?’

‘I can try,’ she said. ‘I’ll start on it as soon as I get back to NKVD headquarters.’

Ten minutes later, the Emka pulled up to the kerb. Kirov sat behind the wheel. His hair was wet and neatly combed.

Pekkala climbed in and slammed the door. ‘Kremlin,’ he said.

‘But I thought we were going to talk to those scientists out at the facility.’

‘There’s something I need to do first,’ replied Pekkala.

Kirov pulled out into the road. ‘I made us some lunch,’ he said, ‘in case we’re gone all day.’

Pekkala stared out the window. Sunlight flickered on his face.

‘I take it you disapprove, Inspector,’ said Kirov.

‘Of what?’

‘Of me. And Major Lysenkova.’

‘As long as the investigation is not obstructed, Kirov, it’s not for me to say one thing or another. After all, my own adventures in that field would not stand up to any test of sanity.’

‘But you do disapprove. I can tell.’

‘The only advice I have for you is to do what you can live with. The further you go beyond that point, the harder it is to return.’

‘And how far have you gone, Inspector?’

‘If I ever get back,’ replied Pekkala, ‘I will be sure to let you know.’

‘I can’t talk now, Pekkala,’ growled Stalin, as he stood up from his desk. ‘I’m on my way to the daily briefing. The Germans have moved into Czechoslovakia, just as I told you they would. It has begun, and we still don’t have the T-34.’

‘Comrade Stalin, what I need to ask you is also important.’

Stalin pressed his hand against a panel in the wall and the trap door clicked open. ‘Well, come on, then!’

‘In there?’ asked Pekkala, the dread of confinement twisting in his guts.

‘Yes! In here. Hurry up!’

He followed Stalin into the secret passageway, his stomach knotting as he ducked into the shadows.

When they were both inside, Stalin turned a metal lever in the wall and the door swung silently shut.

A line of weak electric bulbs lit the way, trailing into the darkness.

As soon as the trap door shut, Stalin set off through the tunnel.

Pekkala had to struggle to keep up, painfully stooped so as not to bang his head on wooden spacer beams which crossed the ceiling at regular intervals.

Doors appeared out of the gloom, each with its own opening-and-closing lever. The rooms to which they led were marked in yellow paint. It smelled dusty in the passageway. Now and then, he heard the murmur of voices on the other side of the wall.

By now, he was fighting against panic. The low ceiling seemed to be collapsing in on him. He had to remind himself to breathe. Each time they came to a door, he had to struggle against the urge to open it and escape from this rat tunnel.

They came to an intersection.

Pekkala looked down the other passageways, the pearl necklace of bulbs illuminating dingy tunnels leading deep into the heart of the Kremlin.

Stalin swung to his right and immediately began to climb a flight of stairs. He paused halfway up to catch his breath.

Pekkala almost ran into him.

‘Well, Pekkala,’ Stalin wheezed, ‘are you going to ask me this question of yours or are you just keeping me company?’

‘The White Guild is finished,’ said Pekkala.

‘That does not sound like a question.’

‘Is it true? Has the White Guild been shut down?’

Standing above him on the stairs, Stalin loomed over Pekkala. ‘The operation has been terminated.’

‘And its agents have been reassigned?’

‘Officially, yes.’

‘Officially? What do you mean?’

This time Stalin did not reply. He turned and continued up the stairs. Reaching the top, he set out along another passageway. The floor was lined with dark green carpet, the centre of which had been worn down to the ridging underneath.

‘Where are those agents?’ asked Pekkala.

‘Dead,’ replied Stalin.

‘What? All of them?’ The sound of water gurgling in pipes rushed past Pekkala’s ears.

‘Last month, over the course of a single night, the six agents were tracked down to their lodgings in various parts
of the city. It was a professional job. Each one was executed with a shot to the back of the head.’

‘Do you have any suspects?’

Stalin shook his head. ‘In his final report, one of those agents stated that he had been approached by some people wishing to join the Guild. One week later, the agents turned up dead. The names these people used turned out to be fake.’

‘Whoever these people were,’ said Pekkala, ‘they must have discovered that Special Operations controlled the White Guild. They found out who the Special Operations agents were and killed them.’

‘Correct.’

‘What I don’t understand, Comrade Stalin, is why you think the Guild might be involved in the Nagorski killing, when you have just told me you closed it down before he died.’

‘I did close down the Guild,’ said Stalin, ‘but I am afraid it has come back to life. The Guild was once a trap for luring in enemy agents, but these people, whoever they are, have now turned it against us. I think you’ll find they are the ones who killed Nagorski.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this, Comrade Stalin?’

Stalin threw the lever which lay flush against the wall. The door swung open.

Beyond lay a room with a huge map of the Soviet Union on the wall. The heavy red velvet curtains had been drawn. Pekkala had never seen this place before. Men in a variety of military uniforms sat around a table. At the head of the table was one empty seat. There had been a murmur of talk in the room, but as soon as the door opened, it fell silent. Now all
of the men were watching the space from which Stalin was about to emerge.

Before entering, Stalin turned to Pekkala. ‘I did not tell you,’ he said quietly, ‘because I hoped I might be wrong. That does not seem to be the case, and it’s why I am telling you now.’ Then he stepped into the room and, a moment later, the door closed softly behind him.

Pekkala found himself alone in the passageway, with no idea where he was.

He retraced his steps to the stairs, then went down to the intersection. Before he reached it, all the lights went out. He realised they must have been on a timer, but where the switch was for that timer, Pekkala had no idea. At first, it was so dark inside the corridor that he felt as if he might as well have been struck blind. But slowly, as his eyes grew used to the blackness, he realised he could make out thin grey bands of light seeping under the bottoms of the trap doors spaced out along the passageway.

He could not read the yellow writing on the doors, so, sliding along with his back to the wall, he picked the first door he came to. Groping about on the wall, he found the lever and pulled.

The trap door clicked open.

Pekkala heard the sound of heels upon a marble floor and knew instantly he had emerged on to one of the main corridors of the Palace of Congresses, which adjoined the Kremlin Palace where Stalin’s office was located. He stepped through the opening and almost collided with a woman wearing the mouse-grey skirt and black tunic of a Kremlin secretary. She was carrying a bundle of papers, but when she saw Pekkala
appear like a ghost out of the wall, she screamed and the papers went straight up into the air.

‘Well, I should be going,’ said Pekkala, as the documents fluttered down around them. He smiled and nodded goodbye, then walked quickly away down the corridor.

‘You forgot your gun again, didn’t you?’ asked Pekkala, as they drove towards the Nagorski facility.

‘No, I didn’t forget,’ replied Kirov. ‘I left it behind on purpose. We’re only going to talk to those scientists. They won’t give us any trouble.’

‘You should always bring your gun with you!’ shouted Pekkala. ‘Pull over here!’

Obediently, Kirov brought the car to a halt. Then he turned in his seat to face Pekkala. ‘What’s up, Inspector?’

‘Where is that lunch you made us?’

‘In the boot. Why?’

‘Follow me,’ said Pekkala, as he got out of the car. From the boot, Pekkala removed the canvas satchel containing two sandwiches and some apples. Then he set off into a field beside the road, pausing to snap off a dead branch, about the size of a walking stick, from a tree beside the road.

‘Where are you going with our food?’

‘Stay there,’ Pekkala called back. After he had gone a short way into the field, he stopped, jammed the branch into the ground, then removed an apple from the lunch bag and skewered it on to the end of the branch.

‘We were going to eat that!’ shouted Kirov.

Pekkala ignored him. He returned to where Kirov was standing, drew his Webley from its holster and handed it,
butt first, to Kirov. He turned and pointed towards the apple. ‘What we will be doing …’ he began, then he flinched as the gun went off in Kirov’s hand. ‘For goodness’ sake, Kirov! You must be careful. Take time to aim properly. There are many steps involved. Breathing. Stance. The way you grip the gun. It’s going to take some time.’

‘Yes, Inspector,’ replied Kirov, meekly.

‘Now,’ said Pekkala, returning his attention to the apple. ‘What? Where’s it gone? Oh, damn! It’s fallen off.’ He strode back towards the stake, but had only gone a few paces when he noticed shreds of apple peel scattered across the ground. The apple appeared to have exploded, and it was a few more seconds before Pekkala finally got it into his head that Kirov had hit the apple with his first shot. He spun around and stared at Kirov.

‘Sorry,’ said Kirov. ‘Did you have something else in mind?’

‘Well,’ growled Pekkala, ‘that was a good start. But you mustn’t get your hopes up. What we want is to be able to hit the target not just once, but every time. Or almost every time.’ He fished another apple from the bag and stuck it on the end of the stick.

‘What do you expect us to eat?’ asked Kirov.

‘Now don’t go blasting away until I get back there,’ ordered Pekkala as he strode towards Kirov. ‘It is important to make a firm platform with your feet, and to grip the gun tightly but not too tightly. Now, the Webley is a well-balanced weapon, but it’s got a hard kick, much greater than the Tokarev.’

Casually, Kirov raised the Webley and fired.

‘Damn it, Kirov!’ raged Pekkala. ‘You’ve got to wait until you’re ready!’

‘I was ready,’ replied Kirov.

Pekkala squinted at the stake. All that remained of the second apple was a cloud of white juice, diffusing in the air. Pekkala’s mouth twitched. ‘Stay there!’ he said and went back into the field. This time he pulled up the branch, walked several paces further back and stuck it into the ground. Then he took a sandwich wrapped in brown wax paper from the bag and jammed it on to the stick.

‘I’m not shooting my sandwich!’ shouted Kirov.

Pekkala wheeled about. ‘You won’t? Or you
can’t
?’

‘If I hit that,’ said Kirov, ‘will you stop bothering me?’

‘I certainly will,’ agreed Pekkala.

‘And you will admit that I’m a good shot?’

‘Don’t push your luck, Comrade Kirov.’

Three minutes later, the Emka was back on the road.

Pekkala slumped in the back, arms folded across his chest, feeling the warmth of the gun’s cylinder radiating through his leather holster.