Waltenberg

by Hedi Kaddour

  ‘And so on and so forth, Misha, love and kisses, she might well have said something to you along those lines, that and nothing else.

  “‘It has to disperse, tap water, crows’ feet, and no pencil”, it sounds silly, but when you know that these words come from atomic physicists as gifted as Tellheim or Mzilar, by a direct route from American and British labs, the whole thing acquires a certain charm, at the time Beria must have loved it.

  ‘Means nothing to you, Misha? Tired? How about a drink, a café, sit outside? Don’t want to? You do? Look, across the street, a few tables outside that bistro, it’s called The Lock Gate, come on, a sentimental journey for me, I’ll explain, a couple of good beers, it’ll do us good. So Beria must have loved this stuff about make-up. You’re not interrupting me but it really doesn’t mean anything to you? Fact is though that Maisie has found a summary of that meeting in Vienna in Lena’s file, there were watchers making notes there too, just notes, woman’s talk about make-up, no one wanted to translate, and almost nothing is said about you, get it? they didn’t identify you! You don’t want to tell me anything? You’d rather I embroidered? that I send you back to Rosmar the day after this meeting? You leave Vienna for Rosmar, not your office but the airbase at Rosmar and on to Moscow by a direct flight specially laid on for comrade Lilstein, Moscow, Markov, he writes down what Lilstein dictates, sitting beside Markov is another man, according to Max it seems his name was Kolymaguine.

  ‘This Kolymaguine has written down only a few words when suddenly he says to Markov “we must report directly to the comrade Commissar”, to Lilstein he says “you’re coming with us also”, and the top-ranking Commissar sees all three immediately, it’s Kolymaguine who does the talking, right?

  ‘Extraction by dispersal, water channel, Misha, when Maisie talks about it she gets furious, she’s certain Lena even said “a good, heavy water”, the watchers didn’t pick up on it, idiots, Maisie asked me if I knew many women who give out their beauty secrets in public, Kolymaguine went on, the comrade Commissar listening, “dispersal, heavy water, this cross-checks with the two other sources, the woman spoke of hydration but said it wasn’t the right word, the only word which sounds like it in the area which interests us is hydride, she doesn’t want to say the exact word because it’s too specific, uranium hydride, so extraction by dispersal, heavy water channel, uranium 235, and no pencil, that is no graphite, it all checks, comrade Commissar.”

  ‘And Beria places his left forefinger in front of his lips as he stares at the sheet containing Markov’s notes, there are two other sheets of paper on the desk, he compares them, elbow on the desktop, the forefinger moves to his cheekbone, “your opinion, comrades?”

  ‘Kolymaguine says “it’s a pure lead, comrade Commissar”, Beria turns to Markov, “can you guarantee the source?” Markov says simply “yes, comrade Commissar”, Beria to Lilstein, same question, and you say “yes, comrade Commissar”.

  ‘Beria is happy, “if this works out all three of you will be on list A”, did that make you feel good, Misha?

  ‘Later Markov must surely have said something along these lines to you “there are two lists, the first, if things work out right, is the list of heroes of the Soviet Union, the second is the list of the Order of Lenin, and if things don’t work out, those on the first list are lined up and shot, those on the second are sent to the Gulag, we must be proud that we are on the first list”.

  ‘Beria really has good grounds for being pleased, he is director of espionage, counter-espionage, the police and atomic research, does it all concurrently, first-rate manager, he’s pleased with you and Markov, a good team, under the direction of a good manager, that’s more than a year gained.

  ‘Maisie reckons Lena must have passed you this information about the bomb, Misha, at least part of it, a very interesting operation.

  ‘An operation centring on a nucleus, a nucleus of scientists who had the first ideas, who went to Roosevelt and told him it was time to move to the practical phase, the bomb, at the outset it was scientists who convinced the politicians and the military, and the same scientists decided among themselves to share the secret with their Soviet ally, that they wouldn’t give it exclusively to the American military, such a thing was too dangerous in just one pair of hands, so Beria didn’t go looking for the scientists, a few scientists just decided from the very beginning to scale down their own knowledge, they had a world vision, no one camp shall hold a decisive advantage, they sent out information through a variety of channels.

  ‘For Maisie, in this whole atomic business, your friend Lena was one of the major go-betweens, because she didn’t like Truman and because she liked you a lot.

  ‘Maisie’s got it wrong, hasn’t she? Lena wasn’t just an intermediary between Moscow and the core of scientists, she was part of the core, an old friend of Tellheim, the period when this small circle debated very freely just before they were shut away in their atomic laboratories in the desert, the period when they discussed, agreed, set it all to music.

  ‘Lena loved setting things to music, that was her main reason, setting things to music, her contempt for Truman was secondary, and she liked Eisenhower, it has to be said that he kept her out of McCarthy’s way, he sent Walker to take care of McCarthy, it’s funny: with all his faults, McCarthy had understood exactly what was going on, and it was Walker who told Eisenhower that he had to get Lena out of McCarthy’s clutches.

  ‘A riddle, dear Misha: who was it slipped a few items of information to McCarthy in 1954 to put him on Lena’s track? And arrange for her to be defended by Eisenhower in person? It was risky but she was becoming terminally untouchable, a brilliant move, do you accept belated compliments? But it didn’t work, because it rebounded against you, the McCarthy business turned her into a close friend of Eisenhower.

  ‘And Lena has principles, you never betray a friend, so nothing more comes your way, she stops singing, and later she adored Kennedy, she campaigned for Kennedy, she was a member of the clan, I’m sure she only worked for them, she must have put you out to pasture the moment Eisenhower defended her, same thing in Kennedy’s day too, or maybe you understood that there were things you couldn’t ask her any more, though in fact did you ever ask her anything? I think she always gave you what she wanted to give you, that’s all.

  ‘And one day she just stopped, you didn’t say anything, there was even better than that, as with me, roles reversed, right? I’m very fond of this little bistro, let’s say I’m very fond of what it used to be, it’s changed a great deal since the days when I used to come here, end of the fifties early sixties, it was already called The Lock Gate, hardly seats for fifty customers inside, I saw the best female singers of the time pass through here, Barbara, Anne Sylvestre, Cora Vaucaire, I used to come with my wife. That’s all gone now, it’s expensive, but I still come from time to time and stay for half an hour, just long enough to read a newspaper.

  ‘It was you who passed information to Lena, in 1961, Cuba, the missile crisis, you cozened me into telling my pet minister “got to stay firm, the Russians will back off”, that was designed to land Mister K in a fix, when did your friend Markov become a member of the Politburo?

  ‘And when Mister K runs the risk of getting himself booted out by the warmongers, he gets support, a brief message is passed to the Americans, “you don’t invade Cuba and we’ll withdraw the missiles”, I know, in Washington, it was Linus Mosberger, an old pal of Max, who was used to pass the message directly to Kennedy, but I’m sure the same message reached the White House by way of a certain great lady of the world of opera, you always need confirmation.

  ‘Markov landed Khrushchev in a fix, then he helped him get out of it, and finally he had him removed, did Lena actually make a lightning Vienna-Washington trip at that time? To make music? For her, the best outcome was Kennedy emerging as winner and for you it was Markov coming out on top.

  ‘That said, if all this pother in the forties about uranium and heavy water was all finally to come
out into the open the Americans would be capable of digging up Arlington Lena and dumping her on some municipal rubbish tip, but Maisie won’t do that, Lena won’t be touched, she’s more or less committed to that, she’ll tell you she’s committed to it, she told me “I’ve got a heart, you can tell by the way I cover it with my hand every time I hear the last post or the national anthem, especially when it happens at Arlington”.

  ‘It’s something I have in common with Maisie, Misha, those cemetery emotions, Arlington, the star-spangled banner draped over the coffin, the band, the impeccable folding of said banner, eleven movements, I counted, very fine the way they do it, I think it’s so impressive that I decided to go and see it done properly, at Colleville-sur-mer, the lowering of the colours at Colleville-sur-mer, beautiful site, ten thousand American solders buried there, overlooking the sea, the colours are lowered at about a quarter to six, no bagpipes, a prerecorded last post, ten thousand graves, I was half-expecting gleaming white caps, the guard of honour, there was none of that, no doubt problems of cost, the flag was brought and folded by civilians, pants with pockets at the knees, just guys who looked after the site, they fold it along the creases, still they must have been shown how to do it, but without the threat of ten days in the calaboose if they screw up on the job, it lacks class, if I want to see the flag folded properly I have to go to the cinema, funeral of the hero, sometimes it happens right at the start of the film, it tends to spoil what comes after.

  ‘Misha, have you seen through our new American lady friend’s little game? You’ve got to wise up! Why does the lovely Maisie want to know all there is to know about Lena? So she can write a report? So she can look good by uncovering yet another mole story? So she can trample all over us?

  ‘Or rather is it because Walker protected Lena? Because he snatched her from the clutches of McCarthy and because in 1954 he wasn’t seeing straight? Because she was his godmother, as he is fond of pointing out? Would Maisie take action to protect Walker? Now that would be swell. As swell as if we were acting simply to protect Lena’s memory.

  ‘It seems Walker best likes working when he’s got protection, in Korea he was a flame-thrower, came under the wing of Garrick who was a marksman, he went on working with Garrick but Garrick gets sick. Maybe Maisie replaced Garrick, a beautiful friendship between Maisie and Walker, you believe in friendship? I’d like to see all this more clearly, Misha, let’s imagine that one day Walker said something gross.

  ‘Something like “I’ll never let Maisie set foot inside the White House, not even to pour the coffee, not even with a big white bow in her hair”, Walker is a careful man, it looked as if he were merely casting doubt on Maisie’s abilities, he wasn’t a racist, he chose to say something that he didn’t think, the better to control, but words like that turned the clock back a few years, the remark about the coffee and the white bow was made in the presence of two leaders of the Republican Party, the old style of boss man, very reactionary, Walker is a liberal, a liberal republican, he doesn’t believe a word of what he said to those guys, but said it all the same, to make them laugh, to get them eating out of his hand.

  ‘Walker wants to be a White House adviser, he can’t afford to look like a liberal, unfortunately that’s his reputation, although he took part in the Phoenix programme in Vietnam, the eradication of tens of thousands of civilians by the CIA, but he still has a name for being liberal, with his pipe, tweed jackets and his Princeton degree.

  ‘And he can’t very well go round shouting from the rooftops “I too have had civilians killed” just to defend himself against being thought a wicked liberal. Then he made that crack about waitresses, pouring the coffee, with a bow in their hair, that should do it, they laughed all right, and so Walker gets the discreet support of the Republican right for the price of a crack.

  ‘One day Maisie smiled at Walker, an even broader smile than usual, cheekbones, teeth, even more dazzling, large eyes sparkling, she held out a cup of coffee to him with a smile, and he knew she’d heard about the crack.

  ‘And also with that big smile that she was offering to make peace, Walker realised he should have killed her and not made cracks about who serves the coffee at the White House, not even in front of two Republican chiefs, one of the two chiefs must have made progress, or the wife of one of them, or an aide, doesn’t matter which, it was too late, Maisie didn’t get angry, it meant that she had him where she wanted him, no need for getting angry, one of the two chiefs would be prepared to testify, and the other one would corroborate.

  ‘She talked to Walker with increasing regularity, about this and that, she’d smile “FT it’s so good having you for a boss and as a friend, nothing can wreck our friendship”, and Walker can only agree with her or kill her, too late to kill her now, they are allies, Maisie will help Walker get to the White House and Walker will help her in turn to join him there. That’s the new deal.

  ‘They talk, Walker likes educating Maisie, passing on the history and tradition of the company, they go together to the coffee-machine.

  ‘Walker is anxious, he’s a liberal, it’s the old CIA from the Cold War days, when it was in bed with the non-communist left, or the ex-communist left, which was responsible for the downfall of McCarthy.

  ‘The new chiefs of the White House don’t care for tweed jackets and liberals, of course Walker has taken down communists, Viets, civilians, Phoenix and guys with red gloves, but he overdid it, liberals are like that, when they roll their sleeves up they always go too far, Walker really needs Maisie’s support, he talks to her a lot, confides in her so that she confides in him, he knows she has free access to the President’s family, the crack about coffee was the big mistake of his life, to try and make people forget it he confides in her more and more, he lays out his whole life for Maisie, anyone who listens to him the way she does must be on his side, and in the long run Maisie pieces together the coincidences in what Walker tells her.

  ‘Some coincidences! She became his ally, she listened to him, she understood him, she took as an ally a man who wouldn’t have let her pour the coffee in the White House, “a country where they can refuse to let you into a diner but you can also get to be President of the whole country”, she’ll never get to pour the coffee, they use army orderlies to do that, guys a metre eighty tall, who like Maisie a lot because she pays attention to them, Walker and Maisie talked about the history of Europe, Maisie’s special area, the Cold War, and the story of Lena is a superb illustration of those years.

  ‘Walker hadn’t spotted the coincidences, sometimes Maisie would lay out what she could see for him, that is everything that happened between 1943 and let’s say the election of Eisenhower as President, when Walker defended Lena against McCarthy, Maisie only showed Walker coincidences in a half-light, no one sees much and it’s better that way.

  ‘Walker became Maisie’s sponsor, he’d made fun of her, she had picked up on the coincidences, Walker caught on, until then he had noticed nothing, but Maisie had noticed, she knows everything Walker didn’t know, in the end she said “FT, I’m convinced that woman knew how to move faster than her shadow”.

  ‘Maisie can speak or shut up, at last Walker gets the message: he’s been left for dead.

  ‘And when they ask Walker for his opinion with respect to the job in the White House so that he’ll talk about himself he’ll say that Maisie’s the one to cross the river, to become an adviser in the Oval Office.

  ‘He’s too old, Maisie will be able to come up with the new scenarios needed to take us into the twenty-first century, you get the picture, Walker makes a good case, “Maisie’s the one you want, she weighs as much as millions of votes”, and it works, people are actually relieved to see him backing Maisie, Maisie becomes a White House adviser and sometimes she it is who invites Walker, who has stayed with the CIA, to meetings in the holy of holies, imagine the holy of holies, Misha, you never made it inside, imagine it!

  ‘So one day it will dawn on Walker that he’s not going to go any higher, he
’s indebted to this woman who knows the full story of Lena, he’ll watch Maisie operate, he’s already the originator of an expression which is bandied about a great deal between Langley and Washington, “the lower slopes are littered with guys who were wrong about Maisie.”

  ‘And the sooner our little princess learns things about Walker’s mistakes and the truth about Lena, the better she’ll feel, I’ve no idea how high she’ll go, but Walker’s not going anywhere, Deputy Director of Operations, and Maisie is going to love us for this, thanks to us she’s going to discover the full richness of Lena’s character, all the coincidences, great singer and great teacher, great lover of men, a great American lady, she was that and much more and Maisie will be very pleased when she finds out.

  ‘No, I don’t think they’ll be digging up Lena at Arlington, we won’t allow it, you’re going to help me and together we’ll keep her in their hearts, it’ll emerge that the hand she played was at times a little personal but all things considered she always played on the side of freedom, it’s what they want to believe, because Maisie doesn’t want to kill Walker.

  ‘Walker will become her main backer, he’ll get her into the White House, into the job he should have got himself, Maisie’s security adviser, and Lena’s memory will be piously guarded, splendid way to bear witness, Maisie won’t kill FT, I’m beginning to know her, she’ll protect him, they’ll work together, he never understood women, not Lena not Maisie, Maisie gets into the White House and now and then arranges for him to be invited, he’ll reach retirement age, he won’t like the idea and Maisie will help him, she’ll work it so he gets an exceptional extension of three years, “Richard, I’m so sorry, it was the best I could do.”