‘But you have men under your command?’
‘Yes, so have we all except Boris. A Guards squadron is in effect a double squadron, with four troops. 5 Troop is the senior; Leo’s lot. That’s a rifle troop, though what they carry isn’t exactly rifles. 6 and 7 are the same.’
‘Which is yours?’
‘8. 8 is a cannon troop; there’s one in every squadron. But what we… have isn’t exactly cannon.’
‘What, then?’ asked Theodore, pressing down the tobacco in his pipe.
‘Projectile-launchers, eight of them, designed to operate singly or in pairs. They can destroy any visible man-made object, and quite selectively too, with the improved sonar sight.’
‘My dear Alexander, should you be telling me this?’
‘Oh yes. If there were such a person as somebody wondering whether it might be a good idea to fight us or neutralise us, which I’m sure there isn’t, it would be very useful to us for him to know the fire-power he’d be facing. It’s official policy not to be excessively discreet in these matters.’
‘What if I were such a person? Mightn’t I try to steal one or more of your contrivances?’
‘If you succeeded, which would be very unlikely indeed, you would still be unable to load, aim and fire it, because you haven’t had the necessary special training, which is extremely hard to come by. You couldn’t even arm one of our projectiles.’
‘That’s a relief. The whole thing is a responsibility, though, and you the junior officer. Was it because of…?’ said Theodore, and stopped.
Alexander laughed heartily. ‘My father’s position? Well, in a way, though it’s complicated. There may be a shake-up soon, if Victor finally decides to get himself posted home.’
‘Is it as easy as that? A home posting on demand?’
‘After two years, yes, virtually. I’ll be eligible myself in a couple of months. But then I have a home posting already:
England is my home.’
‘Then you’ve no desire at all to go back.’
‘For me it wouldn’t be back, Theodore. I’ve spent no more than a quarter of my life in Russia, and most of that was either as a young child or on visits that were too short for me to settle down. You don’t settle down anywhere when you’re being trained. I’m a stranger there; I have no responsibilities there.’
‘You speak as if you have responsibilities here, or…’
‘I consider I have. All of us have, by virtue of the position we hold in this country.’
‘You consider in other words that you owe the English something. I wonder how much, and how far you’d go to see that that debt was repaid.’
‘It’s not easy to be definite about the first part; you can’t measure an obligation. But perhaps what I say about the rest of it will be enough. I’d go as far as might prove necessary.
Theodore struggled to control his breathing. A delicious excitement, compounded of joy and fear, possessed him. In one sense this was the highest point of his life so far; in another, he would have given everything good that might happen to him in the future not to be where he now was. The heat had gone; very soon it would be quite dark and, presumably, Leo and Victor would go out and start their shooting. But they were a long way from Theodore’s mind; he stared at the patched yellowish tablecloth, the wine-bottle with its would-be elegant label, his glass, empty, Alexander’s glass, still a quarter full, the purple arc where the base of Victor’s unsteadily-held glass had rested. These sights had a portentous quality, as if something – an explosion, an earthquake -were about to change them altogether, or more like the furnishings of a dream, which themselves carry such significance. It was half a minute before Theodore realised that he was waiting for some sound – a footfall, the striking of a clock – to mark the stillness. This idea seemed to him absurd, puffed-up; he started to speak at once.
‘You remember when we were talking last night and I was trying to get you to admit you’d fucked Mrs Korotchenko, and I made you swear by the honour of…’
‘Of my country and my regiment and my family. So?’
‘You swore falsely then. But over the question of being put on your honour not to tell your major about these shooting affairs – well, you haven’t. You implied that you’d like to, but couldn’t think of a way of doing it that didn’t point to you. Do you really expect me to believe that? Somebody with your low cunning, as you called it? No, you’ve kept quiet because you’d given your word of honour.’
‘What of it?’ said Alexander irritably.
‘Just, how do you resolve the contradiction? Not caring about the honour of your country and the others but very tender about your own.
‘Of course, you’re an intellectual, aren’t you, Theodore? I keep forgetting. It takes one of your sort to see a contradiction in what an ordinary person would regard as a simple difference. Swearing falsely by my country’s honour doesn’t hurt my country; it doesn’t even get to hear about it. I benefit to the extent that I encourage belief in my assertion and no one suffers. But if I’m on my honour not to tell what I know and then I tell, people suffer – from severe disciplinary action -and at best I suffer loss of esteem. Which is different, you see.’
‘Yes, I do see.’ Theodore had been listening so attentively that his pipe had gone out; he relit it. ‘I see that it’s very plausible. Till I remember another difference, between the chance of losing my bars of rank and the no less likely chance, in the end, of losing half my head. Then I see there’s an inconsistency somewhere after all.’
‘Are you saying I ought to go to the major in spite of everything?’
‘No I’m saying that for you to be put on your honour overrides everything. So I don’t think you were quite honest with me when you said just now that it was because you were naive that you stood still after calling out to Leo and the others. It was really because you’d been put on your honour not to move.’ Busy with his pipe, he missed the oblique look and very slight smile that Alexander gave. ‘And you withdrew at that point because you’ve have had to go on standing still the next time and the next, if there’d been a next. Very sensible behaviour.’
‘Oh, rubbish, man. Listen, I’ve just thought of something you said last night. After you’d had me up before your court of inquiry about Mrs Korotchenko you congratulated me for something like steadiness under fire – thank you very much -and also apologised for having had to do it. I forgot to ask you what the devil you meant by that.’
‘You’ll soon see. Now, Ensign Petrovsky, I put you on your honour not to tell anybody what I’m going to tell you. I know already, having carefully tested you, that you’re very resistant to ordinary interrogation, no one of course being in the least resistant to extraordinary interrogation. All I ask is your word not to say anything voluntarily.’
‘You have it. You also have my congratulations, not for steadiness under fire but for making me believe in that arrested girl for nearly a minute.’
‘No longer? Now let me begin with a question. You said a moment ago that to repay the English what you feel you owe them you would go as far as might be necessary. If killing became necessary, would you lend your hand to that?’
‘Yes,’ said Alexander without hesitation.
‘Including your friends here? Including the major? Including your men?’
This time it took a little longer. ‘Yes.’
‘Very good. I now invite you to… What was that?’
‘I didn’t hear anything.’
‘It probably wasn’t anything. I’m sorry, Alexander, but I have an aversion to going into these matters except in private; it’s become second nature. Is there anywhere else we could go? Your bedroom’?’
‘My bedroom is overcrowded with just me in it. We could… Ah, I know the very place.’
‘Before we go, could I possibly have a drink? A serious drink? I can’t think why, but I suddenly feel like one.’
The ante-room was deserted. Alexander poured two glasses of Johnnie Walker Black Label and made out the chit. He stood facing Theodore, who winked and said resonantly,