Tower of Secrets: A Real Life Spy Thriller by Victor Sheymov

Author:Victor Sheymov [Sheymov, Victor]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Cyber Books Publishing
Published: 2012-10-15T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

13

VICTOR’S MOTHER HAD a long list of messages waiting for him. This was customary. Whenever friends couldn’t get an answer on Victor’s home phone, they called his parents and left word with them. One of the messages was an invitation from his old friend Misha Vainstein. Olga reminded Victor that they’d been unable to attend his last two gatherings. It would be rude to miss a third. Victor called him immediately.

“Misha, hello! It’s Victor.”

“Well hello, stranger. I suppose you’re calling to tell me you’re busy again?”

“No, quite the contrary. I’m calling to say I don’t know how to kill all my free time, so since we haven’t anything else to do, I think we should come.”

“Splendid. As I told your mother, it’s tomorrow evening. We’re having a few friends in. Oh, and speaking of killing, I presume you’ve washed the blood of all those innocent people off your hands …?” Misha was a dissident. He hated the KGB. Victor’s joining their ranks had been extremely difficult for him to accept, and even though their long-standing friendship had survived that test, Misha never missed a chance to get his digs in.

“Well, I confess they’re still dripping a bit, but I’ll take care of that by tomorrow night. You won’t notice a thing.”

“Six o’clock all right?”

“Sure.”

Olga speculated, “I bet they’ll have a houseful of dissidents.”

“I’m sure they will. They always have an interesting crowd—highly intellectual. Almost never boring.”

“Victor, are you sure it’s OK to socialize with them? I mean, so openly? What about your job—your regulations?”

She’d never worried about the political inclinations of their friends before. He hastened to reassure her. “Don’t worry, it’s absolutely fine. They’re aware of my friends, but I’m beyond suspicion.”

“But what I don’t understand is why you can’t come within shelling distance of a foreigner, and yet you can still have close social contact with friends who are known dissidents.”

Victor shrugged. “It may seem paradoxical, but it’s not hard to explain, really. I had many dissident friends before I joined the KGB, and even then I already had a high security clearance. Once in the KGB, my clearance became even higher. Anyway, most of the dissidents aren’t perceived as all that dangerous. What they’re after is more freedom to talk, to write, to create their art, to emigrate, and so on. They’re not really questioning the foundations of the State, or the fundamentals of Party ideology. Besides, the KGB knows exactly what’s going on in the dissident groups. So, my contacts with them are regarded as effectively controlled.”

Olga was incredulous. “Controlled? How’s that?”

“I’d say that at least a quarter of every dissident group reports to the KGB, independently one from another. So you see, the KGB knows perfectly well that I don’t belong to any of these groups, and that I only meet old friends from time to time on a social basis. That they happen to be dissidents is purely coincidental.”

Olga was still unconvinced. “Well, that may be, but as far as I know, none of your KGB friends have such contacts.

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