“Send my sister there,” said Dimka. “She’s a reporter for TASS. In the Cuban missile crisis she sent Khrushchev superb intelligence from Havana via the Red Army telegraph. She can do the same for you from Prague.

“Good idea,” said Kosygin. “Organize it, will you?”

• • •

Dimka did not see Natalya the next day, but the day after that she phoned just as he was leaving the office at seven.

“Did you talk to Nik?” he asked her.

“Not yet.” Before Dimka could express his disappointment she went on: “But something else happened. Filipov came to see him.”

“Filipov?” Dimka was astonished. “What does a Defense Ministry official want with your husband?”

“Mischief. I think he told Nik about you and me.”

“Why would he do that? I know we’re always clashing in meetings, but still . . .”

“There’s something I haven’t told you. Filipov made a pass at me.”

“The stupid prick. When?”

“Two months ago, at the Riverside Bar. You were away with Kosygin.”

“Incredible. He thought you might go to bed with him just because I was out of town?”

“Something like that. It was embarrassing. I told him I wouldn’t sleep with him if he were the last man in Moscow. I probably should have been gentler.”

“You think he talked to Nik for revenge?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“What did Nik say to you?”

“Nothing. That’s what worries me. I wish he’d bust my lip again.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I’m afraid for you.”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“Be careful.”

“I will.”

“Don’t walk home, drive.”

“I always do.”

They said good-bye and hung up. Dimka put on his heavy coat and fur hat and left the building. His Moskvitch 408 was in the Kremlin car park, so he was safe there. He drove home, wondering whether Nik would have the nerve to ram his car, but nothing happened.

He reached his building and parked on the street a block away. This was the moment of greatest vulnerability. He had to walk from the car door to the building door under the streetlights. If they were going to beat him up they might do it here.

There was no one in sight, but they might be hiding.

Nik himself would not be the one to carry out the attack, Dimka presumed. He would send some of his thugs. Dimka wondered how many. Should he fight back? Against two he might have a chance: he was no pussy. If there were three or more he might as well lie down and take it.

He got out of the car and locked it.

He walked along the pavement. Would they burst out of the back of that parked van? Come around the corner of the next building? Be lurking in this doorway?

He reached his building and went inside. Perhaps they would be in the lobby.

He had to wait a long time for the elevator.

When it arrived and the doors closed he wondered if they would be in his apartment.