The Charm School

cigarette.”
    “Crack the window,” Alevy said.
    Lisa lit the cigarette with a shaky hand. “Jesus… .”
    “You okay?” Hollis asked.
    “Yeah. Want a cigarette?”
    “Not right now.”
    Alevy said to Hollis, “I don’t think punching a KGB colonel in the face was a good idea.”
    “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
    The two security men in the front laughed. The driver said, “That was for Brennan, right, Colonel?”
    “Half for Brennan, half for me.”
    Alevy said curtly, “It’s best to avoid physical violence. This is not personal.”
    Hollis thought it was and knew that Alevy was sure it was.
    Alevy added, “That’s how these things start. Now he’s going to break your jaw next chance he gets.”
    “If he gets a chance, I deserve to have my jaw broken.”
    Lisa interjected, “They were manhandling us, Seth. We had a right to defend ourselves.”
    Alevy snapped, “Not here you don’t.
You
are on their list too. I couldn’t see exactly what you did—”
    “I kicked fat Viktor in the balls.”
    Again the two men up front laughed. The man in the passenger’s seat said, “Way to go, Miss Rhodes.”
    Alevy shrugged. He said to Hollis, “I’ll bet you thought for a moment there I was going to let them take you inside.”
    “I think your timing was a bit slow,” Hollis replied. “I expected you sooner.”
    Lisa said, “This was all planned?”
    No one answered.
    “You two are crazy. Now I really feel used. I’m not bait.”
    Again no one responded.
    Lisa sat back and drew on her cigarette. She said, “Look, I’ll help. But in the future I want to be kept informed or it’s no deal. Agreed?”
    Alevy and Hollis both agreed. Hollis said, “I’m convinced now that Burov is a main player.”
    Alevy nodded. “I didn’t recognize him, but I’ll go through our mug shots. Did you learn anything else?”
    “I learned that when you say Mrs. Ivanova’s Charm School, you go to jail.”
    “Interesting.”
    “These are desperate men, Seth. I’ve never seen them get so agitated and take so many risks, like trying to kidnap Americans with diplomatic immunity, not to mention murder.”
    Alevy nodded again. “Very desperate men.” He added, “They’re breaking the rules, so we can do the same. Things are going to get hot in old Moscow. Unfortunately we can’t match their resources. We have to resolve this soon, before we wind up expelled or dead.”
    Hollis replied, “If we go public, that will buy us a little protection.”
    “Yes, but the word from Washington is for the diplomats to work it out quietly.”
    “Work
what
out?” Lisa asked.
    Alevy answered, “The repatriation of Major Jack Dodson.”
    “What if he doesn’t want to be repatriated? Burov said he was a defector.”
    Hollis replied, “We’ll want to speak to him about that.”
    The car approached the embassy gates, and Hollis saw there were three Fords parked on the street near the Chaikas. He said, “We’re on full alert.”
    “Oh, yes,” Alevy answered.
    Lisa said, “There’s more to this, isn’t there? It’s not just Dodson. What is the Charm School? A place where they brainwash people? Does Burov really have Dodson, or is Dodson on the run? Is anyone going to answer me?”
    No one was.
    Lisa announced, “I have ways of making men talk.”

18
    Hollis, Alevy, and Lisa stood in the lobby of the chancery.
    “Come in for a drink,” Lisa offered. “I need one.”
    Alevy replied, “I have to do some night sending before five, D.C. time. See you tomorrow.” He turned and headed for the elevator.
    Lisa said to Hollis, “How about you? Night sending?”
    “No. I’ll have a quick one.”
    “Quick drink?” She smiled.
    “Whatever.”
    They walked out onto the rear terrace, then along the path to the housing units. She opened her door and put their coats in the hall closet, then showed him upstairs to the living room. “What can I get you?”
    “Scotch, neat.”
    Lisa made the drinks.
    Hollis looked around. The apartment was modern, a living room-dining room combination, and a galley kitchen. Upstairs would be the bedroom. The furniture, like most of the odds and ends, was from Finland, the closest and easiest Western country from which to import quality consumer goods. It was the apartment of a mid-level American government employee, but it would be the envy of any senior Soviet bureaucrat.
    Lisa gave him his drink, and she toasted, “Another good date.”
    She put Rachmaninoff on the tape