What Erast Petrovich said was this: 'You took rather a long time getting back, Varvara Andreevna, and you have missed some very interesting developments. The moment I received your telegram I gave orders for a thorough search to be made of the dead man's tent and personal belongings, but nothing of any particular interest was found. The day before yesterday, however, the papers found on Lukan were delivered from Bucharest. And what d-do you think?'
Varya apprehensively raised her eyes to look the titular counsellor in the face for the first time, but she detected no pity or - which would have been even worse - scorn in Fandorin's expression, only concentration and something very like excitement. Her initial relief was immediately succeeded by a sense of shame: she had drawn things out because she dreaded coming back to the camp, snivelled and moped about her precious reputation and not given a single thought to the cause. What an appalling egotist!
'Tell me, then!' she urged Fandorin, who was observing with interest the tear slowly sliding down Varya's cheek.
'I beg your gracious forgiveness for involving you in such an unpleasant business,' Erast Petrovich said contritely. 'I expected almost anything, b-but not—'
'What have you discovered in Lukan's papers?' Varya interrupted him angrily, feeling that if the conversation did not change direction immediately she was certain to start blubbing.
Fandorin either guessed what might happen or simply decided that the subject was closed, but in any case he made no attempt to delve any further into the Bucharest episode. 'Some extremely interesting entries in his notebook. Here, take a look.'
He took a fancy little book bound in brocade out of his pocket and opened it at a page with a bookmark. Varya ran her eyes down the column of numbers and
letters:
19 —
Z - 1500
20 —
Z - 3400 -
i
21 —
J + 5000 Z
- 800
22 —
Z - 2900
23 —
J + 5000 Z
- 700
24 —Z - 1100
25 —J+ 5000 Z - 1000
26 — Z - 300
27 — J + 5000 Z - 2200
28 — Z - 1900
29 —J + 15000 Z + i
She read it through again more slowly, and then again. She wanted desperately to demonstrate her keen acumen.
'Is it a cipher? No, the numbers run consecutively ... A list? The numbers of regiments? Numbers of troops? Perhaps casualties and reinforcements?' Varya chattered, wrinkling up her forehead. 'So Lukan was a spy after all? But what do the letters mean -"Z", "J", "i"? Or perhaps they are formulas or equations?'
'You flatter the deceased, Varvara Andreevna. It is all much simpler than that. If these are equations, then they are extremely simple. But with one unknown.'
'Only one?' Varya asked, astonished.
'Take a closer look. The first c-column, of course, consists of dates. Lukan follows them with a long dash. From the nineteenth to the twenty-ninth of July in the Western style. How was the colonel occupied on those days?'
'How should I know? I didn't follow him around.' Varya thought for a moment. 'Well, he was probably in the staff building, and perhaps he visited the forward positions.'
'I never once saw Lukan visit the forward positions. In fact, I really only ever came across him in one place.'
'In the club?'
'Precisely. And what did he do there?' 'Nothing, he played cards.' 'B-Bravo, Varvara Andreevna.'
She glanced at the page again. 'So he kept notes of his gambling accounts! "Z" is always followed by a minus sign, and "J" always by a plus sign. So he marked his losses with the letter "Z" and his winnings with the letter "J"? Is that all?' Varya shrugged in disillusionment. 'What has that got to do with espionage?'
'There was no espionage. Espionage is a high art, but here we are dealing with elementary bribery and treason. The swashbuckling Zurov appeared in the club on the nineteenth of July, the day before the first assault on Plevna, and Lukan was drawn into the game.'
'That means "Z" is Zurov!' Varya exclaimed. 'Wait a moment . . .' She began whispering to herself, gazing at the figures. 'Forty-nine . . . carry seven ... A hundred and four . . .' She summed up: 'In all, he lost 15,800 roubles to Zurov. That seems about right: Hippolyte also said something about fifteen thousand. But then what is the "i"?'
'I p-presume that is the infamous diamond ring - inel in Roumanian. Lukan lost it on the twentieth of July and on the twenty-ninth he won it back again.'
'But then who is "J"?' Varya asked, rubbing her forehead. 'I don't think there was any "J" among the card-players. And Lukan won . . . mmm . . . oho! thirty-five thousand roubles from this man. I don't recall the colonel ever having such large winnings. He would have been certain to brag about it.'
'This was nothing to brag about. Those are not his winnings; they are his fee for treason. The first time the m-mysterious "J" paid the colonel was on the twenty-first of July, when Zurov completely cleaned Lukan out. After that the deceased received sums of f-five thousand from his unknown patron on the twenty-third, twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh - that is, every second day. That was how he was able to carry on playing with Hippolyte. On the twenty-ninth of July Lukan received fifteen thousand all at once. The question is, why so much, and why precisely on the twenty-ninth?'
'He sold the plan of battle for the second assault on Plevna!' Varya gasped. 'The disastrous attack took place the next day, on the thirtieth of July.'
'Bravo yet again. And there you have the secret of Lukan's much-vaunted perspicacity, and the incredible accuracy of the Turkish gunners, who shelled the coordinates of our columns while they were still making their approach.'
'But who is "J"? You must have some suspect in mind, surely?'
'Well, of course,' Fandorin muttered indistinctly. 'I, er . . . have my suspicions . . . but not all the pieces fit together as yet.'
'But doesn't it mean that all we have to do is find this "J" and then they'll let Petya go, take Plevna and the war will be over?'
Erast Petrovich thought for a moment, wrinkling up his smooth forehead, and said quite seriously: 'The sequence of your logic is not entirely beyond reproach, but in principle it is quite correct.'
Varya did not dare show up at the press club that evening. She was sure everyone there must blame her for Lukan's death (after all, they didn't know about his treason) and the banishment of the universal favourite, Paladin, who had not returned to the camp from Bucharest. According to Erast Petrovich, the duellist had been arrested and ordered to leave the territory of the principality of Roumania within twenty-four hours.
Hoping to run into Zurov, or at least McLaughlin, and find out from them just how censoriously public opinion was inclined to regard her criminal self, poor Varya strolled in circles around the marquee with its brightly coloured pennants, maintaining a distance of a hundred paces. She had absolutely nowhere else to go, and she certainly did not want to go back to her own tent. Those wonderful but limited creatures, the Sisters of Mercy, would start up their interminable discussions about which of the doctors was a sweetheart and which was a crosspatch, and whether the one-armed Lieutenant Strumpf from ward sixteen was being serious when he proposed to Nastya Pryanishnikova.
The flap of the marquee fluttered and Varya glimpsed a stocky figure in a blue gendarme's uniform. She hastily turned away, pretending to be admiring the quite horrid view of the village of Bogot, home to the commander-in-chief's headquarters. Where, she wondered was the justice in it all? That base schemer and oprichnik Kazanzaki could visit the club without the slightest fuss, while she - essentially an innocent victim of circumstances - was left loitering outside in the dust like some kind of homeless mongrel! Varya shook her head in violent indignation and had just made her mind up to drop the whole business and go home when she heard the odious Greek's unctuous voice call out behind her: 'Miss Suvorova! What a pleasant surprise.'
Varya swung round and put on a sour face, certain that the lieutenant-colonel's unusual politeness was merely the prelude to the venomous strike of the serpent.
Kazanzaki looked at her, stretching his thick lips into a smiling expression that was almost ingratiating. 'All the talk in the club is of nothing but you. Everyone is impatient to see you. After all, it's not every day that swords are crossed over a beautiful lady, and with fatal consequences too.'
Varya frowned suspiciously, anticipating some trick, but the gendarme only smiled all the more sweetly. 'Only yesterday Count Zurov gave us a quite brilliantly vivid account of the entire escapade and now this article today . . .'
'What article?' Varya asked, seriously alarmed.
'Have you not heard? Our disgraced Paladin has excelled himself - filled an entire page in the Revue Parisienne with a description of the duel. Very romantic it is too. You are referred to exclusively as "la belle Mademoiselle S".'
'Do you mean to say,' Varya asked in a voice that trembled slightly, 'that no one blames me?'
Kazanzaki raised his immensely thick eyebrows. 'Apart perhaps from McLaughlin and Eremei Perepyolkin. But everybody knows McLaughlin is an old grouch, and Perepyolkin is a rare visitor - he only comes with Sobolev. By the way, Perepyolkin was given a George Medal for the last battle. Now, what on earth did he do to deserve that? It just goes to show how important it is to be in the right place at the right time.'
The lieutenant-colonel smacked his lips enviously and cautiously broached the subject that interested him most: 'Everybody is wondering where the main heroine of the episode could have disappeared to, but it appears that our heroine is occupied with important state business. Well now, what does the subtle Mister Fandorin have in mind? What hypotheses does he have concerning Lukan's mysterious notes? Don't be surprised, Varvara Andreevna; after all, I am the head of the special section.'
So that's it, Varya thought to herself, looking at the lieutenant-colonel sullenly. J told you so. He likes to have his work done for him.
'Erast Petrovich tried to explain something to me, but I didn't really understand it,' she told him with a naive flutter of her eyelashes. 'Something to do with a "Z" and a "J". You really ought to ask the titular counsellor yourself. In any case, Pyotr Afanasievich is not guilty of anything; at least now that much is clear.'
'He may not be guilty of treason, but he is most certainly guilty of criminal negligence.' The gendarme's voice had assumed its familiar steely tone. 'It's best if your fiance stays in jail for the time being; no harm will come to him there.' But then Kazanzaki immediately changed his tone, evidently recalling that today he was playing a very different part. 'Everything will be all right, Varvara Andreevna. I am not proud and I am always willing to admit my mistakes. Take, for instance, the peerless Monsieur Paladin: I admit I interrogated him and I suspected him - there were good grounds for it. Because of his famous interview with the Turkish colonel our command made a mistake and people died. My hypothesis was that Colonel Ali-bei was a mythical character invented by the Frenchman, out of either journalistic vanity or other less innocent considerations. Now I see that I was unfair to him.' He lowered his voice confidentially. 'We have received information from agents in Plevna. Osman-pasha really does have a certain Ali-bei as either his deputy or his adviser. He almost never appears in public. Our man only saw him from a distance,- all he could make out was a bushy black beard and dark glasses. Paladin mentioned the beard too, by the way.'
'A beard and dark glasses?' Varya echoed, also lowering her voice. 'Could it possibly be that - what is his name now? - Anwar-effendi?'
'Shsh-sh,' said Kazanzaki, glancing around nervously and lowering his voice even further. 'I am certain that it is him. A very shrewd gentleman. Pulled the wool over our correspondent's eyes very smartly indeed. Only three tabors, he says, and the main forces will not get here soon. A simple enough ploy, but very elegant. And like dummies, we swallowed the bait.'
'But then if Paladin is not to blame for the failure of the first assault and Lukan is the traitor, surely it means they were wrong to banish Paladin for killing him?' Varya asked.
'Yes, it does. It's very tough luck on the poor fellow,' the lieutenant-colonel said casually, edging a bit closer. 'See how frank I am with you, Varvara Andreevna. And note that I've even shared some secret information. Perhaps you might be willing to let me have just a little tit-bit? I copied out that page from the notebook and I've been struggling with it for two days now, and all to no avail. First I thought it was a cipher, but it doesn't look like one. A list of army units or their movements? Casualties and reinforcements? Tell me now, what ideas has Fandorin come up with?'
'I will tell you only one thing: it is all much simpler than that,' Varya quipped condescendingly; then she adjusted her hat and set off with a sprightly stride towards the press club.
The preparations for the third and final assault on the fortress of Plevna continued throughout a sultry August. Although these preparations were shrouded in the strictest secrecy, everybody in the camp was saying that the battle would definitely take place on the thirtieth day of the month, the date of His Majesty the Emperor's name-day. From dawn until dusk the infantry and cavalry practised joint manoeuvres in the surrounding valleys and hills, by day and by night field-guns and siege-guns were moved up. The exhausted soldiers were a pitiful sight in their sweaty tunics and kepis grey with dust, but the general mood was one of vengeful glee: we've put up with enough of this, we Russians may be slow off the mark, but once we get moving we'll squash that pesky fly of Plevna with a single tap of our mighty bear's paw.