still press the white button?
'You know what he answered?' Nikolai said. 'He said, 'Yes, Nikolai, I would, without hesitation.' Of course he would say that. Microphones everywhere, someone always listening. But he is telling truth, I can tell. Then he looked very pechalno, very sad, and he said, 'But not for reason you would.' '
'What on earth did he mean?' Benjamin asked.
Nikolai shrugged. 'Don't know. And never get chance to find out. Because of 'glitch,' KGB comes to investigate. To find somebody to blame. When mistake happens, always has to be a name for Moscow. Understand?'
'Yes,' said Benjamin, 'I think I do.'
'Well,' Nikolai went on, 'day KGB comes to Uzhur-4, I'm nervous, of course. But I did my job, I think, it's okay. But Vladimir, I guess he didn't think same way.'
'Why?' asked Benjamin.
'Because that day, before KGB talks to him, he shoots himself.'
Natalya, who had sat silently through Nikolai's story and the two men's conversation, now spoke up.
'I remember something Mother told me,' she said. 'Something about you being absent for a month, instead of the usual ten days. And I remember, too, she said perhaps a month later, you returned from the base very quiet. You never told her why.'
'As I said,' Nikolai went on, 'Vladimir was good friend. Such a thing, among the rocketchiki… well, it was very bad. Very bad. Of course, KGB talk to everyone, take all his things. Many people reassigned after that, sent to other bases, including me.'
'Until you retired,' said Benjamin. 'Natalya told me about your… research.'
Nikolai looked down at the floor. 'Yes, that was part of it.'
'Not all of it?' Natalya asked, coming closer.
Nikolai looked up at her, reached out for her hand.
'I could not tell you, Natashka. I could not tell your mother. I could not tell anyone. '
'Tell us what?' she asked, taking his hand.
Nikolai stood, went over to an empty chair. He picked up a small metal box, brought it back to them.
He held the box before them and slowly lifted the lid.
'About these,' he said. 'I call them my relics. And now, in this place, it seems a very good name.'
Nikolai reached inside the box, took out two small objects. Benjamin noticed that he handled them as though they were indeed holy relics.
Nikolai held the objects out in his palm.
They were a crumpled, empty cigarette pack and a small wooden box for matches.
After Nikolai explained to them how he'd discovered them in his dress uniform tunic the day after Leverotov's suicide, he let Benjamin examine them.
The cigarette pack was green and blue, with ' ' (Shipka) stenciled on it in white letters. The matchbox had a red label with a picture of two raised hands, one with a hammer and the other with a sickle, a miniature rocket rising over them.
Benjamin shook the matchbox. Something inside rattled.
'Open it,' Nikolai said.
Carefully, Benjamin slid the cover back. Inside, he could see matches, each with a blue tip, except for one.
'Thirty-four,' said Nikolai, 'counting the headless one. Now remove them.'
Benjamin tilted the matchbox and dumped the matches into his other hand. He looked inside.
'What the-'
'Yes,' said Nikolai. 'Not typical, is it.'
'What?' said Natalya.
Benjamin was still looking at the writing and symbols inside the matchbox.
He could make out lines, squiggles, triangles, squares, and other geometric shapes-and in the center of the bottom, the words ' Stzenariy 55 ' were written in tiny, precise letters.
'Have you any idea what this means?' Natalya asked. She held the matchbox, still examining the interior.
Benjamin realized he was gripping the matches loosely in his fist, and he quickly opened his hand, afraid he might rub two of them together and ignite the bunch. He handed them to Natalya and then walked away a bit and began pacing back and forth in the opposite stall, his head down, his arms crossed, deep in thought.
'Well,' Nikolai said, 'there are some interesting points. And I have had considerable time to think it over.' He smiled, went on. 'You notice, on the matchbox, there is something written.'
'Yes,' said Natalya. 'This number thirty-four.'
'Well, maybe coincidence, but that is number of missiles in Uzhur-4 nest.'
'But that's also the number of matches in the box,' Natalya said.
'Not at first,' said Nikolai. 'All such matchboxes, they contain forty matches. Exactly. Everything in the nest is counted, believe me.'
'Then what about this one?' Natalya held up the headless match.
'Ah,' said Nikolai. 'When I said thirty-four missiles, I meant there were supposed to be thirty-four missiles, when base complete. They built last silo, but never put in its sausage. So, maybe headless match means…'
'Empty silo,' finished Natalya.
'Maybe,' said Nikolai.
Natalya then held out the cigarette pack. 'But then why give you this, with no cigarettes?'
'Well, could call Vladimir stingy bastard,' Nikolai joked. 'Or maybe, is what on pack is important.'
Natalya looked at the lettering. 'Shipka?' she said.
'You remember your Russian history?' Nikolai asked, raising an eyebrow.
Natalya thought for a moment.
'It is 1877. Russian Army defeats Suleiman's Turkish Army at the Shipka Pass, in Bulgaria.' She looked at the cigarette pack. 'That's the Shipka Monument,' she said, 'at the pass.'
'High marks,' said Nikolai.
Natalya shook her head. 'I do not understand. Shipka is in Bulgaria. What does it have to do with Uzhur in Siberia?'
'Remember, in my story, there was relaxation area? Building near surface, but covered in dirt and trees, to camouflage? We used to joke, this was where we turn back imperialist aggressors. We called it 'Shipka of Siberia.' '
At that, Benjamin looked up from his pacing and thinking.
'So, Leverotov was telling you there was something in that building, something he'd hidden there for you to find.'
Nikolai shook his head, frowning. 'I look, believe me, before I'm reassigned. And KGB, after Vladimir shoot himself, they go over whole complex with, what you call, thin-teeth comb.'
'Fine-tooth comb,' said Benjamin, but he'd already turned and bent his head in thought again.
'And these markings inside the matchbox?' Natalya asked.
Nikolai went to her and took the matchbox from her.
'Well, Vladimir engineer. I think these are symbols for electronic circuit. Probably thought I would know what they mean. Some code for wiring, or maybe computer program…'
'And?' asked Natalya.
Nikolai looked at her, smiled sadly.
'I don't know. Could never figure them out. For circuit, doesn't make sense.'
'What we need,' sighed Natalya, 'is one of those capitalist treasure maps, with little dotted lines pointing to where the treasure is buried.'
Benjamin stopped pacing.
He was thinking of something Samuel had said, back at the Foundation, something about there was no 'X marks the spot' to solve this mystery.
Or maybe there is, he thought.
He walked over and took the matchbox from Nikolai, looked again at the tiny symbols.
'Natalya,' he said, 'remember that mural, in the lobby of the hotel in Dubna?'
