Corridor One

Corridor One Page 2

by Rafael H. Derchansky

  Chapter without a Name

  The afternoon brought heavy clouds, but it was nice sitting outside. A woman, around fifty years old, sat on Dina’s side of the square wooden table. She was dressed entirely in white. White pants, white blouse and white hat. Two men were sitting on the opposite side. One was much older than the other. Their clothes were dirty, as if they had just come back from some kind of cave or mine. The red box with the diamond stood in the middle of the table. There were many other people dining in the restaurant at this time of day. It seemed that none of them paid any attention to what was going on at Dina’s table. The restaurant was located on the highest floor of the building. There were many other levels, all with wooden floors, all connected by steep wooden stairs. The waiter came with a bottle of wine and four wine glasses. The attention of the crowd around Dina was focused on the food rather than on the changing clouds, which were becoming darker with every passing moment. The two men across from Dina were deep in conversation. Dina took the wine bottle and began pouring wine into the glass in front of the woman in white. The sudden loud noise of thunder shook the wooden structure of the building. Dina’s hand holding the bottle trembled and she spilled some wine over the table, sending a red spray onto the white pants of her companion.

  “You are a clumsy bitch! What am I supposed to do now?” screamed the woman. She jumped from her seat, grabbed the salt from the table and rubbed a good amount of it into the stain on her pants.

  “I am sorry, I am really sorry.” Dina tried to apologize.

  “You can stay sorry here alone.” The woman marched toward the exit and disappeared. Dina felt guilty, the way she usually felt but kept secret from everybody around.

  Nobody else at the table noticed the accident, only Dina. Dina looked around. Everybody except the two men at the table had disappeared. The red box with the diamond had disappeared as well. The waiter came and said that the food was ready, but the kitchen was out of clean cutlery. He asked if somebody could get some from another restaurant nearby. Dina went down to the level below. All of the eateries and restaurants were closed already. She went down one additional level. Dark wood was everywhere, like in her village. In the end, she came across one place that was open. She asked for forks and knives. The cook was not happy about helping her. She felt guilty again. The church bells announced the beginning of the evening. The noise of the bells became loud and came directly from behind her.

  Dina opened her eyes. Her forehead and face were covered with sweat. The sun was shining through the slightly open bedroom shutters. The phone continued ringing. It took her a full minute to understand that she had been dreaming and was now back in reality. Slowly, with lots of difficulty and a throbbing head, she lowered her feet to the floor and stood up. The headache reminded her of yesterday’s beer consumption. The person on the other side of the phone line was not giving up.

  “Hi.” Dina was afraid to hold the receiver close to her aching head.

  “Hi, sleeping beauty, did I wake you up? Do you remember yesterday at the bar, you asked me to call you at ten a.m.?”

  Dina’s side of the phone went silent.

  “Hello, is anybody home?”

  “Hi, Tamara. My head is exploding. Thank you for calling. I need to lie down for a minute. Can I call you back?”

  “Yes, Dina, you can. I am in the office.”

  “What are you doing in the office on Saturday morning? Hadn’t we all agreed to take the weekend off?”

  “Yes, we had. I am on my way to soccer practice with my stepson. It is here, around the corner, so I decided to drop by and pick up the phone messages. We all rushed out yesterday and we had three messages from clients that I neglected to pick up. Do you want to hear them?”

  “Wait a second, I will sit down first.” Dina slowly approached the kitchen chair and carefully planted herself into it. “Go ahead.”

  “First of all, the bad news: the client with the German stamps decided to wait until next week and he will be contacting you later. Now on to the good news: The owners of the F. Wiesen painting agreed to your conditions. There was another call from the Musical Instruments Museum. They want to meet with you on Wednesday.”

  “That is great news, Tamara. Thank you. I will brief all of you on Monday.”

  “Good, I will let you go. You’ll remember to be at our place today at seven?”

  “Yes, I will. Thank you again for inviting me.”

  “It is our pleasure. I need to run. See you soon.” Tamara hung up. Dina remained seated, trying to remember exactly when had Tamara invited her for dinner. Memories from yesterday’s evening at the bar slowly emerged in her head. Tamara, as always, knew everybody. Gregory occupied the piano chair and played non-stop jazz variations. He took requests from the crowd and beautifully improvised based on chords of classical pieces. Igor was quiet. Dina never saw him happy when he was visiting bars. She could not recall how many rounds of drinks she had, but it felt like it had been a large amount.

  “Oi,” was the sound that she made while trying to leave the chair to go for the shower. Twenty minutes later, her coffeemaker was brewing a double espresso and the pleasant smell of roasted bread was coming from the toaster.

  A sunny morning on her balcony, a cup of coffee and toast with blackberry jam, what else could one ask for? Based on the schedule that she had decided on while taking a shower, the next thing to do was clean her condo. She usually did not like to clean her place. While doing it, she used to make dozens of excuses to take breaks, interrupting the cleaning. This is why the cleaning of her relatively small place took, sometimes, the entire weekend. But today it was different. She felt pleasure to make it clean. She felt that she needed something new, some change. Even something small, but a change. Maybe moving some furniture around, maybe hanging a picture differently. She did not know what, but she knew it would make her happy. She started her cleaning task energetically and was surprised when, after only three hours, her place was clean and shining, and there was nothing else left to do. While enjoying her place, which had become nice and organized, she forgot her thoughts, plans for change, and came out to the balcony with another cup of coffee.

  Dina noticed that her headache was gone. It is a good lesson for you, girl, on how not to lose self-control. Nothing of great importance was planned for today.

  She wanted to go through the company’s personnel files. It was her monthly routine. Every time she did it, she enjoyed it. Adding newly discovered details was fun. Nobody at MirexGlobe knew about the existence of the documents as Dina kept them only for herself.

  The files were locked in the top drawer of the nightstand in her bedroom. Six months ago her ex-boyfriend came by surprise to Dina’s apartment exactly when she was going through the files. It was when Dina refused to show him what she was reading that their last fight happened. Dina remained convinced that he was purposefully looking for a reason to end their relationship. She was actually happy he had done it.

  Each employee had a different file. Files for MirexGlobe employees who were no longer with the company were white in colour. The temporary ones were in yellow files; all of the current ones in red files. Dina took the three red files to the kitchen table, sat comfortably and began with Tamara Petluk’s file.

  Tamara Petluk. Age? Dina had done some quick calculations: forty-two. Married, no children of her own. Two stepchildren, a boy and a girl. Education: a Master's in Sociology. Foreign languages: French, German, Spanish, Yiddish. Hobbies: shopping, cooking, reading. There were two pages with different notes that Dina had added over seven years of working with Tamara. Each note was dated and sometimes the text was underlined with a red pen. Dina began to add a new one dated last Friday – “loves diamonds, expressed willingness to take on more difficult tasks. Has begun spending longer hours at work. For the first time in seven years, has asked to leave family and go on a business trip.” Dina underlined the last sentence. I will be at her place tonight. I need to check that everything is ok
ay with her family, Dina made a mental note to herself. The next file was Gregory McKay’s.

  Gregory McKay, birthday coming up soon. You are forty-nine. Dina scrolled quickly through Gregory’s education records. Doctor, doctor and doctor again. Professor of Neurology, Masters in Physics with a specialization in quantum mechanics, Masters in Criminology. Gregory could cover my dining room walls with his diplomas. His academic career hit a wall when he published an article criticizing the growing tendency to commercialize science in academia. It produced waves of harsh replies from all levels in the academic world. He blamed professors for targeting only financial benefits. He painted tenured professors as a group of organized criminals rather than educators who are supposed to transfer knowledge. His article named many names and gave many examples. He was threatened with lawsuits by a number of universities. One month after publishing the article he resigned from his position as the Head of the National Education Association. He had a tough time finding a new job anywhere in academia. He has been with MirexGlobe for six years.

  When Gregory started, MirexGlobe was looking for somebody with a criminology and science background. Gregory’s skills were way above the requirements for the position. What also impressed Dina at their first meeting was Gregory’s openness. He talked about his weaknesses first, and only after that, told Dina about his strengths.

  Dina still remembered how impressed she had become after hearing that Gregory completed his Bachelors at sixteen. He passed all of the exams except one, the last one. He simply did not show up for it. When Dina asked why, Gregory replied that he wanted to go offshore for a junior international math competition. He would have been disqualified if he had an official university degree. So, he went to the competition, won first place and passed his last exam six months after that.

  Gregory never married. He had a few hobbies. He was a professional jazz piano player, and played piano at every opportunity that presented itself. He also had a high-level rank in martial arts. He never talked about that. But once, when Tamara took her stepson to a martial arts competition, Gregory was there as a judge.

  According to Tamara, everybody there paid him the highest respect. Gregory was also interested in and studied Buddhism. Dina did not know how to categorize it – as a hobby or a religion.

  Once he was asked whether he was religious and his reply was negative. Dina found the last page and began adding, “He has a new girlfriend. She is from Geneva, Switzerland. He needs a vacation. His mother's situation is unknown.” I should ask him how she is doing. “Six month ago Gregory was forced to place his eighty-seven year old mother into a seniors’ home.” Hope she is ok.

  Dina looked at her watch, it was almost four o’clock. She may not have time to go through Igor’s file today. A moment later the phone rang.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi, Dina. It’s Igor, how are you doing? Am I on speakerphone?”

  “No, of course you are not. Perfect timing. You really need to check your psychic abilities. I was thinking about you a second ago.”

  “Yes, I know, I can read your mind and tell you what you are thinking about. You are thinking about SHOMEA-1, in your elevator switch room.”

  Dina paused for a second. Okay, you are right, I almost forgot about the recording device, and I need to be careful. “Yes, you are right. Go ahead, I am listening.”

  “Dina, I am sorry to bother you on a Saturday. I've read the diary. I think we need to execute our plan and inform the management of the building that you sold your apartment and that you are asking the elevator company to do a certification as soon as possible. Please remember not to give them permission to access your property without you or somebody else present.”

  “Okay, I will do it on Monday.”

  “I would suggest you do it today or tomorrow while the management office is closed. You can leave a written request. This way you will avoid all the unnecessary questions from the management team; such as when and to whom you sold the unit.”

  “Good idea. I will do as you suggest. Is there anything else?”

  “Not really, I have an idea about what our next step should be, but I’ll share it with the team on Monday. In the meantime, I am doing some research. Are you going to Tamara’s place tonight?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Then have a great time. Talk to you soon.” Igor hung up.

  Dina felt a pang of guilt. This evening, while she’ll be in the company of Tamara’s family, Igor will be alone and doing research. Great, he wants to fix the entire world again. Dina looked at Igor’s file, then back at her watch and decided that it was enough for today. Tomorrow is another day. Then I will finish the file and go back to Kerzhak navigation. I did not practice at all this week.

  The rest of her day, including the visit to Tamara’s place, was pure pleasure, with a good meal in a good family atmosphere. Tamara was at her best. Nothing pointed to any problems between her and her husband or with the stepchildren. Toward the end of the evening, they all sat in the living room and watched a movie. Dina was home by eleven-thirty. Suddenly she felt sad and lonely when she entered her dark and empty apartment. The lights in all of the rooms immediately went on. The sound of blues filled the apartment. Dina swung to the sounds of the music across the dining room towards the mirror on the wall. She looked at herself, made a funny expression, then smiled and said to herself, “We are here to survive, and we will do what it takes to survive. We are survivors.”

  Catacombs

  After a one-week break, going back to Kerzhak Navigation was not so easy. Dina read her notes first from Peter, then made a plan of the exercises and practiced each one of them several times. She went through them without pause. The last one, Blindness Walk, took her over an hour. In total, it took her almost four hours, after which she felt exhausted. Lunch was quick. She could now sit comfortably on her bed in the bedroom and finally spend time reviewing Igor’s file.

  Igor Molloy, fifty three years old, widower. Two sons: one is a military pilot, another is a firefighter. Twenty-eight years of police service; head of Major Crimes Unit for the last six years of service. Education: Master's in Criminology, graduated from the Police Academy with distinction. Hobbies: Chess. Igor came across MirexGlobe when the police investigated the country's biggest bank robbery. One of the suspects was Dina’s client. Igor’s relationship with her didn't begin on good terms. Dina and her company became suspects too. It took time, but soon it developed into a good friendship. When Igor left the police service, Dina offered him a place with the company. Since then, he had become an essential player in the company's day-to-day activities. Dina had minimal information about his personal life. He usually took extra days off for holidays, and once, a week of time of when his wife passed away.

  Nobody in the company could beat him in a game of chess, even Gregory. Dina herself had been a good player. She was a junior chess champion in high school. She had also won first place at her university's chess championships two years in a row. But she didn’t stand a chance playing against Igor. Usually, it took him less than five minutes to checkmate her.

  Dina had nothing to add to Igor’s file. She locked the files back in the drawer.

  What remained of her planned tasks was to write a letter to the condo management asking for the elevator certification. When it was done, she decided to go to bed early and read a book while listening to some music.

  Monday morning was rainy. The team was ready for a morning status update. Dina assigned Tamara to a new case concerning F. Wiesen. Wiesen was a Jewish painter who lived in Brussels and who had died in the Holocaust. Tamara had two weeks to dig up all possible information about him, including verification of his death. The company's client had a number of his paintings and it was a quite possible that Tamara would need Gregory's expertise for their authentication.

  In another project, Gregory would meet with representatives from the Musical Instruments Museum to do a demonstration of the new Sound Parsing Tool he had developed. Word
of this exceptional tool had spread in the music world since his last presentation at the Royal Conservatory.

  Dina had two other minor ‘housekeeping’ announcements and toward the end of the meeting, Igor asked if he could have a word with her in her office.

  “How are you doing?” asked Dina.

  “I am okay. I would like to borrow your framed page,” replied Igor, pointing to the frame on the wall.

  “Should I ask why?”

  “I am doing research about the possible places where Roman could have hidden the diamonds. I came across an interesting document published not long ago by a Derchany University professor. I may need a couple of hours to finalize some details. I need to copy the page and bring it back.”

  “Okay. You also mentioned that you have a plan of action? Should I call for a team meeting?”

  “Yes, I do. But it depends on my research. Let's wait until I finish, please.”

  “As you wish. I simply do not know what to do with the diamond.”

  “My suggestion? Do nothing. It is in a safe place. If Yellow Raincoat comes to claim it, then we will worry” Igor smiled. He left the room with the frame and Dina began to review the company's financial reports delivered this morning from their accountant’s office. Numbers, numbers and more numbers. Expense, revenue, balance sheet, investments, recurring revenues. Dina usually compared the latest report with the previous one. Her golden rule was to keep enough money in the company for the upcoming six months of operations, which included payroll, rent and other expenses. In her ten years of operation, she needed to use her personal line of credit only once. She learned fast that she needed to pay herself first. Nobody else in the company could bring in new contracts and open doors the way Dina could. She dreamed of expanding and having a branch in the capital where there was a big chunk of government contracts.

  Her fingers ran quickly through the buttons of the calculator. Before signing reports, Dina liked to make sure they were error free. She had become a little paranoid after having found errors in the past and now she did spot-checks before signing the reports. She wanted to avoid any problems should a financial audit be called for.

  Four hours passed; she worked without taking any breaks. Then she stopped for a second. Her eyes moved to the empty wall where the framed page of Roman's diary had been. Thoughts of the diamond, Igor’s chart and her dad replaced the numbers in her head. The picture of Igor drawing the line between her dad and the diamond came back. Mixed feelings of guilt, regret and pain in her lower back began to overwhelm her. She felt scared. She commanded herself: Stop panicking. I am lucky nobody can see me in this condition. Be strong. Be strong. Instinctively she moved her eyes in the direction of the Ficus. What would I do without you? She tried to bring a smile to her face. It was a fake smile, very fake. She went back to the report and the calculator. Her fingers moved slowly. She forced them to move. Her vision of the chart disappeared for a second, came back and then disappeared again. Somebody knocked on her door. Thank God. I need a distraction now, prayed Dina.

  “Yes, you can come in.”

  “Hi, Dina, sorry I did not call you. But I need your signature.” Tamara looked directly into Dina’s eyes.

  “Dina, are you okay? Your face is the colour of a dead person. I’ll bring you water.” Tamara did not wait for Dina’s reply and left the room in a hurry. Ten seconds later she was back with a bottle of water and a glass.

  “My dear, what is wrong? How can I help you? You were okay on Saturday. What is wrong? Do not scare me like this.” Tamara moved left and right in front of Dina’s desk flapping her arms up and down looking like a chicken.

  “Tamara, please relax.” Dina smiled, now her real usual smile.

  “Nothing is going on, I am a little nervous, that's all. Thank you for the water.” Dina felt that she slowly regained her strength. “You wanted me to sign something?”

  “Oh, yes, I forgot. One second please, I left the document at my desk.” She left and came back holding an envelope and some kind of a form.

  “A delivery man is standing in the reception area. He is asking you to sign this form authorizing his company to charge MirexGlobe $125 for delivery. It is some kind of package from Krasni Yar. Plus he gave me this letter.” Tamara put an envelope on Dina’s desk and held the form out for her signature.

  “I do not understand,” said Dina, surprised. “Could it be our parcel?”

  Since Dina and Igor came back from their trip to Krasni Yar three years ago, she had been sending Peter parcels every six months. These parcels included cigarettes and coffee. It was addressed to the Krasni Yar regional centre from which it was delivered to Peter’s village. Dina never had problems with the delivery.

  “No, I don’t think so. The box looks familiar, but it is wrapped in strange green papers. Should I send him away?”

  “No, wait a second, please.” Dina took the envelope and tried to read what was written on the front of it. “Please call Igor. He will read and translate for us.”

  Tamara left the room without asking any more questions. She and Igor came into the room a few minutes later, and Igor started reading the front of the envelope.

  “'To Dina.'” Do you want me to open it?” asked Igor.

  “Please.”

  Tamara stood behind Igor and was looking over his left shoulder. “You are Irish, aren't you? Where did you learn to read this Russian language?” she asked.

  “My mom was from there,” Igor replied curtly, opening the envelope. Then he read out loud: “Dear Dina, we are sorry to inform you that our dearest friend Peter passed away two months ago. We received your parcel and decided not to send it back to you as we do not have enough funds for a return shipment. Instead we split your cigarettes and coffee equally between all of the houses in the village. For your knowledge, Peter used to do the same. Now we have your address and would like to fulfill Peter’s last wish. Sorry, but you will need to pay for the delivery. Inside the box are Peter's notepads. He wished to deliver them to you. His old Bible is also there. He was a good man. He was buried in the village graveyard. He asked us to transfer his house and shed to you. We know you are far away. We will take care of cutting the grass around the house. For now, a young married couple is living there. Please do not worry, it is your place and you can come and claim it any time. Hope to hear from you soon. God bless you and your family.”

  Igor went quiet. Dina took the letter from him and held it in front of her face, looking at the lines with strange words and letters. She could not read or understand them, but she felt heat coming from them, which then spread to her forehead and cheeks.

  “What great people!” came from Tamara. “Good people!”

  “Yes, they are good people. Where do I need to sign?”

  Tamara came close and pointed to a line. “Here.”

  “Please bring the parcel into my office; I hope it isn't heavy.”

  “Not at all.” Tamara left Dina’s office.

  “Can I go now?” asked Igor

  “Yes, you can. Thank you, Igor. I am sure I will need your help with Peter’s notepads.”

  “Any time. Just ask.” Again Dina was alone in her office.

  “Rest in peace, Peter,” said Dina.

  “Where do you want me to put it?” asked Tamara, entering the office. She held a small green cardboard box.

  “It is small. You can put it on any chair,” replied Dina.

  “You aren't going to open it now?” Tamara was surprised.

  “No, I am taking it home. I know what is in there, I've seen it before.”

  “As you wish.” Tamara was disappointed.

  “Thank you, Tamara, I need to finish the company's financial reports. I will talk to you soon. We will need to schedule meetings for tomorrow.”

  “Okay, good. Great, I will be at my desk.”

  Dina started to run through the calculations again. This time, she used Gregory's estimated cost for the new equipment he had requested. As usual, Gregor
y’s numbers were presented in different options that were clearly explained: the price for purchasing, the price for leasing, the price for renting. It was easy to read, understand and definitely helped Dina make her final decision. Her calculations took only half an hour. She then took a highlighter and underlined the ‘Renting’ category.

  She stood up to stretch her legs then went to the chair with the green box. She had lied to Tamara; she'd never seen Peter’s notepads. But it was better if she opened the box when she was alone. What am I going to do with a property in a remote Russian village? Maybe I will move to live there? No bad news anymore, no more ‘big city’ noises, fresh air, organic food, nice people. I will not survive a month there. She smiled.

  The working day was almost over. Dina called Tamara and Igor and asked them to join her in the conference room. They scheduled the next day's meetings. Igor would do his presentation around three in the afternoon. Tamara would inform Gregory and remind him that in the morning he needed to come and see Igor. Everybody was tired and ready to go home.

  Dina went back to her office and looked for the box cutter she usually kept in her top drawer. She found one lying on her desk, the same one Igor had used to open the envelope. She cut open the top of the green box. A small book in a dark brown cover was on top of what looked like a regular school notepad. His Bible. The top cover had a few oil or grease stains. The corners were worn – evidence of the book's frequent use. Dina took it out, held it for a couple of seconds and put it on the desk. Next, she took out the top notepad and discovered two more underneath. A total of three notepads, all the same size and with similar covers. Each was marked with a big hand-written number. She browsed through the first one. Some pages had only text, some text and drawings, many with only drawings. She stopped on a page with a drawing of the palm of a hand.

  It was drawn from different angles. It looked like an explanation of different hand movements and positions. Dina tried to imitate the moves of the drawn hand with her own. The move was familiar. It was one of the Kerzhak Navigation moves she practiced. She smiled. Great! If this is what I think it is, then it is the best present I could have wished for. Thank you, Peter. Dina closed the notepad, gently pushed all three of them into her overloaded briefcase, put the Bible on one of her office shelves and left the office.

  “Good evening, Miss Greduer. How is your day so far?” The condo concierge greeted Dina.

  “My day was extremely busy. Thank you for asking,” replied Dina, approaching the security desk. “Do I have any messages?”

  “Oh. Yes, you have a form and note from the condo management. An elevator appointment scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m.” the concierge read from the note. “These are the forms you need to sign to allow the technicians to enter your unit, and this one approving the certification and the fifty-dollar charge for it.”

  “I will be home on Wednesday, so we have no need for this form.” Dina returned one form to the concierge, looked at another, searching for the line where she needed to sign, then signed and placed the forms and the pen on the security desk. “Anything else?” she asked.

  “No, Miss Greduer, that is all. Have a pleasant evening.”

  “You too.” Dina left the concierge area. She checked her mailbox and found nothing, except advertising flyers. She threw them into the recycling bin, went to the end of the lobby and pushed the ‘UP’ button on her private elevator.

  “Hi Igor, it is me, Dina. Please call me back.” Dina left a message on Igor's answering machine after she finished her sandwich, which she had made with all of the ingredients she could find in her refrigerator.

  It took more than an hour before her phone rang. It was Igor returning her call. The connection was bad. Igor sounded far away. His voice was interrupted by scratchy, annoying noises.

  Dina took her cordless phone and went to the bedroom's ensuite washroom. I hope they are not listening to me in my washroom, ran through her head.

  “Where are you?” asked Dina.

  “I am near the airport.” The noise disappeared for a second and then came back again. “Visiting my son. There are a lot of noisy activities here. They are buil… always new rrr… Did you leave a mess… for me? What is going on?”

  “I received a time for the elevator certification appointment. Can you hear me? They tried to get my permission to do it when I am not home. I rejected. They are coming on Wednesday at 11 a.m. Is it a good time for us?”

  Igor's side went silent.

  “Any time is good.” He was back on the line. “I will be there; I think you need to be present too. I have my old police badge, which I kept as memorabil... This time they may came in handy. Let me think about what will be our best approach. We will discuss it tomor…”

  “I cannot hear you clearly. Hello, hello, can you hear me?” Dina heard the scratching noises again. Then the line went silent. We have another day to regroup. I am happy for you, Igor. You are with your son.

  Dina spent the rest of the evening sitting at the kitchen table, reviewing Peter’s notepads. Even without the ability to read and understand the written text, in her heart, Dina knew that these documents were priceless. She knew she would need to be patient. It would take time to translate and arrange all of the drawings. And then even more time to understand, integrate and implement all this ancient, but new, knowledge into her existing Kerzhak navigation routine. The results could be magical. They will be more than magical. With these happy thoughts, she went to bed, looking forward to a meeting with Igor, and to his discoveries.

  When Dina woke up, her first thought was about the SHOMEA-1. Tomorrow, it would be removed. She felt uncomfortable and nervous. These feelings followed her for the rest of the morning.

  At eight–thirty Dina was interrupted by the ring of the phone in her office. She was totally absorbed in reading an article called “Mystery of the German Stamps” when Tamara asked whether Igor’s meeting could be rescheduled. He asked to reschedule the meeting to an earlier time, from three o’clock in the afternoon to ten in the morning. Dina did not ask for the reason. She accepted the change in her schedule and went back to her reading. The article was interesting and entertaining. Ten minutes later, she was interrupted again, now by the noise of some kind of commotion in the office corridor. After it continued for a couple of minutes she decided to check out the situation. She left her office and followed the corridor maze. She had come close to Gregory’s lab when she saw a strange sight.

  The door to the laboratory was open. Gregory was outside. He was quickly passing a white piece of crumpled paper from one hand to the other. Occasionally he tried to pass it behind his back. Tamara was jumping around him trying to take the paper from his hands. Gregory turned around several times, trying to shake Tamara off. She came so close to him that her breasts touched his face.

  “Leave my poem alone, laboratory rat. It is my property. You will be in big trouble if you don't give it back to me!” Tamara cried, trying to go around Gregory, blocking his way back to the lab.

  “First of all you will promise me that you will never, ever again read it to me. And not only this crap, but all of your other poetry.” Gregory began to do basketball passes, passing the page between his legs.

  Tamara used her body and pushed him up to the wall, hoping he would not escape from there. Her arms moved up and down. She hoped to intercept Gregory’s hands. “Now what are you going to do?” declared Tamara, stepping over Gregory’s feet with her shoes. He was with his back to the wall and his body had limited options for movement.

  “It is not a fair game. I give up. There is your poem.” And he gave the white page back to her.

  “What is going on?” Dina decided to interrupt. “Are we back in kindergarten again?” It had happened many times before, when Tamara and Gregory gave Dina the pleasure of calling them the ‘kindergarten.’

  “Gregory was not answering his phone. I called him seven times. He disconnected his intercom. I had no way to reach him and to inform
him that we are changing the time of the meeting with Igor. I even knocked several times on his door with this broom.” Tamara pointed to the cleaning tool lying on the floor.

  “I had no choice; I sat down here and read him my poem.” Dina saw the chair near the lab door. “After about ten times he opened the door and took my poem from me.”

  “Dina, I have a problem with the Sound Parsing Tool. I worked all night and still nothing.” Only now did Dina notice Gregory’s red eyes. “I cannot be interrupted every five minutes. If I am not answering my phone, Tamara, it is because I do not want to be interrupted. Please, all of you, leave me alone for a couple of hours. I need to find where the problem is and fix it. Can you have the meeting with Igor without me, please?”

  “Yes, of course,” replied Dina. “Could I take a look at your poem? Since when are you into poetry?”

  “I have always written poems. There is a competition in our community centre and I want to win first prize, a bicycle for my stepdaughter. But this lab rat threatened to destroy it. Uhhh.” And Tamara waved her fist in Gregory’s direction.

  “Here, you can read it. Please do not laugh. I need to do more work, but it is a good start.”

  Dina took the page and read:

  “I like all green, but sometimes a yellow colour

  Transfers my soil to land with sun and warmth,

  And I forget my sadness and my worries

  I feel so blessed, relaxed and very calm.

  I like all green, but blue is my companion

  In every sea drop and in the open skies

  And I tumble inside of my emotions

  When I can see the love in your blue eyes.

  I like all green, but also the red of roses,

  The color of the liquid moving through my veins

  The words of love and hope are strongly linked together

  They knit a poem with my romantic pains.”

  “Not bad, not bad at all. Romantic and mysterious.” Dina gave the page back to Tamara.

  “You see what I had to listen to ten times?” cried Gregory.

  “Are you going to be ready with the Sound Parsing Tool for your meeting?” asked Dina.

  “I think I could present it as is. If somebody starts asking questions which require a deeper sound analysis, I could always do a more detailed presentation in the near future. What is bugging me is the complexity of the existing problem. I hope I do not need to go back to the drawing board and deal with the theory again. I thought I covered all of the angles. Please let me finish my research without being bugged by this romantic poet, please.” Gregory put his hands in a prayer position.

  “Tamara, please ask Igor if Gregory’s absence from his meeting will have a big impact. If yes, then please reschedule for a time when Gregory will be available.” Dina was curt. She turned around and left the ‘kindergarten children’ staring at each other.

  Tamara extended her right arm toward Gregory.

  “Let's make peace,” Tamara told Gregory, and before he could react, she wrapped her two arms around his neck and shoulders. She leaned close to him and pressed her torso against his.

  “Okay, okay enough. So be it – peace.” Gregory’s voice came from somewhere under her.

  “I am going to talk to Igor,” she declared, releasing him. “You better activate your intercom. I may need to inform you about a new time for the meeting.”

  The moment Gregory was released; he marched to his lab and closed the door behind him.

  Tamara left for the reception area and dialed Igor’s home phone number. It was half past nine. No answer. He may already be on his way. Tamara was right. Igor entered the office fifteen minutes later. She explained Gregory’s situation to him and got Igor’s approval to start the meeting without him.

  Fifteen minutes later, at ten o’clock sharp, Dina, Tamara and Igor were sitting in the conference room.

  “Good morning,” started Igor. “I hope that Gregory will join us later. If not I’ll catch him up later on what we are going to discuss today. I will begin by reading you a small paragraph.”

  Igor pulled a page from the white file that he had brought with him to the meeting and began reading, “This place could be compared with Moscow and its terrible secrets and mysterious dungeons. Or with Odessa’s maze of catacombs. Or even London, with its medieval ghost-inhabited castles. This place’s unique atmosphere is enhanced not only by its beautiful wooden architecture, but also in what lies beneath the surface. These are not subways. We are talking about catacombs. From the earliest of times, various legends have been told about this place’s mysterious dungeons. According to the locals, the dungeons permeate the length and breadth of this historic part of the city. Some of their stories say that this is the work of rich merchants who built them to safely store their merchandise. According to others, daring robbers built these catacombs as hiding places after robbing shops and banks.” Igor paused. “This is more or less what was published in the local papers. Can anyone guess where on earth this place is and what its name is? Anyone?”

  Dina was sitting quietly and writing something in the notebook in front of her.

  Tamara spoke up, “Since all comparisons to this mysterious place are from Europe, I think this place is somewhere there. By asking us the name of this place, I do assume both Dina and I are familiar with it. My bet is it is Geneva, where the Twin Crowns are.”

  “I know it is not Geneva.” Dina looked directly at Igor. “You have been looking for the link between Roman and a diamond. Roman has nothing to do with Geneva, but a lot to do with Derchany. My bet is that this place's name is Derchany.”

  “Dina, you are absolutely right. This article, published in a Derchany local newspaper two years ago, created a lot of waves. The city's university’s Archaeology and History departments renewed their interest in the city catacombs for the first time in twenty years.” Igor put his page down.

  “How did you get your hands on this article?” asked Dina.

  “I actually got much more into my hands when I started to go back to the times when you and Roman first visited the city. I will get back to these events. With your permission, I would first like to continue reviewing a short episode of Derchany's history. I feel it may help us in the future.”

  “I like history,” intervened Tamara, “especially if there is mystery involved. History of the mystery.”

  “Then you are in for a good ride.” Igor smiled.

  Tamara rubbed her two palms against each other, smiled and declared, “Kabuk-ka-bull. Let’s go.”

  Tamara’s energetic temperament brought a smile to Dina's face and Igor took another page from his file and continued, “Around the fifteenth century, locals discovered gold mines near Derchany. After that, the city quickly rose to become the largest transport hub connecting the eastern side of the country with its neighbors. For a long time, the Derchany catacombs were a taboo subject. Nobody had written about them in the newspapers or spoken of them on the radio. Locals passed numerous stories orally about the caves, providing many grisly details. These stories fascinated local boys who roamed the basements of old houses, dreaming of finding secret entries into the dungeons.

  “The academy had limited resources which prevented them performing a thorough investigation. One of the city’s principal investigators told the newspaper that when he arrived in Derchany, he was immediately inundated with curious stories about urban catacombs. Old-timers said that they stretched for tens of kilometers beneath the city, with brick reinforcing walls and a hidden tunnel running under the Derch River. There were rumors that a car could pass through this tunnel. The investigator himself witnessed how a sinkhole swallowed a tram near the city’s library, only to discover a huge underground room after the tram was removed. Much later, he heard stories from the people who had built the Grand Theatre Concert Hall, where during construction cement would disappear underground after it was installed.”

  Igor stopped, took several sips from his water bottle an
d resumed his narration.

  “Since then, several articles devoted to these mysterious Derchany catacombs were published. One described two ladies who fell into an underground passage on their way to a visit with their bishop.”

  “Sure, hee, hee, they were not angels and not Mother Theresa and committed a lot of sins. They deserved the punishment of the underground catacombs,” Tamara joked.

  “Yes, you are right, as usual,” replied Igor. “When they were rescued, police discovered two underground passages, each several miles long. It had been assumed that thieves could escape when robbing shops and banks with the help of these two underground passages. One passage led the police to the river.

  “Another discovered passage started at the monastery and led to a nearby mountain. It went along the river. Apparently, it was used as a way to escape from the monastery in the event of a siege. Thirty years ago, scientists started to use underground mapping technology electromagnetic waves during construction to avoid further accidents. When the Derchany municipality did repair work on a four-story building in the centre of the city, one of the contractors heard unusual echoing noises in the basement. Employees with radar technology were called to the scene and found that there were two big, separate galleries under the building. They were both connected by three narrow bypasses with more than ten turns each. One underground gallery led to the side of the Derch River.”

  Igor took another page from his file. “I have more examples, but at this moment I would like to get closer to the purpose of our meeting. Twenty-nine years ago the mayor of Derchany came up with the great idea of making Derchany a ‘Centre of Tourism.’ His idea was simple and received immediate approval from municipal councilors. The idea was to build a ‘Derchany Catacomb National Park.’ In addition to scientists, the city’s catacombs had already started to attract thousands of ordinary people, so why not open some parts of the catacombs to the public, with guided tours? And of course, charging the visitors would bring plenty of money to the city, not to mention the economic benefits to local businesses; imagine new hotels, restaurants, banks, maybe even an airport.

  “Derchany municipal documents show that it took only seven months before the city received full support for this project from the Federal government. Local businesses volunteered to help and support the project. A special team took on the work to create the Park's development plan and estimate the required budget. Everything related to the future ‘Derchany Catacomb National Park’ plan received immediate approval. The development team chose and marked the best suitable area on a map of the city. Then the team with the radar technology further mapped the area for more detailed adjustments. Ten catacomb galleries and rooms, connected with numerous tunnels and bypasses, were chosen. The construction, repairs and restorations began two months later. The first task was to block all unnecessary entries and exits. The developers left only three entrances to the catacombs: two main entrances for the public and one emergency entrance. The city purchased two large electrical generators and the construction team started restoring the old and rotten wooden walls. A few of the underground rooms were in need of additional fresh air access and ventilation.”

  Igor stopped and looked straight at Dina and Tamara. Tamara was showing a great interest in Igor’s narrative, whereas Dina was not as caught up in his story. She looked as if she were somewhere else. She stopped writing, and her body was turned on the chair, giving the impression that she was ready to leave the room at any moment. Dina knew that Igor was doing a great job. He always did more than had been required. It was his nature. Usually his meetings took a very long time, but after a careful and very detailed analysis, he always arrived at a well thought out and thorough conclusion. Many years in the police had imprinted in him principals, which he followed to the letter: Do not rush, do your work step by step, never make mistakes as they may affect and destroy the lives of innocent human beings.

  Today, Dina wanted him to finish his meeting as soon as possible. Since the beginning of the day, she had been occupied with thoughts about tomorrow. She needed Igor to tell her what to do and how to behave when the elevator technician would be removing the listening device, SHOMEA-1. She was worried and Igor’s stories about the Derchany catacombs sounded interesting, but not too important. But Dina could not ask Igor to rush through his meeting, especially now when she saw what an effort and how much time he had put into it. She was hoping that he would notice her act and body language and would decide to make the meeting shorter himself. She was not sure whether it was going to work since she was a bad actor.

  Still, Igor did notice Dina’s unusual behaviour. He did not understand why Dina acted nervously. Was it because of his explanation, or was it something else? But he was very close to the conclusion of his research and he did not want to be rushed.

  “I know that it is a long story and it sounds irrelevant to the events that happened to you, Dina, and to Roman a long time ago, but please allow me to continue and to prove to you that it is indeed quite relevant.”

  “Go ahead.” Dina understood that Igor got her hints. She turned back to the table and showed that she was ready for him to continue.

  “Construction and repairs of the ‘Derchany Catacomb National Park’ were in full swing. The municipality made plans for the opening ceremony of the park. A tentative opening date was chosen. Posters and advertising flyers were printed. Special training sessions were scheduled for future guides. My estimations show that you, Dina, and Roman arrived in Derchany approximately six months before the official opening ceremony.”

  Igor’s last sentence got Dina’s attention. She looked directly at him. Where are you going with this?

  “Now imagine yourself as,” Igor smiled and continued, “a young boy with a bag full of diamonds who is looking to hide it in a city he is unfamiliar with. It is his first time in Derchany. He is looking for a place to hide the diamonds. He hopes to be back to retrieve the bag three, six or twelve months from now. He is a smart boy. It is his first time in a big city. His younger sister is alone and waiting for him in a cargo train car. What is he looking for? Tamara, any guesses? If you are Roman, what kind of places will you be looking for?”

  “Any abandoned buildings, basements, dry water wells,” replied Tamara.

  “Good choices, but there are two small problems. One is that the train station is in the middle of the city. There are not many abandoned buildings there. Basements are a risky place to leave the diamonds. They are frequently visited by the homeless and other, not-too-nice, people. Dry wells are a better choice, in my opinion. But if they exist near the train station, there is a good chance they will be destroyed or permanently covered. Roman had a difficult task. He wandered through the street afraid to be robbed or captured by the local police.”

  Roman, my Roman. Dina’s look went from Igor, down to the papers in front of her on the table. Suddenly, strong emotions came over her. She could feel blood rushing to her head. Her cheeks and ears became extremely hot. Her right hand, which was holding a pen, squished it so hard that it produced a sound of cracked plastic. Igor and Tamara looked at Dina.

  “Are you okay?” asked Tamara.

  “Please continue,” answered Dina without lifting her head.

  Igor felt that he was over-dramatizing. “Dina, I am sorry.”

  “Don’t worry, please do not pay me attention and continue.”

  “Good, so we know that Roman had few good choices concerning where to hide the diamonds. Remember that both of you arrived in Derchany during the construction of the ‘Catacomb National Park.’ I can only imagine Roman’s happiness when he came across the ‘Catacomb National Park’ site located less than a forty-minute walk from the station. The park would have been a safe place for the diamonds. Since it would be open six months from now, he could be sure that this place would be there when he or his family came back to collect the hidden treasure.”

  “How do you know that he came across the ‘Catacomb National Park’?” asked Din
a. Now she was staring directly at Igor, with her hands palm-down and flat on the table. “How can you be sure that he came across the development site?” she repeated.

  “Okay, I will tell you.” Igor glanced at the serious expression on Dina’s face. “I will tell you if you grant me a smile, even one of your fake smiles,” joked Igor. He wanted to discharge the stress hanging in the air.

  “Go ahead, girl.” Tamara supported him. “Let him finish his story. I cannot wait anymore.”

  Dina knew that she had no choice. The two people in the room were her friends and her biggest supporters. She tightened her lips and facial muscles, producing an expression similar to a smile, which at the same time, told everybody to leave her alone.

  “It’s a good start. I promise you that from now on, you will smile more often.” Igor opened his file again and took out a light brown page in plastic wrapping.

  “You see, as I mentioned before, the municipality of Derchany had been preparing for the big opening ceremony of the park. They invested a good chunk of money and time in advertising flyers that explained to visitors what they were going to discover and see when visiting the park. I think Roman came across one of these flyers. I have one of them here. Take a look, please.”

  Igor handed the brown page to Dina. Tamara instinctively moved her chair close to Dina, who placed the page on the table so that both of them could see. The top third of the page had the municipality logo, the name of the park in big red letters, and the operational schedule with dates and opening and closing times. The middle part of the flyer was a map showing the entrance to the park at the top left corner and the exit located at the bottom right. A fat, green snake-like line connecting these two points twisted up and down, left and right. Igor took out something from his file and held it behind his back in his left hand. He approached Dina and Tamara and pointed to the middle of the page with his finger. It was obvious that at this moment he wanted to stand close to both of them.

  “You can see how they constructed the pass to move across the catacombs. The numbered circles on the green line are the catacomb’s rooms. There is one entry to the room and one exit. This way the visitors will be moving from the park’s entry point to the exit in one direction only.”

  “We can see it.” Tamara pointed to small black arrows printed with small intervals on the green line.

  “You can see that there are ten circles on the line, which are the catacomb rooms. Not only did they number them, they also gave each room a name. Take a look at the room names below the map.”

  Both Dina and Tamara moved their eyes down. Below the map there were five lines of text printed in black.

  “Catacombs you are going to visit:

  1.”Captain Dom”

  2.”Lucy's kitchen”

  3.”Devil Bridge”

  4.”Open space”

  5.”Gallery”

  6.”King's Table”

  7.”Desert”

  8.”Church”

  9.”Horse Stable”

  10.”Golden Circle”

  Estimated time: 1.5 hours”

  “Nice names,” was Tamara's first reaction.

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute, please.” Dina was ready to stand up, but Igor stopped her by placing his hand on her left shoulder.

  “I am sure that you are planning to go to your office and bring us this.” And from behind his back he produced the copy of the framed page of Roman’s diary that Dina kept hanging in her office. He placed it near the flyer.

  “They are the same names.” Dina raised her eyes and smiled. “You are right. Roman was there. They are the same.”

  “Yes. He was there, and not only was he there, but now I am sure that he hid the family diamonds there, too.”

  “Sorry, please explain,” asked Tamara, “how do you know he hid the diamonds there?”

  “Look, Tamara: Roman wrote the names of the catacombs in his diary for a reason. Do you see that he drew stars near Captain Don, Gallery, Kings Table and Church?”

  “Yes, I can see that. And you think these are the catacomb rooms where he has hidden the diamonds. Okay. Now it is clear, I understand.”

  Dina could not move her eyes from the pages. She kept on comparing the names and had a difficult time digesting the fact that they were identical. She felt as if Roman had been talking to her again. Finally, he was revealing the meaning of the writing in his diary page to her, telling her his secret, long overdue, more than twenty years later. Dina was happy. All of the tension and nervousness were gone. The room remained silent for two minutes. Then she stood up and embraced Igor.

  “Thank you.”

  “Thank you for giving me an opportunity to crack the puzzle.”

  “Yes, you did it. Thank you again.”

  “Hey, you two lovers, stop hugging each other in a public place. You did not crack the puzzle yet. What are those numbers and letters on the last line of the diary?” asked Tamara.

  Dina turned around and looked back at the pages. “What do you think?”

  “I think that it’s a location code. Roman picked three catacomb rooms to hide the diamonds, and this is the code that tells us their location in these rooms. I suggest that we pass this question on to Gregory. I am sure that for him it won’t be as big a challenge as you think. I bet you that now, when we all know what the names mean, he will have the answer about the diamond’s location in a day or two.”

  “You are right, but please make sure that Gregory is not disturbed in the next couple of hours. He needs to finish an important presentation,” said Dina.

  “Don’t worry - I will wait until he is available. In the meantime, I will need to courier the park flyer back to the Derchany regional museum.”

  “Oh! It’s interesting: why did I not hear about the Catacomb Park when I was in Derchany three years ago?”

  “The reason that you did not hear about the Park is because it was closed approximately a year and a half after it first opened. The local developers did not take into account the impact of the harsh winter and municipal expenses that were required to keep the park operational. Typical for municipal government. After the first winter, it was open for only five months and after that it was closed to visitors. Today the park is locked down, and only universities or other academic institutions that are doing research are allowed to visit. To visit the catacombs one needs to obtain approval from the municipality, obtain a temporary license and pay an administration fee. I am in the process of clarifying all the paperwork that is required to enter the catacombs.” Igor looked at Dina and smiled.

  “You are always two steps ahead of me.” Dina smiled back at him.

  “I can smell a trip to the wilderness,” said Tamara and began tapping her fingers at the table; ta, tam, ta, tam, ta, tam, tam, tam.

  “I would like to have a copy of the flyer before it goes back to the museum. Let’s take a short break and then I need to talk to you, Igor, about our rendezvous tomorrow.”

  “With pleasure. I’ll make a copy and will be in your office in an hour.”

  “Tamara, please concentrate on the Wiesen case. I have a feeling it will be a difficult one. Please keep me in the loop.”

  “Will do. Did you like my cooking?”

  “I am sorry. Really, I am, I forgot to thank you Tamara. It was pure pleasure. Please pass my thanks to all of the family. Now that you've mentioned your cooking, I've become hungry.”

  “Oh good, I knew you would like my cooking. I brought you some leftovers from dinner. I will heat them up and bring them to your office. Give me five minutes.”

  “Tamara, you are too much.”

  “I love you, too,” said Tamara as she rushed out of the conference room.

  Dina stood there looking at Igor. She lifted her two arms in disbelief.

  “Tamara is Tamara, I wish we had more like her around here,” came from Igor. A second later Tamara’s head appeared in the door of the conference room.

  “Igor, your lunch is ready too,
come and pick it up in the kitchen. Dina, you can deal with Gregory, please. I am afraid to call him or knock on his door. He is going to kill me. I’ll leave his plate on a chair in front of his laboratory. Bon appétit to all of you.” The words came out of her mouth in a single breath and then she disappeared. Dina and Igor looked at each other, laughing for a couple of seconds, and then they left the conference room.

  SHOMEA-1

  Dina was about to finish her lunch when Gregory knocked on her office door and entered without waiting for an invitation.

  “Bon appétit. Thank you for the lunch that you left on the chair. It was delicious.”

  “Don’t thank me, thank Tamara. She asked me to deliver it to you,” replied Dina.

  “Yes, I know, I will thank Tamara too. I came to let you know that I fixed the problem. The Sound Parser is working, for now. I hope it will continue to work, and we will have a good presentation. To fix it, I ordered some parts, expensive parts. I wanted you to know.”

  “Not a problem. Did you set up a time for the presentation?” asked Dina.

  “Not yet. I need to do more testing. I met Igor ten minutes ago and he told me the story of the catacombs. He told me that now we know the meaning of the names on your framed diary page.”

  “That's correct. Did he ask you to work on the code?”

  “Yes, he did. That's why I’m here. If I decipher the code, what are you planning to do with it?”

  “I haven’t decided yet. What Igor found was out of the blue for me, I would say a shocking surprise. Now when I know where the rest of the diamonds are hidden, the situation becomes even more complicated. I need time to think.”

  “I understand, and I will do my best to get your code cracked. If you’re asking for my advice, I would suggest that you to go to Geneva, maybe have a chat with the Head of the Treasury department.”

  Gregory’s last sentence was pronounced slowly and in a quiet voice. His look was directed at Dina’s desk and not at her eyes. Dina was puzzled. It was unusual to get this type of advice from Gregory.

  “And what is the reason for me to have a talk with the Geneva Head of Treasury?”

  “You may get some useful and important information.”

  “Information about what? Can you be more specific please?”

  “No Dina, I can’t be more specific. This is only my advice. Now you know where the rest of the diamonds are, and the Geneva Treasury may help you in some way to make a right decision as to how to proceed.”

  “Okay, Gregory I know that you are not telling me something. It's okay. I only want to understand one thing: two hours ago when I saw you in your laboratory, you did not mention, and did not advise me, to go to Geneva. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Now when you know that Igor discovered the location of the hidden diamonds, you suddenly decide to advise me to go to Geneva. Is that correct?”

  “Not really, not suddenly.” Gregory stopped, and it was noticeable that he wasn’t comfortable continuing this conversation.

  “Good, we will stop our discussion now, but only because Igor will come to see me any minute. But you and I will discuss this again in the near future. You know I trust you and your opinion. If I need to go to Geneva, I will go. It would just have been nice to know why and that I will not be wasting my time on a pleasure trip.”

  “You wouldn’t, trust me.” Gregory’s eyes were still glued to her desk. “Can I go now?”

  “Yes, please. Do not forget to thank your best friend Tamara. She is a great cook.”

  “I will.” And Gregory left Dina’s office, leaving her with an uncomfortable feeling and troublesome thoughts. Geneva, Geneva, Head of Treasury, Geneva.

  Two minutes later, when Igor entered Dina’s office, he found her standing near the window, staring at the blue sky outside.

  “What a beautiful day for early autumn. I think we will have a mild winter this year. I’m getting old. The cold of the winter is forcing me to stay indoors more often that I care to admit and I hate that.”

  “I don’t think you should blame your age, Igor. It happens to all of us, the last two winters were pretty harsh,” replied Dina, while she continued to stand with her back to Igor. “Did you notice any unusual behavior when you were talking to Gregory?”

  “Not really. Actually, it was difficult to observe his behavior since he was sitting in his lab with his back to me. It seems that nobody wants talk face-to-face with me this afternoon.“

  Dina turned around and smiled. “Sorry, Igor, today is my lucky day. I’m getting an overload of information, but I am actually happy that, for once, I am not bored. Okay, we can talk about Gregory later. Please, sit down.” Dina pointed at the empty chair beside her and took a seat at her desk.

  “We need to discuss what we are planning to do tomorrow. The elevator maintenance technician will arrive at 11 a.m. I have no idea what to do, and that makes me worried. Should we follow him?”

  “Dina, I can see that you are worried. Everything will be fine. I think the first and best option is not to follow him, but rather approach him after he removes the device. You and I will wait for him to remove it, and then I will confront him with a couple of questions. I hope he will cooperate. We don’t have any legal right to stop him or interrogate him. If we hit a wall and our questions remain unanswered, then we will turn to our second option, which is to follow him. In both cases our main goal is to discover who is behind the recording device and why it was installed in your unit in the first place. I have a feeling that it may be one of our competitors, or one of our nosy clients. We also have a third option, and that is calling the police. This option is complicated. We will need to explain how we discovered the recording device and why we did not report it earlier. Let us hope that either option one or two will work. At what time do you want me to show up at your place tomorrow?”

  “Please come for breakfast. I almost forgot: do you have a copy of the flyer?”

  “Yes, I do. It is in my office. At what time do you serve breakfast at your restaurant?” Igor laughed.

  “The ‘Grand Café Restaurant’ will serve you with a hot breakfast at 10 a.m. Sir, don’t forget your tuxedo and police badge,” replied Dina, smiling. “We usually take orders of scrambled eggs and orange juice in advance.”

  “Fair enough, I will be back in a minute with a copy of your flyer.”

  When Igor left Dina’s office, she turned her chair back to face the window. With her hands entwined behind her head, sitting in the chair angled at 45 degrees, Dina was in her favorite position. Geneva, Geneva, Head of Treasury, Geneva. I forgot to discuss it with Igor.

  “There you are,” heard Dina. Igor entered the room and was holding a copy of the flyer in his hands. “Where do you want me to put it?”

  Dina was back to her usual position at the desk.

  “I’ll take it.” And she took the copy, looked at it for a few seconds and lowered it down.

  “I’ve asked you about Gregory. Today after the meeting with you, he was here in my office. He was acting strange, or maybe the word ‘unusual’ better described it. Several times, he suggested that I go to Geneva and have a meeting with the Head of the Treasury. I find it odd. It felt as if Gregory knew something, but I do not know what. I had the feeling that he was not advising me to go to Geneva, but insisting that I go there. Do you find it strange?”

  “Not really. Remember Gregory’s girlfriend Aleksa? She is from Geneva and works in the Treasury Department. I’m sure he knows something related to the Twin Crowns and to the diamonds, but is not in a position to disclose it without risking his girlfriend’s professional reputation. I think you should trust him. Follow up with him again, have another conversation. See if he is willing to give you some clues. He is a smart cookie. I am sure his brilliant brain will find a way to persuade you to make the right decision.”

  “You are right. I will have a chat with him. What a day. I have no time to deal with the company’s issues. All day, I’m
occupied with my personal affairs.”

  Igor smiled. He knew Dina well. He saw it in her eyes: ‘Get out of here; I need to do my work.' He understood and began dancing toward the door. “I’m out of here. Call me if you need my help.”

  “You look ridiculous,” Dina smiled. “I will call you, go.” She lowered her head, looking at her meeting schedule for the rest of the week. Then she pushed a button on the intercom and asked Tamara to prepare a list of phone numbers of the clients whom she planned to contact today.

  For the next four hours Dina was occupied with calling clients, discussing business, and scheduling presentations and follow-up meetings. She went through the list of clients several times, made notes, and circled the phone numbers of two clients who she decided to contact later. She then called Gregory, asking him to join her when he had a free moment. At around 6 p.m. Gregory called.

  “Is now a good time?”

  “A great time, Gregory, you can come in. I have finished my work for today.”

  Gregory came in a few minutes later and sat down across from Dina. He looked tired. His reading glasses were about to fall down from the tip of his nose.

  “How are you doing?” asked Dina.

  “I’m okay. The setup of the Voice Parsing tool requires too much reading of the Operation Manual. It is written horribly. It forces you to jump from one page to another, and then jump back. It is a terrible document. And to think that I myself created it! It’s a good thing that we didn’t publish it.”

  “Still, I’m pretty sure that the manual could serve as a good example to many others of how to write the manuals.”

  “I don’t know. You wanted to talk to me.” Gregory looked at Dina over his glasses.

  “Yes. Since our earlier meeting, I have been thinking a lot about your suggestion to visit Geneva. I’m sure that you have a good reason to suggest this trip and I wanted to discuss it further with you so that I could justify it to myself. Could we do that together?”

  “Unfortunately Dina, you will need to take my word for it. Your visit to Geneva will have a lot of benefits for you. Similar to Igor’s visit and his discovery related to your father and the diamonds.”

  Dina was carefully listening to every word that came from Gregory. She thought she was getting his hidden message. Gregory’s girlfriend Aleksa helped Igor. She decided to go for a more direct approach with Gregory.

  “I think I know what you’re getting at. She helped us a lot, and I personally appreciate what she has done. I’m not asking you to give me a detailed answer to my question. But you must answer yes or no. Are there any new developments related to the Twin Crowns? Only yes or no, please.”

  “Yes,” replied Gregory, his head tilted to the left. He closed his eyes. “Yes.”

  Dina could see that it was extremely difficult for him to have this conversation. “Good, thank you. Send my regards to Aleksa. Tell her that when I am in Geneva, I would like to invite her to dinner. Actually,” Dina stopped for a second. If I go to Geneva, I will take you with me, ran through Dina’s head, and she continued. “Actually you should invite her to visit us. I’m pretty sure she will enjoy it here.”

  “Yes, I will. Is there anything else? I would like to finish work earlier today.”

  “Gregory, it is almost seven p.m. Go home. I will work tomorrow until noon from home. Call me, if required. Thank you again. I’m always forgetting to ask you: how is your mother doing?”

  “She is hanging in there. I hope I can visit her today. They are closing visitation hours at eight.”

  “Go, go, leave everything you are doing and go.”

  Dina stood up and almost pushed Gregory out of the office. She called Tamara. “Please let me know if Gregory is not out of his lab in the next five minutes.”

  “Will do,” was Tamara’s reply.

  Ten minutes later, Tamara informed Dina that Gregory had left the office.

  The rest of Dina’s evening went as usual. A taxi ride to her condo, a short visit to the grocery store. Milk, eggs, cheese and bread. She warmed up what was left of the pizza from her team meeting. A quick shower, and Dina was in bed, surrounded by Peter’s notebooks. The fact that she did not know how to read Russian did not stop her and with great curiosity, she browsed through the hand drawn pictures.

  When Dina woke up the next morning she found two of Peter’s notebooks on the floor. It seemed she had fallen asleep during her reading. She had an odd feeling that she had had a strange dream again. She could not remember it. Only the vague picture of a woman in white pants, a white blouse and white hat was clear in her head. Strange, why are you following me in my dreams? I need to make a note if it is related to Kerzhak Navigation. It seems that when I am reading something related to it, you come to visit me in my dreams. Interesting.

  The clock showed that it was seven in the morning. Dina had enough time for herself and to prepare breakfast. It was too cold to sit outside on the balcony, but sitting with a cup of coffee near the glass had the same relaxing effect.

  At around eight-thirty, the phone rang and Gregory’s voice asked, “Good morning. Dina, do you have a minute?”

  “Good morning, Gregory, how are you?” Dina replied.

  “I am okay. I wanted to tell you that I finished aging the photos Igor gave me.”

  “Oh, good. I am planning to be in the office this afternoon.”

  “Great, see you then.”

  “See you.”

  Dina looked at the traffic outside. Now I'll see how they look twenty years later.

  Twenty minutes later, Igor arrived and entered Dina’s unit holding a box of donuts.

  “Good morning. I’m hungry like a wolf, where can I put our dessert?”

  “Good morning. You know I don’t eat donuts. I need to watch my weight. I need to finally find a man, and apparently, a woman with good looks is number one on a man's hunting list.” Dina smiled.

  “Who said that I was going to feed you donuts? They are only for me. I have something else for you in the box.” And he produced two small containers of yogurt from the box.

  “Thank you. They are my favorite. How did you know what to buy?”

  “You forget: I’m a detective. Do you need any help?” asked Igor, watching Dina turn the stove on and take eggs from the refrigerator.

  “No, thank you. Please take a seat. Breakfast will be ready in a minute.”

  Dina really enjoyed Igor’s company. He told her about his last visit to his son's army base. She gave him a brief overview of Peter’s notebooks, the ones that she had looked at in the evening. Igor promised to help with the translation. Knowing that the translation would take a tremendous amount of time, she initially rejected his help but in the end, they agreed that Igor would only translate in his spare time, when he had nothing else to do. Dina knew that all of the notebooks would be translated and on her desk in a week or two, at most.

  Somebody knocked on the door. Dina looked at her watch. It was exactly eleven o’clock. Time was flying. Igor started to remove dirty plates from the kitchen table. Dina looked through the door's peephole and saw the building concierge and a man in a blue uniform standing on the other side. She looked back at Igor putting coffee cups in the sink. The kitchen table was already clean. She opened the door.

  “Good morning, Miss Greduer. How are you?” asked the concierge.

  “Good morning. I’m okay, thank you for asking. Are you here to do the elevator inspection?” asked Dina, looking at the man in uniform.

  “Good morning,” he replied. “Yes, I am here to do the inspection. My name is George.” He pointed to the white name badge attached to his uniform. “May we come in?”

  “Yes, please.” Dina moved aside, allowing the two men to get into the apartment.

  “I only need your signature here,” mentioned the concierge, producing a form and showing Dina where to sign.

  “It is a new security procedure, you know. Now we need to escort all maintenance personnel to the units. Then the unit own
ers need to sign these forms. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

  Dina signed the form. The concierge thanked her and left.

  George continued standing, looking around, familiarizing himself with the condo.

  “Hi, my name is Igor. How are you?” Igor approached him and pointed to the big toolbox George was holding in his hand. “Do you need any help?”

  “No, sir, I am okay. I'm trying to look for the power box. You know each apartment's floor plan is different, and I visit a hundred of them each month. This one has an unusual layout. I like your big windows. Great view of the city.”

  Dina was standing near the sink. She turned around and had a good look at the man. He was in his late fifties, slightly overweight; by the way he was holding his heavy toolbox, he looked as if he was in good physical shape. He was of average height.

  “Sorry for the mess. We just finished our breakfast. Do you want a cup of fresh coffee?”

  “With pleasure, thank you. I missed my coffee today; I was taking my two grandchildren to school and I was afraid to be late for your appointment. Their school is at the other end of the city. The traffic was not so bad, but I had no time to stop for coffee.”

  “Nobody else in your company could do the work?” asked Igor.

  “Not really. We are a small private company with only three, some days four, technicians. Being so small, our reputation is on the line and we can’t be late for an appointment. A single complaint from an unhappy customer will hurt our business.” He looked at his work boots and asked, “Should I remove my boots or – I do have special boot covers.”

  “The boot covers will do. You can put your toolbox here.” Dina pointed to the small carpet near the front door.

  “What do you think, how long will today’s inspection take?” asked Igor, now seated comfortably on the sofa.

  “Let me see.” George put his toolbox on the floor, opened it and took some papers from it.

  “Let me see,” he repeated. “You are moving out, so I need to do a regular inspection and – wait a second, please.” He turned his papers, looking for something. “Yes, you have a security system installed too. I will need to remove it and discuss with you what to do with it. It is mentioned on your order that we need to return it to the original company. Here, you see, directions about what to do with it in case of removal. Here.” He pointed to the bottom of one of the pages he held in his hands and moved toward the sink where Dina was standing.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” He stopped after the first step.” Sorry, I will put my boot covers on now.” Before Dina could say something and allow him to proceed, George knelt down near his toolbox, took out the boot covers and quickly put them on. It was done with such ease that it was obvious that he had done this procedure a hundred times before.

  “There it is.”

  Dina looked at the page and saw her own signature at the bottom.

  “One second, please,” she said with great surprise.” What security system? Installed in my unit?”

  “Can I see, please?” Igor intervened from the sofa. “I’ll take care of it, Dina. You wanted to prepare a cup of coffee?” Igor stood up, approached the elevator technician, and took the forms and started reading them.” Take a seat, please.” Igor pointed to the chair.

  “No, thank you. I need to start my work. Otherwise it will take half a day. You can have this form for now, but I better start. Can you please show me where the elevator switch room is? With your permission I’ll take the coffee with me. I’ll be careful, I promise.” He took the cup of coffee Dina had finished preparing and followed her to the switch room.

  “Do you need any sugar or milk?” asked Dina.

  “No, thank you. This is how I like it.”

  Dina opened the switch room door and turned the light on.

  “Let me know if you need anything.”

  “I’m good. I will just take my toolbox and start working.”

  He went back to the entry door, took his toolbox and went back to the switch room.

  “Is that your signature there?” asked Igor, showing the bottom of the page to Dina.

  “Looks like mine, but I do not remember ordering any security system or approving any installations in my unit.”

  “Does the name ‘Protectron’ ring a bell?”

  “Not really.”

  “It is an order form for a security system installation dated around three years ago, with your name and signature on it. I think it is the recording device we discovered, and not the security system they installed. Can you please call Tamara and ask her to check where you were on this date?” Igor showed Dina the date written on the form.

  “I will go downstairs and ask them to make a copy of this form, so we can compare your signature later.”

  “You don’t need to go downstairs. There is a scanner in my bedroom. You can make a copy there.”

  “Okay, you go and make the copy. I will have a chat with our technician.” Igor gave the forms to Dina and walked toward the switch room.

  George was busy working with a screwdriver, tightening something on the panel.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Igor addressed him.

  “Yes, but only if you stand outside the switch room. Regulations require only one person in it when any work is being done.”

  “Good, I can stay here.” Igor stood one step to the side so he wouldn't block the light coming from the dining room.

  “You see, I am planning to purchase an apartment in this building.”

  “You are not living here? With the lady?” asked George.

  “No, I’m not. I am a co-worker. Today we had a working breakfast.” Igor smiled.

  “I understand.” Then a short pause. “So, what is your question?” asked George, now looking at his digital measurement tools and writing numbers on his paper pad.

  “My question is about the security system. What do I need to do to have it installed in my apartment?”

  “What you need is a good security company. The rules have changed in the last two years. Before, anybody could declare they were a security company and sell their products. But now, all security companies require special certification. So you need a good company. I can suggest some I know. Then, if you have a similar apartment with a private elevator, we, as an elevator maintenance company, will install your main security unit in the switch room. Just like this one.” And he pointed to the SHOMEA receiver.

  “A by-law requires that only certified elevator maintenance technicians install a security system in an elevator switch room. Believe me, there is no other place in the unit for a security system installation.”

  “Good, I understand, and when I sell the unit, you will remove the security system and return it to me?”

  “Not really, it all depends on the installation instructions. In the case of your co-worker,” another pause, “we need to return it to the company.”

  “So how do you know where the company is now? It may change the name and its address several times before I sell the apartment.”

  “You are a smart man. You see, a municipal by-law requires security companies to have an updated address every six months. If not, they lose their certification and business in the city.”

  George started to disassemble SHOMEA-1 from the wall.

  Igor thanked him and rushed to the kitchen.

  “Did you make a copy? Did you call Tamara?”

  “Yes, I did. There it is on the dinner table.”

  Igor took a copy and looked for Protectron’s address.

  “There you are, 85 Bloor Street East. Why is there no floor or unit number? Please call Tamara again and ask her to check this address, and ask her to call us back as soon as possible. I’m going to delay him for five or ten minutes.”

  Igor went back to the switch room exactly when George was closing his toolbox and was ready to step out.

  “Your elevator is in excellent condition. I did not know that the last service had been done a couple of days ago by on
e of our best technicians. So what’s left for me is a formality check and the removal of this box.” He showed the SHOMEA-1 receiver to Igor. “Now I have time for my coffee.”

  “It is already cold. Allow me to make you a new cup, and I think there are a couple of donuts left over from breakfast. I got four of them, but the lady is on a diet, and two fresh ones should be waiting for you in the kitchen.”

  “Sounds great. Then I will complete all of the paper work, while enjoying the sweetness of the donuts.” George smiled.

  Igor could hear Dina talking on the phone from her bedroom.

  “Please, have a seat.” He pointed to a chair at the dining table. “I’ll be back with the coffee and donuts.”

  Without knocking on the door, Igor entered Dina’s bedroom.

  “Are you with Tamara?” he asked Dina, and she nodded yes.

  “Let me take it from here. Please prepare a new cup of coffee for him, and the two donuts that I left in the box.”

  “What?” Dina was shocked. “Did you promise him the donuts? I threw them into the garbage bin.”

  “Then take them out of there. Or ask him if he wants some sandwiches instead. Keep him for at least ten more minutes, go, go now.”

  Dina moved quickly from the bedroom.

  “Hey, Tamara, it's me. What did you find? Who is occupying this address?”

  “Slow down, Holmes, slow down. The information is coming in now. Hold your horses. You are a terrible person, to feed somebody with donuts from the garbage. I heard everything. You are going to poison the good man. There it is. Lucky for you, I am in charge, I have my sources in City Hall. There it is. Glass Beach Suites. Strange name. Glass Beach Suites is located at this address. Privately owned, seven-story building. No security company there. Luxury accommodation units. I think it is like a five or seven star hotel. Do you want me to make you a reservation Igor?”

  “Stop your nonsense. Stay close to the phone. I will call you soon.” Igor sat on the bed and looked at the copy Dina had made. ‘Return to: Protectron. Security located at 85 Bloor Street East.’

  He was thinking about what to do next. George was just doing his regular job and he was doing it by the book. Igor was certain that had George known that Protectron was a bogus company, he would have reported it. Too much risk for a small enterprise like George’s elevator maintenance company. No need to present my badge. It will scare him and he may call the real police.

  Igor dialed Tamara. “How far is our office from 85 Bloor Street East?”

  “A fifteen-minute walk can get me there,” answered Tamara.

  “Do they have a phone number we can call?”

  “No, I already asked this question. I also called the phone company and inquired about the Glass Beach Suites' phone number, they told me that it was a blocked number. I have no idea how people book suites there.”

  “Can you please go there and pretend that you would like to get a suite for the weekend?”

  “Yes, I can, if Dina agrees that we won’t need to come into the office, aside from Gregory who will be in his lab.”

  “I will convince Dina to agree to it. Please go now. Maybe it will be faster to take a taxi? I’ll get all of the approvals from Dina, don’t worry, and call us back when you come back from the Glass Beach Suites, if it is possible.”

  Igor hung up the phone and left the bedroom. George was writing his report, a plastic plate with one sandwich in front of him, another half of the sandwich lying on a napkin. Dina was sitting on the other side of the dining table.

  “I’m really thinking of getting security in my new apartment.” Igor surprised Dina. She looked backed at him but kept her face serious, hardly holding her smile.

  “What do you think about the Protectron company?” asked Igor.

  “I have no idea. The contract was signed three years ago. You should ask the lady; she is paying the monthly bills. Now we are working with other companies, certified ones. I’m not sure Protectron is certified,” Replied George.

  “Then I will go to their offices and ask for reviews.” Igor knew how to trick George.

  “Good luck, sir. You won't get further than the receptionist's desk. We had directions from the company to leave the device with the concierge services at the address there. It looks like the system is very old and they need to have upgrades every six months. My employees delivered status reports to them and some cassettes from this receiver every six months. They never dealt with the company personnel, only with the receptionist. You know that we are following directions and policies. I told you, we are a small company. I don’t recommend dealing with Protectron. I will give you names of other good companies.”

  “Thank you, I greatly appreciate your help.” Igor looked at Dina. He knew what they should do next, but the first thing was to let George go and get Tamara’s report.

  Fifteen minutes later, Dina signed the final inspection forms, said goodbye to George and joined Igor in the kitchen. He was drinking his third cup of coffee.

  “There is some good news, some bad. The good news is we got rid of the recording device and we know where it is going to be delivered. The bad news – we may never discover who was behind the order to install it. It sounds like the work of a highly skilled professional. No company address, no human touch, no face-to-face meetings with technicians. I asked Tamara to check out Glass Beach Suites.”

  “What is Glass Beach Suites?” asked Dina, standing near Igor.

  “It is the name of the building at the address on the order form that you signed three years ago.”

  “I did not sign any order forms. Tamara confirmed I was out of the country on a business trip the day it was signed. Somebody forged my signature. Somebody knew I was out of the country and asked for the installation to be done at the same time.”

  “You might be right. We will wait for Tamara’s call. I will contact Lieutenant Carol and inquire about this place. Maybe the police know something.”

  “You know, Igor, I am tired of all of these mysteries. Very tired.”

  “Yes, I know. You need to have a lot of patience and a lot of hope that in the end you will have what you've been looking for, something you will like and adore. Hope and believe in the good. This is the only way you will stay focused and strong. And I promise you, we will reveal all of the mysteries around this. What did your dad always say?”

  “We are here to survive, and we will do whatever it takes to survive. We are survivors.”

  “Exactly.” Dina and Igor smiled at each other.

  Twenty minutes later, George finished writing.

  “There we go. You need to sign these two forms. One for the elevator inspection, the other for the security system removal.” George pointed to two places where Dina needed to sign.

  “Are you going to deliver this security device today?” asked Igor.

  George looked at his watch.” I have plenty of time. I think I will go back to my office to check that everything is in order and then go to the – what is the name again? Ah? Protectron. Yes, I will return it today. Why are you so interested in this company? I told you I have better ones. But it is up to you.”

  “I don’t know if my friend here is happy with their services. Do you mind if I join you when you go to return the security system? I would appreciate it if I could come with you to their offices. Maybe they will give me some kind of explanation?”

  “He is a strange bird, isn't he?” George addressed his question to Dina. “You are really working with this guy?”

  “Believe it or not, I am his boss. He works for me.” Dina smiled.

  “I can see he needs a vacation. You can come with me if you wish. I will pass through my office for five minutes on the way. Are you ready to go?”

  “Dina, Tamara will call you soon with her report. I’ll be in the office around two. See you soon.“ Igor was happy he could join George, and that he didn’t need to pull out his old police badges. They left Dina’s apartment, leaving the plate and an untouched
sandwich on the dinner table. Dina had a sudden urge to eat. She took the sandwich from the plate, sat down at the dinner table and only then did she realize how nervous she had been for the last two hours. For the next fifteen minutes, Dina did her breathing relaxation exercises. She sat with her eyes closed. Where is my Ficus? She repeated several times. The sound of the ringing phone brought her back to reality.

  “Hi, it’s Tamara. How are you doing?”

  “Hi. I’m okay, a little stressed but overall, happy it is over,” replied Dina.

  “Listen, I don’t know why Igor sent me to this place. I was at Glass Beach Suites and they kicked me out. Tell him it is a private establishment for members only. They interrogated me about where I got their address. Luckily for me, I have a brain. I told them I was walking on the street and saw the name, and decided to go inside and ask about the vacancy. The security there is mean and not at all respectful. Please tell Igor to be careful. I’m calling from a phone booth on the street. I’m going to the office now. Do you need any help?”

  “No, Tamara, thank you. Igor will be in the office before me, so you can talk to him directly. See you soon. And thank you for all of your help.”

  “You are welcome. Bye.” And Tamara hung up.

  Dina walked into her bedroom and lay down.

  Where am I now? I have Roman’s original diary. Yellow Coat is not my brother. My dad robbed the Geneva Treasury. Roman and dad are missing. I have in my possession a diamond stolen by my dad. I have no idea who installed SHOMEA, and who was listening to me and spying on me for the last three years. I know where the rest of the diamonds were hidden, but I’m not sure whether they are still there. I may need to go to Geneva again, or maybe not. What a mess.

  She covered her eyes with both hands and pushed her head deep into the pillow. What a mess. For the next hour Dina remained motionless.

  She could not feel her body. She was calm and felt absolutely nothing. The world around her did not exist. She could not explain to herself and to others what it meant to be in harmony with her surroundings. She was half asleep, but half awake. When she regained consciousness, she was really surprised. In one of Peter’s lessons, he was trying to teach her how to ‘Hover.’ She tried to follow all the necessary Kerzhak Navigation steps several times, but never quite achieved the required results. Now was the first time her body and mind were in a stage similar to what Peter had explained to her many times. Dina was happy. It was time to go back to reality, back to work, back to looking for solutions and discoveries. She felt recharged and energetic.

‹ Prev Next ›