Chapter 42: Choose Whichever Answer You Like

The hearing was scheduled even faster than expected.

Both sides were in favor of it, and the Tsar’s will on the matter was utterly firm.

On top of that, following my advice, Nicholas II announced that he would enlarge the scale of the thing to ensure fairness, and proceeded to add observers without end.

The Russian Empire had no such institution as a hearing to begin with, so the framework was borrowed from the Special Review Committee, which had been convened now and then in the past.

The venue was St. George’s Hall in the Winter Palace.

It was the venue for the Empire’s most formal state occasions, the place where the plenary sessions of the State Council and the receptions for foreign envoys were held.

Which meant that simply holding the Okhrana Director-General’s hearing there lent the proceedings an authority that required no further argument.

The attendees, too, had been selected with the greatest care.

2 elders of the State Council, plus representatives drawn from the Ministry of Justice, from the military, from the Senate, and even from the Ministry of Finance.

In addition, the Assembly of the Nobility, the army’s general officers, and the bishops of the Orthodox Church were all granted the right to observe, so more than 50 people in all would be gathering in St. George’s Hall.

“Wow… so Misha’s going to the Winter Palace too?”

“Mm. I’m the Director-General’s aide, so of course I have to go.”

“That’s so cool! Misha, you’re like a grown-up!”

Olga beamed and began shuffling the new set of cards I had made for them, and beside her Tatiana tilted her head.

“But a Special Review Committee? What does that do?”

“It’s where they decide whether the person who got reported is a bad person or not.”

“Oh, then is it like the card game Misha made for us?”

“I suppose so. You have to guess who the bad person is, don’t you. By putting together the person and the place and the tool.”

Just as Olga said, the cards I had made were illustrated with figures, places, and tools.

The figures were a noble, a peasant, a merchant, a priest, an officer, a doctor.

The places were a palace, a monastery, a market, a harbor, a theater, a stable.

The tools were poison, a dagger, a letter, a key, a revolver, a rope, and so on.

It was a board game in which the players eliminated the cards one at a time and worked out who had committed the crime, where, and with what.

“I say it was the priest, in the monastery, with the poison.”

“Olga always suspects the priest first.”

“No, think about it, Tatiana. Who has the easiest time getting hold of poison? The priest, because he’s the one who handles medicinal herbs.”

“I think the officer shot him with the revolver!”

“Maria, that’s far too simple.”

“Whyyy? Sometimes the simple answer is the right one!”

-They’re way more into this than the dice game, huh?

No wonder.

Normally they were kept under the Empress’s strict control with nothing to do but dull games of dolls, and now a whole new world had opened up in front of them. Of course they were losing their minds over it.

The princesses were already on their third game in a row.

In the first round Olga had narrowed the suspects down logically and got it cleanly; in the second, Tatiana had gone on pure instinct and hit the right answer on her second guess.

“Wait, so if the only one who could be at the harbor is the merchant, then….”

“Good reasoning, but don’t take up so much time. Faster, faster!”

They were in the thick of the noisy dealing when the voice of the Empress, who had been watching over her tea, reached my ear.

“Misha, would you come here a moment?”

“Ah, yes. Princesses, I’m going to go and see Her Majesty for a bit, so keep playing and have fun.”

“Aw, come back quick! It’s just getting good.

“All right, all right. I’ll be back in no time.”

As I approached the table where the Empress sat, the first thing I noticed was how much her expression had softened of late.

Before the Rasputin affair her face had been laid over with an icy wariness; now, in place of it, there was warmth.

“You’ve been working so hard these days. Sit down and have a cup of tea.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

-Mood’s good. Let’s ride this out, play along a bit, rack up some points.

That was exactly what I’d been planning to do.

According to Seong-jun’s memories, Empress Alexandra was the introverted, bashful type, so a few agreeable responses here and there ought to be easy enough.

I sat down and took the teacup, and the Empress looked over toward the princesses and spoke.

“My children truly adore the games you make for them, Misha. That travel game about Russia before, and this one too.”

“If it’s only entertaining, they tire of it quickly. I make them in the hope that they might help the princesses, even a little.”

“Just so. They learn the geography of Russia through play. I think it’s very good for them, educationally. And this one they’re playing now, it makes them use their heads a great deal, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. They have to remember the cards and combine them and reason it out, so it should be good training for the mind.”

“Truly, thank you for always thinking of my children. I’ve been meaning to tell you I’m sorry for having misjudged you all this while.”

Up to that point the mood was warm and pleasant.

As the conversation went on, however, I could not help slowly sensing that something was going wrong.

“But Misha, are you eating properly? You look a little pale.”

“Ah, yes. I’m eating well.”

“Really? Shall I tell the kitchen to draw up a separate menu just for you? They say nutrition is the most important thing for a growing child.”

“That won’t be necessary, Your Majesty. Truly.”

“Is that so? Well, never mind that, then, but that coat of yours, shouldn’t we do something about it? What will people say if the Director-General’s aide goes about in such worn-out clothes? I’ll call in a tailor and….”

“Ah, yes… thank you.”

-The hell? Was the Empress always this much of a talker?

“Oh, and have you heard about Alexei? Since we stopped the aspirin he’s been so much better. The doctor says there’s a new treatment. You know so much about medicine, so could you look into it for me later?”

“Ah, yes… of course.”

“Thank you, thank you. Oh, and Olga talks about you so much these days that it worries me. I wonder whether we oughtn’t to tell her that you’re truly her brother. Tatiana as well. And Maria is forever squabbling with Anastasia… oh, that Anastasia, I can’t imagine who she takes after, the mischief that child gets up to.”

“Ha… haha.”

This was the timid, shy, hardly-says-a-word personality?

-Oh, right. Come to think of it, there was also something about how she’d talk your ear off without end once she felt close to someone. Shy people are like that sometimes, aren’t they?

“This Sunday, after the service, let’s all go for a walk together. We’ll bring Alexei. And you mustn’t do nothing but work every day, Misha; you need your rest.”

“Yes, th… that sounds lovely. Thank you for your concern. But I…”

“Oh, and there was a banquet the other day, and I couldn’t help thinking all over again how dreadfully corrupt society is in this country. Even when you’re grown, Misha, you mustn’t let yourself get swept up in that sort of thing, understood?”

She wasn’t leaving me so much as a crack to speak through.

The plan had been to play with the princesses for a decent while and spend the time left over going over my strategy for the hearing.

“…back home my grandmother always used to say so. That a princess must walk with her back straight. And so, ever since I was small, I….”

“Ah, yes, yes. So that’s why Your Majesty’s bearing is so fine.”

“But when I came to Russia I found nobody here pays much mind to that sort of thing. It was rather a shock at first. I’m used to it now, though… oh, that reminds me, Misha. Have you had lunch?”

“…I’m sorry?”

“And breakfast? Don’t tell me you skipped breakfast as well? I’ll go and….”

“No! I’ve had both breakfast and lunch.”

The princesses had long since finished off three more rounds of the game and gone in to their lessons.

The sun that had stood at its height was already sinking, and the Empress’s talk showed not the slightest sign of ending.

The way it flowed from memories of home to gossip about Russian society, then back to anecdotes from the princesses’ infancy, from there to Alexei’s weaning food, and from there, somehow, to the color of the curtains in the Winter Palace was a miracle of filling dead air that inspired something close to awe.

-If she’d been alive in the 21st century she should’ve gone into broadcasting. What a talent.

I found myself seriously wondering whether the Empress had adult ADHD.

What in the world was this rambling, stream-of-consciousness method of conversation?

It got to the point where I entertained the absurd suspicion that the nobles had put her up to this to keep me from going off to prepare for the hearing.

“And so, Misha, what I think is….”

The Empress’s mouth came to a stop only after the sun that had stood at its height had set completely, and the attendants had intervened to say that it was time to go in to dinner.

“Oh my, look how late it’s gotten. I was enjoying myself so much I didn’t even notice it had gone dark.”

“S… so it has. Hahaha.”

“If you’re free tomorrow as well, shall we sit here and talk again? I should have grown close to you long ago, Misha; all that pride of mine was for nothing.”

No, really, couldn’t Your Majesty just go back to hating me?

…I have a hearing to prepare for.

* * *

The Empress’s psychic assaults continued without pause from that day on, but I broke through every last one of these trials and just barely managed to finish preparing for the hearing.

And then, at last, on the day of the hearing, St. George’s Hall in the Winter Palace presented the remarkable spectacle of the attendees filing in and ranging themselves in rows.

At the front and above stood the Tsar’s throne; below it, to either side, the seats of the review committee; and in the center, the benches where the prosecution and the defense sat facing one another.

The observers’ galleries along both colonnades were already packed tight with representatives of the nobility, general officers, and clergy.

Durnovo, the Minister of Internal Affairs, took his place on the prosecution’s side, and Director-General Yakov on the defense’s.

I was the aide sorting the documents at Yakov’s elbow.

The Tsar seated himself on the throne and spoke in a solemn tone.

“We have convened this assembly in order to examine, with fairness, the fitness of the Director-General of the Imperial Okhrana. Let every man here speak nothing but the truth.”

With those words as the signal, the hearing began.

Durnovo rose from his seat.

“Your Majesty, honorable examiners. Today I intend to lay bare the evidence that Yakov, Director-General of the Imperial Okhrana, abused his authority to embezzle seized assets.”

Without further preamble, the first piece of evidence was produced.

A comparison table of the ledgers for the funds confiscated in the sweeps against the revolutionaries.

The claim followed that there was a clear discrepancy between the sums recorded and the amounts actually held.

“The combined figure for items 73 through 76 of the seized-assets list does not agree with the figure entered in the custody register. It is plain that the difference flowed into Director-General Yakov’s personal funds.”

“I object.”

Yakov raised his hand at once.

“The list of seized assets in question is maintained by the First Directorate of the Okhrana. I have brought the original here with me; compare them and you will see that the figures agree precisely.”

The Okhrana’s legal officer submitted the original ledger to the review committee, and the representative of the Ministry of Finance checked the figures against it.

“On verification, Director Yakov’s claim is correct.”

The first offensive had been broken with ease, but Minister Durnovo did not fall back.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that the original was altered after the fact. Accordingly, the Police Department submits witness statements obtained through its own channels.”

Two witnesses came forward.

One was a merchant from near the Okhrana, who testified that Yakov had frequently purchased luxury goods; the other was a servant who claimed to have often seen people coming and going from Yakov’s official residence.

Once again Yakov moved to rebut them immediately.

“The purchase records the first witness speaks of are entered in full in the Okhrana’s operating-expense disbursements. I submit the original receipts.”

“Verified.”

“The individuals the second witness claims to have seen were persons summoned for interviews in connection with the audit of the Orthodox Church. It was part of the Okhrana’s regular duties, and the interview logs and the resulting reports are here.”

As the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ attacks were seen to be turned aside so easily, the murmuring in the observers’ galleries gradually swelled.

“What’s this? Isn’t the evidence rather weak?”

“Or is it that Yakov’s rebuttals are simply that solid?”

“Too early to say. The Minister of Internal Affairs would never have come out with only that much.”

Certainly, a man who had risen to be Minister of Internal Affairs would never try to sink an opponent with evidence that flimsy.

As expected, once the room had heated up just enough, the minister finally played his trump card.

“Your Majesty, honorable members of the committee. I shall now submit the decisive evidence the Police Department has at last obtained.”

An enormous bundle of documents went up to the committee’s table.

“This is proof of the specific bribes Director-General Yakov received, and of the double ledger he kept internally in order to conceal them. The evidence that Director-General Yakov managed the assets numbered 112 through 118 in the seized-goods register in a separate ledger, and concealed the whereabouts of the items themselves, is preserved here in its entirety.”

The observers’ galleries stirred.

The particulars were of an entirely different order of detail from the circumstantial evidence produced so far.

Naturally.

These were the forged documents we had planted on purpose to filter out the Police Department’s spies inside the Okhrana.

Scatter the bait and sure enough, they scooped it right up, delighted with themselves.

But Durnovo, who knew nothing whatsoever of this, was gazing down at Yakov in triumph, certain that victory was already his.

The air in St. George’s Hall drew taut, and the eyes of the review committee turned as one upon the Director-General, who appeared to have been driven into a corner.

Yakov rose quietly from his seat and looked around him.

“Honorable members of the committee, might I ask you to verify something?”

“Permission granted.”

“Thank you. Then allow me to ask one thing first.”

He drew a deep breath, the corner of his mouth lifting a fraction, and looked straight across at Durnovo.

“The seized-goods numbers 112 through 118 that the Minister of Internal Affairs has just cited. Those numbers do not exist in the Okhrana’s seized-goods register.”

For a moment, the hall went silent.

“To be precise, it is a system that will not be used from now on. The Okhrana’s numbering for seized goods was changed from a 3-digit running number to a combination of a district code and a serial number. A plain sequence such as 112 through 118 is the format that was used previously.”

At a glance from Yakov, I laid the Okhrana’s official seized-goods register on the committee’s table.

Not the forgery we had deliberately let slip for the taking, but the genuine original, known only to a handful of key personnel.

“…It is true. The numbering system in question does not exist at all in the Okhrana’s register.”

The blood began to drain from Durnovo’s face.

Why else would we have gone to all that trouble to tear up the entire numbering system, lay forged material throughout the building, and keep the real original in the hands of a few key people alone?

By now the minister must have realized that the whole of it had been a trap from the very beginning, laid to hook the Police Department’s spies.

“I shall continue. 4 of the dates recorded in the ledger submitted by the Minister of Internal Affairs fall on days when the Young Master and I were outside the palace, attending His Majesty. The records of that attendance are officially held by the Ministry of the Imperial Court, so a comparison is possible.”

“….”

“Further, the contents of the witness statements the Police Department claims to have obtained stand in direct contradiction to the Okhrana’s own mission records for those same dates. I submit the original mission records.”

Another sheaf of documents went up.

The longer the members of the committee kept their heads together over the comparison, the more heavily the atmosphere in St. George’s Hall settled.

Yakov looked around him and declared, resolute.

“A numbering system already abolished. Dates that are physically impossible. Statements that contradict the official record. This material is fabricated from beginning to end.”

A suffocating silence closed in on every side, and the faces of the nobles hardened.

“We can interpret it in only one way. The Ministry of Internal Affairs mobilized the Police Department and fabricated evidence in order to frame the Director-General of the Imperial Okhrana.”

“Objection! The Police Department lawfully obtained this material through its own independent investigation….”

“In that case, please reveal the source of the material.”

Yakov’s voice rang out through the whole of St. George’s Hall.

“This is unmistakably close to a report drawn up under the system the Okhrana used in the past. So where on earth did you obtain it?”

When the minister could not readily bring himself to open his mouth, Yakov bowed toward the Tsar.

“Your Majesty. This will not be the only matter in which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Police Department have done such a thing. The Police Department has always covered Your Majesty’s eyes and ears in precisely this fashion. Herein lies the very reason that the Imperial Okhrana must become Your Majesty’s eyes and ears.”

Seated above them all, the Tsar’s gaze went cold.

Durnovo’s eyes began to dart about frantically.

I could practically hear him racking his brains for all he was worth from clear over here.

If he admitted that this had been lifted out of the Okhrana, it amounted to a confession that they had secretly conducted illegal surveillance against a fellow organ of the state.

If, on the other hand, it was evidence his own people had gathered independently, then the only conclusion left was that they had fabricated it in order to put Yakov away.

Either one is fine by me, so go on, choose whichever answer you like.

Honestly, I’m rather curious myself which of the two is the marginally better answer.

~~~

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