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I was forced to agree. I now understood his logic. My mistake, as usual, had been to miss the practicalities as I became obsessed with the pure idea. The very term ‘death-ray’ was unpalatable to me. These days we have such words as ‘anti-personnel devices’ which keep the entire thing in perspective. Many words of this sort were borrowed by the Germans from the Bolsheviks and from the Germans by the Americans when they offered a home to Germany’s best scientists after the Second World War. They do not make the idea of warfare abstract. They allow a technician to do his job without becoming confused by unnecessary considerations. It is for priests and novelists to decide where the moral blame, if any, lies. In giving himself up to the Age of Individualism, Man has lost the ability to reason clearly. His art and science become confused, for he believes he should reach independent decisions on every aspect of his life. One has only to accept the authority of the Church to know true clarity of vision.

I had been elevated from my rather, ambiguous status in the scientific and business community to a fully-fledged member of the socialist Petlyurist group. I was nervous. I asked Petlyura what my powers were.

‘Whatever you need to fulfill your task.’ He was expansive. ‘You may requisition whatever you want - men and material - so long as you do not actually interfere with our current military operations. We have Russian and Polish chauvinists to contend with. And Deniken is likely to prove a highly unreliable ally, if he actually is an ally. He, too, is a chauvinist, but at the moment he hates Trotsky worse than me. What will become of him if the French decide he is an embarrassment?’

‘Let him go to Turkey with a hundred riders,’ said Konovalets. ‘Things are so bad there, he’ll be able to conquer the whole damned country in a week and have himself crowned Tsar of Constantinople.’

Petlyura raised his champagne glass. ‘Death to the enemies of Ukraine!’

I sipped a reluctant toast. As a ‘Russian chauvinist’ I was not in complete accord with our Ataman.

‘Twentieth-century methods will produce a twentieth-century revolution,’ said Petlyura. ‘And it will impress the superstitious peasants with the importance of science. I hear you are a linguist, Comrade Pyatnitski?’

‘I know English, German and some French,’ I said, ‘as well as Polish and Czech.’

‘And Ukrainian?’

‘The local dialect?’ I experienced a moment of terror.

Petlyura changed the subject. Then I thought him a gentleman, whatever else he stood for. My diplomacy had not worked, but neither had it misfired. Official Ukrainian was a form of Galician not easily assimilated even by Kievans who spoke their own patois. The language was about as authentic as the average Republican bank-note.

We were all of us in that candle-lit room speaking, needless to say, purest Petersburg Russian. Petlyura said, ‘I would imagine the French would pay for the secret of your ray?’

It had not occurred to me. I think Petlyura saw this in my face. He smiled reassuringly as he patted my shoulder, ‘It is all right, citizen. You would not be here if I took you for a traitor. But I shall despatch a courier. We’ll tell Freydenberg we’re in the process of constructing a secret weapon. He must move his forces up quickly or it will fall into Bolshevik hands.’

‘That is strategy.’ Konovalets was approving.

‘It’s diplomacy,’ said Petlyura. His pink cheeks beamed. ‘And we thought it would be so easy to save Ukraine.’

‘I shall need authority,’ I said.

‘Give him a rank, Konovalets.’ Petlyura spoke carelessly.

Konovalets shrugged. ‘You are now a major in the Republican Army.’

And that was how I gained my first military title. Quite legitimately, but without having once spilled a drop of blood.

‘You’d better have that confirmed,’ Petlyura told an aide, is there anything else, Comrade Doctor?’

‘I have been expecting papers from Petrograd,’ I said. ‘They were held up. They’re probably destroyed now. A Special Diploma.’

‘A Russian diploma? They’re useless here. Professor Braun?’ Petlyura had these people hanging on his every word. The professor understood as rapidly as had the general. ‘You need what? Some sort of diploma? We could give you an honorary degree from the University.’

‘It would not be the same.’ I explained what had happened in Petrograd. ‘My dissertation warranted a Special Diploma, you see. The equivalent of a doctorate.’ I reached into my pocket and produced my wallet, handing him a copy of Professor Vorsin’s letter.

Braun read the signature first. ‘I know Vorsin. This is his. If the Comrade Secretary - Ah, Pan ...’ He looked up at Petlyura as if suddenly uncertain of himself.

‘Is it important to you?’ Petlyura asked me. He took the letter from Braun. He read it. ‘Well, it confirms what we have heard. Is that your price, comrade?’

‘There is no price,’ I said, ‘for resisting Trotsky and Antonov. It’s thanks to them I have nothing on paper.’

‘This letter is certainly clear. Isn’t it, Braun?’