Brian Freemantle: The Bearpit

‘I will inform the secretariat: see that all the necessary paperwork is completed,’ assured Dolya. On apparent impulse he added: ‘And maybe a farewell party. Nothing too large: just a few friends. Galina would be included, of course.’

‘That would be kind,’ said Levin. There was the vaguest stir of guilt at cheating the other man.

‘Has Galina enjoyed it here?’

‘Very much.’

‘And the children?’

‘It’s been a different experience.’ Natalia! he thought. Why did there have to be this stupidity with Natalia!

‘Perhaps whatever you do next will be as worthwhile,’ said Dolya.

‘I hope so,’ said Levin, with more feeling than the other man would ever know.

‘Is there anything else I can do apart from the bureaucratic formalities?’ offered Dolya generously.

‘Nothing,’ said Levin. Poor bastard, he thought.

‘You’ll be taking back as much electrical stuff as possible?’ anticipated Dolya, because every returning Russian did. ‘I’ll tell dispatch so they can arrange shipment. Don’t forget to buy an electrical converter: it’s surprising how many people do.’

‘I’ll remember,’ undertook Levin. Why should he feel the hypocrite he did? He was making a greater sacrifice for Russia than Dolya ever would.

‘Don’t just buy the article itself,’ urged the rezident, enjoying the role of expert. ‘Get spares, as well, for when it goes wrong.’

They had walked the complete circle of the building, arriving back where they started, and Levin knew the other man expected the conversation to end: take-home spoils were always the conclusion of such encounters. He said: ‘There is something. I would like to take Galina out, sometimes, during the last few evenings.’ Despite their supposed status in the United Nations, the Soviet Union did not regard its nationals as unfettered international diplomats. They were bussed daily to and from the securely guarded compound at Riverdale, in the South Bronx, and their whereabouts at all times logged in movement books both there and throughout the UN building, so permission for any change from normal had to be granted.

The KGB rezident looked up sharply from his head-bent stance against any directional microphone intercept or visual lipreading and said: ‘Take her out!’

Levin felt a jump of unease. ‘A restaurant. The theatre, maybe…’ He smiled, inviting the other man’s understanding after the lecture on the superiority of American consumer goods. ‘Whatever or wherever the next posting, I doubt it will be anything like New York.’

‘It could be London? Paris?’ suggested Dolya.

‘Still not the same.’ Please don’t let the imbecile become suspicious, not at this moment! Another contingency for which no allowance had been made.

Dolya smiled, an expression as abrupt as his looking up from the protective conversation. ‘You’re right,’ he agreed. ‘Nothing is quite like New York.’

‘You approve it?’

‘Of course.’

‘Two or three nights, that’s all.’

‘Advise me in advance.’

Levin wondered how deeply the local KGB chief would later personally regret this particular acquiescence: he sincerely hoped it would not be too bad for the man. He said: ‘Of course. Every time.’

‘Travel safely, Yevgennie Pavlovich.’

Of everything that had happened on this uncertain day, the unexpected invocation of one of the oldest Russian proverbs came close to causing Levin’s open collapse. He swallowed against the sensation, feigning a cough so that he could raise a hand to his mouth to cover his distress from the other man. ‘To return to be your companion again, Vadim Alekseevich,’ he said, completing the rote-like ritual. He listened intently to the sound of his own voice, surprised at its evenness.

The recall notice gave Levin the excuse to leave ahead of the normal, mass departure of the other Soviet officials. He felt safe telephoning ahead, to warn Galina he would be early: she was too well prepared to respond wrongly over the open line but Levin was confident she would understand something was happening because he rarely departed from normality when he was working within the confines of the United Nations.

She was still cautious when he entered the compound apartment, following his lead, which he offered quickly, not wanting her to give any blurted sort of reaction too soon to be discerned by those who daily transcribed the monitors he knew to be installed in their apartment. Very early in the posting Levin had found three listening devices in the most obvious places – the telephone receiver, the light socket and inside the actual keyhole of the door separating the living room from the main bedroom – before abandoning the search as a useless exercise, because he knew they were the ones he was expected to find and that there would be others more cleverly concealed. Quickly, to guide her, he said: ‘I thought we might go out tonight. Dinner, I mean.’

Galina, who was as heavy as her husband, bulge-hipped and droop-busted, but unlike Levin worked harder to disguise it, always dressing carefully in voluminous, folding dresses and smocks, was instantly alert, aware of two departures from the norm within the space of an hour. ‘A mission party?’ she probed tentatively.

‘Just the two of us.’

Galina knew from Levin’s monitoring search that there was no visual surveillance. Confident therefore that the gesture was safe she nodded, knowingly, raising her voice in apparant anticipation. ‘That would be wonderful.’

‘Petr will be all right by himself,’ Levin insisted, in further guidance to her that their son was not to accompany them.

Galina became sober-faced in more complete awareness, but for the benefit of the listening devices she maintained the necessary charade. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He’ll be quite all right.’

Levin decided upon the Cafe Europa on 54th Street, not talking within earshot of the cab driver on the way and politely asking when they arrived for their table to be changed, to ensure greater privacy. Galina had been involved from the beginning – that had been one of Levin’s insistences – so there was no necessity for detailed explanations. He still watched her intently as he spoke, alert for her reaction to match his earlier bewilderment.

‘This morning?’ she demanded, not able to believe it either.

‘Waiting for me when I arrived.’ He was glad of the waiter’s interruption for drinks orders although it delayed the inevitable question by only a few seconds.

‘How long?’

‘A fortnight.’

Galina looked at him doubtfully, as if she had misheard. Then, flatly, she said: ‘Natalia is not due back from Moscow for another month.’

‘Do you think I need reminding of that!’

‘So it’s got to be a mistake.’

‘Which I can’t do anything to rectify.’

‘You must query it!’

‘How can I!’

‘How can you not!’

‘I can’t go back!’ protested Levin. ‘I’d wreck years of preparation. The punishment would be their using the association with the FBI as the very evidence to send me to a gulag. Maybe worse. I’m helpless: we’re both helpless.’

The woman waited until the drinks were put before them and the waiter withdrew and then she said, quiet-voiced: ‘My darling Yevgennie Pavlovich. From the beginning, all those years ago in Moscow, I agreed to be in this with you. I agreed to defect with you and to live for the rest of my life in whatever unreal sort of existence I would be called upon to endure just to be with you. Because I love you. I’ll always love you. But I love our son and daughter just as much; maybe more, in some ways, because they’ll need greater protection than you do. Because they don’t know: they’ll never be able to know. You’re properly trained… a professional. For them it was always going to be a monumental upheaval, changing their lives, just like that…’ Galina stopped, snapping her fingers. She took up again: ‘I was prepared for that monumental upheaval: to help them and to explain as much as I could to them and maybe in time – a very long time – to make them understand you weren’t the traitor to your country they would believe you to be…’ She stopped, swallowing heavily from her drink, needing it. ‘I only ever made one condition. That we were never split. I will not do it… cannot do it, with Natalia still in Russia. Neither of us can.’