Dianna Aldis, dressed casually in jeans and, to Morosov’s eye, a deliberately baggy and unattractive sweater, swiveled in her chair as her boss entered the office.
‘I know,’ he said, grumpily, before she could say anything. ‘Late again. Call in on Saturday, tell you urgent so urgent, no courtesy to be on time. Yes?’
The ghost of a smile crossed his assistant’s lips.
‘Something like that.’ She pointed to his desk. ‘I made you tea.’
Sure enough, a mug of tea, hot and milky in the English fashion, was waiting for him. He grabbed it gratefully, its temperature telling him he was not as late as he’d feared.
‘You make list of Orthodox church I ask, yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you have on this list town call Pittsburgh?’
Dianna swiveled back to her computer screen, scanning the spreadsheet she’d been working on for the last couple of days.
‘Yes. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America. The population of the city and suburbs is just under three million. There are several Eastern Orthodox churches in the area. Saint—’
‘Da. Is good. All church in this Pittsburgh, have website, no?’
‘I’m not sure. I haven’t—’
‘Ach. Is America. Website for everything. You want society for protection American house mice? Website. Models of American coat button? Website. Is America. Church have website.’
‘OK. Let’s agree that an American church is likely to have a website. What would you like me to do?’
‘Every church Pittsburgh, go website, download picture. News … letter, yes? Baptism. Funeral. Good workings. Anything with picture of congregation. Then we look pictures.’
‘I see. And when we get these pictures, what, exactly, are we looking for?’
‘Black people.’