Red Dusk and the Morrow by Paul Dukes

I will pass briefly over the days that followed Marsh's flight. They were concentrated upon efforts to get news of Mrs. Marsh and Melnikoff. There were frequent holdups in the street: at two points along the Nevsky Prospect all passengers were stopped to have their documents and any parcels they were carrying examined, but a cursory glance at my passport of the Extraordinary Commission sufficed to satisfy the militiamen's curiosity.

I studied all the Soviet literature I had time to devour, attended public meetings, and slept in turn at the homes of my new acquaintances, making it a rule, however, never to mention anywhere the secret of other night-haunts.