![]() ![]() What was so special about the Russian to bring the American secretary of defense forty-two hundred miles to a city he despised? Boris Karpov was a colonel in FSB-2, ostensibly the new Russian anti-drug enforcement agency. Unfortunately, here he was in this godforsaken, smoke-clogged subterranean jazz club, having stepped out of the back of an armored Lincoln limousine onto tourist-infested Rumfordstrasse. If he never saw this miserable excuse for a city again it would be too soon for him. The smog that choked Munich-the same precise shade of filthy gray as Karpov’s eyes-perfectly mirrored Secretary Halliday’s mood. He had come all this way for a reason, he reminded himself. He trampled the impulse to get up, walk out, and never look back. The bulbous, veiny nose only served to intensify their implacable peculiarity: It was as if there was no one home, as if the soul of the man did not exist, leaving nothing but a monolithic will, like something ancient and evil Halliday had read about in an H. It was as if he were looking at a photograph of eyes rather than the real thing. But it was his eyes-pale, deep-set, unblinking-that truly unnerved the secretary. ![]() He possessed a peculiar stillness that unsettled Halliday. Halliday could see, beneath his suit, the play of muscles as now and again they bulged against the cheap material. For another, he looked like a man of action. His blond hair was thick, without the slightest wave, and cut short in the style of the Russian military. For one thing, he was younger than Halliday had imagined. We’ll get this done faster.” But instead of beginning, he stared at a wall full of very bad portraits of jazz greats like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, copied, he had no doubt, from press photos.Īfter seeing the colonel in the flesh he had begun to have second thoughts about this meeting. It was well told that Americans overseas only wanted to speak English. Halliday gave the Russian a sour smile in response to his jibe. “I’m always happy to speak foreign languages.” “That suits me,” the Russian colonel said with a heavy accent. I SPEAK RUSSIAN well enough,” Secretary of Defense Bud Halliday said, “but I prefer to speak English.” Who started it all with one simple question. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |