Thinly, Kalitzkin smiled over the tops of his fingers. Shaw noticed that, suave and correct and polite as the Russian was, his smile never once touched his eyes. He was too cold, too detached for that. “I am not doing this entirely on my own, Commander. I and my group have been given, and are being given, every possible background assistance and practical support throughout the world, and all the actual operational help we require — but not, and I must stress this, not by the official governments, who are in no way involved.”
“Then who—?”
Kalitzkin said in a tone that came close to reverence, “WUSWIPP, Commander Shaw! Indeed it is WUSWIPP that is carrying out the diversion of the capsule. I am merely an employee, the scientist in charge here in the Kuriles, as I have told you already.”
“And WUSWIPP is?”
“The World Union of Scientific Workers for International Progress in Peace. We use the English form as being more convenient outside Russia, in a world where English is so universal a tongue — and, you see, we are not purely Russian in any case, but are ourselves universal.” He gave a quiet laugh. “I can see you have not heard of us, and this is totally unsurprising to me, Commander! We preserve our secrecy excellently and we are very much more efficient at this kind of close secrecy than are any of your Western peoples. As I have told you, even the authorities in the Soviet Union know nothing of the existence of our organization.”
“But — what are you aiming for, Kalitzkin? Where do you differ from the Kremlin? Aren’t you all Communists?”
“But most certainly we are, Commander — all of us, without exception! Those of us who subscribe to the ideals of WUSWIPP are much more convinced Communists than are most of the men in the official Russian party. You see, our belief is in total Communism — by which I mean the political integration of Russia with China, and thus an end for all time to the differences between our two great countries — differences which so seriously weaken our joint march towards the World Communist State — or rather, what should be a joint march towards that end.” He shook his head. “No, the Russian and Chinese Governments in Moscow and Peking are not themselves concerned in what we mean to do, and as for the men in Moscow, they know nothing of what we are planning—”
“Which means, I take it, that the men in Peking do know?”
Kalitzkin smiled again; blandly. “Allow me to return to this point shortly. I was speaking of the men of the Kremlin. They do not know, for instance, that for the past two years we and our workers have been constructing this base against the time when a worth-while prize would offer itself, as we knew it would, one day.”
“But Russia and China have given unofficial assistance?” Shaw pressed. “When you said Russia didn’t know about your plans… you were speaking purely on an official level?”
Kalitzkin shook his head vehemently. “Not Russia, no. They know nothing — nothing! China has supplied workers, mainly unskilled men to excavate the silo, also she has supplied earth-moving machinery and other equipment. Our good friend Rencke, and others who think as we do, have supplied, or rather have arranged the supply of, the precision instruments and the highly specialized equipment we needed. Comrade Rencke is an ubiquitous man, Commander, with fingers in very many pies all over the world, and he is a very excellent agent. The firms who supplied our equipment through his good offices… they had no idea where their products were going! I and my fellow scientists of WUSWIPP have supplied the knowhow and the administration and have set up the control factor. Russia, my dear Commander Shaw, knows nothing of this. Naturally, we at this base are in constant touch with the world’s news and we know that Moscow is genuinely alarmed about the possible threat to the capsule — and thus, indirectly, because of public opinion in the West, alarmed also about a possible threat to her own territories by way of reprisal. They are scared that war will result.”
“Aren’t you, Kalitzkin? Doesn’t the threat of a war worry you?”
Kalitzkin shrugged. “I cannot say that it does. It would be unfortunate, of course, but—”
“It doesn’t worry you, that you could be responsible for the deaths of millions of people throughout the world— including Russia?”
Kalitzkin said calmly, coldly, “This prospect does not alarm me if in the end Communism is best served — and there is also my work, Commander. Perhaps you do not realize what a tremendous achievement it is, to be able to divert a spacecraft from its course! You do not realize what enormous power this will give to the combined East eventually. However, to return to what I was saying: I need hardly tell you, I think, that we have covered all possible angles in the interests of our complete security, and that our agents are in fact allaying the Russian fears of war and of the existence of our—”
“What, exactly, do you mean by that, Kalitzkin?”
Kalitzkin leaned across the desk. “I mean that we have our own men in the Kremlin, men who are expertly sowing the seed of the plant which says to the official leadership that in fact there is no threat, that it is all a trick of capitalism to prepare the people of the West for a war which they intend to start one day though not now — a capitalist scheme to poison the minds of men against Communism in a world that is tending more and more to accept the fact of Communism and to wish to live side by side with it—”
“But what’s the point of all this?” Shaw interrupted. “Even if you do get the capsule down where you want it, what in heaven’s name are you going to do with it? Do you imagine you can control space, or interfere with all Western space projects for all time, from here? Is that what you’re after?”
“No, Commander, that is not our aim — though it could well become a by-product of our success, of course.” Kalitzkin gazed thoughtfully at Shaw. “I will tell you what our objective is — but first I must fill you in on a little detail.” He rubbed again at his eyes behind the glasses. “The Kremlin has for some months past wished to get hold of Professor Danvers-Marshall — and to this end they have used the presence in Poland of his wife’s illegitimate daughter to apply pressure to him through her. Now this, we in WUSWIPP of course knew also, and we have made certain arrangements with Danvers-Marshall, who was under the impression that our agents were the agents of Moscow. Now, Danvers-Marshall has not been entrusted with any knowledge of the whereabouts of our base — he knows, of course, that the capsule is to be diverted, but he believes that he is going to defect to Russia and re-join his wife, who in fact has been delivered to our associates in that country. However, what is really going to happen is this: we intend to hand the capsule and the men in it, including Danvers-Marshall himself, to the Peking Government, with the object that they use them as bargaining counters with Moscow to secure a greater sharing of Russian technical know-how in the widest sense, and, among other things, to help to put Peking firmly into the space race — with a resultant rise in China’s prestige throughout both the Communist and the uncommitted worlds. The ultimate objective of this, Commander, is the integration of which I spoke earlier — we wish, by increasing China’s power and prestige, to force integration upon the Soviet Union.” He shrugged. “Naturally, this is a long Term project… and one which may not come to its full fruition in my lifetime. I know this well. But we all strive, and we can all make the humble beginnings that lead to great ends.”