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He said to Sid in English: "Give me one gold piece. "
Sid opened the bag and handed him a coin.
Lev balanced it on his closed fist, then threw it in the air, spinning it. The coin flashed in the moonlight. As Sotnik reached out reflexively to catch it, Lev jumped onto the seat of the car.
Sid cracked the whip.
"Go with God," Lev called out as the cart jerked into motion. "And let me know when you need more whisky. "
The mule trotted out of the yard and turned onto the road, and Lev breathed easier.
"How much did we get?" said Sid.
"What we asked for. Three hundred and sixty rubles each. Minus five. I'll stand the loss of that last coin. Got a bag?"
Sid produced a large leather purse. Lev counted seventy-two coins into it.
He said good-bye to Sid and jumped off the cart near the U. S. officers' accommodation. As he was making his way to his room, he was accosted by Captain Hammond. "Peshkov! Where have you been?"
Lev wished he were not carrying 355 rubles in a Cossack saddlebag. "A little sightseeing, sir. "
"It's dark!"
"That's why I came back. "
"We've been looking for you. The colonel wants you. "
"Right away, sir. " Lev headed for his room, to drop off the saddlebag, but Hammond said: "The colonel's office is the other way. "
"Yes, sir. " Lev turned around.
Colonel Markham did not like Lev. The colonel was a career soldier, not a wartime recruit. He felt Lev did not share his commitment to excellence in the United States Army, and he was right-110 percent, as the colonel himself might have put it.
Lev considered parking the saddlebag on the floor outside the colonel's office door, but it was too much money to leave lying around.
"Where the hell were you?" said Markham as soon as Lev walked in.
"Taking a look around town, sir. "
"I'm reassigning you. Our British allies need interpreters and they've asked me to second you to them. "
It sounded like a soft option. "Yes, sir. "
"You'll be going with them to Omsk. "
That was not so soft. Omsk was four thousand miles away in the barbaric heartland of Russia. "What for, sir?"
"They will brief you. "
Lev did not want to go. It was too far from home. "Are you asking me to volunteer, sir?"
The colonel hesitated, and Lev realized the assignment was voluntary, insofar as anything was in the army. "Are you refusing the assignment?" said Markham threateningly.
"Only if it's voluntary, sir, of course. "
"I'll tell you the situation, Lieutenant," said the colonel. "If you volunteer, I won't ask you to open that bag and show me what's inside. "
Lev cursed under his breath. There was nothing he could do. The colonel was too damn sharp. And Grigori's fare to America was in the saddlebag.
