“It’s democracy. I was outvoted. Max wants the painting and Rita loves the idea of being Frau Margarita Benz, gallery owner, instead of a madam, which is what she was. After I missed you in the Trabi, I wanted to hit you here. I was outvoted again. I have nothing against you, but I wanted to leave Moscow behind. When I heard you were here, I exploded. Max says you’re going to be quiet, you have a personal involvement and you’re not going to get in the way. That you’re on the team. I’d like to believe it, but when I follow you I see you jump in a car with the German police and go for a day trip to Potsdam. Put me anywhere in the world and I recognize the local militia. You’re twisting our pricks, Renko, and that’s a mistake. This is a new world for both of us and we should take advantage instead of tearing each other down. We can’t be Neanderthals the rest of our lives. I’m happy to learn from the Germans or the Americans or the Japanese. The problem is the Chechens. They’re going to spoil Berlin the way they spoiled Moscow. They pick on Russian businesses. It’s a shame that they bring down their own people. Walking around with automatic weapons as if they were home, kicking their way into restaurants, busting up shops, kidnapping children—horrible stories. So far the German police don’t know what to do because they’ve never seen anything like it. They can’t infiltrate because none of them can pass for Chechen. Not close. But it’s shortsighted on the part of the Chechens because they have so much money that if they invested it here legally they could make a fortune. I could show them how to get into the positive side of business. Rudy was an economist, Max is a visionary, but I’m a businessman. I can tell you from experience that business is based on trust. At the golf range I trust that my suppliers are selling me good liquor, not poison. The suppliers trust that I’ll pay them in real money, not rubles. The most civilizing idea in the world is trust. If Makhmud would just listen, we could live in peace.”

“That’s all you want?”

“That’s all I want.”

They drove through the now-familiar hordes of the Ku’damm, under neon grails of AEG, SIEMENS, NIKE and CINZANO below a sky of pale lavender. The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church looked out of place because it was the only building in sight that wasn’t new. Hard behind it stood the glass wall of the Europa Center, starting to blaze with office lights. Borya parked in the Center’s garage.