As soon as it was light, before anyone else stirred, Nikolas woke Ben and led him back to the lake. They stripped, and Nikolas took off the makeshift bandage. The wound appeared healthy. He felt a weight lift off his shoulders. They waded into the crystal-clear, very cold water and swam for a while, freshening up.
Nikolas was about to help Ben back to shore when he narrowed his eyes and asked, “Do you see that? What is it?” then answered his own question with a laugh of delight, “That’s our bag! It’s floating.”
Sure enough, their leather overnight bag was floating half in, half out of the water a few hundred feet away. Nikolas swam over to it and dragged it back to the shore. Ben clearly couldn’t believe this had happened, but when Nikolas opened it and then took his knife and slit the lining at the bottom, it was apparent why it had. Nikolas pulled out a large, concealed, plastic box with a snap-on lid. It’d acted like a floatation device. Dislodged from the plane by the lake’s currents, the bag had floated up overnight.
“What’s that?”
Nikolas held the box thoughtfully. “Gregory.”
Ben reared back. “Seriously?”
“I told you we were bringing his ashes. Where did you think they were?”
“I didn’t think about it. Jesus.” Nikolas laid the box to one side, and they examined the rest of the haul. Nikolas knew he would never forget the expression on Ben’s face when the real treasure in the bag was rediscovered, all the chocolate bars he’d bought from the vending machine the day before.
Reverently, and just to check, as he claimed, they were still okay, Ben opened one and ate it, offering some to Nikolas, but blatantly delighted when he refused. Nikolas carefully stowed the wrapper though. The peanuts in their foil packets were all good too. Ben considered the small stash thoughtfully. “We’ll divide it up.”
“No, we won’t. You can share with Anne of Green Gables if you want, but no one else needs it.”
“I don’t need it.”
“I need you to have it so you don’t whine at me the whole time. Now, look, who says we’re not favoured of the gods?” He held up their wash bags. They now had toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and shaving kit.
Ben chuckled. “You’re favoured of something, I’ll give you that.” They returned to the water, now with soap, washed thoroughly and brushed their teeth. Invigorated and clean, they returned to the shore and dressed. Nikolas once more picked up the plastic box. “I think it’s time, old friend.”
“What are you going to do?”
Nikolas looked around at the vast hillsides of trees and the watery sun just rising through the early morning mist. “This is a good place, no?”
Ben could only agree. Nikolas snapped the lid off the box. There wasn’t much of a man when all was said and done.
Ben stood close. “Do you want to say something?”
Nikolas laughed and tipped the box into the wind. “Fly, you bastard.”
Ben raised his eyebrows but kept quiet. Nikolas rinsed the box and stowed it carefully back in the bag. As he was rising, Ben snagged his jacket and pulled him into a hug. They stood that way for a while, just absorbing each other, feeling heartbeats. It was enough. They stood apart and gathered their things.
As they were walking back to camp, Nikolas confessed, “I was thinking last night about what you said. I think we should compromise with our plan. We should stay here for a week until you’re healed enough to walk, longer if that’s what it takes, and then we should leave. That way, we can appear to be giving it reasonable time for anyone to find us, but actually be proving we won’t be found. Also, we can use the time to prepare for the journey. What do you think?”
“Okay. It’s a good plan. We can let them build a signal fire on the shore if they want.”
“It won’t be seen, but I agree. We have everything we need to survive here. We have enough equipment now; you and I have the knowledge, but they need the will. I think this plan will give it to them.”
Ben glanced across and Nikolas caught the look. “What?”
Ben shook his head. “I was just thinking that if you’d engineered this crash you couldn’t be happier. I seem to remember someone saying he was allergic to the word field.”
Nikolas grinned. “Ack, you should know by now, Benjamin Rider, I very occasionally say things that aren’t one hundred percent true.”
§ § §
When they returned, Ben put on some water to heat for shaving, and cut up some more meat for breakfast. By this time, the rest of the camp was stirring. Nikolas watched with annoyance as the men wandered off to relieve themselves with no order or concern. He had many things to sort, but breakfast first.
While they were all eating, Nikolas laid out his plan, leaving out, obviously, his belief they wouldn’t be found, but impressing on them the impossibility of staying any longer than a week at the most. Predictably, Jackson Keane and Sean Sands objected to everything, without having any specific criticism of the plan. They didn’t see the need to leave at all and declared it was acknowledged survival strategy to remain at the site of a crash. Nikolas patiently agreed, but pointed out the timeframe they had to operate in once more. They couldn’t see it. Finally, trying not to show his true feelings—that if push came to shove he’d kill them all and let God sort them out—he countered calmly, “I recently experienced a tsunami. You can not, unless you have felt the power of such a wave, understand its unrelenting and unremitting force. But even that great wave left many thousands alive after it passed. This Siberian winter will make that wave seem kind, gentlemen. It will leave nothing alive in its wake that wasn’t designed to be here. We’ll be swept away in its crushing cold.” He indicated Ulyana Ivanovna. “She’d tell you this as well if she could.”
Jackson Keane poked the ground with a stick and conceded slightly sulkily, “But we stay two weeks. Give the rescue planes time to find us.”
Nikolas let out a small breath and glanced across at Ben with a private quirk of his lips. “Yes. Two weeks then.”
Suddenly, Jonas Terry spoke up. “My sons and I will stay right here until rescue comes. God has us in his sights, and He’ll provide.”
Nikolas swivelled his head to the older man. Even Jackson looked annoyed; having gained his point, asserted his position, he’d obviously been happy with the compromise plan. Nikolas pursed his lips. “Was your God sleeping when we crashed then?”
Jonas rose swiftly to his feet, flanked by his two sons. Nikolas stood too, and then Ben came to his side. He didn’t appear happy at Nikolas antagonising the old man, but Nikolas expected nothing less from him—threaten one of them, and by default you threatened the other, that’s just the way it was.
The older man eyed them both with a sneer. “God brought his wrath down upon you as he did with the sodomites in Gomorrah. Your vile sins caused this crash.” He pointed at Ben. “He’s an abomination to the Lord.”
“Hey, man…” Nikolas waved Jackson to silence and stepped up into the old man’s face. He tipped his head to one side, studying him.
“Do you believe in heaven?”
Jonas Terry nodded. Samuel flicked a worried glance at his older brother. Nikolas gave the father one of his best smiles. “Then I’ll give you the opportunity to meet your God. You speak to me again, any words, in any language I can understand, and I’ll gut you and use your meat to bait my fishhooks. I’ve tortured and killed thousands of men more deserving of heaven than you. Do you understand me? And I suggest you just nod to that question.” He held Jonas’s gaze. As he’d known he would, Jonas backed down. Nikolas had honed his skills reading men since he was ten. Despite the weathered bitterness Ben reckoned he’d seen, Nikolas had sensed self-doubt in the man. Doubt and fear. He stared then at the oldest brother. This one held his gaze, but they understood each other. Ruben had watched Nikolas butcher the pig. He’d seen Nikolas’s power and wasn’t about to challenge it. Samuel was biting his lip, his eyes flickering around the others in the group, unsure what to do. Nikolas didn’t bother with him. He turn
ed back to the fire and helped himself to some more breakfast.
When they’d all eaten, he called them back together and allocated out work duties. Jackson, Lucas and Sean he told to build the signal fire on the shore of the lake. It was what they believed was the most important task. Once they got it out of their system, he could get them to do more useful things. He told Jonas and his sons to start on building shelters and that Ben would show them how. He also told Ben to show Emilia and Ulyana Ivanovna how to fashion slingshots and then to make some bows and arrows. Ben nodded and took his knife and the cord out of the backpack. Nikolas was going hunting. Ben walked a little way with him. Nikolas was waiting for the nagging and winced slightly when Ben murmured, “Thousands. Seriously?”
“Ack, I set off some IEDs. Who knows how many got killed? It wasn’t the time for semantics.”
“You’ve made enemies there.”
“They weren’t exactly our friends before. He’s first on my list, by the way.”
“I’m not going to ask.”
Nikolas smirked. He knelt and removed the things he wanted from the backpack, which now had all the chocolate and nuts in it as well, then stashed it high in the branches of a tree. Then he kissed Ben. “I’ll be back tonight, my little abomination. Keep them busy. Watch your back.”
“Have a good day at work, darling.” Nikolas huffed at the sarcasm and kissed him again.
§ § §
Sean Sands was confused. He was taking a minute, sitting by the lakeshore watching Jackson and Lucas work, trying to puzzle things out.
Who was the fucking cop?
Who was the friggin’ Head of Security?
Who should be giving the damn orders?
Some fag was telling him what to do!
And it was no good Jackson Keane telling him he was seeing cocksuckers coming out of the woodwork. He’d heard ’em! They’d done their faggoty cock-touching thing in the dark, thinking no one knew what they were doing! Touching another guy’s boner. Jeez, what was with that? He’d pictured it, listening in the dark, the swollen knuckles sliding in…Pretty boy giving it up…
Jesus H Christ, don’t tell him they’d…argh! No, he couldn’t go there. Lips touching. Fucking kissing stubble. That was just wrong. Ex-frigging army? Yeah, pretty boy never left his buddy’s behind; that was for damn sure.
Sean considered the two young lawyers. They were okay guys. Jackson was so cool you could put a beer up his ass and it’d be just right for drinking. If they built that fire nice and high they’d all be gone from here before they even ran outta crispy pork.
And what was with the Russian fucker showing him up by not eating?
Sean was pretty sure blondie wasn’t so finicky when pretty boy was putting meat in his mouth.
But you had to give it to the guy—he killed that God-hates-faggots shit. Put creepy preacher in his place. Heh. Bait his fishhooks. Didn’t like his pretty boyfriend being called an abomination. Shouldn’t fuck him up the ass maybe. Hello?
Preacher said to a fag in a church, “What hymns would you like, son? Choose any three.” Little asspirate replies, “Him, him and him.” Ah, the old ones were always the best.
Yeah, the ragheads, they had the right idea. Don’t put ’em in a plane, don’t fucking let them into the US of A, but let ’em sort the fags.
Sean threw a rock into the lake and watched Jackson dragging a large branch toward the slowly growing pile and wondered what Ben was doing now.
§ § §
Ben watched Nikolas jog away into the gloom of the forest, and it suddenly became very quiet. With a sigh, he turned back and made his way to the camp. He went first to Jonas Terry and squatted down by the man. “I’m Ben, by the way. I’m inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt you didn’t mean what you said, that you’re just as angry with God at the moment as you are with us. You’re afraid for your sons. God helps those who help themselves, as you know. So let’s make something good out of this situation and build some shelters. What do you say? And you can talk to me, if you want to, that is.” He rose and began to drag some deadwood into the camp area. Within a few moments, Jonas and his sons were helping.
Ben helped them construct one shelter, showing them how it was done, then left them to get on with the others. They’d agreed each group would have their own. Ben and Nikolas; Jackson, Lucas and Sean; the Terrys; and the women. That way, the four small structures could form a neat square around the fire and give each bonded group its privacy.
When he was satisfied the shelter building was progressing, he caught up with Emilia and Ulyana Ivanovna who’d gone foraging for plants. He’d taken the elastic from the supplies, and with some sinew from the pig and leather cut from their overnight bag, he showed them how to make slingshots and catapults. Despite their language difficulties, Emilia was a very quick study, and her grandmother clearly very skilled in craftwork, for they soon had strong weapons made. Hitting anything with them wasn’t so easy, though. Ben returned to the camp and took a piece of charcoal from the fire, and when he got back to the women, drew a target on a tree for them to aim at. Emilia shook her head, took the charcoal off him and began to draw something on another tree. When she stood back, both Ben and Ulyana Ivanovna laughed. It was a very good and very wicked likeness of Jonas Terry, Bible in hand. Ben eyed Emilia. “Remind me not to get on your bad side!” She smiled and flipped her plait off her shoulder, clearly pleased with Ben’s praise.
They divided Jonas up, allocating points for hitting different parts of his body. Ben was shocked at the elderly midwife’s sense of humour, but he showed them how to load, aim, and use their new weapons. He left them happily practising and took the plants back to the camp.
§ § §
For the rest of the afternoon, everyone worked hard. It was new and enthralling and a bit like being children at a school camp. Ben knew the way they were thinking, knew the reality of what had happened to them hadn’t hit yet. Thanks to Emilia and her previous experience of tragedy, they were saved from the worst impact of this crash. They had everything they needed to survive. For a short time. He thought again of Nikolas’s analogy of the great wave of Russian winter bearing down upon them and shuddered.
§ § §
Lunchtime, he insisted everyone stop working, and they gathered at the shore to light the signal fire. They let Emilia do it, as it was her fire-starting kit that was making it all so easy. The two lawyers had gathered a huge stack of deadfall for the initial fire and then vast piles of newly cut pine to add on for smoke. They drew up a roster for staying by the fire, and Ben suggested they also lay out a message on the shore with branches to attract attention. Even he was beginning to believe rescue might come when he saw these preparations. He then suggested everyone swim, mainly to ensure good hygiene, but also so they could relax and bond a little. He was feeling very tired and sore by now and was glad when Ulyana Ivanovna took his bandages off, applied some more of her magic elixir and reapplied fresh bandaging she’d sterilized in boiling water. He tried out some of his new Russian on her, and she chuckled and nodded her head when he thanked her and told her she was very pretty. Emilia wanted to show him her target skills, so he set up a tower of pebbles for her on the shore, and she shot it down time and time again. He was impressed, and they had a competition, which he let her win.
After lunch, he got everyone back to work. He left Sean Sands to keep the fire going, having the distinct impression the man had done very little to help build it, and showed Jackson how and where to dig a latrine—not all that easy without a shovel. Lucas he set to gathering Sphagnum moss and lichen for softer beds in the shelters. The afternoon was hot, and he stripped off his shirt as he made some traps. He wondered how Nikolas was getting on and had a vision of him in this vast wilderness, prowling, the most dangerous creature there.
It was difficult for Ben sometimes to think back to the man he’d first met in London, in an office in Whitehall. When he tried to think of Nikolas then, he always saw him in shadow, as if h
e weren’t quite visible. It was odd. Only occasionally, when they’d taken the horses out or when their bodies had come together in hard, sexual fulfilment, had a tiny glimmer of the current Nikolas emerged: just a spark of the great conflagration he now was. Ben felt he hadn’t really changed at all since those early days. He’d stopped pretending to be a hard man most of the time, because he didn’t need to be one. He’d grown up a bit, maybe, become more serious, had experiences that had changed him, but essentially he was the same man he’d been six years ago. Nikolas wasn’t, and yet still Nikolas wanted to be with him. He smiled as he worked. This wasn’t the holiday in Russia he’d been expecting, but it was pretty good in its own way.
§ § §
Nice booty that mute little ginger had. Splashing around in her panties all innocent. What was she? Ten? Right little looker. Have to watch her with the preacher boys. Can’t trust those fucking Christians when they get a bit of skirt near ’em.
Sean reckoned she’d probably go for it, though. Rather that than being stuck in some stinkin’ Siberian logging camp with the old witch.
Wouldn’t even trust her with pretty boy. Reckon he’d tempt the fucking pope with those eyes. Who has eyes that colour? Stripping off his shirt…ripped fucking abs…
Sean didn’t care what Jackson said; he knew gym-abs when he saw them. Anyone could get abs like that in a gym.
Sean was pretty sure he’d seen pretty boy’s face before.
Probably in some faggot porn film.
Maybe he’d ask him. Get him on his own when the Russian cunt was out the way.
He’d lost the tooth that morning, chewing on some meat.
There was payback coming, and it had Sean’s name stamped right on it.
Maybe he’d get the Russian on his own instead. Sean wasn’t so easy to knock out when he was ready for it. See if the Russian was as quick when he’d been hunting all day.
Yeah, maybe it was time for a little ass is grass payback.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nikolas returned to camp in the early evening. He emerged out of the darkening tree line, bloodied and exhausted. But he was dragging a hurdle made of pine branches upon which lay the butchered carcass of a deer. Jackson and Lucas cheered him, and they took the burden from him and set about putting the meat to the fire. Nikolas was drenched in dried blood, but he was very pleased with himself. He gestured to Ben to follow him to the lake. They sent Sean Sands back to the camp to help prepare the food and declared they’d man the fire for a while.
The Bridge of Silver Wings Page 6