Quantum

24

‘Dmitri, it’s good to see you again,’ Zoshchenko said coolly as she walked into Orlov’s anteroom. ‘My condolences on the loss of your brother.’

‘Thank you,’ Leskov acknowledged with a nod. ‘Pavel knew the risks involved in our work, and he died with honor. He was a good man, difficult to replace.’

‘He will see you both now,’ Irena Cherny announced as she set the phone in its cradle.

Leskov opened the door for Zoshchenko, then followed her into Orlov’s office. The view across Moscow to the Kremlin was breathtaking on this sunlit summer morning.

‘Please, have a seat,’ Orlov offered, his hand motioning toward the couch and chairs near the window. On the table in the center of the furniture arrangement sat a silver tea service.

‘Dmitri, what is the status of our surveillance in America?’

Leskov unbuttoned his blazer before sitting in one of Orlov’s prerevolutionary antique chairs. ‘The physicist Sandstrom is still receiving treatment for extensive burns at University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His condition is stable, but he is in for a long and difficult recovery. Electronic devices have been placed in his room, and his phone has been tapped. The team monitoring him has leased an apartment in a tower across the river from the hospital, high enough that they are receiving very clear transmission from the devices. Sandstrom has two regular visitors — Nolan Kilkenny and Kelsey Newton. Both were present during the raid on Sandstrom’s lab. A thorough background check on Kilkenny has revealed that he was once a junior officer in the U.S. Navy SEALs.’

Orlov arched an eyebrow at Leskov’s final comment.

‘Da, Victor Ivanovich. That is why three of my men are dead. Kilkenny’s training is equal to Spetsnaz. Per your request, surveillance of both Kilkenny and Newton is also in place.’

‘Excellent, Dmitri. Have you learned anything from the surveillance?’ Orlov asked.

‘Da. We have confirmed the assumption that the MARC/ND-ARC combine intends to continue its support of Sandstrom’s research. Their support is contingent upon Sandstrom’s recovery.’

‘It’s a little premature to consider any further offensive actions against Sandstrom. Any such move would have to be handled with the greatest care. What is the status of the police investigation into the raid?’

‘It’s at a complete standstill. Other than the eyewitness reports given by Sandstrom, Kilkenny, and Newton, the police have no leads from which to work.’

‘Good. Keep monitoring that situation, but at a safe distance. In all likelihood the whole matter will fade into obscurity due to lack of progress.’

Orlov turned to Zoshchenko, who sat quietly on the couch drinking her tea.

‘How are things going at our research facility, Oksanna?’

‘There’s a lot of material to review, but Lara Avvakum is making excellent progress. She has an almost intuitive grasp of the conceptual aspects of the project. I anticipate that by the end of the month, she will be ready to address the experimental work. She has embraced the project fully and is very enthusiastic.’

‘I thought she might be receptive to our offer; ten years in Siberia does that to a person.’ Orlov drank his tea, savoring the taste of the imported blend. ‘Any other issues we need to discuss?’

‘One, sir,’ Leskov replied.

‘Go on.’

‘Our surveillance has uncovered something unusual. On several occasions Newton was heard reading letters to Sandstrom. In analyzing the transcripts of these conversations, I believe these letters were written to Sandstrom’s colleague, Raphaele Paramo, several years ago. One transcript shows Sandstrom expressing amazement that the author had a better grasp of quantum physics fifty years ago than anyone today.’

‘Do you have the transcripts of those letters with you?’ Zoshchenko asked as she moved forward in her seat.

Leskov zipped open a leather binder and handed a folder to Zoshchenko. ‘I guessed you might want to take a look. Newton has been reading one or two letters each visit, and the rest of the time is spent discussing what she’s read. Both of them seem very excited by the material. I don’t know how many letters there are, but we’re getting them one at a time.’

‘This is very interesting,’ Zoshchenko said, thinking aloud as she skimmed over the first letter.

‘Could you elaborate, Oksanna?’

‘Oh, of course, Victor Ivanovich.’ Zoshchenko gathered her thoughts. ‘If the first letter I read is any indication of the rest, then I would concur with Sandstrom’s assessment that the author is a very gifted individual. He writes about physics like a poet. I freely admit my grasp of the nondeterministic nature of quantum mechanics is weak at best, but even I can see the fog lifting as I read his words. This person’s thinking is coherent. It is focused like a laser. I’ve never read anything quite like this — if I had, I would surely have remembered it. Who is the author?’

‘A physicist named Johann Wolff,’ Leskov informed them.

‘I’ve never heard of him,’ Zoshchenko admitted quizzically.

‘Nobody has. Kilkenny and Newton have been looking for some record of this Wolff’s work and have apparently found nothing. Sandstrom is convinced that Wolff’s research may provide the key that unlocks the mystery behind his discovery.’

‘How could a brilliant mind such as this go unnoticed?’ Zoshchenko couldn’t comprehend it.

‘That’s where this gets interesting. A few weeks ago Kilkenny and Newton gave up their search for Wolff.’

‘Why?’ Orlov asked.

‘We weren’t sure at first, but we eventually learned that Wolff disappeared in December of 1948 and was never heard from again. According to university records, Wolff was a relatively young man — late twenties — when he disappeared. Interest in Wolff was rekindled a few days ago when his body was discovered near the building where he worked at the university.’

Zoshchenko nodded thoughtfully. ‘That explains why he never published his work.’

‘Wolff was murdered,’ Leskov continued. ‘Someone practically cut his head off. We intercepted a conference call between Kilkenny, Sandstrom, and Newton yesterday when Kilkenny explained this to his associates.’

‘What do we know about this Wolff?’ Orlov demanded.

‘According to a newspaper article, Wolff was from Dresden and studied physics in Berlin. During the war he worked with a physicist named Heisenberg.’

‘Werner Heisenberg?’ Zoshchenko mulled over the name. ‘He won the Nobel Prize for inventing quantum mechanics and the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. In the pantheon of great theoretical physicists, Heisenberg is a titan. The main reason the Americans spent so much time and money to build an atomic bomb during the Great Patriotic War was because Heisenberg was working for the Germans. Every physicist in the world believed that if anyone could successfully build such a weapon, it would be Heisenberg.’

‘So Wolff was suckled on the tit of the great Heisenberg,’ Leskov continued, perturbed at Zoshchenko’s minilecture. ‘After the war, he went to America and took a job teaching physics at a university. A couple of years later, he was killed.’

‘Is that all?’

Leskov looked over his notes regarding Wolff. ‘There is one more thing. The reason for the renewed interest is not so much the body, but what was found with it. In that phone intercept, Kilkenny mentioned that Wolff’s briefcase contained a letter and six notebooks. There’s a problem with the books that Kilkenny didn’t elaborate on.’

‘If they were buried in the ground with Wolff,’ Zoshchenko offered, ‘they are probably in very poor condition.’

‘Perhaps, but our competitors still believe they are of some value.’

‘Then so should we. Good work, Dmitri. Follow up on the notebooks; we’ll acquire them if necessary. Oksanna, I would like you to do a little research on Johann Wolff. I believe the Red Army confiscated most of the Third Reich’s scientific records. See what you can dig out of the archives. Let’s meet on Friday to discuss this matter more fully.’