"The restaurant was warm andbustling and they found an empty table beside the window. Stanski orderedschnapps and Vorvchniack for both of them. They ate silently, and when they hadfinished they walked back Out along the coast road toward Kaivopuisto. A windhad come up, and it blew in off the frozen sea, bitterly cold.

Stanski stopped and pointed to a bench,his face serious. He lit a cigarette and offered her one as she sat beside him."How do you feel?"

She brushed a strand of hair from herface. "How should I feel'?'

scared." He saw the tension aroundthe corners of her Mouth.

@"A little, I guess."

@"It's not too late to change yourmind."

Stanski looked back toward the city."The Swedish Embassy is ten minutes' walk from here. You could ask forasylum and I won't stop you. To hell with Massey. I think he'd even understand.I could still go through with this alone."

"Why are you telling me this? Whythe sudden concern?"

There was a look like pain on Stanski'sface. "You saw what happened to Vassily. And Popov was right about whatthe KGB do to women agents they arrest. I've seen it myself."

"Tell me."

He glanced away again, "Two yearsback I was sent to the Baltic to organize a resistance group. One of thepartisans I helped train was a girl of nineteen. The KGB caught her when theystormed the forest camps the partisans used. What they did to her doesn't beartelling."

"Did you love her?"

"That hardly matters, does it? Let'sjust say I repaid the bastard who tortured her. He's lying six feetunder."

Anna looked away. Out in the bay shecould make out the solid alabastard-colored walls of an island fortress, andthe small islands nearby looked like frosted moles on the sea.

"I'm afraid. But not so afraid thatI won't go through with it." She looked back at Stanski's face. "Whathappened at the cabin, the way you reacted, it wasn't just to avenge Vassily,though that was part of it. There was a look in your eyes, it was like you camealive when you faced danger. Don't you ever feel afraid?"

"What's there to be afraid of'?Death comes to us all sooner or later. Maybe when we're faced with it that'sthe moment we truly define ourselves." He smiled. "It's not theheroes who stay to look trouble in the eye-there's no such thing. The fatalistswith nothing to lose."

"Don't you have @anything tolose?"

"Not much."

"Didn't you ever love anyone besidesVaissily? A woman'.@"

"'typical of a woman to ask thatquestion. But what's it got to do with it'."'

She looked at him intently. "Maybenothing, maybe everything."

@"Tell me what You liked to do mostwhen you lived in Russia as a boy. Tell me about your family."

Slaanski looked away uncomfortably. Annasaid "Something bad once happened to your family, didn't it'? Is that whyyou left Russia'

He said dismissively, "Hardly any ofyour business. Besides, it's all water under the bridge. A long time to Forgetit."

"But that's the point. I don't thinkyou can forget it. I think it's what makes You Angry. living close to death, asif you wish it."

He looked at her defensively. "Whatis this. mental psycho analysis? Is that something you picked up in NewYork?"

She realized he was more sensitive thanartery, Brad some instinct made her reach across and briefly touch his hand."You're right, it's none of my business, But what happened to Vassily, I'mtruly sorry. He was a good man."

For a long time he didn't speak-, andthen he said quietly, "He was one of the finest men I knew. But he's gonenow, and nothing can bring him back."

She saw the look of grief flood his face,and he stood Lip as if to kill the emotions Anna said. "Why do you alwaysdo that?"

Stanski @frowned. "Do what?"

"Hide your feelings like a typicalRussian.. Never let emotions in. But yet you always repay pain with pain. LikeVassily and that partisan (girl. Why?" He said flippantly, "A longstory. Remind me to tell you some time."

The wind in the harbor grew harsher.Street lamps flickered along the promenade and behind them a tram trundled paston its metal tracks, electric blue flashes sparking in the darkness overhead.

Anna said, "I don't think you'veever trusted anyone enough to let them get really close, have you, AlexStanski? Inside you're still that same little boy who had to escape halfwayacross the world on his own, with no one to rely on but himself."

He didn't reply and Anna looked towardthe sea and SUDDENLY shivered.

Stanski said, "What's wrong?"

She put her hands in her coat pockets, adeadness in her voice when she spoke.

"I'm not sure. It's odd, but I havea feeling we're both doomed across that sea. What happened at the cabin is likean omen. And people like you and me, maybe we have too much bad fortune in ourpasts to be lucky."

"Then why not forget about it and doas I said?"

"Like you say, maybe like you I'venothing to lose."

They spent the rest of the evening goingover the weapons, equipment and the forged papers with Massey in the@kitchen.

He gave them each a Tokarev 7.62 pistoland a spare magazine. He also produced a Na gant 7.62 revolver which had mostof the barrel sawn away and a silencer attached. He handed it to Stanski, whochecked the weapon before slipping it into his pocket and half smiling at Anna.

"A little something extra just incase the Tokarev jams."

Stanski had three sets of papers; one foran eastern worker named Bodkin, home on leave from a collective farm inKalinin, another for a Red Army captain named Oleg Petrovsky, on leave from the17th Arbored Division barracks at Leningrad, the third in the name of GeorgiMazov, a KGB major attached to the 2nd Directorate, Moscow. Anna had anotherthree sets in the same family names, posing as his wife in each case, and therewere photos of them together and separately, along with their relationship andpast.

The other papers included variousregional passes and work cards, all in drab official paper and ageddeliberately, the photographs in black and white and officially stamped. WhenMassey had gone over their aliases and backgrounds again he said, "Thepapers are the best I've seen and they should pass close scrutiny, but ofcourse there's no guarantee. All I can say, if it's any comfort, is that theforgers are the best in the business and worked damned hard to get themright."

Anna picked up her worn-looking set andexamined them. "I don't understand. How can they look so used?"

Massey smiled. "An old trick fromthe war. The forgers fray them with very fine sandpaper and then tape themunder their armpits for a couple of hours. Human sweat has an aging effect onpaper. As you can see, it works wonders."

Anna made a face and Massey smiled."An unpleasant thought, but a simple thing like that may save your life.The KGB might become suspicious of passes printed on fresh paper and if theylook closely enough they can sometimes tell if chemicals have been used to agethem artificially. Whereas the sweat process is undetectable."

He opened a leather pouch containingseveral wads of rubles, and gave the largest wad to Stanski. The money wascreased and aged and there was a handful of coins each.

"if you need any more rubles you canpick them up at the safe houses between Tallinn and Moscow," he explainedto Anna. "Otherwise, if you're searched and found with a large amount ofcash, it might arouse suspicion. The weapons and some of the clothes and extrapapers, of course, are going to be a problem for the first set of falseidentities if you're stopped and searched soon after you land. That's thedanger time. I'm afraid there's no way of safely hiding everythingincriminating on your person, but it's a temporary risk, so you'll just have toplay the game as it happens. Bury them somewhere near where you land andretrieve them later if you think it's going to be a problem. OK, let's look atthe other equipment."