Max seemed pained. “Boris is afraid that your Arkady is in trouble because he’s involved with the Russian mafia. A hint of that and the show would be a disaster.”

“I have nothing to do with the gallery,” Arkady said.

Max went on. “Boris thinks Renko is using you.”

“To do what?” Irina demanded.

She had come during the night, Arkady thought; it wasn’t a dream. She watched Max for the least little misstep. New lines had been drawn and Max retreated over them as carefully as he could.

“To stay, to hide—I don’t know. I’m only telling you what Boris thinks. As long as you want Renko here, I’ll do my best to keep him here. That’s a promise. After all, it seems that as long as I have him, I’ll have you.”

They played at being a Western couple. Their names could have been George and Jane. Tom and Sue. They shopped, buying a sport shirt for Arkady that he wore from the store. Wandered through the Tiergarten to the zoo, where they ignored the lions and watched the pony carts. Saw no Chechens or art collectors. Neither tried to say anything exceptional. Normalcy was a spell too easily broken.

At two, Arkady delivered her to the gallery, then went to Zoo Station and put more coins in his locker. He tried calling Peter, but there was no answer. Peter was fed up or had lost interest. Either way Arkady had lost contact.

As soon as he put the phone back on the hook it rang. Arkady stepped back. Along the sidewalk, Africans were selling Ossies what appeared to be French luggage. Backpackers with long hair queued sleepily at the currency exchanges. No one came forward to answer the phone. He picked it up.

Peter said, “Renko, you’d make a terrible spy. A good spy never calls from the same place twice.”

“Where are you?”

“Look across the street. See the man in the nice leather jacket talking on the phone? That’s me.”

In Good Weather, the drive out of the city was like a summer jaunt. They went south through the evergreens of the Grunewald, then by the waters of the Havel and hundreds of small boats, their sails catching as much sun as breeze, at a distance looking like gulls.

“There are some benefits to being German. In the middle of your first call I heard a train on your end of the line. Being efficient people, the transport organization was able to tell me at what subway and surface stations around the city trains were arriving at exactly that time. I narrowed the list to Zoo Station because, of course, you’re Russian. Zoo was the one station you were sure to know. You were bound to head to familiar places.”

“You’re brilliant. It’s undeniable.”