‘I haven’t. A note, unsigned. Just greetings from Misha-Bisha to Tanya-Panya.’
‘He sent you it?’
‘Through an Evenk. In an envelope.’
‘Where?’
‘There. At Tcherny Vodi. They have a surgery. I provide the medical supplies. It’s in my district.’
‘You go into the place?’
‘To deliver the supplies. And to treat patients — the Evenks and the security staff. The scientists have their own doctor, also on the staff. I’ve never seen him. I receive a list of what he wants and I supply it.’
‘Wait a minute,’ Porter said, slowly working this out ‘If an Evenk gave you the message — they see Rogachev?’
‘An Evenk does. Rogachev’s body servant. The job’s hereditary. That is, his father had it before him, and so on with all the previous heads.’
‘The manservant gave you the message?’
‘No, I’ve never seen him, either. But he’s allowed to meet the other Evenks, to discuss family affairs. He’s totally trusted. He wouldn’t discuss anything else — even if he knew anything. He just does what he’s told.’
‘And he was told to get this message to you.’
‘Yes. It seems Rogachev had heard there was a new medical officer — the daughter of Dr Komarov. That first note was just to check it was truly me. Later he told me what he wanted.’
He got up and walked about the room. In a recess beside the stove an icon was on the wall. The stove was cold, the house now electrically heated, very stuffy, very warm. Books were everywhere, on shelves, tables. He couldn’t make out the titles in the dark.
‘What did he want?’ he said.
‘He said he had discovered something of great value, which they were preventing him from publishing.’
‘Did he say what it was?’
‘No.’
‘Or what they’re doing up there?’
‘Not that either. Except I know now that it involves dangerous substances. They had an accident a few months ago, and the results of it contaminated the lake. Their filtration plant was out of action for some days and we had to send them drinking water. A few scientists flew in and made a great fuss checking out the area. But the wind was the other way and there were no effects here.’
‘Were the Evenks affected?’
She shook her head. ‘It was at night and they were in their dormitory. They were locked in all next day, too. There’d been a fire and fumes were still in the air outside. It was some kind of explosion … You know about it, of course,’ she said.
He made no comment on this.
‘How did he think you could help him?’
‘Stepan Maximovich — that’s the servant — had to get some cigarettes to me. You know all this, too.’
‘And what did you have to do with them?’
‘A Japanese ship had been coming here for the past couple of years. Some of the Evenks work as dockers during the summer, and they’d told Stepan Maximovich that one of the sailors had been asking for drugs. It was a joke — the Evenks had no access to drugs. But he passed it on to Rogachev, a piece of gossip. This was the first Misha-Bisha heard of the ship and it gave him his idea.’
‘Which was what?’
She sighed. ‘For me to board the ship, of course, when it came. And contact the drug-taker.’
‘The Evenks pointed him out to you?’
‘Of course not. They know nothing of this. I saw it in the man’s eyes. I was taking the crew one at a time in a cabin set aside for me. The man was on heroin. I offered him a derivative, rather less dangerous, if he would do something for me. I explained what it was and told him I would give him more, when he came round again. The ship was coming twice in a season — in early June and in September.‘
’In Japanese you were explaining all this?’
‘In my bit of English. Enough for a hungry addict … Is this some kind of interrogation?’
He shrugged.
‘What reason did you give for examining the crew?’
‘That I was tightening up health requirements. The ship had come from tropical parts, it was due to take on fish after unloading. And you are now making me very tired. And also hungry. In the kitchen you will find salt fish, and some bread and sour cream. Also a tray.’
She hobbled on a stick when she had to and for the rest of the day sat with her leg up. The day was very overcast, and the windows of the old house small; but by three o’clock it was night anyway, and he had gone round switching on lamps and drawing curtains. She watched him doing it.
‘You’re a long fellow,’ she said, ‘for a Chukchee. But you’re not a Chukchee. Or an Evenk. Or anything I know. You’re of the north, of course?’
‘You identified my instep,’ he said.
She smiled coldly. ‘Also very careful. Well, how far have your automotive works gone?’
He had told her some details of the bobik — having decided he needed her shed — and now he told her a few more.
‘You plan to leave here in this machine?’
‘If necessary. An alternative exit,’ he said.
‘Some more formal exit is planned for you, of course.’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘Do you want to tell me it?’
‘No.’
‘All right.’ But she remained staring at him. ‘So where are you building this vehicle?’
‘You don’t need to know that either.’
She lit herself a cigarette. ‘Too much smoking. But this is hardly normal.’ I’ll have another drink, too.’
She had it on the sofa, her leg more comfortable there, and she gave him more information on the herds. They discussed the matter until supper, which he also assembled and brought from the kitchen; together with a coffee jug and two mugs.
‘Well, quite the housekeeper,’ she said.
‘Practice. Do you have help here?’
‘Yes. A Yakut woman comes in twice a week.’
‘Does she go into the shed?’
‘No.’ She stared at him. ‘You’re the most cunning man, I think, that I’ve ever met. That’s where you’ll keep the motor parts, is it?’
‘A few things, yes.’ He got on with his meal, and she got on with hers, glancing curiously at him.
She told him the layout of the research station and he listened closely.
‘So where’s your consulting room?’
‘In the guards’ quarters. The Evenks come there.’
‘Is that the only place you have contact with them?’
‘Well, they have to unload the car and load it again.’
‘What with?’
‘Various supplies. Big distilled water jars. They use a lot of it there, laboratory work. It’s not worth flying in, and we produce it in Tchersky anyway. Various oilier drums and containers. I take the empties back.’
‘Where do they keep this stuff?’
‘In a storage shed, near the airstrip.’
‘Is that where you park?’
‘No, I’m not allowed there. I go to the commandant’s office. And they bring along a sled, or a tractor. It depends how much there is.’
‘Do you supervise this operation?’
‘The security people do. They have to check everything that goes in or out. Were you thinking I might smuggle you out?’
‘Well … What if somebody’s ill?’
‘They’d be flown out. And not to Tchersky. No contact is allowed with Tchersky. And nobody goes in or out without an escort anyway.’
He drank his coffee, musing.
‘So how do I get out?’ he said.
‘The same way you get in?’
‘And stay there a month?’
‘That would complicate matters in Green Cape, wouldn’t it?’ She nodded. ‘Well, you’re not thinking so badly. Go and bring the cognac. Maybe you’ll do better.’