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years?’
    â€˜Yes, Comrade First Deputy.’
    â€˜It is a vocation you enjoy?’
    â€˜Yes, Comrade First Deputy.’
    â€˜One in which you see a continuing future?’
    â€˜Yes, Comrade First Deputy.’
    â€˜Comrade Major Panchenko, for the past five of those ten years you accepted money from Jews seeking exit visas to Israel: bribes for linking them with the responsible officials at the Dutch embassy from which they can obtain finance necessary to purchase those exits,’ announced Kazin. ‘Through a KGB deputy in Tbilisi you import once a fortnight prime Georgian fruit and meat, for black market sale on a street stall in Moscow …’ The knee-pumping man stopped, apparently to consult some notes. ‘… The KGB deputy’s name is Afansasiev,’ Kazin recited. ‘The market is in Grebnoy Alley, every Wednesday. You have also, on occasions, exchanged money in the foreign currency bars at the Rossiya and Intourist hotels …’
    Panchenko remained statued, gaze fixed over Kazin’s head.
    â€˜Well?’ demanded Kazin.
    â€˜Nothing to say,’ replied Panchenko, tight-lipped.
    â€˜Under the corruption legislation introduced by Comrade General Secretary Gorbachov you are liable to fifteen years’ imprisonment.’
    Panchenko still did not speak.
    â€˜But I do not intend to initiate proceedings,’ disclosed Kazin. ‘I intend to promote you to replace the comrade colonel commanding this security division …’ Again Kazin paused. Then he added: ‘Who tried to switch the entire investigation on to you, when he himself came under suspicion. You really should not have trusted him as a business associate. Not to be relied on. Not, like I am, a man to be relied on. Never forget the need for loyalty, will you?’
    â€˜Never, Comrade First Deputy,’ assured the man immediately.
    â€˜You’ll remove all the evidence from records once you get your appointment, of course,’ predicted Kazin. ‘Never forget, either, that I have a complete file, will you?’
    â€˜No, Comrade First Deputy.’
    â€˜That from now on you are absolutely dependent upon me?’
    â€˜No, Comrade First Deputy.’
    The old ways, the good old ways, thought Kazin.
    In Kabul, Yuri Malik moved away from Ilena, not wanting the irritating distraction of sex, listening incredulously as she recounted the details of the cable traffic that had passed between the Afghan capital and Moscow.
    When she finished Yuri said distantly: ‘Maybe there really is a Comrade God.’ And without the need for press-ups, he thought.
    â€˜I don’t understand,’ she said, confused by his reaction.
    â€˜Neither do I,’ admitted Yuri. But he would, he determined: very soon he would.

5
    Levin was not completely sure he had persuaded Galina; wouldn’t know whether or not she would actually come with him until the very act of defection – almost literally the cutting of the umbilical cord – but knew he had to act quickly before the already existing and heavy doubts hardened to outweigh the fragile arguments with which he’d worked to convince her. He walked apparently unhurriedly – but inwardly churning – through the upper corridor in the United Nations building, anxious to complete the established contact procedure and begin it all. The library – housing the hundreds of reports and pamphlets poured out by the UN but never, he suspected, read by anyone except their authors – was surprisingly full, at least a dozen people browsing among the partitioned gangways. But not, fortunately, cluttering the section devoted to his own subject, worldwide mineral deposits. Nervously impatient though he was, Levin proceeded with the proper professional caution, forcing himself to browse like the others through an American assessment of oil-bearing shale deposits, a necessary explanation for his presence there if he