Shit. I can’t believe I said that out loud, but the man just handed me all his teeth! Seriously, who does that?
—I—
—I’m so sorry, sir, I didn’t mean that. I just—Who did that to you?
—Scurvy did that to me.
—Oh. I thought—
—Yes. The torture was bad but not as bad as the cold.
—I’m terribly sorry for what you went through, Colonel. I am.
—Sergei, remember? You do not have to be sorry, you did not do anything. But if this is my choice like you say, then my answer is no. I do not want to build weapons for them anymore.
Oh, no. I could be curling up under the covers with Billie right now but I’m here, doing this. Time for a speech.
—I… I think you’re lying, sir. I’m sorry. I do. I think you love science more than anything else. You send things up on a world designed to keep them down. I think you’d build rockets in your backyard if the government didn’t want your help. Regardless, I think you’ll want to see this through.
—See what through?
—Space. We’re going to space.
—Ha! You are funny, young lady. No one cares about space. No one. What people want is to make bombs. Always more bombs, until we all vanish without a trace.
He’s a pessimist. He seems happy, though. A happy pessimist. I don’t know why but I like that. Expect the worst in people and you’ll never be disappointed, I guess. Maybe that’s happiness.
—You do. You care.
—…
—I know you, sir, a bit. I know you’ve read The Problem of Space Travel by Potočnik. You’ve talked about it. I know you’ve thought about going up there, what it would mean, what it would take. Yes, they’ll want you to build missiles, but the rockets are the same. There’s also something special I’d like you to work on. I want to send something up there. I want to send it up and not have it come down. You can do that, can’t you?
—You said I.
—What?
—You said I want to send something up there. I don’t want it to come down. I, not they, not we.
Oops. I might have gotten carried away a little. Am I in trouble? No. I don’t think so. This is the one good thing about not being a white man. It won’t be hard to convince him I’m just a spectator in all this.
—I don’t know what you mean.
—Who are you?
If I could answer that question, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to him.
—I told you, my name is Nina. I’m an—
—An interpreter, I know.
—It doesn’t matter who I am, sir. Pretend I don’t exist. But if you say yes, you’ll have your own department. They’ll want a working V-2 before they let you build anything new—they have no imagination—but you can use any of the German scientists to get it done. Then the fun begins.
—I could use any of them?
—Any of them. You can have Gröttrup. You can have his entire team if you want. All you have to do is say yes.
—…
—Please say yes.
—No.
—NO?
—No. I am sorry. You are right. I love this with all my heart, but not as much as I love my family. I have put them through enough already. When they let me out of prison last year, I had not seen my wife in five years. I have been away from my daughter for most of her life. Like I said, I will do what they want me to do but I am not staying in Germany. I will go back to Moscow, back to my family.
—That won’t be a problem, sir. You can see your daughter—Natalya, is it?—every day. You can see your wife. You can take her to work.
—I will not bring them here. They have a life at home.
—Of course not, we’ll do everything in Moscow.
Almost. I’ll set them up on Gorodomlya Island, about a hundred miles northwest. They’ll be part of a new research institute I’m getting our man at the Politburo to create. Everything will be in one place, close to home.
—In Russia? But the Germans are here, in Germany. That is… why they are called Germans.
—You let me worry about that, sir. All you have to do is say yes.
Time to get ourselves some Germans.
28
It’s a Good Day
Hmmm. That beer is good. I’ve earned it, even if Mother will be mad. I can hear her already: “Mia! Did you kidnap seven thousand people?” It does sound kind of bad when you put it like that. I’ll admit, what I did was a little radical, but she said herself we couldn’t keep things the way they were. I had to do something. That was something. It was really something.
Technically, I didn’t kidnap anyone. We asked them to come to Moscow. I even wrote them a note. “As the works in which you are employed are being transferred to the USSR, you and your entire family will have to be ready to leave for the USSR. You and your family will entrain in passenger coaches. The freight car is available for your household chattels. Soldiers will assist you in loading. You will receive a new contract after your arrival in the USSR. Conditions under the contract will be the same that apply to skilled workers in the USSR. For the time being, your contract will be to work in the Soviet Union for five years. You will be provided with food and clothing for the journey which you must expect to last three or four weeks.”
Okay, we weren’t really asking, but you can’t just ask thousands of people if they want to move to the Soviet Union. Some of them are bound to be less than enthusiastic about the prospect of living under Stalin. I was. So maybe it wasn’t the most voluntary thing ever. We told them they were being mobilized. At gunpoint, yes, but kidnapping is throwing someone in the back of a van. These people packed their things. They brought their books with them, photos, even furniture. I mean, in theory, they could have said no. I don’t think they’d have shot anyone.
We had to get them all at the same time before the word could spread, so we did it in the middle of the night. We let them pack their belongings. Some even took their pets with them. It’s definitely not kidnapping if your pet comes along. I don’t know why I’m justifying myself. Mother wanted me to be in charge, that’s what I came up with. If she doesn’t like it, she can take care of things.
It wasn’t even that many people, around twenty-two hundred engineers. But their families came with them, so… more. Oh, who am I kidding, it was fucking spectacular! A hundred trains. A hundred! Moving von Braun’s people looked like a small-town parade compared to this.
Calm down, Mia. It’s a good plan. The Russians won’t trust anyone with new technology, especially not the Germans. We use German scientists to get the knowledge they have now, but we don’t give them any new information or let them in on new projects. In a few years, their knowledge will be outdated and they won’t pose a threat to anyone. They can go home, no one will care. I’m saving their lives, really. Okay, maybe not. Still a good plan.
Mother, well, she’ll get over it. Unless she finds out how much money I spent and who I spent it with. She told me that the Russian mafia had this “code,” that they would never work with government. Well, that’s changing now, and this guy at the Politburo owed them a lot of money. Like a lot a lot. He doesn’t anymore. He just doesn’t know.
All in all, I think I did pretty well. I got myself a rocket program, a research bureau full of German engineers, and I even have someone to run it. Oh, and I didn’t get killed, by the Tracker or anyone else. I think I earned myself a beer.
One beer. Then I’ll go…. I’m nervous all of a sudden. I tried not to think about it. I told Mother I had to come. I told Billie. Hell, I tried to tell myself, but let’s face it, I could have done all this from Moscow. This is why I wanted to come. I don’t leave Berlin until tomorrow, and Bad Saarow is only an hour away.