Black Ops

Pevsner clearly bristled at that. “All you had to say was ‘None of your business. ’ I don’t find that funny. In the old days, I knew Berezovsky. Despite what he tried to do to you, he’s a good man.”

“Colonel Dmitri Berezovsky told me about the factory,” Castillo said. “I don’t lie to friends. If you don’t believe me, you can ask your cousin Svetlana.”

“I told you, I don’t think this is funny. Sometimes, when you think you’re being funny, I could kill you.”

“Did your cousin Svetlana have red hair the last time you saw her?”

It took a moment for Pevsner to take his meaning.

“Svetlana is here with you?” he asked finally.

“I thought, if it’s all right with Anna, you might want to ask her to have dinner with us. I am invited, right?”

“And Alfredo is with her?” Pevsner asked.

“And my bodyguard,” Castillo said. “You remember him?”

“The boy with the gun,” Pevsner said.

Castillo nodded. “Who killed your pal Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Komogorov in the garage of the Sheraton Pilar when Komogorov was trying to kill you.”

“And they nearly killed Janos,” Pevsner said. “Yes, Charley. I remember.”

Castillo took out his cell phone. “Should I call Munz and tell him to put her on his boat?”

“Where is his boat?”

“Bobbing around in the lake, just outside the reach of your floodlights.”

“I always keep a boat at the hotel,” Pevsner said. “Get him on the line for me, please, Charley.”

Thirty-five minutes later, Pevsner and his wife were standing together under the enormous chandelier in the foyer. Castillo had taken a seat at the side of the room.

Janos came into the house first, then Munz, then Svetlana, and finally Lester Bradley. Two men followed them, carrying everybody’s luggage, including, Castillo saw, the AFC radio.

Svetlana, somewhat confused, looked quickly around the foyer, settled her eyes on Castillo, and asked, somewhat plaintively, “Charley?”

And then Anna sobbed, and Svetlana looked at her and for the first time recognized her. Anna held her arms open and Svetlana ran to her.

Without realizing he had gotten out of the chair, Castillo was now standing.

Anna let go of Svetlana, who moved to Pevsner’s open arms. Castillo saw tears running down his cheeks.

Pevsner finally let Svetlana go, took a handkerchief from his pocket, and mopped his eyes.

Svetlana looked at Castillo for a moment, then ran to him.

Castillo decided it would be ungentlemanly of him to refuse her gratitude, even if he was aware that her previous manifestations of affection for him had been solely professionally motivated.

She threw herself into his arms and pressed herself against him.

“Oh, Charley, my Charley, thank you, thank you. I love you so much!”

And then her mouth was on his.

Some time later, Castillo heard Anna say, “If you two are about finished, the children are waiting to see Svetlana.”

IX

[ONE]

La Casa en Bosque

San Carlos de Bariloche

Rio Negro Province, Argentina

0845 31 December 2005

“I love you, my Charley,” Lieutenant Colonel Alekseeva announced, and kissed him very quickly, if incredibly intimately, and then went on: “And I love this room! I’m going to have one just like it!”

She jumped out of the bed and trotted naked to the window on her toes. She pulled the translucent curtain aside and further clarified her desire. “With a view of a lake, like this, and the mountains!”

They were in “The Blue Room,” so identified by a little sign on the bedside telephone, the walls of which were covered with pale blue silk brocade—Castillo thought it was the same shade of blue as that on the Argentine flag and had, when he had been shown—alone—to the room, wondered if that was intentional or coincidental.

He had had perhaps three minutes to consider this and a number of other things when the door to the adjacent room had opened and Lieutenant Colonel Alekseeva, attired as she was now—and carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses—had joined him.

It was some time later that he noticed through the open door that the walls of the adjacent room were covered with dark green silk brocade and wondered if it was called “The Green Room.”

By then, he had come to several philosophical conclusions:

Live today, for tomorrow you may die was one of them.

Anything this good can’t be bad was another.

So I’m out of mind, so what? was yet another.

Svetlana let the curtain fall back into place and looked at Castillo.

“I see your face,” she said. “Anything worth having is expensive.”

Then she trotted back to the bed and dove into it.

“You don’t like this room?” she asked.

“I like it fine.”

“Then I will buy one just like it for you,” she said, and then corrected herself. “For us, my Charley!”

He put his arms around her shoulders and she crawled up on his chest and bit his nipple.

He had time for just one more philosophical conclusion, There’s no such thing as too much of a good thing, when there was a knock at the corridor door.

“Oh, no!” Svetlana said, raising her head to look at it.

“May I come in?” Anna Pevsner called.

“One moment,” Svetlana called, rolled onto her back, pulled the sheet—which was also, Castillo noticed for the first time, Argentina blue—modestly over them, and then called, “Okay. Come!”

Anna came into the room and stood at the foot of the bed with her hands folded in front of her.

“This is difficult for me,” she said. “But the children . . .”

“What, Anna?” Svetlana said.

“I believe, as I know you do, what Holy John Chrysostom said about ‘the sacrament of the brother.’”

“Good,” Svetlana said. “Then don’t do it.”

What the hell is this?

Who the hell is Holy John whatever she said?

“Would you like me to . . . uh?” Castillo asked, pointing to the bathroom door.

“This concerns you, too, Charley,” Anna said.

Svetlana nodded to confirm this.

“Then somebody please tell me about Holy John,” Castillo said.

“You are a Christian, Charley?” Anna asked.

“I don’t think I’m in particularly good standing.”

“I’m sorry,” Anna said.

“I will fix that,” Svetlana said.

“What about Holy John Whatever?”