Goodbye to an Old Friend

Chapter Nine

Pavel had been lodged overnight in north London, in a large house on the outskirts of Islington. Adrian collected him at nine and in the back of the curtained Rover they went out along Western Avenue towards Northolt, where the helicopter was waiting.

Pavel said nothing.

He hadn’t even spoken when Adrian got to Islington, just given a brief nod of recognition and then allowed himself to be hurried into the vehicle, a man completely resigned to being moved from one spot to another at the will of others. There was no fight in him now, no arrogance or conceit. He was completely drained of everything, everything except his secrets.

Adrian had been to the office early, studying with Binns the reports of the two men who had attended the meeting between the embassy official and Pavel.

It was a lengthy, twenty-page typescript, sectioned into question and answer. Adrian read it twice, the second time analysing it sentence by sentence, briefing himself for the later meeting with the scientist.

Binns had sighed, throwing his copy on the desk.

‘What do you think?’

‘Brilliant,’ Adrian had judged, immediately.

‘Brilliant?’

‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a document where one man has so successfully left another with a greater sense of his own guilt. That man isn’t just an official at their embassy. He’s a psychiatrist. And a good one.’

‘That’s exactly what I felt,’ Binns had replied.

Adrian had experienced a stir of pleasure, knowing that they’d reached the same conclusion.

Binns had continued, ‘It was wrong exposing Pavel to that interview, if we want to keep him.’

‘You know how I felt about that. And that the meeting with Bennovitch should be postponed,’ Adrian had warned, urgently. ‘If Pavel, after last night, is thrown together with Bennovitch, then it’ll be another day wasted.’

‘I know. I’ve already warned the P.M. I said just that.’

‘And?’

‘He’s ordered that the meeting go ahead.’

Adrian had sighed. And he’d be blamed. Whatever went wrong, Ebbetts had already established the scapegoat, the sacrifice to defeat if defeat occurred.

Adrian had anticipated the mood that Pavel would be in, but the depth of remorse and despair surprised him.

Adrian, who had visited the British embassy in Moscow and knew the city, smiled out of the car and tried small talk.

‘The English traffic,’ he said. ‘Different from what you’re used to.’

Pavel didn’t even bother to grunt a response.

‘We’re going to see Alexandre,’ Adrian persisted. ‘It won’t take long, by helicopter.’

The car cleared Wembley and picked up speed along the dual carriageway. Adrian relaxed, relieved that the car, an ideal target in the slow-moving traffic, was no longer so vulnerable.

‘Alexandre is looking forward to it,’ he pressed on, trying to break down the barrier.

Slowly Pavel turned to him. He’d stopped crying so much, but his complexion was grey and putty-like. If I touched his face, thought Adrian, the finger-mark would stay.

‘He wouldn’t tell me,’ said Pavel. His voice was flat and unsure, like a man speaking for the first time after a long illness. ‘I asked him. I kept on asking him and then I pleaded and he looked at me and his face didn’t move, not at all. He just shrugged.’

Adrian didn’t reply. He’d seen the typescript, the incessant question from the defector repeated over and over again: ‘My family. What’s happened to my family?’

Adrian expected tears, but Pavel seemed to have progressed beyond that now. He sat in the far corner of the car.

‘They’ve arrested them, haven’t they? They’ve arrested them and put them on trial. They’re going to die. They’re going to die because of what I’ve done. I’ve killed them.’

Adrian sensed the growing hysteria and spoke quickly, anxious to halt it.

‘Stop it, Viktor. We don’t know that. You’re guessing.’

‘I don’t have to guess. I know.’

They paused at the gate to the R.A.F. station, identified themselves and then swept into the restricted section, where the Westland Whirlwind waited under guard.

Again, moving like someone mentally retarded, entirely dependent on others, Pavel was led from the car, seated and belted into the helicopter and then obediently lowered his head, while the flight sergeant fumbled with the regulation helmet. Adrian had to wear one, too, and sat in the machine feeling stupid and self-conscious.

The protection prevented conversation and so they sat side by side in the helicopter, just looking down. To prevent Pavel knowing where he was being taken, the helicopter flew directly west, down to Dorset, over the neat fields set out like a giant stamp collection, before turning south out over the Channel, so there were no landmarks, and then retracing its route to the east. It crossed the coast again at Hastings and looped Pulborough to where Bennovitch was being held.

Pavel struggled from the machine, hobbling with cramp and for the first time Adrian realized how old he was. Fifty-nine, thought Adrian. Fifty-nine and just five days ago he seemed ageless. Now he looked like a senile old man.

He stood waiting for instructions beneath the helicopter, which drooped, like a huge insect caught in the rain.

Adrian put an arm around his shoulders and gently propelled him towards the house. The Russian approached docilely, without comment. Adrian felt he would have walked just as unquestioningly away from the house if he had been ordered to, so little interest was he taking in what happened to him.

As they got nearer, Adrian isolated the elegant room where all his debriefings with the other Russian had taken place and then he saw Bennovitch, his head barely above the window-sill. He was standing quite motionless, still not completely convinced that it was Pavel who was being brought to him.

When they were very close, Bennovitch’s face cleared and a half smile formed. He tried a hesitant wave, shyly almost, as if he expected to be rejected for what he had done. Pavel made no response and Bennovitch’s face settled into a frown of uncertainty.

Adrian touched the older Russian’s arm, then gestured towards the window. Pavel’s eyes focused and Bennovitch saw he had been recognized and he smiled again, more hopefully this time.

Adrian glanced back to his companion, like a father encouraging a reluctant son to acknowledge a birthday aunt. And remained staring at Pavel. Never had he seen such a look of sadness on a man’s face. The look lasted a few seconds, then faded.

They hurried in and Bennovitch burst into the hall before Pavel could take off his light Russian-style summer raincoat. They both stood there, in the high-ceilinged, timbered hall, with its wide, baronial stairway lined with shields and swords of forgotten battles, just looking at each other.

No one spoke and Adrian became aware of the slow, sticky tick of the grandfather clock near the beginning of the stairs. It sounds like an old man’s heart, he thought, weak and at any moment ready to stop bothering. He waited, expecting the noise to cease, but it went on, monotonously.

Bennovitch moved first, very slowly, raising his arms as he walked and then Pavel started forward and they fell into each other’s embrace, the traditional Russian greeting, kissing each other repeatedly on the cheek. Still they said nothing. Adrian saw both were crying.

Finally Pavel held the smaller man at arm’s length, studying him.

‘Alexandre,’ he mouthed, softly.

‘Viktor.’

They hugged each other again and then Bennovitch turned, leading the other man back into the beautiful room with its view of the garden. Pavel kept his arm around Bennovitch’s shoulders protectively, and neither seemed aware that Adrian had followed them into the room.

They went to a long couch drawn up before the open, dead fireplace, the hearth disguised by horse-chestnut branches cut from the grounds. Adrian edged into an armchair and sat, waiting.

Pavel spoke first and when he did it was in the dull monotone of the car ride to the airfield.

‘He wouldn’t tell me,’ he said, searching Bennovitch’s face as if the other man would have an explanation for the diplomat’s refusal. ‘I asked him, again and again, but he wouldn’t reply.’

Bennovitch sat motionless, his face ridged in puzzlement. This was not the man he knew, the autocratic, overbearing genius he’d left six weeks before in a massive Moscow laboratory where the technicians jumped at his very presence. This was not the Hero of the Soviet Union, the holder of more awards than any other Russian civilian, the man to whom the scientists of the world looked in awe.

This was a rambling old man.

Adrian thought Bennovitch looked disappointed and suddenly he recognized the parallel. He and Binns. Pavel and Bennovitch. Disappointment? Yes, certainly that, but there was more. Each — Binns in him perhaps, certainly Bennovitch in Pavel — had created an ideal, an image without any flaws.

But now the picture was blurred.

A man had become superman and there was no such thing. Men were just men and women were just women. He paused, thinking of Anita. Well, almost always.

Sir Jocelyn had realized it and now he stuttered when they met. Bennovitch was baffled and now he stared in disbelief.

Sad, decided Adrian. It was a pity people couldn’t keep the perfection they had imagined rather than having to accept reality. It was like shopping in a street market. People always expected a bargain and always got second best.

‘Viktor,’ tried Bennovitch. ‘What is it?’

Pavel looked at his assistant.

‘He wouldn’t tell me,’ he repeated, stupidly.

Adrian had wanted to remain outside their thoughts, hoping they wouldn’t even notice his presence. But now he realized that unless he prompted the conversation the two men would spend their meeting in near-silence.

‘Alexandre,’ he said, quietly, introducing himself almost. ‘Viktor met an official from your embassy last night.’

The uncertainty lifted from Bennovitch’s face and he turned to the other Russian.

‘You shouldn’t have done it, Viktor. You should have kept away.’

Pavel looked at him, the deadness slipping away from his face.

‘But Valentina. What about Valentina? And the children.’

Bennovitch nibbled at his fingers. ‘Do you think I haven’t considered that?’ he said.

Adrian relaxed, realizing the dam in the conversation had been breached.

‘When I left, it didn’t matter, because you were there and they wouldn’t consider any move. But now …’

Bennovitch stumbled to a halt, unable to express himself.

‘They’ll face trial,’ said Pavel, positively. ‘They’ll torture me, by proxy.’

‘And me.’

For a moment, there was silence. Then Bennovitch said, ‘My poor sister.’

‘My poor wife.’

‘Then why?’

The question burst from Bennovitch, suddenly freed from the hero worship and the restrictions under which he had worked for fifteen years. There was no anger from Pavel at the abrupt demand from his assistant.

‘I was wrong,’ he admitted. ‘Oh, I was so wrong.’ He stopped, gazing at the floor, embarrassed almost to meet the look of the other man.

‘I was worried about the experiments, about the Mars probe and the space platform. It was getting more and more restrictive. I was thinking of defecting months ago …’

He paused, smiling for the first time.

‘Funny,’ he said, ‘I told myself that if I went, then your position would protect Valentina and the children until I could get them out. But you went first from the Helsinki conference …’

Now it was the turn of Bennovitch to appear embarrassed, as if he owed an explanation.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

‘I never knew,’ said Pavel, in another aside, ‘I never guessed you were thinking of going over.’

Bennovitch grinned at him, glad they shared a secret. ‘Neither did I of you. And I thought I knew you so well.’

Pavel shrugged. ‘Anyway, once you’d gone, there was tremendous pressure. The whole department came under the most fantastic investigation I’ve ever known. It was far worse than anything that happened under Stalin. Everyone was checked and then checked again …’

He hesitated again. ‘God knows what it will be like now,’ he said.

He went on. ‘I was hauled before the inner committee …’

‘Kaganov?’ interrupted Bennovitch. There was fear etched into the question.

Pavel nodded. ‘I got the whole lecture. The demands for dossier files on all my staff, everything like that. I had to agree to the employment of two political commissars, actually in the laboratory. And then they told me that the budget would be cut back. I had proved politically unreliable and therefore the work had to come to a standstill until the department had cleared itself of any involvement.’

‘You?’ Bennovitch seemed incredulous. ‘They imposed restrictions on you?’

Pavel nodded. ‘Kaganov seemed to enjoy it. He even quoted a Western axiom to me. “No one is indispensable,” he told me. “Not even you.” ’

Bennovitch shook his head in disbelief and Pavel smiled at him.

‘You’ve no idea of the problems you caused. I was in complete turmoil. You, someone I loved like a brother, had defected. The work in the department was blocked for six months, maybe longer. I wasn’t thinking straight, I thought I was important, more important than I was. I convinced myself that once out, I could get the family out as well. Now I realize that isn’t possible.’

‘What did he say last night?’

Pavel didn’t reply immediately. He sat, recalling the conversation with the diplomat.

‘Just that I should come back. That I had disgraced the Soviet Union, but that they were prepared to forgive me and let me go back.’

‘Do you believe them?’

Pavel considered the question, then grimaced, without replying.

‘I wouldn’t see them,’ announced Bennovitch, as if the refusal indicated bravery. ‘The English were very fair, they said it was entirely my choice and I decided there was no point.’

Both men, who were speaking in Russian, appeared to have forgotten Adrian was in the room.

‘But I had to know,’ protested Pavel, picking up the familiar theme. ‘I had to try and find out what had happened to them.’

Silence settled again and Adrian was afraid they had reached another barrier. He sat, reluctant to intrude.

Then Bennovitch asked, suddenly, ‘How has the work gone?’

‘Well,’ said Pavel. ‘Most of it stopped immediately you left, of course. We began working on the calculations you’d made about flight adjustments after launch. Remember, we didn’t spend much time on them. But the unmanned Mars probe was sending back interesting data. Do you know it recorded solar wind speeds of 350 miles a second?’

‘That fast! But that will create just the adjustment difficulties I foresaw.’

‘I know. Do you realize how much more important that made your defection? Let me tell you what I considered.’

Pavel took paper from his pocket and began writing formulae and suddenly the age and indecision and self-pity lifted from him. A change came over Bennovitch, too. The nervousness ceased as he immersed himself in what Pavel was saying, occasionally querying a fact or a calculation. Adrian looked on fascinated as the two men worked, appreciating for the first time how necessary one was to the other. Apart, they were two brilliant scientists, their space knowledge and ideas far beyond those of any Western counterpart. Together they were spectacular, each grasping the idea of the other before the sentence was completely uttered, two men wholly in tune with each other. Like twins, thought Adrian, twins sharing between them an incomparable brain.

Suddenly he saw their incredible importance. And realized too, how far ahead Ebbetts was planning to use that importance. Adrian felt admiration for the Prime Minister and then immediately begrudged the feeling. Always right. The politicians were always right and by the time the memoirs were written, the excuses had been established.

The door opened at the far end of the long room and one of the security officers entered.

The two Russians stared at him and momentarily Pavel’s face clouded, as if he had forgotten where he was and was about to rebuke a worker for intruding into a laboratory where a vital conference was being held.

Then Adrian said, ‘Thank you,’ and they were both reminded of him and the mood was broken.

‘I’m being taken away?’

There was surprise in Pavel’s question.

‘For a while …’ began Adrian, but then Bennovitch cut in. ‘But this is ridiculous. Madness. Why should we be parted?’

‘Because we have decided it should be so,’ replied Adrian, abruptly. The authority had to be maintained.

‘Oh,’ said Bennovitch, punctured.

‘From one master to another,’ said Pavel and there was a hint of the mockery of their first meetings.

‘Come now, Viktor,’ replied Adrian, mocking too, ‘That’s not so and you know it.’

Pavel smiled and said, ‘Yes. Yes I know it,’ and the remark registered. It was the first time Pavel had conceded that what he had found might be better than what he had left behind. An improvement, judged Adrian. Very slight, but an improvement.

‘We’ve got to go to the other house,’ he said, an unnecessary explanation. ‘We will probably decide to put you together by the end of the week.’

Pavel and Bennovitch looked at each other and then back at Adrian, resigned.

‘We’ll meet tomorrow?’ Bennovitch asked Adrian. The Englishman nodded.

‘Good,’ said the tiny Russian.

The windows of the car in which they returned to Pulborough were completely blackened and then curtained. Pavel smiled at the protection.

‘You make me think I’m valuable.’

‘I don’t have to tell you that. You know your value,’ replied Adrian. He was happy that the Russian thought the protection was for his benefit.

‘How was it, meeting Alexandre again?’ asked Adrian.

The Russian thought about the question.

‘Good,’ he said, inadequately. ‘It was good to see him.’

‘The work won’t be interrupted,’ offered Adrian, hopefully, trying to reinforce the other man’s decision to defect. ‘In two months, maybe less, you could be in your own laboratory again, working at just the same degree of experimentation as you were before.’

Pavel ignored the encouragement. He closed his eyes against the pale interior light of the car and was silent for a long time.

Then he said, ‘Valentina, oh God, Valentina,’ and Adrian realized that the whole day had been wasted.

‘It took place,’ reported Kaganov.

‘What happened?’ Minevsky managed the question just ahead of Heirar.

‘Just what we expected,’ continued the chairman. ‘He could talk of nothing except his wife and family. London say he asked at least ten times.’

‘They didn’t answer, of course,’ anticipated Heirar, safely.

‘Of course not,’ agreed Kaganov.

‘What about the boy?’ asked Minevsky, suddenly reminded. ‘Are we still keeping him down on the border?’

‘No,’ dismissed Kaganov. ‘That brat is important. He’s being moved tomorrow. We’ve got to show we’re serious.’

‘ “Men of our word”, as the British might say,’ quoted Heirar, amused at his own joke.

‘Always that,’ laughed Kaganov. ‘Always men of our word.’