Chapter 14

• "Did you understand what happened?" Sasha asked.
• "Yes, the Turks escorted us to the plane and ensured our boarding."
• "And they had my fake last name in their computer. Which could only have been given to them by the American embassy. What does that mean?"
• "It means the Americans told the Turks about us, and the Turks decided it would be better if we rolled out of Turkey," I said. "No man, no problem."
• "It means: it's good we got out of there," Sasha said. "The Turks could have decided otherwise, and I would be flying to Moscow right now."

That same evening, after many hours of interrogation by the British authorities, we were eating sandwiches at Heathrow Airport. Suddenly, the phone in my pocket rang.

• "Is this Mr. Goldfarb? Calling from the State Department in Washington. Mr. N. will speak with you now."
• "Alex?" I heard N.'s voice. "You called yesterday. Where are you?"
• "I'm in London. My acquaintance just requested asylum from the English."
• "From the English? Well, wonderful—let them deal with it. But they're telling me they lost you. That you disappeared from the hotel in an unknown direction. So, everything worked out? Well, I wish you success."
• "Sash, do you know who was tailing us at the hotel in Ankara?" I asked. "The Americans. They lost us."
• "What suckers!" he said. "I wouldn't have gotten away from our guys."

The Book's Significance

A year and a half passed, and now an email message from London lit up on my computer screen: "Alik, read this!" Sasha's book manuscript had arrived. I opened the file... and couldn't tear myself away until morning. And suddenly I realized what the ultimate meaning of my trip to Turkey and all the subsequent unforeseen consequences was.

There are books that, without being high literature, leave a mark no less deep than economic shocks or turns in major politics. Such books overturn public consciousness. These witness-books explain simply and clearly to people what actually happened to them. And people's eyes are opened. And the course of events changes. And historical memory is created. Such books include "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", "The Diary of Anne Frank", and "The Gulag Archipelago". Litvinenko's "LPG - Lubyanka Criminal Group" belongs to such books. If this book reaches the Russian reader today, it will be able to change the course of events in the country. If it doesn't reach them... then at least our descendants will be able to find out how it happened that the twilight we naively took for dawn actually turned out to be the beginning of a long cold night.

New York, June 2002.

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