They held hands in silence in the taxi and when they were inside the apartment she said, “What was the bad news?”
He led her into the living room and when she had sat down he sat facing her. He told her the news about Serov and she shook her head slowly in disbelief as she listened. When he had finished she said quietly, “What do we do now?”
“Have you got any views?”
She shook her head. “I’m out of my depth, Andrei. You know best what we should do.” She sighed. “You are in danger, you must know that.”
“Would you mind leaving New York?”
“Not if it makes you safe.” She paused. “Where should we go?”
He sighed. “I feel that I’ve been a fool. A reckless fool too.”
“Why?”
“Thinking that all Americans were like Jack Kennedy. Or at least that they wanted what he wanted. I could never have believed that Americans could kill a man for his politics. I could understand people disagreeing with his policies—but not killing him. That’s obscene. That’s what the people in Moscow do.” He paused and looked at her. “I don’t want to be part of it. So what am I—an American or a Russian?”
She smiled. “Have you ever noticed that Russians are never called immigrants, they’re always émigrés. It implies that they didn’t come here because they wanted to but because they were forced to, driven out of their own countries.”
“So I’m an émigré …” he shrugged, “… so what?”
“You know, my love, it’s taken you a long time to learn the facts of life.”
“What does that mean?”
“You were never a Russian and you’re not an American.”
“So what am I?”
“You’re a Jew, my love. And despite everything you always were. And you still are.”
For a long time he was silent and then he smiled. “So what do we do?”
“We do what Jakob did. We leave it all and we go to Israel and forget the KGB and the White House. You go on selling books and I take photographs.” She smiled. “And we live happily ever after.”
“How long have you thought this?”
“Almost from when I first knew you.”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“Because just telling you wouldn’t have been enough. You had to do it your way. You had to learn.”
“Learn what?”
“That all over the world people behave like people. The human race is the most terrible animal that the good Lord created. They don’t just kill for food. They kill because they like it.”
“And Israelis don’t kill people?”
“Only in self-defence. But I’m not suggesting we go there for that reason. But because it’s a small country. It’s not a world power like the Soviet Union or America.”
“And what about you? You are an American.”
“One half Jewish, my friend, and I don’t give a damn for politics or politicians. You do. You’ve got to forget them. You should never have been involved in the first place. You didn’t choose to be a communist, you just absorbed it from your father. And he was conned like the rest of the Russians. And you did the same. You defended something that didn’t exist.” She smiled and said softly, “And the White House was never really Camelot. Except for your background you and Jack Kennedy were very much alike. Both dreamers, and both ready to ignore the facts of life. That’s why he was killed. And now Serov. And that’s why we should move to Israel.”
“Maybe I should take photographs and you should look after the philosophising.”
She smiled. “There ain’t gonna be no philosophising, honey. And taking photographs in Harlem might bring you down to earth.” She paused. “Anyway. What do you think about my idea?”
“First of all I think you are much wiser than I am. Just hearing you talk is an incredible relief. I feel like a man who’s just been let out of prison.” He looked at her fondly. “When do we go?”
“In days not weeks. You can clean up your mess. I can deal with my assignments. And my agent can start looking for work for me in Israel.”
Aarons went to his office in the Flatiron Building and sat for two days working out the state of his resources and separated KGB assets from his own. He was pleasantly surprised to find that his own account stood at 75,000 dollars excluding the profits that he would make on the sale of the lease of the apartment and a small profit on the lease of the office in the Flatiron Building. He had no idea what assets Tania had. But it was obvious that even if it took some time for him to establish his business in Israel they would live quite comfortably.
He arranged a meeting with Cowley at their usual place and Cowley handed over an envelope which Aarons didn’t open.
“I’m going to close down the operation for a while, Roger.”
Cowley looked stunned. “But why? I thought we were doing well.”
“We were. But I need to let things cool down for a bit. A question of security.”
“Nobody knows a damn thing.” He frowned. “Are you telling me they’re onto us?”
“No I’m not. I just want to make sure that we don’t take any risks.” He paused and reached into his jacket pocket and brought out an envelope. “There’s three thousand dollars in there.”
“Thanks. I’m gonna need that. How long before we can get going again?”
“At least six months, Roger. Maybe longer. In this business it pays to be patient. Just carry on with your job and your own life and I’ll be in touch when it’s safe again.”
“Is this from Moscow?”
“Partly.”
“Do they know something we don’t?”
“No. They’re just playing it safe. It’s quite a usual procedure when an operation has gone on for a long time.”
“And what are you going to do? Are they closing you down too?”
“It’s possible.”
Cowley looked relieved by Aarons’ answer.
“I’d like to thank you for all the good work you’ve done, Roger.” He stood up. “I’ll be in
