office looked like the sewing factory it had been, now divided by plywood partitions. Mihai’s desk, an old cutting table, was covered with what looked like passports stacked in piles and a clipboard of lists.
“Sorry I’m late,” Leon said, loud enough to be overheard.
Mihai looked up, surprised.
“Anna won’t mind. We can take a taxi. You really don’t have to do this, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” Mihai said, his eyes question marks.
Leon cocked his head toward the door.
“Give me a second,” Mihai said, a normal tone now. “I have to put these away. Destination visas. Gold.” He started to shelve them in a safe.
Leon picked one up. “Honduras? That’s new.”
“A generous host. No quotas.”
Leon opened the passport. “Josef Zula, born Lodz. Going to Honduras. They buy that?”
“The Romanians don’t care where he ends up, as long as he doesn’t stay there. The visas are official. Cuba’s drying up and we’ve got people ready to sail. Beggars can’t be choosers. How many would you like to take? The land of the free. Jews? All full.”
Leon put the passport down. “Wouldn’t they be surprised in Honduras. If you did come. This must have cost you.”
“What price would be too much for you?” He closed the safe’s door and twirled the dial. “So. Let’s not keep Anna waiting,” he said, raising his voice, then told the secretary he’d be at the clinic. Bases covered.
“What’s so urgent?” he said outside. “Now I have to go to Bebek. And on a day there’s so much to do.”
“I couldn’t think of anything else. They know you visit Anna. Why else would I come see you?”
“My conversation? What’s wrong?”
“I had a talk with the Emniyet.”
“Welcome to the club. What’s so remarkable?”
“At Tommy’s funeral. They want to know what happened. They know Alexei is here.”
“So they talked to you?”
“Not only me. A little warning, I think. They also warned me not to get involved with you. Aliyah operations. They thought because of Anna-”
“That you might actually help, instead of making difficulties? How little they know you.”
“You don’t seem very concerned.”
“The Emniyet and I are old friends. Sometimes they take an interest, sometimes not. Right now they’re taking an interest. The English insist. So Istanbul is becoming difficult. We have to send the convoys to Italy. Then all we have to do is get past the Mediterranean Fleet and the Coastal Water Blockade. A piece of cake-RAF expression,” he said wryly. “During the war it was easier. They had other things to do. Now they can turn all their attention to stopping the Jews. Let the Poles finish them off. But not these four hundred.”
“With Honduran visas.”
“Most. Some others. All good.”
“You don’t happen to have a spare.”
Mihai looked at him. “They’re already made out.”
“I need another. A fresh passport.”
“For him? The butcher? You’re asking me that?” He leaned against a chain link fence enclosing the scrap metal yard behind them, dull gray and rust. “A killer of Jews.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“No, easy. Why are you here? I thought-no contact. If the police-”
“It’s not just the police now. It’s Emniyet.”
Mihai stopped, quiet.
“I thought you’d better know-where things are. It’s not easy. It’s complicated.”
“So tell me.”
There were no taxis waiting at the Koc yards, so they walked toward the Haskoy ferry stop, Leon talking, trying to put everything in order, like tidying a desk. Mihai said nothing, just listened. The ferry for Karakoy was docking when they got to the pier so they followed the crowd on and went out to the open stern to talk, everyone else huddling inside to stay warm. Mihai scanned the empty pier as the boat pulled away, spewing brown lignite smoke.
“No one behind,” he said. “You’re not being followed. They’ll come and go. Now that they’ve made contact. It’s a way they have. To make you think they’re always there. You’ll get used to it.” He turned back, looking at Leon, as if he were still sifting through what had been said. “He’s a killer of Jews,” he said finally.
“But that’s not all he is. I need papers.”
“Not from me.”
“Just an address. Who do you use.” He waited. “We have to move him. You know that.”
“Not Mossad. We can’t. Not this man.”
Leon nodded. “Not Mossad. Me.”
“You. One man.” Mihai thought for a minute. “Get out of this now. Or you’ll never get out.”
“Get out how? I’ve just been telling you-”
“A man like this? Give him back to the Russians. Then no one ever knows. Any of it. Just give them the address and it’s over. He disappears.” He stopped. “And we’re safe.”
“He’d be killed. You’d do that. Kill him.”
“I wouldn’t have to. They’ll do it.” He rubbed his palms, a washing.
“No,” Leon said quietly.
Mihai looked away, not meeting his eye. “So. Make another knot. Tie yourself up. A Houdini. How are you going to do it? Get him out?”
“First I get him papers.”
Mihai took another minute. “You don’t need me for that. You’re Tommy now. You can make all the arrangements, right under the Americans’ noses.” A half smile. “While you investigate yourself.”
The taxi to Bebek took half an hour. Leon talked to the nurses, so that their arrival would be noted, then went to Anna’s room. She was dressed, sitting in a chair by the garden doors, a cardigan draped over her shoulders. Mihai took her hand and looked into her eyes.
“Hello, lovely,” he said, then to Leon, “She blinked. She knows my voice.”
“Maybe.”
“We found a boat,” Mihai said to her, his voice easy, making conversation. “Did Leon tell you? For four hundred. From the Greek. The one who sold us the
“But no regression. The doctor says that’s the important thing.”
Mihai stared at the garden. “Sometimes I think it’s my fault. That work. I thought she was like me. But really only a young girl.”
“It’s nobody’s fault.”
“I know. If this hadn’t happened, if that hadn’t happened.” He paused. “I knew girls like her. Everything for the family. The good dishes for Passover. My mother had a tablecloth-for once a year, special. She was like that. A daughter. That’s why she did it, I think. Somewhere in her mind she was saving her parents. And then the night the children drowned-it started then. But not all at once, remember? A little at a time, like turning out the lights. Until the house is dark.” He shrugged, his eyes suddenly moist. “No regression. What does that mean? From what, this? I remember when you came here. Both of you. The way you looked at her.” He faced the garden again for another minute, the room silent. “And what happens to her? If anything happens to you?”
Leon said nothing, another knot being tied into place.
Mihai turned back. “For a killer of Jews.”
