He grinned, leaned down and whispered in her ear, a long string of Russian. I caught Gina’s eye. Neither of us could understand what he was saying, but we caught the tone, and when it was said in that growly voice…I felt myself flush and looked away quickly and Gina did the same. Luka’s voice had the same effect on his girlfriend: I could actually see her legs weaken and her eyes go big. She hurried away and Luka chuckled, then motioned for us to follow him.

Vasiliy Malakov was in his study, sitting behind a polished wooden desk and writing what seemed to be a letter. He smoothly swept the piece of paper into a desk drawer and stood.

It was easy to see where Luka got his looks from. Vasiliy was in his sixties but he was nearly as big and muscular as his son and had the same high cheekbones and strong jaw. He offered JD his hand. JD hesitated…then reluctantly shook it.

“The five sisters,” Danny blurted. “Who were they? Prostitutes? A ring of spies?”

Vasiliy smiled. “A colorful notion,” he said. “But no.” His English really was good: heavily accented, but as smooth as malt liquor. He walked over to a side table, where a chess board was set up. “It is the winter of 1981,” he told us. “Deep in the Cold War. The Soviet Government worried that NATO would launch a land invasion of the USSR.” He swept the black pieces across the board with his palm.

“As a last line of defense, five nuclear bombs were given to five trusted generals, one in each of five Soviet-controlled cities.” He laid five white pawns along the edge of the black ones. ”The generals were given full responsibility for the bombs: if their city fell, it was their job to retrieve the bomb from its hiding place and use it on the advancing troops. Each bomb was small enough to fit in a suitcase but powerful enough to wipe out ten city blocks. The whole plan was a closely-guarded secret. Only the generals knew where their bombs were hidden, plus a few select people in the government. Each bomb was named after a woman and the plan was codenamed Five Sisters.”

“1989 came, the Berlin Wall fell, the USSR collapsed. It was chaos. The last thing on anyone’s mind was dismantling Cold War doomsday plans. Eventually, some years ago, the Russian government quietly retrieved the bombs.” Vasiliy picked up four of the white pawns, then paused dramatically. “Or at least, it retrieved four of them. One of the generals went to his grave without telling anyone where his bomb was hidden. And the only record of all the bombs’ locations was lost years before.”

“They couldn’t find the one under East Berlin,” I croaked. Fear had made my throat tight.

“My father told me this story years ago,” said Luka. “I’d forgotten about it, until you mentioned sisters.”