Chandler got out of the car, turned ... and felt himself taken. His voice said briskly, "Zdrastvoi, Rosie. Gd'yeh Koitska?"
Unsurprised the girl pointed to the building. "Kto govorit?"
Chandler's voice answered in English, with a faint Oxford accent: "It is I, Rosie, Kalman. Where's Koitska's tinkertoy? Oh, all right, thanks; I'll just pick it up and take it in. Hope it's all right. I must say one wearies of breaking in these new fellows."
Chandler's body ambled around to the trunk of the car, took out the square-wave generator on its breadboard base and slouched into the building. It called ahead in the same language and was answered wheezily from above: Koitska. "Zdrastvoi. Iditye suda ko mneh. Kto, Kalman?"
"Konyekhno!" cried Chandler's voice and he was carried in and up to where the fat man lounged in a leather-upholstered wheel-chair. There was a conversation, long minutes of it, while the two men poked at the generator. Chandler did not understand a word until he spoke to himself: "You—what's your name."
"Chandler," Koitska filled in.
"You, Chandler. D'you know anything at all about submillimeter microwaves? Tell Koitska." Briefly Chandler felt himself free—long enough to nod; then he was possessed again, and Koitska repeated the nod. "Good, then. Tell Koitska what experience you've had."
Again free, Chandler said, "Not a great deal of actual experience. I worked with a group at Caltech on spectroscopic measurements in the million megacycle range. I didn't design any of the equipment, though I helped put it together." He recited his degrees until Koitska raised a languid hand.
"Shto, I don't care. If ve gave you diagrams you could build?"
"Certainly, if I had the equipment. I suppose I'd need—"