he following days flew by uneventfully. At the next training, everything was as usual: the warm-up, the basics, the new techniques. This time we were given new techniques from the Monkey style. In order to execute a deceitful blow or to make a simple attack, we tried to copy the habits of this animal, which looked pretty funny. Eugene, as always, didn’t fail to express that, for the majority of our group, there was no need to copy the monkey because our habits in life evidently surpassed the original. In short, the training went by quite emotionally and merrily.
After the additional training, when almost the entire crowd had left, we continued polishing the complex exercises Sensei showed us for individual work. Already at the very end of the training, a solid, imposing man, about sixty years old, entered the sports hall. Sensei, on seeing him, smiled and said, “Whom do I see?! How did you get to us, George Ivanovich?”
“Don’t even ask me,” the man said, slightly indignant. “I have been looking for you for two hours, circling half the city.”
Sensei grinned, “I beg your pardon, Sir Academician. I was busy and couldn’t meet you near the ladder.”
Having greeted each other in a familiar way, they went deeper into the sports hall and, sat down on the sport benches, and began to talk about something.
Upon hearing the word ‘academician’, it was too much for my curiosity. The others around didn’t react in any way to the appearance of the guest. The senior guys continued polishing their strikes as if nothing had happened and concentrated on the work. Our guys kept up with them. Tatyana and I also tried to put on a good show. But with the arrival of this man, all my attention switched to him and Sensei. I saw that Sensei, turning to the guest, started to gesticulate, saying something in quite animated form, and I couldn’t bear it. Dodging Tatyana’s blows, I began gradually approaching them with this improvised sparring. I heard the following words of Sensei, addressed to his guest.
“About twenty years ago you dreamt only of worldwide fame and recognition as a remarkable scientist, and you offered us your services in exchange for concrete knowledge that would make you a leader in science…”
“Oho!” I thought, dumbfounded. “Sensei speaks to him in such a familiar way! But who is this ‘us’? What services?”
Meanwhile Sensei continued, “…From our side, we fulfilled the conditions of our agreement. You received detailed information from us, starting from the semiconducting heterostructure laser and ending with the converters of solar energy. Isn’t that enough for you?! All your life, you did nothing and just used our knowledge, and next year you’ll get the Nobel prize. Not so bad, right?! I don’t understand what the problem is?”
The man sat, hanging his head. When Sensei finished, he raised his eyes towards him. His face his was all red, probably because of strong agitation.
“What’s the problem, you say? You take me for a fool!” With a softer tone, he added, “I remember everything perfectly and never renounced my words… But explain to me, please, where I can find an energy source with the necessary power? In order to launch the plant, according to the blueprints which you handed me, I would have to switch off the power to at least the entire region of Leningrad. You want this plant to work from the beginning of August until December. This means that for these months Leningrad and others will be without light!”
“Dear George Ivanovich, don’t worry about the source of energy, we’ll supply you with it,” Sensei replied.
“Are you going to bring a nuclear generator to my institute or what?! How can you imagine that? Why does it have to be exactly in the territory of our institute? Can’t you do it in some other place, in Moscow, for example?” George Ivanovich was indignant.
“We can, of course. But we decided that your institute is located in a more convenient place… And we’ll supply you with the source of power. You need not worry, it is very small in size, no bigger than a briefcase, so it won’t take up a lot of room. Its energy is sufficient for the plant to work for the time needed.”
“I apologize, but you mentioned millions of kilowatts. It’ll all be in just a briefcase?” the academician was surprised.
Sensei smiled. “Don’t stuff your head with trifles. I can partially satisfy your curiosity and say right now that this is a vacuum source of energy. Moreover, we will give you, as promised, a frequency converter for this equipment. But I warn you in advance, I wouldn’t advise you to get in there and disassemble these devices; otherwise, it will be a million times worse than Hiroshima even though in outward appearance, they look completely harmless. But remember, the plant should begin to work continuously no later than the 15th of August.”
“Alright. And when will you deliver them to me?”“I think right after Christmas they will be delivered to you.”
“Well… Just…” The academician halted a bit.
“What?”
“I’m curious to know one thing. You spoke once about noninterference in our life, while this plant is evidence of the opposite.”
“We do not interfere. If we interfered, we would stop the events that are going to burst out. But we don’t have the right; it’s your will, do what you wish. It’s just not in our interest that a third world war break out with the use of nuclear weapons. That’s why we only want to smooth away the consequences of these events.”
“And is there a guarantee that these waves won’t harm anyone?”
“We assure you that it is absolutely harmless. People will become calmer and more reasonable. That’s why their reaction will be softer and won’t develop into some global conflict. But I repeat, we don’t have the right to prevent these events. If you want, prevent it yourselves. It’s your business.”
The academician got up heavily from the bench and began to bid farewell. Sensei accompanied him to the door, one more time reminding him about the date. Shaking each other’s hands, they said goodbye. I heard how Sensei, coming back from the door, mumbled to himself with a smile, “Hmm, every fool considers himself to be smart, but only a smart one can call himself a fool.”
I was very impressed by this peculiar conversation. “Who is Sensei? Is he a physicist?” I thought. “He probably works in some scientific research institute. Sensei also once told us about some profound physics. In that case, it explains a lot about the extensive range of his knowledge.” This was the only explanation that came to my mind and was more or less acceptable because the thousand other questions completely confused me, and I couldn’t find a clear explanation for them. Nevertheless, Sensei rose in my estimation as a scientific authority because even the academician valued his opinion, even though Sensei did not want to distinguish himself from the crowd. On the way home, as usual, he joked with everybody, keeping up our happy mood after the monkey training. However, at home, I didn’t forget to write down this unusual conversation in my diary with a big remark at the end, “It turns out that he is a physicist!”
