Page 42 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

Reluctantly he put her down. For a moment they looked at one another. In her eyes he saw a gleam of desire. Something had changed her attitude to him: the vodka, the realization that he was a high-powered apparatchik, the exhilaration of horseplay in the water, or perhaps all three. He hardly cared. He saw the invitation in her smile, and kissed her mouth.

She kissed him back with enthusiasm.

He forgot the cold water, lost in the sensations of her lips and tongue, but after a few minutes she shivered and said: "Let's get out."

He held her hand as they waded through the shallows onto dry ground. They lay on the grass side by side and started kissing again. Dimka touched her breasts, and began to wonder whether this was the day he would lose his virginity.

Then they were interrupted by a harsh voice speaking through a megaphone: "Return your boat to the dock! Your time is up!"

Nina murmured: "It's the sex police."

Dimka chuckled, despite his disappointment.

He looked up to see a small rubber dinghy with an outboard motor passing a hundred yards offshore.

He waved acknowledgment. They were supposed to keep the boat for two hours. He guessed that a bribe to the supervisor would have secured an extension but he had not thought of it. Indeed, he had hardly dreamed that his relationship with Nina would progress so fast.

&nb

sp; "We can't go back without the others," Nina said; but a moment later Valentin and Anna emerged from the woods. They had been only just out of sight, Dimka guessed, and had heard the megaphone summons.

The boys moved a little apart from the girls and they all put on their outer clothes over their swimsuits. Dimka heard Nina and Anna talking in low voices, Anna speaking urgently and Nina giggling and nodding agreement.

Then Anna gave Valentin a meaningful look. It seemed to be a prearranged signal. Valentin nodded and turned to Dimka. Quietly he said: "The four of us are going to the folk-dancing evening tonight. When we come back, Anna will come into our tent with me. You're to go with Nina in their tent. Okay?"

It was more than okay, it was thrilling. Dimka said: "You've arranged it all with Anna?"

"Yes, and Nina has just agreed."

Dimka could hardly believe it. He would be able to spend all night embracing Nina's firm body. "She likes me!"

"Must be the shorts."

They got into the boat and rowed back. The girls announced that they wanted to shower as soon as they returned. Dimka wondered how he could make the time pass quickly until evening.

When they reached the dock, they saw a man in a black suit waiting.

Dimka knew instinctively that this was a messenger for him. I might have known, he thought regretfully; things were going too well.

They all got out of the boat. Nina looked at the man sweating in his suit and said: "Are we going to be arrested for keeping the boat too long?" She was only half joking.

Dimka said: "Are you here for me? I'm Dmitri Dvorkin."

"Yes, Dmitri Ilich," the man said, respectfully using his patronymic. "I'm your driver. I'm here to take you to the airport."

"What's the emergency?"

The driver shrugged. "The first secretary wants you."

"I'll get my bag," said Dimka regretfully.

By way of a small consolation, Nina looked awestruck.

*

The car took Dimka to Vnukovo airport, southwest of Moscow, where Vera Pletner was waiting with a large envelope and a ticket to Tbilisi, capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Khrushchev was not in Moscow but at his dacha, or second home, in Pitsunda, a resort for top government officials on the Black Sea, and that was where Dimka was headed.

---