Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

"That, for example," he replied somewhat defensively, "while Putin's grandfather might really have been Stalin's cook during the Second World War, he was also a political commissar in the Red Army. Including, among other places, Stalingrad."

I said that because her attitude pisses me off.

What I should've said was, "Very little." And the look in Jack's eyes confirms that I should have.

She smiled. "So you have read a little about my country?"

She's trying to make me mad. And succeeding.

"Colonel, you had best stop thinking about Russia as your country," Castillo said. And then his mouth ran away with him. "But since you seem so curious about Mr. Putin, I know that his father was not foreman in a locomotive factory, or whatever the official bio has him doing, but was at least a colonel in the KGB."

"Actually, a general. I'm impressed."

"Charley, why don't we call this off for tonight?" Davidson asked. "I don't know about you, but I'm beat."

Meaning, of course, that you think I'm about to lose it.

And my behavior suggests that I am.

What the hell is the matter with me?

"Yeah, me, too. It's been a very long day. Couple of days," Castillo said, then stood.

Svetlana said: "You said your question is, 'Why did we defect?' I am about to tell you."

"Okay, tell me," Castillo said more than a little sharply, and sat down.

"Because we came to the conclusion that sooner or later, Mr. Putin was going to get around to purifying us. We know too much. We have one family member who has, if not defected, done the next thing to it."

"Really?" Castillo asked sarcastically.

"Really," she said. "I don't think Putin would throw us to starving dogs or off the Kremlin wall, but keeping us on drugs in a mental hospital for the rest of our lives seemed a distinct possibility."

Castillo looked into her eyes.

I'll be damned if I don't believe her.

Svetlana smiled wanly and shrugged. "I told you that you weren't going to believe me."

"And why did you want to come here?" Castillo asked.

"We have a relative here, who saw what was going to happen long before we did. And got out in the chaos, when the Soviet Union was falling apart."

"And he's here?"

"Somewhere here. I don't know exactly where. I was hoping, frankly, that you'd help me find him. His name is Aleksandr Pevsner. His mother and my mother were sisters."

Castillo was quiet a long moment, hoping that he appeared to be in thought, not caught off guard.

"I've heard the name, of course," he finally said as he stood up. "The last I heard, there were thirteen Interpol warrants out for him."

He motioned for her to go to the door.

"Agent Britton will take you to your room, Colonel. If you need anything, ask her. Breakfast will be served at seven-thirty. I expect you and your brother to be there."

She ground out her cigarette, stood, and walked through the door to the bedroom without saying anything.

Davidson followed her, and Castillo heard murmured conversation between Davidson and Sandra Britton, and then the sound of the door closing.