The Rocket Man (37 page)

RASAG's rocket activities have been strongly criticised by the governments of Brazil and Argentina, although both governments have behind the scenes expressed interest in the cut-price rocket since the scrapping of Argentina's Condor programme and the bankruptcy of both Brazil's major aerospace companies. The Bolivian government has accused RASAG of using a secret US military airstrip situated in the uninhabited Chaco region.

Recent reports that a plane stopped in the north of Paraguay was carrying sensitive military equipment have been strenuously denied by representatives of RASAG and the Paraguayan government.

Dmitry ordered another coffee. He looked at his hand; it was shaking slightly. He would have given anything just then for a cigarette. He tore the item out of the paper, folded it into his wallet, and read the rest of the paper. At quarter to eight he got up and walked out into the night.

Anatoly and Nina welcomed him warmly into their apartment. Nina explained that it was the maid's night off; she had just prepared something simple, there were no other guests. The two girls, aged seven and nine, were already in their pyjamas, their faces freshly scrubbed, their hair still slightly damp from the bath. They hovered nervously in the doorway and giggled whenever Dmitry looked at them.

‘Come and say hello properly,' ordered Anatoly, ‘And then go to bed.'

They sat at the end of the grand table and ate a homely meal, some Ukrainian-style dumplings stuffed with meat and onions, followed by fresh fruit. Anatoly was generous with the wine; inevitably they talked about the worsening situation back home, till Nina changed the subject and they began talking about old times. The children wandered in from time to time to ask for a drink or to peer at the visitor and Nina shooed them out again. They were not allowed to do this at official dinners, she explained, but tonight was different. Eventually she went off to read them a story. Dmitry's feeling of isolation was intensified; he could not bear the atmosphere of peaceful domesticity, contrasting with his own isolation. Anatoly must have caught his fleeting look of sadness, for he suddenly asked:

‘So you never found the right woman to marry, Mitya?'

‘No.'

‘What went wrong with you and Masha? I thought she seemed just right for you; very clever, very sensible.'

‘Perhaps she was too sensible.'

‘Nina saw her last time we were in Moscow, you know. She has married again, a professor at the Lebedev Academy.'

‘Has she? I never hear from her these days.'

Anatoly offered Dmitry a cigarette which he declined, and then re-filled his glass of wine. Then he said, ‘You know, I always thought that the trouble with you was that you were too fond of your sister.'

Dmitry smiled. ‘Well, you have to admit that other women did rather pale in comparison.'

‘Why did she marry that creep Oleg? I never could work it out. She must have had a hundred proposals. All the men were crazy about her. I was myself. My God, she was beautiful. I would have done anything for her, I swear I would have died for her if she had asked me to.'

Dmitry said, sipping his wine, ‘Fortunately that wasn't necessary.'

‘Nina still can't bear it if I mention her. She wasn't even too keen on your coming. She is very jealous, not that she has ever had much reason to be – well, now and then, you know…'

‘No, I don't know.' Dmitry was surprised.

‘You disapprove of me, Mitya.'

‘Not at all. I don't disapprove of anyone. It's just I would hope that if I were lucky enough to have a loving wife like Nina, I wouldn't see the point in being unfaithful.'

Anatoly switched the subject. He said, ‘I shouldn't really tell you this, but I heard today some news which might interest you, in view of what we were talking about yesterday.'

‘I saw what was in today's papers.'

‘Yes? Oh, well, that's already out of date. I gather the US Ambassador is going to see Rodriguez again to issue an ultimatum that the US wants the rocket project cancelled. But that's not all. Richter's investors too are getting a little anxious. He has apparently been seeking other alternatives to Paraguay, and the Americans are not happy about this. I believe they are going to try to stop the project altogether. There appear to be links, you see, with this business in Brazil, and he has also been dabbling in the Middle East. They've decided he must be stopped at all costs.'

‘How?'

‘Oh, we have intelligence that they are planning a para-military operation. A few days and it will all be over.'

For an instant Dmitry felt relief; then a terrible thought occurred to him; he couldn't shake it out of his head. He was thinking of Katie's safety. He struggled to think clearly. ‘Where exactly are they based? The Chaco is a big area, isn't it? Are they actually out there now?'

‘I imagine so. They would have been out there for the launch.' Anatoly seemed suddenly nervous. ‘Why, what's on your mind?'

The wine must have been stronger than Dmitry had thought, because he found himself blurting out: ‘Tolya, you're very careless. When I was in Vienna I had an affair, I was in love with Haynes's wife. She is there, in Paraguay, with Haynes. This Richter has armed security men, he has the support of half the Paraguayan military. If the CIA goes in, there may be shooting. They could blow them all up. Anything might happen. If they're going to destroy Richter, are they going to care if a few innocent people get in the way?'

Anatoly said, taken aback, ‘Yes, in that case, I can see your concern, but she must know the score. She knows he's not out there growing soya beans.'

Dmitry winced. He held the wine glass in his hand, swirling the dark red liquid round and round in it. Anatoly said, his voice changed, worried, ‘You're not thinking of trying to warn her, are you? You couldn't take that risk.'

Dmitry said, ‘You shouldn't have told me, Tolya.'

Anatoly had a tense, alarmed look in his eyes, though he kept his voice low and even. ‘Well, perhaps you should warn her to get out. But what if she tells them? What if she tried to leave and they find out why? Perhaps she's actually in less danger if you leave well alone.'

Dmitry got to his feet and walked to the mantelpiece, unable to keep still. He said, ‘It's my fault she's there. From the beginning I decided to tell her nothing, to protect her. It's because of that she's there now. If I had told her the truth about her husband she would never have gone with him.'

‘This affair, is it all over?'

‘Yes – that is, I thought so. I don't know.'

Dmitry had drained his glass; Anatoly replenished it. He said, ‘I'm sorry, I made a grave mistake in telling you. How was I to know that you would be so upset by it?'

Dmitry took another gulp of wine. It was good wine, but he didn't notice the taste of it. He walked across the room. ‘You know, you remember when we used to have those abstract arguments at university, about whether the greater good is worth the sacrifice of a few innocent people? Those situations we used to invent, sometimes you argued one way, sometimes the other. The trouble is, the equation was always too neat. In real life, the edges are all blurred, we can't tell who is innocent and who is not, we don't know what is going to happen, what would have happened if we had chosen differently. Besides, when we love some of those people who are to be sacrificed, it all looks rather different.'

Anatoly laughed. ‘Yes, I remember. You were always obsessed in these arguments with what you called the truth.'

‘Well, when you have been fed nothing but lies and stupidities from the cradle – things you knew made no sense, which you knew not even the person who told you them had the slightest belief in –'

‘Yes, it's coming back to me now. Scientific truth, religious truth – of course that was always a little dangerous – artistic truth, well, that was dangerous too – scientific truth was the best. That's why you became a scientist, wasn't it? You could go on looking for the truth without it being political, without being disapproved of.'

‘Well, maybe that was the original intention. I should have stayed with pure science. Now I could hardly be working with anything more political.' He turned and continued to walk up and down on the Persian carpet. ‘But the fact is, nobody really wants to know the truth about anything. To be honest with you, this whole business with Brazil has really upset me, Tolya. I was ignored; I was used. I told them there was a problem in the first place.'

‘But maybe they were right to be cautious. There was rather a lot at stake, Mitya.'

‘Yes. My life, for instance.'

Anatoly could not meet his eyes. He stood up, went to the cupboard, took out a bottle of vodka and two glasses, and poured some out. Dmitry sat down and put his glass of vodka on the table without drinking it.

‘She wrote to me, about two weeks ago,' he said. ‘She told me she was pregnant with my child. I wrote back and told her that I wanted her to have it, that if she left her husband I would marry her. She hasn't written back.'

Nina had come to the door, but when she heard what he was saying, she turned and walked out again.

Anatoly was shocked. He said, ‘My God, I see. I had no idea.'

‘No, of course you had no idea. How could you have?'

Dmitry sat and stared at the table, tracing the pattern on the cloth with his finger. He was thinking, perhaps it is already too late, perhaps she has already had a termination. He found the thought unbearable. The idea of this child affected him immensely; he recalled the sensation of holding Olga's first-born son in his arms, so tiny, so perfect, so unspoiled. It had been like the birth of hope itself. He and Olga had looked at one another; they had smiled; they had kissed; they had promised then to put the past behind them. Even Oleg, the happy, proud father, had seemed different; Dmitry had felt quite fond of him on that day.

Anatoly said, nervously, ‘What are you going to do?'

‘Well, I could go and see her. It's only an hour's flight to Asunción.'

‘You're crazy. They would never give you a visa with a Soviet passport.'

‘I can travel on my UN laissez-passer.'

‘Only on official business, surely.'

‘They won't know if it's official. I expect I would get told off when I get back.'

‘How would you find her?'

‘Oh, I'd find her. You can find out anything in South America if you pay enough.'

‘You're mad. It's too risky.'

‘You wouldn't try to stop me?'

‘How could I? I can only tell you that it would be dangerous, for her as well as you.' He struck his forehead with the palm of his hand. ‘My God, I am an idiot to have said anything.' He stood up, clearly anxious to end this conversation. ‘I had better take you back to the hotel.'

Nina came back in with the coffee and put the tray down on the table. She looked at them both uncertainly, clearly not understanding the cause of the heavy atmosphere which now permeated the room. Her husband, who had been so looking forward to seeing his old friend, now sat with a completely closed expression, staring at the floor. Dmitry got up suddenly. He said, ‘I am sorry, I'm not feeling so well. I think I had better go back. Thank you for a delightful evening, both of you.'

Anatoly said, ‘I will take you in the car.'

‘No, no, I can get a taxi.'

‘It is no trouble to get the car out.'

‘No, really, I would rather go on my own.'

Nina said suddenly, ‘Tolya, let him go.' She could have had no idea what had happened, but she seemed to want Dmitry out of the apartment at once, as if she'd had a sudden conviction that he was dangerous, that he brought havoc wherever he went. Dmitry kissed both her cheeks and then stood back; he held out his hand to Anatoly, who took it and shook it, formally and without warmth.

‘Have a good trip back to Vienna.'

Nina saw him to the door.

In the middle of the night Dmitry woke up. He was wide awake and terribly thirsty. He got up, poured a glass of mineral water from the bottle in the fridge, and drained it. Then he sat on the edge of the bed and started to think.

It had not occurred to him until he spoke to Tolya to go to Paraguay. But was it so impossible? There were always ways of finding out what you needed to know. Why not find Katie, and get to the bottom of this Richter business? Haynes must know what was going on.

No. How could he even think of doing anything so stupid? It was quite possible that Katie wasn't there. She might never have received his fax; someone might have intercepted it. And what if Tolya were right, what if it were more dangerous to warn her than to let things be? He got up and walked over to the window. What would Tolya do, now that he had realised his mistake? Perhaps he would try to make sure that he did get on the plane tomorrow. There were ways; people were taken ill, drugged, escorted to the airport. He had seen this happen himself once, in Geneva. But surely these things didn't happen any more?