‘What’s that?’ said Dragosani, starting up in his seat as Batu commenced speaking. He glared at his grinning companion. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t know what you were thinking about just then,
t
my friend, but I’m certain it bodes no good for someone,’ Batu explained. ‘The look on your face was very fierce!’
‘Oh!’ said Dragosani, relaxing a little. ‘Well, my thoughts are my own, Max, and none of your business.’
‘You are a cold one, Comrade,’ said Batu. ‘Both of us are cold ones, I suppose, but even I can feel your chill. It seeps right into me as I sit here.’ The grin slowly faded from his face. ‘Have I perhaps offended you?’
‘Only with your chatter,’ Dragosani grunted.
‘That’s as may be,’ the other shrugged, ‘but “chatter” we must. You were supposed to brief me, tie up those loose ends which Gregor Borowitz left dangling. It would be a good idea if you did it now. We are alone here -even the KGB have not yet bugged Aeroflot! Also, we have only one hour before we arrive in London. In the embassy such a conversation might prove difficult.’
‘I suppose you’re right,’ said Dragosani grudgingly. ‘Very well, then, let me put the pieces together for you. It is perhaps preferable that you’re fully in the picture.
‘Borowitz first conceived of E-Branch about twenty-five years ago. At that time a large Russian group of so-called “fringe-scientists” were starting to take a real interest in parapsychology, still largely frowned upon in the USSR. Borowitz was interested – had always been interested in ESP – despite his very much down-to-earth military background and otherwise mundane persuasions. Strangely talented people had always fascinated and attracted him: in fact he was himself a “spotter” but hadn’t realised it. When finally he did realise that he had this peculiar talent, he at once applied for a position as head of our ESPionage school. It was initially a school, you see, with no real application in the field. The KGB weren’t interested: all brawn and bullet-proof vests, ESP was far too esoteric for them.
‘Anyway, since his Army service was coming to a close,
and because he had good connections – not to mention his own not inconsiderable talent – he got the job.
‘A few years later he found another spotter, but in very peculiar circumstances. It came about like this:
‘A female telepath, one of the few girls on Borowitz’s team, whose talent was just beginning to blossom, was brutally murdered. Her boyfriend, a man called Viktor Shukshin, was charged with the crime. His defence was that he’d believed the girl was possessed of devils. He could sense them in her. Of course, Borowitz was very
much interested. He tested Shukshin and discovered that he was a spotter. More than that, the ESP-aura of psychically endowed persons actually disturbed Shukshin, unbalanced him and drove him to homicidal acts – usually directed at the ESPer him or herself. On the one hand Shukshin was drawn to ESPers, and on the other he was
driven to destroy them.
‘Borowitz saved Shukshin from the salt mines – in much the same way he saved you, Max – and took him under his wing. He thought he might exorcise the man’s homicidal tendencies but at the same time save his talent for spotting. In Shukshin’s case, however, brain-washing didn’t work. If anything it only served to aggravate the problem. But Gregor Borowitz hates waste. He looked for a way to use Shukshin’s aggression.
‘At that time the Americans were also greatly interested in ESP as a weapon; more recently they’ve taken it up again, though not nearly to the extent that we have. In
England, however, a rudimentary ESP-squad already existed, and the British were rather more inclined towards the serious study and exploitation of the paranormal. So
Shukshin was put through a long term of spy-school in Moscow and finally released upon the British. His cover was that of a “defector”.’
‘He was sent over to kill British ESPers?’ Batu whispered.
‘That was the idea. To find them, to report on their activities, and, when the psychic stress became too great for him, to kill them if and when he had to. But after he’d been in England only a few months, then Viktor Shukshin really did defect!’