“So this is the way our worthy Soviet scientists live?” she asked, looking around.
“This is the way I live when I visit our worthy Soviet scientists.” Alexey went to the table, a cork popped, and Sovetskoye Shampanskoye—Soviet Champagne—sizzled in the glasses. Anna knelt down and felt the fine, silvery threads of the carpet. Alexey brought her drink; still kneeling, she clinked glasses with him and watched his bobbing Adam’s apple as he swallowed.
“How wonderful that you’re here,” he said, sinking down next to her. His belly spilled over his belt. “Were you surprised when you got my note?” She embraced him; his stubbly beard scratched her. “It’s a good thing you got something to eat in the hotel,” he said over her shoulder.
“Why?”
“The Dubna grocery warehouse was already closed. Not even my influence could make it open again this evening.” He shrugged. “I dined out with the physicists.”
Anna thought about the pike in aspic that was being served in the hotel dining room, and her mouth watered. “You mean you don’t have anything at all here?”
“Don’t they give you enough to eat in the hotel?”
“I just thought … because otherwise, this bubbly will go to my head.”
“What if it does?” He poured her some more from his glass.
“Tomorrow I have to understand some really difficult things.”
“Who cares if you don’t understand them?”
Alexey’s dismissal of the official reason for her sojourn as unimportant infuriated her. “I want to take advantage of the opportunity! This is a fabulous place, and I want to learn as much as possible!”
“And so you should,” he said, appeasing her. “So you should, Annushka. During the day, I’ll leave you to the protons and the transuranic elements. But in the evening, when the researchers are dreaming about discovering number one hundred and fourteen, you belong to me.”
“A hundred and fourteen?”
“Didn’t you know that most of the elements after the hundred and second were discovered here in Dubna?” He leaned back, propping himself on his elbows. “A hundred and three lived practically forever, a full eight seconds. His brother a hundred and four disintegrated after only three tenths of a second.” Alexey nodded sadly, as if he’d lost a beloved relative.
Anna’s assignment sprang into her mind. “Is that why you’re here? Is some new discovery about to take place?”
“No. The accelerator and its successes are the Minister’s department. My area of responsibility concerns the theoreticians.”
“You understand their research? You know what it’s about?” The bubbly wine made her bold.
“Of course not. Since my student days, a revolution has taken place in this field. It’s fascinating—I wish I had more time to look into it.”
At that moment, he looked quite young to Anna; all the heaviness seemed to have fallen from him. She asked, “What part of it fascinates you the most?”
“The language of mathematics! It contains the only truth known to me, the only one I revere.”
“Why didn’t you become a scientist?”
“Had my life run in a different course, nothing could have prevented me from becoming a scientist.” He refilled their glasses. “I’m afraid, though, that I wouldn’t have been more than mediocre at doing science.”
Anna tried to imagine him as a young man. What ideals had he followed? What had he looked like as a boy? He never spoke about his past; their common ground was limited to the present. After the next glass, she went looking for the bathroom, undressed briskly, and lay down naked on the carpet next to him.
“How warm it is,” she said with a smile. “Is that all from this fire?”
Alexey looked into the flames. “This house has thirteen radiators. Otherwise, in your present condition, you’d get chilblains.” He nestled against her breast.
Anna awoke in her hotel room. There was a sound of hurrying footsteps in the hall; she’d overslept. She felt hot and nauseous, and when she stood up—too quickly—everything spun. Bent over from the waist, she waited until the room slowed down and stopped. The sweet, fizzy wine—Alexey had insisted on opening the third bottle, too—and then the vodka … she retched, but she had nothing to throw up. I need a piece of white bread, she concluded, and got dressed in spite of her trembling limbs. Alexey had informed her that some physicists were coming to breakfast; Anton had driven her back to the hotel in the dim light of early dawn.
Everyone was in good spirits in the dining room. The members of the delegation had used the preceding evening to get to know one another