Skyfall

25

GET 13:12

It was after two in the morning and Red Square in Moscow was deserted; even the line of visitors waiting to enter Lenin's tomb had vanished for a few hours. The two armed guards stationed there looked on with little interest as a large black Moskva limousine turned into the square and accelerated towards the Kremlin. Cars of this kind arrived at all hours of the day and night for that destination. Perhaps a few more tonight than was usual, but of course there was no indication why. No public announcement of the destruction of Cottenham New Town had been made on the radio yet nor, for once, had The Voice of America been in a hurry to carry glum news to the Russian people.

Engineer Glushko led the way and easily penetrated the outer circle of functionaries and guards. Both he and Academician Moshkin who trailed after him had been here on a number of occasions. Their identification helped because anyone connected with the Prometheus Project certainly had business here tonight. Within these walls everyone knew what had happened. They also knew that Glushko was senior project engineer and the little professor with him was also involved, somehow, with the project.

Despite the fact that the two men had no reason to be in the Kremlin this morning, they progressed quite far before being brought up short. The inner circle of senior civil servants owed their seniority to intelligence, ability and suspicion, in almost equal parts. The graying man behind the desk, with ash on his lapels and the cigarette in his mouth trickling smoke into his half-shut eye, resembled all the other officials the two men had recently seen and bypassed. But this one would not be as easy. He turned their identification over and over in his hands as though looking for some fact he had missed the first time through.

“Of course, tovarichi, I appreciate your positions on the Prometheus Project, it is all detailed here in your papers I assure you. But nowhere can I find the message or the reason that has brought you here today.”

“As I told you,” Glushko said, “the Academician and I must see Comrade Polyarni at once. It is of the utmost importance.”

“I am sure it is or you would not be here. Such a rush, a few hours ago in Baikonur, a military plane, a car waiting for you at the airport. A rush indeed — but nowhere do I see a reason for this rush. What business brings you here?”

“You know about the… affair with the booster rocket?”

The official nodded gravely. “I do. A tragic accident. All of the country will mourn. Then you come in regard to this?”

“In a way, though not exactly. Look, comrade, I do not like to be misunderstood. Do you think that either I or Academician Moshkin, one of the leading astronomers in the nation, do you think that either of us came here to play silly games?”

“No! Of course not. But without stating your business it would be impossible for me to do anything to aid you. You realize my position, don't you?”

Glushko sighed and straightened up. “I certainly do. But, as I told you earlier, what I have to say is for the ears of the Premier alone and for no others. Therefore I wish to see your immediate superior and explain the same thing to him.”

“He is in conference, if you wait…”

“Eventually, we will see the Premier. He will want to hear what we have to say as soon as possible. Anyone who is responsible for delaying us will not be viewed with favor. Do you understand?”

The civil servant understood, only too well. He had heard this sort of talk, this kind of veiled threat in the past. If they meant what they said why then, yes, he would be in trouble.

But if they were bluffing and he aided them he would only be in for a reprimand. It was a simple decision. He pushed his chair back and stood.

“But I do understand. And I am sure you understand that I want to help you in any way I can. If you will stay here I will see how soon he can see you.”

“Good,” Glushko said, voice firm and carriage erect. He remained that way until the door had closed, then dropped into the nearest chair.

“This is exhausting, Academician, I hope you realize that. If you are not correct we are both going to be in very big trouble.”

“That is not the kind of trouble to worry about at this time. This is the trouble,” he said, tapping his worn leather briefcase. “The facts are correct, they can be checked. It is all here.”

Glushko looked at his watch, then drummed his fingers on his leg. “In that case,” he said, “they had better hurry.”

Halfway around the world, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it was still early evening. Not quite dinner time, but late enough. All the offices in the East were closed, the labs shut, the college professors gone home. Professor Weisman sat in his scruffy office watching the shadows grow longer, listening to the ring-ring of an unanswered phone in his ear. Not for the first time either. He carefully put the receiver back, steepled his fingers on the desk before him, and wondered what to do next.

The few people he knew who might have been able to help him had not answered their phones. Or some moronic answering device had beeped at him and told him to record his message. He did not think there was time for that. He was still not sure how to go about passing on the vital information he had, nor was he exactly sure whom he should pass it on to. Of course the people involved with the Prometheus Project would want to know, but he had gotten only busy signals from both numbers given him by the information operator. He rarely listened to the radio and had no television set, so he did not know of the news story that was just breaking about the disaster in England. He would have been interested to hear it, but it would not affect what he had to do.

Washington, that was it, he would just have to go to Washington. Normally he hated to travel, but always said that getting out of the Fraunhoffer Institute and out of Germany and staying one step ahead of the Nazis all the way across Europe had been enough traveling for a lifetime. Life at the University of Pennsylvania was very easy, very calm, and he preferred it that way. But now his peace would have to be broken for a bit. He would have to go to Washington. Even as he decided this he began carefully placing a thick sheaf of notes into a briefcase as old and disreputable as the one Academician Moshkin was clutching on his knees in the Kremlin at this very moment.

There were footsteps in the corridor outside and the rap of knuckles on the frosted glass of his office door. Weisman did not respond because he was concentrating so he did not hear the sounds. Only when the door swung open did he look up. A bearded face poked in.

“Say, Sam, isn't that something. Did you hear the broadcast about the town in England?”

“Ahn, Danny, come in, I want to ask you something.”

“You didn't hear, then. One of the boosters from Prometheus took out an entire city, they don't know how many dead, worse than an atom bomb attack…”

“Danny, do you know how to get to Washington, D.C.?”

Danny started to gape, then changed his mind. He had taught in the university long enough to realize that his associates on the staff weren't really fruitcakes, just individualists with different powers of concentration and different interests. Sam Weisman had a world-wide reputation and a Nobel Prize. And he didn't care about blown-up cities nor did he know how to get to Washington, which was maybe all of a hundred miles away. Danny shrugged and forgot Cottenham New Town for the moment.

“You can drive, you can take the bus, you can take the train.”

“I cannot stand motor vehicles.” Weisman frowned in thought, then took out an old-fashioned clasp purse and looked inside. “Four dollars, I don't think that will be enough.”

“Not really. What do you want to do in Washington?”

Weisman ignored the question, his mind involved in the logistics of the journey. “The banks are closed. But you can cash a check for me, can't you Danny. Do you think five hundred dollars will be enough?”

“Five bills is more than enough but I don't always carry quite that much on me.” He looked in his wallet. “You're in luck, I just cashed my pay check. I'll give you two hundred bucks, pay me when you get back. Your credit is good.”

Weisman pulled on his jacket. “Is there more than one train station in Philadelphia?”

“Don't worry, I'll drop you off. You buy a ticket for D.C. and try and get on a Metroliner because the old rolling stock will give your hemorrhoids hemorrhoids inside five miles.”

“Very kind.” He put on his hat. “Would you know if the Smithsonian Institute is hard to find? I have a friend there.”

“I am going to control myself and not ask you why you are going there in the middle of the night when it is closed. I'm afraid you'd tell me. Grab a hack at Union Station when you get in and tell him Smithsonian. Maybe the night watchman will know where your friend is. All I can do is wish you good luck.”

Professor Weisman sat calmly, his old briefcase on his lap, as they drove to the station. In Moscow Academician Moshkin was sitting in the same position holding a very similar briefcase. Yet this wasn't the only thing they had in common.

Each was an astronomer with a world-wide reputation.

Each specialized in the study of the sun.