“H’lo, comrade. Mind if I drop in?”
“Well, well!” Miss Tachibana looked busy as ever, but she welcomed me with a smile. From the row of monitors and the mountains of paperwork on her desk, I took it she had ascended even higher than she’d been before. Sitting amid it all, though, she looked even more excited than she had been when she was driving, and in an eager voice, she said, “If it isn’t my Janitor. What brings you here today?”
“Just a follow-up appointment. No changes here?”
“Hee-hee, you needn’t worry about me. I’m getting along very well with the people from GRU.”
—So the score was 1–0 in her favor in the matter of budget discussions, I take it?
That was if she was telling the truth, of course. Which I had no way of knowing. That’s how it was with bureaucrats: They would say whatever they needed to for their own benefit.
The capitalists seemed to want to know everything, but what would they do with the knowledge? I sure couldn’t guess. I didn’t have any idea which way I would push the country if I knew all that stuff. I didn’t want that kind of responsibility, anyway. Let the people who could handle it, handle it.
Me, I knew one thing: Financial Commissioner Ilyena Tachibana evidently wanted to stay in my good books. It meant that at the very least, she saw some value in continuing to use me. I was grateful for that.
“That’s perfect, then,” I said. “To tell the truth, I was hoping to get your advice.”
“No problem,” Miss Tachibana said with a smile. “Help and help alike, comrade.”
“Yes, of course.” I took an envelope from the pocket of my body armor, extracted a bundle of rubles, and put the money on the desk. “Someone dropped this in front of the office,” I said. “You wouldn’t happen to know whom it belongs to, would you?”
“Oh, my goodness,” Miss Tachibana said, her long eyelashes fluttering. “Thank you so much. I’ll keep it for now.”
Who knew if the rightful owner might show up? With that, she put the bills in a drawer.
“So,” I said, waiting for her to straighten in her seat again. “About Lieutenant Adam Adrova…”
“Ahhh, he’s quite the controversy right now, isn’t he?”
Her answer was evasive yet striking. She gave a smile—not quite bitter, not quite resentful—and leaned back in her chair, all elegance. She crossed her long legs. That suit, it looked good on her. I should ask Stasia to wear one for me.
“I won’t cause you any trouble, comrade,” I assured her.
“I should hope not, comrade.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk and steepling her hands. This was a bureaucrat ready to do battle. Her smile now was that of a beast baring its fangs.
Our motherland’s bureaucratic system was really quite an achievement: It could go on functioning no problem, regardless of who disappeared or when.
That meant you had to have some respect for the people who had survived the system.
In any case, this woman, who was neither military nor intelligence, not directly involved in any way, already had the info. That she was playing coy with me about it was either to discourage me or to intimidate me.
Whichever it was, some ugolovnik sewer rat couldn’t hope to resist these folks. All we had was our strength of arms. No education. Maybe a bit of stubbornness. The money we’d saved. That was all. So I picked my words carefully, not trying to be too clever, just saying what I wanted.
You go in the store, you go to the register, you tell them which items you’d like. You get your ticket and you wait.
“I’d be willing to give you that much information,” she said.
—Hell, yes!
I suppressed the eager scratch in my voice and instead offered a measured expression of gratitude. “Thanks. That would be a big help.”
“Certainly. You just look so desperate.”
Dammit, she saw right through me. But to admit that would be more pathetic than admitting I had lost. I shrugged wordlessly, focusing on being ready to pound whatever information Miss Tachibana had for me into my thick skull.
The really crucial stuff was place and time. If you didn’t know those things, you weren’t going anywhere. And once you did know them, you could move on to the next thing.
“Thanks. That’s a big help,” I said again.
“My, leaving already?”
“Like you said. I’m desperate.” I grinned, thanked her once more, and let her know I had to leave.
That didn’t feel like quite enough, though, so I added: “I hope you’ll think of me the next time you need anything.”
“But of course. I hope you’ll be there for me should anything come up.”
Miss Tachibana saw me out of her office with a smile.
I heard the door close behind me, and I was sure she was already throwing herself into her next task.
I could imagine her reaching for the phone on her desk and saying, “All right. It seems we’re going to have a vacancy in the air force officer corps. I wonder who I should try to squeeze in there.”