Snow Wolf (75 page)

The voice rang around the courtyard
walls.

In the freezing silence that followed the
moments seemed like hours. Then Massey heard another voice, distant, too
distant to hear clearly.

Then the voice beside him called out,
"Don't shoot! I've got Massey with me. He's badly wounded."

Stanski appeared out of nowhere holding a
gun.

Massey tried to move, but all his senses
seemed to go out of focus, a strange fog started to envelop him, and he slumped
forward in his seat.

The buildings set around the convent
courtyard had long been allowed to go to ruin, and the vestry at the back of
the old church was no different. It had no electricity and stank of urine and
excrement, and the plaster walls were peeling.

Anna held a flashlight while Irena
supported Lebel and Stanski Carried Massey inside. The Frenchman had difficulty
walking, but when she shone the light on Massey she put a hand over her mouth
in horror. Blood streamed through his clothes from his wounds and his face was
deathly white.

Once they were inside the room, Stanski
put Massey down and said to Irena, "Take off his coat, quick as you
can." Irena went to do as he said but when she had opened a couple of
buttons and saw the wounds she said, "You're wasting your time. He's not
going to make it. He's lost too much blood."

She turned on Lebel, anger blazing in her
eyes now she had got over the shock of seeing him again. "What a mess
you've got me into."

:"I could say the same for
myself."

"Lebel, I could cheerfully kill you,
you bastard."

"Not my doing, my love. Sometimes
things have a way of going wrong. Just be grateful we're both still
alive."

Something seemed to snap in lrena then,
and she raised a hand to slap Lebel's face, but he deflected it in midair and
said, "Don't, try, can't you see I'm in enough pain?"

Stanski was feeling Massey's pulse and he
shouted over at them, "You too can slug it out later. Irena, go outside
and see if you can find some water. We need to clean these wounds."

Irena went to protest but when she saw
the look on Stanski's face she hurriedly left the room.

Lebel said to Stanski, "I was told
to give you these." He held out the file and the Tokarev.
"Compliments of a Major Lukin. I presume you two know each other?"

Stanski went very still and his face
tightened.

Lebel said, "Lukin drove us here. He
was alone and told me to tell you he means you no harm, He said to assure you
that it's no trick, and that he hasn't been followed." He saw the look of
total confusion on Stanski's face and said, "Take it from me, whoever's
side the major is on, it's not the KGB'S, He just rescued me. And by the way,
that's Lukin's gun you're holding-he's unarmed."

"Do you mind telling me what's going
on?"

"My sentiments exactly. This whole
thing gets more confusing by the minute. One moment I'm in Paris, the next I'm
being tortured in a stinking cell in Moscow, having one of my testicles reshaped.
Then, to cap it all, I'm set free by a one armed renegade KGB major playing the
rescuing angel. Life certainly has its surprises."

"Where's Lukin now?"

"Outside by the river waiting for
you to join him. He says he wants to talk and it's important." Lebel
pointed to the file. "But you're to read that first. Something else he
said to tell you. That Major Yuri Lukin has discovered the reason why he was
chosen to find the Wolf. Whatever that means."

Stanski switched on his flashlight,
confusion on his face, and opened the folder.

Lebel turned to Anna. "You must be
one of my intended passengers? I'm afraid after tonight we'll be lucky to get
out of Moscow, let alone make it to Finland. It looks hopeless."

Before Anna could speak, Massey groaned
and she turned to him. He was losing blood fast. She put a hand on his fevered
brow, leaned closer and whispered, "Don't die on me, Jake."

Suddenly Massey's eyelids flickered and
his voice gurgled. "Anna ..."

"Don't move or talk, Jake. Take it
easy."

"Anna ... forgive me ..

"No talk, Jake. Please."

Massey coughed up blood and it dribbled
down his chin. His eyes closed and his head slumped to one side. There were
tears in Anna's eyes as she turned to Stanski. "For God's sake, can't you
do something?"

But he wasn't listening. As he stood
there holding the file there was an odd look on his face, which was dazed and
suddenly very pale, paler than she had ever seen it before, and he was very
still. He held a photograph in his hand and he stared at it silently. Anna
screamed at Lebel, "Do something!"

Lebel moved closer and felt Massey's
pulse, just as lrena came in carrying a battered zinc bucket stopping with
liquid.

"It's all I could find, some ice
water from an overflow barrel."

Lebel looked up and let Massey's limp
wrist fall.

"I'm afraid we're wasting our time.
He's dead."

Snow started to drift down and the icy
river looked ghostly white in the darkness.

Beyond the silver birch trees on the far
bank, Lukin could see the lights of Moscow. In the distance the red star on top
of the Kremlin winked on and off like a beacon through the mist of lightly
falling snow.

Stanski sat beside him. There was a
timelessness to it all both men were conscious of. The look of shock hadn't
left Stanski and he still held the file in his hand. He had made his way down
to the riverbank, warily at first, until he had seen the trauma on Lukin's face
when their eyes met, a look that told him he had nothing to fear. For a long
time the two men sat there, neither speaking, and then, as if to break the tension
and silence, Lukin said, "Your friend. Will he make it?"

"He's dead."

"I'm sorry."

"It comes to us all. Nothing could
be done."

Lukin looked at Stanski intently.
"You read all of the file?"

"Yes."

"And you believed everything you
read?"

"I had my doubts, but now ... now I
see you up close, yes, I believe it. And from what Lebel tells me you saved his
life and ours. You wouldn't have gone to that trouble if you weren't
serious." '

Lukin looked out at the darkness.
"Who would have imagined it? Now you know why I was picked to track you
down and kill you. A sick joke of Stalin's. Pit brother against brother. Blood
against blood." He sucked in a deep breath and blew a cloud of steam into
the air and shook his head. "I still can't believe it."

Stanski's voice softened. "Tell me
what happened the night I left the orphanage. Tell me what happened
afterwards."

Lukin looked at him. There were tears at
the edges of his eyes and his voice was thick with emotion.

"Do I have to?"

"I need to know, Petya."

"It's been a long time since anyone
called me by that name, it seems strange, from another life. So much of what
happen in my past I've locked away. It seemed such a terrible nightmare. Until
I read the file, I thought I'd managed to bury it all."

"You have to tell me."

Lukin shook his head. "it won't
help. For over twenty years I've tried to forget. And maybe it's better you
don't know."

For some reason, Stanski reached over and
touched Lukin's hand.

And then Lukin was overcome with emotion.
Stanski put his hand gently on his brother's shoulder and said, "Take it
easy, Petya."

They sat there for several moments, not
speaking, then Stanski said, "Being with you and Katya seemed like the
only reality I knew. When I left you both behind that night at the orphanage it
felt like I'd lost everything. I had no idea of what happened to you both. And
afterwards worse than knowing you were dead. It was my heart out there and
there was a hollow where you should have been. I need to know."

Lukin looked away. Towards the city he
saw the lights of traffic moving beyond the mist of snow. The scene seemed so
normal, and yet the turmoil in his own soul was so extraordinary. He felt a
stab of anguish in his chest and turned back. "The night you escaped Katya
and I watched you from the window. It was like losing Mama and Papa all over
again. The same grief, the same pain. Katya was inconsolable. She loved you,
Mischa. You were father and Mother to her.

"It must have been about four in the
morning when you escaped. Katya was broken-hearted, she was shaking with
convulsions. I couldn't stop her. One of the wardens came to the dormitory and
found us. When she discovered you were gone she raised the alarm and put US
both in one of the basement cells. Two men came from the Secret police. They
demanded we tell them where you had gone. They threatened to kill us if we
didn't." His voice shook with anger. "Katya was five years old but
they beat her, tormented her, just as they did me-.

"After three or four days went by
they told us you were never coming back. Your body had been found on a railway
track near the Kiev Station, crushed by a train. Something happened to Katya
after that. It was like a light went out inside her. When I looked in her face
her eyes were empty. She never knew what that pain seemed like someone cut both
of you away. She wouldn't eat or drink. A doctor was sent for, but the doctors
who came to the orphanage couldn't have cared less if you lived or died. There
were so many orphans, one less didn't matter."

He hesitated. "The next day they
sent me to a correction school. From that institution the secret police often
picked their recruits. Katya they sent to an orphanage in Minsk and I never saw
her again." He looked up. "Only it wasn't an orphanage. It was a
special hospital. For special children."

"What do you mean?"

" It was a home for the retarded.
The really bad ones were kept in locked cells, chained to their beds like
animals. Katya had become so withdrawn they locked her in a cell on her own.
But there was nothing really wrong with her except her heart was broken and no
one could reach her." Lukin paused. "When the war came and the
Germans advanced, Stalin ordered that the inmates of all special hospitals were
to be liquidated to conserve food supplies. They took the patients out in
batches to the woods and shot them. Katya was one of them."

After a long silence Stanski said palely,
"So Katya died because of me."

No, not because of you. Don't blame
yourself. You did what you had to."

"If I'd stayed she would have survived."

" No matter what you think, you were
right to escape. To have stayed would have destroyed you too. Just like it
destroyed me. Not physically, but in spirit. Me, I became the one thing our
parents would never have wanted me to become."

Stanski stood. He took a deep breath and
closed his eyes tightly, as if the pain of what he had heard was too much to
bear. After a long time he looked down.

"Tell me what happened to you. Tell
me how you learned the truth. How your people knew about my mission?"

Lukin told him. Stanski just stood there
listening, not speaking.

Finally, Lukin said, "You must know
now it's impossible to kill Stalin."

"Maybe the impossible appeals to me.
Besides, it can still be done.

"How?" Stanski said warily,
"First, I need your word you won't betray me. I need to know I can really
trust you."

"I'd never betray you, Mischa. Not
ever. You have my word. And you trusted me by coming out here. So trust me
now."

Stanski thought for a moment. "One
of the Tsar's old escape tunnels leads from the Boishoi Theater to the third
floor of the Kremlin and comes out near Stalin's quarters. That's my way
in."

Lukin shook his head. "You'd be
wasting your time. Stalin has moved to his dacha at Kuntsevo because of the
threat to his life. And because of this threat it's even more tightly guarded
than the Kremlin. Besides, all the secret Kremlin tunnels are also under extra
guard. You'd be dead before you got near the place."

Stanski half smiled. "When the cards
are stacked against you, reshuffle the deck. There's an alternative plan, A
secret underground train line runs from the Kremlin to the Kuntsevo villa. The
line is only ever used when Stalin needs to travel in haste or in an emergency.
It can be breached near the Kremlin and leads right under the villa."

"I know about the underground train
but you can be sure the line is also heavily guarded, especially now. You'd be
dead before you got anywhere near Stalin's villa. Besides, there are armed
guards everywhere and the woods around it are mined. You'd be committing
suicide."

"I knew that from the start. But
it's a chance I'm going to have to take,"

"And even if You got close enough,
how would you kill him?"

"I'm afraid even you can't know
that, brother. But if I do get close enough, I'll make certain Stalin's
punishment fits his crimes." Lukin thought for a moment, his brow creased
in concentration. "Maybe there's another way into the dacha that stands
some chance. Only there's a price to pay,"