‘What’s the matter with her?’ asked Volodya.
‘Perhaps you should go out and have a word with her.’
‘You’ll find things a little changed around here,’ said Fyodor, into the silence. ‘The IRT is now being run with strict attention to efficiency and punctuality. You will see, here, the members’ time cards, which they have completed for yesterday; we had to speak to Vera yesterday about cutting down on the time she took to complete her chore, which was to dispose of the commune’s waste…’
‘Oh for God’s sake, Fedya, do shut up,’ snapped Nikita.
‘Why can’t you let him have his say?’ demanded Marina fiercely.
‘Well, you’re cheerful, all of you,’ said Pasha, after a pause. ‘If we’re not having meetings any more, then I think I’ll get some rest. Takes it out of you, being rescued.’
There was a silence, and then Nikita and Sonya shuffled to their feet and announced that as there wasn’t room for all of us to sleep in this room, they would make up beds in his workshop.
‘Won’t you freeze?’ I said stupidly, but they shook their heads, Sonya looking at me a little contemptuously, I thought. Oh, I hated her then. ‘Are you… are you keeping the rules, Sonya? You know it’s in the commune’s interest to be told.’
‘Oh, it’s in the commune’s interest, is it?’ mimicked Sonya.
I could barely get my words out. ‘You have a duty to tell the truth! You can’t hide it from us, you know! Are you… are you…’
‘No, we are not,’ said Sonya firmly, hands on hips. ‘All right? We are keeping the rules. How dare you even suggest such a thing! You should do the Model T for your mean, suspicious thoughts, Gerty. Don’t you trust anyone? Don’t you even trust Nikita?’
15
In retrospect this moment has the feeling of a great vessel preparing for departure. Doors slam shut, one by one, and rotating locks swivel. Safety checks are carried out, one, two, three; navigation orders given and noted down. Each member of the team is in his or her position; they know what is expected of them; it is too late, now, to deviate from the chosen course. We do not know if doubts assailed the captain of the ship.
After Pasha’s and Volodya’s return, Nikita shut himself away in his workshop. Sonya came out once or twice a day to fetch food. ‘We are hard at work,’ she would only say to my queries. ‘The Capsules are nearing completion.’
Since it had emerged that Vera was pregnant, she and Volodya had ceased to make any attempt to hide that they were a couple. I avoided them as much as possible.
I took one of our last pots of jam with me when I next went to Pelyagin’s office. All the way I rehearsed my thanks. ‘I think you mentioned a drive?’ I saw myself murmuring. It was a windy, dreary day with sleet in the air, and I thought of Pelyagin’s warm office as I walked, swinging my arms to ease a persistent ache in my stomach.
But when I reached the National, Rosa Gershtein was alone. ‘He told me to say that he will not be having any more lessons,’ she murmured.
‘No? Did he say why?’
‘He said it was no longer the best use of his time.’
‘I brought him this, to thank him for helping us,’ I said, leaving the jam on her desk. ‘But did he… is he offended with me, do you think? Did he seem angry? Why does he suddenly not want lessons?’
‘I don’t know.’
I peered at her, trying to interpret her expression. ‘When did he start working for the Cheka?’
‘He always did. But he was only recently given this public job.’
‘I liked him…’
‘Yes…’ She looked at me. ‘I think he felt the same.’
In the half-dark yard back at Gagarinsky Lane stood a silent crowd. Inside, lights were moving about, muffled shouting and banging could just be heard. I found myself standing beside the metalworker from the Volga and his wife. The youngest children were hiding their heads under her skirt.
‘What is it?’ I whispered.
‘Red Guards – they say your lot have been up to something,’ he muttered out of the corner of his mouth. ‘I’d stay out of the way if I were you.’
The lights were moving about in Slavkin’s workshop; crashing metal, splintering glass. ‘Oh no…’
I pushed through the crowd and into the house. Prig was leaning against the doorway to the workshop and smoking a cigarette.
‘Ah, Comrade Freely,’ he said. ‘Your friends thought you had deserted them.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘A report came through that there were valuable materials in this workshop, materials that had been illegally requisitioned,’ said Prig. Behind him the Red Guards were methodically dismantling the room, throwing every book and file off the shelves onto the floor, kicking over his half-completed projects. The Socialisation Capsules were dented, wires wrenched out, batteries destroyed.
‘Where is Slavkin?’
He jerked his head towards the end of the room. ‘He’s not being very cooperative.’
I caught sight of Nikita slumped in a chair at the other end of the room. He was so still that I had not registered him at first. ‘Nikita,’ I hurried over. ‘Quick, you need to find the letter of permission from Lunacharsky.’ I began searching through the papers on the floor. ‘Where did you keep it?’
He gazed at me dully, slowly registering my presence; then a little light of venom crept into his eyes. ‘Oh, you’re back, are you? That letter’s gone, I can’t find it. They arrived just after you went out—’
‘Shh,’ said Sonya to him. She was on her hands and knees, picking up papers.
‘Where have you been? To see your special contact?’ said Slavkin and laughed mirthlessly. ‘Perfidious Albion.’
‘What can you mean?’ The breath had been knocked out of me; my voice emerged as a croak.
Sonya stood up, swaying a little with exhaustion. ‘I’ve got it,’ she said. ‘The requisition order. It was in the wrong file.’ She stalked up to Prig and handed him the paper silently.
‘Hmm, yes. Very well,’ he said, stubbing out his cigarette on the floor. ‘Rebyata! Boys! I think you can stop that now.’
‘What about the damage you have caused?’ demanded Sonya furiously. ‘You have set back our experiments by weeks.’
Prig raised his eyebrows. ‘Well, you’ll just have to work harder then, won’t you? Make up for all the time you spent lying on the divan in the old days, eh, mademoiselle?’
They left, and the other inhabitants filed back indoors to their rooms. One of the factory workers spat on the floor as he passed our door. ‘Scum,’ he said. ‘Sooner we put a full stop through you, the better.’
I went upstairs to the empty dormitory and lay down. My stomach was twisted up with cramp and I was shivering. I lay on my own as darkness fell and let the tears slide into my hair. After a while Pasha came to find me. ‘What times,’ he said softly, sitting by my bed. ‘Now Nikita is accusing Fyodor of betraying him to the Cheka.’
‘Really?’
Pasha nodded. ‘Yes, and Fyodor produced his time card and started proving how it would have been impossible for him to denounce Nikita and preserve his productivity level of 84 per cent.’
Despite myself, I laughed. ‘Pasha, you don’t think I would have done such a thing, do you?’
‘I think it would be constitutionally impossible for Miss Gerty to do anything of the sort. Now come on, come downstairs. Slavkin and Sonya are in the workshop. You must eat, and it’s too cold in this room.’
I sat up. ‘Was it just spite on Prig’s part?’
‘Maybe.’
Fyodor, Marina, Pasha and I ate potato soup and drank tea; slowly my stomach relaxed a little. After a while Volodya and Vera joined us. I marvelled at Vera, her prettiness, the delicate flush on her cheeks. Volodya puffed up his chest beside her and told tedious stories of the army.