Читать книгу: «A Darker Place»

1

Fresh from the shower, Monica Starling sat at the dressing table in her suite at the Pierre and applied her make-up carefully. She’d dried and arranged her streaked blonde hair in her favourite style as she always did, and now sat back and gave herself the once-over. Not bad for forty and she didn’t look that ancient, even she had to admit that. She smiled, remembering the remark Sean Dillon had made on the first occasion they had met. ‘Lady Starling, as Jane Austen would have Darcy say, it’s always a pleasure to meet a truly handsome woman.’

The rogue, she thought, wondering what he was up to, this ex-enforcer with the Provisional IRA and now an operative in what everyone referred to as the ‘Prime Minister’s private Army’. He was a thoroughly dangerous man, and yet he was her lover. Look at you, Monica, she thought, shaking her head – a Cambridge don with three doctorates, falling for a man like that. Yet there it was.

She put on a snow-white blouse, beautifully cut in fine Egyptian cotton, and buttoned it carefully. Next came a trouser suit as black as night, one of Valentino’s masterpieces. Simple diamond studs for the ears. Manolo Blahnik shoes, and she was finished.

‘Yes, excellent, girl,’ she said. ‘Full marks.’

She smiled, thinking of her escort, dear, sweet old George Dunkley, Professor Emeritus in European Literature at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, bless his cotton socks and all seventy years of him, and thrilled out of his mind to be here tonight. Not that she wasn’t a little thrilled herself. When she’d accepted the United Nations’ invitation to this international scholars’ weekend, she’d had no idea who the guest of honour would turn out to be.

Alexander Kurbsky – the greatest novelist of his generation, as far as she was concerned. On the Death of Men and Moscow Nights – astonishing achievements, born out of his experiences as a paratrooper in Afghanistan and then the years of hell during the first and second Chechen wars. And he was only, what? Thirty-four, thirty-five? Hardly anyone outside Russia had actually met him since the publication of those books, the government kept him on such a short leash, and yet here he was, in New York. It was going to be quite an evening.

She turned from the mirror and the phone rang.

Dillon said, ‘I thought I’d catch you.’

‘What time is it there?’

‘Just after midnight. Looking forward to meeting Kurbsky?’

‘I must admit I am. I’ve never seen George so excited.’

‘For good reason. Kurbsky’s an interesting guy in lots of ways. His father was KGB, you know. When his mother died giving birth to his sister, an aunt raised them both for several years, and then one day, Kurbsky just up and ran away to London. The aunt was living there by then, and he stayed with her, studied at the London School of Economics for two years, and then – gone again. Went back, joined the paratroops, and the rest is history or myth, call it what you like.’

‘I know all that, Sean, it’s in his publisher’s handout. Still, it should be quite an evening.’

‘I imagine so. How do you look?’

‘Bloody marvellous.’

‘That’s my girl. Slay the people. I’ll go now.’

‘Love you,’ she said, but he was gone. Men, she thought wryly, they’re from a different planet, and she got her purse and went to do battle.

In a room on the floor below, Alexander Kurbsky examined himself in the mirror and ran a comb through his shoulder-length dark hair. The tangled beard suggested a medieval bravo, a roisterer promising a kiss for a woman and a blow for a man. It was his personal statement, a turning against any kind of control after his years in the Army. He was a shade under five ten, much of his face covered by the beard, and his eyes were grey, like water over stone.

He was dressed totally in black: a kind of jersey with a collar fastened by a single button at the neck, black jacket and trousers, obviously Brioni. Even his pocket handkerchief was black.

His mobile phone, encrypted, buzzed. Bounine said, ‘Turn left out of the entrance, fifty metres and I’m waiting. Black Volvo.’

Kurbsky didn’t reply, simply switched off, went out, found the nearest lift and descended. He went out of the entrance of the hotel, ignoring the staff on duty, walked his fifty metres, found the Volvo and got in.

‘How far?’ he asked.

Bounine glanced briefly at him and smiled through gold-rimmed glasses. He had thinning hair, and the look of somebody’s favourite uncle about him, except that he was GRU.

‘Fifteen minutes. I’ve checked it.’

‘Let’s get on with it then.’

Kurbsky leaned back and closed his eyes.

Igor Vronsky was thirty-five and looked ten years older, but that was his drug habit. His hair was black and a little too long, verging on the unkempt. The skin was stretched too tightly across a narrow face with pointed chin. A paisley neckerchief at his throat and a midnight-blue velvet jacket combined, by intention, to give him a theatrical look. His notoriety in Moscow these days didn’t worry him. The government loathed him for his book on Putin’s time in the KGB, but this was America, he had a new job writing for the New York Times, and they couldn’t touch him. The book had brought him fame, money, women – to hell with Moscow.

He smiled at himself in the bathroom mirror, then leaned down to inhale the first of two lines of cocaine that waited. It was good stuff, absolutely spot on, and he followed it with the second line. He was dizzy for a moment, then slightly chilled in the brain and suddenly very sharp and ready for the great Alexander Kurbsky.

There was an old Russian saying: there was room for only one cock on any dunghill. He had no illusions that Kurbsky would be the star attraction at this soirée, but it might be amusing to knock him off his pedestal. He moved into the untidy living room of the small fifth-floor apartment, found a raincoat and let himself out.

‘He never books a cab,’ Bounine had said. ‘It’s only a step into Columbus Avenue, where he can have them by the dozen.’

So Kurbsky waited in the shadows for Vronsky to emerge, stand for a moment under the light of the doorway to his apartment building, then advance to the left, pulling up his collar against the rain. As he passed, Kurbsky reached out and pulled him close with considerable strength, his left arm sliding round the neck in a chokehold, the blade of his bone-handled gutting knife springing into action at the touch of the button. Vronsky was aware of the needlepoint nudging in through his clothing, the hand now clamped over his mouth, the blade seeming to know exactly what it was doing as it probed for the heart.

He slid down in a corner of the doorway and died very quickly on his knees. Kurbsky took out a fresh handkerchief, wiped the knife clean and closed it, then he leaned over the body, found a wallet and mobile phone, turned and walked to where Bounine waited. He got in to the Volvo and they drove away.

‘It’s done,’ Bounine said.

Kurbsky opened the glove compartment and put the wallet inside, plus the mobile phone. ‘You’ll get rid of those.’

‘Just another street mugging.’

‘He was on coke.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘I’m sure.’ He took out a pack of Marlboros.

Bounine said, ‘Does it bother you?’

Kurbsky said calmly, ‘Did Chechnya bother you?’ He lit a cigarette. ‘Anyway I’m not in the mood for discussion. I’ve got a performance to give. Let’s get the great Alexander Kurbsky on stage.’

As they moved along Columbus Avenue, Bounine said, ‘Is that all it is to you, Alex?’

‘Yuri, old friend, I’m not into Freud at the start of a dark winter’s evening in good old New York. Just get me to the Pierre where my fans are waiting.’

He leaned back, staring out at the sleet, and smoked his cigarette.

When Monica Starling and Professor Dunkley went into the reception at the Pierre, it was awash with people, the surroundings magnificent, the great and the good well in evidence. The US Ambassador to the United Nations was there, and his Russian counterpart. The champagne flowed. Monica and Dunkley took a glass each, moved to one side and simply observed the scene.

‘There seem to be a few film stars,’ Dunkley said.

‘There would be, George, they like to be seen. There seems to be a pop star or two, as well. I suppose they feel an affair like this touches them with a certain…gravitas.’

‘He’s there,’ Dunkley said. ‘Talking to the French Ambassador, Henri Guyon, and the Russian – what’s his name again?’

‘Ivan Makeev,’ Monica told him.

‘They seem very enthusiastic about something, their heads together, except for Kurbsky.’

‘He looks bored, if anything,’ Monica said.

‘We’ll be lucky to get anywhere near him,’ Dunkley told her mournfully. ‘Look at all those people hovering like vultures, waiting for the ambassadors to finish with him so they can move in. We’ve had it.’

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ She stood there, her left hand on her hip, her black suede purse dangling from it, and as he turned, she caught his eye and toasted him, glass raised, and emptied it. He knew her, of course, but she didn’t know that, and he gave her a lazy and insolent smile as he walked over.

‘Lady Starling, a pleasure long overdue.’ He relieved her of her empty glass and waved for a passing waiter. ‘How are things in Cambridge these days? And this will be Professor George Dunkley, am I correct? I’ve read your book on the other Alexander.’

Dunkley was stunned. ‘My dear chap.’ He shook hands, obviously deeply affected.

‘The other Alexander?’ Monica inquired.

‘An early work,’ Dunkley told her. ‘“An analysis of Alexandre Dumas and his writing salon.”’

‘All those assistants and Dumas prowling up and down the aisles like a schoolmaster in a black frock coat,’ Kurbsky said.

He resonated charm, throwing it off as if it was of no account, his voice pleasantly deep, only a hint of a Russian accent.

‘Was it really like that?’ Monica asked.

‘But of course, and look what it produced. The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo.’

Dunkley said, breathless with enthusiasm, ‘The literary establishment in Paris in his day treated him abominably.’

‘I agree. On the other hand, they really got their faces rubbed in it when his son turned out one of the greatest of French plays, La Dame aux Camellias.’

‘And then Verdi used the story for La Traviata!’ Dunkley said.

Kurbsky smiled. ‘One would hope Dumas got a royalty.’

They laughed and Dunkley said, ‘Oh, my goodness, Captain Kurbsky, my seminars would be so crowded if my students knew you were going to attend.’

‘That’s an enticing prospect, but Cambridge is not possible, I’m afraid – and Captain Kurbsky belongs to a time long gone. I’m plain Alexander now.’ He smiled at Monica. ‘Or Alex, if you prefer.’

She returned his smile, slightly breathless, and an aide approached and said formally, ‘The Ambassador is ready. If you would form the party, dinner is served.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Kurbsky said. ‘These two will be sitting with me.’

The aide faltered, ‘But, sir, I don’t think that would be possible. It’s all arranged.’

‘Then rearrange it.’ He shrugged. ‘Of course, if there is a problem, we could sit at another table.’

‘No, of course not, sir,’ the aide said hastily. ‘No need – no need at all. I’ll go and make the necessary changes.’

He departed. Dunkley said, ‘I say, old chap, we seem to be causing a bit of a problem.’

‘Not at all. I’m their Russian Frankenstein, the great Alexander Kurbsky led out like a bear on a chain to astonish the world and help make Mother Russia seem great again.’

All this was delivered with no apparent bitterness, and those cold grey eyes gave nothing away. They reminded Monica uncomfortably of Dillon’s, as Kurbsky continued, taking Monica’s hand and raising it to his lips; ‘If you glance over my shoulder you may see the Russian Ambassador approaching to see what the fuss is about.’

‘Quite right,’ Monica told him. ‘Is he going to be angry?’

‘Not at all. The moment he claps eyes on the most beautiful woman in the room, he’s going to scramble to make sure you grace his table and no one else’s.’ He turned to Dunkley. ‘Isn’t that so, Professor?’

‘Don’t ask me, dear boy, I’m just going with the flow. I haven’t enjoyed myself so much in years.’

And then the Ambassador arrived.

The diplomat ended up with his wife seated on his right, Monica on his left, and Kurbsky opposite. Dunkley beamed away lower down the table, facing the French Ambassador and proving that an Englishman could speak the language perfectly. The whole thing was thoroughly enjoyable, but glancing across the table, Monica was conscious that Kurbsky had withdrawn into himself. He reminded her once again of Dillon in a way. For one thing the champagne intake was considerable, but there was an air of slight detachment. He observed, not really taking part, but then that was the writer in him, judging people, constantly assessing the situation in which he found himself.

He caught her eye, smiled slightly and raised his eyebrows, as if saying what fools they all were, and then silence was called for speeches and the Russian Ambassador led the way. It was as if it were international friendship week, nothing unpleasant was happening in the world, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan faded into obscurity, the only thing of any significance being this dinner in one of New York’s greatest hotels, with wonderful food, champagne, and beautiful women. Everyone applauded, and when Monica glanced again at Kurbsky, he had joined in, but with the same weary detachment there. As the applause died, the French Ambassador rose.

He kept it brief and succinct. He was pleased to announce that if Alexander Kurbsky would make himself available in Paris in two weeks’ time, the President of France would have great pleasure in decorating him with the Légion d’Honneur. Tumultuous acclaim, and Kurbsky stood and thanked the Ambassador of France in a graceful little speech delivered in fluent French. It was a fitting ending to a wonderful evening.

Later, as people dispersed, Monica and Dunkley hovered. There was no sign of Kurbsky. ‘What an evening,’ Dunkley said. ‘I haven’t enjoyed myself so much in years.’ They were on a Virgin flight to London in the morning, leaving at ten thirty local time. ‘I’ve got an early start, so I’m for bed.’

‘I’ll see you in the morning,’ she said.

As he walked away to the lifts, Monica paused, still seeking a sign of Kurbsky, but there wasn’t one. In fact, he was outside the hotel sitting in the Volvo talking to Bounine.

‘This Legion of Honour nonsense. Did you know about it?’

‘Absolutely not, but what’s wrong, Alex? The Legion of Honour – it’s the greatest of all French decorations.’

‘Do you ever get a so-what feeling, Yuri? I’ve been there, done that.’

‘Are you saying no? You can’t, Alex. Putin wants it, the country wants it. You’ll be there in Paris in two weeks. So will I. God help us, you’ve got your own Falcon back to Moscow in the morning, and a Falcon’s as good as a Gulfstream.’

‘Is that a fact?’

‘Yes, old son. I’ll pick you up at ten sharp.’

Kurbsky shrugged. ‘Yes, I suppose you will.’

He got out and Bounine drove away. Kurbsky watched him go, turned and went back into the Pierre. The first thing he saw was Monica waiting for a lift and he approached, catching her just in time.

‘Fancy a nightcap, lady?’

She smiled, pleased that he’d turned up. ‘Why not?’

He took her arm and they went to the bar.

There weren’t too many people. They sat in the corner and he had Russian vodka, ice cold, and she contented herself with green tea.

‘Very healthy of you,’ he told her.

‘I wish I could say the same to you, but I’m not sure about that stuff.’

‘You have to be born to it.’

‘Doesn’t it rot the brain?’

‘Not really. Drunk this way, from a glass taken from crushed ice, it freezes the brain, clears it when problems loom.’

‘If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.’

‘No, it’s true. Now, tell me. I know about your academic accomplishments – the Ministry of Arts in Moscow is very thorough when one is attending affairs like this – but nothing about you. I’m puzzled that such a woman would not be married.’

‘I’m a widow, Alex, have been for some years. My husband was a professor at Cambridge, rather older than me and a knight of the realm.’

‘So, no children?’

‘No, a brother, if that helps.’ Her smile faltered for a moment, as she remembered her brother, Harry, recuperating from the terrible knife wounds he had so recently suffered, and, even more, the terrible psychological wounds. To see his wife assassinated in mistake for him – the healing process would take a long time…

She brought the smile back. ‘He’s a Member of Parliament,’ she said, making no mention of what he really did for the Prime Minister.

Of course, Kurbsky actually knew all that, but he kept up the subterfuge.

‘But there must be a man in your life, a woman like you.’

She wasn’t offended in the slightest. ‘Yes, there is such a man.’

‘Then he must count himself lucky.’

He poured another vodka and she said, ‘What about you?’

‘Good heavens, no. The occasional relationship, but it never lasts. I’m a very difficult man, but then, I’ve had a difficult life. You know about me?’

‘A bit. Your aunt raised you, right?’

‘Svetlana was everything. I loved her dearly, but life in Moscow under Communism was difficult. When I was seventeen she got a chance to travel with a theatre group to London – she was an actress – and she met a professor named Patrick Kelly, a good man. For once she had found something for herself, so she refused to return to Moscow, stayed in London and married him.’

‘How was it you managed to join her?’

‘That was my father. As a KGB colonel, he had influence. He arranged for me to visit Svetlana, hoping she’d change her mind.’

‘And your sister?’

‘Tania was at high school and only fifteen. She’d never been close to Svetlana and so she stayed with my father. There were servants, a couple living in my father’s house, to care for her.’

‘And where did the London School of Economics come in?’

He grinned, looking different, like a boy. ‘I always had a love of books and literature, so I didn’t need to study it. I found a new world at the LSE. Svetlana and Kelly had a wonderful Victorian house in Belsize Park, and they felt I should fill my time for a few months, so I took courses. Sociology, psychology, philosophy. The months stretched out.’

‘Two years. What made you return to Moscow?’

‘News from home, bad news. Over fifty-five thousand dead in Afghanistan. Too many body bags. Broken-hearted mothers protesting in the streets. Student groups fighting with the police. Tania was only seventeen, but up to her neck in it. Pitched battles, riot police, many casualties.’ He paused, his face bleak. ‘And Tania among them.’

Her response was so instinctive as to be almost banal. She put a hand on his. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘I returned at once. A waste of time, of course, it was all over. Just a headstone in Minsky Park Military Cemetery. My father used his influence to make things look respectable. She was already dead when he’d got in touch with me in London, so he’d trapped me into returning. I got my revenge on him when I went downtown and joined the paratroopers. He was stuck with that. To pull me out would have looked bad in Communist Party circles.’

‘Then what?’

‘If you’ve read the opening chapters of On the Death of Men, you already know. There was no time to learn how to jump out of a plane with a parachute. I got three months’ basic training, then I was off to Afghanistan. It was eighty-nine, the year everything fell apart, the year we scrambled to get out, and lucky to make it.’

‘It must have been hell.’

‘Something like that, only we didn’t appreciate that Chechnya was to come. Two years of that, and that was just the first war.’

There was a long pause and he poured another vodka with a steady hand. She said, ‘What now – what next?’

‘I’m not sure. Only a handful of writers can achieve great success, and any writer lucky enough to write the special book will tell you the most urgent question is whether you can do it again or it was just some gigantic fluke.’

‘But you answered that question for yourself with Moscow Nights.’

‘I suppose, but…I don’t know. I just feel so…claustrophobic now. Hemmed in by my minders.’

She laughed. ‘You mean the bear-on-the-chain thing? Surely that’s up to you. When Svetlana cast off her chains and refused to return to Moscow, she had to defect. But things are different now. The Russian Federation is not dominated by Communism any longer.’

‘No, but it is dominated by Vladimir Putin. I am just as controlled as I would have been in the old days. I travel in a jet provided by the Ministry of Arts. I am in the hands of GRU minders, wherever I go. I don’t even handle my own passport. They would never let me go willingly.’

‘A terrible pity. Any of the great universities would love to get their hands on you. I’m biased, of course, but Cambridge would lay out the red carpet for you.’

‘An enticing prospect.’

He sat there, frowning slightly, as if considering it. She said, ‘Is there anything particular to hold you in Moscow?’

‘Not a thing. Cancer took my father some years ago, there are cousins here and there. Svetlana is my closest relative. No woman in my life.’ He smiled and shrugged, ‘Not at the moment anyway.’

‘So?’ she said.

‘They watch me closely. If they knew I was even talking this way to you, they’d lock me up.’ He nodded. ‘Anyway, we’ll see. Paris in a fortnight.’

‘Something to look forward to. You should be proud.’

She opened her purse and produced a card. ‘Take this. My mobile phone number is on it. It’s a Codex, encrypted and classified. You can call me on it whenever you like.’

‘Encrypted! I’m impressed. You must be well connected.’

‘You could say that.’ She stood up and said, ‘I mean it. Call me. Paris isn’t too far from Cambridge, when you think of it.’

He smiled. ‘If it ever happened…I wouldn’t want an academic career. I’d prefer to leave the stage for a while, escape my present masters perhaps, but vanish. I’d like to think that my escape would be total, so Moscow had no clue as to where I had gone. I wouldn’t appreciate the British press knocking on my door, wherever I was.’

‘I see what you mean, but that could be difficult.’

‘Not if I were able to leave quietly, no fuss at all. Moscow would know I’d gone, but the last thing they’d want would be for it to be public knowledge, which would create a scandal. They’d keep quiet, say I was working in the country or something on a new book, and try to hunt me down.’

‘I take the point and will pass it on to my friends. Take care.’

He caught her arm. ‘These friends of yours. They would have to be very special people who knew how to handle this kind of thing.’

She smiled. ‘Oh, they are. Call me, Alex, when you’ve had time to think.’

She went to the lifts, a door opened at once, she stepped in and it closed.

Four o’clock in the morning in London, but in the Holland Park safe house in London, Giles Roper sat as usual in his wheelchair, his screens active as he probed cyberspace, his bomb-scarred face restless. He’d slept in the chair for a couple of hours, now Doyle, the night sergeant, had provided him with a bacon sandwich and a mug of tea. He ate the sandwich and was pouring a shot of Scotch when Monica’s voice came over the speaker.

‘Are you there, Roper?’

‘Where else would I be?’

‘You’re the only fixed point in a troubled universe. That’s one thing I’ve learned since getting involved with you people. Is Sean spending the night?’

‘Returned to a bed in staff quarters ages ago. How was your evening? Did Kurbsky impress?’

‘Just listen and see what you think.’

It didn’t take long in the telling, and when she was finished, Roper said, ‘If he’s serious, I can’t see why we couldn’t arrange something. I’ll speak to Sean and General Ferguson first thing in the morning. You, we should be seeing some time in the early evening.’

‘Exactly.’

She switched off. He sat there thinking about it for a while. Alexander Kurbsky doing a runner to England. My God, Vladimir Putin will be furious. He put Kurbsky up on the screen. Too good-looking for his own good, he decided morosely, then brought up his record and started going through it carefully.

Kurbsky had found Bounine in the Volvo outside the Pierre and brought him up to speed. He smoked a cigarette. Bounine said, ‘So far, so good. It’s worked. She must be quite a lady.’

‘That’s an understatement.’

‘So, if they take the bait, we have Paris to look forward to. Colonel Luhzkov will be pleased.’

‘Only because he wants to please Putin, and if Paris works, you mustn’t be a part of it, Yuri. No one should know who you are. Luhzkov will work out something for you. Cultural attaché, for instance, would do you very well. Someone I can trust personally when I’m in London.’

‘I’m glad you still do,’ Bounine said.

‘It’s been a long time, Yuri. You’re the only GRU man I know who looks like an accountant. No one would ever dream you were in Afghanistan and Chechnya with the paratroopers.’

‘Whereas you, old friend, look like they found you in central casting. The smiler with the knife, they used to call you from that first year, remember?’

‘Quite right.’ Kurbsky got out and turned, holding the door. ‘I also write good books.’

‘Great books.’ Bounine smiled. ‘One thing is certain, Putin will be happy the way things have gone.’

‘Putin has many reasons to be happy with the way things are going these days,’ Kurbsky said. ‘Night, Yuri.’ He closed the door and went back into the hotel.