We got there four days after them. We had ten days to make it happen.

We started by just watching. Looking for a moment in which we could strike up a casual conversation. On a lift, in a restaurant, strolling through town. Grigor’s motto could have been, Russian bodyguards, never leave home without them. He had his own security team. Four people, three men and one woman. They all had that ex–special forces look. Fit, trained, alert, tough, protective.

I gave them the names Boris One, usually with Grigor; Boris Two, with Leo; Boris Three worked the night shift, and the Borisova who escorted Kaylee.

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Each morning, three ski instructors would show up at God’s chalet, and each of the principals would go off with one of them, plus their individual Boris. It certainly made sense for Leo to be taught on his own. Any ski instructor will tell you, never let the parents come along. Don’t even let the kid catch sight of them. Particularly the mother. It turns them whiny, weak, inattentive, disobedient, prone to tears and tantrums.

I watched each of them ski.

Grigor and Kaylee going off separately could be explained generically or personally and it would be about the same. Grigor saw himself as strong, manly, and adventurous. The function of his skiführer was to be an adventure guide, go off-piste, find stashes of untouched snow. Kaylee, by contrast, expected her instructor to teach her. She was actually the better skier of the two or was at least becoming so. Grigor was sure he was God and not to be improved upon. He constantly assumed he was much better than his actual skills. Or that skills didn’t really enter into it. Gusto, bluster, and daring would get him through anything and everything. Those were the qualities that had served him well through the peaks and cliffs, crevasses and rifts, of those rich and treacherous ranges where Russian capitalism mixed with Russian politics and Russian organized crime. Charge ahead like you’re the best there is and if you’re still standing at the end, then yes, you were.

Kaylee was quite different. By nature. She was to measure up in all things to the high standard set by her own physical beauty, a very cool, plastic, Nicole Kidman sort of thing. She took ski instruction like one of the good girls in ballet class. She followed orders. She practiced the exercises. She never ventured beyond the range of her established competence. Something might happen out there that would make her appear less than perfect.

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