The Rocket Man (30 page)

Bob returned at midday, looking pale and upset; his tie was crooked and even his suit looked strangely crumpled. She had never seen Bob like this before; she was shocked; she thought he looked ill. Anna came running out of her bedroom and tugged at his sleeve, but for once, he had no time for her. He brushed her away, saying, ‘Anna, go and play. I have to talk to your mother.'

When Anna had been persuaded to go and watch television Katie asked, ‘What is it?' A series of wild thoughts went through her mind; that the police might have accused him of trying to kill Dmitry, that he had been threatened, that somebody else had been killed. Anything seemed possible.

‘I've resigned from the Agency. They haven't formally accepted it.'

‘But Bob – why?'

‘You're not to talk to anyone, least of all your friend Nihal, is that clear? Some of it will come out soon, he can wait till it's official, but you're not to say anything about me. It seems there has been a cover-up of a diversion of nuclear material in Brazil. Hans Müller was one of the inspectors who was involved; the other is in Argentina but can't be contacted yet. Of course this whole thing is indirectly my responsibility, I organised that inspection. But that isn't the problem. The problem is your dear Dmitry. Is the man off his head? You know him so well, tell me, is he unbalanced, or what?'

‘What's happened?'

‘Only that he's made an accusation against me, that I've been involved in the cover-up, that's all. They won't find a shred of evidence. They told me they were suspending me while they look into it. They were very polite, quite charming in fact. “Of course, it's only a formality… ”, “We just have to be quite sure…”, “You understand that this is a very delicate situation with Brazil.” After six years with the Agency, this is what I get.'

‘What did you tell them?'

‘What did I tell them? I told them I thought Gavrilov was crazy, always have done. How the fuck do you know that he wasn't involved himself, I asked them. I told them he had some kind of grudge against me, that he was having an affair with my wife. Of course they knew that already, it seems that everybody has known all about it, everyone except me of course.' He shot her an accusing look. ‘God, the humiliation. Can you imagine what it feels like? But I'm not staying on under the circumstances. In fact, I've had it with the whole goddamned place.'

Katie had never heard Bob talk like this. She was trying, very slowly, because she couldn't think straight, to put things together. Then she said, ‘Is that why Mitya was shot? Because of this business in Brazil?'

‘I imagine so.'

‘But why? Because he knew something?'

‘God knows why. These Russians are unfathomable, I can tell you.'

‘But then, Hans Müller…'

‘Yes, it looks like Lieselotte was right. I imagine they killed him also. Maybe he was going to spill the beans – either that or he thought better of what he'd done and killed himself.'

Katie wondered why, if Dmitry knew about this, he hadn't told her, confided in her. She would have understood. He wouldn't have had to go into details. Now she felt hurt and confused; she didn't understand why he hadn't trusted her if he had nothing to be ashamed of. And Bob, why had Bob never told her anything either? Or hadn't he known? She stared at him, unable to understand anything. Sympathy for him swept over her and she leaned forward and put her hand on his shoulder. ‘But Bob, if you resign… What will you do?'

‘Oh, I don't know. I don't think it will be too hard to get a job. Besides, like you, I've had enough of Vienna. I've had enough of all this shit here, I'd like to start over. How do you feel?'

She said simply, taking her hand away and stepping away from him, ‘I don't know.'

He put his head in his hands for a moment; then he sat up, running them through his hair to smooth it, and looked directly at her. He said, ‘Katie, in spite of everything, you believe I still love you, don't you? And Anna… I don't want a divorce. I'm prepared to forgive you… What do you think? Are you willing to try again?'

Katie knew this was the right thing to do; but it was still hard, even after all this, to give Dmitry up. With an effort she said, ‘Yes, I think that's best.' And then, having said it, she realised that she did think it best, in fact, she felt she wanted nothing more at that moment than to get away from Vienna, to leave all this behind. Perhaps she and Bob could be happy again; perhaps they might even have another child.

Bob, seeing the expression in her face change, came and put his arms around her. ‘So it's all over, now, is it, with Gavrilov? Are you sure? I can't stand the man, but I suppose he must have meant something to you, and I appreciate this must have been a great shock… I don't want you to regret this.'

Katie turned her face up to him, ‘I'm sure.' She let him kiss her on the mouth; it was a gentle kiss, cold somehow, without desire. He slipped his tongue into her mouth and put his hand on her breast but as he did so Anna came and stood in the doorway, and, seeing her, he broke off, sat on the chair and held his arms out to her. Katie stepped back with relief. Then, without any warning, she felt despair strike her and she started to sob loudly, uncontrollably. Bob sat and stared at her, horrified, and Anna, unable to bear the noise that she was making, went and hid her face in his lap.

Katie did not feel able to go and see Dmitry and confront him with her decision. She knew that seeing him would be painful and difficult for them both, and she was not sure how he would react; it seemed unfair to hurt him further while he was already suffering. She knew that she should see him, but she kept postponing it, and the longer she postponed it, the more difficult it seemed to go. She had told Nihal she would write to him, and she tried, but her letters seemed painfully inadequate; she tore them up and burned the pieces so that Bob wouldn't find her half-formed expressions of love and regret. She was afraid too that her letter might not remain private, might be picked over by the police or the intelligence services. At a certain point she realised that she was not going to see him and she wasn't going to write to him either. She wondered if he would telephone her but he didn't; she thought that he must know by now that it was all over.

Nihal telephoned her to ask how she was feeling. She said, ‘All right. Have you seen Mitya? How is he?' He asked her straight out, in accusing tones, ‘Aren't you going to see him?' and she said, ‘No, I promised Bob. We agreed we would give our marriage another go. I was going to write to him… I don't know. I can't go and see him now, Nihal, and risk starting the whole thing up again.'

She thought probably Nihal would tell him. Once or twice in the next few days she found herself by the phone, tempted to call the hospital and ask to speak to him, but every time she knew she couldn't do it. It was better left this way; she was sure from his silence that he felt the same.

Nihal finally went to the hospital at the end of the week. Dmitry was sitting in a chair by the window, wearing a dressing-gown over his pyjamas. A book was open on his knee but he wasn't reading it. The hospital had said that Dmitry was much better and would welcome a visit, but Nihal, who hadn't seen him since before the shooting, thought that he looked awful.

‘How are you feeling?' Nihal asked, awkwardly, with that vague embarrassment the healthy feel in the presence of an invalid. He crossed the room and had a look at the view outside the window.

Dmitry said, ‘Better. It's good of you to come and see me. Get a chair. Come and tell me what's been happening. You usually know all the news.'

‘Well, the story's out, to some extent, as you'll see from the papers. There'll be an emergency meeting of the board. That will be a waste of time of course – Collor's already announced an internal inquiry at CNEN. The head of the Valadares plant, Oliveira, that guy you told me about, has committed suicide; he shot himself in the head. Eduardo Cruz has disappeared – left his house in the morning as usual and never turned up at work. Recently he was spending large sums of money his wife couldn't account for. The other thing you might like to know is that Bob Haynes resigned. Nobody can quite understand why.'

‘Resigned? Or was dismissed?'

‘Resigned, I think. It's all being hushed up a bit, I only heard through Katie… Has she been to see you?'

‘No, not since I was transferred here.'

Nihal hesitated, feeling awkward again. ‘Has she written?'

Dmitry didn't reply. His hand was shaking; he saw Nihal had noticed this and said abruptly, ‘It's because I can't smoke. I shall have to give up for good; I don't know how I'm going to manage it. So what have they said about Haynes?'

‘That he resigned for personal reasons. He's leaving Vienna; quite soon, I think.'

‘And I suppose you are going to tell me she is going with him.'

‘Yes.' Nihal was angry with Katie; he didn't like the fact that it was he who had to break this news. He said, ‘I'm sorry, I thought you knew. She told me she was going to write you a letter.'

He heard the bitterness in Dmitry's voice. ‘Well if she does I certainly won't waste my time reading it.'

‘Oh, it's not as bad as that. She's very upset, she's very concerned about you.'

‘Oh, well, of course. But then, I hear so many expressions of concern from all sides. It's rather touching, really.' He shifted slightly in his chair and as he moved a sudden spasm of pain crossed his face; Nihal wanted to say something or offer to help, but found that he couldn't. Dmitry, recovering, went on: ‘So, what I want to know is: will the IAEA come clean about the bribed inspectors? After all it won't create much confidence.'

‘I imagine they will, if they can. It depends. If Kaisler thinks this will come out, he'l1 make something of it, try to turn it to his advantage, I suppose. You know, inspectors being vulnerable, the need to strengthen support, that kind of thing. Kaisler in any case is very keen on being open about these things. Of course, I could spill the beans… but I won't. Well, what would be the point? I was going to do that book for them…'

Nihal paused and went over to the window, gazing out at the tree. ‘I made some inquiries about Liliana Richter for you, Mitya, by the way. There isn't anything very definite. It's true her father has connections with the military. He had connections with everybody… he is known to be right-wing. Probably he knew this guy, Oliveira. This Brazilian journalist I know was going to see if he could find anything more.' Nihal noticed that Dmitry seemed to have lost interest; he stopped talking at once. He asked, ‘Are you tired? Do you want me to go?'

‘Well, maybe… But come again soon, won't you? I rely on you to tell me what is going on.'

Nihal's feature was published in
North-South
without causing much stir at first. Then other people started picking up on it. Articles began to appear in the German press and there were other pieces in a London Sunday paper and the
International Herald Tribune
. One accused Richter of meeting with a representative of Pakistan secretly in Paris. Another paper claimed to have been leaked information that showed that RASAG was secretly pursuing missile deals with a number of Middle Eastern countries. Another accusation was that Richter had links with a Chilean company which was developing anti-tank missiles.