The Sky Is Falling (25 page)

This is where I belong
, Dana thought,
not running around the world on some wild-goose chase
.

The broadcast went well. When Dana returned to the apartment, Kemal was asleep. After saying good night to Mrs. Daley, Dana went to bed, but she was unable to sleep.

I have the information you want. I have made a reservation in your name at the Soyuz Hotel in Moscow. Come immediately. Tell no one about this.

It’s a trap. I’d be a fool to go back to Moscow
, Dana thought.
But what if it’s real? Who would go to all this trouble? And why? The letter could only have come from Boris Shdanoff. What if he really knows something
? She was awake all night.

When Dana arose in the morning, she telephoned Roger Hudson and told him about the note.

“My God. I don’t know what to say.” He sounded excited. “This could mean that someone is ready to tell the truth about what happened to the Winthrops.”

“I know.”

“Dana, it could be dangerous. I don’t like that.”

“If I don’t go, we’ll never find out the truth.”

He hesitated. “I suppose you’re right.”

“I’ll be careful, but I must go.”

Roger Hudson said reluctantly, “Very well. I want you to stay in close touch.”

“I promise, Roger.”

Dana was at the Corniche Travel Agency buying a round-trip ticket to Moscow. It was Tuesday.
I hope I won’t be gone too long
, Dana thought. She left a message for Matt to tell him what was happening.

When Dana returned to her apartment, she said to Mrs. Daley, “I’m afraid I have to go away again. It’s just for a couple of days. Take good care of Kemal.”

“You don’t have to worry about anything, Miss Evans. We’ll be fine.”

The tenant next door turned away from the television set and made a hasty telephone call.

Boarding the Aeroflot plane to Moscow, Dana thought,
It’s déjà vu. Maybe I’m making a big mistake. It could be a trap. But if the answer is in Moscow, I’m going to find it
. She settled back for the long flight.

When the plane landed the next morning at the now familiar Sheremetyevo II airport, Dana collected her bag and walked outside into a blinding snowstorm. There was a long line of travelers waiting for taxis. Dana stood in the cold wind, grateful for her warm coat. Forty-five minutes later, when it was finally Dana’s turn, a burly man tried to push in ahead of her.

“
Nyet
!” Dana said firmly. “This is my cab.” She got inside.

The driver said, “
Da
?”

“I want to go to the Soyuz Hotel.”

He turned to look at her and said in halting English, “You sure you wish to go there?”

Dana said, puzzled, “Why? What do you mean?”

“That is very not nice hotel.”

Dana felt a frisson of alarm.
Am I sure? Toolateto back off now
. He was waiting for an answer. “Yes. I — I’m sure.”

The driver shrugged, put the taxi in gear, and started off into the snowbound traffic.

Dana thought,
What if there is no reservation at the hotel? What if all this is some stupid joke
?

The Soyuz Hotel was located in a working-class district on the outskirts of Moscow on Levoberezhnaya Street. It was an old, unprepossessing building with brown paint peeling off the exterior.

“You want I wait?” the driver asked.

Dana hesitated for only an instant. “No.” She paid the driver, got out of the taxi, and the icy wind pushed her into the small, shabby lobby. An elderly woman sat behind the desk, reading a magazine. She looked up in surprise as Dana entered. Dana walked up to the desk.

“Da?”

“I believe I have a reservation. Dana Evans.” She was holding her breath.

The woman nodded slowly. “Dana Evans, yes.” She reached behind her and pulled out a key from a rack. “Four-oh-two, fourth floor.” She handed it to Dana.

“Where do I register?”

The woman shook her head. “No register. You pay now. One day.”

Dana felt a new sense of alarm. A hotel in Russia where foreigners didn’t have to register? Something was very wrong.

The woman said, “Five hundred rubles.”

“I’ll have to get some money changed,” Dana said. “Later.”

“No. Now. I take dollars.”

“All right.” Dana reached into her purse and took out a handful of bills.

The woman nodded, reached out, and extracted half a dozen of them.

I think I could have bought the hotel with that
. Dana looked around. “Where is the elevator?”

“No elevator.”

“Oh.” A porter was obviously out of the question. Dana picked up her bag and started walking up the stairs.

Her room was even worse than she had anticipated. It was small and shabby, the curtains were torn and the bed unmade. How was Boris going to contact her?
This could be a hoax
, Dana thought,
but why would anyone go to this much trouble
?

Dana sat on the edge of the bed and looked out of the unwashed window at the busy street scene below.

I’ve been a bloody fool
, Dana thought.
I could be sitting here for days, and nothing
—

There was a soft rap on the door. Dana took a deep breath and stood up. She was either going to solve the mystery now or find out that there was no mystery. Dana walked over to the door and opened it. There was no one in the hallway. On the floor was an envelope. Dana picked it up and carried it inside. The piece of paper inside said
VDNKh 9:00 P.M
. Dana stared at it, trying to make sense of it. She opened her suitcase and took out the guidebook she had brought. There it was,
VDNKh
. The text read
USSR, economic achievements exhibition
, and it gave an address.

At eight o’clock that evening, Dana hailed a taxi. “
VDNKh
. The park?” She was not sure of her pronunciation.

The driver turned to look at her. “
VDNKh
? Everything closed.”

“Oh.”

“You still go there?”

“Yes.”

The driver shrugged and the cab leaped forward.

The vast park was in the northeast section of Moscow. According to the guidebook, the lavish exhibitions had been planned as a monument to Soviet glory, but when the economy fell, funds were cut off, and the park had become a decaying monument to Soviet dogma. The grandiose pavilions were crumbling and the park was deserted.

Dana stepped out of the taxi and took out a handful of American money. “Is this—?”

“
Da
.” He grabbed the bills and a moment later was gone.

Dana looked around. She was alone in the freezing, windswept park. She walked to a nearby bench and sat down and waited for Boris. She remembered how she had waited at the zoo for Joan Sinisi.
What if Boris
—?

A voice from behind Dana startled her. “
Horoshiy vyecherniy
.”

Dana turned, and her eyes widened in surprise. She had expected Boris Shdanoff. Instead, she was looking at Commissar Sasha Shdanoff. “Commissar! I didn’t expect—”

“You will follow me,” he said curtly. Sasha Shdanoff started walking rapidly across the park. Dana hesitated an instant, then got up and hurried after him. He walked into a small, rustic-looking café at the edge of the park and took a seat at a back booth. There was only one other couple in the café. Dana crossed over to his booth and sat down.

A slovenly waitress in a soiled apron came up to them. “
Da
?”

“
Dva cofe, pozhalooysta
,” Shdanoff said. He turned back to Dana. “I was not sure you would come, but you are very persistent. That can be dangerous sometimes.”

“You said in your note you could tell me what I want to know.”

“Yes.” The coffee arrived. He took a sip, and was silent for a moment. “You want to know if Taylor Winthrop and his family were murdered.”

Dana’s heart began to beat faster. “Were they?”

“Yes.” It came out in an eerie whisper.

Dana felt a sudden chill. “Do you know who killed them?”

“Yes.”

She took a deep breath. “Who?”

He raised a hand to stop her. “I will tell you, but first you must do something for me.”

Dana looked at him and said cautiously, “What?”

“Get me out of Russia. I am no longer safe here.”

“Why can’t you just go to the airport and fly away? I understand that foreign travel is no longer forbidden.”

“Dear Miss Evans, you are naive. Very naive. True, it is not like the old days of communism, but if I were to try what you suggest, they would kill me before I even got close to an airport. The walls still have ears and eyes. I am in great danger. I need your help.”

It took a moment for his words to sink in. Dana looked at him in dismay. “I can’t get you — I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

“You must. You must find a way. My life is in danger.”

Dana was thoughtful for a moment. “I can talk to the American ambassador and—”

“No!” Sasha Shdanoff’s voice was sharp.

“But that’s the only way—”

“Your embassy has traitors’ ears. No one must know about this but you and whoever is going to help you. Your ambassador cannot help me.”

Dana felt suddenly depressed. There was no possible way she could sneak a top Russian commissar out of Russia.
I couldn’t sneak a cat out of this country
. And she had another thought. This whole thing was probably a ruse. Sasha Shdanoff had no information. He was using her as a means to get to America. This trip had been for nothing.

Dana said, “I’m afraid I can’t help you, Commissar Shdanoff.” She got to her feet, furious.

“Wait! You want proof? I will give you proof.”

“What kind of proof?”

It took him a long time to answer. When he spoke, he said slowly, “You are forcing me to do something I have no wish to do.” He rose. “You will come with me.”

Thirty minutes later, they were going up the private back entrance to Sasha Shdanoff’s offices at the Bureau for International Economic Development.

“I could be executed for what I am about to tell you,” Sasha Shdanoff said when they arrived. “But I have no choice.” He made a helpless gesture. “Because I will be killed if I stay here.”

Dana watched as Shdanoff walked over to a large safe built into the wall. He spun the combination, pulled open the safe, and took out a thick book. He carried it to his desk. On the front of the book it said in red lettering
Klassifitsirovann’gy
.

“This is highly classified information,” Commissar Shdanoff told Dana. He opened the book.

Dana looked closely as he slowly started to turn the pages. Each page contained color photographs of bombers, space launch vehicles, antiballistic missiles, air - to - surface missiles, automatic weapons, tanks, and submarines.

“This is Russia’s complete arsenal.” It looked enormous, deadly.

“At this moment, Russia has more than one thousand intercontinental ballistic missiles, more than two thousand atomic warheads, and seventy strategic bombers.” He pointed to various weapons as he turned the pages. “This is the Awl… Acrid… Aphid… Anab… Archer… Our nuclear arsenal rivals that of the United States.”

“It’s very, very impressive.”

“The Russian military has grave problems, Miss Evans. We are facing a crisis. There is no money to pay the soldiers, and the morale is very low. The present offers little hope, and the future looks worse, so the military is being forced to turn to the past.”

Dana said, “I — I’m afraid I don’t understand how this—”

“When Russia was truly a superpower, we built more weapons than even the United States. All those weapons are sitting here now. There are dozens of countries hungry for them. They are worth billions.”

Dana said patiently, “Commissar, I understand the problem, but—”

“This is not the problem.”

Dana looked at him, puzzled. “No? Then what is?”

Shdanoff chose his next words carefully. “Have you heard of Krasnoyarsk-26?”

Dana shook her head. “No.”

“I am not surprised. It is not on any map, and the people who live there do not officially exist.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You will see. Tomorrow I will take you there. You are to meet me at the same café at noon.” He put his hand on Dana’s arm, squeezing hard. “You must not tell anyone about this.” He was hurting her. “Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“
Orobopeno
. It is agreed.”

At noon, Dana arrived at the little café in VDNKh Park. She walked in and sat at the same booth, waiting. Thirty minutes later Shdanoff had still not appeared.
What happens now
? she wondered anxiously.

“
Dobry dyen
.” Sasha Shdanoff was standing at the booth. “Come. We must go shopping.”

“Shopping?” she asked incredulously.

“Come!”

Dana followed him out into the park. “Shopping for what?”

“For you.”

“I don’t need—”

Shdanoff hailed a taxi and they rode in a strained silence to a mall. They got out of the taxi, and Shdanoff paid the driver.

“In here,” Sasha Shdanoff said.

They walked inside the mall past half a dozen stores. When they came to a shop with a display of provocative, sexy lingerie in the window, Shdanoff stopped.

“Here.” He led Dana inside.

Dana looked around at the sleazy garments. “What are we doing here?”

“You are going to change clothes.”

A saleslady approached them, and there was a rapid exchange in Russian. The saleslady nodded and a few moments later returned with a hot pink miniskirt and a beribboned, very low-cut blouse.

Shdanoff nodded his approval. “
Da
.” He turned to Dana. “You will put these on.”

Dana recoiled. “No! I’m not going to wear that. What do you—”

“You must.” His voice was firm.

“Why?”

“You will see.”

Dana thought,
The man is some kind of sex maniac. What the devil have I gotten myself into
?