While practicing Russian, she had also contemplated the big question with no good answer: to buy supplies or steal them? Because her confidence in her Russian had improved, she had decided to buy. She enjoyed having the choice: when escaping from her husband in Pakistan she had not had enough money to make an analytical decision. This time, she had money, having exchanged a wad of Chinese renminbi for rubles before starting her two-woman assault on the Russian empire. If she bought off the locals with large tips, would they stay bought? Vasily could probably tell her. She could call Julissa, have her put Vasily on the phone, and ask him. She should call anyway just to make sure Vasily hadn’t murdered everybody and stolen the copter.
Of course, calling anybody was out of the question. If s
