The Boy from Reactor 4

CHAPTER 60





FOUR TAXIS WAITED outside the train station at Tynda.

“Who knows the road to Tommot?” Kirilo said.

All of them raised their hands.

“Who’s driven it recently?” Kirilo said.

All of them raised their hands again.

“Who knows my brother Theodore’s hotel, the Tommot Vista Inn?”

Three of the men raised their hands. Kirilo approached the fourth, the youngest of the bunch. He looked as though he didn’t shave yet. He stood beside a beaten-up Volvo station wagon with his arms folded across his chest.

“How long a drive to Tommot?” Kirilo said.

“About six hundred kilometers. But there is no Vista Inn in Tommot. And I don’t know any Theodore.”

“Neither do I. I’d like to hire you.”

“It’s going to be expensive.”

“How much?”

The kid hesitated. “Eight thousand rubles. Plus gasoline. Half up front.”

Kirilo laughed. “Half up front. Good for you. Done. There are six of us.”

The kid looked them over, pausing when he got to Misha. “What’s wrong with him?”

Misha brandished his gun, pointed it at him, and grinned. “This is what’s wrong with me.” Spit flew from his lips and connected with the kid’s shirt.

The kid looked at his shirt with disgust and backed away. “You’d be better off with two cars,” he said to Kirilo. “More space. More comfortable.”

Kirilo could see the kid’s mind working. He was using comfort as an excuse to put Misha in someone else’s car. Smart boy.

“Fine.” Kirilo looked at the other drivers. “You decide who else goes.”

“All right. The road is bad. There are many holes. It’s a brutal drive. You sure you don’t want to wait for the train?”

“We’re sure.”

“In the dark, it’s going to be slow going.”

“The train arrives at Tommot in fifteen hours. We must be there before the train.”

“I’ve done it twice. It took me sixteen to eighteen hours. And that was daylight.”

Kirilo pulled out his wallet. “I will give you three thousand rubles up front. And another nine thousand if you make it before the train.”

The kid’s eyes lit up. “I think I can make it in fifteen, though.”

“I thought you might.”