“What do you mean?” The scientific secretary raised his eyebrows. “His idea regarding the new approach to the problem of self — organization? You're best off reading the minutes, Matvei Apollonovich.” He sighed. “It all happened a year ago, and we have meetings and debates and commissions every week, if not more frequently. Can you imagine? And I have to be present at every one, organize the speakers, speak myself, issue invitations. For instance, right now, I have to go from here to the Society on Distribution, where there's a meeting on the question of attracting scientific personnel to lecture at collective farms during harvest. I won't even have time for lunch. I can't wait for my vacation!”
“I see. But the academic council approved his topic?”
“Of course! There were many who argued against it. Ah, you should have heard how crudely Valentin Vasilyevich answered them. It was totally unforgivable. Poor Professor Voltampernov had to be tranquilized afterward. Can you imagine? The board recommended that Krivoshein be reprimanded for his rudeness, I wrote out the decree myself. But the topic was passed, of course. A man proposes new ideas, a new approach — why shouldn't he try it? That's the way it is in science. And besides, Arkady Arkadievich himself supported him. Arkady Arkadievich is a wonderfully generous soul; in fact he set him up in his own lab because Krivoshein could never get along with anybody. Of course, the lab was a joke, unstructured with a staff of one… but the academic council had discussed the situation and voted yes. I voted for it myself.”
“What was the it you all voted for?” Onisimov wiped his brow with a handkerchief.
“What do you mean? To include it in the plan, to allot funds for it. You know, planning is the basis of our society.”
“I see. Tell me, Harry Haritonovich, what do you think happened?”
“Hmmm… I must make it clear to you, my dear Matvei Apollonovich, that I would have no way of knowing. I'm the scientific secretary; all my work is paperwork. They've been working together just the two of them since last winter. The lab assistant is the one who would know. Besides, he's an eyewitness.”
“Did you know that the assistant is not who he says he is?” Onisimov demanded. “He's not Kravets and he's not a student.”
“Really? That's why you arrested him, I see.” Hilobok's eyes grew round. “No, really, how would I know? That was an oversight in personnel. Who is he?”
“We'll find out. So you say the Americans are doing the same kind of work now?”
“Yes. So you think he's the one?”
“Why be so hasty?” Onisimov laughed. “I'm just exploring all the possibilities.” He glanced over at the paper with the questions. 'Tell me, Harry Haritonovich, did you notice psychiatric problems in Krivoshein?”
Hilobok smiled.
“You know, on my way over here, I was debating whether or not I should mention it. Maybe it's a trifle and there's no point? But since you ask… he had these lapses. I remember, last July, when I was combining my duties with heading the laboratory of experimental setups — we couldn't find the right specialist to run it — we needed a candidate of science — so I was doing it — so that we wouldn't lose the slot for the position, because, you know, they can take away the allocation, and then you can never get it back. That's the way it is. And so, just a while back, my laboratory received a request from Krivoshein to prepare a new system for encephalographic biopotential sensors, like that SEP — 1, Monomakh's Crown, that you have on your desk, but of a more complex construction, so that it would fit in with all kinds of his schemes. Why they ever accepted the order from him, instead of doing their own work, I'll never know.”
This submersion in scientific data brought on a deep drowsiness in Matvei Apollonovich. Usually he cut through any tangential deviation from the topic that interested him in an interrogation, but now — he was a man with a Russian soul — he could not overcome his innate respect for science, for learned titles, terms, and situations. He had always had this respect, and after his last case at the institute when he also learned the salaries of scientific workers his respect had doubled. And so Matvei Apollonovich did not try to stem Harry Haritonovich's free — flowing mouth; after all, he was dealing with a man whose salary was more than twice his own, as a police captain, and legal at that.
“So, you can imagine, I was sitting in the laboratory one day,” Hilobok rambled on, “and Valentin Vasilyevich came to see me — without his lab coat, I might add! That is unacceptable. There is a specific rule promulgated about this at the institute, a rule stating that all engineering and scientific workers must wear white coats and the technicians and lab assistants gray or blue ones. After all, we are often visited by foreign delegations. It can't be otherwise. But he always disregarded convention, and he asked me in a really nasty tone: 'When are you going to fill my order for the new system? Well, I tried to explain everything calmly to him. 'It's like this and that, Valentin Vasilyevich. We will when we can. It's not so easy to do everything you drew up for us. The circuitry becomes very complicated, and we have to reject too many transistors. In a word, I gave him a good explanation, so that the man would not have any misunderstandings. But he just went on harping: 'If you can't do it on schedule, you shouldn't have agreed to do it! I tried to explain about the difficulties once more, and that we had orders backed up at the lab, but Krivoshein interrupted me: 'If the order is not completed in two weeks, I will file a complaint about you and turn over the work to the science club in a grammar school! And they'll do it faster than you, and it will be a lot cheaper, too! That was a dig at me, that last part. He had always made cracks, but I was used to it. And then he slammed the door, and stalked out.”
The investigator nodded rhythmically and clenched his jaw to hide the yawns. Hilobok buzzed on:
“And five minutes later — note that no more than five minutes had passed; I hadn't even had time to talk to the workshop by phone — Valentin Vasilyevich burst in again wearing a coat this time (he had managed to dig up a gray one somewhere), and said: 'Harry Haritonovich, when will that order for the sensor system be ready? 'Please, I said, 'take pity on me, Valentin Vasilyevich. I explained it to you! And I went into my explanation again. He interrupted like last time: 'If you can't do it, don't try. and then went on about the complaint, the schoolboys, and expenses.” Hilobok brought his face closer to the investigator. “In other words, he repeated exactly what he had said five minutes ago, in the same exact wording! Can you imagine?”
“That's curious,” the investigator nodded.
“And that wasn't the only time he got confused like that. Once he forgot to turn off the water for the night, and the whole floor under the laboratory was flooded. Once — the janitor complained to me — he started a huge bonfire of perforated tape on the lawn. The professor meaningfully pursed his fat red lips, funereally outlined with a black mustache, “and so anything might have happened. And why? Because he wanted to get ahead and he was constantly overworking himself.
No matter what time you left the institute the lights in his lodge were always blazing. Many of us at the institute joked about it. Maybe Krivoshein wasn't aiming for his doctorate but for a break — through right off the bat…. He discovered enough, now go try to figure it all out.”
“I see,” the investigator said and looked down at the sheet of paper once more. “You mentioned that Krivoshein had a woman who was close to him. Do you know her?”
“Elena Ivanovna Kolomiets? Of course! There aren't many women like her in our town — very attractive, elegant, sweet, in a word, you know — “Harry Haritonovich described Elena Ivanovna's inexpressible beauty with a zigzagging motion of the hands. His brown eyes glistened. “I could never figure out, nor could others, what she saw in him. After all, Krivoshein — I know, de mortius aut bene nut nihil, but why hide it? — you saw for yourself, he was no looker. She would come to see him. Our houses are next door in Academic Town, so I saw it. And he never knew how to dress well either. But I haven't seen her around lately. I guess they broke up, like ships in the night, heh — heh! Do you think she had anything to do with this?”