room. Already waiting inside were four men, all civilians. They were grouped around a table set in front of a slightly elevated second section upon which there were two blackboards, on stands, with diagrams and charts already neatly pinned up. There were other papers strewn about the table and Berenkov believed he recognized some at least to be what had arrived from Petrin, in America. Kalenin pushed into the room ahead of Berenkov, nodding although not smiling to the assembled men, and Berenkov guessed there had been earlier meetings between them. Berenkov was only introduced formally to one of the four and assumed the man to be the senior of the group. His name was Nikolai Noskov. He was a stooped, carelessly dressed man with a difficult speech impediment: he had to struggle to get most words out, eyes closed with a combination of effort and frustration. It necessarily made him economical in everything he said, although another impression could have been that Noskov was rudely autocratic.
There were hand waves towards seats, almost impatient gestures of politeness. Noskov made several attempts and at last managed: ‘Your coming here is very necessary.’
Berenkov waited for a response to come from Kalenin, the senior officer, but the man said nothing so Berenkov didn’t speak either.
Noskov shuffled through the disordered documents on the table, finally locating what he wanted. He pitched it slightly forwards, towards them, and said: ‘Useless! Absolutely useless!’
Still Kalenin did not move so Berenkov reached for it, identifying it instantly as the blueprint that had arrived from England. It was of some type of armature. He said: ‘Useless how?’
‘Look at the side,’ stuttered Noskov: the L was particularly difficult for him to pronounce.
‘I don’t understand,’ said Berenkov.
‘Each drawing has to have a specification instruction accompanying it,’ said the scientist. ‘A design drawing is no good without guidance to where it fits. Its function. Its component relationship to everything else.’ He stopped, breathless, and from the discernible wheezing Berenkov guessed the man to be afflicted by asthma, as well.
‘There are instructions,’ insisted Berenkov, immediately abandoning the aircraft reflection to let Kalenin lead.
‘Incomplete,’ came back Noskov, just as insistent and without interruption on this one occasion. ‘Impossible safely to incorporate.’
The problem, isolated Berenkov: at last! His mind moved immediately on from that realization, throwing up other, connected thoughts and there was, too, a surge of annoyance at being before this anonymous group of men in this fashion, paraded literally like some guilty incompetent. He didn’t know the role of any of them, any more than he knew their names apart from Noskov, but he guessed they didn’t have any more influence than he did. It was a protection exercise, he decided, guessing further. He didn’t doubt there was something incomplete with the British drawing – they wouldn’t risk being caught out on something so easily challenged – but whatever was missing was the excuse, not the reason, for this overly dramatic summons. This group – an inner committee, probably – were taking out insurance against any disasters in the future. The arguments at this meeting could be produced in future – which meant it was being witnessed or recorded – if anything went wrong, hopefully to show that the fault had been that of the information-gatherers, not of the technicians and specialists assigned to translate that information into viable space equipment. Time to provide lessons in practical, personal survival, thought Berenkov, feeling relaxed for the first time in hours. He said: ‘I’m not at all surprised.’ Everyone else was: even Kalenin, Berenkov suspected.
‘What did you say!’ demanded Noskov. His forced outrage overrode the impediment, so the words came out quite clearly again.
‘I said that I am not at all surprised that information is coming incomplete,’ elaborated Berenkov. ‘How can it be otherwise, if I am expected to work as I am at present! I am a trained intelligence officer, controlling other trained intelligence officers. None of us are scientists. How can we be expected to know whether what we get is complete or otherwise, separated as we are? I need the facility every time to check and consult, guaranteeing you people here get everything you need properly to fulfil what you have to do.’ Pedantically verbose, conceded Berenkov. But very necessary. The onus was now entirely reversed, switching the responsibility on to them, and from the expressions around the table they realized it.
‘Which is an argument I have advanced from the very beginning,’ came in Kalenin, further entangling the scientists. ‘It is an objection I have firmly registered in Moscow, although it was prior to our meetings there, Comrade Noskov. I would have advised you, of course, if I had been approached before this meeting instead of being simply instructed to attend it by the Politburo Secretariat.’
Noskov actually flushed. His mouth worked, desperately, but the words wouldn’t come. He gave another hand gesture, a plea for help, and a studious, heavily moustached man to his left said: ‘We were unaware of this.’
‘We don’t have the advantage of your name?’ questioned Kalenin, with a cold smile.
‘Guzins,’ said the man. ‘Yuri Ivanovich Guzins.’
‘And you complained without any reference?’ said Kalenin.
‘This is regarded as extremely important,’ tried Guzins in attempted explanation.
‘All the more reason for proper liaison,’ repeated Kalenin.
Relentlessly re-entering the conversation, Berenkov said: ‘We’ve been shown one drawing: one out of forty- three I know so far to have been supplied. Is that the only one with which you find fault?’
‘So far,’ managed Noskov.
‘The drawing you are rejecting was the last to be provided,’ persisted Berenkov. ‘You
‘They are satisfactory,’ conceded the moustached Guzins.
‘I consider this has been a very premature protest,’ said Kalenin. ‘Quite unnecessary at the level at which it was initiated, in fact.’
They’d won, decided Berenkov. Practically to the extent of it being no contest. He said: ‘How do you know the British drawing has omissions?’
‘We have the complete section of drawings from America to accommodate what arrived from Britain,’ said Guzins. The British appear to be manufacturing the hinged arm to pivot the release doors, when an American destruct missile is fired upon any hostile attack rocket. There are no details of fitment, between one to the other.’
‘What about another drawing which we don’t yet have?’
‘It should be upon this blueprint,’ insisted Noskov.
‘You were speaking with qualification,’ picked out Berenkov, to the man with the moustache. ‘You said the British
Guzins looked briefly towards the man with the speech difficulty, who nodded. Guzins stoop up, going to the laid-out blackboards, and with a wooden pointer indicated two artist’s impressions. The man said: ‘Study carefully the armature drawn here. Each is identical to the other: it’s the positioning that’s different. It would accord it entirely different functions. One way it would literally operate the garage door. The other it could be forming part of a combined arm-device, to activate
‘What’s the significance between the two?’ asked Berenkov.
‘The Americans have always insisted their Strategic Defence Initiative is entirely
There were several moments of utter silence in the room. Then Berenkov said: ‘Yes, we understand.’
On their way back to Moscow in the cold transporter, uncomfortable on their hard-ridged webbing seats, Kalenin announced: ‘They’ll be more cautious with complaints the next time.’
‘I can understand the importance that’s being attached to this if the apparatus has dual capacity.’
‘There’s no confirmation yet that it has.’
‘What the hell went wrong, in Britain!’
‘Something you’ve got to find out,’ said Kalenin. ‘And make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.’
Laura demanded to arrange the evening and when he arrived to collect her from the Chelsea house Charlie found she’d prepared dinner in. The attempt at domesticity vaguely unsettled him, like her husband’s photograph. She had cooked duck with black cherries and told him where to find the
