by Greg Dinallo
I nod and slip the pages from my briefcase. “Something special.”
Sergei’s brows arch with anticipation. He settles in the tired cushions of his chair, pushes his glasses onto his forehead, and starts reading. His eyes widen, his jaw tightens, and he begins to fidget. Minutes seem like an eternity.
“Powerful,” he finally pronounces. “Powerful, important, and shocking.”
“Thank you.”
His head cocks challengingly. “You’re positive about this conspiracy to rip off State assets?”
“Shevchenko’s positive. Really, Sergei, it’s no secret the place is overrun with corruption.”
“And you’re also positive Vorontsov was killed because he was going to blow the whistle?”
“He was head of the IM’s oversight committee. Look, he was either onto it or into it. We’re talking political scandal no matter how you slice it.”
“Good. I’m not interested in doing street crime.”
“Nor am I.”
“Shevchenko’s working with you?”
“Only with me, if that’s what you mean.”
Sergei nods and chortles at something that occurs to him. “I can see it in the Washington Post now: FORMER COMMUNIST PARTY NEWSPAPER EXPOSES CAPITALIST PRIVATIZATION SCHEME.”
“We should be so lucky. I’m more interested in Pravda’s headline.”
He hunches down in the chair, rocking back and forth thoughtfully, then eyes twinkling with mischief, Sergei announces, “MURDER FOR PROFIT.”
It’s a stroke of genius. I laugh out loud with delight. “They’ve never seen that one in Pravda.”
He grins with satisfaction, then knocks his glasses down onto his nose and picks up the pages. “Now for the hard part,” he says awkwardly. “This is a great story, Nikolai, really; but the writing, it’s . . . it’s stilted.”
“Stilted?”
“Yes, you know, full of Novoyaz,” he groans, using slang for government-speak. “We don’t use phrases like ‘longtime servant of the Motherland’ or ‘heinous act of hooliganism’ any longer. We don’t think the CSP is rife with corruption, Nikolai. We know it. Correct?”
I nod, angry with myself.
“Then why not say it outright?”
“Too many years of trying to outsmart glavit,” I reply, cursing decades spent cloaking the truth in officially acceptable language to slip it past KGB censors. “Old habits die hard.”
“Tell me about it. I’m the worst. The syntax has to be more contemporary now. More conversational. More, more . . .”
“Westernized.”
He nods emphatically.
I’m crushed and about to argue that it’s a rough draft, that I can easily fix it, when it dawns on me Sergei knows this. He also knows it’s a hot story. Editors are notorious for finding huge problems with free-lance copy, notorious for their “it’s great but needs a lot of work” negotiating technique. It’s an old ploy to keep the price down. I casually gather the pages from his desk and open the flap of my briefcase. “Well, Sergei, if you think it’s beyond repair . . .”
“Beyond repair?!” He pulls the pages from my hand. “This is a lead story—front page—above the fold.”
“A series of follow-ups on Shevchenko go with it,” I declare, pressing the advantage. “The investigator tracks down and apprehends suspects, files charges, testifies at trials . . .”
“A case history as seen through the eyes of a cop,” Sergei says knowingly.
“An ambitious cop.”
Sergei waggles his hand. “I hear he’s not enough of a prick to make chief.”
“Me too. Still, every exclusive has its price. Speaking of which . . .”
“Hold it right there. I took this job on several conditions. A hefty discretionary fund was one of them. You’ll be well paid. I promise you.”
“How well?”
He kicks back in his chair, studying the ceiling. “Oh, say . . . a hundred twenty-five thousand rubles.”
“That’s very poor discretion, Sergei.”
“I hasten to remind you it’s ten times the average weekly wage.”
“Ten? Did I just hear you say ten? Now that’s a good number. Yes, ten times the monthly wage.”
“Five hundred thousand rubles?!”
“For the lead, and two follow-ups at two-fifty each.”
“No. No, two-fifty for the lead, and seventy-five for each follow-up.”
“Why don’t we make it easy for your bookkeepers and round it off to an even three for the lead, and a hundred per follow-up?” I extend a hand.
A long moment passes before Sergei’s meaty fist latches onto mine. “Fair enough. Five hundred thousand.”
“That’s what I said.”
Sergei laughs and tosses his pencil at me. “Now all we have to do is get this ‘Westernized’ in time for the morning edition.”
“I’ll do it here. Just give me a desk where I can—”
“Oh, no. No, not necessary. You were up all night working on it, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“You look it.”
“I’m fine. Really.”
“Enough. Your face has the pallor of newsprint. A tired writer produces tired copy, my friend. This needs energy and pace.”
“Then who? You?”
He smiles enigmatically and takes, his time lighting a cigarette. After filling the space above his desk with smoke, he reaches to the intercom box next to his phone and depresses the talk button. “Drevnya? Drevnya, get in here, will you?”
On the other side of the glass partition, a young reporter pushes back from a desk and makes his way through the newsroom. Thatches of brown hair fall over his forehead and collar. In his blue jeans, T-shirt, and vest, the kid looks like he’s just come from a rock concert in Sokol’niki Park. Unlike the old-timer at Moscow Beginners, he hasn’t the slightest glimmer of recognition when Sergei introduces us. Dissidents have no cachet with this generation.
“Katkov has brought us a story,” Sergei explains. “An exclusive one. Something that will get this paper off the mark. But it needs your touch.”
The young lion nods smugly and scans the pages with an expression that has “stilted” written all over it. “Looks like an easy fix.” He forces a smile and exits, then, as an afterthought, calls back over his shoulder, “Hell of a piece.”
“He’s good. Very good,” Sergei says, sensing my uneasiness. “He can dig out a story, he can verify facts, he can write, and he’s not afraid. None of these kids are. They don’t give a damn what the Kremlin thinks. Some of the best young journalists I’ve come across in years.”
“You forgot to mention his strong handshake, bristling energy, confident demeanor, and intense eyes. Naturally, I disliked him immediately.”
Sergei laughs heartily. “If it makes you feel any better, he punches up my material too. He’ll punch me right out the door if I’m not careful. You know why they call political upheavals ‘thaws,’ don’t you?”
“A metaphor for spring; a coming back to life.”
“No. It’s because getting through them is like walking on thin ice.”
“Come on. You’ve got nothing to worry about, and I’m sure the kid’ll do a fine job.” I turn to leave, feeling as dated as the furniture.
“Wait!” Sergei beats me to the door and closes it. “Get that shade, will you?”
I’m reaching for the tasseled pull when my eyes dart to the kid in the newsroom. He’s at his desk, but he’s not typing. He’s talking—animatedly—on the phone. I’m wondering what he’s up to when I hear the clink of glassware behind me. Sergei is removing a bottle of vodka and two tumblers from a sideboard behind his desk.
“Stolichnaya?” Though vodka is more available in Moscow than meat and fresh vegetables, the government reserves the finest for export only.
“Never drink with two other people, Nikasha,” he jests, quoting a popular saying as he pours. “You won’t know who the informer was.”
“Unless on
e of them brought Stolichnaya.”
“Of course. The one with black-market vodka broke the law. He wouldn’t be working with the police. So it would have to be the other one.”
“Not necessarily . . .” I lower the shade over the glass partition. “There’s always a chance the one who broke the law has already been caught.”
He smiles thinly and nods in acknowledgment. “Zadrovnye,” he says, handing me one of the glasses. He knocks back the vodka, smacks his lips, and looks at me, wondering what I’m waiting for.
So am I. Hell, I’ve been working my ass off. I have it coming. What am I waiting for? Vera’s approval? Probably. This Moscow Beginners stuff was her idea. Where the hell is she when I need her?
A couple of hours later, I find out. I’m heading home on the Metro when my beeper goes off. I still don’t know exactly where Vera is, but chances are she isn’t dead—and isn’t in Lubyanka, Lefortovo, or the gulag. I’m halfway up the stairs to my apartment when the scent hits me. “Vera?!” I call out as I lunge through the door, which is unlocked.
As I pictured last night, Vera is curled up on the sofa, reading. Her soft platinum hair is swept over one shoulder, the blanket tucked around her legs, the carbons of my article in her lap instead of a book.
“What happened? You okay?”
“Bastards!” she exclaims bitterly as she sets the pages aside and runs into my arms, her flawless White-Russian skin flushing with rage.
“Who are you talking about?”
“Shevchenko. A couple of his goons busted in here and hauled me away.”
“Shevchenko? Why?”
“He didn’t like me tipping you off.”
“Are you kidding? He was thrilled. We—”
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m serious. We made a deal. He’s giving me an exclusive; and I’m giving him a promotion, so to speak.”
“Chief Investigator Shevchenko,” Vera intones knowingly. Then, gesturing to the pages on the sofa, she adds, “If that doesn’t do it, nothing will.”
“Rather good, isn’t it?”
“Damned good.” She lets out a long breath and shrugs, baffled. “I don’t get it.”
“The only thing that makes sense is Shevchenko wanted to make sure I know who’s calling the shots.”
“Well, you always said you were a liability I couldn’t afford. I’m starting to think you’re right.”
“He fired you?”
“No. Docked me a couple of days’ pay, though.”
“Gosh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do. I called your apartment, I called the militia, I even called the goddamned KGB.”
“The Security Directorate,” she corrects.
“Whatever. They’ll always be KGB to me.”
“Neither had a record of my arrest, right?”
“Right.”
“They stashed me in the drunk tank.” That explains it. As part of the new commitment to increase personal freedom and change the police state mentality, Moscow’s sobering-up stations are no longer being run by the militia. Of course, they’ve become the perfect place to confine citizens without any record of their being in custody. “After spending the night watching the scum of the earth barf their brains out, I got a two-hour lecture from Shevchenko about not revealing information to outsiders.”
“I’m still glad you did.”
Her demeanor softens, and she breaks into a satisfied smile. “This is the one, isn’t it, Niko?”
“Uh-huh. I can live off it for a year.”
“You already sold it?!”
I nod emphatically. “A series of follow-ups too.”
“Come on, come on, who?”
“Pravda.”
“Pravda?!”
“Don’t laugh. Sergei is there. They’re paying five hundred thousand.”
“Five hundred?! That’s fantastic.”
“Enough talk,” I say, pointing to a clipping from an old issue of The New York Times Magazine that’s pinned to the bulletin board above my desk.
“I know, I know,” Vera says, beating me to it. “ ‘Planning to write is not writing. Outlining a book is not writing. Researching is not writing. Talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.’ E. L. Doctorow.”
“You have it memorized.”
Vera’s eyes roll. “A parrot would have little choice around here.”
“Can you say, ‘Make love to me, Nikolai’?” I ask, pulling her into an embrace.
“Maybe.”
“How about, ‘Tear off my clothes, Nikolai. Bwaaak! Tear off my clothes, Nikolai. Bwaaaak! Bwaaaak!’ Can you say that?”
She emits a lusty giggle and kisses me. All of a sudden she breaks it off and glares at me accusingly.
Damn. The vodka. She’s detected the vodka.
“Stolichnaya. How could I say no?”
Her soft eyes narrow and harden like gemstones.
“Sergei wanted to celebrate. I couldn’t insult him. I only had one.”
“That’s one too many.”
“Come on, Vera, I’m fine.”
“Oh, yeah?” she challenges seductively, grinding her pelvis against mine. “I’ll be the judge of that.” She buries her hands in my hair, spins me around, and pushes me down on the bed, her mouth devouring mine, her hands tearing at my clothes. Thank God Sergei insisted the kid do the rewrite. Soon, passion soaring, we’re naked and tangled in the bedding like writhing snakes. It doesn’t get much better than this. No, life has never been so good. Never.
Hours later, I’ve no idea how many, I awaken to the strong smell of coffee and a rustling sound. My hand searches the bed for Vera to no avail. I push up onto an elbow, squinting at the daylight coming through the curtains. “Vera?”
No reply.
I finally locate her in a chair by the window. She’s fully dressed and is frantically turning the pages of a newspaper. “Vera? Vera, what the hell are you doing?”
“It’s not here.”
“What?”
“Pravda. I couldn’t wait for the mail. I bought a copy at the newsstand. I can’t find it. It’s not on the front page, not even below the fold.”
“It has to be.” I stumble out of bed and tear the paper from her hands—as if looking for it myself, as if willing the article to be there will make it so. But it isn’t. Not on the front page, not opposite the editorial page, not anywhere that an important story would be found. Finally, near the bottom of a column of obituaries, I find a small headline: V. I. VORONTSOV KILLED BY THIEF.
“Killed By Thief?!” I exclaim, my voice ringing with disbelief. “By M. I. Drevnya?!”
“Who?”
“The wiseass kid who did the rewrite!” I explode, throwing the newspaper across the room in disgust.
5
Drevnya is at his desk, typing furiously as I charge across the newsroom brandishing the paper. “What the fuck is this?!”
He recoils and swivels in his chair to face me. “Take it easy, Katkov, take it easy, okay?”
“Soon as you explain what happened to my story!”
He retreats, propelling the chair backward with his feet, then stands to confront me. “Look, I can understand why you’re pissed off, but—”
“Pissed off?! Pissed off is hardly—”
“Hey, hey?!” Sergei’s voice booms. He weaves between the desks and pushes his way through the group that encircles us. “What the hell’s going on here?”
“Good question!”
“Ask him,” the kid counters, jabbing a finger at my chest. “He’s the one who’s going bonkers!”
“You little shit!” I lunge for him, but Sergei steps between us and burns me with a look. “Let’s do this in my office.”
I’m seething, the veins in my neck throbbing like fire hoses. I take a moment to settle, then nod grudgingly and follow after him.
Sergei closes the door and gathers his thoughts. Then like a teacher forced to reprimand a prize student, he says, “
I’m disappointed in you, Nikolai. You’re better than this.”
“The feeling’s mutual. You should have called me.”
“I just did.”
“Bullshit!”
“I spoke to Vera. You can ask her. It’s barely eight-thirty. You expect me to wake you in the middle of the night? ‘Hi, Nikolai, I have some bad news.’”
“What news?! Vorontsov was murdered to keep the lid on a privatization scandal. Where’d this nonsense about a robbery come from?!”
“Look, Niko, you’re going to have to accept that this story isn’t what you thought.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“The kid has initiative. Yesterday afternoon, he—”
“That’s a polite word for it!”
“Yesterday afternoon,” Sergei resumes evenly, “before starting his rewrite, he called Vorontsov’s daughter to check some facts, but—”
“He wasn’t supposed to check facts! He was going to ‘Westernize’ my syntax! Remember?!”
“Yes, Nikolai, of course I do,” he says, measuring his words as if dealing with a surly toddler. “Now, hear me out, will you?”
I splay my hands and drop into the chair opposite his desk with a sullen nod.
“Thank you. When Drevnya called Mrs. Churkin, she was leaving for Militia Headquarters and couldn’t talk. But the kid has some connections there or something so he arranged to meet her. Needless to say, identifying her father’s body was upsetting. Drevnya comforted her and, shrewd journalist that he is, just happened to be at her side when she claimed Vorontsov’s personal effects and discovered something was missing.”
“Come on. I was at the crime scene. Nothing was missing. His billfold, his watch, his—”
“I know—I know,” Sergei interrupts.
“Then why does the fucking obit say a thief stole his valuables?!”
He stares at the ceiling for a moment, deciding. “That was a cover.”
“A cover?!” I exclaim, jumping to my feet. “A cover for what?”
“For what was actually stolen.”
“What is this, some sort of guessing game? Come on, goddammit, what was stolen?”