North was impossible: cold, an icy sea, no chance of escape. West, all of Russia: very doubtful. South, to the Amur and China: probable. East, toward the Bering Strait or the Sea of Okhotsk: possible but unlikely.
Best area for concentrated search: the Amur region. Troops were alerted there, the Party was conducting a quiet but thorough search, and all officials had been notified. The man would need food, so he could not remain long in the wilderness. But what if, as Alekhin suggested, the man could hunt? What if he had actually killed that sheep whose carcass they had found?
All right, he would take that into consideration. Suppose he was, as Zamatev believed, still alive? Any man of sense must understand he could not live out the winter in the area where he now was. Much of the game would move south into warmer lands; the rest would be hard to track down. Game would move much less in the cold. The rivers would be frozen with ice too thick to cut through for fishing, unless the fugitive remained in one place to keep the ice out of the hole he would cut.
So then, the fugitive would move south into the Amur region. He might even attempt the Sikhote Alin Mountains along the coast of the Sea of Japan. There was good hunting there or had been the last he had heard.
The border was taken care of. The Army could he relied upon. Now he needed a careful sweep of the country north and east of the Olekma, largely from the Amur to the Stanovoy Range.
He went to the door and opened it into the outer office. “Yavorsky? I will speak to Comrade Lebedev.”
Emma Yavorsky arose. She was a stocky, untidy woman, but she was efficient. “The new one? She is attractive.”
His eyes were cold. “Perhaps. She is also astute. I have work for her.”
Yavorsky was well connected. She was also inclined to speak her mind. Her disapproval was obvious. “Of course.” Her smile was almost insulting.
Coolly he said, “I am sending her to Aldan.”
Yavorsky was astonished, her imaginings dashed. “To Aldan?”
“She is an intelligent woman. I need someone there who can supervise the search.” He paused and stared at her. “Did you wish to go in her place, comrade? Is that what I am to understand?”
“To Aldan? No, no, of course not. I just thought—”
“It is a focal point,” Zamatev replied. “I need someone there to be sure the cold weather does not make them laggard.” He could see this had been the right move. No man would send to Aldan a woman in whom he had interest. “Send her in to me as soon as she arrives.”
He went back into the office and stood before the map of Siberia. Aldan was probably too far now, but he must shake them up, get them out looking. His eyes scanned the rivers, checking the towns to the south of Aldan.
He heard a knock and turned around. Her brown hair was drawn back from her forehead. She was dressed neatly but plainly. Trust Kyra Lebedev to do the correct thing. Briefly, he explained. He half expected a protest, but there was none.
Using the map he explained his thinking. “It is a vast area, and I cannot be everywhere. Get out there. Make sure they are conducting an active search. Demand reports, detailed reports. Be sure they speak to all the hunters and prospectors, the engineers on the BAM project, and the workmen. Check for anything suspicious, even remotely so.”
“Do you want me to go out myself?”
“No, no, of course not! If he’s out there we’ve got to find him! We’ve got to get him back!” He glanced at her. “When can you leave?”
She glanced out the window. “It is too late now. I can leave in the morning.”
“Take Stegman. He is a good driver and knows how to care for a car in cold weather. He is also a strong man if you need him, and he’s no fool.”
There was a moment of silence, and then he said, “I shall miss you.”
“And I, you. But I asked to help. I wanted this.”
“Fly to Aldan. You can get a car there.”
He took her to the map and discussed the possibilities. Her questions were few and intelligent. “And if I find him?”
“Bring him back in chains. And I mean, in chains. If you cannot bring him back alive, kill him. I trust your judgment.”
He paused again. “Stegman can do it.”
Her expression was cool. “I do not need Stegman for that. I can do it.”
TEN
THE PISTOL WAS steady, but the eyes behind it were not those of a killer. They were cool, appraising, interested eyes. The man spoke, but the words were Russian. There was a question in them, and Joe Mack supposed he was asking who he was or what he was doing.
“I am a man who wishes to be left alone.”
Surprisingly, the man replied in English. “Who are you? What do you do here?”
“I am hiking,” Joe Mack lied smoothly. “I am walking around the world. It was a wager,” he said, “a bet, a sporting thing. I must succeed by next June. I have only to reach Los Angeles.”
Whether the man believed him or not, Joe Mack had no idea. In any event he was stalling for time, trying to see a way out, a way that would take him away from the gun.
“This was permitted?” The man was skeptical, and the pistol did not waver.
“No, it was not. I have no business to be here. I bother no one; I live off the country.”
“If you plan to walk, you have far to go. Winter comes. You had better come with me. I will find you shelter.”
“No,” Joe Mack said.
“No?” The pistol gestured. “I do not wish to shoot.”
“Then do not.” Joe Mack was poised, waiting. “Just walk away and forget me. After all,” he added, “if you take me down there, you will have to answer many questions. One question will be what you were doing up here at this hour.”
The man’s eyes were suddenly wary. “I have come to see the railroad route.” He gestured with the pistol. “I am an engineer. I wished to stand off to see it properly.”
“They will believe that? They will not assume you came to meet me?”
“To meet with you? What is this? How do I know you are here?”
“How, indeed? Of all the places you could go you come right to me. I shall not say the meeting was arranged, but I shall not deny it, either.”
He was considering that, and he did not like it. The KGB would be asking the questions, and they rarely accepted simple explanations.
“You speak well. You lived in America?” Joe Mack said.
“In Canada. I study there.”
“Sit down. Relax. Canada is a good place. I have many friends there.”
He did not sit down. “I must get back. You will come with me.”
Joe Mack shook his head. “Not if you are intelligent. You can take me in, but the KGB is suspicious. They will ask questions. They will want to know how I happened to come here. They will wonder if I did not come because I had a friend. Why, in all Siberia, did I come here? I will deny I ever knew you before. I will deny I came to meet you because you would help me.” Joe Mack smiled. “They will not believe me. It is best for you if you simply walk away, having seen nothing.”
“But if I take you in? A prisoner? They will believe me.”
“I shall hint we were seen together. That you became frightened. I will not say that, exactly, but they will understand. In Russia is it ever wise to know too much? You are an engineer. You have seen the route from here. Walk away as you would have, as if nothing had happened.”
“And when they do catch you? And catch you they will.”
“Perhaps. If they do I shall say nothing, and they will have no reason to ask questions about this meeting. They will not suspect it to have happened.”
Slowly the pistol lowered, but Joe Mack did not move. A pistol shot now, accidental or otherwise, would ruin everything.
“Walk back, take your time, be seen studying the route from here. I shall
be gone with no sign of my presence.”
“But I will be a traitor.”
“How? What can I, one man, do to your country? All I wish is to be home, with my family,” he added.
The engineer looked at him. Then he put the pistol away and walked away. Sweat beaded Joe Mack’s forehead despite the chill of the wind. Swiftly, he was on his feet and walking away, moving very rapidly down into the larch forest. When he found a game trail he began to run. He ran smoothly, steadily, for several minutes and then slowed to a walk. When the shadows grew long, he went over the ridge again and down toward the construction line.
Far away he could see a cluster of shacks and lights. Here all was quiet. He crossed the line without trouble and went on to the riverbank. Downstream there was a bridge, obviously a bridge for the transport of construction equipment and materials. It might be guarded, but he doubted it. Here, in the middle of Siberia, there would be no reason for it. Yet he would be cautious.
The wind was cold. He shivered, seeking to get down where the wind would not strike him. He found a place behind a construction shack and crouched there, watching the bridge. It was starkly outlined against the sky, but he could see no movement, no sign of life. He waited, still watching.
What about the shack where he waited? There was no light, no sound of movement. Storage for equipment no doubt, yet might it not be the office for the engineer? He listened and watched. About a hundred yards off was what was probably a mess hall and beyond it a square long building he had noticed earlier. There were lights in both places and a sound of music from the square building.
Cautiously, he eased around the corner of the building and tried the door. It opened easily under his hand. He waited an instant and then stepped in. There was a faint reddish glow from the stove.
Waiting, listening, he looked all around. His eyes grew accustomed to the vague light from the stove.
He saw a flat table on which there were maps, blueprints, a square, a compass, pens. A sort of haversack with many pockets hung from a nail on the end of the table. It was stuffed with maps and papers. Opening the door of the stove to get more light, he leafed through the maps and papers. One was a map of the Trans-Baikal that covered the region where he now was. He put it inside his shirt, went back to the door, waited an instant, and then slipped out. He had taken time to close the stove door; now he closed the outer door behind him and stood very still, watching and listening. Nothing moved.
Cold wind whispered around the eaves of the shack. He heard a shout of laughter from the building he had taken for a mess hall; then he walked toward the bridge. If anyone looked out they would simply see a man going about his business.
The nearest end of the bridge was not guarded. He started across, carrying his bow ready for use as a thrusting weapon if need be. There was no need. The bridge was not guarded at all.
Two parallel ridges came down to the river at this point and a stream flowed between them. He went up the stream, finding a narrow path, and walked northeast.
There was a vague, pale light in the sky, and he walked steadily, not pausing to rest. When dawn came he turned into the deeper forest, a close stand of birch and larch, and finding a small hollow partly protected from the wind by deadfalls, he bedded down for rest. Before he slept he took out the map and studied it.
He was, he decided, somewhere on a southern slope of what was called the Stanovoy Range. There was no chance he could escape Siberia now. It was as he had surmised. He would need to find a place to hide out during the long winter, and the best chance of that lay further south. He had known this, but had been without a map to clarify the situation.
All about him were enemies. He had been unbelievably lucky in his two brief contacts. He could not expect that to happen again.
The map he had stolen was much too general to be of use to an engineer in his work, so there was a good chance it would not be missed. If the man he had met on the ridge was that engineer, he would say nothing, yet Joe Mack knew he needed to put distance behind him.
Now, curled up in his shaded, hidden retreat, he slept. Hours later, he awakened, chilled and shaking. He got to his feet and warmed himself by swinging his arms in what had once been known as a teamster’s warming to get his blood circulating. His small supply of mutton was gone, and now he needed to hunt again. He needed food and warmer clothing.
Only when he moved out of his small hollow did he see what he had done. His northeastward march had taken him into a cul-de-sac rimmed with high mountains. To escape he must scale those icy ridges. They rose steeply up to at least a half mile higher than he now was, and climbing on the slippery rocks would not be easy.
Suddenly his eye caught a glimpse of something in the trees not far off. It was the corner of a roof—a building of some sort! He looked, looked away, and then looked back. It was still there, but there was no sign of smoke. He went closer through the trees. It was a good-sized structure, almost square, built of logs. No smoke came from the chimney. He went down through the trees to the path that led to it. He saw no tracks or any sign of travel in a long time. With the coming onset of winter, it was doubtful if there would be anyone traveling this way. Avoiding the path, he kept under cover of the trees.
Bit by bit he worked his way around the structure. There were four windows and a back door. That door showed no signs of recent use.
He waited for a while, watching the house. There was a trough behind it into which water ran, water from a spring. He could see and hear the water falling from the pipe into the trough. As he watched, a deer came down from the trees opposite and drank at the trough. Waiting for the right shot, he killed the deer with an arrow and went forward to skin it. He was expert, and it took him but little time to skin out the deer and save the best cuts of meat, yet ever and anon he straightened up to listen and to look all about him.
Aside from the structure beside him the place reminded him of a corner of the Seven Devils country in Idaho. His father had sometimes hunted there with old Cougar Dave, crossing the mountains to get together.
He went up to the back door and tried it, but it was locked. He walked around the building and tried the front door, and it opened easily under his hand. He stood in the doorway, making a careful survey of the inside.
Along one side was a row of bunks, enough for a dozen men. There was a stove and a much older fireplace. A few utensils lay about, and old clothes hung on nails along the wall. There was much dust and no evidence the place had been occupied for years.
The clothing was ragged and old, most of it filthy. He guessed convicts had been working here, probably at a mine, for he had discovered a few tools and a miner’s lamp. There was nothing else of use. He backed out and closed the door behind him. Surrounded by mountains as it was, he took a chance and built fires to smoke his meat and dry it. For three days he remained where he was, cleaning the deer hide and resting. On the fourth day he buried what remained of the carcass, hid the sticks on which he had dried his meat, and wiped out what tracks he had left, sifting leaves and dust over the area. Only then did he strike out upstream.
Following the stream he came to its source and found himself facing a low saddle in the mountains. He slept there, and on the following morning started across the pass over the saddle.
The morning was cold, and there was ice along the shores of the stream he followed. Plodding on steadily, he saw no game. He had walked several miles when he became aware of a faint drone. Pausing to listen, he heard it again, the faint but unmistakable sound of a helicopter!
Hastily, he glanced around. Some low-growing spruce mingled with larch grew along the stream; running, he took a dive under the nearest spruce, pulling himself in tight beside its trunk. The spruce branches swept the ground, making perfect cover.
Had he been seen? He had not seen the helicopter, not taking time to look around for it. But had they seen him?
It was overhead now, circling. Then it rose, flying higher, took a half turn around the basin, and then went off downstream. Watching through parted branches he saw the copter dip down; it seemed to be landing near the structure.
Suppose they came upstream, looking? It was all of five miles of uphill walking, but they could hop it and land close beside him. He had to get away, but once out from under the spruce he would be in plain sight if they flew this way again, and cover was scarce.
To go or not to go? He waited, listening, thinking.
Peering through the spruce branches, he studied the terrain before him. Some two hundred yards away was a cluster of granite slabs, apparently pieces broken off by frost that had slid down the mountain. Once among them he should have cover, and his clothing blended well with the surroundings. He left the spruce at a run and then slowed to look and listen. He saw and heard nothing.
Were they still at the log house? Had they discovered some sign of his presence that he had failed to eradicate? He trotted on, weaving his way among the rocky debris, and reached the small forest of slabs and took shelter among them. No sound, nothing.
He was about to leave his shelter for another run when he heard the helicopter. It was coming in low through the very pass he had chosen. The slabs of granite had fallen in several places, so they provided crude shelters. He crawled well back under one slab and waited.
The copter came in so low he could feel the wind from the beat of the rotor blades, but it continued on through the pass and turned north to avoid the peak that faced the end of the pass, lying a few miles further east.
Rising, he followed on through the pass. There was little cover, but he knew he must accept the risk. Often, he saw the tracks of animals, and several times, of wolves. He was carrying meat, and even though it had been smoked and dried the wolves would smell it. He camped that night among a patch of stunted birch trees and slept, shivering and cold with no fire and only flimsy cover. Morning was a relief and he started again, his body stiff with cold. It was a long time before he warmed up, and fear rode his shoulders like some monster he could not cast off. He crossed the saddle and by midday had turned south again, leaving the towering peak behind him. His feet were numb and moved awkwardly. There was no shelter from the wind or any place to hide. He stumbled on, cold and tired, for he had slept badly, fighting the cold through the long night.
Last of the Breed (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures) Page 8