‘It can’t be, Sarah.’ There was irritation in his voice. ‘We can’t be left out of this. It affects us, too.’
‘If you want to go, go. I’ll stay here.’ She preferred not to know what he’d gone to do, even if it had something to do with her.
Feeling authorized, Phelps started toward the barbershop, leaving her alone. There are no longer gentlemen like in the old days, and even then it was necessary to be cautious of them.
It was surprising that no one had stopped them since they arrived, not only with Barnes hot on their trail but primarily because a Russian agent had died in her house. It was more than probable the Russian secret service was watching their movements, so why had no one appeared? She’d asked herself that question more times than Phelps had asked Rafael what they were doing in Moscow. It was three in the afternoon. They’d traveled all night with a refueling layover in Sofia, where Rafael had mysteriously disappeared for a half-hour. They had resumed the flight as soon as he returned and landed at Domodedovo a little after midday. That was the story of her day that brought her to the door of the souvenir shop in front of the Ivanovsky barbershop. She just hoped Rafael wouldn’t be long.
Inside the shop we can see Phelps looking for Rafael, with no sign of him. The establishment is long and narrow with mirrors and barber chairs on the two sides. Most of them are occupied by the male customers the shop serves, not out of prejudice but rather preference. Phelps listened to the opening and shutting of scissors or clippers, according to the customer’s desire. He didn’t see Rafael anywhere.
‘Would you like a haircut, sir?’ an employee asked in Russian, his chair just now unoccupied.
‘Sorry, I don’t speak Russian,’ Phelps answered in English.
‘No problem. We all speak English,’ the Ivanovsky owner put in, a man the same age as Phelps, well preserved, scissors in hand, doing a straight cut in the chair in front. He might be the owner, but he worked just like everybody else.
‘Ah, yes?’ Phelps didn’t know what to say.
‘Do you want a haircut?’ the employee asked again, now in English.
‘The truth is I’m looking for a friend who has come for one. A European, Italian to be more specific.’
‘Most people here are Europeans,’ Ivanovsky interjected again. Nothing went on in his shop without his noticing it. Eccentric, with a fine mustache and proud look, face full of talcum powder, rosy cheeks, he added, ‘Even most of the barbers are French, recruited from the best coiffeurs in Paris.’
‘Good. I’ll come back when I need a haircut. I promise.’ Phelps was evasive and insecure.
‘Next time,’ the employee agreed, tired of the conversation. An empty chair was no money coming in. Two seconds later the chair was occupied by a well-fed aristocrat in a black-and-white-striped suit, dark brown hair gathered into a ponytail the barber loosened, a goatee and Russian mustache.
‘Take a look around, mister,’ Ivanovsky invited Phelps.
‘Thanks.’
The Englishman walked along the straight hallway looking at the mirrors on both sides. It’d be easier to recognize Rafael if he looked at them. They created a certain confusion in his mind from all the mirrors and people reflected in them into infinity. Considering them all, he saw that Rafael was not in any of the barber chairs or in the waiting room on the side.
At the back of the salon there were stairs leading to the basement and an old elevator with an open, wrought-iron door. He paused uncertainly for a few moments between the stairs and the elevator wondering whether to enter or walk down.
‘You don’t see him?’ Ivanovsky asked. He must have finished with another customer.
‘No, strange as it seems,’ Phelps replied with a timid smile.
‘Maybe he’s gone down to the museum,’ the Russian suggested.
‘Do you think?’ He felt a little fear.
‘If you don’t see him in the salon and are certain he’s here…’ the other explained, ‘that’s the only place he can be.’ He took one of Phelps’s arms and pushed him gently into the elevator. ‘This way, it’s quicker.’
Before he could react, Phelps found himself inside the elevator cabin, and it took him some time to realize there was no control panel to operate. Ivanovsky closed the grate and looked at him from the other side, like a jailer.
‘Be careful. There’s not much light down there.’
The elevator began a slow descent. Phelps saw Ivanovsky rise up, although he was the only one moving, and noticed a sardonic smile before disappearing and descending into complete darkness.
The motor growled, and the whole elevator creaked as it passed down floors. Without light he couldn’t figure out how fast he was going, but with his heart in his throat he calculated that thirty seconds had passed. However slow the elevator, he must surely have descended several floors.
It stopped suddenly, almost making Phelps fall. He’d forgotten his fatigue and only worried about the unknown. He opened the door of the cage cautiously — the lighting was bad — took a step forward, a second, a third, and stopped in a hallway. He tried to see enough not to bump into the walls. The hallways, except for some architectural decoration, were all the same. They crossed the building, opening into the main rooms. This one was no different, with several doors all on one side.
‘This is the museum?’
A click turned on some fluorescent lights, white and strong, just above him. He was startled and stopped walking. They must be photoelectric cells, he thought. He took another couple of steps out of range of the light and another lit up. That confirmed it. The walls were gray and bare. Except for four doors there was nothing more, no pictures, tapestries, tables, absolutely nothing.
Phelps went forward a little more, and the lights turned on at each step, while those behind went out automatically, creating a shadowy atmosphere.
Farther ahead Phelps began to hear voices coming from inside one of the rooms off the hallway. He immediately identified Rafael’s but not the other two. They spoke Russian, or some other Eastern European language, that was certain. This Rafael was surprising. The Vatican wasn’t scanty with its service. It prepared its people so they could control any terrain lacking nothing, without errors or imperfections.
He approached the door in question, which was only closed a little, but understood nothing since it was all in Russian. He tried to see inside the room, but the crack was narrow. All he could see were shadows.
Suddenly the door opened, revealing a blond man with a wrinkled face covered by a week’s growth of beard. He carried a Kalashnikov and began a one-sided conversation in Russian with Phelps. He shouted, spraying shots of saliva in every sense of the word. The thought occurred to Phelps that the gun was unnecessary, since his breath was so bad it could knock down any enemy.
‘He doesn’t understand Russian,’ he heard Rafael say in English.
The man stopped his babble and looked inside.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
The Russian dragged Phelps into the room. A sixty-watt bulb hung from a wire attached to the ceiling right in the center, shining down on a square table in bad shape with blotches of dried blood on the laminated wood. Phelps made out another man with a Kalashnikov pointed at Rafael, seated, but, from what could be seen, unhurt. Next to a wall was an open armory. Inside were three shelves full of various makes of guns, grenades, radios, a satellite telephone, a machine for resuscitation or torture, depending on the intended purpose. Phelps felt panic at the sight.
‘Is this everyone?’ asked the man who was pointing the gun at Rafael’s head. He was stronger and older.
‘The woman is missing,’ the wrinkled man said, shoving Phelps against the wall and pressing the barrel of the gun into him. Immediately he searched him minutely. ‘He’s clean.’
The older man took the radio and pressed a button.
‘Everything clean. The woman’s missing.’