The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark (28 page)

“And?”

“I didn’t recognize her. I thought it would be like the cinema, you know? I thought I’d see some part of her mother or me but I just wasn’t sure. The driver kept her so wrapped up in that hood I wasn’t even sure she was a girl. And I couldn’t try again or he’d become suspicious. My best move was to keep following you. Be patient. You know about patience, don’t you?”

“I know about patience. But how is the situation better now? We don’t even know where she is anymore.”

“I’m not worried about that. I’ll find her. And I will be better off because we won’t be in a public place. And their guard will be down. They won’t be expecting me. They won’t be expecting us.”

“Us?”

“Two men stand a much better chance than one.”

“Why should I trust you?” Adam said. “How do I know you’re really Eva’s father? How do I know you didn’t make all this up to earn my trust so you can get the other treasure? The one everyone else wants. How do I know you’re not lying?”

“That’s the beauty of the situation. It doesn’t matter if I’m lying or telling the truth.”

“Why not?”

“If I’m lying, and I’m not Eva’s father, and all I want is this other treasure, our interests are still aligned. It will do me no good if you are harmed, and it will do me no good if she is harmed. We can still help each other.”

“Meaning, I can trust you no matter what, up until that moment in time when I won’t be able to trust you at all.”

Luo grinned. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“My father had a name for this type of scenario.”

“What did he call it?”

“A fool’s bargain.”

“Your father was a wise man. We are all fools for falling in love. I fell in love once. That love produced a child. And then you fell in love. With that child. Most men are fools until they die, and those who aren’t are already dead.”

“I would prefer to stay alive. The thing is, even in a fool’s bargain, there has to be some token of trust to get the relationship started. If I give you my trust, what will you give me?”

Luo shrugged. “What do you want?”

“What else do you have in that bag besides Leninade?”

“A toothbrush, some soap, a towel, some bottled water, some reindeer jerky, and these.” He pulled out three boomerangs. “Ever use one?”

Bobby shook his head.

“Then they’ll be of no use to you.”

Luo put the boomerangs back in the bag and placed it on the floor. He lifted his left pant leg. A ten-inch knife pressed against his calf. He unstrapped the holster and offered it to Bobby.

“It’s a G10 handle—the stuff they use for structural supports—and a high-carbon Damascus blade,” Luo said. “It never let me down in the tundra or the battlefield. Check it out.”

Adam took the holster. He slipped the knife from its sheath. The midnight blue handle seemed to mold to his hand.

“You like it?” Luo said.

“I don’t like guns or knives. But I like this one.”

“I thought you might. Keep it.”

“Really?”

“As a token of good faith.”

“Thanks.”

“Make sure you don’t strap it too tight.”

“I thought I’d just keep it in my bag.”

“Not a good idea.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons. You may need to drop your bag to defend yourself. And if you get caught, your bag will get searched before your legs.”

“What do you have strapped to your other leg?” Bobby said.

Luo looked up but didn’t answer. For the first time, Adam had asked him a question he hadn’t expected.

“Let’s hope you don’t have to find out.”

Adam attached the holster with the knife flush on his calf.

“No,” Luo said. “Put the knife to the outside of the leg. Secure both Velcro straps tight but not too tight. Make sure it’s comfortable.”

Bobby stood up and walked around. “What do you do for a living?”

Luo grinned. “I thought you didn’t want to talk. I thought you wanted to get some rest.”

“I do. But sometimes a question nags at me and keeps me awake.”

“I get that, too. I’m a retired soldier living on a pension. Sometimes people hire me to find people for them. In this case, I hired myself.”

“Do you have a mobile phone?”

Luo reached into his knapsack and pulled out a cell phone. “Coverage could be spotty as soon as we get away from Vladivostok. If you need to make a call, I’d make it now.”

Adam sat down. Luo handed him the phone.

“So tell me,” Luo said. “And be honest. If you had to guess now, do you believe I am who I say I am?”

Adam shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Our interests are aligned.” He paused before adding a final thought. “For now.”

Luo smiled, closed his eyes, and reclined his head against the wall. “Smart boy.”

CHAPTER 40

N
ADIA RECEIVED A
call from Bobby midair between Kyiv and Vladivostok.

It lasted only ten seconds. The pilot told them that altitude was not the problem. Cell phones were built to transmit a signal up to ten miles, and an altitude of 30,000 feet was the equivalent of six and a half miles. The problem was that the plane was moving quickly. On land, a call might be facilitated by a network of three towers pointing in different directions. In a plane, the caller might lose access to two of those cell towers before the call was completed.

Nadia tried calling the number from which Bobby’s call had originated but she couldn’t get through. Nor did the phone ever ring again.

“Cargo . . . Irkutsk . . . father.”

Those were the defining words Nadia had heard.

“You’re the forensic analyst,” Simmy had said. “What do you think?”

“The key words are cargo and Irkutsk. There are two possibilities. Cargo is leaving Vladivostok for Irkutsk. Or cargo is arriving from Irkutsk to Vladivostok.”

“That one seems rather obvious.”

“Given Genesis II is the cargo,” Nadia said, “and the cargo was moved via ferry from Japan to Vladivostok, it makes less sense that it’s coming from Irkutsk. More likely it is going to Irkutsk. That means Genesis II is being taken to Irkutsk.”

“Agreed. But would a boy who is in love with a girl—and we can assume that Bobby is acting as though Genesis II is Eva—would he refer to that girl as cargo? English is not my first language, but in Russian, no man would ever speak about a woman this way. No matter what his age.”

“No, he wouldn’t. I still think cargo is heading to Irkutsk, but Bobby’s use of the word wasn’t in reference to Genesis II.”

“Then what was he referring to?” Simmy said.

“Maybe it was part of a phrase. What word might Bobby have spoken after cargo? Ship? Truck? Plane? Aren’t they the most obvious?”

“Especially in a port city. Especially in Vladivostok. A ship is unlikely. Irkutsk is accessible by the Angara River but that would be slow. So would a truck. My guess is they’re moving Eva to Irkutsk via a cargo plane.”

“That’s possible,” Nadia said.

“The question is where is Bobby?”

“We don’t know. The only conclusion we can be comfortable with is that wherever he is, he’s headed to Irkutsk.”

“What about the last word you heard?”

“Father?”

Simmy nodded.

“That makes no sense. Can’t be Bobby’s father. He passed away last year. Can’t be Eva’s father. He told me she’s an orphan. The only thing that makes sense to me is that I misheard him and that he said ‘farther.’ As in, ‘If you’re in Vladivostok, you need to go farther west to Irkutsk.’ Or, ‘Don’t land in Vladivostok, keep going farther.’”

“Either way, we need to reroute for Irkutsk.”

“It’s logical but not a sure thing.”

“It’s not realistic to expect a sure thing, “Simmy said. “But the odds are a touch better than you suggest.”

“You sound like you know something I don’t.”

Simmy pressed a few keys on his tablet computer. “I had my people do some research into the three living members of the Zaroff Seven. The richest and most powerful one, Constantin Golov, has a mansion on Baikal sixty kilometers from Irkutsk.”

“Lake Baikal?”

“There is only one Baikal. His mansion is outside a town called Listvyanka. Very popular with men of means in Russia. Some rich Azeri oilmen have built their castles there, too. The higher echelon of the Russian business world is a relatively small place. Employees change companies. People talk. My men learned from a good source that Golov is there now. And the other two Zaroff Seven members are on a vacation at an unspecified location at this very moment.”

“Irkutsk,” Nadia said.

Simmy nodded. “Irkutsk.”

Simmy pressed a button for the copilot to come out. When he did so, Simmy told him to reroute for Irkutsk. The copilot spoke Russian with an unfamiliar regional accent. Nadia had to consider his words twice to understand him. The linguistic distraction reminded her of Bobby’s choice of language on the phone.

“Oh my God,” she said.

Simmy dismissed the copilot. “What?” he said.

“He’s not alone.”

“Who’s not alone?”

“Bobby.”

“Why do you say that?”

“He spoke English to me. We don’t speak English to each other. We speak only in Ukrainian, unless there are English-speaking people present and we don’t want to be rude.”

Simmy frowned. “So what are you saying? There’s an American with him and he didn’t want to offend him?”

“No. On the contrary. He’s travelling with a Russian and he didn’t want him to understand everything he said to me.”

Simmy considered the situation. “The operative word was
Irkutsk
. That transcends language. Everyone would understand that.”

“True,” Nadia said. “If
Irkutsk
was the operative word.”

“What else could it have been?”

“Some other word. Something else he said that I didn’t hear.”

CHAPTER 41

B
OBBY SAT IN
the passenger seat of the
buhanka
, a cross between a minivan and a military jeep. Luo guided it along the two-lane highway from Irkutsk to Listvyanka. A series of steep descents followed protracted climbs of similar height. At each peak, the Lake flashed silver and blue on the left, only to vanish as Bobby’s line of sight fell below tree line.

The buhanka reminded him of his escape from Russia a year ago. One of his father’s friends had used one to transport him over a long stretch of treacherous terrain. Bobby recalled his trek along the Road of Bones in the Kolyma region of Siberia, where snowcapped mountains and a desolate forest stretched for hundreds of miles. Bobby took comfort knowing the buhanka was indestructible, but it still would take them only so far. The castle where Eva had been taken by her captors was probably heavily guarded. They would have to park their car rental in the forest and cover the final half mile on foot.

They’d arrived at the Irkutsk Airport at 5:10 p.m. Luo had insisted Bobby wait outside the domestic terminal while he made inquiries inside. A Siberian man could approach a fellow countryman working as ground crew more comfortably than if he were a party of two. Bobby’s presence would attract additional attention. Alone, Luo would not have to make explanations. Bribes were a way of life. He would simply offer money for information, he said.

A cloud of steam formed in front of Bobby’s nostrils. The frigid air cleared his sinuses but left him trembling within a minute. Temperatures remained well below freezing into May, especially at night. He needed something heavier than his windbreaker.

Bobby tried calling Nadia with Luo’s phone while he waited but she did not pick up. He did, however, leave her a voice mail. He feared she hadn’t heard any part of their previous call because it had ended abruptly. As a result, Bobby left Nadia a detailed account of what had transpired since he’d arrived at the ferry building in Vladivostok. Bobby used up the entire time allotted to a single message, and had to call back to complete his story. When he was done, he surprised himself when he admitted something else to Nadia in the second voice mail. The words rolled off his lips in a stream of consciousness.

“In my brain, I know I’m not supposed to believe that Luo is Eva’s father. But in my heart, for some reason, I have an urge to trust him. But don’t worry Auntie, I’m just telling you how I feel. In the end, you’re the only one I trust.”