Kolymsky Heights: Simplified Edition

KOLYMSKY

HEIGHTS by Lionel Davidson

Simplified by Kieran McGovern General Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

Addison Wesley Longman Limited Edinburgh

Gate,

Essex CM20 2JE,

Harlow, England

and Associated Companies throughout the world.

© L i o n e l D a v i d s o n 1994 T h i s edition © A d d i s o n W e s l e y L o n g m a n L i m i t e d 1997 T h e author has asserted his m o r a l rights All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise,

without the prior written permission of the Publishers. First published 1994 u n d e r the title Kolymsky Heights by W i l l i a m H e i n e m a n n L i m i t e d , one of the publishers in Random House U K Limited T h i s edition first published in L o n g m a n Fiction 1997

I S B N 0 582 2 7 8 4 7 3 Set in A d o b e G r a n j o n 10.5pt Produced through L o n g m a n Malaysia, PP

Acknowledgements W e are grateful t o A d d i s o n W e s l e y L o n g m a n L i m i t e d for permission to use in the W o r d List definitions adapted f r o m the third edition of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English © L o n g m a n G r o u p L i m i t e d (1995). Cover photograph © S O A / A n d r e w J Song C o v e r d e s i g n by S a g e Associates

page Introduction

i

Map

iv

Chapter 1

T h e Postman and the Professor

1

Chapter 2

North by North-West

11

Chapter 3

The N e w Chukchee

19

Chapter 4

The Party

25

Chapter 5

A Dangerous Journey

35

Chapter 6

Tanya-Panya and Misha-Bisha

42

Chapter 7

The Ring and the Book

56

Chapter 8

Who is Kolya Khodyan?

66

Chapter 9

Kolymsky Heights

77

Chapter 10

Among the Eskimos

87

Chapter 11

Crossing the Line

92

Chapter 12

The Circle Has No End

102

Word List

104

Activities

106

Lionel Davidson was born in the north of England in 1922. D u r i n g the Second World W a r he served in the Royal N a v y and for the next thirteen years he worked as a magazine journalist and editor. He married in 1949. He has travelled all over the world and, for a time, lived in Israel. In 1989, after the death of his first wife, he married again, and he now lives in north London. He has two grown-up sons, one a designer and the other an airline pilot. Davidson's novels have w o n him fame and popularity in many countries. His first, The Night of Wenceslas (1960), was an exciting story of secret agents set in what was then Czechoslovakia, at a time when relations between the countries under Soviet influence and the West were at their most dangerous. T h e book was well received and the detail of its settings was remarkable, especially because Davidson had never visited Czechoslovakia

himself.

The Rose of Tibet, a

story of travel

and

adventure, followed in 1962. Davidson has written many different kinds of novel in a variety of styles. His later writings reveal more philosophical elements. A m o n g these are A Long Way to Shiloh (1966), set in Israel in the 1960s, and Smith's Gazelle (1971), which tells of the efforts to preserve a group of animals under threat. Novels about modern Jewish life and politics include Making Good Again (1968) and The Sun Chemist (1976). T h e first of these is set in post-war Germany and tackles the theme of N a z i s m . The Sun Chemist comes close to science fiction and concerns the search for a lost formula that can free any country possessing it from dependence on oil. The Chelsea Murders (1978) is a completely different book again, a mystery story set in London's art world. A number of Davidson's novels have w o n international prizes. He has also written many short stories, and under the pen name of David Line

Kolymsky Heights

he has written several books for younger readers. In the adventure story Under Plum Lake (1980), for example, the schoolboy hero, Barry Gordon, visits a lost world under the sea. Davidson spent three years writing Kolymsky Heights. W h e n it was published in 1994 it received immediate praise for the remarkable storyline and the high quality of its construction. It became a bestseller in many countries and a film of the book is planned. T h e book is popular for its fast-moving action and well-researched detail, its unusual settings and its even more unusual hero. T h e action takes place in contrasting parts of the world. It begins in the comfortable and privileged surroundings of an Oxford college in summer. F r o m there we are taken on a journey to Canada and then Asia that ends inside the Arctic Circle, in north-eastern Siberia, at one of the remotest places on earth. Here the winter nights last for almost twentyfour hours and produce some of the lowest temperatures in the world. T h e ground is almost permanently frozen and rivers are impassable for more than eight months of the year. T h e small numbers of local peoples of the region, w h o include the Chukchee, the Evenk, the Koryak and the Yakut, traditionally lead a hard existence dependent on herding and fishing. T h i s is the perfect setting for a top-secret research station, as isolated as it is possible to be from the outside world. Professor Lazenby, an Oxford academic, receives in his mail one day an envelope posted in Sweden, mysteriously containing only two small pieces of paper which are apparently blank. Lazenby is confused and passes them to Philpott, a former student of his, whom he now believes to be involved with the British secret services. T h e strange and urgent message that Philpott reveals seems to come from a Russian scientist. Lazenby thinks back to a conference held in Oxford seventeen years before, where he met a Russian scientist, Professor Rogachev, and a young dark-haired man k n o w n only by the name of Raven. Soon after the conference Rogachev disappeared. Can it be that years later Rogachev

Introduction

is trying to contact Lazenby again? W h a t can the task be that is so desperate and so secret that the message reaches him by such unusual means? It becomes apparent that the man k n o w n as Raven is the only person who can help, but his task will be a difficult and extremely dangerous one.

Kolymsky Heights

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