The Fourth Courier

by Timothy Jay Smith

  Basia screamed.

  Jay dropped the suitcase.

  Jacek shot the black dog. The gray mutt crouched in terror and tried to bolt. Jacek clipped it. Whimpering, it crawled away where it could be heard but not seen. Jacek spotted it with his flashlight on the shack’s threshold and shot it again.

  Jay stepped over the gray dog to open the door. Jacek flicked the switch for a bulb on a cord that dimly lit the nearly bare room. As Basia adjusted the kerosene heater, Jay could not know what was to come. He could not have predicted the revelry.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  DRAVKO SPENT THE DAY IN bed splicing film. Two movies ran simultaneously in his head: Dravko the President, and a porn flick starring the African. He tried to weave these into a single, plausible script, but he didn’t succeed. They told stories of such different men that he must have been miscast in one. He replayed last night in freeze frames. The black man riding him. Dravko pressing against him, whipping his head in unfamiliar ecstasy. He whispered names. They were ripped from him: they were not. Forced from him: not. Raped: not. They were gifts to the black man. Thank-you names.

  Basia called. Jacek wanted to make the exchange. Tonight, in an hour, at the shack. Dravko checked his lists of flights. Midnight to Paris with a morning connection to Belgrade. Perfect.

  He straightened his cap. Lined up his epaulettes. Aligned the rack of medals on his chest. The hotelier telephoned to say his taxi had arrived.

  Dravko walked out, carrying his steamer suitcase, feeling like a million dollars.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “MAY I PLEASE PRACTICE NOW?” asked Tadzu.

  “Your father hasn’t finished eating,” replied Alina.

  Tolek said, “Go ahead, son.” Since the recital, he’d been more lenient with the boy, even encouraging him to practice more. He scarfed down the last of his meal.

  “It’s the last of the sausage,” Alina reminded him. “Eat slower, you’ll enjoy it more.”

  “I’m enjoying it enough. I told Lilka I’d be ready when she got here.”

  “You’ve at least five minutes.”

  “Time to finish the potatoes.” He helped himself. “It’s all good, honey.”

  “Do you have to go, Tolek?”

  “I promised Lilka.”

  “But it’s started to rain again.”

  “Her boyfriend’s responsible for getting our visas. I owe her a favor.”

  Alina started to carry plates to the sink. “That shack frightens me.”

  “Is that what has you worried? Come here.” He embraced her. “It’s only an old bait shack.”

  “Then why is Lilka scared to go there?”

  “She’s scared to go alone.”

  “See, I told you!” Alina pushed him away. “All this talk of moving, and changes … it’s unsettling, Tolek, it makes me nervous. I feel all jittery inside.”

  He took her back in his arms. “Why do you worry so much? What ever happened to make you so afraid?”

  From the street, they heard a horn toot.

  “That’s probably her,” he said.

  “Be careful, promise me?”

  “I promise.”

  “Don’t forget your hat, it’s raining.”

  In the living room, Tadzu’s playing reached a crescendo.

  “I’ll be back before he’s done.”

  Alina took his hands and kissed them. “I’ll wait up.”

  Lilka tooted the horn again.

  Tolek gave his wife a quick kiss. “I love you,” he said, and was gone. Outside, he found Lilka waiting by her car. “Will you drive?” she asked. “I’m just a bundle of nerves.”

  “Sure.”

  Tolek leaned into her car and pushed her seat back before getting in.

  “I’m sorry. I forgot to move it for you,” she said.

  “No problem.”

  “You’re just a big friendly bear, aren’t you, Tolek?”

  “Grrrrr!”

  He pulled away from the apartment block.

  “I’m so grateful, Tolek, for your help. Did Alina tell you that Aleks hasn’t been home for a week? I’m all jittery.”

  “So is Alina. It must be a sister thing. What exactly did Jacek say this morning?”

  “That I needed to protect Aleks, or he would cut him. Why would he say something like that?”

  “He’s never gotten over his own cut, has he?”

  “There’s nothing left to Jacek but his scar.”

  Tolek tried the defroster again. “Cholera!”

  “I’m sorry it’s broken. Oh Tolek, please hurry! I’m so worried.”

  Soon they crossed the bridge to follow the river drive on the Praga side.

  Lilka reached to wipe off Tolek’s side of the windshield. “I know it’s a left turn,” she said. “Can you see?”

  “Barely. I think we’ve gone too far.”

  “We need to hurry.”

  “I am hurrying. You need to tell me where to turn. Cars are flashing their lights at me.”

  Lilka peered at the black forest along that stretch of the river. “Thank goodness there’s a moon tonight.”

  “What’s near it?” he asked.

  “I thought you said you knew it?”

  “It was a bait shack then, with nothing much else around.”

  “There’s a nightclub now. You turn just past it.”

  “A white building? That must be two kilometers back.”

  “How did we pass it?” moaned Lilka. “I was looking for the lights.”

  “It must be closed.”

  “On Saturday night?”

  “Out of business. Like everything.”

  “Turn back, Tolek.”

  “Where can I?”

  “There must be a place up ahead. Oh hurry, Tolek! I feel something is wrong.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  BASIA NEVER TOOK OFF HER fur while fucking. She was the animal she wore—wild and voracious—and Jacek, sweating and grotesquely bald, stalked her. A trickle of hair disappeared beneath the waistband of his black jeans. Perched on a sturdy table, she wrapped her legs around him and teased his zipper down. Then she let him take her.

  Jay, tied to a straight-backed chair, was the only audience for their coarse coupling. It was their second go at it. For the first round, she held onto the back of Jay’s chair while taking their pleasure. The Afghan shipment had an edgy eroticism, they said in words he didn’t speak but understood.

  Jacek punched a button on the radio and bar music swooned into the shack. He swung around a second straight-backed chair and sat in it backward, facing Jay, lewdly grinning. Basia stepped up behind him and ran her fingers through his hair. She had a knife in her other hand. “Let me have it, babe,” he said.

  She dropped it in his hand.

  He leaned forward to press it to Jay’s face.

  He tried to avoid it, but there was only so far he could wrench his head.

  “Don’t move, it’ll make it worse,” Jacek warned him.

  “Is this where you brought the others to kill them?”

  “Sitting in your chair.”

  Slowly he dragged the knife’s down Jay’s cheek, scoring but not slicing it. He only knew he’d been cut by the trickle of blood on his face.

  Jacek set the knife on a table. “There’s more to come.” He turned and closed his mouth on Basia’s breast.

  When Dravko entered, that was how he found them.

  He stood in the doorway in his formal whites, ablaze with medals, curious until he recognized Jay. His expression slackened with uncertainty. He set his suitcase next to its twin.

  “Someone’s outside,” Basia cautioned.

  Everyone froze just as a woman yelped with fear. Jacek reached for his gun.

  Outside, Lilka called tentatively, “Aleks?”

  Jacek threw open the door. “What the fuck!”

  “Why are the dogs dead?”

  “You get out of here now!”

  “She wants to see Aleks.” It was Tolek.

>   Lilka saw Jay tied to the chair. “Oh my God! Jacek, what are you doing?” Tolek went to help him.

  “Stay away from him!” Jacek waved the gun menacingly.

  Tolek picked up Jacek’s knife and started cutting Jay loose.

  “I said get back!” Jacek aimed for him.

  “Jacek, no!” Lilka screamed.

  His shot hit Tolek square in the chest. Tolek looked surprised before folding at Jay’s feet.

  “Tolek!” Lilka ran to him.

  Jacek pointed his gun at Dravko. “Don’t move. Get the money,” he said to Basia.

  Lilka cradled her brother-in-law. “You’ve killed him. You’ve killed Tolek. Why? Why?”

  “I told you, get the money!” Jacek barked again.

  “You can take the money,” said Dravko.

  “Get his suitcase!”

  Basia didn’t move. “Is there an island for us, Dravko?”

  “You’re coming with me,” Jacek said. “Remember?”

  “Where can you go that Mladic won’t find you?” Jay asked.

  “Shut up!” Jacek shouted.

  “He’ll kill you, too,” Jay said. “After he tortures you.”

  In a flash, Jacek was behind him, the gun pressed to Jay’s head. “I’ll shut you up!”

  “Nooo!” Lilka screamed, and flung herself on him. The gun clattered on the floor.

  Jacek tried to push her off him. “Get away!”

  “Let her go.” The voice came from the doorway.

  Aleks had a steady gun trained on Jacek.

  “You wouldn’t dare,” Jacek sneered.

  “You killed my dogs.”

  Jacek swept up his knife, grabbed Lilka from behind, and pressed it to her throat.

  “Let her go,” said the boy.

  “When I’m out of here.”

  “If you get a shot, take it,” Jay told him. “Shoot him. Do you understand?”

  The boy nodded that he did.

  With his arm around her neck, Jacek dragged Lilka to the suitcases. “Pick it up!”

  “Which one?”

  “Which one has the money?” he asked Dravko, who pointed to it.

  “Pick it up!” he yelled at her.

  Lilka managed to grasp its handle. “Please, Jacek, you’re hurting me,” she cried as he dragged her to the door.

  He stepped backward over the threshold and tripped over the gray dog’s body. The weight of the suitcase set Lilka off-balance as well, and she fell to the side, exposing him.

  “Shoot him!” Jay shouted.

  Jacek’s body convulsed from the shot from Aleks’s gun. He fell out of the light, made a gurgling sound, and was quiet.

  Lilka fell to her knees next to Tolek. She wept uncontrollably. The boy knelt and embraced her. “Mama,” he said, “Mama …”

  Still tied to the chair, Jay watched helplessly as Basia and the general fled with the suitcases. He heard their car drive off. “Untie me,” he said, but Lilka was sobbing too hard over Tolek’s inert body to pay any attention, and Aleks didn’t budge, keeping an arm draped around her shoulders. “I have a walkie-talkie in my pack. Just press the button for the embassy.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Kulski stood in the doorway.

  Kurt Crawford stepped around him. “What the hell happened?” He picked up the knife and used it to free Jay’s hands. “Is that Rypinski outside by the dog?”

  “Yes.”

  Kulski tested Tolek for a pulse. “I am sorry,” he said to Lilka, and she collapsed in Aleks’s arms.

  Jay rubbed his wrists and summarized what had happened. “They’re ten minutes ahead of us. My guess is that Mladic will head for the airport and take the first flight to anywhere.”

  Kulski said, “I’ll wait for the ambulance, then go to the director’s apartment.”

  “I need your car keys,” Jay said to Lilka.

  “Tolek had them.”

  Jay searched Tolek’s pockets. His heart ached at this death and the terrible news it would be to Alina. He imagined Lilka’s tears were as much for her sister as for Tolek, and for their son.

  “I’ll drive,” Kurt offered. “You already look like roadkill.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  BASIA TURNED ONTO A SERVICE road that rose through the snowy park to the zoo. She pulled over and cut the engine and lit a cigarette.

  “What are you doing?” asked Dravko.

  “Smoking.” She pressed the lever to open her window. It glided down. Somewhere nearby, a monkey howled.

  “We haven’t time,” he said.

  “I suppose you have a plane to catch.” She flicked an ash. “Did you remember to buy my ticket? I thought not.”

  “Why did you decide to double-cross me?”

  “I let Jacek think that. It was never true.” It was only a half-lie; in truth, Basia hadn’t known what she was going to do until it was done. “There is no island, is there, Dravko? No villa.”

  A lion’s roar answered her, setting monkeys to chattering. Brisk winds carried their exotic sounds across the park. They seem to come from as far away as Basia wanted to go. “There was a time when we shared a dream, wasn’t there?”

  “There was a time,” he admitted.

  “You made me dream your dreams, Dravko. I look into your eyes and I can see your world.”

  “If only you could.”

  “I am in your film, Dravko. I hear the crowds cheering for you.”

  “You hear the crowds?”

  “I hear them. Take me away, Dravko. Take me with you.”

  “It’s time to go,” he said.

  “That’s no answer.”

  “You know why I can’t.”

  “I’ve heard your speeches.” She blew smoke into the night. “So my purpose is served and you have your bomb.”

  “You have the money. You can buy what you want, your villa or anything.”

  “Except sanctuary. Where can I run and be protected?”

  “I have no place for you.”

  “Not even a beach?”

  “Not even a beach.”

  “So it is finished.” Basia tossed out her cigarette, started the engine, and continued up the hill. Her headlights caught the startled eyes of caged animals.

  “They might be looking for my car already,” she said.

  “Are your police so efficient?”

  “It can be so.”

  She pulled behind a taxi stand.

  He went to the back of the car and opened the trunk to the twin suitcases. They fled from the shack in such haste he had not paid attention to which side he placed the suitcase with the bomb. Basia had to point it out.

  “Are you sure?”

  She thought so. He grappled to lift it from the snug compartment and snagged a latch on the trunk’s lip.

  “Stop!” Basia cried.

  Dravko froze. “What is it?”

  “There’s a trick to the latches. Sergej told Jacek, they’re set to detonate it.”

  He eased the suitcase to the ground.

  “How does your film end, Dravko?”

  “Now I am ready for the end,” he answered.

  “Then you haven’t watched it?”

  “I come to a point where I am on a platform and the crowds are cheering. I rewind it, and watch to that point again. It is always the same, except each time the crowds are larger, the cheering louder, like I am getting closer to that moment.”

  “Next time, watch it to the end,” Basia said. “I’ll be there, and the boys will be, too. The dark passions, Dravko, you cannot tame them.”

  They had been lovers, but were less practiced in their affections. They had no more words for each other. Not goodbye, nor a parting embrace. Dravko touched his cap and walked to a waiting cab.

  The driver, impressed by his fine white uniform, jumped out to help load his suitcase. “Where’s the gentleman going?”

  “The airport,” said Dravko, “and hurry, my flight leaves in thirty minutes.”

  Basia watched the taxi p
ull away. Oncoming headlights silhouetted Dravko in the backseat. He never turned back to wave.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  NOTHING ABOUT LILKA’S CAR WORKED. Its clearance was too low, the defroster was broken, acceleration was more a state of mind than fact. Kurt stalled twice when he pitched into potholes. They shared curses that served as prayers as they willed the engine to turn over. It did, and he gingerly navigated the rutted track past the nightclub. They had lost another ten minutes.

  He pulled into traffic.

  Kurt glanced over at Jay, who held a wad of toilet paper to his cheek.

  “I should take you to a hospital.”

  “It’s not deep.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Cheek wounds bleed a lot.”

  They rode in tense silence, impatient as seconds added up to minutes.

  “How did you know to come to the shack? The duty officer?”

  “That was Millie last night.”

  “Millie?”

  “She called me but couldn’t remember why. She’d written down Mr. Potter and sugar.”

  “You figured out Billy’s shack from sugar?”

  Kurt shook his head. “Never crossed my mind,” he said. “I had Mladic under surveillance. When his taxi turned into the nightclub, my guy let me know. You’d described Billy’s shack as being past the nightclub, so that’s when I knew the clue was for you: Mr. Potter at the sugar shack. I called Detective Kulski. You had said you trusted him and I didn’t have a choice.”

  Kurt told him how Detective Kulski detained him at the train station, explaining it was a random security check, but Kurt felt it was intended to let Husarska lose him. Kulski was a common name, but Kurt was certain he was the detective on Jay’s case when he saw him limp away. When Millie telephoned, he had no choice but to contact him even if he was in cahoots with Husarska. “Fortunately he wasn’t,” Kurt concluded. “He picked me up and you know the rest.”

  The international terminal loomed ahead of them. Kurt swerved to a stop and they jumped from the car before its engine had stopped gasping. A security guard blew her whistle and gave chase. They crashed through the terminal’s doors, searching the crowd for the general’s white uniform as they raced for the gates. On the departure board, Belgrade wasn’t listed. Where could he be going? A world of destinations was possible, but boarding lights flashed only for Paris and they ran for the gate. At passport control, Jay flashed his FBI badge without waiting for clearance, and more guards gave chase.