A Forged Certificate of Identification
When the Finn had finished writing he pulled the paper out of the typewriter and handed it to me for perusal. In the top left-hand corner it had this heading:
Extraordinary Commissar of the Central Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Red Armymen’s Deputies.
Then followed the text:
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Joseph Afirenko is in the service of the Extraordinary Commissar of the Central Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Red Armymen’s Deputies in the capacity of office clerk, as the accompanying signatures and seal attest.
“In the service of the Extraordinary Commission?” I gasped, taken aback by the amazing audacity of the thing.
“Why not?” said the cadaverous man coolly, “what could be safer?”