Corridor One

by Rafael H. Derchansky

  ***

  Dina’s flight to Central City from Geneva took only two hours. Her hotel was near the airport. Tamara claimed that it was the best location with working phone lines. All of the other hotels in the city had problems keeping their international lines working. Aside from the roaring noise of arriving and departing airplanes, there was nothing exciting happening around the hotel. Dina was supposed to stay in the hotel and wait for Tamara’s call. Then she would go to the train station to buy tickets for the following day. Tamara asked her not to rely on the hotel’s reception and not to leave the hotel if it wasn't required.

  Dina received Tamara’s phone call two days after her arrival. Everything was going according to plan; Igor was already in Derchany and Dina was ready to see Central City, the city she had not seen in more than twenty years. During her last visit to Derchany, three years ago, to look for her brother, she had rushed directly from the airport to the train station and had not had a chance to see it. She was planning to get her train tickets first and then spend time walking the city streets. A shuttle was departing from the airport every twenty minutes and it usually took forty minutes to get to the train station in the city. Dina was following the arriving and departing planes from her hotel window.

  The weather seemed to be pleasantly sunny and not windy, but when Dina decided to check the weather forecast, she discovered that it was extremely cold. She was not surprised. She had prepared. Her oversized luggage contained everything she needed for survival on and underground. After what seemed like a long time of bundling up, she was wearing two woolen sweaters, a warm scarf, a wool hat, gloves, a raincoat and boots. She did not remember where she’d got the winter pants, but they were black, big and insulated, promising survival anywhere, including the North Pole. Dina wore them too. She looked in the mirror. Something round and odd looked back at her. Walking in this attire was extremely uncomfortable. She decided to take off the winter pants and replace them with her regular ones. The bulky pants went back into the open luggage on the floor.

  The old green bus left the airport ten minutes late. Dina sat at the front, hoping to observe the surroundings. Three couples were traveling with her. The bus driver, a lady in her fifties, had a grim and unwelcoming look. The bus moved smoothly. It looked like the road had been recently repaired. Construction equipment was still scattered on both sides of the road. The bus was passing through an industrial area. Dina looked at the horizon hoping to see a sign of the city. She also tried to listen to the young couple sitting behind her. She understood every word and repeated their conversation in her head. Even though she had not used their language in such a long period of time, it was coming back to her without any difficulty. Now the road was running through empty fields. Here and there were scattered old farm houses and barns.

  Dina was searching for the presence of humans or animals but none were visible. The driver would periodically break the silence with a deep and raucous cough. Dina offered her a bottle of drinking water that she’d taken from the hotel. The driver gave her a strange look and rejected her offer. From far away, half a dozen metal structures started to come into view. They looked like bridges. Dina’s bus was approaching a river. After a couple of sharp turns and steep climbs to the top of a hill, the view of the city suddenly emerged. The black river curved like a snake, encircled buildings that were tightly cramped together. From the top of the hill, brown, red and white roofs looked like a huge chess board. Dina knew, but never understood, why some residents of Central City painted their roofs white. Nowhere else in the world had she notice a phenomenon like this.

  “Why are the roofs painted white?” she asked the driver.

  After coughing for a long time, the woman began to answer. “In the old days, the city was attacked mostly in the winter, when the river was frozen and white. The locals believed that if the roofs were painted white, it would help camouflage them, making them invisible from the hills. This was six hundred years ago, but locals still believe that the white color of the roofs will protect them and bring them good luck. An old tradition, but still very much alive,” she answered Dina without taking her eyes off of the road, which now started to descend towards one of the river bridges.

  “Thank you.”

  “Yes, I know a lot about the history of this city. I used to be a history teacher. Nobody needs teachers anymore. Nobody needs bus drivers either. I’m driving because my husband is sick.”

  Dina felt bad for the woman, but decided not to continue the conversation and remained silent until the end of the trip.

  The bus crossed the bridge and entered the streets of the city. It was almost noon and people were everywhere. It seemed that the shops and restaurants were full.

  “This is the center. Everything will be closed in two hours. It will be an empty place. I don’t see that you have any luggage. Are you going anywhere from the train station?” asked the bus driver.

  The bus entered a circular plaza with a monument in the middle. Dina looked around, trying to find something familiar.

  “No, I’m here to buy tickets for the train. I hope I will be travelling tomorrow.”

  “Then hurry. The ticket booth will be closed soon, and with the lineups I’m not sure that you will get to the cashier on time. Listen to me. I will stop near the entry there.” And she pointed to two big iron gates near a brown building that were standing fifty meters to the left of the bus.

  “You go straight, pass through the arrival terminal. You understand? Don’t follow the signs. Go straight. At the end, turn left. You will see six ticket booths. Stand in line for the second one. The name of the cashier is Andrei. You’ll see his name on the badge. If you get to the window before two, you are lucky. If not, then wait until everybody leaves. If a guard asks you to get out, tell him you need to talk to Andrei. Andrei knows me. Tell him that the driver of the shuttle sent you. I’m the only female-driver of the airport shuttle. He knows me well.” The bus was approaching the iron gates. “Does anybody else need a train ticket?” asked the driver. The others on the bus were quiet. “Andrei will charge you a little more, but it will get you to where you need to go.” She smiled.

  The bus stopped and the driver pointed to the gates. Dina said goodbye, left the bus and entered the train station. Her first impression was that she had just entered a beehive. The buzzing noise and the moving crowd pushing each other in every possible direction forced Dina to stop for a second. She looked forward, trying to understand where the end of the hall was. Then she started to maneuver between the moving bodies, trying hard to do the impossible task of not pushing anybody. A stream of people constantly altered her directions, moving her to the left, to the right and sometimes even back. She tried to find an empty space and quickly step into it. Nobody apologized around her; everybody’s attention was focused on moving. Somebody screamed, somebody cursed, the sounds of children’s cries permeated the air, as well as an unpleasant smell, which made Dina begin to accelerate her movements using both her elbows. No amount of Kerzhak navigation training could help her here.

  With great effort, jostling around, Dina found herself at the end of the hall. She turned left and walked through the short passage towards a half-open door. She pushed the door and entered the ticket room. There, at the far side of the wall, stood six ticket booths. Each booth was numbered and had a queue of people waiting to purchase tickets. The room was perfectly square with a domed high ceiling. Dina quickly moved to the end of the lineup to booth number two. Looking around, Dina noticed the other door to the room, located on the opposite side from where she had made her entrance. A uniformed guard stood near the other door, directing the incoming ticket purchasers to the long waiting lines.

  From where she was standing she could see a crowd of no fewer than two dozen people waiting for their turn to enter the ticket room. Dina realized that by following the driver’s directions, she had successfully entered the room undetected through the exit door. She took half a step to the side and counte
d the number of people in line ahead of her. Then she looked at the big clock on the wall. Twenty-two people and I have one hour and fifteen minutes before closing. She unbuttoned her raincoat, removed her hat and scarf and tried to straighten her messy hair. The room and the domed ceiling had no windows. Three big projectors attached to a candelabra chained to the dome were the room’s only source of light. They were also the source of heat. After standing there for fifteen minutes, Dina could feel drops of sweat going down her spine. She stripped off one of her sweaters and felt much better. One o’clock exactly and sixteen people ahead of me. She could hear noises coming from the entrance door. The guard was pushing back the people who were trying to get in.

  After a short altercation, the entrance door was closed. I am super lucky, thought Dina. Two minutes later, an hour before closing, the now unoccupied guard started to shove people from one line to another. He was trying to create an even workload for all ticket booths. Dina became worried. What am I going to do if he asks me to move? I could pretend that I don’t understand what he is saying. Tamara’s words of precaution ran through Dina’s head. ‘Do not show that you are a foreigner; it may create trouble and they will definitely charge you triple the price for everything you buy.’ She had provided Dina with enough cash to buy an overcharged train ticket. But Dina was not sure whether it would be enough to pay for Andrei's bribe, if needed. Dina turned and looked back at her lineup. There were only three people instead of the five who’d previously been there. It seemed that after the entrance door was closed, the lines began to move faster. Everybody was quiet. The clicking noises that were coming from the cashiers stamping the tickets elevated Dina’s spirits.

  Only half an hour left and six people ahead of me. I will make it.

  Andrei was a young man in his early thirties. When Dina approached the cashier window, he was busy re-arranging a pile of papers and half a dozen stamps. Dina waited a second, hoping that her appearance in the glass window of the booth would draw his attention.

  “Where are the tickets to?” Andrei finally asked, without any greeting.

  “I would like a single ticket to Derchany for tomorrow. Ticket for ‘kupe’ please.”

  Dina knew that the first class cars on the train would have four-cot compartments, each with two upper level cots and two at the lower level. Each compartment would have a folding table, a lockable sliding door, a radio, linens and towels. Each first class car on the train would contain 8 or 9 such compartments. A toilet with a sink would be located at the end of each car. The locals called these compartments ‘kupe.’

  “’Kupe’ you say?” Andrei looked directly and suspiciously at Dina’s rosy face.

  “Do you have enough money to pay for kupe?” he grinned.

  “Yes, I do. How much does it cost?” Dina pulled her wallet out of the raincoat and opened it, ready to pay.

  “But I’m not sure that I have space available.” Andrei was flipping the pages of a ticket journal. “Not sure I have them, not sure.” The tone of his voice and his deliberately slow pronunciation of words annoyed Dina.

  “The driver of the airport shuttle told me that you could help me. Maybe she was wrong. Should I ask another cashier for assistance?”

  The remark about the driver of the shuttle brought a smile to Andrei’s face.

  “Yes, yes, let me take a look again. I think I can get you on the train to Derchany. There you go. Tomorrow at ten in the morning, tickets and the cost.” He wrote something on a piece of paper and moved it through the hole in the window. Dina looked at the written number, opened her wallet and counted the bills. This was followed by the sweet sound of the stamping of the tickets, then the money and the tickets exchanged hands.

  Dina left the ticket room and noticed that the crowd was quickly dispersing. There was a smaller crowd in the main hall than before. She had the strange feeling that she did not want to leave this place yet. She looked at the signs on the walls, trying to find her way to the boarding platform. There it was, straight ahead, down stairs, one left turn and immediately one turn to the right. Dina was out into the fresh air. Great, now I know where to go for boarding tomorrow. Then she went back to the main entrance, to the iron gates. The plaza was quiet; two cars were making their way around it. A dozen pedestrians waited for the traffic lights to change. The cold freezing wind forced Dina to move back inside the station. It took her a minute to get dressed again. She went out into the cold, but her interest in walking the streets of the city was lost. She was tired, and decided that she’d had enough of this depressing city. She wanted to get back to the warmth of her hotel room.

  Then the real challenges began. At first she could not find the right stop of the shuttle. Then four shuttles, one after another, passed by without stopping, ignoring her standing there alone and waving her hands. One shuttle finally arrived, but the driver declared that it was having a problem with its engine and another shuttle, a replacement, was on its way and would come soon. Three and a half hours later, an exhausted, hungry, angry and frozen-to-the-bones Dina was finally sitting inside an airport shuttle bus.

  Early the next morning, Dina contacted Tamara to inform her about the arrival time of her train to Derchany. Their conversation was cut short. The phone line died and all of Dina’s attempts to reconnect were unsuccessful. She hoped that Tamara would let Igor know that she was on schedule and on her way to Derchany. A quick breakfast and Dina was on her way to the train station. Two bills in the local currency and the driver of the shuttle agreed to help her with her over-weighted suitcase.

  The train to Derchany departed on time. Dina’s compartment was nice and clean. She discovered later that only two compartments out of eight were occupied in her train car. The car attendant was a kind man. He was trying to accommodate the passengers and served a very hot and very strong black tea several times during the day. There was a restaurant on the train but Dina hesitated to leave her belongings unattended, so she decided to ask the car attendant to deliver food directly to her compartment. After receiving his first fat tip, the car attendant would always bring Dina something delicious to eat from the local cuisine that he bought each time the train stopped in a small village. The dull view outside of the train window, the swaying motion of the train car and the monotonous clicking sound of the train wheels were making Dina feel relaxed and sleepy. She tried to meditate, tried to read, she even tried to sing. Three days went by in full relaxation and mental preparation for the challenges that were awaiting her ahead.

  The train began to slow down. The car attendants were preparing their red and green signal flags and a dry voice from the car's speakers informed the passengers of the train's arrival time. Dina was ready. She opened the upper part of the window, looked outside and enjoyed a warm stream of air that messed up her hair. Here in Derchany the weather was much warmer. The train station was coming closer. Now Dina could see people standing on the platform. She was curious as to whether Igor got her arrival time from Tamara and whether he would come to meet her. The brakes of the train squeaked annoyingly. The car attendants opened the doors and stepped down to the platform, holding the green signal flags high in the air. Dina was rolling her suitcase through the aisle towards the exit door when she saw that a man dressed in a camouflage uniform with a big Siberian hunter’s hat and a pair of black shades had begun walking towards her. Dina looked at her suitcase, trying to figure out how they could get around each other in this tiny space.

  “How was your journey?” said the stranger in Igor’s voice.

  “Oh my God. Is it you? When did you become a mercenary?” Dina was happy to recognize her friend. Igor came close and hugged her.

  “Nice to see you arriving in one piece,” he joked. Together they moved towards the exit door and with the help of the car attendant lowered Dina’s suitcase onto the platform. A short while later the train began moving again, leaving Derchany’s station. Dina looked at the old and familiar train station building. She turned around. Rails, rails and
rails again. Parallel rails, some of them crossing each other, running from left to right, bringing perpetually- moving trains in and out of the station.

  “There.” She pointed with her finger to the distance. “The cargo car was standing there twenty years ago. And there, you see? The big water tank where I was waiting for Roman was standing there.” Her voice trembled. She felt something strange and very painful. At this moment she could not explain even to herself what that feeling was exactly. It wasn’t sadness, sorrow, or grief. She felt like a broken tree, broken somewhere inside the core of her body. She could even hear the crack. Too much imagination and visualization exercises in the last three days. She tried to compose herself and moved her eyes back to the parallel rails. Goodbye for now, I hope to be back soon.

  “We should go, Dina. I have many important things to discuss with you. I hope that you rested on the train.” Igor tried to lift her suitcase, made a grimace and started rolling it toward the exit.

  A couple of very old cars and trucks were parked outside the station building. One truck had a small two-wheeled aluminum travel trailer attached. While the trailer was clean and shiny, the truck's colour was unidentifiable. It was covered by a thick level of mud which gave the truck a yellow, red, brown, green and black mask that concealed its original dark blue colour. Igor pointed to the trailer.

  “Madam, your carriage is ready to deliver you to your hotel.” He smiled and opened the trailer door.

  “You must be joking. Is it safe to drive in this shiny box? I’m not getting in,” protested Dina.

  “It is the safest available transportation in Derchany. It is a hunting trailer, cleaned specially for you, Madam. I won’t trust any other way of transportation where we can freely and comfortably have a discussion on our way to the hotel.” And Igor winked. The truck driver, a man in his sixties, helped Igor with Dina’s luggage, and they both climbed into the trailer.

  “Do you see this handle?” asked Igor, pointing to the trailer ceiling. “Hold one hand there and push your feet against my seat. Good. Don’t you worry, this trailer will never turn over. But you’ll get a sore butt.” He smiled. For the next twenty minutes, Dina felt as if she was on a rollercoaster. During this time, Igor gave her an update.

  “I needed to pay for the generators. They have two of them. One is inside; one is outside the catacombs. We had no choice. It is the way the municipality protects itself. We would not get a permit to go inside without generators. They also asked for their local guide to be with us. I paid him off. He is staying at home for now. I got this uniform for you too. There is an army base near the city. On Sundays, they sell these uniforms at a local market. Good price, and we will throw them out after. How do you feel? If you’re hungry they have a new bar at the hotel,” suggested Igor.

  “Since when did you become a bar man?” said Dina through clenched teeth, jumping on her seat through the bumps and trying not to bite her tongue.

  “I'm simply asking. It would be nice to go out to have a bite after three days on a train. We may discuss our plans in the evening.”

  “I think I will pass on your offer for tonight. Let me unpack and I will call you. Oiiiii!” It was a big jump and Dina knocked her head against the ceiling. “Owww, I better be quiet. Let us discuss it later.” Dina tried to massage the bump on her head. “You are like your hunting trailer. You don’t know how to treat a lady. Now, I have a bump on my head because of you.”

  The two-storey hotel building looked the same as it did on Dina’s first visit to Derchany. The original white bricks kept their colour only in some spots close to the roof. All the others had become grey, with patches of black and brown lines. Rain and snow had had a harsh impact on the corners of the building. Some of the white bricks had been replaced by brown ones, while some were missing entirely. The hotel's windows were dirty, especially on the lower floors. Dina immediately noticed one difference from the last time she’d seen the hotel: all of the windows were now protected by steel bars. Another big difference was the trees. She could not remember so many trees around. They were everywhere; in front, behind, on the sides. The ground was covered with yellow and red fallen leaves, which provided a cheerful contrast to the depressing hotel walls.

  “I booked our rooms on the second floor,” said Igor, carrying Dina’s heavy suitcase through the open entrance door.

  “Can I give you a hand? I do not recall if they have elevators here,” suggested Dina.

  “I’m good. You’d better go and sign in at the registration desk and get the key. Your room number is 211; I will be there waiting for you.”

  The moment Dina mentioned that she was Igor’s acquaintance the registration procedure took less than two minutes, including taking copy of her passport, She was greeted with smiles and kindness.

  “Did you change your mind about dinner? Should we go to some other place?”

  Dina looked at her watch. “What is the local time now?” she asked.

  “It is almost six.”

  “I would like to unpack, take a shower, and I’ll call you. We will decide then. What room are you in?”

  “I’m across from you at 216. Call me when you are ready. Dial 8 before dialing the room number.”

  “I will. Thank you.“ Dina felt tired and she needed to be alone for a moment. “I will.”

  At a quarter to eight Igor got a call from Dina’s room.

  “I’m ready. I need only to finish arranging some small stuff, but you can come in. We can begin our planning.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Igor entered Dina’s room and remained standing near the entrance door, looking at Dina, who was hovering over a pile of clothes which lay on her bed.

  “You haven’t finished yet?”

  “No, I’m ready, we can start planning. Don’t you know that I can do a few things simultaneously?” laughed Dina.

  “Yes, I know. But I would like to talk to you about something very serious.” The tone of Igor’s voice changed.

  “Go ahead.” Dina busied with folding her brown sweater. ”What is it, Igor?”

  “Dina, you had better sit down.” said Igor. His voice was muted by a thundering noise coming from the horn of a truck passing by the hotel at that moment.

  It seemed that Dina did not hear him. She kept on folding her sweaters. Then she stopped for a moment, looked at Igor standing near the door and said, “Why won’t you sit down? It will take me only a few minutes. Go and sit there.” She pointed to the chair near the table.

  At that moment, the door to her room opened and the man everybody called the ‘Yellow Raincoat’ appeared, standing in the doorframe. He was holding flowers in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

  Victor

  “What the hell is going on?” Dina dropped onto the bed, tightly clutching the brown sweater to her chest. Her startled face was quickly losing its color. She felt confused, betrayed and scared, very scared. Nobody around her, nobody in the entire world could help her. My God, my God, please help me ran through her mind several times. Her vision blurred, and she lost all sensory perception. She could not see or hear anyone in the room. Suddenly she felt warmth and comfort. When she turned her head left, she saw a woman in white; the same woman she’d saw in her dream; the same woman that accused her of spilling the wine. The woman in white was sitting beside her, smiling and holding Dina’s hands. Then something that was outside of her field of vision began to shake her body violently.

  Dina opened her eyes. Igor was standing beside her bed on his knees, with his left hand supporting the back of her head.

  “That’s my girl. What kind of welcome for our guest is that? Take a sip, please.” He lifted a bottle from the floor and held it high, so she could drink the water. “You are tired from your trip, I told you we should go for a bite. When was the last time that you had something to eat?”

  “In the morning on the train,” replied Dina.

  It took a couple of minutes before she could regain her streng
th. Later on she would try to search for an answer to what exactly had happened to her. She would try to understand and analyze the weird sensations that had come over her during these few moments when she passed out. At that moment, it looked like a strange combination of a panic attack infused with a very realistic vision of the woman in white. Maybe it could even count as a spiritual experience, even though Dina was never a religious person.

  All this time, Yellow Raincoat was sitting quietly near the table. Dina looked at him, then back at Igor, who was still kneeling beside her.

  “Would you prefer to rest now? We could come back later,” suggested Igor.

  “No, that's not necessary. I feel much better now.” Dina straightened her back. “Why is he here?” she asked, directing her fuming gaze at the table.

  “I’m sorry if I’m the cause of any inconvenience to you.” This came from Yellow Raincoat. “I got you flowers. A beautiful bouquet of ‘welcome to Derchany flowers’. And a bottle of red wine. I wanted to have a chat with you. We have a lot to discuss. We could do it now or later if that’s what you prefer.”

  “You are not answering my question.” Dina’s tone of voice showed that she was back to reality and that she was trying to be in charge of the situation.

  “Good. I will answer all of your questions. Could we all sit ourselves near the table? Igor, Dina, please.” He stood up and pushed the two other chairs away from the table, inviting them to join him. Uncharacteristically, Dina felt that she had no choice but to surrender to the power emanating from the man who stood a few feet away, so completely unruffled, looking at her with a pair of very dark and composed eyes. Igor helped Dina as she lifted herself from the bed. For a second she felt a little lightheaded, but with Igor’s help, she managed to walk over to the chair.

  “You are still weak. I’m going downstairs to the bar to get us some food. I've already heard what he has to say.” Igor was on his feet ready to leave. Dina looked at him, an anxious expression on her face.

  “Don’t worry, he is not deranged or dangerous. You are safe to stay with him alone, trust me. He passed my lie detector.” Igor smiled and left the room.

  “He is right. You have nothing to worry about. I’m your friend. Plus we need to have some food if we want to open this bottle of wine.”

  Dina shifted her body to the center of the chair, trying to make her sitting position more comfortable. “So, what’s next?” asked Dina, putting a careful smile on her face.

  “I’ll start with my real name,” said the man. He unbuttoned the top of his blue shirt. “It is hot in here.” He paused for a second, looking at the palms of his hands. “My real name is Victor.” He raised his eyes, looking directly at Dina’s face. ”I met your brother, Roman, here in Derchany twenty-something years ago.” He paused again. Dina squinted and stared back at him.

  “Victor? Victor? The boy who helped my brother? From the diary?” She tried hard to remember all that she had read about Victor, but at this moment not many details were surfacing in her mind.

  “Yes, we were together here, a twenty-minute walk from this hotel. Now it is a school, but in those days it was a police station. I was there with Roman for two days, before and after his interview and his transfer to Corridor One.” Dina felt taken aback and confused.

  “I have so many questions for you. I don’t know where to begin!” said Dina.

  “The answers to most of your questions start before I met Roman,” reply Victor.

  “So, for a start please tell me more about yourself. Why did you become a train hopper?” asked Dina.

  “Good.” Victor looked around the room. “It is really hot in here. Can I open the window?” He did not wait for Dina’s reply; he walked to the window and opened it. Dina felt a light breeze across her hair. She took a breath of the fresh air and enjoyed it. She observed Victor’s body language and facial expression; it seemed that for him, the topic that they were about to discuss was not an easy one.

  “I grew up in an ordinary family. I was an only child. My father was a cook. I’m not sure whether he actually served in the army or worked for the army. I never saw him in an army uniform. My mother was a piano teacher. We usually lived near the army base and moved every three or four years from place to place. I remember that a lot of children came to our house for piano lessons. My mom died when I was ten years old. I have no idea what the reason for her death was. When I was eleven years old, I visited my aunt. I remember overhearing her telling somebody that my mom committed suicide. Later when I asked my dad, he told me that it was nonsense, that she’d had liver problems. We never talked about my mother’s death. When I was twelve, my father decided to put me up in a private boarding school, one of the best in the region. I passed all of the tests and got in. In the beginning, studying in that school was a big challenge for me, but I was at the top of my class in all the disciplines by the end of the first semester. After the first year, I got an achievement award and free lodging on campus. When I was in my second year, my father visited me three times. In my third year, he visited me only once. It was the last time I saw him.

  I begged the school’s administration to check on my dad’s health and why he was no longer visiting me. The school secretary informed me that my father no longer lived at the address that was given to the school, and that my school tuition fees were paid off completely, up to graduation. I was surprised, sad and mad. I lost interest in my studies. I frequently ran away from the school, searching for my father. My aunt died that same year. I had nobody. Then I decided to become a train hopper.” Victor stopped and looked at Dina.

  “You should drink more water. I will get the flowers some water too.” He poured some water into an empty glass and gave it to Dina. Then he produced a folding knife from his pants pocket, lifted the empty water bottle that had been left on the floor, cut the top off, poured water into it and placed the flowers inside. The bottle with the flowers went to the center of the table.

  “Thank you.” Dina smiled and felt relieved for the first time since she’d first encountered Yellow Raincoat.

  “You are welcome. Igor will be back soon with the food. I’m sure you’ll be feeling better after you eat something. The first year hopping the trains was the hardest one.” Victor turned his head toward the window and slightly pushed his chair away from the table. ”Should I close the window?”

  “No, I’m fine,” replied Dina.

  “My first year as a hopper was terrible. You would think that the life of a hopper was simple: in the winter you drift south, in the summer you move back north. But then you realize that you are now part of a completely different world. You need to learn a totally new language, the jargon of the hoppers. You learn how to run from the police or where you can get some food or shelter when needed. And if you are new to the train hopping business and you don’t know how to conduct yourself and act carelessly, you may end up dead or in jail or in the hospital.”

  “I thought it was easy. You are free to go where you want, when you want. You have your friends with you. You see new places all the time,” commented Dina.

  “Yes, I thought the same way in the beginning. But then you learn not to stay at the same place for more than two or three days or there is a big chance of ending up in jail. You learn not to sleep on the roof or you will be suffocated by the smoke from the train, and that the best and the warmest place in the winter is not somewhere south, but rather in a foster home, a juvenile colony, or even in jail. There you will have food, warmth and no worries for a couple of months. You learn how to get food by stealing from a local market or in the very early hours of the morning from a bakery. You need to know when and where to jump on a train and when and where to get off it. And there was much more train hopping wisdom to master on how to deal with the constant threats that come from the police and the railroad car attendants.”

  The door opened with an annoying screeching sound, letting Igor into the room. He was holding a big plastic bag that exuded a tempting and a
ppetizing aroma.

  “Is anybody hungry?”

  “I think we all are,” said Victor, “do you need any help?” He stood up and took the bag from Igor’s hands.

  Dina also stood up and removed the flowers from the table, putting them on the floor to make room for the arriving food.

  “I hope that you got nice wine glasses,” smiled Victor.

  “Yes, I bought a couple of crystal glasses.” And Igor took out a bunch of paper cups from the bag.

  “Ok, they will do. I can go down to get some plates and cutlery.”

  “I have everything in the bag. Dina, how are you doing?”

  “She is doing great. Right? I was in the middle of my life story as a train hopper. It looks like she would be interested in trying it herself.” Victor smiled.

  “She could and I bet you that if she tried, she would become the leader of the pack. Is that what you call the one who makes all of the important decisions on the train’s roof?” Igor placed four big white boxes on the table. The smell of the food filled the room.

  “Yes, the leaders of the pack are the tough ones. I never saw a girl taking lead of a pack of train hoppers, but I think Dina could.”

  Dina’s mouth watered at the smell of the food. She felt a slight weakness again and sat down. She was pleasantly surprised by the way Igor and Victor’s conversation was going. It was as if two good friends were joking around and having fun. Trusting Igor and his professionally trained ability to read people, Dina allowed herself to relax and let her concerns about Victor dissolve.

  “Hello, I’m sitting here. Can I join your conversation please?” Dina said seriously.

  “Yes, you can, of course. But only after we finish our dinner. Talking to a hungry woman is like talking to a hungry lion,” came from Igor.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” affirmed Victor.

  They were all very hungry. In the next fifteen minutes not much conversation followed as they were busy consuming their food. Afterwards, Victor opened the bottle of wine and poured some into their paper cups.

  “I would like to make a toast.” Igor raised his glass. “I would like to drink to our great future.”

  Dina raised her cup, looked at Victor and added, “May we have a future with only pleasant surprises.”

  “Nozdorovya,” declared Victor and brought his cup close to Dina’s. Igor’s cup joined them.

  After the meal, Dina felt a burst of energy. With Igor’s help, she cleaned the table. Victor lifted the flowers back to the table where Dina and Igor were seated already, waiting for him to continue.

  “Okay, so where was I? Oh, yes. I was telling Dina about how difficult my first year outside the boarding school was. The second and the following years were different though. I knew how to survive in the winter, how and where to get food and how to get to the hospital when needed. Most of us preferred to be caught in the autumn months and sent to foster homes, but those who already had criminal records had a problem. Even with a minor record, you would have to hide in publicly heated places like public washrooms for the entire winter, because foster homes wouldn’t take you. I was smart enough never to have a record. Then in the spring, we would run off again, free like birds.”

  “Wouldn’t it have been sad for the foster family when you ran away after they took care of you?” For some reason Dina was sympathetic to those foster families and so she was hoping to see emotion in Victor’s reply.

  “Not really. Most of the foster homes were getting cheques from the government for every single child that they fostered. It was just a way of making an income for most of them. We never saw any good come out of this money for us. Otherwise, why would I run away? Of course there were exceptions. A small percentage of us got lucky and got real love and care. I was in four foster homes but I was not among the lucky ones. Not much food, hard work every day, used and tattered clothes, and constant abuse. I would never go back to the homes I was sent to, never in my life.”

  The last sentence was said with such hatred that Dina regretted bringing up the topic.

  Finally, she asked the most important question that had been on her mind since the beginning of his story. “Tell us please, how you met my brother.”

  “I met him here in Derchany,” started Victor after a short pause.

  “I came here after a long journey. We knew that the police were planning a big operation to catch the train hoppers. By that time, some of us had established good relationships with the railroad employees. From time to time, the train hoppers would transfer some illegal goods for the railroad workers. In exchange, the employees paid money or passed valuable information about operations planned by the police, like an upcoming raid for train hoppers. Sometimes we knew about the locations and the times three or four days in advance. This was the case when I met Roman. I was heading to Derchany, deliberately planning to get caught so I would be transferred to my next foster home for the winter. I have no idea why and how they caught Roman. He was escorted to the police station a day after me. I think we were six or seven in one room, all waiting for interviews. The interviews were a formality followed by the decision of where we would be sent. Nobody really payed attention to what was happening during the interview. But when Roman came back from his first interview and told me about the exams that he was required to take, it got me thinking. Rumours about Corridor One were always in the air, but I had never heard about anybody getting a chance to get into it before Roman’s interview. I’d heard they were looking for orphan boys, but I did not know that they were looking for brainy ones. I would always hide my education and cleverness when I was interviewed. This was why I always got into the low level classes in the schools when I was at foster homes. This way the school required zero effort from me and I could easily get passing grades accompanied by ravish compliments. When Roman told me about the questions in math, physics and logic, I became very curious about Corridor One. I thought that if nobody came back or ran away from this place, and to get there would require proving your cleverness, the place could be good. Therefore, I should try to get in there. My previous life looked much more attractive now after a few cold and hungry train hopping years.

  In those days I was pretty adventurous and liked to take calculated risks. My interview came after Roman’s. I did my best to impress everybody and I succeeded. The problem was that at that time, Corridor One was looking for only one candidate and not two. Your brother was their first choice; I was second. So, Roman went to Corridor One and I went to my next foster home. But the day we spent in the police station started our friendship. Dina, if you want, we can go tomorrow to the place that used to be the police station and I will show you the room in which we were kept together. It is a school now, so I hope that we won’t find any dirty inscriptions left by us on the walls.“ Victor smiled.

  “So you were separated?” Dina was disappointed.

  “Yes, we were separated. For six months,” said Victor.

  “Let’s visit the school, but do we have time? We’re here to do some research for the university and our schedule is tight.” Dina looked at Igor, hoping to hear from him that time was not an issue.

  “Yes, I know that you have to do some work for the university.” Now Victor was also looking at Igor.

  “Somehow he knows,” said Igor undisturbed, returning Dina’s gaze. “I didn’t tell him a word. He knew about the university and he mentioned it to me in our first meeting. I suppose Victor will explain to us how he came across this information.”

  “I will, with great pleasure.” Victor smiled. “Should we have a coffee break maybe?” he suggested.

  “That is a great idea. Today I will volunteer to be your supply man.” Igor rose from the chair. “I’ll go downstairs. Their coffee is not bad. Victor, please continue. I’ve already heard most of your story.” And he left the room.

  “After a while I was transferred to a foster home in a small city north of Derchany. From the first day there, I had the desire for only one thing,
which was to get to Corridor One, and so the decision to get there grew inside me day by day. First, I decided to get as much information as possible about the place. But the problem was that I was isolated from all of my train hopper friends and I had no other sources of information, so even though the winter was coming, I decided to run away. That winter I had the adventure of my life. To avoid freezing to death I traveled south. For the first time in my life I was stealing from the passengers on the train and was selling or exchanging stolen goods for food. I even agreed to transfer drugs in exchange for information. I’ve done things that I’m not proud of, all to survive and get information about Corridor One. It was close to the end of the winter, in mid-March, when I discovered where the next roundup would take place. I was hopeful that Corridor One would need a new candidate. I was ready. I had only one concern.

  I was unsure whether I was an orphan. What if the police got their hands on my father?

  The information that I gathered indicated that Corridor One accepted only orphans, so nobody would ever claim them and the Corridor would never have to release the boys back to their parents.

  So my father is dead… ran in Dina’s head.

  But I had no choice. I was ready to take the risk. The roundup happened as expected. I was the first to be caught and I was waiting for the interview. I was super lucky. Everything had gone as planned: the first interview followed by the second, then the transfer to Corridor One. You should have seen me and Roman at the moment when we were reunited. I saw him first when he was entering the square for the usual morning exercise. I could not call to him. We were in separate groups. Our groups were close to each other, but he was in the middle of his group and I was at the back of mine. About seven meters apart. He was not looking in my direction. When we were doing push-ups, I collected two small stones from the ground and waited for the gym instructor to turn around. When he finally did, I threw the first stone at your brother. I did not need to throw the second one because the first stone hit Roman’s head. He quickly turned around and I saw that he was ready to jump out of his group and start running towards me. I signaled for him to stay where he was. It was an amazing moment and I will never forget Roman’s huge and probing eyes and a smile full of absolute delight. After that we met each other in workshops at least once a week.”

  Dina froze. She covered her mouth with her hands. Tears were running down her face.

  “I’m sorry,” Victor apologized, lowering his eyes.

  “Don’t be. I’m crying because you made me happy. I’m so happy to learn that he had found a friend. I’m so happy.” Dina searched for napkins and when she did not find any, she wiped her face with her sweatshirt.

  “You know that he used to drive me crazy?” Victor smiled. ”Every time we met, he told me funny stories about you. The one about your doll’s red dress. Is it true that you took the only shirt that he had, the red one, and cut it into pieces to make a dress for your doll?”

  Dina was still covering her mouth and nodded yes.

  “He told me that you planted your tooth and watered it several times a day, hoping that it would grow into a tooth tree. And the story about your birthmark shaped like the face of a dog, and that he coloured it with a green pen.”

  Dina blushed slightly and lowered her eyes for a moment. The birthmark that Victor was talking about was located high on her left thigh and only Dina and Roman knew about its existence, nobody else.

  “He talked about you every time we met. He felt responsible and guilty for your separation. I tried to convince him that the schedules of the trains were unpredictable, that ninety percent of the trains left the stations before or after their scheduled time. But all of my attempts to convince him were in vain. You were the unending topic of our conversations.”

  Igor entered, holding three cups of steaming coffee. He looked at Dina’s red eyes and smiled.

  “You guys have had enough drama. Drink your coffee and relax.”

  “Good suggestion. You always have good suggestions.” Dina tried to smile.

  “I’m pretty sure you two will have another chance to catch up. What I’m interested in is to know what this place Corridor One is? Where is it?” asked Igor.

  “Where is it? This is a difficult question. Most of the stories told by the boys from Corridor One were worlds apart. Each told a different story about the time and the directions they traveled to get there. For example, Roman told me it took him two days of travelling, but somebody else who transferred from Derchany told me it took them three days and yet somebody else talked about five days. Corridor One is a structure of stone in the middle of a forest. The only possible way of getting in and out was at the back of a covered vehicle without any windows or the smallest hole in the cover that would let you see the road. Even the purpose of this establishment is still unclear to me. They never told us where we would be going or what we would be doing after Corridor One. It was obvious that they wanted us to be educated and disciplined. Very disciplined. Nobody who graduated from Corridor One was ever seen again. We had all we needed. Good food, physical activities, a pleasant shelter and an hour a day of free time that we could spend with friends or alone. We had all that a teenager would need, except for freedom. In return, they asked us to study and follow the rules. I never heard about anybody being punished. The permanently circulating rumors about possible brutal and awful punishments were enough to scare us into behaving well. The teachers cultivated a feeling of significance in us. They prepared us for something big, something important. Oh, yes, one more thing: none of the boys were older than seventeen, and there were no girls in Corridor One, not even a female teacher, only males. There were rumors that there was another Corridor for girls, but nobody was sure about it.”

  Dina finished her coffee at the same time that Victor paused. “What about Roman?” she asked.

  “Should we continue our conversation tomorrow? My watch is showing eleven already. Aren’t you tired, Dina?” Igor was worried about Dina. She had had enough stress for one day.

  “I’m good. Don’t worry. If I feel tired, I will lie down on the bed and listen from there.”

  “As you wish. Go ahead, Victor. She is a tough cookie.”

  “Roman was a tough cookie too. It looks like it is a common family trait. Roman studied hard and was always among the top three students in his group. He always tried to pull more weight than the others. He earned great respect from both the boys and the teachers. He was also very lucky. Usually the new uniforms came to Corridor One twice a year. When Roman arrived, they had none available for him. For five months he wore the clothes in which he came. It allowed him to hide a couple of the diamonds that he had with him. All other places in the building or outside were not safe. He was in the junior group. They were being watched 24 hours a day. The situation in my group was easier. A week before getting a new uniform, he asked me to keep the diamond for him. You see, the day when you get a new uniform, you visit the nurse's office. They would strip you out of your old pants, trousers, shirt and then burn them in the basement’s furnace. They would ask you to take a shower and only then would you get a new uniform. At the same time, somebody would search your bed and surroundings. Roman knew the procedure. I kept the diamond in a safe place in the workshop behind the fire extinguisher that I was responsible for. He gave me the diary a few days before his escape.”

  “What?” gasped Dina as she jumped to her feet. “What did you say? He escaped? When? How? Please tell me that he is alive. Please.”

  Igor put his hand on Dina’s shoulder.

  “Dina, please sit down, don’t be silly. He will tell you everything he knows.”

  “I’m too edgy, Igor maybe you were right and we should have stopped our conversation. But now I need to know everything about my brother’s escape. Please continue.”

  “Does anybody want water or wine?” asked Igor, trying to defuse the tension.

  “I’ll have a glass of wine,” came from Victor.

  “M
e too,” Dina joined in.

  Three paper cups were filled with wine. This time nobody toasted. They drank in silence.

  “Roman planned his escape for a long time,” continued Victor. “His strong determination to run away at any cost and as soon as possible was camouflaged by his impeccably good behavior. He never told me about his plans and by doing so, he was protecting me. On the day that he gave me his diary, he asked me to read it. Later I discovered a page inserted at the end of the diary. I will never forget what was written there: ‘When you will be reading this page, I will be outside of ‘Corridor One’ looking for Dina. When you are out, please make sure to return my diary and the diamonds. I trust that you will do this. Your friend, Roman’. I had no idea why he left the diamond with me. Only when the manner of his escape was discovered did I understand the risk that he was taking and why he made the decision to leave the diamond with me.” Victor stopped and turned to Dina.

  “How do you like the wine?”

  “It is great, thank you for bringing it. Helps to relax.”

  “It is a local brand. I always take a bottle or two with me when I’m traveling. I’ll show you where to get it.”

  Dina felt that Victor was trying to stall his story.

  “Roman’s escape required bravery and precise calculations. I assume that he got his idea after one of the lessons in physics and also after his visit to the attic of the building. The physics teacher gave them a problem about a ninety-pound box placed on a flat surface. The surface is angled at thirty degrees to the floor. The students had to calculate the speed with which the box would hit the floor. You remember this problem from his diary, don't you?”

  “Yes, I do. It was one of the last notes that he made,” answered Dina.

  “The visit to the attic was in the summer. I think that his group was given an assignment to clean the higher floors in the building. They kept some old furniture in the attic. Once when my group was doing the cleaning, I was asked to move a few pieces of furniture there. In my mind I can see him climbing there and looking through the opening to the roof on the surrounding sea of green trees. He is looking down and realizing that he can’t see the guard walls surrounding the building. For some reason the guard walls were built only eight or nine feet from the walls of the building. Probably to save effort when clearing out the forest to raise the building. Now he is thinking about the problem in physics and he is trying to apply it to the terrain that he sees from the top of the building. He thinks about a cold and dark winter night. The roof is covered with a layer of ice. The roof is angled at thirty or forty degrees to the ground. A boy who weighs approximately ninety pounds is sliding from the top of an iced roof. How far outside of the guarding walls will he land? I think that this was what was running through his head at that moment.”

  “Oh, my God. I was asking myself a million times why he would write a problem in physics in his diary, why? I can’t believe it. It's insane. It's so dangerous and risky.” Dina threw a stunned glance at Igor.

  “Remember that you are talking about your brother.” Victor smiled.

  “He was a good student in all the disciplines. He must have calculated that in the middle of the winter there will be at least eight feet of snow on the ground to soften his landing. I think that on the day that he escaped there was twelve feet of snow behind the walls. We also experienced frequent freezing rain that winter. The result was a layer of ice, ten or more centimeters, covering the roof. He had chosen a perfect night for his escape.”

  “Is he alive?” Dina interrupted uneasily.

  “I honestly don’t know. I hope he is. I just don’t know”.

  “Please continue, it is getting late,” said Igor, looking worriedly at Dina.

  “The freezing rain fell for two straight days. Roman knew that they would begin their search for him inside the building first. This would give him a head start. Then the Director would call for help. To get to Corridor One would take at least a day. And the location of his landing would be visible only from the outside of the guard walls. And if he was lucky, a heavy snowfall would cover his landing spot. He may have had a few days to get as far as possible. I have no idea if he had a map; I assume he didn’t, but knowing your brother, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he got one. I have no clue if he took any food with him. Roman had a new and warm uniform. His absence was discovered the next day during our morning exercises. We were all called to gather in the central square. They counted us at least four times. Then they checked all of our names and badges. When we entered the building, they counted us again and wrote down our names. We were told to go to our rooms and stay there. The older boys, including my group, got assigned to thoroughly search the building. Three trucks filled with soldiers and search dogs came the next day. Inside the building, an investigation was conducted around the clock.

  I was called in three times, but the interrogation did not present any problem for me because I honestly had no idea of how he escaped and when. They knew that I was his best friend and they tried to squeeze as much information out of me as they could, but when they asked me about him, all I would tell them the stories that Roman told me about you, Dina. It took hours and hours to repeat all of the stories that he was telling me about you. I also added a couple of my own. In the end, they let me go. I destroyed the page that Roman inserted into the diary. I ripped out the cover pages of his diary and inserted his diary into my diary book. Later on, they flipped through it but could not imagine that part of it belonged to Roman's diary. A few days after his escape we heard the news that they had discovered his landing place. Our hope was that running away was quicker and easier on ice that was covered in the snow and he could be dozens of miles away by that time. Spirits were very high among the boys. We were amazed and flabbergasted by Roman’s courage.”

  Dina smiled. Dad, you should be proud of your son. We are here to survive and we will do what it takes to survive. We are survivors.

  Victor stopped and looked at his watch. It was twenty past one.

  “Anything else?” asked Dina, as she felt that Victor had not finish his story. “Please, Victor, anything else you want to tell us?”

  “We never heard that they found his body. They searched with dogs for a couple of days. Then there was more freezing rain. I think that was what stopped their search. I told you that I had a good relationship with the workshop teacher; not really friendly but a good relationship nevertheless. He knew how close Roman and I had become, so he quickly dropped a few remarks about Roman's escape once. There was a trace of blood on the snow near the spot where Roman had landed. It is possible that he had a small cut from the ice. I don’t think that the injury was serious. Maybe he hit his nose; who knows? I'm afraid that's all I can tell you about your brother, Dina. I wish I could be a messenger of good news. Roman was my best friend; he is still my best friend,” Victor finished gently.

  “It's getting very late and we need our rest. I suggest that we go to our rooms now,” said Igor.

  “Are you are staying in this hotel?” asked Dina.

  “No, I have a house here in Derchany. A small property that I got ten years ago. You are both welcome to stay with me. I have enough room where you can sleep and I can sleep on a couch in my living room.”

  “Thank you, Victor, but we already paid for this castle.” Igor smiled.

  “Will we see you tomorrow, I mean, today?” asked Dina, glancing at her watch. “I would love it if we could talk a little more.”

  “Yes, of course, Igor has my phone number. Call me when you are ready.”

  Dina shook his hand. Igor said goodnight and both he and Victor left Dina's room.

  “I'll walk you out,” said Igor, accompanying Victor downstairs. When outside the hotel he asked, “What do you really think happened to Roman? Is it conceivable to assume that he could have survived?”

  “I have no idea. Really. What I know is that that particular winter we heard a lot of wolves howling at night. I hope he did not f
all prey to those bastards.” Victor and Igor wished each other good night and parted ways.

  Action Plan

  Dina sat quietly for a while. She knew that it would be difficult for her to fall asleep tonight. Too many thoughts were occupying her mind. She locked her room, opened her suitcase and took out a brown envelope. While packing her suitcase for the trip at home, she’d had a strange desire to take Roman’s diary with her. She wasn’t sure why she’d need it, but decided to follow her instinct. Now she was glad that she had. Dina sat down on her bed, opened the envelope and began reading. The night hours passed slowly. By the time Dina got to the last page of the diary, the sun was rising outside her window. Now all of the pieces of the puzzle came together. Dina was happy and sad at the same time. She missed her dad and her brother. If only they could be with me here now, she thought. She lowered her head onto the pillow, closed her eyes, and a moment later, drifted off to sleep.

  The same morning, Gregory was boarding a train from Central City to Derchany. Tamara had worked through the night and the entire morning of the previous day, booking all of his flights and lining up the departure and arrival schedules. She almost fell off her chair when she saw Gregory enter her office. He had shaved his head, his trademark glasses had disappeared (nobody in the office had seen him without them before) and he wore contact lenses instead. He pulled a small carry-on suitcase behind him, wearing an outfit similar to overalls that could have been worn by a mountain climber. Tamara held back her smile with great difficulty. Gregory did not pay any attention to her and quietly ventured into his lab. Three hours later he was on his way to the airport. Finally, after two connecting flights and an hour of train delays, he was relaxing inside a coup, watching the countryside pass by.

  Meanwhile, in Derchany, Igor knocked softly on Dina’s door. This was his second attempt to wake her up. It was ten to twelve and he decided that if she was not going to open her door now, he would make a lot of noise in the hopes of waking her up. It was not necessary. Dina’s door opened and she looked surprisingly at Igor. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “For an hour, sleeping beauty. Please get ready, I’ll be waiting for you downstairs I’ll order coffee, toast and an omelet. Anything else you want for breakfast or, should I say, for lunch?”

  “No, I’m good. Will be down in a few moments. How is the weather outside?” asked Dina.

  “It is nice and sunny, but take your hat and gloves with you, just in case.”

  They met at the hotel’s restaurant ten minutes later. Out of a dozen or so tables, only two others were occupied.

  “How is the food here?” asked Dina, sitting down.

  “Reasonable.” Igor added ketchup onto his omelet. “What do you think about our new friend Victor?” he asked.

  “To tell you the truth I didn’t give him much thought,” lied Dina, for some reason. “But you met him before I did. What is your intuition telling you?”

  “I think he's okay. He is trying to help us. He got us the blueprints of the Catacombs Park, with all of the details. He got fuel for the generators. He is friendly and has all the right explanations. Is he right about your birthmark?”

  Dina smiled. “Yes, he is. Not many people have seen it or will see it. You are right. He knows a lot about me and Roman. What’s left to ask him is why he is here at all. What does he know about the diamonds? And what is it that he wants exactly…”

  “I also have some questions I would like to ask him. What is his role in the recordings in your apartment? And what does he have to do with the Glass Beach Suites? And I have one more: how the hell did he get out of Corridor One?”

  Dina nodded in approval. She was so hungry that she had finished her food way ahead of Igor. “What are we doing next?” she asked.

  “We will call Victor and we will go to visit the school. Then we will find a quiet place. We can go to my room or yours. We will ask him all of the questions that are bothering us and we’ll start our preparations for going inside the catacombs.”

  After they finished enjoying their strong and delicious coffee, Igor went to the public phone located at the bar and called Victor, who was waiting for this call at his home. They agreed to meet at the hotel bar in twenty minutes and from there, to go to the school. While waiting for him, Dina and Igor decided to take a breath of fresh air outside.

  They crossed the road towards the nearby forest and strolled between the trees, admiring the autumn colors. “Our city looks like a cement factory compared to this magnificent beauty,” remarked Dina.

  When they came back to the bar, Victor was already there. Dressed in a navy blue business suit perfectly tailored to his slim figure, and with a pair of shiny black shoes, Victor looked different and Igor noticed Dina’s probing and appraising glance lingering on him; the glance of a woman looking at a man. Victor stood up and greeted them both when he saw them approaching.

  “Are we having a formal reception? Should I also be dressed in my suit?” asked Dina, smiling.

  “No, no need for it. We did plan to visit the school, didn’t we?”

  “Yes, of course.” Dina sat down at the table.

  “I’m dressed like this because I work there. I’m a teacher of history and literature.”

  “Really? What a surprise! I would never have guessed that.”

  “Yes. I’m a freelance teacher and I teach in six schools in this area.” Victor and Igor joined Dina at the table.

  “Should we order coffee?” asked Victor.

  “Of course,” replied Dina. “We would like to ask you a couple of questions before we visit the school.” Victor noticed that the waitress was looking in their direction and raised his hand, signaling that they were ready to order. Everybody ordered their cup of coffee.

  “Please, go ahead,” invited Victor after the waitress left.

  “Do you mind if I go first?” began Igor and continued before anybody could say a word. “We would like to know what your involvement was in the installation of the recording device in Dina’s apartment.”

  “I can only guess by the question that you have some evidence of my involvement?”

  “Yes, we do.”

  “Then it would be stupid for me to deny it.” Victor smiled. “We, sorry, I,” he corrected himself quickly, “installed the recording device to be sure that Dina was the person that I was looking for. After your visit to Derchany three years ago, I had a good lead. You met most of the criteria, but I needed final proof that you were Roman’s sister. I could not take the chance of delivering Roman’s diary and the diamond into the wrong hands.”

  “So, after you were sure that Dina was the right person, you approached her. Why then did you pretend that you were her brother?” continued Igor.

  “I was pretty sure, but still not a hundred percent. Dina does not like talking to herself about her brother when she is in her apartment.” Victor smiled. “I needed solid confirmation, better proof than the recordings. I went to the extreme of putting a tattoo on my finger. The first initial of Roman's name. I was really surprised by Dina’s imagination and her cleverness when she asked me to hold the picture of her braces, exposing the inside of my fingers. In a hundred years I would not have thought about this clever method you used to discover that the letter R was written wrongly. But she did.”

  “Interesting,” said Igor.

  “After I had seen that Dina was searching for the letter R, which was a secret kept between her and her brother Roman, I was sure that I was dealing with the real Dina. I couldn’t have done it without pretending to be Roman. This was the final test and the next day I was happy to deliver the diamond to the right person. And I’m sorry again if this created emotional turbulence or pain. By the way, can I see your tattoo, please?” asked Victor with a big smile.

  Dina stretched out her right hand on the table and opened her fingers, exposing a small tattoo of a mirrored letter D.

  “Now we’re equal,” said Victor stokingly, and added, “I also h
ad another important reason for these thorough examinations. It was to protect Dina and myself.”

  “To protect you from whom, from what?” asked Dina bewildered.

  “You and I, we both know about the exact origin of the diamond that Roman had left for you. Giving it to you may have had serious consequences.”

  “Do you know where it came from?” said an astounded Dina. “How?”

  “For now it is better for all of us if I don’t answer that question, but I promise you that you will get your answer in the near future.”

  “It is impossible that you knew that from listening to any conversations in my condo.” Puzzled, Dina looked at Igor.

  “You are right. I had this information not from the recordings, but rather from a different source,” agreed Victor.

  All three of them became quiet for a few moments.

  “I know that you are confused.” Victor broke the silence. “I apologize if I caused any distress. As I said, I can’t get into the details now, but we will discuss it soon, and all will be explained. Please trust me,” said Victor.

  “Are you working for the Swiss Treasury Department or for Interpol?” asked Dina.

  “Don’t be silly. Please let us leave this topic in peace for now.” Victor’s face was calm and solemn.

  “Then, maybe you can explain to us how you got out of Corridor One?” asked Igor.

  “This is another topic that I would like to discuss later.” Victor deferred his answer yet again. “We should leave now if we want to complete our visit before dark. My car is outside. It is the blue Mitsubishi minivan parked behind the building. I will meet you there. I will be out there in a few moments.” Victor stood up and marched towards the bar cashier, leaving Dina and Igor behind totally confused.

  “He invited us for a coffee, how nice.” Igor smiled.

  “We should follow his directions for now,” said Dina. “But you and I need to have a serious talk later on.”

  “I could not agree more.”

  Igor and Dina left the bar. On her way out, Dina looked back. Victor was standing near the bar talking to a man.

  It was easy to find the blue minivan. The big parking lot behind the hotel had only a handful of cars. Igor and Dina did not have to wait for a long time. As promised, Victor was out in less than a minute. He opened the car doors with his key and let them into the car.

  “We will visit the school first, and then we will go to the entrance of the Catacombs Park. The man I was talking to in the bar is the son of an old fellow who used to work in the park. He helped me get the diesel for the generators. But he is waiting for our call, and only then will he deliver the diesel to us. He is afraid that it might be stolen if we fill up the generator tanks ahead of time. I agree with him.”

  The car started and rolled out of the parking lot.

  “I work for this school. The students’ big break should be already over. You will see; it is a very nice school. I teach grades six and eight. They are good children and I enjoy it.” Victor’s face lit up with a big smile. The twenty-minute ride ended in front of a two-storey building. Big green gates held a yellow sign: School #51. At the entrance to the school, an old caretaker sitting on a chair greeted them hospitably.

  “Hi, Dmitry, how are you doing?” replied Victor.

  “The same, the same, Victor. My back is killing me. You are not teaching today, are you?”

  “No, I’m not. I’m here to show the school to my old friends. We will be on the main floor. Don’t worry, we will be quiet, I promise.”

  “I know your definition of quiet. If those little criminals see you, they will take you apart. Try to finish your business before the next break in twenty minutes.” Dmitry looked at his watch.

  “I will try. Let’s go.” And Victor led them into the school.

  “He calls all the students ‘criminals.’ Sometimes they can be nasty.” Dina could not help but notice Victor’s big smile lighting up his face every time he talked about the school or about the students. He was a strange man, a very strange man.

  “This is the principal’s office.” Victor pointed to the door across the corridor, opposite the main entrance. “This is the marking of the old educational system. When you enter the school the first thing you see is the principal’s office, the scariest place in the entire school. Please follow me. We will go right to the end of the corridor.”

  Victor and his party walked quietly to the end of the empty corridor.

  “There is the room.” Victor opened the door on the left. The room had a small window. The walls were painted a light green color. In the middle of the room there were a dozen or so boxes of carton piled up one on top of another. “We were sitting there, in the corner. It was the best, the prime location in the entire room. Do you see how high the window is? Starting early in the morning the light from the sun blinded everybody who was in the center or the sides of the room. There, in the opposite corner there was a big pile of dry wood used for the furnace downstairs. I have no idea why they kept the wood here. Another benefit of this corner was the iron heater. You can see what is left of it.” Victor pointed to a couple of iron water pipes still sticking out from the wall. “I knew about this room before, I’ve been here several times. When Roman was transferred here, we shared this luxury suite together. The school tried to convert it into a classroom several times, but every time, following complaints from the teachers and students about the lights, it was converted back to a storage room. You should have seen it at the end of a school year. The room had no space for a needle. Boxes, boxes and more boxes.”

  Dina stood quietly, looking at the corner. She closed her eyes for a second, envisioning her older brother sitting there with his back to the heater. She opened her eyes but the vision refused to disappear. She saw the room’s empty corner but a picture of Roman was now chiseled deeply into her consciousness.

  “From this room we were taken directly to two places. Either to the washroom. It is here on the left.” Victor walked back to the corridor and stopped near a small door with the washroom sign. “Or to the interview room at the other end of the corridor. Guards were everywhere. Usually a pair stood beside the doors of the room that we just left. Another one was near the washrooms, three or four near what is now the principal’s room and another pair beside the interview room. The interview room was nothing special. One desk, two chairs, a room without windows. I remember it had no ventilation and after a two-hour interview the air in the room would became stuffy, tough for breathing.”

  Dina and Igor followed Victor.

  “These days the room is used by school janitors or by the students playing hide-and-seek.” Victor tried to open the door but with no success. “I think there will be no more games in this room. It looks like the work of the principal. For a long time she wanted to lock this room. Should I try to get the keys or would you believe me that there is not much to see there?”

  “No need, I think that we have seen enough. We can leave now,” said Dina.

  “Good. I will only take a look there on the board.” Victor pointed his finger to a wall near the principal’s office. “I would like to make sure that they changed my schedule. I asked for the week off.”

  On their way out, Dina and Igor said goodbye to Dmitry, who was sitting in the same place, and continued reading the local newspaper. The day was warm. A light breeze brought the smell of burning wood. A couple of chimneys from the nearby wooden houses were smoking.

  “Somebody is cooking dinner,” smiled Dina, walking to the minivan.

  The school door opened and Victor ran out. A few seconds later they heard the school bell loudly announcing the end of class. Victor joined Dina and Igor. “We are lucky. We are out exactly on time,” he said, out of breath. “Let’s go before the criminals come out.”

  The trip from the school to the entrance of the Catacombs Park took a good half hour. All this time, inside the minivan, not much conversation occurred. Victor stopped the car beside the gray
-and-yellow fenced building.

  “For a year and a half this building was the center of the city. It was built on the premise that in the future, the building would be able to serve thousands of people visiting the catacombs park.

  The building was airy and spacious with a large hall filled with sculptures, restaurants and coffee shops. You can’t see the entrance, because of the fence, but it had an impressive design. Many flower beds and a lot of marble.

  “We can’t get into the building now, but if you are interested in seeing its past glory, I have a slide show that I use in my history classes.”

  “Why are we here?” asked Dina after Victor finished his explanation.

  “I'm going to show you the place from which you will have access to the catacombs. You have two ways to get down there. The first is from this point; the second one is from the emergency exit. I don't recommend using the emergency exit as it was rarely used, only during fire drills.”

  “Hold on one second please. How did you know that we were planning to go there?” asked Dina, looking at Igor.

  “Don’t look at me,” Igor replied, raising his two hands in a surrendering gesture. “I did not tell him. He knew about it even before I met him.”

  “It’s all right. I knew what your plans were the day you submitted the request for the catacombs access permit. We live in a small city and we don’t have many catacomb visitors lately. I teach history and part of my curriculum is the history of the Derchany Catacombs. The administration of the Derchany municipality asked me whether I was familiar with the university that had been asking for the research permits. I'd never heard of this university, but the name of the company, MirexGlobe, that accompanied this university’s research rang a bell. “Victor smiled. “And as you can imagine, I gave a great reference and asked the municipal administration to expedite the permit process for you. In a week from now a heavy rain period will begin. It will be dangerous to go down there. The place may be flooded with water.”

  “Why are you helping us?” asked Dina.

  Victor smiled. “You are the sister of my best friend. You are far away from your home. You are in a foreign country, planning to commit a crime. Quite a big crime, as defined by the local laws and standards. But I grew to like you and the people surrounding you. Every time I remember the colorful girl at your reception desk where I was waiting for you, it brings a smile to my face. And there are many other reasons.”

  Victor got out of the car, opened the trunk and came back with three pairs of black rubber boots.

  “I hope I guessed your sizes correctly. Please wear these, because we will need to go through one small but very nasty swamp.” He went to the back of the van again. Dina and Igor came out of the car and put on the rubber boots that Victor gave them. He showed up again holding two hunting rifles in his hands. Dina looked surprised at Igor.

  “Don’t worry, we are not going bear hunting.” Victor smiled. “This area is famous for smalltime crimes. Local hooligans like to hang out here. Luckily, the swamp protects the access to the generator from them. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a generator here now. Both of these Winchesters are loaded with a round of six salt bullets. I will take one with me, another is for you.” And he held one rifle out to Igor.

  “I assume you know how to use it. If somebody comes closer than twenty meters to the van, fire the first shot into the air. If this does not help, then aim the second shot at the lower part of their body. Some very drunk teenagers are not afraid of the shots into the air. Dina and I will go first. You will stay here, make sure that the van is running and the lights are on. We will return in twenty minutes.” Victor put his boots on. He looked a bit funny in these boots with nice pants, a jacket and a rifle.

  “I almost forgot. We will need to cross the swamp. I will mark the path with these two sticks; one on each side of the swamp. When we are crossing it, please walk directly from one stick to the other. A half meter to the left or right, and you will have to buy me a brand new suit. I’m a good swimmer, but not in a swamp.” He took two long wooden sticks, painted in red, from the back seat.

  “Are you ready?” He looked at Dina and Igor. “Then let’s go. Igor, don’t turn the engine off, let it run.” Victor walked fast from the van towards the fence, stopping for a second to wait until Dina caught up with him. Then they walked parallel to the fence until the corner of the building, turned right, and disappeared from Igor’s view.

  Igor looked at the sun. He estimated that it would be another two hours before it disappeared behind the forest’s trees. The van’s engine was running. To be sure he did not lock the ignition keys in the vehicle, he checked that the doors of the van were unlocked. Following his detective habit, Igor exited the van and circled twice around it, leaned against the back door of the car and stood there admiring the old rifle. Then he tried to open the back door to discover that it was locked. He knew he should stop his investigation but the urge to check what he might find in the back was stronger. He went to the driver’s seat, turned off the engine, took the keys and went back to the back door, opening it.

  Dina and Victor returned about half an hour later, going straight through the field towards the car. Dina looked tired, dragging her feet in the black boots covered with a thick layer of brown and yellow mud.

  “Do we still have a car to go back home?” joked Victor, approaching Igor.

  “Yes, we do. I was tempted to shoot a couple of rabbits that were running around, but then I remembered that you told me that you know a good restaurant for dinner. How was your walk?”

  “It was good, right, Dina?”

  “Yes, it was great, no thanks to these heavy boots. Otherwise, it was fine. I now know where the catacombs entrance and the generator are.”

  “Great, so now I’m staying here guarding the van and you go ahead. Please take Igor for a walk and show him the entrance,” said Victor.

  “Me? You want me to show the entrance to Igor?” asked Dina in surprise.

  “Yes, of course. I’m not going to risk my beautiful suit again. I left the wooden sticks there so you can pass through the swamp. Don’t forget to take them out on your way back; otherwise, by tomorrow morning we won’t have the generator.”

  Dina looked at Igor. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes, I am. You don’t want to take a break for a minute?”

  “No, I don’t.” Dina began marching to the corner of the building, the same way they had come back, crossing the field.

  “How was your walk with Victor?” Igor asked her after they turned the corner.

  “We did not talk much. He walked fast. I think that he purposely made me walk behind him. He does not volunteer any answers, but it is obvious that he knows a lot about us. What is your take on him?”

  “He is helping us a lot, but, I’m sure that he is not doing it for any altruistic reasons, whatever his reasons it would be good for us to uncover them sooner rather than later. When you left, I opened the back door of the van. He is not just a history teacher but he also seems to be a hunter or a trained army man. He has a small arsenal of weapons. He is very well organized and prepared for surprises. He keeps two of everything, even the batteries for flashlights. With the weapons that I saw in the car, he could easily survive an entire winter alone in the wilderness. Do you want me to continue my analysis?”

  “Yes, please do,” replied an unusually agreeable Dina. “Do it faster because we are approaching the swamp soon.”

  “So, my conclusions would be that he seems to be a decent man, even if he conceals a few things from us. He is very disciplined and organized. He knows his ways and fits well into both environments; here in this village and in our city. Interestingly, he likes his work as a teacher, and it seems that the students also like him.”

  “Do you see the pine tree there?” Dina pointed her finger to the tree located around a hundred meters ahead of them. “We will cross the swamp there.”

  “The bottom line is that I do trust him and he trusts us
also, otherwise, he would not give me the rifle plus all of the other help that we got from him so far.”

  “He knows about the diamonds, he told me that.”

  “I thought so.”

  “And he also indicated that he is not interested in them. Can you believe it? Can we trust him?” asked Dina.

  “Why not, he was your brother’s best friend and he gave the diamond back to you voluntarily.”

  “Yes, you are right. Do you see the red stick there?”

  “Where? I see one close to us. Oh, yes, now I see it.” Igor was looking to his right. The second wooden stick was visibly sticking out from the green bushes at a forty-five degree angle across from the first one.

  The swamp's surface had a dark greenish color with some brown patches. The distance from the pine tree, where Dina and Igor stood, to the opposite side of the swamp was no more than ten meters. The swamp smelled of decaying vegetation and decomposed grass. The sounds of bugs, mosquitoes and birds blended with the sound of the air bubbles popping on the surface of the swamp and reminded Dina of her childhood days in the village.

  “We should move in a straight line. You follow me. Victor mentioned that underneath us there is the underground passage that runs from the building to the catacombs. Too bad that the building is inaccessible. I would’ve been much happier if we could use the passage rather than going through the swamp. The passage looks like a big pipe and in the days when it was built, it was regarded as an engineering and architectural wonder. We are going to walk on a narrow path covered with slimy mud, which is actually the roof of the underground tunnel. You will feel how it moves under your feet,” warned Dina.

  “Hope this wonder will hold our weight. I feel as if I’m walking in pudding.” Half of Igor’s boots sank into the thick greenish mud.

  “Keep walking in a straight line, and follow in my steps. We are close to the end.”

  Igor stopped for a moment to allow Dina, who was walking in front of him, to increase the distance between them. He felt as if the ground beneath him was unstable and moving from side to side. He had to move continuously if he didn’t want to lose his balance. Dina was already seven or eight steps ahead of him. Igor removed the rifle from his shoulder and spread his hands, holding the Winchester in his right hand, using it to keep his body’s balance, like a tightrope walker in the circus. Dina was close to the end of the path; she crouched and jumped, landing near the red stick, and then she turned her head. The ground under Igor’s boots stopped trembling. Dina smiled.

  “You should see yourself, your hunting hat, your hunting gun and your boots, in the middle of the swamp. I should take your picture and send it to National Geographic.”

  “Very funny, very funny. Normally, I’m not scared of heights but I felt like I was walking on the back of a running dinosaur. It was quite scary. On the way back you will go first all the way until the end and then I will follow.” Igor stretched out his left arm forward and hung on to Dina’s.

  “You made it. Now it is a short walk downhill and we are there.” Dina squeezed herself through the branches of a large bush that was growing at the end of swamp and signaled to Igor to follow her. The short walk through the bushes required a lot of pushing and shoving. The green bushes were standing tightly, like a protective wall. At the end, Dina and Igor found themselves on the top of a small green hill.

  “There, do you see? It is a small cement platform. We are almost there.” Walking down was not so difficult. The hill was not too steep.

  At the bottom of the hill on a gray cement platform surrounded by four metal barrels, stood a small black generator covered in grease. A few hydro cables ran from it, penetrating the hill like sharp knitting needles. A metal-framed door with two big hanging locks was a few meters away from the platform.

  “This is our entrance into the catacombs,” said Dina. “Victor told me that you already have the keys to the locks.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Igor walked around the generator, inspecting it.

  “The gas tank is empty. I hope the battery is charged, but otherwise, it looks good and in working condition.”

  “Victor said it is tested twice a year by the fire department and the last test was less than a month ago.”

  “That is good news. Should we go back? It will be dark before we reach the car.”

  Dina nodded in agreement and they started to climb the hill.

  The way back was much easier. Igor collected the red sticks. When they reached the van, Victor was sitting outside on a small foldable chair and cleaning his flashlight.

  “Good timing, I just finished cleaning all of my camping gear and was about to begin worrying about you. I think it is a good time for dinner, what do you think? I know a good place in town where they make great meatballs and pasta.”

  “I’m hungry.” Dina looked at Igor “What about you?”

  “Like a lion, but please give me a chance to take off these boots first. I can’t feel my legs.”

  “Go ahead. If you want to get rid of the mud, there is a canister with drinking water in the back seat. Give me a second to put all of my stuff back and we will be ready to go.” Victor unlocked the back door and placed the chair, the red sticks and the flashlight into the car. Then they washed their dirty boots, finishing all of the drinking water, and were ready to go.

  “Sir, you are driving.” Victor held out the car keys to Igor.

  “Why me?” asked Igor, surprised.

  “It is a good idea to be familiar with the local area. You never know when this knowledge will come in handy.”

  “Okay, as you wish, but I’m warning you that I’m a lousy driver. All my life I only drove police cruisers,” Igor joked, taking the driver seat.

  “It is okay. Our country roads are a perfect fit for your kind of driving.”

  Victor directed Igor out of the building’s parking lot. The street lights started to light up. Victor gave detailed explanations before every turn, road bump or stop. He recited the names of neighborhoods, streets and buildings, accompanied by short anecdotes from current city life and history. After about twenty minutes they arrived in front of the Red Stars Hotel.

  “What are we doing here? Aren’t we going for dinner?” Dina looked surprised.

  “Yes, we are. I showed Igor the way from the Catacombs Park to your hotel. In case he needs to drive here alone one day.”

  “You think I’ll remember it?” Igor smiled.

  “I’m sure you will. Do you want me to drive to the restaurant now?”

  “No, I’m good,” said Igor, putting the gear into drive. “Tell me where to go.“

  The car moved slowly in the direction Victor pointed. A short ride later, they were sitting in a small, cozy restaurant. The log walls of this establishment were covered with fishing and hunting memorabilia. The menu had various dishes of fresh fish and wild game. Victor translated the items on the menu and made suggestions so Dina and Igor had no difficulties choosing. They decided to try the local beer and soon after the appetizer, when their feeling of hunger subsided considerably, Dina and Igor found themselves enjoying Victor’s funny stories about his school, which he told enthusiastically.

  Time passed quickly. The main dishes were delicious. The third round of beer was on its way. Dina let the men drink most of it. She still remembered her last drinking experience, and did not want to repeat it. She felt that she had no space left for dessert but the display of the blueberry pie looked so tempting that she convinced Victor to share it with her. Igor was consumed by eating the apple strudel and swore that he was not going to share it with anybody.

  Victor insisted on paying for dinner, but this time Dina was back to her usual self. Her command of ‘sit down and be quiet, please’ left him paralyzed for a couple of seconds, and it was enough for her to leave the table and head to the cashier.

  On the way back to the hotel, Victor drove. Around seven thirty they reached their destination.

  “I would lik
e to walk you through the catacomb blueprints,” suggested Victor before they left the car.

  “Are you free tomorrow?” asked Dina. “No classes to teach?”

  “No, my next class is in ten days. I can be here tomorrow at ten or any other time that is convenient for you.” It was obvious that Victor wanted to meet them tomorrow, but suddenly the woman in Dina wanted to play a game with him.

  “Do we need help reading the blueprint?” she asked Igor.

  “I did not see its details, but how difficult could it be to read a blueprint?” Igor understood Dina immediately and joined the game.

  “Thank you, we will call you if we need your help,” continued Dina.

  “Yes, I have your phone number, if we need you.”

  “Tomorrow morning, I need to pick up the canisters with diesel for the generator. I will need Igor’s help to turn it on and to make sure that it’s working properly. I’m planning to be in your area around ten. I suggest that I pick you up and we go to my place. I am volunteering to serve you breakfast. The walls in your hotel may have ears. It is better to discuss your plans at my place. I also would like to discuss a few other things before you go down into the catacombs. Igor, please bring the blueprint that I gave you. We will need to discuss some areas that are marked there in more detail. I think we need no more than two or three hours. What do you say?”

  Dina looked at Igor.

  “If we need to add new details onto the blueprint, I think we should accept the breakfast invitation,” said Igor.

  “Great! If you think so, then we will be waiting for you here at ten.” Dina was upset at herself for her trickery, which was uncharacteristic of her, and felt a bit guilty for the sense of satisfaction and happiness with the final results of her game.

  “Perfect. How do you like your eggs?” Victor smiled. “I will make sure that they are ready by the time we arrive.”

  “Anyway you like it,” replied Igor.

  “Mine should be sunny side up. Make them with a crunchy rim and put them on brown toast,” joked Dina.

  “Yes, Ma’am. Your order has been taken.” Victor bowed to Dina with a broad smile.

  They said goodbye to each other, and Victor turned on the engine, ready to drive off.

  “He is a strange man,” said Dina as they walked into the lobby of their hotel.

  “I like him more and more. I'll meet you at nine. Let’s go for a morning walk. I would not like to have any more discussions inside these walls,” said Igor, walking behind Dina.

  “Agreed. I would like to admit that it was a good dinner, and I’m enjoying his company. See you at nine. Good night, Igor.”

  “Good night, Dina.”

  They parted, each to their room. Before Dina fell asleep, she lay in her bed recalling the events of the day. She purposely tried to find any flaws in Victor's character or his behavior. None were obvious. She drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.