‘I thought that place had been closed years ago?’
‘Certainly, but its name is enough for the Cheka to make an imperialist conspiracy out of it.’
‘And is it?’
‘Is it what?’
‘An imperialist plot, like they say?’
Valentine smiled ruefully. ‘Well, that’s the thing, old man. I’m afraid Sidney Reilly’s fingerprints are all over it.’
‘This is the Armenian Jew?’
‘He’s not a bad fellow, actually,’ Valentine said. ‘He’s just apt to go off half-cocked.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It seems he was trying to organise a mutiny among the units that guard Lenin at the Kremlin. Came a bit of a cropper.’
‘How a cropper, exactly?’
‘The guards were Lettish Rifles. Supposedly disaffected.’
‘But you said Trotsky brought Lettish regiments in to put down the Left SR coup!’
‘Yes. Apparently it turned out that the men Reilly was dealing with were agent provocateurs.’
30
Sofya was standing at the kitchen window looking out on a small back garden choked by weeds. Paul stood at her shoulder, succumbing to an impulse to apologise.
‘I’m sorry. For getting you into this, I mean. It would have been better if I hadn’t come to you.’
‘What difference does it make?’ she said, gazing out the window. ‘You said yourself they were going to evict me anyway.’
‘Yes but you weren’t in any danger until I came.’
‘Only of starving to death,’ she said. ‘Besides, if your friend, Olyen, is right and they’re looking for Pavel Rostov, they would have come to our house sooner or later.’
‘Yes, but you wouldn’t have known about me, would you?’
‘Do you think that makes any difference? You’ve a lot to learn about the Bolsheviks, Pavel. It’s not what you know, it’s what you are. Sooner or later they would have arrested me simply for being Mikhail’s sister.’
‘I can’t believe even the Bolsheviks are that arbitrary.’
‘No? I’ve heard they regularly take the families of men they regard as enemies. We’re all class enemies now, anyone who comes from a family that had property.’
‘That’s just political rhetoric,’ Paul said.
‘Is it? Then why does the fact I’m as poor as everyone else make no difference? I’m still a bourgeois as far as they’re concerned even if I have nothing. It’s not what I have, it’s what I think.’
‘They’re looking for scapegoats at the moment, that’s all. It’ll pass.’
‘And a great consolation that will be to us once we’re all dead.’ She started searching through the cupboards. Finding some stale bread, she put it on the table. ‘Not even your friend believes it’s temporary, does he? Why else are you here?’ She picked up a knife, her expression unexpectedly softening. ‘Oh Pasha,’ she said, ‘you have no idea what you’ve got yourself into, have you?’
She thought him a fool. Perhaps he hadn’t had much of an idea, but he was beginning to get one. According to Valentine, since the landings in Archangel Lockhart and the rest of the British legation in Russia were regarded as spies. Now Paul had turned up he’d given the Bolsheviks’ suspicions credibility. Not that Paul had much chance of contacting Poole or Maynard; from what Valentine had been able to discover from the few sketchy reports available in Petersburg, both men were still where they had landed and were unlikely to move very far south any time soon. Kolchak was God knows where — still in Japan probably — and the Legion was more concerned with getting out of Russia than in removing the Bolsheviks from power. It seemed they weren’t adverse to fighting them, but only if the Russians were in their way. Valentine suspected that having failed to convince Trotsky to continue the war with Germany on the eastern front, Lockhart had reluctantly agreed to Sydney Reilly’s attempt to encourage a mutiny among the Lettish Rifles. No doubt he’d hoped a coup to oust the Bolsheviks would garner support from the whole spectrum of Russian politics, now it had become obvious how dictatorial Lenin’s methods were.
Only that was not how it had worked out. Lenin might be dead but it hadn’t brought down the Bolsheviks or provoked any sort of rising. Even if Reilly had nothing to do with the shooting, Lockhart had still been arrested. Cromie had been shot and, as far as anyone knew, Reilly had been forced underground. As for Ransome, he was probably still canoodling with Trotsky’s secretary. Paul could only imagine what Cumming would make of it once he got the news — stick every sharp object within his reach into his wooden leg, probably.
‘Where is Olyen anyway?’ Sofya asked, slicing the bread.
‘His name’s Valentine,’ Paul said. ‘At least that’s what I know him as. He’s gone to the station to see if he can get us train tickets. He says we need to get out of Petersburg as soon as we can.’
‘What about me?’
‘You as well.’
That was one thing Paul had insisted upon. Given how Valentine had dealt with Tamara Oblenskaya on the steamer and now, it seemed, Olga Volokoskaya in Copenhagen, Paul didn’t have too many illusions as to how far Valentine might go if he thought Sofya in the way.
‘Where will we go?’ Sofya asked.
‘Moscow.’
‘Moscow? Are you mad? What is it the English say, out of the frying pan into the fire?’
Paul supposed it would be if they planned to stay there. He had said as much himself to Valentine.
‘It’s the Bolshevik capital. How do expect us to hide there?’
‘We’re not here to hide,’ said Valentine.
‘No, and that’s not what I meant. But Mikhail won’t be in Moscow, will he? Not if he’s got any sense. Anyway, is there any point in looking for him now? If killing Lenin didn’t start a rising against the Bolsheviks what are Mikhail and his friends supposed to do, blow up the Kremlin?’
‘That’s true enough,’ Valentine allowed, ‘but I said circumstances have changed. I doubt your cousin will be of much use to us now.’ Something in the tone of his voice suggested to Paul that Valentine thought much the same about Sofya, too. ‘We need to go east,’ he went on. ‘Kazan fell to the Czechs and what they’re calling “The Peoples’ Army” three weeks ago.’
‘Isn’t that where the gold reserves were moved to stop them falling into German hands?’ Paul said.
‘C briefed you on the gold, did he?’
‘I’m supposed to persuade the Legion that the gold is an objective as far as the Allies are concerned. C made it clear it should be handed over to Kolchak if the Czechs captured it. It wasn’t to be used to ransom the Imperial family.’
‘Too late for that anyway, old man,’ said Valentine. ‘By the way, I heard it wasn’t only the tsarevich and the girls they shot but as many grand dukes and duchesses as they’ve been able to lay their hands on as well.’
‘Beastly thing to do.’
‘Done now’ said Valentine pragmatically. ‘Our main objective, if the Legion has captured the gold, is to ensure it doesn’t fall back into Bolshevik hands. They’re moving on Kazan as we speak.’
‘And how do you propose we do that?’
‘Rally the troops, old fellow, rally the troops. You’ve still got Masaryk’s letter, I presume?’
Paul patted the belt at his stomach where his gold roubles lay.
‘Capital,’ said Valentine. ‘We have to get you to Kazan so you can convince the Czechs that now Poole has landed at Archangel it’s in their best interests to work with the White Russian forces and link up with him. And keep hold of the gold until Kolchak arrives.’