‘So you were nowhere near the submarine base,’ said Hammond, pointing to the other end of the dockyard.
‘No. You had to have special security clearance to work in that part of the yard.’
‘Thank you,’ said Hammond. ‘You could not have been more cooperative.’ Travis closed his notebook, and Elena assumed the interview was over. ‘And is this your son?’ asked Hammond, turning to Alex. Elena nodded. ‘I hear you’re doing well at school, and had hoped to attend the Foreign Language Institute in Moscow.’
‘Yes, I did,’ said Alex in Russian, hoping he sounded like James Cagney.
‘I wonder if you’d be willing to be interviewed by a specialist officer from Langley,’ responded Hammond in Russian.
‘You bet,’ said Alex, enjoying the whole experience every bit as much as his mother was detesting it. ‘Especially if it will help get the men who killed my father.’
‘I only wish it was that easy,’ said Hammond. ‘I’m afraid it’s not like the television, where they seem to be able to solve all the world’s problems every evening in just under an hour, between commercials.’
Elena smiled. ‘We’ll do anything we can to help.’
‘Do either of you have any questions for us?’ asked Hammond.
‘Yes,’ said Alex. ‘How do I become a G-man?’
‘They work for the FBI,’ said Travis. ‘If you want to join us at Border Patrol, you’ll have to study hard at school and make sure you pass all your exams.’
Hammond stood up and shook hands with Elena. ‘Thank you again for your cooperation, Mrs Karpenko. We’ll be in touch with your son again in due course.’
Alex immediately turned the television back on, while Dimitri, who’d hardly uttered a word, accompanied the two men out of the room and into the corridor. Alex thought it strange that Dimitri hadn’t questioned them, but he was more interested in the film.
‘You were right, Dimitri,’ said Travis once they were outside on the pavement. ‘She’s a gem. And more important, although he’s young, the boy could be an ideal candidate.’
‘I agree,’ said Hammond. ‘Perhaps it’s time to tell him about Players’ Square.’
‘I already have,’ said Dimitri. ‘So you should have a man posted there on Saturday morning.’
‘Will do,’ said Hammond. ‘Then we’ll just have to hope they find each other.’
‘Believe me, they won’t be able to miss each other. They’ll be like a magnet and iron filings.’
Hammond smiled. ‘When are you going back to Leningrad?’
‘As soon as I can find a ship that needs a third mate. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you informed. Now I’d better get back before they start to become suspicious.’ Dimitri shook hands with both men, closed the door and returned to the front room to find that Elena had gone to bed and Alex couldn’t take his eyes off James Cagney.
He looked closely at the young man, and wondered if it was too great a risk.
*
Elena and Dimitri were both up by six the following morning, and were soon discussing their nocturnal visitors.
‘Can they be trusted?’ asked Elena, taking a couple of three-minute eggs out of a saucepan of boiling water.
‘Compared to the KGB, they’re angels. But don’t forget, they can make or break your chances of becoming an American citizen,’ said Dimitri as Alex burst into the room.
‘OK, you guys, my name is Agent Karpenko, and I’m putting you both under arrest.’
‘On what charge?’ Dimitri demanded.
‘Brewing illegal alcohol in the basement of this establishment.’
They both burst out laughing.
‘Then you’d better drink your milk, Alex, before you go to school. And I need to get moving too, if I’m going to keep my job.’
‘That job isn’t good enough for you, Mama. You ought to be working in a real restaurant, not a pizza joint.’
‘It’s fine for the time being,’ said Elena. ‘And it’s not a joint. The pay’s not bad, and yesterday they let me make my first pizza.’
‘Real chefs don’t make pizzas.’
‘They do when it’s the only job in town.’
*
Alex couldn’t wait to be interviewed by a special agent from the CIA. He borrowed a book from the library the following morning, entitled The CIA and its Role in the Modern World, and read it from cover to cover, twice. He had so many questions he wanted to ask a real agent.
He was on his way to the market the following Saturday when he saw them for the first time. An assorted group of men and women of various ages and nationalities, all with one thing in common: a love of chess. He recalled Dimitri telling him about Players’ Square, so he decided to find out for himself. Their heads were bowed as they studied the boards. There must have been a dozen of them, perhaps more, waiting for their opponents’ next move.
Alex hadn’t played chess since he’d arrived in America, and like a drug addict who’s been deprived of his next fix, he joined the onlookers, moving quickly from game to game until he came across a heavily set middle-aged man dressed in jeans and a sweater, who was seated on his own. None of the other players seemed willing to take the seat opposite him. Alex decided there was only one way to find out why.
‘Hi,’ he said, ‘my name is Alex.’
‘Ivan,’ the man replied. ‘But before you sit down, have you got a dollar to lose? Because that’s what it’s going to cost you when I win.’
Alex did have a dollar, two in fact, which Elena had given him along with a list of groceries she needed for the weekend.
He sat down, extracted a bill from his pocket and held it up. ‘Now let’s see yours.’
The man chuckled. ‘You’ll only see mine if you beat me.’ He moved his king’s bishop’s pawn two squares forward.
Alex immediately recognized an opening often used by Boris Spassky, and countered by moving his queen’s pawn forward one square.
The undisputed champion of Brighton Beach gave him a second look before moving his king’s knight in front of his pawns. It only took a few more moves for Ivan to realize he would have to concentrate if he was going to defeat his young challenger.
Neither noticed that a small crowd had begun to gather around them, wondering if it could be possible that ‘the champ’ was about to be defeated for the first time in months. It was another forty minutes before a round of applause broke out when Alex delivered the word ‘checkmate’.
‘Best of three?’ suggested the older man, handing over a dollar.
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Alex replied, ‘but I have to go. I have some errands to run for my mother.’
It was the way he pronounced the word ‘mother’ that caused Ivan to ask his next question in Russian. ‘Then why don’t you come back tomorrow, around midday, and give me a chance to win my dollar back.’
‘I’ll look forward to that,’ said Alex, who stood up and shook hands with a man he knew wouldn’t be taken by surprise a second time.
Alex couldn’t be sure what time it was, but felt certain his mother would be home by now. He hurried out of the square and headed straight for the market, where he bought the vegetables and pork chops his mother had asked for. He had quickly learnt which stalls to go to for the finest cuts of meat and the freshest vegetables, but most of all he enjoyed haggling with the stallholders before handing over any cash; something every Russian did from the day they were born, except for his mother.
After he’d paid for a couple of pounds of potatoes, the last item on his mother’s list, he began to make his way home. He wouldn’t have stopped if he hadn’t seen her looking at him through the window. He hesitated for a moment, then marched into the shop as if he had always intended to.
‘I need a belt,’ said Alex, naming the first item of clothing that popped into his head.
‘That’s not the only thing you need,’ said the girl, as she selected a nearly new brown leather belt and handed it to him. He tried to give her his winnings. ‘Save it,’ she said. ‘You can take me to a movie tomorrow night.’
Alex was lost for words. He’d never asked a girl out on a date, and now the dame was doing the asking. Cagney wouldn’t have approved.