Tatiana

30

All the cars in Zelenogradsk had gone to bed, except for black sedans that continued to cruise the streets. Arkady and Tatiana had not slept for days and took their chances on a motel that featured plastic swans and called itself the Bird Haus. The front desk was stocked with wildlife guides and offered wake-up calls for early birders.

They set out their shoes and her gun beside the bed, she laid her head on his shoulder and almost instantly, before he even turned off the nightstand light, she was asleep.

It occurred to Arkady that he and Tatiana were too cynical. As mature Russians, their dials, so to speak, were set by experience at “the Worst,” at disaster, not success. For example, Zhenya had it backward. That Curonian Amber would repair a nuclear submarine for China was bad enough. The worst, however, was the possibility that Curonian Amber would outsource a Russian nuclear submarine to be repaired in China. Arkady remembered the name of the faulty submarine. The Kaliningrad. That didn’t sound Chinese at all.

He drifted off listening to the hull of a submarine being crushed and bent, the sound of the ice maker in the hall.

• • •

Morning traffic backed up on the road to Kaliningrad as police in yellow vests sorted out cars, trucks and bikes.

Arkady said, “We have to separate now. They’ll be looking for couples on bikes. I’ll go first. If there’s no problem, wait ten minutes and see if you can hitch a ride.”

“I know how to do that.”

“Be careful.” Although he saw that he was preaching to the joyously deaf.

• • •

For the driver of the delivery van it was another day of miserable weather, slippery cobblestones, “Bony Moronie” on the radio and a breakfast of glutinous peach pie. He had picked up the woman because she looked good from the back and not so bad from the front either, trying to hitch a ride on the highway. Police were waving all the traffic to the side of the road, like maneuvering a herd of elephants. She threw her bike in the back of the rig, hopped in the cab and said, “If anyone asks, I’m your sister.” Pretty nervy. They were checking papers but it was the driver’s regular route and he got through with a wink. Sailed along.

He expected some reciprocation and a kilometer down the road they pulled into an empty fruit stand. She said she wanted privacy. She said she’d do it in the back of the truck. But there was no room because of her bike. He courteously climbed up and handed the bike down. She jumped up, pulled down the gate and locked him in. It turned out she could drive a rig. And she picked up her boyfriend on the way.

They didn’t stop until they reached a zone of eerie quiet and when people finally heard him pound on the side of the truck he found himself in a lot of windblown trash beside the empty colossus of Party headquarters.

• • •

“Where are you now?” Victor asked.

Arkady said, “We’re having coffee in Victory Square in Kaliningrad. Tatiana is with me.”

“Have you made contact with Maxim?”

“Not yet.” Why not? Arkady asked himself. He and Tatiana had been in Kaliningrad for two hours and hadn’t tried to connect with anyone. She kept her backpack. Otherwise, they ditched their bikes and traveled light. It was intoxicating to be a tourist, to climb the stairway of a pastry shop and take in a view of the city’s central square with its bubbling fountain, a requisite victory column, skateboarders clicking over tiles and a new church that looked snapped together from plastic parts.

In the pastry shop, vitrines of glass and chrome offered strawberry tarts, Sacher tortes, cream puffs, and figures of Grover and Elmo sculpted in marzipan. The shop was also a display case for trophy wives dressed in Prada and Dior. Upstairs, Arkady and Tatiana were on a level with a street banner that announced in stark black and white letters a hip-hop concert by Abdul, larger than life-size, scowling, with the pallor of a healthy vampire. The concert had taken place the night before. Arkady imagined Abdul sleeping in a closet upside down.

An Audi rolled into the shadow of the church. The driver emerged to tuck in his shirtfront and comb his fingers through his hair. Detective Lieutenant Stasov, surveying his domain.

“I’m coming out there,” Victor said.

“No,” Arkady said. “You’re needed in Moscow. If you come here, Zhenya will follow and then Lotte.”

Victor asked, “What about Maxim?”

“We’ll get in touch with him.”

Lieutenant Stasov started across the square. Whether he had spotted Arkady and Tatiana or had a fondness for pastries didn’t matter. In a minute he would be walking through the door, strutting with the lopsided swing of a man wearing a gun, and if he climbed the stairs, Arkady and Tatiana would be in full view.

The lieutenant changed his mind and retreated to his car, to release a pug with a monkey face. The little dog dragged Stasov by the leash, eyes rolling like marbles, tongue flapping from side to side.

The shop’s glass door was directly below the table that Tatiana and Arkady shared. For the dog the shop was a blend of irresistible aromas and he balanced on his hind legs to view each display case in turn.

Stasov played the indulgent pet owner. “There’s no stopping him any time we’re near sweets.”

A woman asked, “What’s his name?”

“Polo. That’s what it said on his dog tag. I rescued him from a criminal. Can you imagine?”

Did the lieutenant carry the dog as a social icebreaker wherever lonely women congregated? Arkady wondered.

“How old is he?” another woman asked.

People always asked certain questions, Arkady thought. How old is your dog? Your baby? Your grandmother? Another constant was, is your gun loaded? Tatiana’s pistol rested on her lap.

“I swear, he’s as curious as a cat. Come on, Polo. Don’t bother the nice people, Polo. Good boy. Oh, now he’s going up the stairs.”

Arkady heard the dog scamper up. He was halfway to the balcony before Stasov snagged the leash. Arkady got a glimpse of the lieutenant’s bald spot when he scooped up the dog.

“Excuse me,” he told the ladies. “Excuse me, please. Such a rascal. Ah, well, here comes his treat.”

“A bonbon!”

“He’ll gobble this down in two bites. See?”

“What a character.”

“Well, ladies, duty calls. My friend and I must go fight crime.”

Polo made a final bolt for the stairs but Stasov stepped on the leash and reeled him in like a fish.

“Au revoir.”

“Au revoir.”

Stasov retreated to his car and held high an extra bonbon. Polo was enraptured.

“I told you that dog had no loyalty,” Arkady said.