Читать книгу Destiny's Puppets - Henri Mallet - Страница 8

Major Lazarev was sitting at a small table in a cozy café. He was sure the talk in a natural, familiar setting would set his interlocutor at ease and be more productive than the one in the bleak office on Dzerzhinsky square. Larisa Panko with a regal bearing was sitting near Anatoly, her legs crossed beautifully. Capron stockings emphasized the elegance of her perfect legs. The girl was dressed in the latest fashion, her hair was neatly and elegantly styled. Larissa beautifully drank coffee from a tiny cup and favorably accepted enthusiastic male gazes.

«So, in exchange for the main parts in films and, if I do well, the rank of the Merited Artist, you are suggesting that I should bear Svetlov’s child? May I ask how am I going to live all these months while I am pregnant? OK, you will take away the baby, but how shall I explain it to my relatives?»

Larisa was casting voluptuous glances at Anatoly Lazarev from behind her false eyelashes. The fashionable shoe nearly fell off her heel and was graciously balancing it on her toes.

«How interesting, she is worried about everything, but the main thing – how to get pregnant by Gleb, bearing in mind the fact that, to add to all, he is going to marry the other girl. Is she so sure about her sex-appeal that it does not worry her in the least? Under no circumstances would I jump in her bed. She is overdoing it,» speculated Lazarev, watching his interlocutress. He had to admit, though, that there was something magnetic and charming about the girl. Suddenly he felt like touching her soft skin, and the sound of her voice resonated so pleasantly in his heart.

Larisa Panko was gazing at the major, «humph, to bear Gleb’s child – I’d prefer to bear your child. I could go to bed with you right now. With you being a KGB major, I doubt I can even try to seduce you.»

Larisa Panko was somewhat of a dreamer, but she had an uncommon, virile character, and one could only envy her stamina and perseverance. She obviously loved men, but tried not to get involved in the relations limiting her freedom, the relations which could become a burden to her aspiration for fame and perfection.

Larisa spotted this well-built macho at once, when she even did not know who he was and why he had come to their theatre. She liked Anatoly Lazarev immediately when she saw him during the rehearsal. When he approached her at the stage door and invited her to the nearest café to discuss her future career, she decided to seduce him at once and started smiling amiably.

As soon as they sat down at the table, ordered coffee and cakes, major showed her his ID, Larisa lost all her appetite, including for cakes.

«And I cannot reject this offer – in this case my career will go to hell,» the girl thought a bit irritably, continuing to smile nicely.

The young actress had long realized that she could rely only on herself in this world – men should be used, not loved. She remembered perfectly well the request of the other KGB officer and what had come out of it. Everything went the wrong way – she gave birth to a girl who now practically all the time stays with Larisa’s parents and she had to hastily divorce her husband. Despite the successful completion of the task, she received little gratitude and she had been practically out of movies for two years. After her hiatus, she was remembered and even given several leading roles. The offer on the table would result in leaving the stage for several months to act in films, but in reality, she was left with no choice.

«As far as I understand you are leaving me no choice.» Larisa beamed with her most charming smile, «pray tell me what is to happen to my child when I give it up for adoption? I have to see it; will you be updating me on its life?» The girl leaned back on the chair and was peering at the major. Her light golden eyes irradiated warmth and confidence, her eyelashes quivered.

«You won’t have to worry about the baby’s fate; neither will you have to take care of it. It will be provided for, it will be under our supervision and protection,» said Major Lazarev in a cocksure uncompromising tone.

He leaned forward a little, put his palm on the girl’s fingers and was looking at her calmly. His clear blue eyes reflected all the power of his words and his total assuredness in what he was saying. Larisa did not move away her hand, and for a moment golden sparkles of amazement appeared in her eyes.

«Holy mackerel,» she thought, «the KGB needs not just a baby, but a baby whose natural parents are Gleb Svetlov and myself, or the mother even does not matter, but Gleb must be a father by all means. What is so peculiar about this youth, if KGB got so interested in him, or, to be more precise, in his offspring? In any case, I can either agree or tell them to fuck off and refuse to play their games. Then the major is sure to find another girl as this baby’s mother and my career will be ruined. Indeed, I don’t have much of a choice – either to help KGB in their foul play or to refuse and lose everything.»

«All right, what do I have to do?» Larisa said quietly, shut down her eyes and straightened in her chair.

« It's nice that we agreed. I hope you understand that everything that has been said, as well as everything that will happen next, you must keep in strict confidence. You continue living the way you did, only you will have to move in with Gleb at the Burdins’ apartment. I’ll help you to do it. And then, it’s your responsibility. As you soon as you get pregnant you can stop sleeping with Gleb. We will be helping you during the pregnancy and the birth. When the fact that you are expecting a baby becomes obvious, you’ll disappear from the city. It will be announced officially that you have gone to the film set, while in fact you will stay in one of our sanatoriums till you give birth to the baby. This is the outline of our plan. Now a car will take you to the Committee. You will be in time for the evening show.»

In response – a wave of eyelashes. Anatoly Lazarev almost physically felt how with this wave he was carried away somewhere far. He smiled, «yes, she is a brilliant actress.»

To save time Anatoly asked the other officer from his group to take care of Larisa, while he would be busy preparing the apartment.

«We are making a little progress,» he thought, as he was driving to Gorky Street in the center of Moscow, where the Burdins had a big apartment. There, he planned to update the previously installed listening equipment, since in the evening he was going to send Larisa there.

Major Lazarev and two surveillance officers went up to the second floor and stopped in front a massive wooden door. One of the officers took out duplicate keys from his pocket and unlocked the doors. The men entered the apartment and silently closed the door behind them.

«Get down to work and I’ll look around,» ordered Anatoly. They started the inspection of the apartment.

About an hour passed, and the listening devices were installed and tested. The men still quietly left, locked the door and went down to the car. Major Lazarev told his agents to stand down. They had been covering for him in case Gleb or the Burdins decided to go home. The agents were to accurately prevent them from entering the building until Anatoly and his associates left.