When Irina arrived at the house, the envelope in hand, the children were running around, throwing everything into confusion.

Yuri took the yellow envelope. It didn't have any writing on it. Nor did he ask Irina how she had received it, but he knew that it was some message from Grigori. Sure enough, when he tore it open, he saw a piece of cardboard with large, red letters:

"Young man, we are studying your delusions. Stand by for my call."

It was a beautiful afternoon in spring. In a few moments he would be taking the Metro, getting off at Mayakovskaia station. Then he would go meet those zealous students of comparative religions. For the first time in his life he asked himself "What makes them so zealous? Why are these kids so interested in myths, legends, superstitions and absurd rituals?" He realized he had experienced the same impulses when, as a student, he attended Professor Grigori's opening class. Yuri shrugged, admitting that, after all, behind the aloof, academic facade, you always find a child that never outgrows the love for fables and for legends. His thoughts were interrupted.

Irina was leaning against the door frame, and she made a perfect silhouette. Yuri glanced at her slowly, as if engraving a picture in his memory. He remembered an old Russian poem, and must have moved his lips reciting it, because Irina suddenly asked,

"What are you saying?"

"I said I can’t find my goddamned briefcase," he replied, and pretended to search around. Irina laughed, ran to him, and threw her arms around his neck.

She held him close and whispered, "Don’t look now, but I think it’s in your left hand." She wrestled with Yuri until she was able to snatch the briefcase away. While the children continued turning the house upside down, Irina ran to the sidewalk, and Yuri closely followed. There they stopped again, exchanging glances, a few words, and perhaps a few thoughts.

The professor was late getting home that evening. He had taken a long detour through the brightly lit Kailinin Avenue. Chatting with Yuri for two long hours was a student under his guidance, a Bolivian who had arrived years ago to the USSR, like so many others, to study at Patrice Lumumba University. He had succeeded in breaking away from that ghetto, and years later was admitted into the University of Moscow, almost with the status of a Soviet citizen. Jose Fuentes was thirty-five years of age, and according to Yuri, 'the most remarkable cerebral cortex I have ever taught.' Yet Yuri had always felt that the Bolivian was also dangerously profound.

Whenever they were together, Yuri requested that they speak in Spanish so he could practice the language he had learned from his mother, Maria.

During this particular evening, Yuri had spoken at length about the period of his life when he had been a simple employee of Moscow University, as a way of responding to Jose's stories about his experiences in Lumumba U. Later, they had spoken for a long time about a crazy adventure on Mount Ararat, when Grigori lead an entire team of archaeologists who discovered nothing. It was precisely at this point that Yuri hurled a question, with that violence that is characteristic of a curiosity that has accumulated for several years.

"You haven't come here only to study comparative religions, have you?"

Jose slowed his pace. His face had that unfathomable expression, peculiar to Amer-Indians, but that Yuri had also seen among Tartars and Mongols.

"No, you are right. But I do fulfill the formalities very well."

From that moment on, questions and answers followed without stopping, and an incredible story emerged. For Jose, the religious topic was not a matter of research, but of practice. Without flinching, Jose explained that he had been assigned to fulfill a project. Things had become easier for him after joining the Communist Party in Bolivia. Later, some good references facilitated his admission into "the ghetto." And finally, Grigori's influence had placed Jose in Yuri's most advanced course. On several occasions Jose repeated that "none of this would have been possible without my own merits." Jose also assured him that during the last few years he had introduced many people to 'the Doctrine,' and that these people were working in separate groups in five or six republics within the USSR. Apparently, they were practicing what academia calls 'mysticism,' but involved something more advanced and more complex -- above all, more complex.

"It’s more than mysticism," declared Jose. "It’s the only true path for human liberation."

Yuri avoided being awkward, and did not respond with slogans, or by arguing that "socialism is the only way." Such a statement, uttered between two scholars of Marxism-Leninism in the middle of Kailinin Avenue, would have been redundant. Upon reaching this point, the conversation ended suddenly. They stopped before a water dispenser. Jose filled a glass and offered it to Yuri as though it were a precious gift. Yuri drank a small portion, and Jose finished off the rest. That was the end of the promenade. After a brief farewell, both men walked away in opposite directions.

MAY 20

Several days went by before Grigori advised Professor Tokarev about the committee's second meeting. By then, Grigori had clarified several points. Yuri discovered that the two psychologists had been confrontational on purpose, as a way of testing his own level of conviction. This had to be explained within a wider context.

Apparently, several months before, Grigori and other eminent scientists had created a research team that petitioned the Ministry of Defense to form a committee that was rather broad in scope and adequately financed. These scientists had been observing increases in the statistical curves for psycho-social dis-equilibrium within the USSR. They had verified a growing number of adherents to the Orthodox temples, a proliferation of semi-clandestine, occultist groups, and a suspicious background in new theoretical pronouncements by the new generation of scientists, especially in the fields of astrophysics and biology.

Meanwhile, Nietzsky, the biotronist, had observed a surprising increase in the number of people interested in undertaking the paranormal tests conducted by his department. He could also produce irrefutable evidence about an increase in the percentage of people with extra-sensory abilities. Every day he would receive information from the most remote areas of the country about people who were spontaneously producing strange phenomena. Nietzsky had stated that he had conducted experiments with a woman that could move small objects at a distance; by fixing her gaze upon a rabbit, she had provoked a cerebral hemorrhage... this was very serious. This lady, by the name of Tolmacheva, could modify low-intensity magnetic fields and therefore willingly alter the flight path of a tiny gadget that used remote controls. On top of this, there was the incident of the American journalist: a journalist who had been held for interrogation in Moscow because he wanted to publish Nietzsky's research in the United States. It appeared that the West was also after something, but no one knew precisely what.

Anyway, the ones who had taken Yuri's article most seriously were two renown historians. Both were involved with studying the significance of religious influence within the dissident movement. Two cases in point were Svetlana Stalin and Solzhenitzin. According to the historians "that these people became traitors to their countries could be easily explained, but it was totally unnecessary for them to also adopt Christianity." Even if the dictator's daughter had been pre-disposed to mysticism because of the personality cult, you still could not explain her new conversion. True, during his youth, Stalin himself had studied in a religious seminary, but all of this had changed after the Great Revolution. Consider also that Theosophy, founded by Helena Blavatsky, began in Russia. And during the ages of the czars there had never been a shortage of Rasputins and Dostoievksys. Had everything really changed after The Revolution?

The historians suspected that the great religions -- such as Christianity or Islam -- could be leading the dissidents. These religions counted with sufficient organization and structures. The historians argued that, even though article 124 of the Constitution proclaimed freedom of worship, it contradicted with real life. This contradiction could be exploited to instigate people. Yet what alarmed them the most was the underground religiosity that was snaking its way into the official ideology, blending Materialism with disguised elements of the occult.

Grigori himself had participated in the discussions of the research group before they had requested the formation of the committee. Grigori's thesis was that religions always arose at cultural crossroads, and that the USSR was, at present, "the mother of all cultural crossroads." Different races, languages, customs and climates were blending together in the largest country in Eurasia -- which happened to occupy one sixth's of the world's land area. There was conflict in every border, and even official ideology was facing increasing attacks by internal and external traitors. All of this was augmenting the spiritual confusion of the masses.

These academic ideas had surely filtered into the highest spheres of government. Almost at the same time that the Ministry had approved the formation of the committee, Comrade Brezhnev, in a surprising speech, had "warned young people about the dangers of flirting with mysticism."

Yuri now clearly understood the creation of the committee, and also understood the strange mixture of individuals working in the same group. After his briefing, he dedicated himself to developing a model of research for the new phenomena that were taking place in the USSR, and in the world...

Today was Sunday. He would miss the company of Irina, Vladimir and Sofia. He had arrived at the building that belonged to the Ministry of Defense. This time, the door opened just as he approached.

"Come in, my boy," said Grigori.

Both of them walked towards the central table and took their chairs, facing the full committee.

Nietzsky said, "Comrade, please tell us about your research model."

Yuri began a meticulous explanation about his investigation plan. It lasted four hours, with a barrage of historical and geographical data. Then he concluded:

"In sum, we must determine whether the phenomenon is being produced deliberately, and then exported to the USSR, or if it is occurring independently in other places. Personally, I am inclined towards the second possibility, even though I do not discount that there might be a certain degree of infiltration from the outside."

"What are you talking about?" The question was asked by a woman unknown to Yuri, and who appeared to be Armenian.

"I am saying that all types of information enter into the USSR through radio, the press, TV, and human interaction, just like there is information that leaves our borders. Yet I don't believe this would have enough influence to unleash a process, which -- according to this committee -- 'is pressuring different fields and strata within our society.' I believe we could investigate some areas in the Orient, those that traditionally have been known to export religions. We should also investigate other areas that have suffered a religious collapse by clashing with a culture that was qualitatively more advanced. The first case is India, and the second case is Latin America where the native forms of worship were completely destroyed by the European conquest. We might be able to confirm what has been said so often in history: a religious revenge against the culture of the oppressors..."

Karpov interrupted. "And what can you tell us about the growing rates -- both in the USSR and in the world at large -- of alcoholism, delinquency, drug addition, suicide and insanity... especially insanity?"

"Professor Karpov," Yuri replied, trying to hide a smile, "our prominent psychologists can certainly find an answer to that. I am simply explaining a research plan that corresponds to my specific field. My frame of work has precise limits, but I do believe we need to carefully and seriously study these phenomena, maybe for several years, before we can arrive at any conclusions."

"Several years!" Karpov replied indignantly. "Our young professor, I'll have you know that we are talking about exponential rates. What this means is that by 1985 we are going to witness a collective, psychic explosion that might rupture even the most organized of societies. You think we are dealing here with a problem for some governmental bureau? Let me make this perfectly clear, we are talking about an issue of survival!"

The committee's coordinator interrupted the discussion, and asked each member to write down their comments and proposals. These would be summarized into a concrete suggestion to the Ministry. To everyone's surprise, he gave them only 48 hours to respond. The members of the committee hurriedly exchanged notes, and the meeting was closed. It was 11:50 p.m.

When he left the building, Yuri wondered about the speed events were taking. "Perhaps," he thought to himself, "we are the most advanced examples of the psycho-social explosion."

That evening, Yuri delivered to Grigori a twenty-page summary of his observations. His main point was that he had no comments, neither for the Committee nor the Ministry.

MAY 23

At noon, Yuri received a book about un-official mystical currents from Grigori. It included names, history, organization, number of adherents, and locations of a thousand small groups scattered throughout India and Latin America. The paper made it very clear that these were not known religions, nor sects that had broken away. This document did not have a title. On its brown leather cover it only displayed the numeral "1" engraved in red lacquer.

Professor Tokarev was under the impression that this tome had been bound together long ago.

MAY 24

Grigori explained to Yuri that both of them were going "on vacation." Yuri must travel to very precise locations in India and Latin America. Grigori would leave for Teheran, Alexandria, and some points within the USSR. The biotronist and some collaborators would visit Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. There they would compare notes with similar specialists. Meanwhile, the committee's historians and psychologists would try to perfect a complex model for the "psycho-social explosion." The historians, basing themselves on data about the past, would do things backward, and suggest future possible scenarios. With the help of computers they would project the most likely future developments. Psychologists would then study these scenarios and try to establish the mental condition of the masses within each possible case.

When Yuri asked about Western Europe and the United States, his old teacher provided a strange reply:

"They are no fools, my boy. They will do their share. Two lines must intersect in order to define a point. We will depict the x-axis, they will depict the y-axis, or vice-versa. We'll soon see if different methodologies can accommodate each other, as has already been the case with rocket science. Let them be, they are not that stupid!"

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