Twelve-thirty on the chic figureless clock on the wall over the bar, the witching hour well past and the morrow already here. And perfume in the air: a woman had been here and not too long ago. He would have many of those, the Cougar.

'You killed one of my men,' he said, his tone almost hushed.

'What? That's right.'

I managed to get him in focus again, felt a bit better now, not what you'd call operational, but able to think. That was going to help, if I wanted to get through the first hours of this new day still alive and mentally intact. Even all of the day.

'His wallet was found on you,' the Cougar said softly.

'Yes?'

'Why did you take his wallet?'

'I wanted information.'

'Information on what?'

'Whatever there was to find.'

In a moment: 'You've called yourself a "businessman" on several occasions, Berinov. So I'm interested to know why a "businessman" should be able to knock out three trained bodyguards and almost get out of a trap by going down the wall of a building in the dark.'

This was the first of the major questions he would obviously ask me and I'd worked out the answer already. 'I was with the Komitet.' The KGB.

'I see. Which department?'

'Department Four.' Terrorist training and operations. 'I liked the excitement, but of course I was younger then.'

'Go on.'

'Then I got interested in money when I found out how expensive women were, and how much they liked diamonds. The pay in the Komitet wasn't quite adequate.'

He thought about that. 'So how did you acquire your acumen as a "businessman"?'

'Oh, look, it's not difficult to make money in Moscow these days, you know that. Or anywhere else, if you set a goal and go for it.'

His sleek pomaded head tilted an inch. 'That's very true. But it's difficult for me to believe that a former Komitet terrorist-agent now doing business in the mafiya no longer carries a gun. It's inconsistent. Perhaps you can help me.'

I gave a shrug. 'The fact is that I find making money – big money, huge money – so attractive that I've changed my self-image. Guns don't go with silk shirts and deerskin shoes and London-tailored suits. And if I get into trouble, I don't normally need a gun to help me to get out of it. Tonight I was simply out of luck.'

Thin ice, terribly thin ice, I could hear it cracking.

'You were out of luck, yes,' Vishinsky said. The fury still hadn't left his eyes: it was creating that glint of crystal in their depths. 'Add you'll be interested to know we've got something in common. I was also in the Komitet, working with Stasi in East Germany until the Wall came down.' He allowed a pause. 'I was sent there to train their people in advanced interrogation techniques.'

I found my attention drawn to the cute little guillotine near the bar, but I didn't move my eyes or my head.

'So let me guess,' I said. 'You've got some questions for me tonight.'

He nodded slowly. 'The first one is, where are the diamonds?'

He couldn't leave them alone.

Suddenly I knew my direction, the only chance I had of seeing the dawn. This man was for sale. But I wasn't buying him in diamonds. 'They're for Sakkas' mistress,' I said. Ballerinas, Croder had told me.

'Antanova?'

'Yes.' Mental freeze – it had been such a long shot.

'You know her?'

'I've seen her dance. I thought the diamonds might be a suitable introduction. Look, Vishinsky, if -'

The Cougar was leaning forward. 'You had the idea of picking up Vasyl Sakkas' mistress?'

'They say she's stunning.'

Vishinsky leaned back, his eyes glimmering: perhaps he thought I was having him on, didn't like it. 'There are various ways,' he said, 'of committing suicide. In any case he never lets Natalya wear jewellery. To Sakkas she's cattle.'

I waited, but he didn't say anything more and I left it, took the heat off the subject in case I blew things. 'Look,' I said, 'if you're short of a couple of million dollars I can steer you into something a lot more profitable than those little baubles, believe me. You know what they say – don't stop the parade to pick up a dime.'

He went on watching me for a moment, then glanced upward at something beside me – someone standing against the wall, out of my vision field. Five guards, then, and noted. I think Vishinsky was on the point of ordering this one to beat me up until he got straight answers; then he seemed to change his mind and looked back at me.

'Go on,' he said softly. I'd first heard this tone at the Baccarat Club; it meant that if I said something wrong he would let me know.

'Let's call it five million,' I said. 'I'm talking about icons now, antiques. There's a very good market for that sort of thing in London and New York, for any kind of Russian art, especially from the Tsarist period. It's very in now – miniatures, Faberge eggs, gold snuff boxes, jewellery – and people here are busy searching out the sources: museums, banks, private collections, nowhere's safe. I was in London last week and I came back with fourteen million US dollars after only three days.'

I waited, but Vishinsky didn't say anything. I didn't know if he was paying attention or even listening, and there was the uneasy feeling that the more rope I paid out the more he'd have to hang me with. But I couldn't stop now.

'If that interests you, I can give you introductions to some of the major collectors in the West, the most profitable sources of merchandise here and the most reliable courier services.'

He took a long time, the Cougar.

'Why should you?'

I shrugged. 'I'm putting a price on my head that I can pay.'

'Explain that.'

'It's pretty obvious. I muscled my way into your poker game at the club and you didn't like that. I left two of your men in bad shape just afterwards and then I was forced to kill a third, and you don't like that either. I think you would have had me shot on sight tonight if you hadn't wanted the diamonds first, so you at least know the basics of good business, but that won't save my neck if you suddenly decide to order the kill to get rid of the anger that's in you.'

Let the defence rest.

He watched me for a while, the crystalline light still playing deep in his eyes and replacing intelligence with raw emotion, so that I hadn't got a chance of knowing how I was making out.

'Yes,' he said at last, 'there's a great deal of anger in me, and killing you would give me much satisfaction. You have offended the Cougar.'

'Mea culpa.'

Then he made one of his non-sequential leaps, and it worried me.

'Do you think this is a nice suite?'

I looked around. 'Very nice.'

'All the suites are like this one. There are seven floors. This is the Hotel Nikolas. I named it myself – I'm a monarchist at heart, you know.'

'Really.'

'I own the hotel.'

'And how many others?'

He frowned. 'This is the only one. I'm not in the hotel business.'

'But that's very profitable too, Vishinsky. There are three hotels along the Boulevard Ring, fully furnished and going for a song. Fin-de-siecle, a lot of class, bronze, gilt, moulded ceilings, tapestries. I could arrange for you to buy all three of them.'

The shiny head tilting. 'For how much?'

'Five million. They're worth fifty.'

'How can you do that?'

'The owner is in my debt.'

'For fifty million?'

'Much more. He owes me his life.'

'I see. It will be very easy, of course, for me to check out this line you've been giving me.'

'I'm expecting you to. I'm putting a generous price on my own life tonight. Don't miss this grand opportunity.'

Mistake, and I froze mentally. Vishinsky's head was tilting again. He wasn't familiar with that last phrase, because I'd given it a literal translation. To protect and maintain a foreign-national cover you haven't only got to speak the language fluently, you've got to watch the idiom – I'd just used some American – and follow the customs, respect the etiquette, the taboos, adopt the characteristic attitudes to life: in France, philosophical; in the UK, polite but a touch suspicious of strangers; in Germany, brisk and efficient; in Russia, cynical to the bone. But I couldn't change the 'grand opportunity' thing now, would have to rely on Vishinsky's impression that I did business in New York as well as London, knew my way around there.