.I.C.?” ANNA SAID as she held the paper up to Shaw, who was pouring coffee, still dressed in his boxers. She pushed the room service cart away a bit and unfolded the insert that had slipped out from the Herald Tribune.

Shaw looked over her shoulder. The article was long, brimming with factoids, and constituted another compelling broadside fired against the government of the Russian Federation. The title of the article might have been, “The Evil Empire, Act Two.”

Shaw read out loud, “The Russian Independent Congress, or R.I.C., and its adjunct division, the Free Russia Group, appeal to free countries everywhere to stand up to President Romuald Gorshkov and an administration of terror and oppression before it is too late.”

Anna glanced at another section. “The Gorshkov administration has filled secret prisons with political opponents, murdered rivals, instituted a policy of ethnic cleansing at the highest levels of power, and are secretly manufacturing and stockpiling WMDs in clear contravention of myriad disarmament treaties.” She gazed up at Shaw. “First the Konstantin business, then all those allegedly dead Russians, and now this? Have you ever heard of this organization, the R.I.C.?”

He shook his head. “There’s a Web site listed at the bottom of the page.”

She slid her laptop out, fired it up, and within a minute was hooked to the hotel’s wireless network. Her quick fingers skimmed across the keys and a colorful page sprang up on the screen.

“Look at this Web site.” She pointed to the screen. “This wasn’t online yesterday, I would’ve heard about it.”

Anna snatched up her ringing cell phone, listened, asked questions, and listened some more. She clicked off and glanced over at Shaw. “Well?” he said.

“That was my office. Everyone’s buzzing about this new article. Gorshkov and his ministers are said to be furious. They’re denying everything and demanding to know who’s behind what they call a grand smear campaign.”

“Any idea who did do it?”

She shook her head. “As yet unknown. It needn’t be a large group behind this. Or even lots of money. Although this newspaper insert wasn’t cheap, a few good computer people can swamp the globe with propaganda, we’ve all seen that.”

“And everyone else has sort of jumped on the bandwagon.”

She looked back at the computer and scrolled through the site. “It’s Russian evil this and Russian evil that. My office has done several white papers on the Russians’ slide back to an autocratic system of government. It’s of concern professionally and personally. Tensions are very high between Moscow and the rest of the world right now. And all of this certainly hasn’t helped matters.”

“Well, forewarned is forearmed,” Shaw said.

She looked at him thoughtfully. “That’s the problem. When one is forearmed, one tends to pull the trigger faster than one should.”

“Like old times, though,” he said. “Cold war redux.”

She stared at him strangely. “Perhaps someone wants the old world order back.”

The rain had broken. He only had two days left with Anna. Perhaps forever.

He took her in his arms and said, “Screw the Russians.”

He held her so tightly she said, “Shaw, I can’t breathe.”

He let her go, stepped back, staring down.

She cupped his chin with her hand. “We’re engaged. You should be happy.”

“I am, happier than I’ve ever been.”

“You don’t look very happy.”

“We have to leave each other.”

“But not for long. We’ll be together again soon.”

He wrapped his arms around her again, though not as tightly.

There is no guarantee. None.