«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 fack 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.
8
The evening slowly covered the city, filled the streets and avenues, lit lights and shop windows. People hurrying after work got home long ago. Several officers specially selected by Major Lazarev for today's operation, dressed in civilian clothes and in the uniform of patrol policemen, sat in the car and waited for the actors to start leaving the theater after the performance. They talked languidly and joked.
The performance was over; the audience was leaving the theatre. Finally, it was time for the actors to exit. Gleb Svetlov, Tatiana Roshin and several other girls went to the bus stop, but a group of loyal fans came up to them, asking for autographs.