They had met in the Imperial College’s 300-year-old library in the graduate students reading room. Kobak often had gone there to be alone or as near alone as any student could be at a university filled with elite scholars from around the world. The room’s tall walls were lined with bookshelves. A stone fireplace at one end burned gas logs instead of coal as it had in the 17th century. The chairs were oversized and dusty, no one ever bothering to vacuum them as if doing so would somehow disturb the wealth of knowledge students had accumulated over the centuries while studying in their cushioned sanctuaries.
Nicholai had entered the room on a spring afternoon when most everyone else was outside enjoying the first warm, sunny day since December. He had taken the chair opposite and cleared hi
