“Belinsky,” Yevgeny confirmed. “Before we kill him, we will try a good beating. A good beating may make him less enchanted with organizing the Jews of Moscow. Killing him might make him a martyr, but I think, ultimately, we will have to kill him.”
Within two miles of where Rostnikov was giving his report to his new superior, in an upscale apartment building on Chekhov Prospekt half a block from the Rossia Cinema, another man stood before a worktable in the tiny room off his bedroom, a room he kept locked and for which he alone had a key.
Alexi Monochov lived with his mother and sister. The sister had Down’s syndrome, which was still popularly known as mongolism in Russia. Nonetheless she was able to hold down a simple job not far from the apartment, though they did not need the money.
Alexi’s father, whose name was Ivan, had secured for the family a large apartment and a steady and more than adequate income before he died. The father had worked in the Bureau of Energy. When he was told that he was dying of prostate cancer as his father had before him, Ivan had begun taking home documents that were buried in the files. He copied them. He hid the originals. Then he systematically took the copies to fourteen well-to-do government employees and businesspeople and threatened to release the documents, which would certainly send the men to prison or maybe to their deaths. Ivan had been sensible enough to demand a not unreasonable monthly amount from each of the men to be paid to his widow. The documents would be sent to the proper authorities if anything were to happen to any member of his family or if the money should stop. None of the men had any idea that any others were also being blackmailed.
In the old Soviet Union there might have been questions about the sudden solvency of Ivan’s family, but one of the men on Ivan’s list had seen to it that such questions were not asked, and in the new Russia nobody cared about where people got their money. Illegality was simply assumed.
Now, with his sister and mother out of the house shopping and his bedroom door locked, the son of Ivan selected the proper tool, a tiny eyebrow tweezer.
He worked slowly, carefully, with a certain pride in his skills and secure in the knowledge that what he was doing was right. He completed his task and left his workroom, locking the door behind him. His mother and sister had not returned. That was good. He dressed warmly, put on his boots, and left the apartment.
The nearest mail drop was two blocks away. He walked six blocks down Gorky Prospekt to Mayakovsky Square. It was there, at the Belarus railway station, that he mailed his latest letter bomb.
It took Rostnikov, with the help of his son and Elena Timofeyeva, no more than twenty minutes to move into the office that had belonged to Major Gregorovich. It was Yakovlev who had insisted on the immediate move. Rostnikov understood. Take command, make changes. Show who is in charge and how things will work.
Porfiry Petrovich’s office was directly across the hall from the room that had been divided into cubicles where the investigators of the Office of Special Investigation worked and where Rostnikov, until this morning, had himself worked.
For Rostnikov, the primary virtue of the office was the view from the window into Petrovka Street, where one could see the trees, buses, vendors, police vehicles, and pedestrians.
On the desk was a telephone, a large plastic container of plastic paper clips, a pad of paper, and a black cup filled with sharpened pencils.
The wooden desk chair was swivel mounted. Rostnikov resolved to give it a try, but he felt certain that he would eventually go back to the solid, heavy wooden chair that would play no tricks on him. On the other side of the desk were three chairs facing where he now sat.
In the corner of the room was a steel three-drawer filing cabinet that had no locks. It contained about fifty new, quite empty files and those that Rostnikov had brought with him from across the hall.
Alone in his office, Rostnikov considered removing his prosthetic leg, giving the stump a rest and a massage. But that would require pulling off his pants.
While he was considering this, the phone before him rang. He picked it up and simply said, “Rostnikov.”
“You’ve been promoted?” said the voice. “I called your old office and talked to someone named Zelach who told me. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” said Rostnikov.
In the past, during the more than a dozen calls he had received from the voice, Rostnikov had tried without success to trace the caller. The caller had used his considerable expertise to thwart such efforts, keeping his conversations brief. And Rostnikov had listened calmly, making notes, putting together scraps of information, peculiarities. He didn’t have much, but it was building.
“I’ve sent another one,” the man said.
“To whom?” asked Rostnikov.
The man laughed and said, “You have a sense of humor. That is something I like in you.”
“It pleases me that I amuse you,” said Rostnikov.
Someone knocked at the door. Rostnikov put his hand over the receiver and said, “Come in,” without raising his voice. Karpo, Sasha, and Elena entered. Karpo closed the door behind them as Rostnikov motioned for them to sit across from him.
“Are you listening?” the caller said.
“Attentively,” said Rostnikov, then he mouthed “the bomber” to the three inspectors across from him.
The calls from the bomber had begun more than four months ago. He had simply called Petrovka and asked to speak to whomever was in charge of the investigation of the punishments being mailed. Rostnikov had reported all of this to Director Yakovlev just an hour earlier. Yakovlev had shaken his head slightly, saying, “If only the members of this office know this, impress upon them the need to tell no one.”
Rostnikov had agreed. In fact, he had already done so. Now, in the coming together of black and bird in the drawing in Porfiry Petrovich’s notebook, the bomber was calling again.
“Your family is well?” asked the bomber.
“Very well,” Rostnikov said.
“And the new leg?”
“I am adjusting to it,” said Porfiry Petrovich.
In the past three years, the bomber had sent letter bombs to nine people. Since the victims, one of whom died, included some prominent scientists and even an assistant deputy minister for energy, the Ministry of the Interior had sought a quick end to the bomber, but he had proved quite difficult to catch, and word had leaked to the media that there was someone sending letter bombs in Moscow.
From their conversations, Rostnikov had concluded that the man was a great admirer of the American Unabomber and that their causes were similar. Therefore Rostnikov had enlisted the aid of the FBI agent Craig Hamilton, who was assigned, with a varying number of other Americans, to act as a consultant to combat rampant organized crime in Russia. Hamilton had supplied all the information he could obtain about the Unabomber and what had been done to apprehend him.
“I’ve decided to stop soon,” the bomber said.
“Good,” said Rostnikov, looking over at the three people across from him who listened silently.
“On one condition,” the bomber went on.
“That does not surprise me.”
“I have prepared a document citing why I have sent these bombs. The document has been sent to you personally. Don’t worry. It doesn’t contain a bomb. The document is to be read on Moscow Television News every day for a week. It can be read in five minutes.”
“I can’t guarantee the cooperation of the media,” said Rostnikov.
“Then, unfortunately, there will be more bombs.”
“Well,” said Rostnikov, “let’s talk after I receive the document. Give me a number where I can reach you.”
The bomber laughed again.
“I like you, Washtub,” he said.