that the Runge group
came closest to the development
of atomic weapons.
And he got an assignment from
the Center to find approaches to Runge.
Where did you get this information?
You think it improbable?
No, not at all.
There's a good company gathered there.
Fermi, Einstein.
And Oppenheimer.
He's in charge of it all.
We have enough
good brains in this field
to get ready in time
for the already real
nuclear threat.
Something doesn't gel.
Quite possibly,
there's a leak, and even...
as much as some conspiracy
among the physicists.
Stirlitz realized he meant
exactly Runge and his group.
And if it's the case, to expose
such conspiracy of the intellectuals
would be possible only with
the help of the physicists themselves.
And Mueller's staff
consists of only bone-breakers.
No, they won't manage.
What information does
the Standartenfuhrer have
about the new
trends in physics?
I'm preoccupied now with
the problem of how we can stop,
with the help of physical chemistry,
the process of masses getting stupider.
It's getting very hard to work.
There're so many idiots
saying the right words...
You're going to end up
in a concentration camp.
You think so?
Though, no,
Mueller won't send you there.
You know too much.
You'll be buried with honors
following an automobile accident.
Thank you.
But first I'd like to place
a wreath on his grave.
Mueller is immortal.
As is immortal the sleuth profession.
Six weeks had passed
since that conversation.
Stirlitz had never
precipitated events.
Self-possession, he believed,
is the reverse side of impetuousness.
Everything is defined
by proportions - art,
intelligence, love, politics.
The second conversation about physicist
Runge came up absolutely unexpectedly
during a party honoring
the Fuhrer's birthday.
That celebration, unlike
those in earlier years,
was rather modest.
After Goebbels' speech
there was a concert.
In the evening, a small reception
was held at Himmler's department.
Forty-five days had passed.
Or to be more exact, 45 days and
6 hours.
And talking to Schellenberg,
Stirlitz made a passing remark
about how unwisely
Mueller's people worked
with the physicist
arrested three months ago.
Somehow or other, but I finished
a physics-mathematics faculty.
At one time I was on the brink of
physical exhaustion because of physics.
- Well?
- Besides...
Runge has connections.
He had studied and worked overseas.
It would be more beneficial if we
dealt with this matter.
You were majoring
in quantum mechanics.
- Did Mueller tell you this?
- No, I have my own sources.
Stirlitz had sold
the idea to Schellenberg
and changed the subject,
beginning to tell him some jokes.
He deliberately got away from
the Runge case, concentrating
on the discussion of other problems.
He knew that Schellenberg,
as a clever chief
and a born intelligence man,
while allowing himself to forget
certain details for the time being,
had never missed the principal
points of any conversation.
Stirlitz realized
that Schellenberg was
a serious adversary
and it was very difficult to
outdo him in matters of strategy,
or even impossible.
Watching him, he noticed
a curious detail.
When hearing some interesting
ideas from his staff members,
Schellenberg seemed not
to have noticed them at first,
and changed the subject.
And only days, weeks,
or even months later,
after furnishing the idea
with his own vision of the problem
(apparently, having some consultations
at the top before that),
he brought forward the same idea,
but this time as his own,
as an operation
conceived
and developed by himself.
And he made even a casual
suggestion look so brilliant,
and so skillfully tied the subject
to the whole complex of problems
the Reich had to solve,
that no one could suspect him
of primitive plagiarism.
And in this case, Stirlitz had
calculated everything very well.
Another three weeks had passed.
Schellenberg was