The Charm School

deck and they talked. Hollis examined an icon on the wall. “Is that real?”
    “Yes. My grandmother’s. I’m going to have a tough time trying to get it back out of the country.”
    “I’ll put it in the diplomatic bag.”
    “Would you? Thanks, Sam.”
    “You planning on leaving?” he asked.
    “No… but somehow I have the feeling my days here are near an end.”
    Hollis nodded.
    Lisa sat on the couch, and Hollis sat at the far end. She said, “It’s not just Dodson. There are hundreds of them, aren’t there? That’s what you were saying… when we… in Pavel’s bedroom.”
    Hollis glanced at her. He finally replied, “I might have said too much.”
    “I don’t repeat what you tell me.” She asked, “Don’t you and Seth compare notes?”
    “We
trade
notes. You don’t get nothin’ for nothin’ in this business. My outfit, Defense Intelligence, is sort of junior to the CIA. So I have to protect my turf. All very petty. But competition is very American.”
    “But you do get along. Personally.”
    “Yes. He’s my friend too.”
    She nodded.
    “Can we change the subject?”
    She stood and went to the window that looked north over the brick wall. A huge banner had just been strung between two buildings across the street in anticipation of the celebration of the Great October Revolution, whose anniversary was actually November 7 by the Gregorian calendar. She said, “Look at that. ‘Peace-loving Soviet peoples demand an end to American aggression.’ Do I have to look at that?”
    “Call the zoning commission.”
    She grumbled, “They’re getting all worked up for their big day—those bloody red banners all over the damned place, exhorting, cajoling, boasting—like state-subsidized graffiti, for God’s sake. And you know, Sam, when I first got here, the hammers and sickles all over the place were jarring, almost scary, because we’re so conditioned, like with swastikas, to react to certain symbols. A Party official once told me that the crosses on the Kremlin give him the creeps, and the Great Seal on our embassy wall makes him see red.” She laughed without humor and added, “I wish we could stop pumping adrenaline when we see red stars or Stars of David or whatever. But we’re like Comrade Pavlov’s mutts, Sam. They’ve got us drooling.”
    “Who are
they
?”
    “They are what we will be twenty years from now. We are in training to be them.”
    “You may have something there.”
    “Another?”
    “Sure. Less glass this time.”
    She poured him a triple scotch, then sat close to him. “Can I tell you something? I was damned frightened at Lefortovo. That’s twice you’ve done that to me.”
    “Tomorrow night we’ll see the movie. They’re showing
Rambo—Part Eight
.”
    She laughed. “Hey, remember when that Russian kid scaled the wall, got into the theater, and watched a whole feature before anyone knew he was there?”
    “I remember. The ambassador chopped some heads at Security.”
    “The kid wanted to see that movie. What was it?”
    “
Rocky Nine.
”
    “When are these people going to break loose, Sam? I mean, they need two hundred million of those kids. When’s that going to happen?”
    “Probably never, Lisa.”
    “Don’t say that. The human spirit—”
    “Lighter topic, please. Did you enjoy dinner?”
    “We never got dinner.” She jumped up. “I’m starved. I made
rasolnik
the other night. I have some left.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Pickled vegetable soup.”
    “I’ll stick with the scotch.”
    “I’m trying to learn traditional Russian cooking.”
    “Let me know how you make out.”
    She went to the refrigerator and took out a section of cold kolbassa and began eating it. “Do you like garlic? This is loaded with it.”
    Hollis stood. “You sleep with your clothes on, and you eat garlic before bed. I think I’ll go home now.”
    “No. Stay. Talk to me. I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
    “You’re perfectly safe in the compound.”
    “I know that.” She chewed thoughtfully on the sausage, then added, “I’ve smiled at you a dozen times in the damned lobby, in the elevators—”
    “Was that you? Was that a smile?”
    “You don’t remember, Sam, but I was at that little bon voyage they gave for Katherine. Did you know then that she wasn’t coming back?”
    “I suspected when I saw her packing everything she owned.”
    “Ah, good intelligence work. Are you divorcing her?”
    “I’m trying to figure out who has