“The people of Tver are patriotic,” Agronsky said.
“Six Black Berets against fifty heavily armed rebels with an armored personnel carrier and two trucks. The outcome was what, thirteen, fourteen terrorists dead-”
“Fourteen.”
“Fourteen terrorists dead, the APC and trucks in retreat and, in return, one Black Beret wounded. Amazing. It was the sort of battle that can make an officer’s reputation and win a promotion in rank, especially at a time when there was so little good news coming out of Chechnya. Yet there wasn’t a single decoration.”
“These things happen in war. Sometimes it’s just a matter of missing paperwork or witnesses.”
“Which is why there is a citation committee to review commendations. You were the head of the committee that denied the Black Berets of Sunzha Bridge any medals or promotion. Why?”
“You expect me to remember? The committee processes hundreds of recommendations, and on a generous basis. The regular army consists of boys, conscripts, the poorest and dumbest, the ten percent who didn’t dodge the draft and the one percent true patriots. They deserve commendations. If they get shot in the ass they get a commendation. If they steal a chicken for their commanding officer they get a commendation. If they get killed their body parts go home in a sealed coffin with a commendation.”
“So why wouldn’t a real battle merit a medal or two?”
“Who knows? That was months ago.” Agronsky looked away. “It isn’t as if I were allowed to bring my files with me.”
“It was your last case. You retired a week after you submitted your verdict. After thirty years you suddenly retired.”
“Thirty years ago, things were different. We were an army then.”
“Tell me about Isakov.”
Agronsky’s eyes stopped dodging.
“The report smelled.”
“In what way?”
“Captain Isakov reported a firefight between rebels on one side of the bridge and his men on the other. The medical examination revealed that all the rebels were shot at close range, some in the back, one or two while eating. Where the rebels were supposed to have been shot there was no blood on the vegetation. The leaves weren’t shredded, they weren’t even disturbed. No doubt Isakov wanted to arrange the bodies in a more convincing manner but a helicopter was coming to the landing zone. A journalist who was on the helicopter described the scene to me.”
“That was Ginsberg?”
“Yes.”
“Were there any actual witnesses?”
“Only one, a civilian, and she was no help at all.”
“What did she say?”
“We’ll never know. She was Ukrainian. She went back to Kiev.”
“What was her name?”
“Kafka, like the crazy writer.”
Close enough, Arkady thought. He held his breath before the next question.
“Are there any photographs of the firefight scene?”
“Only Ginsberg’s.”
“From the helicopter?”
“His colleagues said he always carried a camera, in case. The pictures completely contradict the statements of Isakov and Urman.”
“Do people in Tver know about this?”
“They won’t hear it from me. Did I mention that two weeks before the incident at the bridge, rebels captured eight Black Berets and took videos of them, first alive and then dead? Their mothers couldn’t recognize those boys. They were all from Tver. Don’t ask for any sympathy for rebels in this city.”
“Then why not promote Isakov?”
“Because he was no longer a soldier; he was a killer. To me there is a difference.”
Arkady was impressed. Agronsky looked more like a retired bureaucrat than someone who would stand up to Isakov. The major’s sweater had holes and loose strands, exactly what a man of leisure would wear for gardening, although glints of chrome at the belt line betrayed the gun underneath.
“Was there a follow-up investigation?”
“I suggested one and for that I’ve been cashiered and all the evidence has been destroyed.”
“What about Ginsberg’s photographs?”
“Burned.”
“Gone?”
“Smoke.”
“No copies?” Investigations were usually awash in copies.
“My ruling on honors and commendations was regarded as a slur on the army. My files were thoroughly cleaned out and I was shown the door.”
“Did you copy them, scan them, e-mail them to anyone?”
“Renko, when I joined the army they stripped me clean, and when I left the army they stripped me clean.”
“What about Ginsberg’s office or home?”
“His office was searched and his colleagues questioned. There were no other photos and he wasn’t married.”
“You wrecked your career over this.”
“To tell the truth, at my age if you’re not at least a colonel, you’re wasting your time. Besides, the citation committee was exhausting work, lifting some to heaven and kicking some into hell. You know, I’ve told no one about all this. My mouth is dry.” The major’s smile regrouped. “When I joined up, the army gave each man a daily allotment of one hundred grams of vodka. There must be some good in it.”
“One glass.”
Agronsky clapped his hands together. “We’ll confound the doctors. Before we die we’ll shoot ourselves, like Sergeant Kuznetsov.”
The major made a beeline for the house and returned with a tray bearing a bottle of vodka, two glasses and a plate of brown bread and cheese because, as he declared, “A man who drinks without something to eat is a drunk.” He unscrewed the bottle’s cap and threw it away. An ominous beginning, Arkady thought.
The first glassful slid down, fastidiously followed by bread. Arkady tried to recall whether he had eaten anytime during the day. He asked, “Kuznetsov shot himself?”
“Not exactly. Kuznetsov was ranting and raving as he was being airlifted, yelling that Lieutenant Urman told him that for the good of the team they needed at least one casualty from OMON, not to take it personally. He shot poor Kuznetsov in the leg.”
“Urman is impulsive.”
“Of course, it has to be said that during the airlift Kuznetsov was under the influence of painkillers. In the hospital he correctly pointed to the photo of a dead rebel as the man who shot him.”
“How do you know it was correct?”
“Captain Isakov said so. A little more?”
“Just a little. What did you tell the captain?”
Vodka quivered on the brim. Agronsky begged a cigarette and a match.
“I said I could support neither a promotion for him nor medals to a death squad, because at the end of this war that is all we would be. No armies, just death squads.”
His eye on the Tahiti matchbook, Arkady asked, with too little forethought, “Did you happen to know any of the eight boys from Tver who were killed?”
“Rifleman Vladimir Agronsky. Vlad. Nineteen years old.”
The major’s face fell in on itself.
“I’m sorry,” Arkady said. “I’m very sorry.”
