‘So she quickly makes up her mind, everybody starts feeling scared that there’s going to be another world war, got to redress the balance in favour of peace, discovering an old friend is like discovering yourself, she strokes your cheek, she checks that you are still as young as ever, she weeps genuine tears, “Misha, you haven’t changed one bit, how do you do it? You use a cream?” she laughs, “I’m sure you use a night cream, like women do”, then she reels off a list of creams and laughs at you saying “personally I just use water, it has to disperse, especially crows’ feet, water straight out of the tap, my beautician can’t get over it, plain water, there’s nothing better, in the end my beautician had to agree”, she strokes your cheek some more, top of the cheekbone, she says “hydration, can’t beat it, my beautician uses a similar word but I couldn’t tell you what it is, never mind, and she’s even given up using a pencil on my eyes, pencil’s bad, doesn’t stop you having to use a good cream, but mustn’t overdo it”, that’s all.
‘And so on and so forth, Misha, love and kisses, she might well have said something to you along those lines, that and nothing else.
“‘It has to disperse, tap water, crows’ feet, and no pencil”, it sounds silly, but when you know that these words come from atomic physicists as gifted as Tellheim or Mzilar, by a direct route from American and British labs, the whole thing acquires a certain charm, at the time Beria must have loved it.
‘Means nothing to you, Misha? Tired? How about a drink, a café, sit outside? Don’t want to? You do? Look, across the street, a few tables outside that bistro, it’s called The Lock Gate, come on, a sentimental journey for me, I’ll explain, a couple of good beers, it’ll do us good. So Beria must have loved this stuff about make-up. You’re not interrupting me but it really doesn’t mean anything to you? Fact is though that Maisie has found a summary of that meeting in Vienna in Lena’s file, there were watchers making notes there too, just notes, woman’s talk about make-up, no one wanted to translate, and almost nothing is said about you, get it? they didn’t identify you! You don’t want to tell me anything? You’d rather I embroidered? that I send you back to Rosmar the day after this meeting? You leave Vienna for Rosmar, not your office but the airbase at Rosmar and on to Moscow by a direct flight specially laid on for comrade Lilstein, Moscow, Markov, he writes down what Lilstein dictates, sitting beside Markov is another man, according to Max it seems his name was Kolymaguine.
‘This Kolymaguine has written down only a few words when suddenly he says to Markov “we must report directly to the comrade Commissar”, to Lilstein he says “you’re coming with us also”, and the top-ranking Commissar sees all three immediately, it’s Kolymaguine who does the talking, right?
‘Extraction by dispersal, water channel, Misha, when Maisie talks about it she gets furious, she’s certain Lena even said “a good, heavy water”, the watchers didn’t pick up on it, idiots, Maisie asked me if I knew many women who give out their beauty secrets in public, Kolymaguine went on, the comrade Commissar listening, “dispersal, heavy water, this cross-checks with the two other sources, the woman spoke of hydration but said it wasn’t the right word, the only word which sounds like it in the area which interests us is hydride, she doesn’t want to say the exact word because it’s too specific, uranium hydride, so extraction by dispersal, heavy water channel, uranium 235, and no pencil, that is no graphite, it all checks, comrade Commissar.”
‘And Beria places his left forefinger in front of his lips as he stares at the sheet containing Markov’s notes, there are two other sheets of paper on the desk, he compares them, elbow on the desktop, the forefinger moves to his cheekbone, “your opinion, comrades?”
‘Kolymaguine says “it’s a pure lead, comrade Commissar”, Beria turns to Markov, “can you guarantee the source?” Markov says simply “yes, comrade Commissar”, Beria to Lilstein, same question, and you say “yes, comrade Commissar”.
‘Beria is happy, “if this works out all three of you will be on list A”, did that make you feel good, Misha?
‘Later Markov must surely have said something along these lines to you “there are two lists, the first, if things work out right, is the list of heroes of the Soviet Union, the second is the list of the Order of Lenin, and if things don’t work out, those on the first list are lined up and shot, those on the second are sent to the Gulag, we must be proud that we are on the first list”.
‘Beria really has good grounds for being pleased, he is director of espionage, counter-espionage, the police and atomic research, does it all concurrently, first-rate manager, he’s pleased with you and Markov, a good team, under the direction of a good manager, that’s more than a year gained.
‘Maisie reckons Lena must have passed you this information about the bomb, Misha, at least part of it, a very interesting operation.
‘An operation centring on a nucleus, a nucleus of scientists who had the first ideas, who went to Roosevelt and told him it was time to move to the practical phase, the bomb, at the outset it was scientists who convinced the politicians and the military, and the same scientists decided among themselves to share the secret with their Soviet ally, that they wouldn’t give it exclusively to the American military, such a thing was too dangerous in just one pair of hands, so Beria didn’t go looking for the scientists, a few scientists just decided from the very beginning to scale down their own knowledge, they had a world vision, no one camp shall hold a decisive advantage, they sent out information through a variety of channels.
‘For Maisie, in this whole atomic business, your friend Lena was one of the major go-betweens, because she didn’t like Truman and because she liked you a lot.
‘Maisie’s got it wrong, hasn’t she? Lena wasn’t just an intermediary between Moscow and the core of scientists, she was part of the core, an old friend of Tellheim, the period when this small circle debated very freely just before they were shut away in their atomic laboratories in the desert, the period when they discussed, agreed, set it all to music.
‘Lena loved setting things to music, that was her main reason, setting things to music, her contempt for Truman was secondary, and she liked Eisenhower, it has to be said that he kept her out of McCarthy’s way, he sent Walker to take care of McCarthy, it’s funny: with all his faults, McCarthy had understood exactly what was going on, and it was Walker who told Eisenhower that he had to get Lena out of McCarthy’s clutches.
‘A riddle, dear Misha: who was it slipped a few items of information to McCarthy in 1954 to put him on Lena’s track? And arrange for her to be defended by Eisenhower in person? It was risky but she was becoming terminally untouchable, a brilliant move, do you accept belated compliments? But it didn’t work, because it rebounded against you, the McCarthy business turned her into a close friend of Eisenhower.
‘And Lena has principles, you never betray a friend, so nothing more comes your way, she stops singing, and later she adored Kennedy, she campaigned for Kennedy, she was a member of the clan, I’m sure she only worked for them, she must have put you out to pasture the moment Eisenhower defended her, same thing in Kennedy’s day too, or maybe you understood that there were things you couldn’t ask her any more, though in fact did you ever ask her anything? I think she always gave you what she wanted to give you, that’s all.