Thomas paced nervously up and down the green bedroom. Leonid had been showering for more than half an hour now. In the other room, Johann and Aleksandra were preparing to leave the hotel. The director had been told that tonight would be used for a walk in the city. Therefore they would not need John, the taxi driver. The group had ordered dinner for nine o'clock at the restaurant.

If all went well, they would be on the plane by that time, which would take them to Bogotá with a stopover in Lagos. To cover their tracks, they would take the train from there to Cartagena de las Indias, where the trail led to Aleksandra's brother.

Finally, Leonid arrived; his towel tied sloppily around his waist. He looked exhausted and absent-minded.

Thomas addressed him directly: "I'm sorry I've been so dismissive of you over the last few days. I admit I don't always understand your way with people, but your reaction yesterday convinced me that you are not only capable of real feelings, but also incredibly brave. You are such a strange mixture of irresistible and repulsive elements that I struggle to think of the right way to behave towards you."

Leonid dressed listlessly, "I'm not in the mood for discussion today. If only we were in Cartagena already!"

Thomas tried too hard not to watch Leonid get dressed, "You haven't seen this Vladimir for over four months. A lot of bad things could have happened to him in that time. In all the time I have now spent together with you, you never gave the impression that you cared about him. What changed so much yesterday?"

Leonid buttoned the dark shirt to the top button. He ran his hand through his hair once more and then turned to Thomas: "When we met, he was my instructor. And in retrospect, it's amazing that we lived next to each other for five months without confessing the desire that captivated us from the very first moment. It was only when he was transferred to the development department that I dared to ask him out. That first evening changed my life completely. We talked almost the whole night. He asked me about my education, my future plans, my childhood. I cried in front of another person for the first time. I cried out all the pain, all the being disgusted in front of my role that night. And then he took me home. I was confused by that. I had been so sure we would end up in bed, and he and I would go our separate ways after that. It took four weeks before we made love for the first time. And that part of our relationship soon lost its appeal. We both have something else in common, possibly the fate of being an orphan; the pressure of always having to succeed and be in a good mood. Anyway, I was never worried when he went on trips because he is a good soldier and always has the situation under control. But now when I hear that the pig of a captain handed him over to fascists, a thousand images of torture and murder flash through my mind. I have experienced these people. I saw one of them shoot my mother, a defenceless woman. They are madmen who will stop at nothing! If I lost Vladimir, I couldn't go on living. Wouldn't I want to go on living!"

Thomas went to Leonid and took him gently in his arms. Leonid was silent and rested his head on Thomas's shoulder. "Do you love your fiancée?" he asked abruptly.

Thomas thought for a moment: "She is a wonderful woman, full of vitality and of indestructible cheerfulness. Her soul is completely pure, without any care or ulterior motive. We have known each other since our school days. And at some point, we agreed that we can have the perfect life together: I will build a house for her and our children. Three is what we want, though I don't care if they are boys or girls."

Leonid lifted his head from Thomas' shoulder and looked him straight in the eye, "That sounds like an advertising brochure for a bourgeois family home!"

Thomas paused for a moment and then pushed Leonid off him, "Why do I keep falling for you? Every time I think it's possible to have reasonable conversations with you that aren't about sex or communism, you make fun of me again!"

Leonid pulled Thomas close to him again, "I'm not making fun of you at all. I'm more concerned about whether you can be happy with this way of life. If you already know where you're going to spend your pension, who you're going to talk to and what you're going to talk about, what's the point of your life? It's as if you've already lived it. You might as well die today as in fifty years. I dream so much bigger: I want to go to the limits of my possibilities, I want to save people who are drowning in a stream of seemingly insurmountable problems; I want to change the world so that everyone is not only satisfied, but happy. Like the shining of a child's eyes when they see a gift; like the exhausted breath of a woman who falls back on the bed because you have satisfied her perfectly; that is how I want all people to feel. Even death would be a fitting price for me if I could see that."

A knock on the door to the bathroom corridor startled them both up. Leonid released the embrace and walked towards the door.

Aleksandra opened the door and came into the room with Johann, "It's time for our walk!"

Lamprin was waiting for the four of them two streets behind the hotel in an adventurous-looking small car that looked like strolling tourists. While Alexandra took her seat in the front again, Johann, Leonid and Thomas sat in the back. "I took you a little something to eat. There's also some money in the bag, in Turkish and British."

As he routinely steered through the chaotic city traffic, Aleksandra wondered if the food could be poisoned. With a sleeping pill, perhaps? She still didn't quite trust Lamprin, although he allayed all her fears by his behaviour: during yesterday's meeting he had agreed unreservedly to every one of her proposals and had used his influence with the revolutionaries when they first favoured a violent uprising. Lamprin seemed too perfect for Aleksandra: he was dutiful and prudent, but he could also be charming; and in any case, he risked a lot in helping this group to escape further.

At some distance from the airport entrance, he stopped the car: "Our paths part here. I will not accompany you any further so as not to arouse unnecessary suspicion. Good luck with your business! And when you return home, do not forget what you have seen and experienced here. This country with all its difficulties deserves freedom and socialism."

Aleksandra shook his hand in farewell, holding it longer than necessary, trying to discern what he was thinking by looking into his moss-green eyes. She saw nothing. "I will never forget what I have experienced here. And I won't forget you either, Comrade Lieutenant. And as soon as I am safely back in Moscow, I will make sure that others no longer forget you either. Nor will be forgotten the people here who are waiting for our support."

There was silence for a moment. Lamprin did not withdraw his hand either. Leonid, who had been translating for Johann and Thomas, opened the car door and got out first.

On the way to the airport, Johann thought about Aleksandra's words. She had told him only yesterday that all the meetings, the fictitious support plans and the upcoming revolution in Zanzibar were purely dazzling measures to conceal the real reason for her stay. But the way she had looked at Lamprin told Johann otherwise: she wanted this overthrow, peacefully but uncompromisingly. And her promise to take care of it was not a pretextual argument, she meant what she said. And had there been something else in her look, something beyond zeal for socialism? Was she attracted to the young officer?

They passed through the glass portal and stood in the hall, at the other end of which similar glass doors led directly onto the tarmac. A grille separated the hall, which was only interrupted at the designated points for baggage drop-off and passport control. There were about thirty people standing in front of the passport control. Aleksandra, Johann, Leonid and Thomas also joined them. This control was the last hurdle.

While an official in his strange oriental costume was still checking Johann's passport, his thoughts continued to revolve around the farewell scene in the car. Was he jealous of Lamprin? Did he want to be the centre of Aleksandra's attention? Not just in a professional sense? "Don't you have any luggage, sir?"

The official's voice snapped Johann out of his thoughts. "Sir, here is your passport and your wife's. Here are your plane tickets, but there is no baggage check."

Johann thought for a moment, "It is true that we are flying without luggage today. And it is very thoughtful of you to have looked after us in such a hospitable way." With these words he placed a ten-pound note on the counter, which the official accepted with a bow, "I wish you and your wife a good journey." Johann and Aleksandra nodded and went on their way. Johann wanted to wait for Thomas and Leonid, who seemed somewhat absent-minded, but Aleksandra pulled him on. She had also instructed Thomas not to book adjacent seats on the plane.

Johann wondered how long it would be before their disappearance was noticed. If they didn't show up for dinner, it would give rise to a search operation. The hotel manager might suspect a robbery, a kidnapping or a murder. The police, alerted immediately, would not first search the airport, check passenger lists. And even if they did, they were travelling under other names. Only the man Johann had tipped could possibly remember four british passengers without luggage.