The Reluctant Contact
Page 20
He wondered if he really could get away with murder, like Semyon’s killer had. Unfortunately, the demise of a KGB station chief would hardly be ignored in the same way that the Latvian assistant maintenance engineer’s demise had been. Despite this, he contented himself by focusing his mind on the best fatal accidents he could come up with.
Chapter 16
WITH ONE DAY left before Anya’s departure, Yuri decided to call to her apartment to see how her preparations were going.
‘You haven’t even started to get ready,’ he said, when he saw all her clothes still hanging in her wardrobe.
‘It will only take me five minutes,’ she said. ‘I brought everything I own here in two suitcases. What you see are all my possessions in the world.’
‘I can take some now,’ he offered. ‘You can’t be seen walking out of here with luggage in your hands. How would you explain that?’
‘How about “I am going on a holiday to where the sun shines for at least part of the day”.’
‘Come on, this is serious,’ said Yuri. ‘What will I take?’
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘I want to leave them all behind. They remind me too much of my old life. Do you know someone who would like them?’
‘I don’t know anyone who would fit into these skinny things,’ said Yuri. ‘Well, you had better bring a few extra clothes. Who knows how long you’ll have to stay at Longyearbyen before the next part of your journey. You’ll need to be able to change.’
She nodded half-heartedly, appearing to have little interest in thinking that far ahead.
‘I don’t even know where I will be going,’ she said. ‘Did the contact tell you?’
‘No,’ said Yuri. ‘I will ask. Would you like me to pick some warm things out for you? We can put them in a small bag, so it doesn’t look like you are moving country.’
Anya folded her arms and did not even glance over at the clothes he was showing her.
‘This is our last night together then?’ she asked.
‘So it seems,’ said Yuri. ‘Does that make you sad?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I wish it wasn’t.’
Neither of them felt like making love. They slept together, wrapped in each other’s arms in her narrow bed. Yuri dozed fitfully, and woke around two in the morning. He lifted one of her arms off his chest and laid it on the bed beside him. Then he dressed and crept out of the room.
He had a night-time arrangement to meet Grigory at the Blue Lagoon. These days, with darkness all around them, twenty-four hours a day, it didn’t really matter what time of day or night it was. It still felt exactly the same.
Outside he followed the winding path that led behind the Cultural Palace to the reservoir, only using his flashlight when he had to. That was the problem with perpetual night. Any sort of light made you stick out like a beacon. Especially a moving one. When Yuri was a hundred yards away from the lagoon, he could already see where Grigory was from the glowing end of his cigarette.
‘All set?’ Grigory asked.
‘I guess,’ said Yuri. ‘There is not a lot to do. She doesn’t want to take anything with her.’
‘She can get new clothes when she gets there,’ said Grigory.
‘Where is she going? Do you know?’ asked Yuri.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Didn’t I tell you? She’s going to England. Here. You’ll need to take this.’
Grigory handed him a small, rectangular bundle wrapped in a plastic bag.
‘What’s this?’
He looked inside and found a sizeable sum of money in Norwegian krone.
‘This is for Anya?’ asked Yuri.
‘No,’ said Grigory. ‘You have to give it to the Norwegian, or else he won’t take her anywhere.’
‘Aren’t you coming with us as far as the weather station?’
Grigory smiled. ‘No. I am not. My part in this is now officially over. Anyway, you don’t need me. The Norwegian will do everything. You just need to get her there on time.’
‘What was your contribution, exactly, to this whole enterprise?’ asked Yuri. ‘I hope you will be telling your English friends how much I have done. Maybe they can start paying me when you retire.’
‘I set the whole thing up,’ said Grigory. ‘Nothing would be happening without me, remember? I have done enough to get myself shot. I can tell them you would like to be a spy. Is that what you want?’
Yuri shook his head and laughed at the idea. ‘I would be a good one. What do you reckon?’
‘I believe you would,’ agreed Grigory.
Yuri stuffed the plastic bag inside his coat.
‘Any last-minute instructions?’ asked Yuri.
Grigory turned and looked him in the eye.
‘Just be careful out there. If anything doesn’t look or feel right, just walk away, and keep on going.’
‘Now you’re making me nervous,’ said Yuri. ‘Is there something you are not telling me?’
Grigory shook his head. ‘You’ll be fine. There won’t be any problems.’
‘So, I have no reason to worry, right?’
‘No. Not that I am aware of,’ said Grigory. ‘But in these situations, in my experience, it is best to be prepared for anything.’
The next day did not start well. At noon, when Yuri went to pick up one of the snowmobiles, he found that they were both gone. He kicked himself that he had not hidden one the night before. And it troubled him to be reminded how much of an amateur he was at this game. There was no way of getting to the weather station without one. He discreetly enquired who had taken them. It was the Mongolian researcher and another scientist. And they were not expected back until the early evening. All Yuri could do was wait and hope that they would return in time for them to make their six o’clock rendezvous with the Norwegian. Grigory had made it quite clear that the man was not going to hang about. He wondered how much grace time he would give them. He guessed it would depend on how much he needed the cash he was getting paid for the trip.
Yuri checked in on Anya but didn’t tell her of their looming problem. She was already agitated enough. If she bit the nails of her left hand any lower she would draw blood.
Yuri spent the rest of the afternoon working with Catherine, but every chance he got, he went to check for the snowmobiles again. The English woman became increasingly frustrated at his lack of concentration on their work. When he went out to check for the fourth time, Catherine asked if he needed any help, and offered to accompany him if he wanted. Yuri declined the offer, and told her it was a personal matter he had to attend to.
‘You don’t have to hide things from me, you know,’ she said.
Yuri stopped and turned to look at her.
‘It’s about Anya, isn’t it?’ she asked. ‘Is she in trouble again?’
‘No, no trouble,’ he said. Although the day was not yet over.
‘Good,’ said Catherine. ‘Well, I want you to know you can trust me with things like that. Just in case you are wondering, I don’t tell Timur any of the things we talk about. That’s strictly between us.’
‘I’m glad to hear that,’ said Yuri. He wished he could say the same.
By four o’clock, he was beginning to get very worried. The meeting with the Norwegian was in two hours’ time, and it would take them forty minutes to get out to the weather station in the dark. By this stage he had deposited Anya in his apartment, with a small bag of clothes he had forced her to bring. He promised to retrieve her when it was time to go. She did not ask any questions, just put herself completely in his hands. He wished he had more control over the events that were about to happen. He wanted it done right, and it was frustrating that he was not the one in charge.
Yuri was relieved when Catherine went home and he did not have to keep up the pretence any more. The garage remained empty with one hour left before the rendezvous. He was beginning to think that he would have to call the whole thing off. He wondered how Grigory contacted the Norwegian, and whether he could get a message to him quickly. Th
e trapper lived eighty-five miles away in a remote area in the south of the island, near the research station at Hornsund. If he was coming from there, he would already be in the air.
The sound of the two engines entering town, at just after five, was a relief. They would have just enough time, if there were no further delays. He waited until the two researchers had retrieved their belongings from the snowmobiles, and had walked out of sight. Then he took the keys to one of the vehicles and drove it to the edge of town, in case anyone else might decide to take it. After parking it behind the fuel depot, he walked back to get Anya.
She looked up at him from his bed, and he was conscious that it would be the last time he would see her this way.
‘All set?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she said, with a sigh.
‘Come on then. It’s time to go. If we are doing this, we have to move quickly.’
Anya climbed off the bed and zipped up her coat. Yuri grabbed her bag of clothes and led the way down the stairs. They were about to leave the building when he remembered something.
‘Wait there,’ he said.
He ran back up the stairs, taking them two at a time. From underneath his bed he retrieved the bag of cash Grigory had given him that morning. Then he ran back down the stairs to Anya.
‘What was it?’ she asked.
‘Your bus fare,’ he replied. ‘By the way, I almost forgot, you are going to England.’
‘Where in England?’ she asked.
‘That’s all I know,’ he replied.
They walked swiftly to where he had parked the snowmobile. Once he had started the engine, she got on behind him. Yuri drove slowly away from town, not wanting to make too much noise. If they were seen together, he would be immediately connected to her disappearance. But soon the town was some distance behind them, and he relaxed. It was dark, and they were so muffled up against the cold that even if they had been seen by anyone back there, it was unlikely they could be identified.
He picked up speed now that it was safe to do so. He felt Anya tightening her grip around his waist. The Arctic weather was being kind to them at least. There was just a light breeze blowing in their faces. Yuri was relieved that they were making good time. Even with the headlights on, he reckoned he would have had difficulty making out the route if he wasn’t already so familiar with it.
Anya hardly said a word for the whole trip. She had not said much of anything since he had informed her that she would be leaving. He had no idea what was going through her head. He decided that when they reached the weather station he would give her one last opportunity to back out of the whole thing.
He drove as close as he could get to the weather station. Then he braked to a skidding halt and checked his watch. They had time to walk up the hill and still have fifteen minutes to spare before the Norwegian was due to arrive. They were far enough away from Pyramiden that no one would see the helicopter’s lights or hear its engine. They hiked up the hill, using Yuri’s flashlight as their guide. Luckily, the wind had remained calm, meaning the temperature was not as biting as it sometimes was.
Before they reached the summit, he turned to her and said, ‘If you have any doubts, now is the time to say them. It’ll be too late once you are on board that helicopter. He will take you all the way to Longyearbyen because that is what he is getting paid to do.’
Anya shook her head but said nothing. He could see that she was nervous.
‘OK,’ said Yuri. ‘If you’re sure.’
He pushed open the door to the round tower and they went inside. He lit the wood stove and used a piece of burning kindling to light a kerosene lamp. The smoke from the chimney did not worry him. There was no one else around for miles.
‘You want something hot? Tea? Coffee?’ he offered.
‘No,’ said Anya.
She stood at the porthole window at the front of the building, staring down the hill they had just walked up.
‘All right,’ said Yuri. ‘Make yourself comfortable, and I’ll go and see if he is here.’
Outside the front door, he checked his watch again. Six o’clock exactly. He scanned the southern sky but could see nothing except stars. The Norwegian would likely take a route that kept him well away from Pyramiden. In that case, perhaps he would arrive from the east or west. He turned and looked in the window, and saw Anya warming herself by the stove. He was impressed by her calm composure. She was remarkably together for someone who was about to start a new life with a man she had not seen for five years.
The Norwegian was now five minutes late, after insisting that Yuri be on time. He had a good mind to cut some money from his fee. Five minutes turned into ten, and ten into twenty, with still no sign of his arrival. Yuri heard the wooden door creaking behind him. Anya came out and stood by his side, and followed his gaze up to the sky.
‘He’s late,’ said Anya.
‘Very,’ said Yuri. ‘I’m sure he will be here soon.’
‘Maybe he is not coming,’ she said.
He turned to look at her and was surprised that she did not seem overly upset by this possibility.
After standing with him in the cold for a few minutes, Anya went back inside. He wished that he was as unperturbed as she was, because he was doing enough worrying for both of them. If only Grigory was here to tell him what to do.
Having listened for so long, he could separate any new sound from the ones that were present all of the time. Perhaps he was imagining it, but he was sure he could hear the faint tak-tak-tak noise of a helicopter some way off. The wind had carried it his way, and now it was gone. Either the wind had changed or else the helicopter had moved off in the wrong direction. He hoped the Norwegian knew the island’s terrain as well as Grigory had said he did. Finding a town that was lit up like a Christmas tree was one thing, but how could he navigate his way to the weather station in this darkness?
Yuri went inside and grabbed an armful of wood blocks from beside the stove. Returning outside, it did not take him long to get a small fire going with the help of some lighter fuel. It wasn’t much but it would be easily visible from the air. Nearly an hour had passed since they arrived. He turned his ear to the wind again. Nothing. All he could hear was the breeze and the hissing of the snow as it melted beside his fire.
‘He isn’t coming, is he?’ said Anya, behind him.
‘I don’t know,’ said Yuri. ‘I did exactly what he told me to do.’
‘I want to go,’ she said.
‘No. It’s too early,’ he said. ‘We should wait. Maybe he got delayed.’
‘It doesn’t feel right,’ said Anya. ‘He isn’t coming.’
Yuri had to agree. It didn’t feel right. But he decided to wait anyway. Anything could have delayed the Norwegian, and who knew how long it would take to set this up again. The minutes ticked by, without sight or sound of his arrival. Every time Yuri looked at his watch he became more and more pessimistic. The fire was burning itself out and he decided not to add more wood to it. A thought occurred to him – that by staying this late, he might be putting Anya in danger. But if their plan had been discovered, they should have been caught by now. They had a commanding position on the hill. There was no possibility of anyone surprising them. He would see or hear anyone coming long before they reached the summit. So if they had not been discovered, where was the Norwegian? Again, he thought of Grigory. He should be here dealing with this, offering solutions.
The sound of footsteps close by startled him. The noise was coming from behind the weather station. He walked around the side of the building, keeping close to the wall and holding his flashlight out in front of him. He regretted not bringing a weapon of any sort. Once again, he was reminded what an amateur he was. He heard the sound again, and spun his light in its direction. The sight of a six-foot-tall reindeer with huge antlers was as unexpected for Yuri as was the sight of him for the animal. Luckily, the reindeer spooked first, and it bolted away before Yuri had time to think about how he might defend himself.
‘I hope you don’t think I made it all up,’ he said.
She smiled. ‘I don’t think that. But I don’t trust him now, whoever he is. Please don’t ask me to go with him again.’
‘I won’t,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll think of something else. I don’t know what yet. But I will.’
They drove back to town, and he walked her to her door.
‘Aren’t you coming in?’ she asked, when he did not follow her.
‘No,’ he said. ‘I need to deal with this. I’m sorry about what happened.’
‘I know you are,’ she said. ‘Come up later, if you like. I don’t think I will be sleeping much tonight.’
He was ready to kill Grigory. He wondered if he had known this was going to happen. Be prepared for the unexpected, he had said. Yuri thought he had been, but a no-show by the Norwegian was not one of the possibilities that had even entered his head.