His breathing appeared to have stopped. Then, as though he’d suddenly regained consciousness, Kamarovsky jerked his head up and heaved a deep sigh. When he noticed his hand on the young woman’s leg, he stiffened his fingers and got immediately to his feet. “You were saying that your conversation with the leader of the theoretical physics section came about by accident.” He reached the desk in three steps, leaned on its edge, and opened a file. “How so?”
A rush of blood flooded Anna’s face. From one second to the next, the Colonel had yanked her into the place where he wanted her. She said, “Because I didn’t find Lyushin, he found me.”
Kamarovsky unscrewed the top of his fountain pen and gazed at the nib. “I had the information that Lyushin likes to ski at night passed on to you. Why didn’t you act on that tip?”
Finally, Anna had the solution to the mystery of the second agent: The skinny orphanage director, so intent on ingratiating himself with her, had been on the job. He, at least, had carried out his assignment brilliantly.
“I considered it unlikely … actually, I thought—”
“You didn’t act purposefully because you had a bad hangover,” he said, interrupting her. “You needed to be clearheaded, and you weren’t.” In the light of the desk lamp, Kamarovsky looked older. His eyes blinked behind the lenses of his spectacles. “Please describe your meeting with Lyushin in detail.”
As an outward sign that she was ready to give a sober report, Anna left the sofa and sat in her usual place. She outlined the situation on the afternoon in question and described Lyushin’s sudden appearance in Bulyagkov’s borrowed house.
“Did you have the impression that the relationship between the two is of such a kind that would permit unannounced visits?”
After a brief hesitation, Anna answered that the situation had not seemed unusual to her. The two men had quarreled the previous day, and she’d looked upon Lyushin’s appearance as an offer of reconciliation.
“In your opinion, what was the quarrel about?”
“Money. Lyushin referred to setbacks in a research project. He wants more money so that the research can continue.”
“Setbacks?” The nib of the fountain pen was pointing at her. “Are you completely sure about that?”
“That was the word he used.”
“How did you come to be talking about that?”
Anna recalled the crazy afternoon, remembered how she’d sat there in her underwear with the scratchy blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “I had done a little research and learned something about the basics of quantum mechanics,” she answered. “Lyushin was quizzing me. It was a kind of teacher-student situation.” Aided by her notes, she gave an account of the conversation, used Lyushin’s own technical language to describe his problem, and ended with a reference to the series of equations in which the scientists proposed to achieve greater accuracy by leaving out lower-order terms. “At this point, Lyushin conceded that he had been forced to take some steps backward.” Anna lowered her notepad. “His department must revise their work all the way back to an equation that was constructed a year and a half ago.”
The Colonel nodded. “Lyushin’s Stationary Law,” he said. “A fabulous breakthrough, or so it seemed at the time.” He turned to a fresh page and wrote a few lines. “How did Bulyagkov react to Lyushin’s revelation?”
“He knew about it. Apparently, the main issue was the continued financial support.”
“And the lost time.” Kamarovsky licked his lips like a thirsty man. “Dubna is dependent on Lyushin’s results. There’s a whole series of construction projects in the works, all based on his revolutionary methods.”
He stopped talking and opened a drawer. She expected him to take something out of it, but he laid an empty hand on his writing pad. “I’d like to thank you, Comrade. You’ve fulfilled your assignment more thoroughly than you seem to know. For several reasons, we’ve had doubts about whether or not the theoretical physics section was being cagey about its successful results. Your information, Anna, gives us concrete clues.”
She responded to his unexpected thanks with a nod and shoved her chair back, thinking that her report was at an end.
“I’ve had this on my desk for the last two weeks.”
Looking up, Anna saw that Kamarovsky was holding a document in his hand. “I wanted to give it to you personally.” He inverted it and pushed it over the desk to Anna. The document was entitled “GLAVLIT—Summary Decision.”
“I acknowledge that it’s taken a long time, but the result warrants the