BRATVA

The cabbie didn't kill us both despite spending most of his time on the phone - talking to his bit on the side from what I could make out - so that's why he didn't want to talk my hind leg off but it sure wasn't her hind leg he was interested in. I tipped a load of junk mail in the bin as I came past the mail slots in the entrance lobby - mine and some other people's - the only mail I want I get delivered elsewhere - sometimes I look at the amount of crap that comes through the letterboxes here and wonder whether the poor old postie doesn't have some sort of rupture - he's a rum old geezer though and still wears shorts in October - nutter.

So now I'm laying back in a deep hot bath and going over the "facts". The creases are easing out slowly and I'm warming up a treat. Trying not to run the list that always comes to mind in the bath: Seneca the Younger, Marat, Tod Browning, Lenny Bruce, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Jim Morrison, B S Johnson, Jack Nance, and most recently of all, Kenneth Lay - with my usual amount of success - none. As you can tell I'm kind of wildly ambivalent about baths and bathrooms. It's a good list, an illustrious list in a way, but I sure don't want my name adding to it. No thanks. I reach out for another fag and light up. Good old lung cancer'll do for me ta. Down to work.

What do we have then?

A project that is clearly weird - the last time I got a straight on case Methuselah was a boy - and that joke file tells me more by what isn't in it than what is.

A hundred missing intercepts? Or is the 101 just a yank thing?

Two Alexes - one the colonel and one the writer of the intercepted missive - AG.

An assassin - professional we presume but employed or freelance? - called Boris.

Two surveillance teams in operation on our lovely Sonia - maybe 3 if we count our boys and girls.

Some very healthy paranoia.

1 murder - probably.

some soviet shenanigans - certainly.

My gut churns and a stream of bubbles makes it to the surface through the scum. Sniff that Poirot! I smelled Bratva from the outset and that mention of Obshina nails it pretty perfectly for me. The FSB reference is phoney - I'm sure - I'd bet on it - better bet than George's too (2nd at 16 to 1 SP). A blind. God help us this is gonna be a bramah. Sharpen up Charlie! These guys play for keeps.

Time for coffee. Pull the plug. Wrap the towel around. Step out. Christ I'm looking a mess these days -the old AD has started ravaging this once wonderful - godlike - physique.


(TBC)