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their vacations before, but it has never been used by westerners. You are privileged. You might be the first westerners that villagers on the Volga have ever met.” Here she frowned as if talking to naughty children. “I ask that you be considerate in this matter.” She paused and scanned their faces. Most of the students stared back blankly. “We will be joined by these cultural tourists from America. They arrived in Moscow only two days ago and are interested in great Soviet achievements in the arts, so you will be sure to have mutual interests.”
Lona’s head shot up. Jennifer caught the movement. So did David. They glanced at one another.
“If they’re interested in art, why are they on the Volga?” asked Maria in a whisper.
“Beats me,” said David. Natasha continued, waving in the direction of a tall, lean man standing at attention on deck. “We will also welcome our cruise director, Ivan Nikolaevich, and his staff.”
“Read KGB,” said Hank under his breath.
“Do you really think they’d bother to have KGB on a boat with tourists?” asked Maria.
“Of course they would. Remember what that editor said in Leningrad—about one of us being recruited before the trip was over?”
“But he was a provocateur, Mrs. White said. We don’t know he was telling the truth.”
Jennifer overheard some of this conversation but only nodded. It seemed to her all a riverboat needed was a captain and crew. Natasha did quite enough directing. What other function would a cruise director serve?
Their concerns evaporated after going aboard. The vessel was sleek and large for a riverboat: two decks with a promenade at the stern and what turned out to be a glassed-in dining room at the bow that could seat fifty people. Their cabins were on the lower deck, both fore and aft, and each student had a neat compartment with a bunk bed, chair, desk and sink. Jennifer noted that a speaker hung above each bed—to wake us up in the morning with a song? The communal washrooms were down the passage. The boat would not carry its full capacity; they learned that they and the Americans were to be the only guests on board.
“This is lovely,” Maria called out to Jennifer, emerging from her cabin next door. “I’m going up on deck. I’m sure I saw some comfy chairs. I want to glide along watching the scenery.”
Libros Libertad 