Anna’s expression was alert. “How could a mere book cause so much trouble?”
“A mere book?” Sherlock narrowed his eyes. “The people of Japan have much faith in Western knowledge. They believe it is the key to their future. They are a serious and trusting people, and would never expect that a book gifted to them by Russia would be concealing a trap. It was you who contrived to misuse this knowledge, and abuse their trust.”
“But…” muttered Kanevsky. “If the pollution continues, surely the Japanese would realize before ten years had passed.”
Shevich didn’t agree. “Likely not. In Russia, 30 years have passed since the emancipation of the serfs, but only now is the risk to the peasants’ health becoming clear.”
“The peasants working in the factories and mines?”
“Yes. In fact, it is concerns over their health that drove Grand Duke George to involve himself in the labor disputes at the coal mines. The government has not released this information publicly, but there is an increasing blacklist of regions where you are not allowed to grow crops, or fish in the rivers.”
“But the government has said nothing of this…”
“The workers in our country are lazy enough as it is. If this information got out, they would organize together and abandon their labor. It has all been kept strictly confidential. Russia’s rapid industrialization has put a strain on the environment and a strain on the people’s health. The same must be true for Japan. But in Japan, they have built a railroad on Honshu clear to the north in but 24 years. They have had even less time to worry about soil, air, and water.”
Sherlock rasied his index finger. “Moreover, had the cause of the pollution simply remained unknown, the Japanese would have of course uncovered it in due time. Instead they are being encouraged to believe in lies. Mercury and arsenic poisoning, bronchitis caused by air pollution, changes in the color of seaweed from ocean pollution… The copy Chekhov gave of The Complete Work on Russian Natural Sciences is populated with speciously clever fabrications designed to encourage Japan to trust that all these dangerous phenomena require no immediate action. From afar, England might suspect that pollution is affecting Japan, but Japan would hardly ask for help from my country to begin with. The Great Powers, meanwhile, are concerned with keeping their own pollution a secret. So there is no hope Japan would receive better advice from another country.”
Shevich glared at Anna. “Luzhkova, is this true?”
Anna’s face grew cold, like a doll’s. “I know nothing. Where is your proof?”
Sherlock snorted, his face revealing no emotion. “You exchanged the books precisely to destroy the evidence. This way, you can claim that any errors in the Japanese translation were absent in the original. You are mistaken, however, if you think that raises you above suspicion.”
Ito nodded. “Ms. Luzhkova. The book exchanged between Ambassador Shevich and Minister Mutsu is imprinted with a serial number. It is our right to demand that copy be returned. It does not matter if the chapters have been pulled out or the pages have been smudged. Please return the original copy. And may I also remind you that those pages have been marked by our own translators. We will know if it has been replaced yet again.”
Anna sighed. Her expression remained icy. “The book is not here. More precisely, it no longer exists.”
“You burned it, then,” Sherlock said.
“You had no permission to do that!” Shevich roared.
“Permission?” Anna’s voice was low. “Permission from whom?”
The room grew tense. “Who are you!” Kanevsky demanded. “You are clearly no simple bureaucrat.”
Anna stood her ground. “Haven’t you realized yet, Lt. Colonel Kanevsky? Chekhov and I were sent by the Okhrana.”
A ripple spread through the guards. Even Kanevsky seemed to cringe.
“The Okhrana?” Shevich echoed in dismay. “Are you serious?”
Sherlock narrowed his eyes. Ito gasped. The Okhrana were the security force of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs—a secret police created in 1866 after the failed attempt on Nicholas II’s life.
But Shevich was not cowed. “This is a foreign country. The Okhrana is charged with overseeing dissidents at home, in order to protect public security and order. What are you conspiring at here?”
“Conspiring?” Anna faced the ambassador coolly. “I can’t begin to imagine what you are implying.”
“You know exactly what I mean. The Okhrana were originally created as the Department for Protecting the Order and Public Peace, under the Head of St. Petersburg. They may have been created to serve the nation, but are not under the Emperor’s direct control.”
“As a public security division, we enjoy His Imperial Majesty’s complete confidence.”
Shevich snorted. “Public security, indeed. You are supposed to oversee dissidents, but instead you cozy up to them so that if a revolution occurs you will still thrive under a Communist government. You vow allegiance to the emperor, but you ally with revolutionaries and support their attempts to overthrow the imperial government. The Okhrana are fork-tongued and a drain on the public coffers, and you have no right to operate in Japan.”
“Silence! Who do you think ordered us to join Tsarevich Nicholas on his trip to the East? It was His Imperial Majesty!”
Sherlock started in. “Earlier, when you and Mr. Chekhov were assigned to Grand Duke George, I presume it was to spy on him. His Majesty Alexander III did not like that his younger son supported the laborers?”
“You are correct. But the Okhrana guides our country from a higher ground. Our actions are not governed by the Emperor alone.”
Shevich frowned. “Impertinence!”
Her response was quick. “Who is being impertinent? The Tsarevich and Grand Duke switched places like it was some sort of game, and you had no idea at all. You must lead a comfortable life as an ambassador, with your head stuck so far down in the sand. Who is the real drain on public coffers? You have no idea the trouble we have faced. If the international community had learned of what the Tsarevich and his brother had done during their official visits, faith in Russia would have been shattered.”
Sherlock was contemptuous. “And when that day comes, the Okhrana will simply side with the revolutionaries.”
“It is too early for revolution,” Anna said calmly. “The threat in the Far East must be dealt with before the revolution can wrest power from the Emperor. Otherwise internal chaos will create an opportunity for outsiders—the Japanese and their English backers—to advance upon us.”
Ito was beginning to lose his temper. “The threat in the Far East?! This is your official policy? To destroy our country through pollution?”
Anna simply nodded. “Naturally. Chekhov and I went to great pains to lay the groundwork for this plan, using our connections in the Ministry of State Property. The book was not our only gambit. Giving Japan permission to use the Trans-Siberian Railway for trade? That too was done to hasten industrialization in the country. If you had not realized the truth, in 20 years’ time Japan would have crumbled under its own weight. Sickness would have spread and the nation would have been transformed into a lawless archipelago. An unhealthy environment would also turn foreigners away, and the English would choose not to intervene. Japan would revert to the same state it had been during the fall of the Bakufu.”
Ito grew even angrier. “These were the Emperor’s orders?”