There were some books on a shelf and aphotograph in a wooden frame on the wall over the fireplace. A very old family photograph,the image cracked and worn, of a man and a woman and three small children; twoboys and a blond little girl.

Massey guessed Stanski and the old manhad probably gone hunting. He decided to walk down to the lake.

The water was choppy and rain clouds weregathering overhead. A razor-sharp icy wind suddenly whipped across the lake,and as Massey stood beside the boat he said aloud, "Jesus, that's cold. Heheard the barely audible click of a weapon behind him and the voice a splitsecond later.

"You'll be a damned sight colder,mister, if you don't take those hands out of your pockets. Keep them in the airand turn around very slowly. Otherwise you're going to be crawling around onstumps."

Massey turned and saw the man. There wasa thin crazy smile on his unshaven face and he looked thoroughly dangerous andunpredictable. He was of medium height, blond, and carried a canvas bag slungover his shoulder. He wore a heavily padded windbreaker over his sweater, andhis corduroy trousers were tucked into knee-length Russian boots. He held thebutt of a Browning shotgun lightly against his waist, the barrel pointed atMassey.

The man's face creased in a grin."Jake Massey. For a second there I thought you were a trespasser up to nogood. You almost got yourself peppered."

"I guess I got here earlier thanexpected." Massey smiled and nodded to the shotgun. "You planning onusing that thing, Alex?"

The man grinned and lowered the shotgunas he stepped forward and shook Massey's hand. "Good to see you, Jake. No problemfinding us, then?"

"I saw the sign at the entranceroad. Talk about wanting privacy. Who in the hell's going to bother coming upto this godforsaken place?"

Stanski smiled. "Poachers, for one.The land and water all around here belong to Vassily and he doesn't take warmlyto strangers stealing from his traps."

"Then one man's meat must be anotherman's poison. Me, I'd go crazy up here."

"If you've got time later I'll giveyou the guided tour. We've even got bears in the woods."

There was a brief look of alarm onMassey's face.

Stanski laughed. "Relax, Jake. It'sstill a lot safer than New York."

Massey suddenly noticed the old manstanding in the woods fifty yards away, a deer carcass slung over hisshoulders.

He carried a Winchester rifle and hislong black hair was tied back from a weathered face that looked as brown anddeeply wrinkled as a walnut. He looked like an Indian from a distance, butMassey recognized something familiar in the features. It was a face that hadthe same look as the Russians who live north of the Arctic Circle; dark hairand features not unlike the Laplanders.

Stanski waved over at him, the merest ofgestures, and when Massey glanced back the old man had disappeared into thewoods.

Suddenly it started to rain, a heavy,drenching downpour, and a squall of wind threw freezing water in their faces.

Stanski smiled. "How about we go upto the house? I've got a bottle of bourbon put by that'll warm that old Russianheart of yours.

They sat at the pinewood table andStanski opened the bottle and poured bourbon into two shot glasses.

He was lean but well built, and he movedstealthily. A strange combination of restless energy and measured control, asif he was in command of every muscle in his body. As Stanski sat, Masseynoticed the man's eyes. Deep, slate blue. There was more than a hint of tormentin them, but the strange smile hardly left his face.

Stanski raised his glass. "Zazdorovye."

"Za zdorovye." Massey sippedhis drink, stood and crossed to the bookshelf in the corner and picked up abook.

"Dostoevsky. Last time it wasTolstoy. Whatever are we going to do with you, Alex? An assassin as well as ascholar. Quite a dangerous combination."

Stanski smiled. "He appeals to thedarker side of my Russian nature."

:"Where's Vassily disappearedto?"

"He's in the woods someplace. Don'tworry about him."

Massey swallowed the bourbon and pushedforward the glass. As Stanski refilled it he said, "You want totalk?" Massey said, "What did Branigan tell you exactly?"

" Enough to get me interested. Butseeing as you're going to be running the show, I want to hear it from thehorse's mouth."

Massey undid the security lock on thebriefcase he had taken from the car, removed the file marked "ForPresident's Eyes Only" and handed it across.

"Inside you'll see two reports. Oneis the result of almost two years' work. Highly secret intelligence workcarried out for the CIA by the Moscow contacts of some of the antistalinistimmigrant groups. It gives details of the old Tsarist escape tunnels in theKremlin that date back hundreds of years. One tunnel in particular isinteresting. It leads from the basement of the Bolshoi Theater to the thirdfloor of the Kremlin and comes out in a room next to Stalin's quarters. We alsolearned there's a secret underground train line that runs from the Kremlin toStalin's villa at kuntsevo, just outside Moscow. Stalin's got several villas;however, that's the one he uses most often. But the underground line is onlyever used when he needs to travel in haste or in an emergency. We discovered itcan be easily breached two blocks from the Kremlin, and leads right under theKuntsevo villa. Both tunnels, like all the others, are checked at weeklyintervals by the Guards Directorate, visual checks and using mine detectionequipment and dogs, but normally they're not guarded, except at the entrancesand exits, as you'd expect. But you wouldn't be going in through a regularentrance. And a man of your abilities would find a way of getting past theguards. The Kremlin and the Kuntsevo villa are the most likely places Stalin isgoing to be. Those are your ways in and out of both, whichever should benecessary to use."

It took Massey several minutes more tooutline the exact details of the operation, and when he had finished Stanskilooked through several pages of the file and said, "I'm impressed,Jake."

He picked up the bottle poured himself ashot and downed it on one gulp. Then he fixed Massey with a stare. "ButI've got some questions."

"Ask away. You're the one thisdepends on."

"Why wait until now to kill Stalin?It should have been done a long time ago."

"Look at the file again. There's asecond report I told you about, at the back. it ought to explain."

Stanski took the file and read. When hefinished he looked up and smiled. "Interesting. But I don't need a reportto tell me Stalin is crazy. He should have been put in a rubber room longago."

"Maybe, but this time we're in deepenough trouble to have to put the man down for the dangerous beast that he is.Do you remember Max Simon?"

"Sure. He was a friend of yours, asI recall."

Massey explained about the deaths of Maxand his daughter, and why they had been killed. A look of utter distastecrossed Stanski's face. He lit a cigarette and stood.

"There's something I don'tlike."

"What?"

"Bloody the waters in a pool full ofsharks and it's difficult to get out with all those teeth chopping. Assuming Ido the job, the KGB and militia are going to be swarming all over Moscowafterwards, if there is an afterwards. There are five hundred Kremlin Guardsbehind those red walls, another three thousand a stone's throw away. That's alot of angry comrades."

"I was coming to that."

Stanski grinned. "I kind of hopedyou were."

" You leave the Kremlin or the dachathe same way you enter. But there'll also be alternative exits just in case youneed them. As soon as I have everything organized, I'll tell you the details.But assuming it all goes according to plan, after that you lie low in a safehouse I'll set up in Moscow. A week later, if things work out the way I intend,I take you out."