Han Ong

Maria Nikolaevna rebuffed him.

So he went out to look for work.

"'Will he be back for lunch?'

the captain asked."

Of course he will.

They'd bought the story about the meat patties.

They hadn't dragged their feet bugging the apartment.

He asked me to make him meat.

We're expecting him back soon.

The captain got to work sorting through mountains of papers.

The samizdat was the stuff that everyone had.

Anyway, it wasn't samizdat Popov had come for.

The captain was looking for drawings that were already lying on his desk in the form of photocopies from Stern, the West German magazine.

One was a caricature with giant letters that spelled Glory to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The letters were made out of Bologna, and under the letters was a crowd of people and dogs trying to get up close to them.

There was even a price tag hanging from the letters, two rubles twenty kopecks.

Another caricature showed the mausoleum also made out of Bologna, but with Lenin written in hot dogs.

Agents had searched for the artist for a long time before uncovering his identity.

The final touch was getting the originals or something that resembled them.

Captain Popov stayed until the late evening.