They huddled closer around him. “A trap? But the American went that way. We saw his tracks.”
“A track at the edge of the ice and a smeared place or two ahead of him that looked like tracks. Probably it was done with a long pole or branch to make it appear he had gone that way.”
Alekhin turned away, his eyes searching for the real trail. “He knew what he was doing. He knew he could kill one or more of you.”
They shivered in the bitter cold and looked at the stiffened body of their mate.
“What about him?”
“He is dead. You can do nothing for him. If you try to reach him, you may break through as well.”
They walked away and he said, “If you just get a foot in the water, get it instantly into the snow. Dry snow is the perfect blotter. If you get soaked there is no chance.”
It was cold … cold.
A soldier turned and looked back. His mate lay, a stiffening gray thing upon the river ice.
Numb and frightened, the soldier followed Alekhin.
Twenty-Eight
Stephan Baronas stood beside his daughter and waited. Fear choked him, but he fought it back. The man who got out of the Volga was a large, strong-looking man, and he strode over to them. For a moment he just stared at them.
“Can we go inside?” he asked them. His tone was mild.
“Please do,” Baronas said. “Forgive me. We do not often have visitors.”
Inside, the man took off his heavy coat and hat. He looked around him. “Snug,” he said, “and warm.” He looked from one to the other. “You are comfortable here?”
“Yes.” Baronas was surprised at the question. “Thank you. ”
When he was seated he stretched his hands to the fire. “I am Nicholai Bocharev,” he said.
“Oh?” In sudden compassion Talya moved toward him. “It was your son — ?”
“Yes. My only son.”
“We are sorry,” Baronas said. “He was a fine young man. He visited us here.”
Bocharev glanced up. “I know. He wrote to me. You were very kind. He said he loved coming here. It was like another home.”
He was silent for a moment, and then he added, “We had so little time together. He was just growing up, you know, coming to think of me as a friend rather than a dominating parent. We had long talks.”
“Will you have tea?” Talya held out a cup, which he accepted. “He brought it to us.”
“Thank you.” He sipped the tea. “My son said you opened your home to him. I am afraid he was very lonely, although he would not admit it.”
He looked up. “You gave him the last happiness he had. You welcomed him, treated him as a son and brother.”
“He deserved it. It is our loss, too, that he is gone.”
“He loved running wild rivers, and he was very skillful,” Bocharev said. “Only there was a place where the current swept the boat under a rock. He did not see it in time. He was struck on the head.”
“We are sorry. We shall miss him, too.”
Bocharev sipped his tea and then looked around. “Is there anything I can do? I am grateful that my son was happy those last days. You have done this for him and for me.”
“Nothing,” Baronas said. “Nothing at all.”
Bocharev’s manner changed. He smiled. “Come, come, Baronas. I know you. I have looked at your dossier. You should not have been arrested. It was a precautionary measure at a time when some were fearful of internal trouble. It was a foolish fear.”
He held out his cup. “May I?”
When it was refilled and he had had a swallow, he asked again. “You have education, Baronas. There is much you can do here, but — ”
“I appreciate that, but there might be others less understanding.” Stephan Baronas paused. It was a risk he had to take. “To tell you the truth, sir, I would like to emigrate. I would like to go to Hong Kong. My daughter and I,”
Bocharev nodded. “I thought as much. Well, there is nothing in your dossier that indicates that you are an enemy of our people.” He paused. “Where would you prefer to go?”
“To Hong Kong. Even to Manchuria.”
Bocharev stood up. “We shall see.” He put down his empty cup. “My son meant much to me. You see” — he paused — “he was all I had. I am alone now.”
Talya put her hand on his sleeve. “Will you not come back to visit us? As long as we are here, you are as welcome as your son.”
He shook his head. “I shall be very busy. There is much to do. I think sometimes we have paid too much attention to what is outside our country and not enough to improving conditions here. Internal strength is of greatest importance.”
He turned to the door. “I shall see what can be done. In the meanwhile, if you will permit it, I shall send a few things my son would have wanted you to have. In fact, he spoke to me about it.”
They stood in the open door, watching until the Volga was out of sight.
“We must not hope too much,” Baronas said, “but this may help us.”
Talya did not reply. It might help them. It would not help Joe Mack, who was out there, somewhere. Out there in the bitter cold, alone in the forest, perhaps dying.
She said as much, and her father shook his head. “One thing at a time. If we escape, he will not have to risk his life to return for you. If we get the chance we must go. If they discover that we knew him, were even close to him, we would never be permitted to leave. We might be imprisoned.”
“They do know,” Talya said.
“No doubt, but one saving grace of officialdom is that one hand rarely knows what the other is doing. We can only hope.”
Kyra Lebedev turned her head sidewise to escape the worst of the wind, gasping for breath. The wind blew her breath right back down her throat. The doorway was just ahead, and she ran the last few steps, ducking hastily inside.
Had anyone followed her? She had not taken the time to look. It was improbable, yet Shepilov was somewhere in town, and he missed very little. Pulling the door shut behind her, she waited an instant to catch her breath. The air in the narrow hallway was stale and smelled of unwashed bodies and the heavy odor of old cooking. She started down the hall, and at the third door she stopped and knocked. After a moment a woman’s voice said, “What do you want?”
“Katerina? Please! Open the door!”
The door opened a crack, and then with a gasp the girl inside opened it wider. The girl had on a coat as if to go out. She was a slender girl with pale reddish hair and wide blue eyes. “Kyra! In Magadan? What has happened?”
“Nothing, yet. I have just arrived. It is business.”
“Oh? For a minute I thought you had been shipped here.”
“Is Ostap here? I must speak with him.”
“He’s asleep, just gone asleep in fact. He worked the whole night through and he’s done in.”
“Ostap? I did not think he ever worked.”
A young man with tousled hair came in from the other room, drawing his belt tight. “I work all right, although not willingly. I thought I recognized your voice, Ky. What are you doing here?”
“Sit down! No nonsense now. I must talk. You know all that is happening in Magadan, and I need to know something.”
Flattered, he straddled a chair. He needed a shave, and his eyes looked like he had been drinking too much. “All right, what is it? If it is for you, it is for free. If it is for the government, it will need money.” He rubbed his fingers together. “Much money.”
“There is a man in town – Shepilov. I need to know where he is located and what he is doing here.”
Ostap lit a cigarette. “Shepilov? Yes, he’s been here two days now. Bigwig, can’t miss him. He’s had old Kuzmich in, and Kuzmich means furs. You know the man. He buys from trappers, knows more about the fur-trapping business than anybody.”
“What else? I mean, what else than trapping?”
Ostap shrugged, expelling a cloud of smoke. “Trapping, trappers, I expect he knows them all, in this part of the country. He keeps in touch. His people trap all that country north and south of the Kolyma.”
“How far west? To Oymyakon?”
“Close, I’d say.” He drew on the cigarette and brushed ash onto the floor. “What’s going on?”
“It’s the American, the one who escaped.”
“Oh? I thought they would have had him by now. Ah, I see it now! Your man Shepilov is trying to reach the trappers to hunt for him! It’s a good idea. They know their country and are much better than the KGB. I mean, they know that country. They could find anything out there, while the KGB or the army would be just running in circles.” He paused. “There’s a few here would like to know that old Shepilov’s in Magadan. I mean, he doesn’t have any friends here. Too many prison gangs in the gold camps here because of him.”