Nobody could ever accuse Speshnev of missing a boat. He hid in the jungles for the rest of the day, and as he supposed, at twilight, when all was deserted, the old trawler Day's End ventured close to shore again, just in case. Its officer was just being thorough. Speshnev signaled him, and ventured out to the craft. There were no Americans about this time, and the voyage back, under motor, took two days, during which he and the young officer, Lieutenant Orlov of Soviet Naval Intelligence, had a great time, as Orlov had not heard his own language spoken in a year.
Upon his return to Havana and his little room behind a barber shop in the old part of the city, Speshnev showered and shaved, took the last of his cached funds and went to a casino. He ran $600 into $6,000, then went to two more casinos where, at each, he ran a thousand into four thousand. Then he checked into the Nacional, the biggest suite available, and slept and slept and slept. Then he made certain calls, monitoring certain situations, bought a new suit (white linen), a straw hat, and a very fine pair of British shoes. He smoked a cigar, had a fine lunch, and then went to see Pashin.
The man kept him waiting in the trade legation's outer office for quite some time, and then at last admitted him. Pashin didn't look up; he was busily writing some document with a fountain pen, clearly purchased from a nice store.
Speshnev sat down.
Pashin looked up.
'Did I tell you to sit?'
'No, but I decided to do so anyway. It's more disrespectful that way.'
'Do you know what I'm writing?'
'Yes, I suppose I do. You really should let me edit it. I can improve it. I can make it sing. Do you know that I have published two novels and in certain circles am considered a master?'
'What am I writing?'
'The report to Moscow Control, with copies to all fathers, uncles, cousins, brothers and hangabouts of the Pashin clan. About the feckless Speshnev and his multiple failures. How the heroic Pashin tried desperately to rein him in, to keep him headed in the right direction, but the old goat simply insisted on going his own way, and how his mission has collapsed into total failure. How he should be recalled immediately, immediately. Is that not right?'
'You make a joke of everything.'
'Actually, no, I make a joke of nothing, except young snots with party connections who get in my way and make my life difficult. Defeating the Americans was difficult enough; now I also have to defeat you, Pashin.'
'There are men outside waiting to escort you to the tanker Black Sea, currently awaiting your arrival. Does that improve your mood?'
'It has no relevance to my mood whatsoever.'
Pashin said, 'I'll just go straight to my favorite part: 'Entrusted with the political responsibility of guiding the subject, Comrade Speshnev instead guided him into a foolhardy and premature adventure, which resulted in catastrophic results for our cause, which has been set back many years, if not forever. Then entrusted with the responsibility of rescuing the subject from the mess that he himself had created, Comrade Speshnev instead guided him into capture, where he currently resides, utterly useless to us and quite possibly soon to be executed. In all his responsibilities has Comrade Speshnev failed, and all his enterprises have achieved humiliating failure.''
'Why do you bureaucrats like so many big words? You call the knucklehead a 'subject.' He is a foolish boy who will be much improved by his time in prison. Oh, and you fail to mention that I had nothing to do with the adventure in Moncada, as I had just saved his life from an adventure in Havana. And that had I not saved his life from his idiocy at Moncada, he would have been killed in the frenzy of death and torture. Through my efforts, he is alive and safe. In a year or so, we can get him out. This place is so insane, they may even pardon him at some future date. And he will remember who helped him. And he will know where his future lies.'
'Save it for your barracks-mates, Speshnev. You came, you failed, and now you must return. That is the law. Old romantics like you, coming into a modern operation like mine, with the support of other old dreamers. It sickened me, but I just let you destroy yourself as I knew you would.'
Speshnev said nothing, but reached into his suit pocket, extracted a photo, and pushed it across the desk.
'I must say,' he said, 'you do take a pretty picture. When your mouth is closed, you actually have quite a handsome face. I think you'll agree that it's a good photo and the old fellows at Control will find it so amusant.'
Pashin just stared at it, hard. A vein in his head twitched a little. He swallowed.
'That does look like an excellent choice of wines. A St. Emilion, eh? My, haven't you turned aristo in the west? Say, the American is a handsome chap, too. You two boys aren't, ha ha, a little too friendly, are you? The handsome ones so frequently are, I don't know why, it's very mysterious. Still, that may not hurt you in the service, as many of our senior members have peculiar tastes. But I wouldn't think you?'
'Silence!' bellowed Pashin. 'I will have none of this. Who do you think you are? What do you think you're doing? You were not authorized to?'
He ran out of words.
'Havana,' Speshnev explained, 'is quite the city of sin in the western imagination. Many American husbands come here to philander. Thus many American wives have need of a skilled corps of private detectives, able followers and discreet photographers. Fortunes change hands in that way every day, and so I just hired one with some of my casino winnings. You seemed not to like me so I thought I'd best protect myself. But I must say, you even surprised me in your rush to self-destruction.'
'You are a bastard,' said Pashin. 'A Jew bastard. You Jews, you are the origin of all our misfortunes, with your?'
'If they give you a choice-unlikely, but still one can never tell how these things change-take the 9mm over the 7.62 Tokarev. The nine is larger and is guaranteed to finish the job in one shot. I've seen it happen many times. We used them in the war and they never failed. The Tok, because it is so small and its velocity so high, often sails through, simply blowing out a few ounces of vital brain matter. You can't start speaking or stop shitting or drooling. Very annoying.'
'No one will believe this picture is authentic. You have no case. You have this stupid forged?'
'Oh, it's not forged. The private detective who took it is highly skilled. And our laboratory people will examine the negative and be able to tell that it's not forged.'
'It proves nothing.'
'No, but my good friend Lieutenant Orlov of the Naval Intelligence Service radio trawler Day's End has tape recordings of the American Coast Guard cutters O'Ryan and Philip Morgan receiving their instructions late on the afternoon of the 27th. The Americans are very sloppy about procedural matters. You should never trust them. They don't even bother with encipherment. It's on the tape and it goes like this: 'We have an intelligence contact from the American embassy in Havana on high authority from a Soviet source stating that the known revolutionary Castro will be off-loaded from the beach west of Siboney at approximately 1600 hours today. You are authorized to intercept, but advised not to come over the horizon until 1530 hours.' Imagine, talking in the open like that.'
Pashin stared at him, sweat prickling his hairline.
'They'll be able to put it together. It's not that difficult and even the people at Control aren't that stupid. You hated me, you were afraid I'd succeed, you betrayed me to the American. It all fits: the date, the timeline, the photograph, the recording. No, I'm afraid it's curtains for you, young man.'
'You are a monster, Speshnev.'
'Of course I am. Now throw away that report you were writing.'
Pashin paused just a second, then realized that in doing so he was simply prolonging his antagonist's pleasure. He ripped the report up, dispensed with the pieces in his wastebasket.
'Now I shall dictate your report. It will be much better than the one you were writing. It will reflect well upon the both of us, how we removed the boy from the killing frenzy after the attack but then how wise we were, when we saw the change in mood, to engineer his capture, the one sure guarantee of his survival. We both have a rosy future, comrade. And of course, you may keep the picture as a reminder of our time together, since I retain the negative. And as we go our separate ways, I'll know that I always have a friend and ally in the brilliant young Pashin.'
