Three Stations
鈥淰igilance Keeps Us Free鈥� is the motto gracing several framed certificates on the wall of Col. Leonid N. Malenkov鈥檚 office at Moscow鈥檚 Kazansky Station. One cannot help but sense the irony when Senior Investigator Arkady Renko, there to discuss the presumed murder of a young woman in the city鈥檚 main rail hub, observes the words and wryly suggests, 鈥淕ood, you can cooperate with me.鈥� In Renko鈥檚 Putin-era Moscow, his plea has the resounding effect of a whisper in a hurricane.
Martin Cruz Smith鈥檚 latest and arguably best novel, Three Stations, is a roller-coaster ride through the dark underbelly of present-day Russia, with a varied and cynical cast of billionaires, bureaucrats, street urchins, and thugs for whom day-to-day survival is the common objective. Smith鈥檚 longtime protagonist, Renko, has for the past 30 years navigated the byzantine byways of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and now oligarchic Russia. The landscapes may change, but Renko is the one constant 鈥� an Everyman who, in stubborn contrast to the society in which he lives, retains a sense of morality and duty in his everyday investigations into the deaths of victims those around him would just as soon forget.
After all, as Colonel Malenkov observed, 鈥淟ife is unfair; why should death be any different?鈥�
Moscow鈥檚 Three Stations neighborhood is not only the intersection of three railway terminals 鈥� Leningrad, Yaroslavl, and Kazansky (a daytime 鈥淐ircus Maximus with cars鈥�) 鈥� but also the nighttime nexus of darker, more malevolent forces: 鈥減ickpockets, flyboys handing out directions to strip clubs and slot arcades, gangs of street kids looking for the wounded, the slow, the easy mark.鈥� Here, Renko interviews local residents with a view of the square where the young murder victim was found. Among the interviewees is Army Gen. Kassel, whose answers Renko finds incredulous. Yet, he thinks to himself, 鈥淏ut if Kassel was hiding something, who wasn鈥檛? Because, as his partner Victor Orlov said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 the problem with interrogations, so many lies, so little time.鈥� 鈥�
Later, in the course of gathering evidence, Renko turns up inexplicable clues 鈥� notably an invitation to Russia鈥檚 premier charity ball, the Nijinsky Fair. In this netherworld of largess, he rubs elbows and clinks crystal both with members of Russia鈥檚 business and social elite, and, improbably, the woman living in the apartment neighboring his own, Anya, a journalist who is covering the event. Renko, pursuing leads like a Russian Columbo, coaxes his wreck of an automobile 鈥� the Lada he鈥檚 appropriated from his hapless partner, Victor 鈥� through car chases and stakeouts. In this and other ways, Smith has very effectively crafted a textual 鈥渇ilm noir鈥� of rain-slicked streets. This only enhances the pall of desperation that envelops the city鈥檚 abandoned buildings, street vendors, and hustlers like an ashen, suffocating smog. Against this backdrop, Renko stands out as a black-and-white profile in a gray world.
Renko eventually learns that the Nijinsky Fair is not a charity at all but rather, as Anya describes, 鈥渁 social club for super-rich, middle-aged boys. They only come to table-hop. Their women are supposed to be beautiful, laugh at the men鈥檚 crude remarks [and] endure the clumsy attempts at seduction by their husband鈥檚 best friends.鈥� It鈥檚 in this rarified environment that Renko senses a breakthrough, against the entreaties of Anya鈥檚 dinner companion, billionaire Sasha Vaksberg, who fears bad publicity and financial ruin from any revelations involving the club. Under Putin, Vaksberg has had his passport confiscated, and feels trapped, like a caged animal with no escape.
Interwoven with Renko鈥檚 investigation, a 15-year-old chess prodigy and Renko prot茅g茅, Zhenya, is seeking to help a young woman named Maya find her kidnapped baby. Zhenya, who lives in an abandoned casino in Three Stations, understands that Maya and her child are being stalked by hired killers from the brothel she worked for, and tenderly offers her as much assistance and protection as circumstances will allow. Subsequently, through a character named 鈥淎untie Lena,鈥� the last person Maya sees before her baby disappears, we are introduced to the underground baby trade.
In contrast to the Soviet metropolis in Smith鈥檚 previous novels 鈥淕orky Park鈥� and 鈥�Red Square,鈥� the Moscow of 鈥淭hree Stations鈥� evokes for Renko a city that 鈥渨asn鈥檛 Arkady鈥檚 Moscow anymore.... [T]he streets glittered not with diamonds, but with broken glass.... [T]hat population was gone.... Bought out, sold out, 鈥榙eveloped鈥� out.鈥� And after a dustup with the resentful supervisor who suspended him, Victor tells Renko, 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 go on pretending you鈥檙e an investigator.... You have no authority and no protection, just enemies. What are you looking for? Blood on the sidewalk and a round of applause?鈥�
But against this dour reality, Renko, with a saturnine stoicism, wades through endless pools of indifference, cynicism, and corruption. Intact are the dark humor, intelligence, and power of observation that have made him the compelling literary figure he鈥檚 been for decades.
Christopher Hartman is the author of 鈥淎dvance Man: The Life and Times of Harry Hoagland.鈥�
