Robert Harris - Archangel

A little after nine o'clock the telephone began to ring. The bell was shrill. It rang for a long while, stopped, then started again. This time, though, whoever it was hung up quickly.

A few minutes later, someone knocked softly on his bedroom door.

Kelso felt vulnerable now, naked. He waited ten minutes, threw off the sheet, dressed, packed - that didn't take long -then sat in one of the foam rubber chairs facing the door. The cover of the other chair was rucked, he noticed, the seat still slightly depressed from the imprint of poor Papu Rapava.

AT ten-fifteen, carrying his suitcase in one hand and with his raincoat over his arm, Kelso unlocked and unchained his door, checked the corridor and descended via the express elevator into the hubub of the ground floor.

He handed in his key at the reception desk and was in the act of turning away, towards the main entrance, when a man shouted 'Professor!'

It was O'Brian, hurrying over from the news-stand. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before - jeans a little less pressed, T-shirt no longer as white - and he had a couple of newspapers tucked under his arm. He hadn't shaved. He seemed even bigger in the daylight. 'Morning, professor. So. What's new?'

Kelso made a groaning noise in the back of his throat but managed to hoist up a smile. 'Leaving, I'm afraid.' He displayed his suitcase, bag and coat.

'Now I'm sorry to hear that. Let me help you with those.'

'I'm fine.' He began to move around O'Brian. 'Really.' Aw, come on.' The reporter's arm flashed out, grabbing the handle, squeezing Kelso's fingers out of the way. In a second he had the suitcase. He quickly transferred it to his other hand, out of Kelso's reach. 'Where to, sir? Outside?'

'What the fuck are you playing at?' Kelso strode after him. People sitting in reception turned to watch. 'Give me back my case -'That was some night, though, wasn't it? That place?

Those girls?' O'Brian shook his head and grinned as they walked. 'And then you go and find that body and all -must've been one hell of a shock. Look out, professor, here we go.

He plunged through the revolving door and Kelso, after a hesitation, followed him. He came out the other side to find O'Brian looking serious.

'All right,' said O'Brian, 'don't let's embarrass one another. I know what's going on.'

'I will take my case now, thank you.'

'I decided to hang around outside Robotnik last night. Forgo the pleasures of the flesh.'

'My case-'

'Let's say I had a hunch. Saw you leave with the girl. Saw you kiss her. Saw her hit you - what was that all about, by the way? Saw you get in her car. Saw you go into the apartment block. Saw you run out ten minutes later like all the hounds of hell were after you. And then I saw the cops arrive. Oh, professors you are a character, you are a man of surprises.'

'And you're a creep.' Kelso began pulling on his raincoat, making an effort to seem unconcerned. 'What were you doing at Robotnik anyway? Don't tell me: it was a coincidence.'

'I go to Robotnik, sure,' said O'Brian. 'That's how I like my relationships: on a business footing. Why get a girl for free when you can pay for one, that's my philosophy.'

'God.' Kelso held out his hand. 'Just give me my case.

'Okay, okay.' O'Brian glanced over his shoulder. The bus was in its usual place, waiting to ferry the historians to the airport. Moldenhauer was taking a picture of Saunders with the hotel in the background, Olga was watching them, fondly. 'If you want to know the truth, it was Adelman.'

Kelso drew his head back slowly. 'Adelman?'

'Yeah, at the symposium yesterday, during the morning break, I asked Adelman where you were and he told me you were after some Stalin papers.'

'Adelman said that?'

'Oh, come on, don't tell me you trusted Adelman?' O'Brian grinned. 'One sniff of a scoop and you guys make the paparazzi look like choirboys. Adelman proposed a deal. Fifty-fifty. He said I should try to find the papers, see if there was anything in it, and if there was then he'd authenticate them. He told me everything you'd told him.'

'Including Robotnik?'

'Including Robotnik.'

'Bastard.'

Now Olga was taking a picture of Moldenhauer and Saunders. They stood shyly, side by side, and it struck Kelso for the first time that they were gay. Why hadn't he realised it before? This trip was nothing but surprises -'Come on, professor. Don't get all shocked on me. And don't get shocked about Adelman, either. This is a story. This is a hell of a story. And it just keeps on getting better. Not only d'you find this poor bastard hanging in the elevator shaft with his pecker in his mouth, you also tell the militia that the guy who did it is none other than Vladimir Mamantov. And not only that - the whole investigation's now been canned on the orders of the Kremlin. Or so I hear. What's so funny?'

'Nothing.' Kelso couldn't help smiling, thinking of the blond-headed spy. ('What we don't want is the Moscow press corps trampling over everything. . .') 'Well, I'll say this for you, Mr O'Brian: you have good contacts.

O'Brian made a dismissive gesture. 'There's not a secret in this town that can't be bought for a bottle of Scotch and fifty bucks. And man, I tell you, they're in a rage down there, you know? They're leaking like a nuclear reactor. They don't like being told what to do.'

The driver of the bus sounded his horn. Saunders was on board now. Moldenhauer had taken out his handkerchief to wave goodbye. Kelso could see the faces of the other historians through the glass, like pale fish in an aquarium.

He said, 'You really had better give me my case now. I've got to go.

'You can't just run out, professor.' But there was a defeated tone to his appeal and this time he let Kelso take the handle.

'Come on, Fluke, just one little interview? One brief comment?' He followed at Kelso's heels, an importunate beggar. 'I need an interview, to stand this thing up.

'It would be irresponsible.'

'Irresponsible? Balls! You won't talk because you want to keep it all for yourseWJ Well, you're crazy. The cover-up isn't working. This story's going to blow - if not today, tomorrow.

'And you want it today, naturally, ahead of everyone else?'

'That's my job. Oh, come on, professor. Stop being so goddamn snooty. We're not so very different -'

Kelso was at the door of the bus. It opened with a pneumatic sigh. From the interior came a ragged, ironic cheer.

'Goodbye, Mr O'Brian.'

Still O'Brian wouldn't give up. He climbed up on to the first step. 'Take a look at what's happening here.' He jammed his roll of newspapers into Kelso's coat pocket. 'Take a look. That's Russia. Nothing here keeps until tomorrow. This place might not be here tomorrow. You're - oh, shit -'

He had to jump to avoid the closing door. He gave a last, despairing thump on the bodywork from outside.

'Dr Kelso,' said Olga, stonily.

'Olga,' said Kelso.

He pushed his way down the aisle. When he came level with Adelman he stopped, and Adelman, who must have watched his whole encounter with O'Brian, glanced away. Beyond the muddy glass the reporter was trudging towards the hotel, his hands in his pockets. Moldenhauer's white handkerchief fluttered in farewell.

The bus lurched. Kelso turned, half-walking, halftumbling, towards his usual place, alone and at the back.

FOR five minutes he did nothing except stare out of the window. He knew he ought to write this down, prepare another record while it Was still clear in his mind. But he couldn't, not yet. For now, all roads of thought seemed to lead back to the same image of the figure in the elevator-shaft.

Like a side of beef in a butcher's shop -He patted his pockets to find his cigarettes and pulled out O'Brian's newspapers. He threw them on the seat beside him and tried to ignore them. But after a couple of minutes he found himself reading the headlines upside down, then reluctantly he picked them up.