Tm told that used to have a square cross-section, whose sides were something less than two metres,’ Khuv informed. ‘Also that it was lined with a perfect mirror of a very high density glass on impervious ceramic, giving almost 100 per cent reflectivity. After what you have termed the Perchorsk Incident, this is what remained of the shaft. I suppose you might say that this is what comes of trying to pass a round peg through a square hole, eh?’ And before Jazz could answer: ‘Of course, I wasn’t here when this happened. You see, I have my own job, Michael – you’ll forgive my familiarity? – with a branch of the Service whose work you would find entirely unbelievable. It is that E-Branch of which we’ve already spoken.’
Jazz said nothing, continued to glance all about, tried to take in all he was seeing and hearing. What good that would do him he couldn’t say, but it was all part of his training. ‘E-Branch, yes, Michael,1 Khuv went on. ‘You English have an E-Branch, too, you know – which is why we were so interested to know if you were a member of that organization. If you had been – ‘ he shrugged – ‘then we would have been obliged to dispose of you from the outset.’
Jazz raised his customary eyebrow.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Khuv, casually, ‘for we couldn’t allow you to transmit – neither telepathically nor any other way – knowledge of this place to the outside world. That, too, could be very dangerous; so much so that it might even conceivably bring about World War III!’
‘More melodramatics,’ Jazz murmured.
Khuv sighed deeply. ‘You will understand – eventually,’ he said. ‘But first find yourself a place to sit for a while, and I’ll tell you everything you were sent here to discover.
You see, I actually want you to understand everything. You’ll know why later.’
Khuv perched himself on a knob of black rock while Jazz found a seat on the side of the steel cabinet where it leaned out of the lava nodule. Vyotsky remained standing, saying nothing, merely watching. The Projekt’s air-conditioning whispered faintly, distantly, and apart from this and Khuv’s voice, all was silent. Khuv spoke very softly and the effect was eerie: like a whisper echoing in some deeply buried alien vault.
‘You must blame all you see here primarily on the USA’s SDI or Star Wars scenario,’ he began. ‘Of course, those terms hadn’t been thought of as early as that, but the idea was there sure enough. We knew that much from standard intelligence sources. As for the Perchorsk Pro-jekt: it was little more than a clever theory until America started dreaming up its space defence initiative. But after that it was the same old story: we had to have an even better defence system. As with bigger and better bombs, so with defence systems. If Star Wars could mean the loss of 95 per cent of our nuclear capability, then we had to have something which cancelled out the West’s strike capability utterly.
‘Perchorsk was to have been the first step, the proving ground. If it had worked, then similar installations would have been constructed all around Russia’s borders. The satellite countries might perhaps have to fend for themselves in any future holocaust, but the Soviet heartland would be defended – completely! Do you follow me so far?’
Jazz cocked his head on one side. ‘You’re telling me that this,’ he glanced here and there, all about, ‘wasn’t intended as a weapon, right?’
‘Exactly,’ Khuv nodded. ‘It was to have been the opposite of a weapon: a shield. An impenetrable umbrella over the head of the central Soviet Union. Ah! But now I see how interested you are; finally we have a little animation! Well, and should I proceed?’
‘By all means,’ said Jazz at once. ‘Do go on.’
Khuv settled into his story:
‘Don’t ask me about the mechanics of the thing; I’m a – well, a “policeman”, not a physicist! Franz Ayvaz was the brains and driving force behind Perchorsk, and Viktor Luchov was his second-in-command. Ayvaz, as you may already know, was our top man in Particle Beam Acceleration and various associated fields of research; in his younger days he’d been a leading pioneer of laser technology; his credentials were impeccable, and his theory -on paper at least – seemed to be exactly what the defence staff was looking for. A dual-purpose force-field to shut out incoming missiles and render their nuclear capacity entirely harmless.