"Dima! How many of these disappointed candidates are going to be mad enough to hop a cheap flight to Warsaw and put a bullet through my head six months from now?" I asked. "I'd really prefer it if we could lower expectations a bit."
"Lower expectations? Hmmm...$250 per meeting ok? We each get $1500 plus food and drink for a week still pretty good." Obviously Dima wanted a quick "win" from my being in Novosibirsk and cash was his preferred prize.
"Can we come up with a short list of candidates, say four of them? The others we can ask for whatever marketing collateral they can come up with and seriously review it to see if something floats to the top that actually sounds interesting." I said to Dima as he was staring at me like I had pissed on the fire and called the dogs in way too early.
"My friend, I am not here to take money from them to have the right to meet and talk. If they are expecting to have to pay something, then you take it all. You have done all the work to get things set up. I just don't want a dozen enemies that burn my bridges for returning to Novosibirsk in the future." It seemed best to say it in Polish since there were "customers" finally showing up all around us. I wasn't really paying attention until I finished talking and then noticed that the people at the tables were the women that had been up on the seventh floor and others that I had not seen before. Makeup looked freshly applied and the old standby cigarette and perfume mixed scent was wafting through the bar...of course, it was the beginning of their workday.
Dima took his eyes off the women, pondered what I had said a bit and started to come around with a smile. He poured two quick rounds of drinks before he spoke. "I can work with that. We've got the Krakow - University of Detroit materials so I will create an RFP (Request For Proposal) from it asking for candidate schools to detail everything they can contribute; what the goals of such a program would be; estimated student enrollment; marketing; funding; administration and teaching; facilities; and maybe proposed cooperation with local businesses and other institutes. That should keep them happy for a while. I'm almost tempted to keep it at $500 since I'll be working my ass off reviewing this stuff."
"Sounds like you have the makings for a pretty good RFP. I can also give you some things from the initial meetings in Krakow as they contemplated how to assemble such a jointly run program." I offered.
Dima and I sat a while longer chatting about the next 7 or 8 days and finally two women walked over to our table and asked us for a light. Dima immediately assisted them and quickly shut them off from anything more, asking them not to bother us. Dinner suddenly came out without warning but I think it had been pre-planned as Dima ate quickly and then excused himself, looking at his watch and then me several times. We shook hands, decided where to meet tomorrow for our NSU meeting, and I began to think about preparing for talks at the Russian Academy of Sciences, at NSU, and then talks that would probably focus on finding a common ground for a pilot program curriculum for an MBA to be offered in a couple of years. (Even if all of this was complete bullshit, I needed it to be very credible sounding. Embassy Joe had promised me that if anyone needed references about me, they could contact the US Embassy in Moscow or Warsaw and the Cultural Attache would know what to say.)
Dima's abrupt exit left me rather exposed to the predators that were oiling their way around the room for the kill. I wasn't the only prey for these Russian cougars, thank God, and a large group of Dutch men arrived that seemed to have more receptive thoughts of such a hunt on their minds. Nevertheless, the percentage of women to men was quite high making the more aggressive stalkers somewhat annoying.
"Your friend left you. He was very rude. You will invite me to your room soon?" a taller brunette in a shiny polyester leopard print dress asked as she walked up to my table putting her hand next to mine. "Perhaps a drink for us first?" she added. The bartender was looking over his glasses at me waiting for my acknowledgment of approval. I agreed but I then stood up and took my drink with me towards the bathroom. The woman sat down at my table with her drink, I suppose waiting for me to return. I did not return. I was hijacked before I got to the bathroom.
Approaching me quickly from the right was another woman that could have been among the predators but I hadn't really noticed her. She looked quite "normal" without overdone makeup on naturally dark features, sandy brown hair to her shoulders and a simple dark maroon sleeveless dress. Her gait told me that she was not wearing high heels and that we were on a collision course about five meters ahead. I slowed down and looked at her. She slowed down and then stepped up to me, looked at me very intensely and said, "I am Fifi 66. Can we go to your room to talk?"
It was very difficult to hide my shock. I felt weak and nearly dropped my glass of vodka. She said she would knock on my door in 5 minutes. I went straight to my room and waited for her. For some reason, I was very nervous and couldn't stop shaking.
***
By the time this woman arrived and knocked at my door, I had calmed down enough to think about how I was going to behave and decide what I would say and not say. The fact that she had the code words "Fifi 66" and wanted to talk to me, I had to assume for the time being that she was legit. If something seemed wildly out of sorts after talking to her, I'd decide what to do at that time. As I'd been told before by folks at the embassy, "get as much information as you can and give as little as possible".
Stepping inside my room, she seemed deathly afraid of me. Was that real fear of me or fear of the situation or did she have bad information to tell me or was she planning to do something to me? A dozen scenarios flashed through my head as she came in. I stayed calm and pointed to a chair where there was a table and a lamp. She had only a small cosmetic bag or something similar and nothing else on her that I could see. She'd only said "Thank you" when she walked in and went straight to the chair I had pointed to.
"So...those words opened my door here for me to listen to you. What words were they, again?"
I asked her in case I had completely misunderstood down in the bar.
"Fifi 66...did I pronounce them badly?" she repeated the words and then asked me.
"No. Who told you that these words are important and who are you?" I asked
"My contact told me that you are like me. I sometimes do things for money and I don't talk about it."
I laughed and said, "So, you are talking to me for money, I assume."
"Well, I think that probably it is not just money that makes us do what we do. Do you agree?" She was starting to relax a bit since we were having some fun with this situation.
"You are here meeting Dimitry the trader and businessman? Many meetings in Novosibirsk are planned? You are planning to go back to Chelyabinsk with Dimitry to do something there with him? You also have some meetings with other important people in Chelyabinsk.? Am I correct so far?" She slowly formulated her statements as questions and I nodded my head and said "Uh huh" each time.
"Your man is named Joe?" she asked. Again I nodded and said "Uh huh." By this time I was really wondering where this conversation was going.
"So I have three instructions from Joe. Listen carefully:
Number 1: Joe has something for you to do that is very important for him. On Thursday this week, two men will check into this hotel. Their names are, Anatoly and Georg. These men probably have some 'bad stuff'. You know what is 'bad stuff'?" I once again responded, "Uh huh." and nodded.
"Joe wants you to do everything you can that is safe to take pictures of them, their baggages, see who they meet with, and try to use your radiation detection machine to test them and their baggages."
"We say 'baggage' and not 'baggages'. It is correct for both one bag or many." I corrected her.
Staring at me for a moment after I said that, she said, "No one correct me before. Why I not know that?". "It's ok, your English is great. Please continue." I urged her.
"Anatoly and Georg will check out after one or two days. We find out where they are going if possible and someone maybe will follow them. Joe wants every information quickly when we get it."
With the time I had in Novosibirsk and the plans that Dima had laid out, I was glad that we had trimmed the meetings he'd arranged down to four. I also realized that even four meetings might be a problem if the timing wasn't right or if dealing with these two fellows according to Joe's new instructions got complicated.
I realized I didn't know the woman's name sitting here in my room. I said, "You already know that my name is Bill. I don't know your name."
"Cindy" she said.
"Oh come on. Your real name is...?" I countered with a frown.
"I am known as Cindy here in Nowosibirsk. I don't want you to accidentally use my real name. I am Cindy until we finish Joe's job." she said with a very serious look on her face.
"But Cindy isn't a real name here. Russians don't use that name do they?" I asked.
"Prostitutes do. I will be 'working' in the lobby and around the hotel. You do your photos and radiation testing and I do my photos, interviews, and recordings." I tried not to smile as she was telling me this looking straight at me very seriously. But, I am sure that I was visibly astonished.
"You said there were three things from Joe." I reminded her.
"Number 2 is that you should give me the envelopes from Joe that you were supposed to deliver and Number 3 is for you to do everything possible to travel back to Chelyabinsk without Dimitry."
I gave Cindy the envelopes I had stuffed deep in my toolkit and tried not to think about letting Dima down on the trip for our Soyuz debris. Cindy began to stand up to leave as she slipped the envelopes into her dress (I hadn't seen a pocket so I got the feeling she had just tucked them inside her underwear.)
"These guys arrive in two days. Will we meet again to coordinate our activities? I still have a lot of questions." I asked feeling very nervous about these new instructions and not very confident about how to do what Joe was asking.
"Of course, we will have a lot of time. Until they arrive, you are my only 'customer'. We have this room to plan and coordinate."
"Do you have your own room?" I asked sheepishly.
"Yes...I have a place but I am trying to play like prostitutes here. I should follow their rules so no one thinks I am different." Cindy said.
I knew enough about their world and how they talked about each other and understood that if Anatoly or Georg wound up being with one of the women that talked Cindy down, then her chances of success in this little adventure would be greatly reduced.
Cindy got up and asked if she could use my bathroom to put on her makeup and go to work. I agreed and waited for her to come out as I started taking notes for my first speech at the Academy of Sciences. She came out in about 10 minutes. Her transformation told me that she knew what she was doing.
"My God! You are a different woman!" I exclaimed and felt my heart going a little faster as Cindy had stepped out of my bathroom looking twice as beautiful as any woman I had seen at the hotel so far.
"Fifi 66...I am your only customer you said?" I asked feeling a little uncomfortable.
"Until Thursday, Bill. Let's make some business together." She smiled and said. "Please come down later and begin our acting. I will make it easy for you. Don't worry. I am waiting."
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