Chortenko's body was not recognizable by the time Anya Pepsicolova and her new friends were through with it. She stood, shaking her head, trying to will herself to think clearly and rationally. The basement door was open and the society lady gone-fled, doubtless, in horror of what she had seen. Already, some of the dogs were bounding up the stairs toward the open front door and liberty. Others, however, cowered, afraid to pass through the smoke-filled air that choked the rooms above.

"Hush now, don't be afraid," Pepsicolova said soothingly."You don't have to go upstairs if you don't want to. There's another exit right over here."

She unlatched, unbolted, and threw open the door into Chortenko's secret tunnel system. Several dogs streaked past her as she stepped through it.

Pepsicolova had no good memories connected to these tunnels. But they opened into not just the Kremlin but several buildings, public and private, along the way. She was considering which exit to take when she saw something in the tunnel ahead. It was, strangely enough, a piece of furniture. A kind of surgical table or cot which was used in hospitals, what was it called? A gurney. As she drew closer, Pepsicolova was astonished to see none other than the Englishman, Aubrey Darger, strapped down helpless upon it.

"Well!" she said, inexplicably amused. "Somebody expended a great deal of effort strapping you down."

With a twitch of her wrist, Saint Cyrila appeared in her hand.

A relieved smile appeared on Darger's face. "Good girl!" he cried. "Well done! Cut me free and we'll-"

Then, as the knife moved not toward the straps but toward his groin, Darger said, "Um...excuse me, but... If I may ask... Exactly what are you doing?"

Which was, Pepsicolova felt, an extremely astute question. She considered its answer carefully, all the while staring down at Darger, hard and unwavering. "Something I've been wanting to do," she said at last, "for a long, long time."

Saint Cyrila cut through Darger's belt as if it were made of paper.

Diving and soaring with a life of her own, the blade moved up and down and up again. Humming to herself, Pepsicolova proceeded to cut away first Darger's trousers and then his shirt. Darger had a great deal to say during the process, but she didn't bother listening to any of it. When he was completely naked, she kicked off her shoes, shucked her trousers, and climbed atop his prone body.

By now Darger was clearly convinced she was crazy. Which, Pepsicolova had to admit, was entirely possible. Eyes wide with fear, he babbled, "My dear young lady! This is certainly neither the time nor the place for such actions. You mustn't... mustn't..."

But Pepsicolova bent low over Darger and, tapped the flat of Saint Cyrila's blade warningly against his lips. "Shhhhhh," she whispered. Then she spat out a tooth and grinned.

"Giddy up." She dug her heels into his sides.

Savoring Darger's protests, Pepsicolova rode him like a stallion. Savoring Darger's protests, Pepsicolova rode him like a stallion. This day just kept getting better and better. This day just kept getting better and better.

Yevgeny and his crew were engaged in blasting down burning houses in order to create a fire break to limit the spread of the conflagration.

"Awaiting your order, sir," the sergeant said.

"Fire," Yevgeny said miserably. "Fire," Yevgeny said miserably. "Fire!" the sergeant barked. "Fire!" the sergeant barked.

The gun fired.

Thus did his men (and, temporarily, his women) show their displeasure with his indecision earlier. Everything was being done strictly by the book. There was no slack, no swagger, no camaraderie, none of the easy give-and-take natural to a well-run crew. Only a stiff adherence to the minutest detail of military protocol.

"Shall we load and fire again, sir?" The sergeant stood as straight as a ramrod, eyes unblinking and unforgiving.

"What is your advice, Sergeant?"

"Sir! No advice, sir!"

"Then we shall move the piece down the street to demolish the next house."

There was the slightest pause. Enough to let Yevgeny know that he had guessed wrong-that he should have put another round into the smoking rubble or else moved the gun in the other direction-before the sergeant said, "Sir! Yes, sir!"

It was all Yevgeny could do to keep from weeping with humiliation.

Then, breaking with the script, one of the men shouted and pointed up into the sky. Turning, Yevgeny saw the most amazing sight of his entire life: a naked giant looming over the buildings before him. The unsteady light from the flames below reflected off its skin, making it shimmer. For the briefest instant he wondered if he were experiencing a mystic vision of one of the demons from the Pit.

The giant shifted against the stars. Moving slowly, it turned onto Teatralny proezd. It was coming straight toward Yevgeny's gun crew.

A horse reared in terror. Several of the soldiers looked like they were ready to run. One of them had actually thrown down the swab he was holding and was about to bolt.

"Stay at your posts, damn you!" Yevgeny shouted, grabbing the panicky soldier and flinging him back toward the cannon. He drew his sword. "I'll kill the first mother-violating one of you who breaks and runs. Sergeant, are you in control of your men or not? Get that gun swung around. Give me an elevation. Are you all hares and hyenas? Stand and fight like the Russians you pretend to be!"

"Sir," the sergeant said, "there's not the time for a precise-"

"Do it by eye, then." "Do it by eye, then." The gun was aimed and its elevation adjusted. "On your command, sir." The gun was aimed and its elevation adjusted. "On your command, sir."

"Let it get closer. We've only the time for the one shot."

"Now, sir?" "Now, sir?" "Not yet." "Not yet." "We've got a good shot, sir." "We've got a good shot, sir." "Just a little..." Yevgeny murmured. "Just a little..." Yevgeny murmured.

"He's getting pretty fucking close, sir."

"Not until my command,"Yevgeny said. He waited until the last possible instant and then forced himself to count silently to three. "Fire!"

They fired.

The Duke of Muscovy's great heart was hammering so hard it was about to burst. He had no illusions on that front. His body had been designed for a prone and sedentary existence. He could not long survive standing up and walking about like one of his own minuscule subjects. Already his mighty bones had sustained hundreds of small fractures from the stresses of his stroll through the city. His internal organs, crushed by forces they were never meant to withstand, were failing. In just a few seconds his heart would stop.

He had realized that all this would happen even as he had struggled to awaken, for the duke's tremendous brain was capable of miracles of extrapolation. Further, having lived only a shadowy half-existence erenow, the dreads and fears natural to a man knowing he was about to die did not rise up within him. Quite the opposite. For the first time, he found himself capable of feeling full human emotion, and he had given himself over to the experience.

It had been, as he had known it would be, a brief life but a joyous one.

Down on the street below, the duke saw an artillery crew swarming about their piece. They were as cunningly detailed as the very best of toy soldiers and he loved them as fully and uncritically as a little boy would have. There were tiny plumes on their shakos and all-but-invisible brass buttons on their jackets. They were tamping down powder and ball while their commander gestured with a sword that was the merest glint of reflected moonlight.

Then his heart failed. In the instant before the world went dark, the Duke of Muscovy saw a puff of white smoke at the mouth of the cannon.

Dying, he regretted that he would never know what came next.

The first thing Arkady heard upon regaining consciousness was one of the Pearls saying, "Well, that was pleasant. What shall we do next?"

He was, Arkady realized, lying on his back, with his trousers around his ankles. One of his shoes was gone, as were his shirt and jacket, but the helmet was still upon his head. Every muscle in his body ached as if he had been beaten with a cudgel. Further, he was utterly and completely exhausted. He could not so much as lift a finger. He had not the energy even to speak. Nor could he bring himself to open his eyes. Worst of all, he had no memory of whatever it was these six perfect Daughters of Ishtar had just done to him.

"I want to see the face of our bridegroom," Aetheria said. (He recognized that dulcet voice which he had once worshipped, and which still tugged at his heart.) His head shook from side to side as she tugged and tugged, before finally undoing the chin-strap.

There was a brief, astonished silence.

"It's Arkady!" somebody exclaimed. There was a scuffling noise as the Pearls gathered around his prone body, looking down.

Strangely enough, none of them died. Evidently the mental commands implanted in them by the Caliph's technicians were not going to kick in. They had enjoyed sex (or so they had thought) with the Duke of Muscovy, and that act had freed them of their psychic shackles. Leaving them free to do whatever they wanted with whomever they wished, as was the birthright of women everywhere.

"But why was he wearing a crown?"

"And carrying a scepter?"

"Look. Here in the pockets of his jacket: precious stones, jewelry, gold nuggets."

"He has become a thief!" Aetheria cried.

"That is sort of romantic," another Pearl said doubtfully. "That is sort of romantic," another Pearl said doubtfully. "Not romantic enough." "Not romantic enough."

"Anything less than suicide is an insult, in my opinion."

"At any rate, these treasures belong to the Russian people and the State of Muscovy, so he cannot keep them," Aetheria said. "Look at this cunning jeweled egg! We can't simply leave him here to walk away with them."

"There's a chest over there; place all these things in it. When the Neanderthals return, we can have some of them stand guard over it for the duke."

Somebody coughed. "Um...we're back," said a male voice and, almost simultaneously, another said, "We won the fight."

The Pearls shrieked.

"Cover your eyes, we're all disheveled!" "Cover your eyes, we're all disheveled!" "Don't look." "Don't look." "Where are my clothes?" "Where are my clothes?"

Upon which, cursing his eyes for so steadfastly refusing to open, Arkady felt himself falling back into oblivion.

Unhurriedly, Anya Pepsicolova dressed. When she had finished tying her shoes, she straightened and looked down on Darger's naked body for a long, still moment. Darger stared warily back at her, clearly alarmed by the expression on her blood-caked face, but equally clearly still thinking, still scheming. Perhaps she should shave off all his hair, from head to foot, as well? That would bring a neat symmetry to her long, difficult journey through the underworld. She considered the possibility seriously, but then decided against it. Because, really, she'd done enough.

Aloud, she said, "There. That's taken care of."

"The pleasure was all mine," Darger said with unctuous insincerity. But then, under the circumstances-post-coital and still bound hand and foot to the gurney-he was not exactly under oath. "So. Where, if I may ask, have you been all this time?"

"Oh, out and about." Pepsicolova tugged at her lapels to straighten her jacket. She shrugged. "You know."

"What did you do?"

"This and that." She slipped her cap onto her head and adjusted the angle. "Nothing of any particular note."

"Good, good, I'm glad to hear it." A note of cunning entered Darger's voice. "So, my darling Anya, now that we've experienced mutual ecstasy-I presume it was good for you, too?-we must discuss our future together."

"Future?" Anya was pretty sure that Darger hadn't experienced anything at all like ecstasy. She would have noticed. But that was a matter of perfect indifference to her, one way or the other. What did matter was that her skin felt stiff and itchy. "Well, the first thing I'm going to do is to wash my hands and face. Then...I don't know. Go for a walk, maybe."

She turned her back on Darger, on her career as a spy, on the City Below, on everything that had happened to her since she first encountered Chortenko, and started to walk away. Up ahead in the distance, she saw something waiting patiently for her. She could not help but smile.

Darger laughed ingratiatingly. "You foolish, loveable thing," he said. "The future of our relationship, I meant. Our feelings toward each other. Oh, I've been a blind fool! Wasting my time searching for tombs and books and libraries and tsars, when all the while there you were, right before me. But I shall make it up to you, my precious one, I swear."

His voice grew fainter behind her.

"We have plans to make, my sweetness. Promises to make. An engagement ring to buy. We must... Surely you'll...you'll... Wait! Come back! You've forgotten to untie me! You've forgotten to untie me!"

But Anya Pepsicolova was no longer listening.

Several long, bleak minutes later, Darger realized that Pepsicolova had left behind the big knife she carried in her belt. It had slipped from its sheath to the gurney when she doffed her trousers, and then been knocked to the floor in the course of her inexplicable passion. Afterward, she had not bothered picking it up. He could see it, just barely, out of the corner of his eye, tantalizingly near at hand.

Darger eyed the blade yearningly. It might be just possible, he judged, that a desperate and determined man to, by shifting his weight vigorously and repeatedly, overtopple the gurney. Then, by various stratagems, he could draw the knife to himself and so cut through one of his restraints. After which, the rest would be a breeze.

A harrowing, difficult, and suspenseful half hour later, it was done.

Arkady was gone, and with him the bulk of what Surplus had managed to liberate from the museum cases.

Worse, there came the sound of breaking glass as a second vitrine was smashed open. It was louder than the first had been, which meant that Surplus's competitor was coming closer. It also indicated, Surplus feared, that whoever was at work was an amateur seizing the moment, rather than a professional who would be open to negotiation.

He glanced about, sizing up his situation.

There was only one exit from the Diamond Fund. Its display cases offered no hiding places. Not that Surplus particularly desired one. He was by nature a confronter rather than a slinker.

A third vitrine smashed. It was just outside the entrance to the room.

There was a moment's silence. Then a shaggy figure, large as an ogre, filled the doorway. Heaped in its arms was a fortune in armor and weapons. It paused to peer about before entering.

"How pleasant to encounter a compeer," Surplus said, stepping into the light of a column. "I trust your endeavors have been fruitful?"

With a tremendous clatter, the intruder dropped everything he held. Kicking the loot out of his way, he strode into the light and was revealed as a member of the Royal Guard. "All thish ish mine!" the bear-man cried. "If you try to take sho much ash a kopek of it, I'll kill you."

The fellow swayed slightly. It was clear he had been drinking.

Surplus brought his cane up to his mouth and delicately tapped its silver knob against his lips. "Split the swag fifty-fifty?"

"Hah!" The guard shambled forward, stumbling and almost falling when he stepped on what appeared to Surplus's tutored eye to be the ancient and indeed priceless Alexander Nevsky Helmet."Shergeant Wojtek shares with nobody."

"I'll go as low as one-third. In all fairness, there is far more here than the two of us can hope to carry off on our own."

Sergeant Wojtek rolled his neck, showing his teeth. Then he held up his paws, uncurling the fingers one by one to extend their claws. "Do you imagine for an inshtant that a former member of the Royal Guard can be bought?"