Chapters (65)
Boris gulped. “I will. She will accept, without fail.”
“Very good. Then, as I mentioned, there is one more thing.”
“Please tell me.”
“If the warrant is lifted, you will be free to return to Moscow.”
“Yes.”
“Do not do so. Ever again.”
Tirov was about to reply, but the phone had already been hung up.
Tirov switched on his computer and looked up the phone number for Nathalie Dumont. He could not bring himself to dial the number, because he knew she would hang up the moment she heard his voice. There had been that encounter when he had bedded her, and it had not ended well.
He went online to the website for the International New York Times and moved to the entertainment section. He found the article about Dumont’s visit to Moscow and found an attribution to her publicist, Howard Fine. Fine, Tirov reflected, despised him almost as much as Nathalie Dumont did. He thought about Howard Fine for a moment. He was old-school Hollywood, now in his seventies, on the last legs of his career. He needed a publicity coup.
Tirov looked up the number for Howard Fine and rang it.
“Hello,” a voice said. Not sleepy, in spite of the hour. Howard would be accustomed to the late-night phone call and would be ready for anything.
“Howard, this is Boris Tirov, and I have very good news for you.”
“You complete shit,” Fine replied. “How do you have the nerve to call me at this hour? How do you have the nerve to call me at all?”
“Oh, I know what you think of me, Howard, but as I said, I have very good news for you—a coup that may allow you to hang on to a few of your clients for a while longer.” There was a brief silence, and Tirov knew he had the man hooked.
“Go on,” he said finally.
“I understand you are traveling to Moscow with Nathalie Dumont to promote her new film.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Moscow can be a difficult place for a Western publicist to deal with. How would you like it if I were to arrange for Nathalie to be invited by the president to have dinner with him?”
“You can do that?”
“I can. He has already expressed an interest in meeting her.”
“And I can publicize that?”
“You may do so.”
“Without restriction?”
“You may announce that Nathalie has the invitation and that she has accepted. After the dinner, neither you nor Nathalie may make any comment about the occasion. Is that perfectly clear? He is a very private person and does not wish his private meetings to be discussed.”
“All right, I accept that condition.”
“And so will Nathalie?”
“She will, you can count on it.”