Read Online Victory Square by Olen Steinhauer - Free Book Online Page B

sure.”
    “Then let me go.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’re in danger.”
    Lebed pressed his face into the motel pillow. “It’s starting to drive me crazy, you know.”
    “What?”
    “You’re not telling me anything.” He raised his head. “You’ve come all this way to find me, but you don’t tell me who sent you. You tell me I’m in danger, but you won’t say why. And then you tie me up. You expect me to
not
go a little crazy?”
    “You hungry?”
    “I’m more curious than hungry.”
    “Well, I’m hungry.”
    “Please.”
    In the bathroom, Gavra washed his face. The lack of sleep was showing in his eyes. Or perhaps it was just confusion. He’d been sent to get hold of Lebed, and he had done this, but now Kolev lay dead in a morgue, unable to tell him what to do next.
    He dried himself and sat on the corner of the bed while Lebed stared at him. “Okay,” he said. “I was sent by Lieutenant General Yuri Kolev.”
    Lebed’s dry lips worked a moment.
“Kolev?
Jesus.”
    “You know him?”
    “Of course. What does he want with me?”
    “He’s dead. He had a heart attack earlier today.”
    “Heart attack?”
    “Yeah,” said Gavra.
    “So it’s finished. Let me go.”
    I cant.
    “You think I’m the cause of his heart attack?”
    “Maybe. Indirectly.”
    “A man like that has enemies. He’s got hundreds.”
    “How do you know him?”
    Lebed shook his head, unwilling to answer.
    “Listen to me,” said Gavra. “Kolev wanted me to find you and protect you. His words. And if this wasn’t simple heart failure, then the people who killed him will want you next. I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
    “Oh,” said Lebed, and Gavra looked closely at him because he’d spoken with the voice of a small child. “But I don’t
know
anything!”
    “How do you know Kolev?”
    “Long time ago. Before you were born, probably.” He paused. “Can you at least free my hands?”
    “Tell me first.”
    Putonski sighed loudly. “Okay. Just after the war, we were both on a Ministry tribunal. You know how it was—rooting out enemies of the state. Put them on trial, broadcast on radio, and get lots of people in as shouting, hysterical witnesses. That’s how we met. We tried lots of cases, sent a lot of men and women to their deaths. I’m not proud of it, but that’s how it was.”
    “And?”
    “And what?”
    “And what about after that?”
    “We saw each other now and then at Yalta. We knew each other. But we didn’t work together again. I’m surprised Kolev even cared about saving my skin. We certainly weren’t friends.”
    “That’s all?”
    “Look,” said Putonski.
“I’m
not the one who crossed the Atlantic. You’re the one who’s wasting his time.”
    Gavra stood again and slipped the pistol into his belt.
    “So what do we do now?”
    “We eat dinner,” said Gavra. “What do you want?”
    Lebed rolled his face back into the pillow. “I’d like my hands free.”
    “When I get back.”
    “Eggs, then. And sausage.”
    “It’s dinnertime, Lebed.”
    “Breakfast helps when I’m nervous. Otherwise I’ll throw up.”
    “Okay. From where?”
    “McDonald’s, of course.”
    Gavra considered covering Lebed’s mouth before leaving, but the man seemed to understand now that he wasn’t his enemy. He locked the door and drove up the busy evening turnpike to where he’d seen a McDonald’s when he first arrived. Around the back were lit arrows pointing to a DRIVE-THRU, which he followed to an enormous menu board. A crackling female voice said, “Elcome to M’Onalds.”
    “Hello,” he said, but there was no immediate answer. “Hello?”
    “Uht an I it for oo?”
    “Eggs and sausage, please. Two orders. And coffee.”
    “Arry, sir. We ont erve ekfas ow.”
    “Uh, what?”
    She repeated herself, but he was just as baffled, so he drove around to a window where a girl with red, damp cheeks explained that McDonald’s didn’t serve breakfast at