“Are we going to keep driving through the day, or lie up somewhere, or what?”
“Now that’s odd,” Danty said, biting his lip. “I was thinking we ought to worry about this car, because obviously the licence number can be recognised, and you’d expect that if Lora doesn’t show at home it’ll be reported. But I have this absolute conviction that we’re safe if we go on driving. I have this crazy idea that even if the car has been-oh-reported stolen, say, it’s not going to be taken seriously.” He hesitated. “And I can only think of one explanation for that.”
“What?” Magda demanded.
“Well . . .” Danty licked his lips. “I think because the person who would report it is ‘Iurpin, and he’s in trouble.”
He glanced reflectively at Lora, in case she had heard. But she was asleep.
Sheklov thought: Bad trouble? Because it would be a catastrophe for the whole world it he were caught.
“Is Turpin one of vours?” Ma$da asked, with a sidelong glance at Sheklov. When he didn’t answer, she answered for herself. “I guess he must be, since he collected you from the submarine.”
“What’s the use of denying it?” Sheklov said wearily. “Yes. he is. And he’s one of the greatest heroes in history and he’s never going to get credit for it.”
“He will one day,” Danty said.
“What?”
“I know what you mean,” Danty murmured. “I’ve often wondered how the world had stayed in one piece, and I just saw a good reason. He told you about all the missiles, the radar, and that kind of stuff-right?”
“Yes.”
“Thank God somebody did,” Danty said, and Magda nodded.
Are these people never going to stop amazing me? Shek-
lov thought. He said curiously, “Tell me something, will
you? How do you feel about about me?”
“As a Russian agent?” Danty suggested, and on Sheklov’s hesitant nod gave a shrug. “Oh, as a brave man, I guess. Dedicated. You’d have to be. And clever. But if you mean as a-a foreigner, a communist, all the other things, then . ”
“Lucky,” Magda said.
“I don’t get that,” Sheklov said. “How, lucky?”
“Well, because you still have somewhere to go,” Magda said. “That’s as near as I can define what I mean. Look at us here in this country. We’re in the same sort of mess as the Romans were once, and the Spanish, and God knows who else. We’ve been at the top of the heap, and now there’s no choice except either to run like hell to stay where we are, never getting any place else, or to start the long slide down. Me, I think we started down years ago. We’ve been the richest country in the world, we’ve been the most powerful, we’ve been the most influential, andsame as always-we got used to it. We got blas6. Because we couldn’t climb any higher, we stopped being able to advance, There hasn’t been anything genuinely new in the States for years and years, just changes rung on what we already had. But of course we were afraid of being overtaken. So we drifted into this mess we’re in right now, where we care more about our own selfishness and greed than we do about anyone or anything else. What’s a good career for a bright young man these days? Why, the security force-or a tidy slot in the hierarchy of Energetics General–or something of that kind. Where are our poets, our musicians, our inventors? They’ve turned rebl And got stamped onl” She glanced at him. “Aren’t I right?”
“Being ‘on top’ isn’t the important thing,” Sheklov said.
“Of course not,” Magda snapped. “If it were, we’d feel
satisfied. We’d feel-oh-fulfilled!” _
“And we don’t,” Danty said. “Say, Vassilyl There’s one thing you haven’t told us yet, and I have this impression that it’s the most crucial point of all. Why in the world did they decide to risk sending you to the States? I mean, if Turpin is one of your agents, he must have been here for years-”
“Twenty-five,” Sheklov said.
“That long? Hmml Yes, it figures. And he can’t be the only one, right?”
“No, he’s not.”
“So why did they have to send you? I mean, you could