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"You didn't say that when I knocked you down for pestering a poor peasant girl," Grigori said.
"How things have changed, comrade-for all of us. "
"Why have you arrested Konstantin Vorotsyntsev?"
"Counterrevolutionary activities. "
"That's ridiculous. He was chair of the Bolshevik discussion group at the Putilov works in 1914. He was one of the first deputies to the Petrograd soviet. He's more Bolshevik than I am!"
"Is that so?" said Pinsky, and there was the hint of a threat in his voice.
Grigori ignored it. "Bring him to me. "
"Right away, comrade. "
A few minutes later Konstantin appeared. He was dirty and unshaven, and he smelled like a pigsty. Magda burst into tears and threw her arms around him.
"I need to talk to the prisoner privately," Grigori said to Pinsky. "Take us to your office. "
Pinsky shook his head. "My humble room-"
"Don't argue," Grigori said. "Your office. " It was a way of emphasizing his power. He needed to keep Pinsky under his thumb.
Pinsky led them to an upstairs room overlooking the inner courtyard. He hastily swept a knuckle-duster off the desk into a drawer.
Looking out of the window, Grigori saw that it was daybreak. "Wait outside," he said to Pinsky.
They sat down and Grigori said to Konstantin: "What the hell is going on?"
"We came to Moscow when the government moved," Konstantin explained. "I thought I would become a commissar. But it was a mistake. I have no political support here. "
"So what have you been doing?"
"I've gone back to ordinary work. I'm at the Tod factory, making engine parts, cogs and pistons and ball races. "
"But why do the police imagine you're counterrevolutionary?"
"The factory elects a deputy to the Moscow soviet. One of the engineers announced he would be a Menshevik candidate. He held a meeting, and I went to listen. There were only a dozen people there. I didn't speak, I left halfway through, and I didn't vote for him. The Bolshevik candidate won, of course. But, after the election, everyone who attended that Menshevik meeting was fired. Then, last week, we were all arrested. "
"We can't do this," Grigori said in despair. "Not even in the name of the revolution. We can't arrest workers for listening to a different point of view. "
Konstantin looked at him strangely. "Have you been away somewhere?"
"Of course," said Grigori. "Fighting the counterrevolutionary armies. "
"Then that's why you don't know what's going on. "
"You mean this has happened before?"
"Grishka, it happens every day. "
"I can't believe it. "
Magda said: "And last night I received a message-from a friend who is married to a policeman-saying Konstantin and the others were all to be shot at eight o'clock this morning. "
Grigori looked at his army-issue wristwatch. It was almost eight. "Pinsky!" he shouted.
The policeman came in.
