Siberian Red

Savushkin of the Bureau of Special Operations. I would shake your hand but’ – he held up his battered fists – ‘perhaps some other time.’
    ‘Special Operations?’ asked Pekkala. ‘I don’t understand. Why are you on the train?’
    ‘I was assigned to protect you. Comrade Stalin himself gave the order. No one else knows I am here, not the guards on the train or even the Commandant of Borodok. You almost gave me a heart attack when you didn’t show up at the station. I thought I would be travelling all the way to Siberia for nothing. I kept thinking you must be in disguise. Until the moment I set eyes on you, it never occurred to me you would be hiding in plain sight.’
    Hearing those words, Pekkala thought back to his days of training with Chief Inspector Vassileyev, head of the Tsar’s Secret Police.

Vassileyev drilled into Pekkala’s mind
     
     
    Vassileyev drilled into Pekkala’s mind the importance of blending into different surroundings in order to carry out an investigation. To train Pekkala in the ‘Art of Disappearance’, as he called it, Vassileyev constructed a series of elaborate games which he referred to as ‘Field Exercises’.
    Every Friday morning, while the streets of St Petersburg bustled with people on their way to work, Vassileyev would vanish into the crowds. One hour later, Pekkala himself would set out, with the task of tracking down his mentor. Each week Vassileyev would choose a different part of the city. Sometimes he walked along quiet mansion-lined streets. Other times, he chose one of the bustling markets. His favourite option‚ however‚ was the slums that bordered the north-east end of the city.
    In the first month of these Field Exercises, Pekkala failed consistently to locate Vassileyev. There were times when the Chief Inspector would be standing almost in front of him and still Pekkala could not see through the disguises. Once, Pekkala hired a droshky to transport him around the district, thinking he would have a better chance of spotting Vassileyev if he moved more quickly through the streets. In desperation, Pekkala explained his predicament to the driver. Caught up in the game, the old man whipped up his horse and Pekkala spent the next two hours clinging to the sides of the open carriage while they careened through the streets in search of Vassileyev. In the end, confounded once again, Pekkala climbed down to pay the driver.
    ‘You have already paid for the ride,’ said the old man.
    Pekkala, wallet in hand, glanced up to see what the driver meant and only then realised, to his dismay, that the old man was, in fact, Vassileyev.
    After these humiliating defeats, the two men would walk back to Okhrana headquarters. Along the way, Vassileyev would explain the tricks of his craft. Considering that Vassileyev had lost part of his right leg to an anarchist bomb years ago, and now stumped about on a wooden prosthesis, Pekkala was amazed at how quickly the man could move.
    ‘Merely throwing on a new set of clothes is not enough,’ explained Vassileyev. ‘Your disguise must have a narrative, so that people will be lured into the story of your life. Once they become lost in fathoming the details, they will fail to see the magnitude of your illusion.’
    ‘Couldn’t I just wear a hat?’ asked Pekkala.
    ‘Of course!’ replied Vassileyev, oblivious to Pekkala’s sarcasm. ‘Hats are important. But what kind of hat? No single article of clothing more quickly places you in whatever bracket of society you want to occupy. But hats alone are not enough. First you must find yourself a café.’
    ‘A café?’
    ‘Yes!’ insisted Vassileyev. ‘Watch the people going past, the people sitting around you. See the clothes they wear. See how they wear them. Pay close attention to their shoes. Gentlemen of the old school will lace their shoes in straight lines across the grommets. The rest will lace diagonally. Once you have chosen your character from among them, do not go out and buy yourself new clothes. Find yourself a shop or an open-air market where they sell used garments. Every city has one on the weekends. That is the place to choose your second skin.’
    ‘Do people look healthy?’ continued Vassileyev. ‘Do people look sick? To give the appearance of living an unhealthy life, rub cooking oil on your forehead. Sprinkle the ashes of cheap tobacco in your pockets so that the smell of it will hang about you. Stir a pinch of ash into your tea and drink it.