Havana Bay

right on the wall, a clue no one as sharp as you was going to miss. Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't. We have to be careful. Remember, I have been the target of more police stings and entrapment than you could dream of. By the way, keep in mind that j all our friends here tonight still remember the Russian ', language. Watch what you say.'

Walls ran his eyes .over Arkady's new clothes.» Big _: improvement.' : The chefs lifted lobsters from a huge sack to a cutting board, where they sliced and cleaned the underside of I the tails before setting the lobsters alive onto the grill, poking them with wooden sticks when they tried to crawl from the flames. Arkady saw no menus, no African food. The two Cubans at Arkady's table shook his hand but offered no names. One was white, the other mulatto, but they shared the musculature, direct gaze and obsessionally trimmed fingernails and hair of military men.

'What does this club do?' Arkady asked.

'They can do anything,' O'Brien said.» People wonder, what will happen to Cuba when Fidel dies? As a Caribbean North Korea? Will the gang in Miami march in and take back their houses and sugarcane fields? Will the Mafia swoop in? Or will there just be anarchy, another Haiti? Americans wonder how without a managerial infrastructure full of MBAs Cuba can even hope to survive.'

The lobsters were monsters, the largest Arkady had ever seen. They reddened among flares and sparks.

'But the wonderful thing about evolution,' O'Brien said, 'is that it can't be stopped. Eliminate business. Make the army the preferred career route for idealistic young men. Send them to foreign wars, but don't give them enough money to fight. Make them earn it. Make them trade in ivory and diamonds so they have enough ammunition to defend themselves, and you end up with an interesting group of entrepreneurs. Then, because it works cheap, when the army comes home make it go into farming, hotels, sugar. Reassign heroes to run the tourism and citrus and nickel industries. Let me tell you, negotiating a contract with a construction company from Milan is as good as two years at Harvard Business School. The ones here tonight are the creme de la creme.'

'The Havana Yacht Club?'

'They like the name,' Walls said.» It's just a social thing.'

When the first lobsters were done, a chef stirred a glass bowl full of twists of paper, picked four twists, unrolled and read them before sending the lobsters to a table. It seemed to Arkady a better system for a lottery than a restaurant. How did the chef know who ordered what? Why were there only two choices, lobster or nothing?

'I thought private restaurants weren't allowed to serve lobster,' Arkady said.

'Maybe tonight is an exception,' O'Brien said.

Arkady caught sight of Mostovoi again.» Why am I the new Russian? Why can't Mostovoi be?'

'This is an enterprise that needs more than a pornog-rapher. You've replaced Pribluda. Everyone can accept that.' O'Brien adopted a forgiving tone.» And you can keep the photograph Pribluda sent to you. It would have been nice if you'd offered it as a sign of trust at some point, but you're on the team now.'

'Rufo died for that picture.'

'Thank God, I much prefer you. I mean, it's worked out wonderfully.'

'Do some of these people work in the Ministry of Sugar? Are some of them involved with AzuPanama?'

'We met some that way, yes. These are the men who make decisions, as much as anyone can make decisions besides Fidel. Some are deputy ministers, some are still generals and colonels, men who have known each other all their lives and now in their prime. Naturally, they're making plans. It is a normal human aspiration, the need to better themselves and leave something for their families. The same as Fidel. He has one legitimate son and a dozen illegitimate children salted away in the government. These men are no different.'

'The casino fits somewhere in here?'

'I hope so.'

'Why are you telling me all this?'

'John always tells the truth,' Walls said.» Just that there are a lot of layers to the truth.'

'Casino, combat boots, AzuPanama. Which is real and which is fake?'

'In Cuba,' O'Brien said, 'there is a fine line between the real and the ridiculous. As a boy, Fidel wrote Franklin Roosevelt and asked for an American dollar. Later Fidel was scouted as a pitcher by the major leagues. Here was a man who could have been a model American, an inch away. Instead, he becomes Fidel. Incidentally, the scouting report was 'Fair fastball, no control.' At heart, my dear Arkady, it's all ridiculous.'

The body in the bay was dead, Rufo was dead, Hedy and her Italian had been slashed to death, Arkady thought. That was real. The Cubans at the table listened with half an ear as they watched lobsters continue to march off the grill and the curious ceremony of reading papers at random from a bowl. It didn't seem to matter who had lobster so much as that they all did. Arkady had the sense that if one anonymous twist of paper was blank, if one diner hadn't ordered lobster, the group to a man would have stood and left at once.

'Do you mind...?' Arkady nodded toward Erasmo's table.

'Please.' O'Brien gave his blessing.

Tico was happily dismembering his crustacean and Mostovoi was caught sucking on a claw.

'You can't get lobster this succulent anywhere else in the world.' Mostovoi wiped his mouth as Arkady dropped into a chair. There was no sign from the photographer that he had connected the fire at the Sierra Maestra to Arkady.

Erasmo didn't say a word or touch his lobster. Arkady remembered him drinking ron peleo and swaying in his wheelchair to Mongo's drum at the santero's, leaning out the Jeep like a bearded buccaneer as they cruised the Malecon. This was a more subdued Erasmo.

'So, this is the real Havana Yacht Club,' Arkady said to him.» No Mongo, no fish.'

'It's a different club.'

'Apparently.'

'You don't understand. These are all men who fought together in Angola and Ethiopia, who fought side by side with Russians, who shared a common experience.'

'Except for O'Brien.'

'And you.'

'Me?' Arkady didn't remember the initiation.» How did that happen?'

Erasmo's head lolled as if he'd been trying unsuccessfully to drink himself into a stupor.» How does it happen? By accident. It's like you're in the middle of a play, say, Act II, and someone wanders onto the stage. Somebody new, never in the script. What do you do? First, try to get him off, drop a sandbag on him or lure him behind the scenery so you can hit him over the head with a minimum of fuss because there is an audience watching. If you can't get the son of a bitch off the stage what do you do then? You start incorporating him into the play, find him a role of someone who is missing, feed him some lines as smoothly as you can so that the Third Act goes virtually unchanged, just like you always planned.'

The last lobster was delivered. Every plate was covered by a lobster or a well-picked carapace, although Arkady had noticed that many guests had shown no interest in their dinner once it had been served. A tall man with aviator glasses rose with a glass of rum. He was the same army officer Arkady had seen in a picture with Erasmo and the Comandante. The man proposed a toast to 'The Havana Yacht Club.'

Everyone but Arkady and Erasmo stood, although Erasmo raised his glass.

'Now what?' Arkady asked.» A meeting's going to begin?'

'The meeting's over.' Erasmo added in a whisper, 'Good luck.'

In fact, men were leaving as soon as they set down their glass, not pouring out as a crowd but slipping under the neon sun to the dark of the street in twos and threes. Arkady heard a muffled sound of car doors opening and engines starting. Mostovoi vanished like a shadow. Tico pushed Erasmo, who leaned his brow on his hand like Hamlet considering his options. Soon the only ones left in the paladar were the staff, Walls, O'Brien and Arkady.

'You're part of the club now,' O'Brien said.» How does it feel?'

'A little mysterious.'

'Well, you've only been here six days. Cuba takes a lifetime to understand. Wouldn't you say, George?'

'Absolutely.'

O'Brien pushed himself to his feet.» Anyway, we have to run. It's almost the witching hour and, frankly, I'm bushed.'