Also by Tom Rob Smith
Child 44
The Secret Speech
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2011
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Tom Rob Smith, 2011
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.
The right of Tom Rob Smith to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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Hardback ISBN: 978-1-84737-567-4
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-84737-568-1
eBook ISBN: 978-1-84737-976-4
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Typeset by M Rules
Printed in the UK by CMackays, Chatham ME5 8TD
To Zoe Trodd
CONTENTS
Moscow Lubyanka Square The Lubyanka, Headquarters of the Secret Police 21 January 1950
Moscow Moskvoretsky Bridge KM Tramcar Same Day
Moscow Lubyanka Square The Lubyanka, Headquarters of the Secret Police Next Day
Same Day
Moscow House on the Embankment 2 Serafimovich Street Next Day
Moscow Grocery Store No. 1, Yeliseyev’s Grocery Store Tverskaya 14 Same Day
Moscow Secondary School 7 Avtozavodskaya Same Day
Moscow Serp I Molot Factory Magnitogorsk Same Day
FIFTEEN YEARS LATER
Moscow Novye Cheremushki Khrushchev’s Slums Apartment 1312 24 July 1965
Next Day
Manhattan 2nd Avenue Subway Station Same Day
Airspace over New York City Same Day
Manhattan Hotel Grand Metropolitan 44th Street Next Day
Manhattan United Nations Headquarters 1st Avenue & East 42nd Street Next Day
New Jersey Bergen County The Town of Teaneck Same Day
Bradhurst Harlem West 145th Street Same Day
Manhattan Same Day
Bradhurst Harlem West 145th Street Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Manhattan Hotel Grand Metropolitan 44th Street Same Day
Same Day
Manhattan 5th Avenue Same Day
Moscow Novye Cheremushki Khrushchev’s Slums Apartment 1312 Same Day
Manhattan Hotel Grand Metropolitan 44th Street Same Day
Moscow Lubyanka Square The Lubyanka, Headquarters of the Secret Police Same Day
Manhattan Hotel Grand Metropolitan 44th Street Same Day
Same Day
Manhattan Global Travel Company 926 Broadway Same Day
Bradhurst Harlem West 145th Street Same Day
Manhattan United Nations Headquarters The General Assembly Hall 1st Avenue & East 44th Street Same Day
Harlem Bradhurst 8th Avenue & West 139th Street Nelson’s Restaurant Same Day
Manhattan United Nations Headquarters The General Assembly Hall 1st Avenue & East 44th Street Same Day
Manhattan Outside the United Nations Headquarters 1st Avenue & East 44th Street Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Global Travel Company 926 Broadway Same Day
Manhattan United Nations Headquarters The General Assembly Hall 1st Avenue & East 44th Street Same Day
Manhattan Outside the United Nations Headquarters 1st Avenue & East 44th Street Same Day
Manhattan Bellevue Hospital Center 462 1st Avenue Same Day
Manhattan 17th Police Precinct 167 East 51st Street Same Day
Harlem Bradhurst 8th Avenue & West 139th Street Nelson’s Restaurant Next Day
ONE WEEK LATER
USSR 29 Kilometres North-West of Moscow Sheremetyevo Airpot 4 August 1965
Moscow Novye Cheremushki Khrushchev’s Slums Apartment 1312 Same Day
Same Day
EIGHT YEARS LATER
Soviet–Finnish Border Soviet Checkpoint 760 Kilometres North-West of Moscow 240 Kilometres North-East of Helsinki New Year’s Day 1973
SEVEN YEARS LATER
Greater Province of Kabul Lake Qargha 9 Kilometres West of Kabul 22 March 1980
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Karta-i-Seh District Darulaman Boulevard Same Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Karta-i-Seh District Soviet Embassy Darulaman Boulevard Next Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Karta-i-Seh District Darulaman Boulevard Next Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Kabul Police Headquarters Dih Afghanan Same Day
Headquarters of the 40th Army Tapa-e-Tajbeg Palace 10 Kilometres South of Kabul Same Day
Greater Province of Kabul Murad Khani District Same Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Murrad Khani District Same Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Karta-i-Seh District Darulaman Boulevard Same Day
Kabul Province Surobi District Barqi-Sarobi Dam 50 Kilometres East of Kabul Same Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Kabul Police Headquarters Dih Afghanan Next Day
Greater Province of Kabul 8 Kilometres East of the City of Kabul Same Day
Greater Province of Kabul 10 Kilometres East of the City of Kabul Pul-i-Charkhi Prison Same Day
Same Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Sar-e-Chowk Roundabout Same Day
The Border of Laghman and Nangarhar Provinces The Village of Sokh Rot 116 Kilometres East of Kabul 9 Kilometres West of Jalalabad Next Day
Greater Province of Kabul City of Kabul Jada-e-Maiwand District Microrayon Apartment Complex Three Days Later
The Road from Kabul to Jalalabad 100 Kilometres East of Kabul 25 Kilometres West of Jalalabad Next Day
The Border of Laghman and Nangarhar Provinces Village of Sokh Rot 116 Kilometres East of Kabul 9 Kilometres West of Jalalabad Same Day
Village of Sau 118 Kilometres East of Kabul 7 Kilometres West of Jalalabad Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Nangarhar Province Rodat District 15 Kilometres South of Jalalabad 3100 Metres above Sea Level Next Day
Next Day
Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Hindu Kush Mountain Range Afghanistan–Pakistan Border The Khyber Pass 1000 Metres above Sea Level 180 Kilometres South-East of Kabul 30 Kilometres North-West of Peshawar Next Day
Same Day
Pakistan North-West Frontier Province Peshawar 43 Kilometres South-East of the Afghan Border Two Days Later
Next Day
Same Day
SIX MONTHS LATER
Manhattan United Nations Headquarters 1st Avenue & East 44th Street 15 November 1981
Bradhurst Harlem West 145th Street
New York City Brighton Beach Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Washington DC FBI Headquarters J. Edgar Hoover Buildadq935 Pennsylvania Avenue Next Day
Same Day
Harlem Bradhurst West 145th Street Three Days Later
Harlem Bradhurst 8th Avenue & West 139th Street Nelson’s Restaurant Same Day
New Jersey Next Day
/>
New Jersey Bergen County The Town of Teaneck Cedar Lane Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
Same Day
New York City Brighton Beach Same Day
ONE MONTH LATER
Soviet Airspace above Moscow 13 December
Moscow Butyrka Prison Pre-Trial Detention Centre 45 Novoslobodskaya Street One Week Later
Same Day
Next Day
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Moscow
Lubyanka Square
The Lubyanka, Headquarters
of the Secret Police
21 January 1950
The safest way to write a diary was to imagine Stalin reading every word. Even exercising this degree of caution there was the risk of a slipped phrase, accidental ambiguity – a misunderstood sentence. Praise might be mistaken for mockery, sincere adulation taken as parody. Since even the most vigilant author couldn’t guard against every possible interpretation, an alternative was to hide the diary altogether, a method favoured in this instance by the suspect, a young artist called Polina Peshkova. Her notebook had been discovered inside a fireplace, in the chimney no less, wrapped in waxy cloth and squeezed between two loose bricks. To retrieve the diary the author was forced to wait until the fire died down before inserting her hand into the chimney and feeling for the book’s spine. Ironically the elaborate nature of this hiding place had been Peshkova’s undoing. A single sooty fingerprint on her writing desk had alerted the investigating agent’s suspicions and re-directed the focus of his search – an exemplary piece of detective work.
From the perspective of the secret police, concealing a diary was a crime regardless of its content. It was an attempt to separate a citizen’s public and private life, when no such gap existed. There was no thought or experience that fell outside e party’s authority. For this reason a concealed diary was often the most incriminating evidence an agent could hope for. Since the journal wasn’t intended for any reader the author wrote freely, lowering their guard, producing nothing less than an unsolicited confession. From-the-heart honesty made the document suitable for judging not only the author but also their friends and family. A diary could yield as many as fifteen additional suspects, fifteen new leads, often more than the most intense interrogation.
In charge of this investigation was Agent Leo Demidov, twenty-seven years old: a decorated soldier recruited to the ranks of the secret police after the Great Patriotic War. He’d flourished in the MGB through a combination of uncomplicated obedience, a belief in the State he was serving and rigorous attention to detail. His zeal was underpinned not by ambition but by earnest adoration of his homeland, the country that had defeated Fascism. As handsome as he was serious-minded, he had the face and the spirit of a propaganda poster, a square jaw with angular lips, ever ready with a slogan.
In Leo’s brief career with the MGB, he’d overseen the examination of many hundreds of journals, pored over thousands of entries in the tireless pursuit of those accused of anti-Soviet agitation. Like a first love, he remembered the first journal he’d ever examined. Given to him by his mentor, Nikolai Borisov, it had been a difficult case. Leo had found nothing incriminating among the pages. His mentor had then read the same journal, highlighting an apparently innocent observation:
December 6th, 1936, Last night Stalin’s new constitution was adopted. I feel the same way as the rest of the country, i.e., absolute, infinite delight.
Borisov had been unsatisfied that the sentence conveyed a credible sense of delight. The author was more interested in aligning his feelings with the rest of the country. It was strategic and cynical, an empty declaration intended to hide the author’s own doubts. Does a person expressing genuine delight use an abbreviation – i.e. – before describing their emotions? That question was put to the suspect in his subsequent interrogation.
INTERROGATOR BORISOV: How do you feel right now?
SUSPECT: I have done nothing wrong.
INTERROGATOR BORISOV: But my question was: how do you feel?
SUSPECT: I feel apprehensive.
INTERROGATOR BORISOV: Of course you do. That is perfectly natural.
But note that you did not say: ‘I feel the same as anyone would in my circumstances, i.e., apprehension.’
The man received fifteen years. And Leo learned a valuable lesson – a detective was not limited to searching for statements of sedition. Far more important was to be ever-vigilant for proclamations of love and loyalty that failed to convince.
Drawing from his experiences over the past three years, Leo flicked through Polina Peshkova’s diary, observing that for an artist the suspect had inelegant handwriting. Throughout she’d pressed hard with a blunt pencil, never once sharpening the tip. He ran his finger over the back of each page, across sentences indented like Braille. He lifted the diary to his nose. It smelt of soot. Against the run of his thumb, the pages made a crackling noise, like dry autumn leaves. He sniffed and peered and weighed the book in his hands – examining it in every way except to actually read it. For a report on the content of the diary he turned to the trainee assigned to him. As part of a recent promotion Leo had been tasked with supervising new agents. He was no longer a pupil but a mentor. These new agents would accompany him on his working day and during his night-time arrests, gaining experience, learning from him until they were ready to run their own cases.
Grigori Semichastny was twenty-three years old and the fifth agent Leo had taught. He was perhaps the most intelligent and without a doubt the least promising. He asked too many questions, queried too many answers. He smiled when he found something amusing and frowned when something annoyed him. To know what he was thinking merely required a glance at his face. He’d been recruited from the University of Moscow, where he’d been an exceptional student, gifted with an academic pedigree in contrast to his mentor. Leo felt no jealousy, readily accepting that he would never have a mind for serious study. Able to dissect his own intellectual shortcomings, he was unable to understand why his trainee had sought a post in a profession for which he was entirely unsuited. So mismatched was Grigori for the job that Leo had even contemplated advising him to seek another career. Such an abrupt departure would place the man under scrutiny and would, in all likelihood, condemn him in the eyes of the State. Grigori’s only viable option was to stumble along this path and Leo felt it his duty to help him as best he could.
Grigori leafed through the pages intently, turning backwards and forwards, apparently searching for something in particular. Finally, he looked up and declared:
— The diary says nothing.
Remembering his own experience as a novice, Leo was not entirely surprised by the answer, feeling disappointment at his protégé’s failure. He replied:
— Nothing?
Grigori nodded.
— Nothing of any importance.
The notion was improbable. Even if it lacked direct examples of provocation, the things unmentioned in a diary were just as important as the things that were written down. Deciding to offer these wisdoms to his trainee, Leo stood up.
— Let me tell you a story. A young man once remarked in his diary that on this day he felt inexplicably sad. The entry was dated 23 August. The year was 1949. What would you make of that?
Grigori shrugged.
— Not much.
Leo pounced on the claim.
— What was the date of the Non-Aggression Pact between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia?
— August 1939.
— The 23rd of August 1939. Which means this man was feeling inexplicable sadness on the tenth anniversary of that treaty. Taken together with an absence of any praise for the soldiers who defeated Fascism, for Stalin’s military prowess, this man’s sadness was interpreted as an inappropriate critique of our foreign policy. Why dwell on mistakes and not express feelings of pride? Do you understand?
— Maybe it had nothing to do the treaty. We all have days where we feel sad or lonely or melancholy. We don’t ch
eck the historical calendar every time we feel such things.
Leo became annoyed.
— Maybe it had nothing to do with the treaty? Maybe there are no enemies? Maybe everyone loves the State? Maybe there are no people who wish to undermine our work? Our job is to reveal guilt, not naively hope that it doesn’t exist.
Grigori considered, noting Leo’s anger. With unusual diplomacy, he modulated his response, no longer as confrontational but sticking by his conclusion:
— In Polina’s diary there are mundane observations about her daily routine. As far as my abilities allow I can see no case against her. Those are my findings.
The artist, whom Leo noted Grigori was informally referring to by her first name, had been commissioned to design and paint a series of public murals. Since there was a risk that she, or indeed any artist, might produce something subtly subversive, a piece of art with a hidden meaning, the MGB were running a routine check. The logic was simple. If her diary contained no secret subversive meaning, it was unlikely that her art would. The task was a minor one and suitable for a novice. The first day had gone well. Grigori had found the diary while Peshkova was at work in her studio. Completing his search, he’d returned the evidence to the hiding place in the chimney in order not to alert Peshkova that she was under investigation. He’d reported back and briefly Leo had wondered if there was hope for the young man: the use of the sooty fingerprint as a clue had been admirable. During the next four days Grigori maintained a high level of surveillance, putting in many more hours than necessary. Yet despite the extra work he made no more reports and offered no observations of any kind. Now he was claiming the diary was worthless.
Leo took the notebook from him, sensing Grigori’s reluctance to let the pages out of his hands. For the first time, he began to read. At a glance he agreed that it was hardly the provocative content they might expect from a diary so elaborately hidden near a fire. Unwilling to cede to the conclusion that the suspect was innocent, he skipped to the end, scouring the most recent entries, written during the past five days of Grigori’s surveillance. The suspect described meeting a neighbour for the first time, a man who lived in an apartment block on the opposite side of the road. She’d never seen him before but he’d approached her and they’d spoken in the street. She remarked that the man was funny and she hoped to see him again sometime, coyly adding that he was handsome.