As for Vlady’s predictions: Dragosani had some faith in them but it was by no means total. Vlady insisted that the future could not be changed, Dragosani thought differently. One of them must be right but they must wait until tomorrow night to find out which one. In any case, the promised ‘trouble’ at the Chateau Bronnitsy might well turn out to be nothing to do with Harry Keogh after all; and so, until then at least, things must continue according to plan.
After passing on his information to the Chateau, Dragosani had another drink – a stiff one, which was not his normal habit – and at last fell into his bed. Exhausted, he slept right through until mid-morning . . .
At 11:40 a.m. he parked his old Volga in a copse off the main road half a mile from the closest dacha, turned up the collar of his overcoat and walked the rest of the way into Zhukovka precinct. Just before noon he turned off a track inches deep in snow and walked through a strip of woodland lying parallel to the river, until he came to Borowitz’s dacha. Smiling grimly, he went quickly along the paved path to the door and knocked gently on the rustic oak panels. While he waited, he sniffed at wood smoke where it hung in the bitter cold air. The fine hairs inside his nostrils crackled, but melting icicles where they hung from Borowitz’s roof told him that already the temperature was rising. Soon the snow would melt and Dragosani’s footprints would disappear; there would be nothing to connect him with this place.
There came slow footsteps from within and the door cracked open. Pale, shaggy and red-eyed, Gregor Borowitz peered out, blinked in the grey light of day. ‘Dragosani?’ he frowned darkly. ‘But I said I wasn’t to be disturbed. I -‘
‘Comrade General,’ Dragosani cut in, ‘if it wasn’t a matter of the utmost urgency . . .’
Borowitz stepped aside, opened the door wider. ‘Come in, come in,’ he grumbled, but without his accustomed fire. He had been alone here for a week; he no longer seemed robust; his grief was very real and had left him old and tired. All of which suited Dragosani very well indeed.
He entered, followed the other down a short corridor and through hanging curtains into the small, pine-panelled room where Natasha Borowitz lay silently in her shroud. The woman had been a peasant, pleasant enough in life but plain and dowdy in death. Like a stout, badly fashioned candle she lay there, the wax of her face wrinkled, the wick of her hair coarse and sparse. Borowitz patted her cold face and bowed his head as he turned away. But he could not hide a very real tear glittering in the corner of his eye.
Now he led Dragosani through into the more familiar living-cum-dining room and offered him a seat close to a window. The rest of the dacha’s windows were shuttered but this one’s shutters stood open, letting in the light. With a silent shake of his head, Dragosani declined to sit, watched Borowitz flop heavily down on to a padded couch. ‘I prefer to stand,’ the necromancer said. ‘This won’t take long.’
‘A flying visit?’ Borowitz grunted, scarcely interested. ‘You might have waited, Dragosani. Tomorrow they take my Natasha away from me, and then I return to Moscow and the Chateau Bronnitsy. What is it that brings you here so urgently anyway? You told me that your trip to England was successful.’
‘So it was,’ said Dragosani, ‘but something has come up since then.’
‘Well?’
‘Comrade General,’ said Dragosani, ‘Gregor, I want you to ask no questions just yet but simply tell me. something. Do you remember a conversation we once had, you and I, about the future of E-Branch? You said that one day you would decide who would take over from you when you . . . retired. Also, you said the decision would lie between myself and Igor Vlady.’
Borowitz drew his brows together, stared at Dragosani disbelievingly. ‘So that’s why you’re here!’ he growled. ‘A matter of the utmost urgency, eh? You think I’m ready to step down, do you? Or maybe you think it’s time I stepped down! Now that Natasha’s gone, maybe I’ll think of retiring, eh?’ He sat up straighter, his eyes flashed something of the fire Dragosani was used to seeing in them. Except that the necromancer no longer stood in awe of this man.