But he couldn’t find what he wanted to ask. Shaking his head, clicking his
fingers in irritation, finally sighing, he pointed again toward J.B. and the
rocket,
“Boom?” he asked, hesitantly.
“Yeah, Boom! Fuckin’ great boom! Boooooom!”
“Da,” agreed the Russian, searching assiduously again for the phrase he wanted.
Eventually he found it,
“To your good health, American, and to your land.”
He offered a hand, and Ryan reached out and took it, shaking, it firmly. He
looked, into the eyes of the Russian.
“And to your good health, brother, and to your country and party.”
Zimyanin clicked his heels and bowed slightly. Remounting he called out an order
to his patrol, then led them slowly across the valley toward the west.
Toward the icebound Bering Strait.
Toward Russia.
About a half-mile away he stood in the stirrups, and raised a clenched fist to
the watching Americans. Ryan waved in acknowledgement.
Finally the last of the cavalry unit vanished over the ridge and the day was
quiet again.
“That was close, lover,” said Krysty, finally bolstering her pistol.
“Yeah,” agreed Ryan. “It was close.”
Epilogue
THE CODE FOR THE OUTER DOOR of the redoubt, 108J, worked, and they trooped
inside, leaving the two buggies out on the plateau for the local muties to find.
Inside the cavernous building, the temperature had fallen since the time they
left only a couple of days earlier. Many of the lights were either flickering or
extinguished.
They spent an hour stocking up on food and ammunition, then using J.B.’s map,
made their way to the gateway on the fourth level.
“Goin’ to try a code, Doc?” asked J.B.
“I fear there would be little point. I think we must trust to the random element
and hope we finish somewhere better than this wasteland.”
“Somewhere warmer, Doc, if you don’t mind,” Henn put in, grinning.
Ryan was last into the chamber, with its now-familiar floor and ceiling
patterns, and its strange glasslike walls. Everyone sat down, with Krysty
pulling at Lori’s arm to show her what to do. The girl had shown signs of great
nervousness as they moved through the redoubt where she’d spent all her life,
but her trust in the others carried her along. Now she sat with them on the
floor.
“It’s like a quick sleep and then a bad headache,” said Finnegan to her. “We
wake somewhere else.”
“Somewhere good?” she asked.
“Who knows?” answered Ryan. “Everyone ready? Then here we go.”
He closed the door firmly. The lights began to gleam and dance. He had just
enough time to sit down before he felt the jump beginning.
THE INSIDE OF HIS BRAIN felt as if it had been chopped into a million splinters,
then flushed down a dark, echoing drain.
Ryan Cawdor blinked open his eye and looked around. The first thing he noticed
was that the chamber was uncomfortably hot.