Scene 13

«Was that the reason that you gave up the job?»
«No. But you probably know the whole story better than I do. Jenadi is the son of an atomic physicist called Grigorij Koslow, who fled with his family and two research assistants in 1940 from a secret Russian research program and landed up in Santa Lemusa via Vienna and Lisbon. As far as I know the local government or some representatives offered him a comfortable asylum on the island – in return he had to promise that he would offer his scientific skills exclusively to the Republic of Santa Lemusa. That marked the birth of the operation of metereological rectification, the ORM. Laboratories were set up that were as modern as they were secret. Officially, these labs did not exist. The Russians remained – and remain – a secluded band who lived on an art campus in Bitasyon Francelle and avoided contact with the outside world as far as they possibly could. Jenadi fell in love with the daughter of one of his father's assistants and took over at the helm of the ORM in the 1980s. You will understand that it was difficult for me to find my feet in such a milieu – I felt isolated from the environment, like a redundant adopted child in a big family. When I spoke to Jenadi about this, he was annoyed. So I decided to return home – here, I do not have better job opportunities in my field of work, but I like my life decidedly more.»

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