other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

THE UITHER SIDE OF I)E(:EPTIOS / 77caught the fish. But I could feel the pleasure now as the fish took thebait and I slowly reeled him in. We walked in single file for anotherfive minutes. I wanted to put as much distance as possible betweenhim and his partner. We were almost at the Port Authority Bus Terminal,not the best neighborhood in the world, with its endless array ofadult bookstores and peepshow parlors. The terrain was extremelygood for my purposes, though, and I prepared to do my second disappearingact.At the corner of Seventh Avenue and Forty-first Street, I made anabrupt stop at the pedestrian crosswalk. I wanted to make sure thecoated man was still with me. It was lucky that I'd stepped to one side,or my fish would have swum right into me. Speaking of operationalsleep, this man was absurd. He was an amateur if ever I saw one. Buthe had determination.Even the most backward agency in the Middle East had the privilegeof learning basic surveillance techniques from either the French,the Soviets, or the Americans-not to speak of the ones we hadtrained in our time. This guy was pri~ate,~ and he must have gottenhis training from TV movies or cheap paperbacks.I wasn't happy about having to deal with amateurs; they're sounpredictable. I would have preferred to encounter professionals anyday-at least it's not personal with them. You feel much better if youknow that whoever you're confronting is after something, and once hegets what he came for, he's off your case. Should your termination bewhat he's after, at least it will be done quickly and neatly.The little green man appeared in the traffic light and I crossed thestreet, my tail close behind. I made a fast left into the first street afterthe light, and then a right. I stood at the entrance to a large adult bookand video store. I waited for my tail to show up on the corner, andonce I was sure he had noticed me, I entered the store.I knew he would stand outside for some minutes before entering,since at this point he had time to think, and he knew he was alone.This was a one-on-one now.In a glass showcase that doubled as a counter, I saw a large arrayof kinky sex paraphernalia, from strange-looking male organs tospiked condoms. In the corner of the showcase was a pair of silverhandcuffs. I bought a handful of movie tokens and the cuffs from theclerk, who handed me my change and was happy to return to his dirtymagazine. Who said shoemakers go barefoot, I thought, smiling to2. Private: Not part of a professional intelligence agency or trained by one.myself. I walked to the back, where the red neon sign read "Movies,"and turned down a long dim hall lined on both sides with a row ofsmall booths that looked much like the stalls in a public washroom.Each booth had a number on it and a small framed picture by thedoor depicting a scene from the explicit sex movie showing inside.I walked in such a way that my tail would think that I knew myLvay around and therefore might use a back door to slip away, ormaybe meet someone inside. He had to come in after me. The fact thatI didn't know the place and was not meeting anyone there didn'tchange a thing.I entered the booth at the end of the hall and latched the doorbehind me. I put a token in the slot and pressed the start button. Thebooth was not much bigger than a toilet stall and had a small threeleggedchair tucked against the corner. The walls were painted black,and opposite the door, about four feet from the ground, was a televisionscreen almost flush with the wall. There were no controls on theset, and as it turned out, the sound was not adjustable. The showstarted while my thumb was still on the start button. It began with athreesome involved in an elaborate act of lovemaking. The male wasextremely well-endowed and seemed to impress the two women in themovie very much-their moaning was quite loud. I looked around thesmall cubicle, searching for a crack of some sort through which Icould look out and see what my friend was up to. The plywood wallhad a small cavity in it where a nail had fallen out at the joint.I stood on the stool and peered out-just in time too. I saw theman in the long coat look around; after going all the way to the backand realizing there was no door, he tried the door of the cubicle justacross from me. Finding it occupied, he tried my door, and then settledfor the one just ahead of me across the hall.He entered, and I could see that he had left the door slightly openand was watching the dim hall. I had to admit it wasn't a bad move atall, for an amateur.I waited for several minutes, letting him get comfortable. Then Iopened my door and walked out, staying in his blind spot. I closed thedoor behind me, clutching the small batch of tokens in my fist. I wasalone in the hall, but I had to move fast-someone could pop into thehall or out of a booth at any moment. I took a deep breath andstepped across the hall, grabbed the knob of his door, and pulled itopen hard. I could feel him lose his grip and his balance too. It seemedthat he had been crouched by the door, staring at the hall ahead, completelytaken by surprise.There was no gentle way to do this; I had no gun or other weapon