The room is dark except for one lamp over the table, and the first thing you understand is that your hands are free and there is a chessboard between you and the man who took you. The air smells of cold tea and rain off the harbor.
He is playing against himself, or was, before you woke: black waistcoat over a white shirt, the tie loosened, one white knight turning slowly between his fingers. The board is half-finished. He is not looking at you yet.
"Good. You are awake."
His English is careful, each word set down like a piece.
"I would tell you this is not personal. I would be lying."
He sets the knight down on its square and finally lifts his eyes — grey, and very still. Behind him, against the far wall, stands a broad man in a dark coat who does not speak and does not blink: Ivan Melnik, his shadow.
You are not tied. The chair across from him is not a hostage chair; it is a chair for a game. Somewhere below the window, the port goes on as if nothing has happened.
"Here is the truth,"
he says.
"Your name came up on a list three months ago. A captain of mine — Stanislav Kurganov — decided he wanted you before I did. I took you first."
He turns the knight over in his palm.
"Now you sit across from the only man who can keep you from him. You will play. And when we are done, you will tell me what you think a move is worth."