Constantine exhaled. “So what is happening there now? What’s so important going on in the Aral?”
“Asiyah knows,” Frolov said. “She knows everything. Do you want her to speak up?”
Asiyah snapped, losing her calm. She faced Frolov, her intense glare reflecting the anger boiling inside her.
“That is the most pathetic stream of garbage I’ve ever heard coming from anyone’s mouth. It’s preposterous. How can any sane person believe any of this? And more than that, you’re trying to put me as someone… responsible for this? I need to acquit myself?”
Frolov raised his eyebrows.
“Why are you so stubborn, Asiyah? You’re only making matters worse for yourself.”
“What do you want from me?” she murmured tiredly.
“All I want from you, Asiyah,” Frolov said, “is to elaborate on what I have already learned from you. You talked, Asiyah. You talked under the drugs, and you said a lot. Now I simply want the full story.”
Eugene did not know whether Frolov was bluffing or not — he could not see beyond the old man’s wicked smile. But what he did see, was the look of sheer terror in Asiyah’s eyes.
“No,” she said quietly. “No. You’re lying, Frolov. It’s impossible. You want to turn my friends against me, but it won’t work. Don’t believe him, Gene.”
“Fine,” Frolov said. “You think I don’t have any hard proof to back my words? I know that you’re a biophycisist. I know that there was a ship passing Olympia at the time of the explosion which is named Isebek—and which belongs to a company registered in your name. But I can pretend you have nothing to do with anything. Have it your way. You want to go back home? Well, I can deliver you right to the doorstep of the Kazakhstan Embassy. Can you imagine what they will do to you? Death will be the easy way out, Asiyah. Your father won’t care if you revealed any of his secrets, because he will assume you did. And he wants to kill you in any case. So why don’t you have your revenge against him? Do the damage. Expose him. Don’t let him triumph.”
“And if I do tell you everything?”
There was no way back for her now.
“I will do everything to punish Timur Kasymov,” Frolov said.
Asiyah lowered her eyes.
“It’s all I need.”
17
Asiyah never let her eyes off Sokolov as she spoke. To her, he was the only person in the salon. She was doing it for him alone, to restore his faith in her, so that he would understand that she hadn’t used him.
“They called it Project R,” she said. “But that’s beside the point. The project has had many names since it began, and has gone through more agencies than anyone can remember. R stands for Renaissance because the island proved to be the only place where it could be carried out. Not only technically, but rather politically, geographically. Only the project’s essence is important. It is a quest to develop the most horrifying weapon in the history of mankind. What gives life shall be forced to bring death. For that reason alone, it was too dangerous to conduct it anywhere else. The shroud of secrecy had to be absolute, and it can be only attained by dictatorship. And when the project started, no one could predict the effects on the area around it in the event of anything going tragically wrong. So the choice fell on the Aral Sea. Aralsk-7 had to be rebuilt.”
“The entire military compound? Recreated?” Frolov asked.
“You might be amazed, but it didn’t need to be recreated. The Soviet Army knew how to build things that lasted. The structures of Aralsk-7 were designed to withstand a nuclear attack. Over the years of neglect, the base had been ransacked by the remaining locals living nearby, that much is true. All that could be torn off and dragged away was stolen — the equipment, the furniture, the wiring, pieces of metal, everything. But the walls still stood. As solid as ever, withstanding the test of time and the onslaught of the environment. And no marauder could reach the main sections of the base. So in essence, Aralsk-7 needed a renovation boost. I can say that the overhaul it received made it look better than new. My father spares nothing to achieve success. He established a state of the art research facility.”
“Researching what?” Frolov inquired.
“Water,” Asiyah said.
“Water?” Frolov said in bewilderment. “As simple as that?”
“Do you think water is simple?” Her tone was mocking. “I reckon you never went to school, Mr Frolov. Otherwise you wouldn’t have made such a ridiculous comment.”
She smiled at her own audacity. From the corner of her eye, she could see Frolov’s twisted face, his neck coloring red. Yet even facing such humiliation at her hands, Frolov remained silent. He could not retort in any way, could not punish her immediately because that would stop her from giving out the information he needed so badly. She was in control now, and it freed her. She felt as though she was lecturing again, back in her academic element, and it was a much more efficient method to block away all the madness around her.
Constantine chimed in. “All I remember from my science class is that water is H-two-O and that it expands at four degrees Celsius although it shouldn’t do so when cooled. For me even that is pretty complicated.”
“Correct,” Asiyah said. “So why does that happen? Why does it shrink on melting? What do we know about water? The most abundant substance on planet Earth which shapes our lives every day is a mystery. What is water?”
“Water is an anomaly,” Eugene responded. “It is unlike any other substance in the universe. No other compound can be found in all three states — solid, liquid and gas — in our natural environment. As ice, water is the only solid substance that can melt when compressed, and at the same time liquid water freezes when compressed at high pressure. And water has atypically high melting and boiling points, at 273 and 373 degrees Kelvin. The speed of sound increases within water. Water has a higher density at its surface than its bulk. Ice has a bigger variety of crystalline forms than any other solid. Water possesses capillary action that defies gravity and carries such force that a growing flower can break through concrete. There are dozens more odd characteristics which I can’t remember off the top of my head, like changes in viscosity, conductivity, and so on. It’s not something new. Aristotle was the first to notice that hot water freezes quicker than cold water.”
“Very impressive,” Asiyah said.
“My NBC Defence training didn’t count for nothing,” Eugene said. “By the way, if you add ions of silver to it, water becomes the most potent anti-bacterial and anti-fungal treatment available.”
“All of these qualities have less to do with water’s chemical composition than its physical attributes,” Asiyah explained. “Or, in particular, the hydrogen bond. As you know, the water molecule is V-shaped, with two atoms of hydrogen covalently attached to the oxygen atom. However, the oxygen atom has a net negative charge while the hydrogen atoms have a net positive charge. Through this dipolar nature of the water molecule, each hydrogen atom becomes attracted to an oxygen atom of a neighboring molecule. This is known as hydrogen bonding. A water molecule can form four hydrogen bonds, with four other molecules, donating two and accepting two connections. The hydrogen bonds between the five molecules arrange themselves in clusters. These clusters determine the water structure by the means of bond strength and direction. Increasing temperature reduces the clustering — which explains many of the unusual properties. This is why water expands as it reaches the freezing point — the clusters rearrange to a crystalline shape of ice which is lower in density. The strong hydrogen bonds also mean that more energy is needed to break them down — hence the high melting and boiling points. But hydrogen bonding is more than the reason why ice can float on water. It’s the reason life can exist on our planet.”