Scene 14

Why, Maille asked himself, why had he needed to visit Moscow in order to learn that there existed a Russian ghetto of scientists on Santa Lemusa – for over half a century! He was sure that Mercier knew about all these things in detail. But why had he kept silent, kept these matters under wraps? Maille instructed the driver to stop the taxi and paid the fare. Anna and he got out and walked over the Moskworeszkkij in the direction of the underground station Tretjakowskaja.
«Can you imagine who could possibly be interested in kidnapping Koslow?»
«Not really. But about a year ago, when I was still living in Santa Lemusa, I found a Chinese-looking man standing outside my apartment. He introduced himself as a reporter from ‹Nature›, a London science magazine, and asked me for an interview. He even offered to pay me for it. I could not and did not tell him anything. He gave me his phone number, just in case I came up with something to say to him. Incidentally, he lives in Beijing, as he called out to me while he was departing. The whole episode was quite peculiar. If it will be of any use to you, I can give you his phone number.»

Maille looked across at the Kremlin, with its towers, domes and spires that were gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. Although he was still nowhere near the professor, he now knew more what the ORM project was about. That the trail was leading to China did not surprise him at all: in the past few years all the paths had led, more often than not, into Cathay – the crooked paths as well as the straight ones.

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