The Charm School

she said. “It always makes me cry.”
    “Why don’t you run it backwards? The czar will be on the throne at the end.”
    “Don’t be an idiot. Oh, look at him. He’s gorgeous.”
    “Looks like a used-rug salesman.”
    “I love ‘Lara’s Theme.’”
    “I love Lara. I could eat that woman.”
    “Don’t be gross. Oh, Sam, I wanted to go out to Peredelkino and put flowers on Pasternak’s grave and listen to the Russians read his poetry in the churchyard.”
    “It seems you won’t do many of the things you wanted to do here to satisfy your Russian soul.”
    “I know. It’s sad. I almost got home.”
    “Watch the movie. This is where Lara shoots the fat guy.”
    They snuggled on the couch and watched the videotape. A cold wind rattled the windowpane, and a few flakes of snow fell.
    They made love on the couch and fell asleep. At one A . M . Hollis awakened and put on his trousers. She opened her eyes. “Where are you going?”
    “To the Seven-Eleven for a pack of cigarettes.”
    “Whom are you meeting?”
    “The ambassador’s wife. I’m going to break it off.”
    “You’re meeting Seth.”
    “Correct. Jealous?”
    She closed her eyes and rolled over.
    Against his better judgment, Hollis said, “You never told me he lived like a czar. Did he give you the icon?”
    “I told you it was my grandmother’s.”
    “That’s right. And you sounded so appreciative when I said I could get it out in the diplomatic pouch. Christ, your friend Alevy could get the Kremlin’s domes out for you.”
    “Don’t be a postcoital beast.” She closed her eyes and rolled over.
    Hollis left, slamming the door behind him.

 
    PART III

    The Russian is a delightful person till he tucks in his shirt. As an Oriental, he is charming. It is only when he insists on being treated as the most easterly of western peoples instead of the most westerly of easterns that he becomes… difficult to handle.
    —Rudyard Kipling

 
22
    The background music on the tape deck in Alevy’s apartment was the Red Army Choir singing patriotic songs.
    Hollis asked, “Could you change that?”
    “Sure.” Alevy opened the door on the sideboard and stopped the tape. “Sometimes I play things they like to hear too.”
    Hollis looked out the window toward a ten-story apartment building across the street. The top floor was where the KGB manned its electronic gadgets aimed at the embassy compound. He wondered just how much they saw and heard.
    “Tina Turner or Prince?”
    “Whatever turns you on, Seth.”
    Alevy put the Prince tape on and hit the play button. “That should send them to their vodka bottles.” He turned to Hollis. “So to pick up where we left off, what are those three hundred American fliers doing in that prison to earn their keep? To keep from being shot?”
    “Let’s back up a minute,” Hollis said. “If we know that American POWs are being held at that place, why isn’t our government doing something about it?”
    Alevy poured brandy into his coffee. “We didn’t
know
until Friday night.”
    “You people knew
something
before then.”
    “What were we supposed to do about it? If the president made discreet inquiries or demands of the Soviet government, they would say, ‘What are you talking about? Are you trying to wreck the peace again?’ And you know what? They’re right. And if the president got angry and made a
public
accusation, he would have to recall our ambassador, kick their ambassador out, and cancel the summit and arms talks. And we still wouldn’t have a shred of evidence. And the world would be pissed off at us again. This guy they’ve got in the Kremlin gets good press, Sam. He says he wants to be our friend.”
    Hollis observed, “Then he shouldn’t let his K-goons kill and harass Americans.”
    “Interesting point,” Alevy conceded. “And that’s part of the complexity of the problem we face. This new guy has inherited three hundred American POWs. But it’s the
KGB
who runs that camp. How much has the KGB told him about the camp? How much have they told him about what
we
know about the Charm School? For that matter, we’re not telling our government much, are we, Sam? The KGB may be looking to hand the Kremlin an embarrassing and serious problem at the last possible moment. The KGB and the Soviet military have pulled that stunt before. They don’t want peace with the West.”
    “Don’t your people sabotage peace initiatives?”
    “Not too often.” Alevy gave a sinister