As tears go by

// 13 Moscow

The whirlybird landed on a big "H" over the nine-floor building looming over Grizodubova Uliza and took off immediately almost beheading him. He cursed the pilot. Sergei didn't see a welcome committee. Actually, there was none. He stood on a helo pad over the headquarters of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed forces. One of the most secretive foreign military-intelligence agency of the world. At the time of the Soviet Union public didn't know its existence. Just the KGB was known to be around. Now the KGB had split in SVR and FSB; GU or GRU as continued to be commonly called, was still one powerful secretive agency. He eyed around. Still no welcome officer. Sergei was surprised that there was none to greet him yet. Then he understood. He was FSB and he was not welcomed there, so they were making him to wait like a pariah. The GU didn't like the President favoured FSB over the other agencies, but the Main Directorate couldn't do anything. Sergei grinned and kept enjoying the view. Moscow by night. In front of him, there were all the new huge buildings. VEB Arena, CSKA Metro station, Aviapark, Megasport Palace. The old Khodynka airfield has disappeared, so the museum of military planes. Everything changed. The cold wind made him quiver and anaesthetized his face and hands. He rubbed them. Moscow was a new city, bold modern buildings towered all over. It was no more the drab grey city of Eighties and Seventies. It was full of colours and lights day and night. Also the Stiklioshka, where he was standing on, was not the old Glass House, it was brand-new. It had been built in 2006 and covered an area of 70,000 square meters. It had a bulletproof structure and was completely self-sufficient. There was a shooting-range, a satellite and conventional reconnaissance facilities, an operational command centre, a gym and a pool. It was alleged that there was a crematorium to burn traitors, but that was probably a myth. The only certain thing was that the intelligence headquarters were not fully accessible to all GRU staff themselves. The complex was composed of a network of interconnected buildings all fully enclosed by a reinforced fence designed to resist even the ram-raid attack of an armoured personnel carrier. Part of the money used for the building work was seized during military operations in Chechnya. That's what people used to say. On the other side of the building, there was the huge Berezovaya Roshika Park where sometimes agents from different agencies met there off-books to share data.

Finally, someone came up and stopped in front of him, clicking his boots. He was clad in a black military uniform, a Naval officer. He was a young, but fat and bald captain, (clearly he didn't like to exercise). Sergei grimaced. That officer was an apparatchik, a paper push sitting in an office all the time. The captain offered his puffy hand, not to shake Sergeij's hand, but to have proof of his identity. Sergei grinned and handed him his ID. The captain checked it carefully and slowly, as he had learned to read the previous day. He confronted his face with the picture in every detail, the eyes, the nose, the ears, the mouth. Finally handed him back. "I am Boris Nikolaevich Studenikin, major Di Bernardo. Dibernardo isn't a Russian name, isn't it? However, you are Russian, no fault in that."

Sergei smiled and explained patiently. "My father was Italian. So the surname."

"I see. Before entering the headquarters, here a few rules, major. You are to follow me all the time. You move when I move. No phones allowed. No cameras. You cannot copy documents, files, or whatever you see inside. Being a special guest on an unofficial visit, you won't be registered in the system, so you won't have a propusk, so please stick with me closely or you could be shot. It is clear?"

Sergei nodded. "Loud and clear, captain Boris Nikolaevich."

"Hand me your phone, please, and whatever electronic device is in your pocket. I'll give you them back and the end of the visit."

Studenikin showed Sergei an opened zip blocked plastic bag.

Sergei complied and put inside his mobile, the earpiece, the radio kit, a small hidden camera, the Rado wristwatch but kept the smart-watch hidden on his left wrist. Studenikin did not notice. He sealed all the possessions of Sergei and handed back to Sergei the sealed bag.