The Russia House Page #4

- Jesus, Barley!

- Yuri.

What are you doing here?

You're a month early for the book fair.

Yuri, I want you to meet Len Wicklow,

our new Russian-speaking specialist.

Hello. You a spy?

- Only in my spare time, sir.

- Jesus, I like him.

Oh, thank you. Sit down, friend.

Let's deal direct, OK?

To hell with those a**holes at VAAP.

Stay away from them.

Especially Zapadny.

I don't say he's KGB.

All I say is he needed some damned good

friends to get him back into circulation.

Know what I mean?

- Cheers.

- Na zdorovye.

Oh, Barley... I have something for you.

Some of these writers haven't yet

been to jail. But I'm working on it.

I'll make them famous in the West

even if it kills them.

It's me.

Do I disturb you?

Deeply. Come over.

You invited me to show you Moscow

tomorrow, I think.

I did. Where do I send the glass coach?

I have the tapes, and I've never heard

such pussyfooting around in my life!

Barley has gotta tell Katya:

no more Greta f***ing Garbo.

And Dante better sh*t or get off the pot.

I'm being pelted with crap

in the streets here!

All right, Russell, message understood.

Brock?

Russell's metaphors are becoming

rather scatological.

Signal Paddy at the embassy.

I want him to talk to Barley.

Er, we're this way.

I hope you like churches.

In Russia we don't ask that.

It is not convenient.

Ah. I think you mean ''proper''. No?

- Proper?

- Mm.

Nyet. Convenient.

Now you know why hardly anyone

comes up here. Mind your head.

One more to go. This way.

This is just like school.

Dear old, bloody old... school.

Who is that man down there?

Oh, he's my editor. He's keeping lookout.

Are we ready? Thank you, Brock.

Why is an editor keeping a lookout?

Well...

Do you drink this stuff?

No.

Me neither.

What's Dante's real name, huh?

Who is he?

Does he test things?

Is he a physicist?

An engineer? Is he army?

Does he like ice cream?

Does he like the movies?

Is he one man? Is he two? Is he a group?

Why don't you just start talking

and let's see how it goes?

Come on, Katya. You started this, I didn't.

Come on, it's me, Barley Blair.

I do jokes, I do bird noises, I drink.

I'm a friend.

- Who is he?

- I don't know what I may tell you.

What did he tell you to tell me?

Whatever is necessary.

That I should trust you.

He was generous. It is his nature.

Why did you send me the book

if you didn't trust me?

It was for him that I sent it.

I did not select you, he did.

Oh.

He is... my friend.

Is this what you usually do for friends?

Smuggle their manuscripts

out to the West?

Risk your life, your children?

Does he understand the consequences?

Does he care?

He is reconciled.

- Are you?

- Of course.

And your children?

It is for them and their generation.

He is inspired by the new openness here.

But he knows that nothing

will change by itself.

- And you agree?

- Yes! And so do you!

You spoke for him.

It is for you we are here!

That's worth a drink.

He is not a soldier.

He is a scientist. He is a physicist.

- Also qualified in aspects of engineering.

- Better! Ha-ha!

Engineering.

We're making progress, gentlemen.

Where was he trained?

He went to the LlTMO.

Afterwards to postgraduate studies

at the university.

What's the LlTMO?

Leningrad lnstitute of Mechanical and

Optical Science! Write that down, fellas.

LlTMO is the Leningrad lnstitute

for Mechanical and Optical Science.

He was extremely brilliant.

At 1 4 he won a mathematics olympiad.

Mathematics.

When I was at school,

they were the people I couldn't stand.

Naturally, if you are not so intelligent,

you will be jealous.

From university he went

to Academgorodok,

the City of Science at Novosibirsk.

He was... like a meteor there.

Is that where you met him?

No!

In Leningrad. I was a child.

A great intellectual of 16.

- I met Yakov at the club...

- Yakov?

- Yakov is Dante?

- Yes. Yakov.

- First name Yakov!

- Jacky.

We met at the Club of Scientists.

It was at a closed showing

of a foreign film.

It was by Godard.

bout de souffle. Breathless.

I went with my father.

And what year are we talking about now?

1 968.

You remember '68?

The Paris students at the barricades,

American students against Vietnam,

and for us it was Czechoslovakia.

Yakov said that the Russians

would never stop

the extraordinary reforms

happening there.

It was the start of a new age.

He had come back to Leningrad

to be a part of it.

- From where?

- From the military.

They had seduced him with privileges,

money for his researches...

They had corrupted him.

He had come back to Leningrad

to recover his innocence.

He was beautiful.

Not like a scientist, like an...

artist.

So you fell in love with him.

He was my first lover.

It was the same night

that the tanks entered Prague.

There was no more innocence anywhere.

Yakov said that innocence

was a delusion.

And a few weeks later

he returned to the military.

I did not talk to him for many years.

Until last year, when he met a British

publisher who spoke to his heart.

Next day, Yakov telephoned me

at the office.

He had decided what he must do.

He needed my help.

Is he alone in this?

Does he need anyone else's help?

No.

- None of his drinking friends?

- No.

How can you be so certain?

Because I am certain that

in his thoughts he is completely alone.

Are you happy with him?

- Please?

- I mean, er... do you like him?

As well as loving him.

Does he make you laugh? Hm?

I believe that Yakov

is a great and important man,

who is trying to restore himself

and cannot survive without me.

Oh.

Jesus Christ, Mother of God! It's Savelyev!

Yakov Yefremovich Savelyev!

Did he mention anything about, er...

falsification of results?

He talks about ''the great lie''.

Everything is part of the great lie.

Ah. Go on.

Are you part of the great lie also, Barley?

What?

I think I am also allowed to ask questions.

Oh, of course. Ask.

Are you Mr Bartholomew Scott Blair?

- Aw, for God's sake...

- Are you?

- Yes.

- Are you a publisher?

Yes.

Are you a spy?

No.

Are you alone in this,

or were you sent by others?

Answer her.

I'm alone.

Jesus! F***.

I'm alone, and that's the God's truth.

Never been more alone.

Yakov said he will meet you in Leningrad

in four days from now.

He has proposed three places

and three times.

He will keep one of the appointments,

if he can.

Good.

Reconstruction. Openness.

He's going to reconstruct

the balance of terror,

and open the ultimate can of worms.

Savelyev?! My God, if Dante is Savelyev,

you guys don't know what you've got!

- Yes, we do. Trouble.

-

Yakov Savelyev is

the right hand of God over there.

(scientist) And he says it's sh*t?

The Soviet threat's one big lie?

And look at this.

- They're bullshitting the Kremlin.

- Honour is due, Ned.

Russell, I need your money.

And your love.

I want an American partner for Barley.

I want him in Leningrad on Friday.

I hear you, Ned. I'll get right back to you.

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