42
After my visit to the Soviet consulate, the careworn, anxious resident promised to set up a meeting with the would-be agent. The attaché gave me a pager so that we could keep in touch – in those days, mobile phones were still only a twinkle in someone’s eye. Pagers themselves had only just appeared, and it must be said that they proved a real boon for spycraft. Back in Russia, people still did not know about pagers, but I had seen them when a ship on which I was making a round-the-world journey stopped in Singapore for refueling.
After my morning run in Golden Gate Park, the pager beeped and an anonymous message alerted me that the meeting would take place at noon, next to the right lion on the Dragon Gate. By this time I already knew my way around San Francisco. The Dragon Gate was l
