Quiller Balalaika

'I can't remember who told me about you,' I said. 'You're quite famous, as I'm sure you know. Everyone respects the Cougar.'

'Except you.'

'I have the greatest respect for you, or I wouldn't have come here.' The cigar smoke was getting to my lungs, and I had to make an effort not to cough: it would be a sign of weakness.

In a moment Vishinsky laid his fan of cards on the table, and the other three men did the same, and instantly. 'You said you brought a note for me.'

I got it out and went closer, and both guards beside me took a sudden grip on my arms, so it was with a certain awkwardness that I dropped the envelope onto the table. When I stood back, my arms were released.

Vishinsky ripped open the envelope and read the note. 'So you want to sell some sable.'

'More specifically, I want to sell it to you.'

'And why is that?'

'You deal in only the best.'

'You seem to have been listening to a lot of people – whose names you can't remember.'

'I think we've been through all that.'

'You're rather cocky.'

'I'm sorry you think so.'

'I do, and I don't like it. Since you've heard so much from so many people, you must know that when I don't like something I take the appropriate action.'

I backed off and leaned against the wall, folding my arms. 'Vishinsky, you've got a very good brain, but at the moment you're thinking with your gut, and that won't get us anywhere. I want this deal made tonight, and if you're not interested I'll let you get on with your game of poker. So far you seem to be doing rather well.'

The stack of banknotes at his end of the table was larger than the other players', but that could just be because they had to let the Cougar win. Or he wouldn't like it.

'I always do well,' he said, his voice growing quiet again. 'And I don't always play at a table.'

'That's encouraging. I respect an intelligent opponent.'

'How long,' he asked in a moment, 'have you been dealing in merchandise?'

'Years.'

'Legitimately?'

'Of course.'

'You're not, then, in the brotherhood.'

'Actually, I am. But the deals I've made with members of the brotherhood have usually been honest on both sides.'

'Usually.'

'Yes.'

'And when they're not?'

'I take appropriate action. There are things I don't like either.'

Ash dropped again onto the table from one of the cigars, but the man smoking it didn't take any notice, or didn't think it was important. I thought it was important because it emphasized the mood in this room: these three men were totally attentive to Vishinsky's every word, and if he'd told them to go outside and shoot themselves I think they would have done that. He was the Cougar, and I was becoming aware of his power, which could only have been achieved by total ruthlessness. This was the most immediate danger: if it amused him to order a hit on me, simply out of caprice, he would do it almost without thinking.

'What do you mean,' he asked me, 'by appropriate action?'

'The last man who tried to screw me on a deal jumped out of a window.'

'Jumped.'

'There was no evidence that anyone had pushed him.'

'You made sure there wasn't any.'

Nothing but bloody questions, and I decided we ought to start doing some work. 'Look,' I said, 'you're wasting my time, Vishinsky, and in any case I don't like being put through third-degree, bamboo sticks or not.'

The stare took on a glitter. 'They could be provided. They will, in fact, be provided if you don't satisfy me as to your identity. You should have thought twice, Berinov, before you decided to insult me and come barging into my private room, a complete stranger.'

Knew my name because I'd signed the note. I unfolded my arms and stretched, taking my time, doing it thoroughly. If there was going to be any kind of action the muscles would need to be in tone.

'We'll get better acquainted,' I said, 'as we go along. Now listen carefully. There are exactly four thousand black pelts of premium quality. Some of them are attractively flecked with silver but none of them have white underparts. They were tanned by top professionals who've been working all their lives in the region where the sable were hunted. The pelts are in hermetically sealed containers here in Moscow. If I had time to take them to London or Paris my asking price would be one million dollars. But I haven't got time, so I'm ready to unload them here, since I don't normally deal in sable. My price to you would be five hundred thousand. I hope you're beginning to see that I came here to offer you a deal you can hardly refuse. All you have to do is get those pelts shipped to London or Paris yourself.'

He'd looked down, just once, to mask his eyes, and I knew he was interested, knew I'd got him. This wasn't surprising: with a deal like this he could pocket half a million dollars for the thirty minutes of his time I'd so far taken up.

When he looked at me again there was no stare: the eyes had intelligence in them, attentiveness. 'You say you don't normally deal in sable.'

'No.'

'What do you normally deal in?'

'Diamonds.'

Vishinsky shifted on his chair. 'Did you come here tonight with your bodyguards?'

'I haven't got any.'

Head on one side. 'You say you're in the brotherhood, but you don't use bodyguards and you don't carry a gun but you deal in diamonds. You see how difficult I'm finding it to fit you into the picture.'

I remembered Legge: 'There's something you've got to understand. If you're going to be infiltrating the mafiya they'll expect you to dress correctly, I mean you get into a bad situation and they frisk you and there's no gun, it's going to look ' and I'd interrupted him, told him I'd take care when it happened. But he'd been perfectly right to warn me – Vishinsky was taking me up on it, though it didn't change anything. If I'd worn a gun here tonight, what earthly good would it have been?

'You don't really need,' I told Vishinsky, 'to fit me into any picture. You want those pelts? I'll sell them to you.'

'How did you get possession of them?'

'Somebody owed me. He gave me the source.'

'What did he owe you?'

'I saved one of his sons from getting shot.'

Fingers drumming on the table: 'You say you normally deal in diamonds. What sort?'

The two closest bodyguards moved as I put a hand into my pocket and went to the table, but Vishinsky stopped any action with a jerk of his head.

'Like these,' I said, and rolled the three blue diamonds out of their bag. Under the green-shaded overhead lamps they burned with a brilliant fire. In a moment Vishinsky picked one up to look at it, and the three other men leaned forward, dazzled.