But if he was being asked to go there, he was evidently not there now.
Hendricks had a closer look at the Russian delegation. It was a strong one; twelve members. Three of them, he saw, had defected not so many years afterwards.
Third conclusion. The man required had been present at the Oxford conference and was likely to be a Russian not now in Russia.
Hendricks had copies made of the photographs of the Russian delegates, together with brief biographical details. But before despatching them to London he had second thoughts.
The mission that was being suggested was a hazardous one and needed a young man — at least not an old one. All the Russian delegates were now old. It couldn’t be any of them. Just possibly it might be some other Slav who was present, a Pole or a Czech, Russian-speaking. But further reflection showed this to be unlikely too.
Getting someone into Russia on clandestine business wasn’t a difficult matter, but this was not a matter of simply sending someone to Russia, but to Siberia. And not simply Siberia but a sealed area of Siberia. Quite a different proposition.
On the face of it, an impossible proposition.
Yet Rogachev thought it could be done. He thought he knew the person who could do it.
Several interdepartmental discussions produced a fourth and final conclusion.
A person who might get into a security area of Siberia was a Siberian person. More specifically a Siberian native person: non-caucasian, mongoloid, Asiatic.
There was nobody like that on any of the Slav delegations, or on the Russian either. It left open some other kinds of delegation; but there was no certainty that this man was a delegate at all.
Hendricks decided on a wider sweep.
He ordered a check on every academic who had been in Oxford at the time of the conference.
This assignment, a large one, was methodically broken down. The period in question had been a Long Vacation, which let out the students and their normal mentors. The academic had to be of a certain age and type. His age, not more than the twenties at the time, suggested a well-qualified graduate or a research fellow. His type, Asiatic, suggested certain characteristics, perhaps even a name, that ought to stand out in some way.
The inquiry was thoroughly handled, as thoroughly as all the others had been, and produced results that looked just as barren. Some colleges had records of guest scholars of seventeen years before, but most did not. Halls of residence and bursars’ accounts helped fill up gaps; but even when the name came up it attracted no attention and merely joined the others on the list that went to Hendricks.
From Hendricks it attracted immediate attention, and a series of howling and uncharacteristic curses.
He already had a stout file on this man.
He knew he should have thought of him long before; and he also knew that not much would be forthcoming from him.
He was brooding on the matter when Lazenby’s statement turned up, and he nodded wearily over it. It was a jumbled recollection of a jaunt Lazenby had shared, time and location unknown, with Rogachev and a young Russian of Asiatic appearance who spoke a transatlantic kind of English.
Hendricks was now in a position to supply both time and location, as well as the name of the young man, and a pretty ample biography into the bargain. But still he hesitated.
He could trace the wild young man himself. This would take time. But time was not something he was short of. Ships were now off the Siberian run and would not be back again before next June. Until then no message could come from Rogachev anyway.
He came to his decision, and on the following day set the new search in motion.
That was on 30 September, and two days later, on 2 October, another message arrived from Rogachev.
6
Miss Sonntag, at work with her paper knife, looked at the envelope, and her mouth fell open. Then she ran in to Lazenby.
He had a look at it, and at Miss Sonntag, and at the envelope again.
PROF G F LAZENBY
OXFORD
ENGLAND
After this they looked at each other.
The new message was more robust in tone.
Go up, thou baldhead/ How is it that
ye do not understand?/ I want that man/
that speaketh the tongues of the
families of the north/ him that pisseth
against the wall/ As to my abode/ it
was written plainly in the beginning/
I dwell in/ dark waters/ Shew him all my
words/ that the people shall no more/ sit
in darkness/ nor like the blind/ stumble
at noonday/ Make speed/ Baldhead.
‘This one does ring a bell, Prof?’
‘Yes. Yes, it does,’ Lazenby said.
‘We thought that. But there are some points here of even more interest than the message.’
These points were the postmark and the address. The postmark had been stamped at Ijmuiden, Nederland, and the address had been written with a Japanese ballpoint — its ink Japanese; of a formulation used only in Japan; for Japanese script; not exported. The analysis had been made after discovery that the only ship in from the Arctic at Ijmuiden had been Japanese. In Gothenburg, at the time of the earlier message, there had also been a Japanese ship. On both messages the fingerprints were the same, and in both cases the ship was the same.
This ship had not been to Dudinka; or to Igarka; or Noviy Port, or Salekhard. It had sailed the Arctic from one end to the other, but it had not stopped at any of those places.
Wherever it had stopped, the ship was now moving again. It was steaming down the coast of Portugal and going home; where it would arrive in two months if unlucky, or nearer three if not. This was because it was tramping, and would put in wherever cargo offered — in general to ports not served by regular lines.
This was what it had done in the Arctic also. But between the Arctic and its present route there was a difference. Wherever it put in now a Lloyd’s agent was likely to report the fact. No Lloyd’s agents had reported facts in the Russian Arctic. There its only listed port had been Murmansk; which had been its listed port in June too. But it must also have called at some port other than Murmansk, for the secret establishment could not be anywhere near there. Murmansk was the base for the Russian Northern Fleet, with extensive yards and service facilities. No biological plant would be sited in that vicinity; which in any case was under constant surveillance, all its objectives known, in no way a waste howling wilderness.
This opened up the rest of the Arctic for consideration, several thousands of miles of it; and it also opened up the inquiries in Japan.
From Japan the answers were good and informative.
The ship was one of a line of six tramps, and the Arctic run was a summer perk of the masters’. Only one of them had been taking it on for the past couple of years. The only regular business on the route was with Murmansk, and any other picked up along the way was the perk: it could be accepted or not at the captain’s discretion. If he reported it, the owners took a share; if not, the crew did. The only sure information was the crew’s, and they were not likely to give it.
But the ship was being watched, and inquiries would continue.