AS OFTEN HAPPENED, BY THE TIME PEKKALA HAD FINISHED HIS TEA, Babayaga had already fallen asleep, chin resting on her chest and breathing heavily.
He left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. In the hallway, he took off his shoes and carried them, so as not to wake the others on his floor.
The next morning, when Pekkala walked into his office, Kirov was already there.
So was Major Lysenkova.
Kirov stood beside her, holding out his kumquat plant in its rust-colored earthenware pot. “You should try one!” he urged.
“No, really,” replied Lysenkova, “I would rather not.”
Neither of them had seen Pekkala come in.
“You may never see another,” persisted Kirov. Sunlight through the dusty window glinted off the waxy green leaves.
“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Lysenkova answered.
Pekkala shut the door more loudly than usual.
Kirov jumped. “Inspector! There you are!” He hugged the plant to his chest as if trying to take cover behind it.
“What can we do for you, Major Lysenkova?” asked Pekkala, taking off his coat and hanging it on the peg beside the door.
“I came here to ask for your help,” said Lysenkova. “As you might have heard, the Nagorski case has been reopened, and I am no longer in charge.”
“I did hear that,” said Pekkala.
“In fact, I have been told that you and Major Kirov will be running the investigation from now on.”
“We are?” asked Kirov, as he replaced the plant on the windowsill.
“I was just about to tell you,” explained Pekkala.
“The truth is,” said Lysenkova, “I never wanted it in the first place.”
“Why is that?” asked Pekkala. “You seemed pretty certain before.”
“I was certain about a number of things,” replied Lysenkova, “and it turned out I was wrong about all of them. That’s why I need your help now.”
Pekkala nodded, slightly confused.
“I need to keep working this case,” she said.
Pekkala sat down in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. “But you just said you didn’t want to be working it in the first place.”
Lysenkova swallowed. “I can explain,” she said.
Pekkala held open his hand. “Please do,” he said.
“Until yesterday,” she began, “I’d never even heard of Project Konstantin. Then, when Captain Samarin called, informing me that Colonel Nagorski had been killed, I told him he must have dialed the wrong number.”
“Why did you think that?”
“I am, as you know, an internal investigator. My task is to pursue crimes committed inside the NKVD. I was explaining that to Samarin when he told me he believed someone in the NKVD might actually be responsible for Nagorski’s death.”
Pekkala’s focus sharpened. “Did he say why?”
“The location of the facility is a state secret,” continued Lysenkova. “According to Samarin, the only people who had access to that information and who might have been able to infiltrate the facility were NKVD. We didn’t have time to discuss it any further. He told me to get out there as quickly as I could. At that point, I realized I didn’t have any choice, even though this was nothing like the cases I normally handle. I deal in cases of corruption, extortion, bribery, blackmail. Not murders, Inspector Pekkala. Not bodies that have been ground up by tank tracks! That’s why I didn’t spot the bullet fragment you pulled out of his skull.”
“I don’t understand, Major. You say you never wanted the case, and it sounds to me as if you got your wish, but now you want to keep working on it?”
“I don’t want to, Inspector. I
Pekkala was silent for a while. “I understand,” he said finally, “but I will have to speak with Major Kirov here before making any decision.”
“I realize we did not get off to a good start, but I could be useful to you.” Her voice had taken on a tone of pleading. “I know how the NKVD works, inside and out. Once you start investigating them, they will close ranks and you’ll never get a word out of them. But I can and I will, if you’ll let me.”
“Very well.” Pekkala took his feet off the desk and stood up. “We will let you know our decision as soon as we can. Before you go, Major, I do have one question to ask you.”
“Of course, Inspector. Anything.”
“What do you know about the White Guild?” asked Pekkala, as he walked her out into the hall.
“Not a great deal, I’m afraid. It’s some kind of top secret department in the Bureau of Special Operations.”
“Have you heard them mentioned recently?”
“Special Operations is a tribe of phantoms, Inspector. You ought to know that, since you’re one of them. Where I come from, nobody even speaks their name.”
Pekkala sighed. “Thank you, Major.”
“Oh, I almost forgot—” From her pocket, Lysenkova removed a stained and tattered piece of paper. “Consider this a peace offering.”
Pekkala squinted at the document. At first glance, what he saw looked to him like Arabic writing on the page. Then he realized it was actually scientific equations, dozens of them, completely covering the paper. “Where did this come from?”
“I found it in Nagorski’s pocket.”
“Do you have any idea what it means?”
“None,” she told him.
“Does anyone else know about this?”
She shook her head.
He folded up the page. “I appreciate this, Major.”
“Then I will hear from you?”
“Yes.”
She paused, as if there might be something else to say, but then she turned away and walked back down the stairs.
Kirov came and stood beside Pekkala. They listened to her footsteps fading away.
“I never thought I would feel sorry for that woman,” Kirov said.
“But you do.”
“A little.”
“From the way you were talking to her, I’d say you felt more than a little sorry.”
Back inside the office, Pekkala busied himself straightening piles of papers which had slid in miniature avalanches across the surface of his desk.
“What’s bothering you, Inspector?” Kirov wanted to know. “You never tidy up your desk unless something is bothering you.”
“I am not certain about taking her on,” replied Pekkala.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” replied Kirov. “If Captain Samarin was right that the NKVD were involved, we’ll never get to the bottom of this without her working on the case.”
“Your willingness to work with Major Lysenkova wouldn’t have anything to do with …”
“With those eyes?” asked Kirov. “Those …”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Inspector.”
