Aces Abroad

The film was of the 1959 execution of GRU Colonel Popov, who had been caught spying for the CIA. Popov was strapped to a stretcher with unbreakable wire and simply fed-alive-into the flames. The process was interrupted so that the coffin of another, substantially more honored GRU employee could be consigned first.

The message was clear: You leave the GRU only through the crematorium. We are more important than family, than country. A man such as Molniya, trained by such an organization, was not vulnerable to any of Polyakov's interrogator's tricks. In almost an hour all Polyakov had pried out of him were operational details… names, dates, places, events. Material that Polyakov already possessed. There was something more to be learned-a secret of some kind-Polyakov was sure of it. A secret no one else had been able to get out of Molniya. A secret that, perhaps, no one but Polyakov knew existed. How could he get Molniya to talk?

What could be more important to this man than that crematorium?

"It must be difficult being a Soviet ace."

If Molniya was surprised by Polyakov's sudden statement, he didn't show it. "My power is just another tool to be used against the imperialists."

"I'm sure that's what your superiors would like to think. God forbid you should use it for yourself." Polyakov sat down again. This time he poured himself a glass of water. He held out the bottle to Molniya, who shook his head. "You must be tired of the jokes by now. Water and electricity."

"Yes," Molniya said tiredly. " I have to be careful when it rains. I can't take baths. The only water I like is snow… Given the number of people who know about me, it's amazing how many jokes I've heard."

"They have your family, don't they? Don't answer. It's not something I know. It's just… the only way to control you."

The wild card virus was relatively dissipated by the time it reached the Soviet Union, but it was still strong enough to create jokers and aces, and to cause the creation of a secret state commission to deal with the problem. In typical Stalinist fashion aces were segregated from the population and "educated" in special camps. Jokers simply disappeared. In many ways it was worse than the Purge, which Polyakov had seen as a teenager. In the Thirties the knock on the door came for Party members… those with incorrect ambitions. But everyone was at risk during the Wild Card Purge.

Even those in the Kremlin. Even those at the very highest levels.

"I knew someone like you, Molniya. I used to work for him, not far from here as a matter of fact."

For the first time Molniya dropped his guard. He was genuinely curious. "Is the legend true?"

"Which legend? That Comrade Stalin was a joker and died with a stake driven through his heart? Or that it was Lysenko who had been affected?" Polyakov could tell that Molniya knew them all. " I must say I'm shocked to think that such fabrications are circulated by officers of military intelligence!"

"I was thinking of the legend that there was nothing left of Stalin to bury… that the corpse displayed at the funeral was made up by the same geniuses who maintain Lenin's."

Very close, Polyakov thought. What did Molniya know? "You're a war hero, Molniya. Yet you ran from that building in Berlin like a raw recruit. Why?"

This was another one of the old tricks, the sudden segue back to more immediate business.

As Molniya replied that he didn't honestly remember ru

Finally Molniya was getting nervous. "Not without some demonstration… no."

Polyakov lowered his voice and jabbed a finger at the Hero's medal on Molniya's chest. "What do you think now?" Molniya's face flushed and tears formed in his eyes. One gloved hand slapped Polyakov's away. It only lasted an instant. "I was burning up!"

"Within seconds, yes. Burnt meat."

"You're the one." There was as much fascination-after all, they had a lot in common-as fear in Molniya's face. "That was another one of the legends, that there was a second ace. But you were supposed to be in the Party hierarchy, one of Brezhnev's people."

Polyakov shrugged. "The second ace belongs to no one. He's very careful about that. His loyalty is to the Soviet Union. To Soviet ideals and potential, not the pitiful reality." He remained close to Molniya. "And now you know my secret. One ace to another… what do you have to tell me?"

It was good to leave the Aquarium. Years of institutional hatred had imbued the place with an almost physical barrier-like an electrical charge-that repelled all enemies, especially the KGB.

Polyakov should have been feeling elated: he had gotten some very important information out of Molniya. Even Molniya himself did not know how important. No one knew why the Hartma

The man who might very well be the next president of the United States was an ace.

II.

"The chairman will see you now."

To Polyakov's surprise the receptionist was a young woman of striking beauty, a blonde straight out of an American movie. Gone was Seregin, Andropov's old gatekeeper, a man with the physical appearance of a hatchet-appropriately enough-and a personality to match. Seregin was perfectly capable of letting a Politburo member cool his heels for eternity in this outer office, or if necessary, physically ejecting anyone foolish enough to make an unexpected call on the chairman of the Committee for State Security, the chief of the KGB.

Polyakov imagined that this lissome woman was potentially just as lethal as Seregin; nevertheless, the whole idea struck him as ludricrous. An attempt to put a smile on the face of the tiger. Meet your new, caring. Kremlin. Today's friendly KGB!

Seregin was gone. But then, so was Andropov. And Polyakov himself was no longer welcome on the top floor… not without the chairman's invitation.

The chairman rose from his desk to kiss him, interrupting Polyakov's salute. "Georgy Vladimirovich, how nice to see you." He was directed to a couch-another new addition, some kind of conversational nook in the formerly Spartan office. "You're not often seen in these parts." By your choice, Polyakov wanted to say..

"My duties have kept me away."

"Of course. The rigors of field work." The chairman, who like most KGB chiefs since Stalin's day was essentially a Party political appointee, had served the KGB as a snitch-a stukachnot an operative or analyst. In this he was the perfect leader of an organization consisting of a million stukachi. "Tell me about your visit to the Aquarium."

Quickly to business. Another sign of the Gorbachev style. Polyakov was thorough to the point of tedium in his replay of the interrogation, with one significant omission. He counted on the chairman's famous impatience and wasn't disappointed.

"These operational details are all well and good, Georgy Vladimirovich, but wasted on poor bureaucrats, hmm?" A self-deprecating smile. "Did the GRU give you full and complete cooperation, as directed by the General Secretary"

"Yes… alas," Polyakov said, earning the chairman's equally famous laugh.

"Do you have enough information to salvage our European operations?"

"Yes."

"How will you proceed? I understand that the German networks are being rolled up. Every day Aeroflot brings our agents back to us.'