“Boris Benz,” Arkady said. He didn’t use the woman’s name because he wasn’t sure of her identification.

In the silence Rodionov stiffened, like a man who had missed a step.

Albov looked down, around and finally raised a smile of astonishment mixed with admiration. “You know, it’s in the blood,” he told Rodionov. “When the Germans invaded and rolled to the gates of Leningrad and Moscow, and Stalin lost millions of men and the entire Red Army fell into disorder and retreat, one tank commander never stepped back. The Germans thought they had trapped General Renko. What they didn’t understand was that he was happy behind their lines, and the bloodier and more confused the action, the better. The son is exactly the same. Is he trapped? No, he’s here, there. God only knows where he will turn up next.”

“There’s a direct flight to Munich at seven forty-five tomorrow morning,” Arkady said.

“You truly believe the prosecutor’s office will let you leave the country?” Albov asked.

“I’m absolutely sure,” Arkady said. He was, as soon as he saw Rodionov’s reaction to Boris Benz’s name, an instinctive flinch that had expressed the anger and fear of a stuck pig. Until then, the name could have meant nothing, but in an instant Arkady had ascertained, as Rudy might have put it, the high market value of Boris Benz.

“Even if the Ministry wanted to, it’s not up to us,” Rodionov said. “Foreign investigation is the responsibility of State Security.”

“You were saying at Petrovka the other day that now we’re members of Interpol, we work directly with foreign colleagues. I’ll only have a carry-on bag. No inspection.”

“I couldn’t go tomorrow, if I wanted to,” Rodionov said. “There’s arranging an external passport and Ministry orders. It would take weeks.”

“There are twelve rooms at the Central Committee. All they do is make up passports and visas on the spot. Lufthansa flight eighty-four,” Arkady said. “Remember, Germans are punctual.”

“There is a way,” Albov said. “If you don’t travel as an investigator, as an official of the prosecutor’s office, but as a private individual. If the Ministry can generate a passport and if you had the American dollars or German marks, then you could simply buy a seat on the plane and take off. In fact, we’ve just opened a consulate in Munich; you could make contact and receive travel expenses there. The question is only where you’d get hard currency for the ticket.”

“And the answer is …?” Arkady asked.

“I could lend it to you. In Munich you could pay me back.”

Arkady said, “The money has to come from the prosecutor.”

Albov said, “Then, that’s the way it will be done.”

“Why?” Rodionov protested.