“You don’t want to do that,” the man in the right-front seat cautioned. “Take shallow breaths. The effect will pass in time.” Wonderful stuff, this chemical Mace, Bill thought. And anyone could buy it in America. Amazing.
Bob was now out of the enormous parking lot and driving back to the safe house. He had the route memorized, of course, though he was not entirely at ease. He hadn’t had the chance to drive it beforehand, to practice travel times and plot out alternative routes, but he had spent enough time in America that he knew how to drive lawfully and carefully. Driving habits here were better than in the Northeast—except on the interstates, where every Westerner felt the God-given right to race like a maniac. But he wasn’t on the interstate, and on this four-lane highway the late rush-hour traffic moved placidly from light to light. He realized that his time estimate had been overly optimistic, but that didn’t matter. Lenny would have no problem controlling their guest. It was quite dark, there were few streetlights, and theirs was just one more car driving home from work.
Bisyarina was already five miles away, heading in the opposite direction. The inside of the car was worse than she’d expected. A neat person, she was appalled to see that the young man had virtually covered the floor with plastic wrappers of some sort, and she wondered why the Chevy wasn’t full of ants. The very thought made her skin crawl. She checked her mirror to make sure that Taussig was there. Ten minutes later she pulled into a working-class neighborhood. All of the houses had driveways, but even here most families had more than one car, and the extra ones were parked on the street. She found a vacant spot by a corner and pulled over to it. Taussig’s Datsun appeared beside the Chevy, and she left it there, just another car parked at the curb. When Taussig halted at the next stop sign, Bisyarina rolled down her window and tossed Gregory’s keys into a sewer. With that ended what was the most dangerous part of the mission for her. Without being told, Taussig drove back toward the shopping mall, where Bisyarina would retrieve her Volvo.
“You’re sure you won’t kill him,” Bea said again after another minute.
“Quite positive, Bea,” Ann replied. She wondered why Taussig had suddenly acquired a conscience. “If I guess correctly, he might even be given the chance to continue his work . . . elsewhere. If he cooperates, then he will be treated very well.”
“You’ll even assign him a girlfriend, won’t you?”
“It’s one way of keeping men happy,” Bisyarina admitted. “Happy people work better.”
“Good,” Taussig said, surprising her controller quite a bit. Taussig explained after a moment: “I don’t want him hurt. What he knows will help both sides make the world safer.” And I just want him out of my way! she didn’t say.
“He’s too valuable to hurt,” Ann observed. Unless things go wrong, in which case other orders might apply . . . ?
Bob was surprised when the traffic backed up. He was right behind a mini-van. Like many American drivers, he hated the things because he couldn’t see around them. He opened the ashtray and pushed in the cigarette lighter while he frowned in frustration. Bill, next to him, fished out a smoke also. If nothing else, it helped to mask the acrid stink of the Mace which still permeated the cloth upholstery of the car, Bob decided that he’d leave all the windows open when he parked tonight, just to get rid of the smell. His own eyes were watering, now that there was no blowing air to carry the chemical vapors out of the car. It almost made him feel sorry about the straight dose they’d given their prisoner, but at least it was preferable to a drug that might kill, or a blow that could break his scrawny little neck. At least he was behaving himself. If all went according to plan, by the end of the week he’d be in Moscow. They’d wait a day or so before heading into Mexico. A different crossing point would be used, and a diversion, not yet set up, would probably be used to ensure their speedy crossing into that convenient country, where one could catch a plane to Cuba, and from there a direct flight to Moscow. After that, this team of the First Chief Directorate would have a month’s rest. It would be good, Bob told himself, to see his family again. It was always lonely abroad. So lonely that once or twice he’d been unfaithful to his wife, which was also a violation of standing orders. Though not a violation that many officers took seriously, it was something of which he wasn’t proud. Perhaps he could get a new posting at the KGB Academy. He had the seniority now, and with a mission like this under his belt . . .
Traffic started moving again. He was surprised to see the mini-van’s blinkers go on. Two minutes later he was horrified to see why. A jackknifed tractor-trailer blocked the entire road, with the remains of a small car crushed beneath its front wheels. What looked like a score of rotating ambulance lights illuminated the efforts of police officers and firemen to extricate whatever fool had been driving the small import. Bob couldn’t even tell what sort of car it had been, but like the majority of the other drivers, he stared at the wreckage with fascination for a few seconds, until he reminded himself who and where he was. A black-clad police officer was replacing flares on the pavement and waving all southbound traffic onto a side road. Bob reverted to intelligence officer in a moment. He waited until there was a clear path around the cop, and shot past. That earned him an angry look, but nothing more. Most important, the policeman hadn’t gotten much of a look at the car. Bob raced up a hill before he realized that another effect of his hesitation was that he couldn’t see where the detoured traffic was heading.
I didn’t bring the map, he thought next. He’d destroyed it because of all the markings on it. In fact, the car held no maps at all. Maps were dangerous things to have, and besides, he knew how to memorize ail the information he needed for his missions. But he hadn’t been here long enough to learn the area, and knew only one route back to the safe house.
Goddamn these “immediate-priority” operations!
He took a left at the first crossroads, onto a curving street into a residential development. It took several minutes for him to realize that the land here was so hilly that all the roads curved back and forth upon themselves to the point where he didn’t know which direction he was heading. For the first time, he began to lose his composure, but only for an instant. One mental curse in his native language reminded him that he couldn’t even think in Russian. Bob lit another cigarette and drove slowly as he tried to orient himself. The tears in his eyes didn’t help.
He’s lost, Gregory realized after a moment. He’d read enough spy novels to know that they were taking him to a safe house—or a clandestine airfield?—or another vehicle that would carry him . . . where?—but as soon as he recognized the same car that they’d passed a few minutes before, he had to stop himself from smiling. They’d actually done something wrong. The next turn they took went downhill, and Gregory confirmed his suspicion when he again saw the rotating lights at the car wreck. He noted the curses as the driver pulled into a driveway and had to back up before they could climb the hill again.
Everything Russians hated about America flooded back into Bob’s consciousness. Too many roads, too many cars—some damned fool of an American had run a stop sign and—I hope he’s dead! the driver raged at the parked cars on the residential street. I hope he died screaming in agony. It felt better to get that thought out from the back of his mind.
Now what?
He continued on a different route, taking the road over the crest of the hill, where he was able to look down and see another highway. Perhaps if he went south on this one, it might connect with the road he’d been on . . . It was worth a try, he thought. To his right, Bill gave him a questioning look, but Lenny in the back was too busy with the prisoner to know that anything was badly wrong. As they picked up speed, at least the air through the windows allowed his eyes to clear. There was a traffic light at the bottom of the hill-but there was also a sign that said NO LEFT TURN.