The Charm School

like the competition for consumer goods by peasants.
    Hollis and Lisa passed pairs of KGB Border Guards, who were at every transportation hub in the Soviet Union but were nonetheless intimidating to foreigner and native alike.
    Hollis and Lisa came out of the station into Gorky Square, dominated by a huge statue of the writer. The sky was the usual grey, and the air seemed filled with fumes compared to the fresh air of the countryside.
    They crossed the square and walked down Gorky Street, Moscow’s main street, toward the Kremlin. Hollis led Lisa into the Minsk Hotel, and he entered a phone booth off the lobby. He dialed the embassy, spoke to the Marine watch-stander, then the Sunday duty officer, who turned out to be his own aide, Captain O’Shea. “Ed, this is me. Okay?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “This is a photoflash,” Hollis said, using the word for a personal emergency. “Get a car to me at location delta. Ten minutes.”
    “Yes, sir. I’ll go myself.”
    “No, stay there and find me Mr. Nine. I want to see him.”
    “Mr. Nine was very worried about you. He’s in his office.”
    “Ten minutes.”
    “Yes, sir. Welcome home.”
    Hollis hung up the phone and said to Lisa, “Seth is very worried about you.”
    Lisa didn’t reply. They left the Minsk Hotel and continued down Gorky Street. She said, “That was neat. Where is location delta?”
    “I forgot.”
    She looked at him. “Are you jerking me around?”
    “Yeah. It’s Gastronom One. You know it?”
    “Sure. But we Muscovites still call it Yeliseyevsky’s, its pre-Revolution name. Best gourmet store in Moscow. The
only
one actually.” She added, “We’re going to make it, aren’t we?”
    “Looks like it.”
    They passed the Stanislavsky Drama Theater, walked through Pushkin Square, and crossed the Garden Ring, which once had been the outer wall of the city. They came to the ornate facade of Gastronom One, then doubled back. Hollis said, “I’m assuming the KGB doesn’t know location delta from Times Square. We change the locations every time we have to use one. So there should be no one here from the KGB to meet us. However, they will have a car or two close behind the embassy car. As soon as the embassy car slows down, you jump in the rear, scoot over quick, and I follow. Okay?”
    “I saw this in a movie once.”
    They waited. Lisa lit a cigarette. “This is my last one. But I have a pack in my office. Or my room.”
    “That’s good news.”
    A black Ford came at a good pace up Gorky Street, and Hollis saw two security men in the front and a man who looked like Seth Alevy in the back. Behind the Ford was a black Chaika. The Ford suddenly swerved to the curb and braked hard. The back door flew open, Lisa slipped in beside Alevy, and Hollis got in, then slammed the door as the car accelerated. Lisa said, “Hello, Seth.”
    Alevy addressed Hollis directly, “You had better have a good explanation, Colonel.”
    Hollis didn’t reply.
    “Where is the car?” Alevy asked.
    “At the railroad station.”
    “
What
railroad station?”
    “Gagarin.”
    “
Gagarin?
What the hell were you doing there?”
    “Getting the train to Moscow.”
    Lisa opened her burlap bag. “Seth, do you want a pear?”
    “No.” Alevy folded his arms and looked out the side window.
    The Chaika got up close behind them, and the security driver sped up until another Chaika appeared in front of the Ford and boxed them in. The American driver pulled out, and the three cars continued their dangerous game, weaving through central Moscow and down Kalinin Prospect.
    Within ten minutes the Ford reached the embassy and shot past the militia booth, crossed the sidewalk, and entered the gates. The Chaika behind them sounded its horn, and the man in the passenger side put his arm out the window and extended his middle finger. The security men in the front of the Ford returned the salute of the KGB men in the Chaika, while Hollis returned the salute of the Marine watchstanders. The Ford went around the flagpole and stopped at the entrance to the chancery. Hollis, Lisa, and Alevy piled out. Alevy said, “No offense, but you both smell.”
    Lisa said, “I think I’ll go and shower.”
    “Not a half-bad idea.”
    Hollis said to Alevy, “Get a call through to the Mozhaisk morgue. Tell them not to wait for an escort and have them drive the body to Sheremetyevo airport freight terminal. Send a consular officer to the airport to take charge of the remains.” He took