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there is no chance."
It was cold ... cold.
A soldier turned and looked back. His mate lay, a stiffening gray thing upon
the river ice.
Numb and frightened, the soldier followed Alekhin.
Chapter 28
Stephan Baronas stood beside his daughter and waited. Fear choked him, but he
fought it back. The man who got out of the Volga was a large, strong-looking
man, and he strode over to them. For a moment he just stared at them.
"Can we go inside?" he asked them. His tone was mild.
"Please do," Baronas said. "Forgive me. We do not often have visitors."
Inside, the man took off his heavy coat and hat. He looked around him.
"Snug," he said, "and warm." He looked from one to the other. "You are
comfortable here?"
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"Yes." Baronas was surprised at the question. "Thank you. "
When he was seated he stretched his hands to the fire. "I am Nicholai
Bocharev," he said.
"Oh?" In sudden compassion Talya moved toward him. "It was your son ?"
"Yes. My only son."
"We are sorry," Baronas said. "He was a fine young man. He visited us here."
Bocharev glanced up. "I know. He wrote to me. You were very kind. He said he
loved coming here. It was like another home."
He was silent for a moment, and then he added, "We had so little time
together. He was just growing up, you know, coming to think of me as a friend
rather than a dominating parent. We had long talks."
"Will you have tea?" Talya held out a cup, which he accepted. "He brought it
to us."
"Thank you." He sipped the tea. "My son said you opened your home to him. I
am afraid he was very lonely, although he would not admit it."
He looked up. "You gave him the last happiness he had. You welcomed him,
treated him as a son and brother."
"He deserved it. It is our loss, too, that he is gone."
"He loved running wild rivers, and he was very skillful," Bocharev said.
"Only there was a place where the current swept the boat under a rock. He did
not see it in time. He was struck on the head."
"We are sorry. We shall miss him, too."
Bocharev sipped his tea and then looked around. "Is there anything I can do?
I am grateful that my son was happy those last days. You have done this for
him and for me."
"Nothing," Baronas said. "Nothing at all."
Bocharev's manner changed. He smiled. "Come, come, Baronas. I know you. I
have looked at your dossier. You should not have been arrested. It was a
precautionary measure at a time when some were fearful of internal trouble. It
was a foolish fear."
He held out his cup. "May I?"
When it was refilled and he had had a swallow, he asked again. "You have
education, Baronas. There is much you can do here, but "
"I appreciate that, but there might be others less understanding." Stephan
Baronas paused. It was a risk he had to take. "To tell you the truth, sir, I
would like to emigrate. I would like to go to Hong Kong. My daughter and I,"
Bocharev nodded. "I thought as much. Well, there is nothing in your dossier
that indicates that you are an enemy of our people." He paused. "Where would
you prefer to go?"
"To Hong Kong. Even to Manchuria."
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Bocharev stood up. "We shall see." He put down his empty cup. "My son meant
much to me. You see" he paused "he was all I had. I am alone now."
Talya put her hand on his sleeve. "Will you not come back to visit us? As
long as we are here, you are as welcome as your son."
He shook his head. "I shall be very busy. There is much to do. I think
sometimes we have paid too much attention to what is outside our country and
not enough to improving conditions here. Internal strength is of greatest
importance."
He turned to the door. "I shall see what can be done. In the meanwhile, if
you will permit it, I shall send a few things my son would have wanted you to
have. In fact, he spoke to me about it."
They stood in the open door, watching until the Volga was out of sight.
"We must not hope too much," Baronas said, "but this may help us."
Talya did not reply. It might help them. It would not help Joe Mack, who was
out there, somewhere. Out there in the bitter cold, alone in the forest,
perhaps dying.
She said as much, and her father shook his head. "One thing at a time. If we
escape, he will not have to risk his life to return for you. If we get the
chance we must go. If they discover that we knew him, were even close to him,
we would never be permitted to leave. We might be imprisoned."
"They do know," Talya said.
"No doubt, but one saving grace of officialdom is that one hand rarely knows
what the other is doing. We can only hope."
Kyra Lebedev turned her head sidewise to escape the worst of the wind,
gasping for breath. The wind blew her breath right back down her throat. The
doorway was just ahead, and she ran the last few steps, ducking hastily
inside.
Had anyone followed her? She had not taken the time to look. It was
improbable, yet Shepilov was somewhere in town, and he missed very little.
Pulling the door shut behind her, she waited an instant to catch her breath.
The air in the narrow hallway was stale and smelled of unwashed bodies and the
heavy odor of old cooking. She started down the hall, and at the third door
she stopped and knocked. After a moment a woman's voice said, "What do you
want?"
"Katerina? Please! Open the door!"
The door opened a crack, and then with a gasp the girl inside opened it
wider. The girl had on a coat as if to go out. She was a slender girl with
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