Tapestry of Spies

“How extraordinary,” said Julian. “Do you mean there was actually danger involved in all that?”

“I thought once we passed the patrol we were behind the lines. But then I took us straight to their company headquarters. ‘Hey, where you go?’ a fellow asks me. ‘To Zargossa,’ I tell him. ‘Many pretty girls there.’ ‘You lucky you got leave,’ he says. ‘Fuck one for me.’ ‘You men, shut your mouths,’ yelled the major. God in heaven.”

“Good heavens,” said Julian. “I thought it was all arranged.”

“Come, the trucks are this way.”

Florry slid the revolver out of its holster. It was just a matter of time now. Surprisingly, what worried him most was explaining it all to Portela. He knew he could do the thing: raise the pistol, fire it into the back of the head. Once you have shot a man in the face, you can do most anything.

They reached a farmyard.

Florry saw two trucks.

What ?

“Well, old man, looks like we won’t be able to tell school stories on the way into Pamplona. Ta-ta.” And with that, Julian scurried off.

“It’s safer,” said Portela. “This way at least one man gets through, no?”

“Y-yes,” Florry heard himself saying, as he watched Julian climbing into the rear of the first truck. “Much safer.”

26 THE CLUB CHICAGO

It took Levitsky nearly a full day to get back to Barcelona, and nearly five hours into the evening ? it was the evening of the fifteenth ? until he found the man that he needed.

He began his search in the Barrio Chino, among the gaudy prostitutes and the cheap nightclubs that plied their trade regardless of the official revolutionary austerity imposed on the city. Levitsky was not interested in women, however, or in companionship of any sort. Bolodin would know he had just missed his quarry at Cabrillo del Mar; he would certainly deduce that the running man would seek safety in the one city he knew. Levitsky estimated that he had very little time left.

The wolf is near, he thought.

A girl came and sat at his table in the Club Chicago.

“Salud, comrade,” she said.

She asked him a question in Spanish.

“Ingles, por favor,” he said.

“Sure. Ingles. You wish a girl for the night? Me, maybe? Some good tricks I know.”

“No. But I have some money for you.”

“For me?”

“Yes. Listen carefully. Now, in the time of the revolution, you have been liberated. You work for yourself, correct?”

“I am a free worker.”

“But it was not always so. It was not so before July. Once you worked for a man. A certain man controlled you and all the ladies.”

“Before July.”

“Yes. Before July.”

“Suppose it were so?”

“Suppose this man had a name.”

“He was called only the Aegean.”

“The Aegean is gone?”

“Who knows?”

“This man would leave all he had built up? He would leave it?”

“Leave it or die. His kind was placed before walls in the early days of July and shot.”

“You say he is gone. Yet oddly a ship full of illegal cigarettes attempted to reach Barcelona in January. It was sunk by the Italians. Yet clearly the owner of the ship hoped to make a great deal of money from the contraband. It sounds exactly like the sort of thing this Aegean chap might be interested in. So perhaps this fellow isn’t as far gone as you maintain.”

“I know nothing of such things.”

“And the man who owned that ship. It is said in some quarters that he owned this place ? and other places in the barrio.”

“Who is asking these questions?”

“Perhaps this fifty-peseta note will convince of my friendship.”

She took the bill and stuffed it down between her breasts.

“So. A friend.”

“I have something to sell him. But it must be tonight. If it’s not tonight, it has no value. It could make him a very important man in times to come. And it could make the girl who helps him very important in times to come.”

“I’ll be back. I must talk to someone.”

He took out a five-hundred-peseta note, tore it in half, and gave her one piece.

“Show him this. And you get the other,” he said, “when I meet the Aegean comrade.”

Levitsky then sat alone for a time. Two other tarts came by; he shooed them away and ordered another peppermint schnapps.

At last the girl returned.

“Upstairs,” she said. “And you better not be carrying no gun or knife or they’ll cut you open.”

“Salud,” he said.

“My money, comrade.”

He tore the remaining half in half again, and gave it to her. “You get the last piece when I get there.”

They went in the back and up the steps into a decrepit hall leading to a small room.

“The man you seek is behind the door. My money.”

He gave it to her and she left quickly.

Levitsky opened the door and stepped into darkness. A light hit him in the eyes. He heard an automatic pistol cock.

“Search him and check his wallet,” the voice commanded.

A form approached, patted him down, and quickly relieved him of his money.

“You are a very rich man in these revolutionary times,” said the voice. “Don’t you know that capital is against the spirit of the people?”

“An astute man flourishes in any climate,” said Levitsky.

“So he does. It’s said some weeks ago a certain bold man came to possess a great many identification documents obtained illegally from particular foreign visitors to this country. Some of these documents were sold on the black market for a considerable sum. But you would know nothing of this?”

“How would a poor man such as I know anything of these criminal matters?”

“Perhaps the purchaser of the documents marked the bills with which he paid the anonymous seller. And perhaps the first piece of the bill you gave the girl had the mark.”

“What an amazing coincidence,” said Levitsky.

“It’s said the man removed these documents from the headquarters of the head Russian stooge policeman. I would like to meet this man.”

“He must be an amazing chap,” said Levitsky. “Imagine walking out of the main police station with twenty- eight confiscated passports under the names Krivitsky, Tchiterine, Ver Steeg, Malovna, Schramfelt, Steinberg,