Red Rabbit - Tom Clancy [163]
"I see. Does your husband like his shapka?"
"Actually, he does. You have good taste in furs."
"Many Russians do." Then he switched gears. It was time to go back to business. "Have you decided that you can help me or not?"
"Yes, Oleg Ivan'ch, we can. Your daughter is darling. Her name is Svetlana?"
The communications officer nodded. "Yes, that is my little zaichik."
The irony of that was positively eerie. Their Rabbit called his little girl his bunny. It generated a brilliant smile. "So, Oleg, how do we get you to America?"
"You ask me this?" he asked with no small degree of incredulity.
"Well, we need some information. Your hobbies and interests, for example, and your wife's."
"I play chess. More than anything else, I read books on old chess matches. My wife is more classically educated than I. She loves music—classical music, not the trash you make in America."
"Any particular composer?"
He shook his head. "Any of the classical composers, Bach, Mozart, Brahms—I do not know all of the names. It is Irina's passion. She studied piano as a child, but wasn't quite good enough to get official state training. That is her greatest regret, and we do not have a piano for her to practice on," he added, knowing that he had to give her this kind of information to assist in her efforts to save him and his family. "What else do you require?"
"Do any of you have any health problems—medications, for example?" They were speaking in Russian again, and Oleg noted her elegant language skills.
"No, we are all quite healthy. My Svetlana has been through all the usual childhood diseases, but without complications of any sort."
"Good." That simplifies a lot of things, Mary Pat thought. "She's a lovely little girl. You must be very proud of her."
"But will she like life in the West?" he worried aloud.
"Oleg Ivan'ch, no child has ever had reason to dislike life in America."
"And how does your little Edward like things in the Soviet Union?"
"He misses his friends, of course, but right before we came over, we took him to Disney World. He still talks a lot about that."
Then came a surprise: "Disney World? What is that?"
"It is a large commercial business made for the pleasure of children—and for adults who remember their childhood. It's in Florida," she added.
"I've never heard of it."
"You will find it remarkable and most enjoyable. More so for your daughter." She paused. "What does your wife think of your plans?"
"Irina knows nothing of this," Zaitzev said, surprising the hell out of his American interlocutor.
"What did you say?" Are you out of your fucking mind? MP wondered at once.
"Irina is a good wife to me. She will do what I tell her to do." Russian male chauvinism was of the aggressive variety.
"Oleg Ivan'ch, that is most dangerous for you. You must know that."
"The danger to me is being caught by KGB. If that happens, I am a dead man, and so is someone else," he added, thinking a further dangle was in his interest.
"Why are you leaving? What convinced you that it is necessary?" she had to ask.
"KGB is planning to kill a man who does not deserve to die."
"Who?" And she had to ask that one, too.
"That I will tell you when I am in the West."
"That is a fair response," she had to say in reply. Playing a little cagey, aren't we?
"One other thing," he added.
"Yes?"
"Be very careful what items you transmit to your headquarters. There is reason to believe your communications are compromised. You should use one-time pads, as we do at The Centre. Do you understand what I am telling you?"
"All communications about you were first encrypted and then dispatched by Diplomatic Bag to Washington." When she said that, the relief on his face was real, much as he tried to hide it. And the Rabbit had just told her something of very great importance. "Are we penetrated?"
"That, also, is something I will discuss only in the West."
Oh, shit, Mary Pat thought. They have a mole somewhere, and he might be in the White House Rose Garden for all we know. Oh, shit…
"Very well, we will take the utmost