The Kremlin Letter Page #4

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Wh-What letter? Comrade, this is 1969.

Stalin and beria have been dead a long time.

Old friends don't fight

with each other. But i'm not!

Two months ago, polakov...

Went to moscow to deliver this letter.

It was a written agreement

intended for some...

High soviet official.

Now, this letter

- No. No, no, no.

I don't want to know

about the letter. Please.

Very well.

From now on, you, comrade potkin,

Will supply me with all the information

that comes to your department...

Before passing it on to kosnov.

At least a day before.

You-You-You put me in a

very delicate position.

I once did you a service when you

were in an even more delicate position.

After the hungarian trouble.

But i work for colonel kosnov.

And who recommended you to him?

Now i'm asking for repayment.

Whatever you say, comrade.

We've got to establish

headquarters in moscow.

That means we need an apartment or a house...

Belonging to a russian who doesn't

use it very much, like captain potkin.

Potkin is the head of the soviet third

department's united states operation.

Apparently captain potkin

has no exploitable vices,

But we might be able to get at him

through his wife and two daughters.

That's dasha potkin.

Age 41. Her husband is 62.

Elena potkin. Age seven.

Sonia potkin.

Eighteen. Her father's pet.

She lunches every day in the

cafeteria, invariably alone.

Sometimes, after lunch, she

goes to central park zoo...

And sketches lions for half an hour.

Only lions, for god's sake.

She never speaks to anybody.

Except a couple of the

black girls in life class.

They look at her sketches,

and she looks at theirs.

Sorry, old man. It's not very much to go on.

It's quite a lot.

It's set for thursday at 4:00.

Papa. Papa.

Papa.

Comrade, we want that apartment.

We want it so bad,

We'll turn your wife and

daughters inside out to get it.

At the art institute where i met you.

You have very beautiful, long hair.

Sonia. Sonia!

I like you, but i've got to get home.

Kiss me good-Bye. Comrade.

She can still be saved, if only you agree.

If you don't agree,

We will turn her into the most perverted

human being our minds can conceive.

And when we're finished with her, we'll

start on your other daughter and your wife.

I don't know.

Take her away from there!

Give us the apartment.

Even if i... give the apartment

to you, it will be no good.

Kosnov will know. He'll

find out. No, he won't.

It will never work!

It will work smooth as silk.

You're trying to get a line on u.S. Agents.

Any file you don't have, we'll give

you. We want kosnov to have 'em.

What about my family?

They stay in this country with our

people. No harm will come to 'em.

Take the apartment, but... leave my wife...

And daughters alone!

Please.

Please!

And to think this was one

of beria's executioners.

Get him out of here.

There are only two bedrooms

in potkin's apartment,

Which should make it very convenient

for our younger associates.

We all know you've been shacking up together.

Now, look, i think we've left no stone

unturned, but let's not kid ourselves.

If any of us is caught, there's only a remote

possibility we'd be mistaken for russians.

Keep in mind that close

examination takes time,

And that time they use on you

could let the rest of us escape.

Don't be too quick to die.

We should decide now what to do with

the money in case anybody is lost.

Send it to the families?

Divide it among the survivors?

I'm for the usual way. Usual

way is, survivors take all.

Let's see a show of hands.

Well, we've all done our

homework on polakov's file.

Our first objective is to find his contact.

It could be a hophead, a fag, a voyeur.

We'll start our search

in the sewers of moscow.

The whore will push hard narcotics,

the warlock art and homos.

Rone, b.A., your assignments

after we get to moscow.

- When will we be leaving?

- That all depends on a snowstorm in siberia.

Everything all right? All

present and accounted for.

Rone, that's your room

- Yours and b.A.

Janis, me and you, in there.

And i am supposed to sleep on this couch?

Rone.

How was your trip?

Uneventful.

How was yours?

The same.

Nice, comfortable place

old potkin's got here.

Yes. Plus lots of relatives. Maybe too many.

Well, all of us won't be staying here

together for more than a few days.

The others will have to find

separate burrows in sodom.

Only time they'll show up here is

to rendezvous with the grand mute.

What's that?

That's you, nephew.

See, our outfit is collecting a whole lot of

information, and what are we gonna do with it?

We can't tape it, we can't type it,

we can't scratch it down with a pencil,

So we're gonna tell it to you.

You're gonna be our walking diary.

You just come around and sit in the big

chair, and i'll tell you all about it.

Now, whoever's here will put that

red carpet out on the balcony.

That's to signal the all-Clear.

And this will be their guarantee that

they're not talking to a stranger.

We'll find someplace to

hide this out in the hallway.

None of us will be armed? Oh, no, nephew.

Ifif they take a man with a

gun, he ain't got a hope in hell.

They go right to work on him. That means

his friends got less chance to get away.

No. Now, let's get back to the grand mute.

There'll be a separate code for

each session for each person.

Suppose the code's 18-3. A

total of 18 on a series of three.

Now, you make a mistake, and one of

them will put a bullet through your nose.

Smooth as silk.

It's maniacal. No, it's not, nephew!

Now, it'll work. The odds are right.

Three out of our five people will have

no idea who's receiving that message.

Now put that damn thing on and

let's start rehearsing again.

Now wait a minute. Did

we lose a man coming in?

You said, "three out of five."

That's right. We lost the highwayman.

All according to plan, nephew.

He had terminal cancer.

Sacrificed two or three weeks of

suffering for the success of our operation.

It's very difficult.

They work on their own now. Irina!

They walk the streets or

give themselves in taxis.

Irina!

Comfort's a thing of the past.

There is no more culture. Irina!

I'm down to one girl.

That thing in there.

Thank you.

If i were a man,

I would pay to keep something

like that out of my bed.

The thing is, the girls have to

work in factories 10 hours a day.

When they get out and lie beside a man,

They are as romantic as sardines in a tin.

Tenderness is dead.

There is no more culture.

Hmm.

You say restrictions have

been lifted in prague.

Not really, but there's always a way.

Can you get me, say, five

beautiful, young girls?

We could be partners.

I still don't know if-

We solved just the same

problems quite easily in prague.

We made addicts of the girls.

That is a sin. A practical sin.

It costs less money and makes them

dependent on you, and it works.

Now, where can we get drugs here?

It is very difficult to come by.

I want no part in it.

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