He didn’t even look up. The smell was that familiar. Jasmine, mint, and old books. “So MOSSAD has finally come to permanently retire me eh?”
He didn’t even close his newspaper.The sound a chair scraping across linoleum cracked tiles and a heady huff announced that the subject of his olfactory assault had joined him at the table.
“No Vladmir.” The accent was Israeli, but then he’d known it would be.
“hmpf.” Came his response from behind the paper. “You know, I never expected you of all people to show up here Avi. Especially not these days.” With resignation, Vlad put his paper down and studied the man sitting across the mint green diner table. Avi was older than he, an artifact of Israeli Intelligence. One of the best in fact. The two men had dogged eachother across an unseen world for decades. Avi though older seemed somehow different than Vlad remembered. Razorlike, his clothes seemed to conform to a stylistic nihilism. Far more shrewed than anything he’d seen the man wear hitherto. He was about to comment on it when Avi cut him off.
“I find my self most often in the Megacity these days. Business here you know.”Vlad laughed.
“So you no longer work for the Israeli masters?” Vlad’s accent was tinged with Russian.
“No more than you do for the KGB or whatever the Soviet mob-government is calling it’s secret police now. “ With a cruel smile the Israeli looked at him. “No no, I work for the French now.”
“That’s rich.” Vlad folded his paper and took a sip of the acrid coffee that a waitress had brought moments before. “Of course, you all were always in bed with them. Best missile parts, da?”
Avi frowned. “Listen to me ZeroSaint” He reached out a gloved hand and gripped a wrist whose hand was still clutched around the coffee.
Vlad was about to move. For Avi to have used the Americanized version of his KGB codename filled him with black ice. “What is it you want Avi?”“You remember Rebecca, in Cyprus?”
“I’ve never been in Cyprus” Vlad lied thickly
“Now is not the time for for our old games friend.” Avi was intent, his face wrinkled with age and knowledge, Vlad saw something burning behind his eyes. Something that said this was a serious matter.
“Yes, I remember her.” He sighed thickly as if an unwanted ghost had entered the room. “She was your creature and you set her on me. And I fell for her hook sinker and line as they say eh?”
“And when you discovered her?” Avi already knew the answer to this.
“I allowed the CIA agents to learn that she had vital US technology.”“Those were not CIA.’ Avi released his hand finally. “They were agents of a different sort.”
Leaning back, Avi stretched slightly. “This man I work for, he has opened my eyes to a great many things ZeroSaint. A great many. I know you, I know how you think. I have spent much of my life inside your head, and this is why I have come to you. This Frenchman, he can use old men like us who seem to have no other use than to sit in a coffee shop and impart lessons to younger men.”
“I have no interest in returning to our world Avi.”
“No, as this Frenchman will show you, there are other worlds to conquer. Tell me Vlad, did they have the story of Alice in Wonderland when you were growing up in Russia…?”
He didn’t even close his newspaper.The sound a chair scraping across linoleum cracked tiles and a heady huff announced that the subject of his olfactory assault had joined him at the table.
“No Vladmir.” The accent was Israeli, but then he’d known it would be.
“hmpf.” Came his response from behind the paper. “You know, I never expected you of all people to show up here Avi. Especially not these days.” With resignation, Vlad put his paper down and studied the man sitting across the mint green diner table. Avi was older than he, an artifact of Israeli Intelligence. One of the best in fact. The two men had dogged eachother across an unseen world for decades. Avi though older seemed somehow different than Vlad remembered. Razorlike, his clothes seemed to conform to a stylistic nihilism. Far more shrewed than anything he’d seen the man wear hitherto. He was about to comment on it when Avi cut him off.
“I find my self most often in the Megacity these days. Business here you know.”Vlad laughed.
“So you no longer work for the Israeli masters?” Vlad’s accent was tinged with Russian.
“No more than you do for the KGB or whatever the Soviet mob-government is calling it’s secret police now. “ With a cruel smile the Israeli looked at him. “No no, I work for the French now.”
“That’s rich.” Vlad folded his paper and took a sip of the acrid coffee that a waitress had brought moments before. “Of course, you all were always in bed with them. Best missile parts, da?”
Avi frowned. “Listen to me ZeroSaint” He reached out a gloved hand and gripped a wrist whose hand was still clutched around the coffee.
Vlad was about to move. For Avi to have used the Americanized version of his KGB codename filled him with black ice. “What is it you want Avi?”“You remember Rebecca, in Cyprus?”
“I’ve never been in Cyprus” Vlad lied thickly
“Now is not the time for for our old games friend.” Avi was intent, his face wrinkled with age and knowledge, Vlad saw something burning behind his eyes. Something that said this was a serious matter.
“Yes, I remember her.” He sighed thickly as if an unwanted ghost had entered the room. “She was your creature and you set her on me. And I fell for her hook sinker and line as they say eh?”
“And when you discovered her?” Avi already knew the answer to this.
“I allowed the CIA agents to learn that she had vital US technology.”“Those were not CIA.’ Avi released his hand finally. “They were agents of a different sort.”
Leaning back, Avi stretched slightly. “This man I work for, he has opened my eyes to a great many things ZeroSaint. A great many. I know you, I know how you think. I have spent much of my life inside your head, and this is why I have come to you. This Frenchman, he can use old men like us who seem to have no other use than to sit in a coffee shop and impart lessons to younger men.”
“I have no interest in returning to our world Avi.”
“No, as this Frenchman will show you, there are other worlds to conquer. Tell me Vlad, did they have the story of Alice in Wonderland when you were growing up in Russia…?”
