“Then we have no alternative but to support Alex Danilov.”

“Yes-because he’s acceptable to the Allies. We have no other source of funds but the Allies now.”

“I detest being beholden to them.”

“If we succeed in Moscow we can repudiate them at our leisure,” Ivanov murmured.

“Perhaps. But what’s to prevent them from withdrawing their support at any moment?”

“One can only be optimistic about that.” Ivanov stared bitterly at a great jagged crack in the plaster ceiling. “The American Colonel has been in London for ten days. He finally obtained an interview with Churchill. Now I understand he is on his way to Scotland to be with General Danilov. Does that sound like the behavior of a man who is about to withdraw support?”

“Buckner is a nervous man. He jumps at shadows.”

“Then all we can do is try to keep him calm.”

“I don’t like it,” Anatol said.

4

Brigadier Cosgrove showed up in a dreary overcast with Colonel Glenn Buckner in tow. Buckner looked the same and it disconcerted Alex; somehow you expected people to look different in new surroundings but the American looked exactly the same as he’d looked in Washington the first time they’d met: he even wore the same bulky blue flannel suit. Alex was surprised to realize it had been only about eleven weeks since that first meeting.

Buckner was ebullient. “I hear you’ve been working miracles up here.”

Cosgrove had with him an enormous case which must have weighed eighty pounds but he’d refused to allow anyone else to carry it off the plane. Now with his one arm he heaved it up onto Alex’s desk and undid the fasteners one at a time and flipped the lid back. The case was filled with stacks of identical manila envelopes. “Your men’s papers-the forgeries. We had the devil’s own time getting it done this quickly. You’d better have a close look-they seem all right to the chaps in my office but of course they’re not going to have to use them. You’ll know what to look for.”

“We’ll go over them tonight.” Alex peeled one of them open and shuffled through the cards and badges and oddments of paper. “I’m deeply grateful-it was fast work.”

“Nonsense old boy. Had to be done-you did a good job convincing me of that.”

Buckner said, “You’re looking damned fit for a man who got shot at again.”

“Shot at. Not shot up.”

“You were wounded the first time. I feel like I ought to grovel-I was supposed to have tight security on you.”

“No real harm done,” Alex said.

“Any clues this time?”

“No. We found the car they’d used. Abandoned, no useful fingerprints. It had been stolen in Glasgow a day earlier.” Alex went around behind the desk. “I suppose I’d better ask why we’re being honored by this distinguished delegation.”

Buckner looked around the room as if it had fascinating decor. “You’re getting close to jump-off point. My boss asked me to be on the scene.”

“You won’t be going in with us. There won’t be much for you to see.”

Buckner shrugged. “You know how it is.”

Cosgrove hadn’t taken a seat. He scratched the stump of his arm through his shirt-he seemed to have a perpetual itch there. “I’ll push off then. I only wanted to be sure those papers reached you. Didn’t want to trust them to anyone else’s care.”

Buckner stood up. “Thanks for the lift, Brigadier.”

“No trouble at all.”

When the brigadier had gone Buckner went to the door and shut it and went back to his seat. “Now then.”

“What are you really here for, Glenn?”

“To throw a potential monkey wrench in your plans.”

A chill ran through him; he made his voice hard. “Would you like to explain that?”

“That’s what it’s going to take. Explaining. Have you got a few minutes?”

“I’ve got to, haven’t I.”

Buckner shifted-slumped down in the chair. “Have you been watching the dispatches from Russia?”

“I’ve seen the papers.”

“The press tends to put things in the best light. Just the same you must have got the drift. Moscow’s been in a panic. The streets alive with looters-Stalin’s had to impose Draconian regulations to restore order.”

Alex watched the American’s face. The gloomy voice droned on:

“This wasn’t in the press. A few weeks ago Stalin asked Churchill and Roosevelt to send troops.”

Alex knew that-from Vlasov. He said nothing.

Buckner looked up. “Can you imagine what it must have cost him to make that request? Asking us to send our armies to fight on Russian soil? He wants thirty Allied combat divisions.” He stabbed the arm of the wooden chair with his forefinger: “That’s how unreliable he thinks his own army is.”

“He brought it on himself.”

“Sure. Okay. A few weeks ago he ordered the marshaling yards cleared at the Kazan Station-it’s the only Moscow depot still in operation. He cleared the yards so he could load dozens of trains with the records and personnel of the Soviet Union’s ministries and agencies. Most of them have been evacuated to the Kuybyshev-most of the commissars and functionaries and government departments. Stalin’s moved his headquarters totally into the command bunkers under the Kremlin. In Moscow right now the only top people left with Stalin are Beria, Malenkov, Zhukov, Molotov, Vlasov, Dekanozov and General Novikov-he’s their air force chief.

“In the meantime all these evacuations out to the east have interrupted the flow of those Siberian divisions into the battle sector. Moscow’s been hanging by its fingernails. A week ago Stalin had a conference underground in the Kremlin to analyze the situation. It’s pretty bleak. The Germans are on the God damned doorstep. They’ve made holes in the Mozhaisk Line-the panzer columns are within twenty-five miles of Moscow and there are spots where they’ve actually got German tanks inside the outskirts of the city.

“Once Moscow falls the ball game’s over, Alex. It’s like London or Paris-the center of everything. Railroads, telephone, telegraph, highways. Take Moscow and you’ve got European Russia.”

Alex took his time responding. “You’re afraid the Germans are going to beat us to it.”

“They may. Then again they may not. That could be just as bad for you.”

“I don’t follow that.”

“Didn’t think you would. It goes like this. It’s snowing in Moscow now. It’s snowing in Leningrad. It’s even snowing down in the Ukraine. That’s the Russian element-winter.”

“It’ll stall the Germans,” Alex said. “We’ve counted on that.”

“Well the Germans have given Stalin a lot of help let me tell you. Hitler’s turned out to be a God damned stupid fool after all.”

“You’re talking about the atrocities now.”

“I sure am. He’s defeating himself where Stalin couldn’t have done it in a hundred years. They’ve been slaughtering civilians. Butchering Jews. Maiming little kids, raping Russian women. They’re teaching the Russians how to hate Nazis. They didn’t hate them before. They threw flowers at the Wehrmacht. But then the second echelon came in-the SS exterminators-and the word’s got out across the country. Hitler’s lost the support he had in Russia. He’s given the Red Army what they never had before. They’ve found the guts to fight.

“That pitiful God damned horse cavalry of Budyenny’s been stopping panther tanks in their tracks. It’s hard to believe but there it is.”

“I’m not getting your point,” Alex said.

“The point is, old son, if Stalin can hold the Germans all by himself then the Allies don’t need you.”

Alex contrived a hard smile. “You can’t have it both ways.”

“Can’t I?”

“You’re saying you can’t use us if Stalin loses and you don’t need us if he wins. The same conditions obtained when we started all this. Nothing’s changed.”

“You’re wrong. The whole-”

“Stalin isn’t whipping them,” Alex said, riding right over him. “He’s only doing a bit better than he was before. He’s had time to get over the surprise-he’s had time to bring in a million troops from Siberia and the SS has given him some help with his morale. Naturally the German advance has slowed down-their supply lines are long and it’s the dead of winter up there. So the Germans will sit in their trenches until spring and then they’ll finish the job-unless Russia’s got the kind of leadership the country will follow.”