Anya beamed.“Everything.”
Gwynn gave a chuckle.“Well, that might take a while, but we can do the tourist stufflike the New York City Library, the Statue of Liberty, and CentralPark all in one day.”
“I want also to seeEmpire State Building.”
“We can do that rightnow.” Gwynn motioned southward. “It’s right down here onThirty-Third. Come on, I’ll show you, but I don’t want you to bedisappointed. There’s no giant monkey with airplanes circlingoverhead.”
Anya stared inbewilderment.
“You know . . . KingKong.”
“I do not know thisking.”
Gwynn palmed herforehead. “If you’re going to be an American, we’ve got so muchwork to do and so many movies to watch.”
A left on 33rd led themto one of the most famous buildings in the world. They stood acrossthe street, looking up like tourists at the massive structure.
“Believe it or not,this was the tallest building in the world for forty years, and itwas designed, planned, and built in just twenty months.”
“How do you knowthis?”
Gwynn laid an armacross Anya’s shoulders. “I told you, I was a great tour guide.”
“Yes, you did. We cango to the top, yes?”
Gwynn checked herwatch. “We can go to the eighty-sixth floor to the observatory ifyou want, but we have to buy a ticket. What time did you plan to callVolkov?”
Anya took Gwynn’s armand dragged her across the street to the chorus of protesting horns.“We have plenty of time for him. We will buy tickets and see thetop first.”
Anya peeled off twocrisp one-hundred-dollar bills to cover the cost of riding theelevator to the observation deck eighty-six floors above MidtownManhattan, and she thought the view was worth every penny. Anyaraised her head from a pair of coin-operated binoculars and pointedsouth in wide-eyed wonder. “There is Liberty Statue!”
Gwynn followed herfinger to the iconic gift from the French, and although the statuewas barely visible with the naked eye, she said, “It sure is.That’s the Statue of Liberty.”
Anya pinned her faceback against the shiny, coin-eating binoculars and froze. A minutelater, she hurriedly shoved her hand into her pocket, then turned toGwynn. “You have coins?”
“Yeah, sure. Here yougo.”
Anya, seeminglyundeterred by the string of tourists waiting for their turn, fed themachine until it consumed the contents of their pockets. When thescene went dark for the last time, she stepped down from the perchand turned to Gwynn. “A man once promised to show me the statue andDisney World and White House, but this did not come true until now.”
“Chase, again?”
“Yes, he made thispromise to me in Honeymoon Harbor near Leo’s house in Bimini.”
“You’ve got to getthat man out of your head, you know.”
“This is notpossible. He is the kindest man I have ever known, and he isbrilliant leader and loyal friend to his men.”
A pair of touristspushed their way past and stepped up to the binoculars.
Gwynn led Anya awayfrom them and found a quieter corner. “I don’t mean you have toforget about Chase, but you get this look on your face when you talkabout him. It’s like you’re a teenaged girl swooning over thestar quarterback.”
“No, this is wrong.He was catcher, not quarterback. He took me to see baseball game atUniversity of Georgia, and this is where I had my first chili dog. Itis a wonderful story. I must tell you.”
Gwynn raised a hand.“Anya. Stop it. How old are you?”
“I am thirty-two, andyou are twenty-eight.”
“Yes, but you’reacting like . . .” Gwynn hesitated, afraid that what was about tocome out of her mouth would be more hurtful than beneficial.
“When was first timeyou kissed a boy?” Anya asked.
Gwynn blushed. “I wastwelve or thirteen, but what does that have to do—”
“The boy you kissed .. . Was he thirty-five-year-old KGB instructor?”
“What? No, his namewas Billy Anderson. He was a math geek, and I needed help withpre-algebra.”
“My first kiss withboy was lesson about how to kiss correctly to make Americans tell meeverything they know. When was your first time doing sex with a boy?”
Gwynn checked over hershoulder in fear of someone overhearing their conversation. “That’snot really something I want to talk about up here with all of these—”
Anya interrupted again.“He was maybe fifty years old, or maybe older, and smelled of vodkaand cigarettes. I was gift to him from Communist party because he wasloyal to Mother Russia. It was sweaty, and rough, and horrible.”
Gwynn looked away asthe sickening picture came into focus in her mind’s eye.
Anya continued. “Thefirst time I kissed Chase was in ocean on island of Saint Thomas, andthe first time he made love with me was first time I learned mencould be kind and caring for me. This is a time I will never forget,so please do not say to me I must take him from inside my head. Iwill not do this.”
Gwynn swallowed hard.“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Yes, you did,”Anya said. “You know everything of my past. Agent White used thethings your government knows of my past while he was interrogatingme.”
Gwynn took theRussian’s hand. “Anya, I’m really sorry. We didn’t know thethings you just told me. There’s no way we could know details likethat, and I didn’t mean to imply that you should forget the goodmemories you have with Chase. I was only trying to say . . . I’mjust, sorry. I don’t know what I was trying to say. Come on. Let’sgo see that Liberty Statue of yours.”
They left theobservation deck, but not before Anya had one more long look aroundat the Big Apple spreading out in every direction beneath them.
As the elevator doorsopened to the lobby, Anya said, “I think we should see statuetomorrow. It is now time to work.”
“Whatever you say,but if you think my Empire State Building trivia was good, just wait’til you hear my Statue of Liberty spiel.”
Anya pulled her phonefrom a pocket and dialed Viktor Volkov’s number from memory. Gwynnlistened as her partner spoke in her soft, flowing native tongue. Shewondered why Russian sounded so harsh on the tongues of men, but whenspoken by a woman, it was more beautiful than the language of the menand women who built the statue
