Chapter 9
Magda’s phone had received a text message telling her to come to a bar in Boston, so this afternoon she was at a small round table in the bar having tea.
She had already had her lunch in her hotel.
It had been a treat not to have the plain sameness of prison food, and she was still thinking about the nice hotel meal.
Everything had been so fresh and perfect and carefully prepared that she had hated to have it end.
The tea she was drinking now was the real thing.
It reminded her of winter afternoons in her grandmother’s kitchen.
It was Russian Caravan tea, steeped with orange juice, lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice, served very hot in a glass set in a metal holder with a handle.
She looked at the display on the telephone she’d been given at the Toronto airport. The man she was waiting for was late. She set the phone back down on the small round table.
Of course he was late. He was Pavel Obolonsky, the Pachan of the Bratva of Boston.
He really was more than a boss. Leaders didn’t control or run cities, they lived off them.
A major city was a hunting ground. She understood that he had to behave in ways that reminded people that they were not his equals, especially people who were not members of his inner circle, and certainly not a woman.
She had been introduced to him over three years ago when she had been in Boston with Oleg Porchen, her Pachan.
When she’d met Obolonsky that time, she and the other California vors had been here to try to catch the woman who made people disappear.
Magda had attracted some attention, partly because she always did in gatherings of men.
Bratva meant “brotherhood,” and it was an organization that seldom included women.
It employed women. Obolonsky had taken her hand too hard.
She had acquiesced, as one did with a man of his importance, let him shake her hand, then backed away, and went up the sidewalk to the rented van and waited for the others from Los Angeles.
Her Pachan was not jealous, because thin women didn’t interest him, but he was a suspicious man, and if he’d seen her having a long conversation with Obolonsky, it could have brought on a suspicion of disloyalty.
Magda looked down and sipped her tea. She had just seen the first man come in the front door of the bar.
Her waiting time was nearly over. The man wasn’t big, but he was about six feet and had thick arms and shoulders, like a professional soldier.
He wore a gray suit and shiny brown shoes.
He didn’t look at anything he didn’t need to—her, for instance.
He had expected to see her. He was looking for something he wasn’t supposed to see.
He walked straight to the end of the bar, so he could see if anyone was hiding behind it, sat at the last seat at the end of the bar, watched the street in the giant mirror behind the bartender, and ordered a drink, but didn’t touch it.
The second man came in. He looked a lot like the first one, trim and athletic with a body that she guessed had been built in some martial art. He sat at a little round table like hers by the front wall where he could cover the sidewalk, the center of the room, and the opposite side.
After a minute, Pavel Obolonsky stepped inside, smiled at Magda, walked up, and sat at her little table.
It occurred to her that he was a lot like his two bodyguards—physically fit, with movements that were direct and aggressive—only twenty years older.
“Hello, Magda,” he said. “I’m glad to see you got here. You took the long way.”
“I went to Los Angeles to see who was available from the last time. I knew everybody and I thought I would pick the best ones and bring them back for the job. They weren’t there anymore.”
“No,” he said. “They aren’t. Do you know why I chose to find you and bring you here?”
She said, “I wouldn’t presume to imagine I know what you’re thinking.”
He smiled again. “I’ll bet you thought Oleg was bragging to me about you.”
“Did he say good things to you about me?”
“No. Not one. That was how I know he valued you and wanted to keep you.”
She said, “Well, I’m here now. I hope bringing me here turns out to be worth the trouble.”
“Don’t worry about that. I won’t hold you responsible for anything but the parts that only you can do. We’ll do the rest.”
“I know where we caught her,” she said. “I would have told you the address if you had asked, without getting me out of prison.”
“That isn’t why I want you. There were five vors and her in that house that night. Now we learn that she’s still alive. Who else? Only you. I don’t give people tests to find out who is the smartest. The universe is a test of who’s smartest. The one who is alive. How many men will you need?”
“Four. Five of us will be the most who will fit in a car.” She stared hard at his two bodyguards. “I don’t want men who look like them.”
“Why not?”
“If men like them come to your door, you think either they’re cops or they’ve been sent to kill you.
I need men who wear glasses or look like they play the cello.
If the woman we were hunting is alive, then we made her even better than she was at scanning the people around her.
If she sees men like these, she’ll be gone before they ever come close. ”
“All right,” he said. “You’ll meet some and pick the ones you want.”
“What’s my time limit? How long do I have?”
“Until you find her.” He got up. “Or she finds you. Come again tomorrow at this time and you can meet some men who might be right for this.”