Chapter 66 – Political Repercussions
The entire team was at The Hall the next morning, including two new Russians, one friend and one foe. Baryshnikov sat on the edge of the stage and looked around the theater, taking in the ambiance of his future place of work. It hardly compared to the Mariinsky Theater, on the stage of which he had stood just two days earlier. And it hardly compared to many other theaters around the world in which he had performed, in Vienna and Stockholm and Osaka and Prague. But its simplicity appealed to him at this stage of his life.
The other Russian, the foe, sat in the third row of seats, facing the team members on the stage. Not knowing anything about Gwen June, Gergiev thought he would try a little intimidation. He said, “This is a political matter. I don’t care about the cops or the security agents or the whole kidnapping thing. You have interfered with and stolen Russian state property, and the Russian government is not going to take that lightly.”
Roger leaned over to his wife and whispered, “Won’t be the first time, will it, love?”
Gergiev went on, “The phones in Washington are buzzing right now, and that is going to flow downhill to this little town, into this backwater shithole, and right into this grade school of a little theater. You won’t have long to wait.”
The woman got out of her chair, picked up the 1797 Paul Storr sterling silver coffee pot, and poured Gwen another cup. Then she made the rounds of the others, managing, somehow, to exclude Gergiev, who held a Duncan Donuts paper coffee cup in his hands. Gwen added cream, sipped, and looked at the manager (at this point, probably the former manager) of the Mariinsky Ballet. She said, “Let me tell you an interesting story about Charleston. For a small town we have our share of billionaires. One of them is a lawyer who is very famous in some legal circles. Twenty years ago his firm not only got involved in asbestos tort cases, he won a bunch of the biggest ones. That made him a millionaire many times over. Then he got involved in tobacco tort cases, and, guess what? It was his firm from little ole Charleston that cracked that industry wide open, ten years ago. There are reports that his firm took home two billion in fees, but that remains unconfirmed. What is certain is that he and his partners reside in the upper echelons of wealthy Americans.
“But, he wasn’t satisfied with those victories, and he hasn’t rested on those laurels. You know what he does now?” Only Roger and Gale knew this story, so the others were as interested as Gergiev. “He represents many of the 911 families and interests. He thinks the Government of Saudi Arabia should be held responsible for the attack, and he has sued the Saudis on behalf of the victims, in international courts of law.”
Gwen sipped a little more coffee, staring at Gergiev sitting in the third row. “He is spending millions of his own money to carry out this venture. Over the years he’s hired private investigators with a variety of forensic skills, and sent them to the Middle East to gather information and data. He’s in this for the long haul.
“You know what happened a few years ago? The phone in his office rang one morning and his secretary answered it. She put it on hold, went into his office, and said, ‘The Secretary of State is on line three for you.’ It was Colin Powell, and he was calling to read this lawyer the riot act, tell him he was meddling in affairs of state, who does he think he is, screwing up Middle East policy objectives, and generally being a royal pain in the Secretary’s ass. Told him to cease and desist, butt out, leave this to the professional diplomats. Yelled at the lawyer for like, ten minutes. Finally, probably from the effects of lack of oxygen to his brain, Powell shut up. You know what happened next?” Gwen waited a moment, built a little suspense. “You know what happened? The lawyer says, ‘Mr. Secretary, I and my associates think we are within our legal rights to pursue this issue in the fashion we are doing. We think this is the only effective way to go about securing justice for our clients. And, what is more important, we believe this is the right thing to do. We intend to continue doing what we are doing, and how we are doing it. Mr. Secretary, with all respect due to this situation, please, fuck off.’
“I feel the same way, Mr. Gergiev. If you’re right, and wheels are turning right now in Washington, and phone calls to here are in the making, well, I’m not going to have to do a lot of rehearsing of my response. I’m going to take a page out of that lawyer’s book, and I think you can guess what page that will be.”
The Lost Ballet Page 66
