“I’ve recently heard about that.”
“Well, I can’t go into details, but this quirk in the Soviet system gives us an opportunity to channel money here and there. Okay?”
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“Nevertheless, you got one. But that’s got a top secret classification.”
Hollis considered a moment, then said, “Lisa has a low security clearance.”
“I never told her what I just told you. I told her this stuff was from our pre-Revolution embassy.” He looked at Hollis. “One of my people happened to see you coming out of the antique shop on Arbat. So I thought something she said might have piqued your curiosity.” Alevy stood and made himself another drink. With his back to Hollis he said, “This is what you call awkward. Right? I mean, the same woman and all. You’re sitting here thinking that Lisa and I probably did it on that ten-foot couch, and you’re probably right.”
Hollis didn’t respond.
Alevy continued, “And you’ve discovered that you like her, so you’ve decided you don’t like me.”
“We’ve always gotten along.”
“Right. I could decide I don’t like you. Because I still care for her, and I’d like to have her back.”
“She’s leaving,” Hollis said.
“True. Anyway, I wanted to clear the air about that.”
“Then stop blowing smoke.”
“Right. The air is not clear. But we have to accomplish a few things, you and I, before you leave. So let’s get professional.”
“Accomplish what?”
“Well, a report on Borodino. Now that we’re alone we can drop the posturing we do in front of Banks and Lisa.”
“Speak for yourself, Seth.”
“Another drink?”
“No.”
“Follow me.” Alevy opened a narrow door in the hallway, and Hollis expected to see a closet but instead found himself shown into a dark windowless room, about twelve feet square, with padded walls. The room was lit by the glow of a five-foot video screen. “This is my little safe room. A few electronic gadgets. Just enough to do homework. Have a seat.” He motioned toward a chair. Hollis sat.
Alevy took a seat beside him and swiveled his chair toward the video screen. He picked up a remote control device from the table and pressed a button. The screen flashed to a photo of a man in his thirties wearing the uniform of an Air Force officer. Alevy said, “Major Jack Dodson. Missing in action since November eleventh, 1970. Last seen by his wingman, ejecting from a damaged Phantom over the Red River Valley between Hanoi and Haiphong. This witness said he appeared unhurt. However, Dodson never showed up on Hanoi’s lists of POWs. Now we think we know where he disappeared to.”
“My copilot, Ernie Simms, similarly disappeared.”
“Yes, I know that.”
The picture of Dodson disappeared, replaced by another man. It took Hollis a few seconds to recognize Ernie Simms.
Neither man spoke for a while, then Alevy said, “I don’t know if he’s here in Russia, Sam.”
Hollis did not respond.
Alevy added, “We can’t refight the war, but sometimes we get a chance to make a little change in the present to make the past better.”
Hollis looked at Alevy in the blue light but said nothing.
Alevy shut off the video screen, and they sat in the dark room in silence. Alevy said, “There’s more to this slide show. But now it’s your turn to do show-and-tell. Borodino. You’re on, Sam.”
“Lisa and I will be assigned together if that’s what we decide we want. That’s the quid pro quo.”
Alevy kicked off his shoes and propped his feet on an electronic console. He unwrapped a stick of gum and popped it in his mouth. “Well… I suppose that’s easier to do than convincing her that justice will be done.”
Hollis stared into the darkness of the room, then began, “We went north of Borodino Field. There’s a ridge line covered with pine trees there.” Hollis related the story of their excursion, telling Alevy what he saw and what he deduced about the place.
Alevy listened intently, then asked. “More like a prison than a restricted area?”
“Definitely. A local Gulag.”
“KGB Border Guards?”
“Yes.”
“Wearing the standard winter uniform? Olive drab, red piping?”
“Yes.”
“Soft caps or helmets?”
“Soft caps. Why?”
“AK-47’s?”
“Yes. I also saw a guy in the half-track with a long rifle and scope. It could have been one of those SVD sniper rifles. The Dragunov. You know it?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you want to know all that? As if I didn’t know.”
Alevy said nothing.
Hollis remarked, “You’re crazy.”
“Oh, I know that.” Alevy continued his questioning. “You saw no Red Air Force people, signs, or markings?”
“None.”
“Okay, so when you got back to your office you started digging in your files, correct? What did you learn?”
Hollis tapped his fingers on the armrest. Sharing military secrets, saying them aloud, did not come easy to him, but he thought the time had come. “I discovered that this area is off limits to civilian aircraft overflights.”
“So’s ninety percent of this country.”
“Right. I also found an old survey of Red Air Force bases that my office did about fifteen years ago. The file was labeled Borodino North for want of a Russian name. Lacking an airfield, the survey termed it a ground school, perhaps a survival course, though the area is largely benign farmland. Even the forest is a piece of cake. But that’s all the report said.”
Alevy nodded. “We had no interest in the area until recently. But when I got interested, I had some people poke around there. It had been a Red Air Force installation about fifteen years ago according to local memory. That jibes with your old survey. But then the uniforms started to change to KGB and to civilian attire. The personnel inside the installation have virtually no contact with Borodino village, Mozhaisk, or the surrounding countryside, according to the locals. They helicopter back and forth, presumably to Moscow. Conclusion: Top secret stuff. Personnel have Moscow privileges and so forth.” Alevy looked at Hollis. “Okay, your turn.”
Hollis replied, “I found some old SR-71 photos. But these were taken in 1974 or ’75 at eighty thousand feet with cameras that don’t have the resolution that your recon satellites do now.”
“What did the photo analysts say about those shots?” Alevy asked.
“Well, Air Force Intelligence was only looking for things that interested them. They concluded that the installation, which seems to cover about three hundred hectares, a little more than a square mile, had no military significance in a tactical or strategic sense. That’s where my file ends on Borodino North. Case closed.”
Alevy asked, “What do you think the place is?”
“Mrs. Ivanova’s Charm School,” Hollis replied.
“And what,” Alevy asked, “is Mrs. Ivanova’s Charm School?”
“You tell me. And if you have pictures, and I guess you do, let’s see them.”
Alevy hit the remote switch again, and the screen brightened to show a slow-motion aerial view of farmland. Alevy said, “The recon satellite is passing from northeast to southwest. Very nice, sunny summer day. That’s wheat there. Let’s move in a little.” The image on the screen zoomed in to a close-up of a man on a red tractor pulling a load of hay. “Now there’s the Moskva River coming up.”
The picture seemed to be taken at about two thousand feet, Hollis thought, though the satellite could have been a hundred miles above the earth.