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better for you. I make you laugh; did you laugh much with him?’
    â€˜No,’ Judith answered. ‘I suppose I didn’t. It wasn’t like that. It was too serious, too intense. I’m not a woman who takes these things as a joke, I’m afraid. So you wouldn’t be better for me. I’d like to go to my bungalow now.’
    â€˜Finish your drink first.’ Sverdlov had one hand on her arm. It exerted pressure. ‘It will help you sleep. Otherwise you will go to bed and cry again. Even you won’t be pretty with a red nose—you see, you smile. So perhaps it is not so very serious, this great love for the Group Captain.’
    â€˜How well do you know him?’ she asked. ‘He never mentioned you.’
    â€˜He wouldn’t.’ Sverdlov grinned crooked mouthed in the darkness. ‘I know him to speak a few words when we meet socially. But he doesn’t encourage friendship with our people. It might hurt his career. Like divorcing his wife. Couldn’t you see it was the most important thing for him?’
    â€˜No,’ she said. ‘Obviously not.’
    â€˜That’s because you are a sentimentalist. You believe in innocent slaves and miraculous Tamarind seeds. You are a very bad judge of people.’
    â€˜Anything else?’ He was massaging her wrist with his thumb; she was too exhausted and upset to stop him. ‘Anything else wrong with me?’
    â€˜I didn’t say it was wrong,’ Sverdlov said. ‘In a woman I think it is nice. I have a wife at home. She is a good judge of everything. She knows exactly what is right and what is not right. She draws a line—so.’ He gestured with his burning cigarette end in the darkness. ‘On this side is the Soviet Union and the Party. They are right. On the other side is the Capitalist world. Wrong.’
    â€˜You never said you were married,’ Judith couldn’t keep her voice steady. She managed to pull her arm away from the circulating thumb.
    â€˜That is why I am telling you about it now,’ he said. ‘So you won’t say afterwards, “You are married, you never told me”.’
    â€˜There won’t be any afterwards.’ Judith started to get up.
    Sverdlov didn’t move to stop her. ‘Probably not now,’ he said. ‘I have to go back in three days. Tonight I’d like to talk a little, about myself, if you wouldn’t mind. Please sit down again.’
    â€˜Three days—I thought there was nearly a week.’
    â€˜I came before you did.’ He reached down and brought up a whisky bottle. He tipped some into her glass. ‘For me, not for you.’
    Judith sat down. ‘You know the night watchman saw us up here. I suppose he’ll report it.’
    â€˜I’m sure he will.’ Sverdlov was smiling again. ‘I’m sure we have been watched all the time. You may be asked questions about me when you go back.’
    â€˜Who by?’ She turned to him in surprise. The hand was reaching out for her again.
    â€˜Your Intelligence people. The CIA. What will you tell them?’
    â€˜To mind their own business. Stop trying to hold my hand. I don’t trust you, Feodor. You said you wanted to talk.’
    â€˜You can trust me,’ he said. ‘Let me hold your hand. I’m afraid of the darkness.’
    â€˜You’re not afraid of anything.’ Judith gave in.
    â€˜That is not true.’ He was serious, the mockery had gone. He was a man whose mood could change with alarming rapidity. ‘Everyone is afraid of something. You came here to run away from your love affair. I came because I have nothing to run away from. Do you understand that?’
    â€˜No,’ she shook her head. What does it mean?’
    â€˜I have a good career,’ Sverdlov said. ‘Promising. I have a wife who is a famous specialist; she is young and nice looking. I belong to a great country and a great Socialist