Free Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith Page B

Being pulled over for shakedowns when the police see Russian license plates."
    "Like Moscow."
    "But in Moscow the government has no control, that's the difference. I have to say we never had any trouble with Rufo until you."
    "Where's the ambassador?"
    "We're between ambassadors."
    Arkady reached for a notepad from the desk and wrote, "Where is the resident intelligence agent Pribluda reported to?"
    "It's no big secret," Bugai said.» The chief of guards is here, he's just muscle. But the chief of security has been in Moscow for the past month interviewing for a position in hotel management, and he made very clear to me that while he was gone he wanted 'no red flags.' And as for me, I do not intend to be recalled to Moscow over a spy who had a heart attack floating around in the dark."
    "When Pribluda communicated with Moscow he used a secure line?"
    "We send encrypted E-mail on a hooded machine that wipes clean, not even a ghost on the hard drive once you delete. But not that many messages are encrypted. The usual faxes, calls and E-mail are plain text on ordinary machines, and I would love a shredder that actually worked." Arkady produced the photograph of the Havana Yacht Club to ask about Pribluda's Cuban friends, but the vice consul barely glanced.» We have no Cuban friends. It used to be an event when a Russian artist visited Havana. People just watch Ameri can films on television anyway. Fidel steals them and shows them. It costs him nothing. Some people have satellite dishes and pick up Miami. And there's Santeria. He's willing to promote voodoo to entertain the masses. African superstitions. The longer I'm here the more African these people get."
    Arkady put the Yacht Club away.» The Cubans need a better picture of Pribluda. The embassy must have a security photograph of him."
    "That would be up to our friend in Moscow. We'll have to wait until he returns from his job search, and that could be another month."
    "A month?"
    "Or more."
    Bugai had kept retreating and Arkady had kept advancing until he stepped on a pencil that broke with a sharp crack. The vice consul jumped and looked not as cool as jellyfish anymore, more like an egg yolk at the sight of a fork. His nervousness reminded Arkady that he had killed a man; whether in self-defense or not, killing someone was a violent act and not likely to attract new friends.
    "What was Pribluda, your sugar attache, working on?"
    "I can't possibly tell you that."
    "What was he working on?" Arkady asked more slowly.
    "I don't think you have the authority," Bugai began, and amended as Arkady started around the desk.» Very well, but this is under protest. There's a problem with the sugar protocol, a commercial thing you wouldn't understand. Basically they send us sugar they can't sell anywhere else, and we send them oil and machinery we can't unload anywhere else."
    "That sounds normal."
    "There was a misunderstanding. Last year the Cubans demanded negotiations of agreements already signed. With such bad feelings between the two countries we let them bring in a third party, a Panamanian sugar trader called AzuPanama. Everything was resolved. I don't know why Pribluda was looking into that."
    "Pribluda, the sugar expert?"
    "Yes."
    "And a photograph of Pribluda?"
    "Let me look," Bugai said before Arkady took another step. He backed to the bookshelves and retrieved a leather album, which he opened on the desk, flipping through ring-bound pages of mounted photographs.» Guests and social events. May Day. Mexican Cinco de Mayo. I told you Pribluda didn't come to these things. Fourth of July with the Americans. The Americans don't have an embassy, only a so-called Interests Section bigger than an embassy. October, Cuban Independence Day. Did you know that Fidel's father was a Spanish soldier who fought against Cuba? December. Maybe there's one. We used to have a traditional New Year's party with a Grandfather Frost for Russian children, a major affair.
    Now we have only a few