Findhorn poured coffee into delicate white cups. 'The secret is already in someone else's hands. Milk?'
'No! That is terrible! But how can that be?'
There was no avoiding it. Findhorn said, 'The diaries led some people to your brother Anastas.'
'Anastas? He wasn't harmed?'
'No,' Findhorn lied. 'I saw him briefly myself.'
Petrosian's face showed relief. 'And how is he?'
'He was well when I left him. Still working, I think. He has a little Skoda and he smokes a pipe. We shared a very good Armenian cognac. Unfortunately his house was robbed, and documents taken.'
Petrosian seemed to be talking half to himself. 'My vanity has created this problem. It was such a wonderful discovery, but I should have strangled it at birth. First I tried to patent my discovery. Only when they turned it down did I realize I was up against huge commercial interests. I even began to feel that my life was at risk.'
Petrosian's mind was momentarily elsewhere. Then he continued, 'Then I realized that the process had uncertainties, you see, it might just possibly be dangerous. I therefore decided to hide it against the day when it would be examined by a community more knowledgeable and enlightened than that of the nineteen fifties.'
'So you sent it to your brother through the Geghard trading route?' Romella asked, pouring milk for herself.
Petrosian showed surprise. He sipped at his coffee, and added a spoonful of brown sugar crystals. 'I am amazed at what you have found out.'
'We also know you sent letters to your brother through Kitty Cronin. But we don't know how.'
'Ah, Kitty.' His mind seemed to wander. 'Is she still alive?'
'And well,' said Romella. 'She married a businessman called Morgenstern. They were divorced after fifteen years. There were two children. She moved to some place in the Colorado Rockies and opened a shop selling mountain climbing equipment.'
A smile briefly softened the tension in Petrosian's face. 'She loved mountains.'
'She retired ten years ago and now she's living with her daughter in Miami.'
'I am glad life went well for her. Kitty's sister-in-law worked in the Turkish Embassy in Washington. My letters went there. They were delivered uncensored to an address in Igdir, a little town in Turkey. From there it was easy. My father was a shepherd, and Anastas continued in that style. In the Gegham mountains we knew every track between Lake Sevan and the Turkish border. The Geghard bazaar existed long before the war. It was a clandestine trading route. We used it to bring in cheese, coffee and other good things from Turkey, and barter them at Garni and Geghard. So far as I know the war merely enhanced the flow. To have been caught… well, they shot children too.'
Findhorn said, 'We're here because we want to know why you suppressed your discovery. It wasn't just for personal reasons.'
Romella held out the plate of cream biscuits to the old man, but he shook his head. 'I am not sure how much to tell you.'
'Perhaps I can help,' said Findhorn. 'I suspect that the process is unstable. If you can persuade me that it is, I'll try to have it stopped.'
'Perhaps you will. Or perhaps you have failed to recover the secret and wish to trick a simple old man into giving you it.'
'You must consider that possibility,' Findhorn said. 'After all, we're total strangers.'
Petrosian stood up and walked over to the big window. 'I was almost unmasked once. It happened in Oxford, not long after the war. I saw a man in the Causeway giving me a very strange look. It was some seconds before I recognized Rudolf Peierls. I had to keep walking towards him. But of course I was dead by then, and I simply passed him without giving the slightest sign of recognition. To this day I am not sure whether he recognized me.'
'Did anything come of it?'
'Yes. I launched my antiquarian book career here in Lincoln rather than Oxford.'
'Regrets?'
'None. I never kept up with the scientific literature, at least not at research level. But my career as a seller of old books has put me in contact with some of the finest minds who ever existed. My best friends speak to me from many countries and many centuries.' He turned back from the window and sat down. 'You can thank them for the decision I have made. You see, without them, I would not have the insight into the human soul which I believe I have. I choose to trust you, and hope that my friends are not letting me down. I will tell you about the process.'
Findhorn gave Romella a look. She said, 'I'll give Mrs Peterson a hand. Technical stuff gives me a headache.'
Romella took their hired Rover towards the Al. They drove into a pleasant little market town called Retford, looking for signs for the dual carriageway, and promptly got lost in a maze of one-way streets.
'Open my handbag,' she said.
Findhorn retrieved the large black bag from the back seat. It held a jumble of what Findhorn assumed was the usual women's stuff, including a small bottle of the Diorissima perfume which was driving him mad; and two folded sheets of paper.
'Look at the papers. Dad's been using some heavy pressure. He fired them through this morning and he's dying with curiosity.'
There were two documents. The first was rubber-stamped 'CIA Restricted Release':
TO: DIRECTOR FBI
FM: DIRECTOR CIA
OUT:_________________
FROM:___________________
DATE OF INFO: 7-12 JULY 1953
SUBJECT: TRAVEL TO MEXICO OF MRS K. MORGENSTERN
1. On 7 July a usually reliable source reported that Kitty Morgenstern nee Cronin planned to take a vacation in Mexico City in the near future. You will recall that during the war she was suspected of transmitting documents containing atomic secrets, given her by Lev Petrosian, to the USSR.
2. Another usually reliable source has reported that Mrs Morgenstern stayed at the home of Edward Ros while in Mexico City. Edward Ros is a well-known left-wing journalist.
3. During this stay, they were visited by a man whose description is remarkably close to that of Dr Lev Petrosian. You will recall that according to our field agents Dr Petrosian attempted to escape to the USSR from the Canadian border in a Soviet light aircraft. This aircraft was clandestinely shot down on Presidential orders by the USAF over Greenland.
4. Although unconfirmed, the above report leads to the conjecture that Dr Petrosian was in fact not on board aforesaid aircraft.
5. The above information was obtained from highly sensitive sources and should not be disseminated further.
DISTRIBUTION: LEGAL ATTACHE
In the absence of sensible comment, Findhorn said, 'Blimey!' He turned to the second sheet. It was marked 'Official Dispatch' and was heavily deleted.
POUCH Air
DISPATCH NO.__________________
CLASSIFICATION__________________
TO:_________________
FROM:_________________
SUBJECT: (Dr) Lev Petrosian
1. You will, of course, recall the investigation of subject which you conducted at our request in 1949-51. You will recall that on several occasions subject met a known Soviet agent, J. Rosenblum, as well as Soviet Embassy-officials (his cover story, that he was enquiring about friends and relatives behind the Iron Curtain, could not be broken).
2. _________________________
3. Subject was recognized on several occasions in Oxford, England, after his supposed attempted escape to the USSR. He now lives with Lisa nee Rosen, a German Communist who survived the concentration camps. He has established a bookselling business in Lincoln, England.
4. MI6 surveillance of said bookshop has so far revealed no evidence of contact with known or suspected Soviet agents. On 23 August,________, the wife of __________, was in the city of Lincoln but no contact was made.
5. Subject has no further access to classified material.