HOW--AND WHY--TO RECRUIT A RUSSIAN SPY 137that the beer I bought him was the first he’d had in over a year, since he
simply could not afford such luxuries. His five-hundred-dollar-per-month
salary was barely enough to cover the basics. As “What’s Going On” by
Marvin Gaye played on the jukebox, I ordered another round.After some planning sessions with Dave, we decided that a natural, non-
threatening way for me to meet Sasha would be to join their foursome during
an informal golfing get-together planned for later that winter in the Bahamas.
Several of Dave’s friends, colleagues, and family members would be there for
a days-long, relaxing retreat at an upscale golf resort. Sasha would no doubt
greatly enjoy his “escape” from Russia in the dead of winter to play golf
in the warm Caribbean sun. Besides golf, there would be multiple cocktail
parties and other social events where I could get to know Sasha. I hoped he’d
be pleased to meet me, a trusted friend of our mutual friend Dave.
There was just one problem with our brilliant plan: I didn’t play golf. I
had played a few times in high school, but if golf and I agreed on anything,
it was that golf was not my game. I had one month to get up to speed so
that I’d be able to keep up with Sasha and Dave on the links without embar-
rassing myself too much. Since my ability to play golf was essential to my
mission, I played as much as possible with a very patient colleague who had
played team golf in college. By the time I showed up in the Bahamas to
meet Sasha, I could fake it well enough to accomplish phase one.
Sasha and I hit it off instantly. He was unlike any other Russian I’d ever met,
probably in part because I’d never met one under such happy or relaxed
circumstances. He spoke decent English, although my Serbian came in
handy when he got stuck on a word, because of the similarities between
Russian and Serbian. (I told him my maternal grandfather was a Serb and
I’d picked up a few words as a child.) After spending a few hours together
on the golf course, I invited him to lunch the next day. He readily accepted.
We were both “stuck” in paradise for several days, so Sasha had plenty of
free time on his hands.