***
From the very moment the four sat down together at a small table in a quiet corner of Mama Zoya’s, it was clear that someone had to be in charge. The only question was, who.
“I thank you all for comin’ on such short notice,” said CC Cooper genially. “I know I’m just the outsider here, but I’ve been doin’ some outsider thinkin’ and I reckon if we all just get down to business, we can get this thing squared away in no time.”
“Colonel Cooper,” Suslova said calmly, “You are certainly right about being an outsider here.”
“You may also be violating the Logan Act,” Fajans added.
“Logan Act?” Suslova inquired.
“It forbids private citizens from negotiating on behalf of the US government.”
“Oh, pshaw, Max. I ain’t negotiatin’ nothin’. I’m just hostin’ a leetle get-together.”
Suslova’s face betrayed no flicker of amusement. “Before we go any further, I need to know certain things.”
“Shoot, Colonel. But don’t ask me about my relationship with Miss Rebecca here.”
“Very well.” She turned. “Ms. Taylor, what is your relationship with Colonel Cooper?”
“He’s my zakuska.”
“Yeeeee…hah!”
Everyone turned to Cooper. “Sorry,” he said. “But I just died and went to Heaven.”
“Coming back any time soon?” Fajans asked, disgusted.
Suslova turned to Fajans. “It appears that we are the professionals here,” she said, still very calm. “Perhaps we should proceed accordingly.”
“I’m a professional, too,” Rebecca Taylor added helpfully.
Suslova stared hard at her, making her swallow. “We know.”
“Colonel Suslova, ma’am,” Cooper interjected. “Y’know. I’m kinda fond of your brother. What’s he up to these days?”
“Trying to stay warm, I imagine. Nothing else.”
“Have ya talked at him since all this started?”
“No,” she said, her voice still cold and quiet and hard, her face still impassive, her eyes alive with pain.
Cooper noticed. “Colonel, ma’am, this must be awful hard on you personally. Tell me, how do you feel about all this?”
Irina Borisovna Suslova looked at him from a great distance. “I am not given to revealing my emotions to strangers. In any event, my English is inadequate.”
“No problem. Miss Rebecca will help. Miss Rebecca, would you please confer with the colonel and make sure she’s got the proper vocabulary?”
Taylor and Suslova spoke with each other very quietly for a moment; there was a soft laugh. Then they broke apart and Suslova said in perfect English, “In the beginning, I was conflicted. Now I’m just fucking pissed.”
Cooper beamed. “That’s better. Good to get it out, ain’t it?”
“Is this a serious meeting or group therapy?” Fajans fumed.
“Little a both,” Cooper answered. “Little a this, little a that, it’ll all work out…”
“Colonel Cooper,” Fajans went on, “don’t you know anything about procedures?”
“Surely do. That’s why I ignore them. Used to work with you guys in Vee-et-Nam. Taught me ever-thing I needed to know. Ever been to Vee-et-Nam, Max?”
“Three years.”
“Yeah? Me too. Remember that little place on Tu Do Street…”
“God damn it!” Fajans roared.
“Enough!” growled Suslova, low in her chest.
You leave my zakuska alone! thought Taylor, then said, “CC, you’re getting on everybody’s nerves.”
“Exactly my intention,” said Cooper, shifting from dialect to forthright. “Now that you’re all mad at me, maybe you won’t be quite so mad at each other.”
Why,” Fajans asked himself aloud, “do I get a sense that Colonel Cooper may have a point?”
“Cause you’re smarter than the average spook. Shall we get down to work?”
There was the silence of agreement.
“OK,” said Cooper. “Basic rule is, anything anybody says here, anybody else is free to use in any way they want. I’m going to control this meeting because I’m the one with the least to lose. I’m going to lay my cards on the table and then ask a few questions. OK by everybody?”
It was.
“Tuesday morning, General Suslov was called out of my seminar. When he returned, it was clear that he wanted to talk with me. After class was over, we were walking down the hall and he told me that Olivia had been taken to the Lubyanka and he was headed for house arrest at his dacha. He asked me to get in touch with Rebecca, said she’d know what this was about and would know what to do. That’s what I did and that’s how that newspaper story came about. It was based entirely on what Olivia had told Rebecca some time ago about what had happened when she tried to contact the CIA in Vienna. Rebecca and I assumed that the memo had in fact been written and that somehow it had made its way to Russia.”
“Made its way…” Fajans growled softly.
“For the moment, Max, all we need to know is that it did. Now. First question. Does anybody have reason to dispute what I’ve said so far?” No one answered. “OK,” Cooper went on, “then we’ll go on the assumption that the story is correct as written, even though we were shooting in the dark on much of it. Now we get to the next question.” His eyes went around the table. “Mister Fajans, to the best of your knowledge, is Tolchin a spy?”
“To the best of my knowledge…no.”
“Rebecca, do you have any reason to believe that she is a spy?”
“No.”
“Colonel Suslova, you met Doctor Tolchin through your brother?”
“No. I was one of her intake interrogators when she first came here. The personal relationship came later, as did her affair with my brother.”
“I see. So you know her better than any of us here. Much better. What is your thought?’
At last Suslova nodded. “I have read the Lyons memo. Still, nothing that I have learned of her, nothing in my professional experience, nothing…human…tells me that she is anything other than the woman we know. She is not a spy.”
Cooper leaned back in his chair. “Then it’s unanimous. Whatever else we may think of her and what she’s done, she is not a spy. That brings us to the next question. What do we do about it?”
“Cooper,” Fajans said darkly, “it’s one thing to host a discussion. When you start moving into policy and actions, you have no authority to…”
“Well, Max,” Cooper replied, “Sociology tells us that there’s all different kinds of authority. There’s traditional authority, legal authority, rational authority, charismatic authority. Traditional authority I ain’t got. Legal, neither. Rational? Who, me? So I guess we’re just gonna have to make do with charisma. Now, we ain’t none of us got no power here, except the power to make recommendations and, in the case of Miss Rebecca, the power of the press. We are in agreement that Olivia is innocent. What do we recommend? Let’s start with Max.”
Fajans shook his head, then laughed. “Cooper, you sure know how to run a meeting.”
“Deedy do. That’s why I’m going to ask you again. What are your intentions?”
“My intention,” said Fajans, “is to report this meeting to my superiors, along with my conclusion that Tolchin is not an American spy. My recommendation will be that we ask the Russian government to release her, but not necessarily into our custody. We’ve got too many people, here and in the States, who would be happy to fry her for what she’s done and that would just keep the case open. If she wants to come home, that’s a different kettle of worms. We can deal with that when and if, not before.”
“Anything else, Max?”
“Yes. There are some delicate negotiations going on right now regarding aid to Russia, loans, whatever. This case is an irritant that nobody needs. I’ll recommend that if Russia doesn’t make a fuss, neither do we.”
“Well said, Max. Well said and wise.” Cooper turned to Suslova. ?
??Colonel?”
“I will report this conversation to my superiors and report that I am in total agreement with Mister Fajans, with one exception. There are domestic considerations here. Our economic situation grows worse with each passing month. Our secessionists and terrorists may be quiet for the moment, but they are far from defeated. Our society is in turmoil; our politics are inadequate to address our needs. There are many people in the FSB, many people in Russia, who want a return to the former ways. They will be happy to use this case to further their desires. We all know how it works. They start by investigating those who have known Olivia. That means many senior VDV officers. That means FSB people. It means GRU people. They may find nothing on her, but things start turning up on other matters and other people in the course of the investigations. People are accused. Then they start to investigate who knows the accused and in a while, Olivia is forgotten and things are out of control.” She looked around the table. “This would be tragic for Russia and the world. So my recommendation will be that we terminate this matter as quickly as possible.”
“What do you mean by terminate?” Cooper asked quietly. “By any means necessary?”
“Yes,” Suslova answered. “It may become desirable for Tolchinskaya to leave Russia. I would ask Mister Fajans to reconsider the option of our turning her over directly to you.”
“Even if it means locking her away in an American prison?”
Suslova looked at Fajans. “Yes.”
Cooper folded his hands. “Will you recommend that to your superiors?”
“I will remind them that as long as Tolchinskaya remains in Russia, some people will remain interested in exploiting her alleged misdeeds. Innocence may be asserted, even proven. But the events of the past few days will remain.”
“Very well. Rebecca?”
Taylor exhaled deeply. “I…I’m going to proceed as planned, CC. An op-ed on all this for tomorrow’s Post. It may not make the print edition until Sunday. But it will be on the website as fast as they can get it up.”
“No names,” Fajans cautioned.
“No names. Not even the usual anonymous sources, if I can avoid it. Just me this time.”
“Not exactly,” Cooper answered.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, honey, I’m gonna help. Just like last time. You and me.”
“Why don’t I just quit and you take my job, CC?”
“Cause I’m gettin’ too old to start any more new careers this week. OK, folks. Anybody got anything else?”
“Yes.” Taylor looked at Suslova. “Are you still angry with me for writing what I did?”
“Yes. But I must tell you that had you not written it, I might have called you and asked you to write something similar.”
“That’s not rational. It makes no sense to be angry at me for doing what you wanted me to do.”
“Rebecca, this is Russia. If you want rationality, I suggest you request reassignment to Washington, DC.”