“Lead the way.”
Yulia nodded and jumped from the train, throwing herself far enough so she wouldn’t get dismembered from landing on the tracks. She hit the ground in a roll, and Jet did the same, her parkour practice making the disembarkation uneventful. Jet was up and moving in moments, but Yulia was having a harder time, pain etched across her face.
“You okay?” Jet asked as she neared Yulia.
“Give me a minute.”
The train continued past and then the caboose was receding in the distance, leaving them alone beside the gleaming rails, surrounded by scrub. Yulia drew a deep breath and stood with effort, and Jet eyed her with concern. “Can you make it?”
“I just landed wrong. Nothing’s broken. I just need to be careful.”
“Where to from here?”
“We move away from the tracks. That will be a natural focus for checkpoints.”
“Do you know anything about the Russian side of the border?”
“It changes day to day, depending on what’s happening. Lately there’s been an increase in patrols. The Russians are intent on discouraging refugees from entering their country.” Yulia spat and winced. “It’s funny in a sick way. They want to maintain control over Ukraine, but they don’t want to get their hands dirty with the human misery the fighting’s causing.”
“It’s hard to believe there’s a war going on just over the rise.”
“Well, again, it’s not as bad as CNN makes it out to be, not here along the border. Sure, there are bombing runs and fighting down by Donetsk and occasional skirmishes in the contested zone along the frontier, but it’s largely empty space, as you can see.” She mis-stepped and winced again. “There’s regular smuggling throughout this area, so the border’s porous. That’s why the Ukrainian government wants to build a wall along it.”
“A wall? Like East Germany had? Is that practical?”
“Not really. We can’t even begin to afford it, and even a child could figure out ways around it, over it, or under it. But you know politicians. They like easy solutions, and whenever the population feels endangered, walls are a favorite. They’ve already got a section under construction, but it’s a boondoggle. The guy who proposed it is involved in the construction company. You can guess how that will go.”
“So there’s no real barrier?”
“There’s barbed wire and fencing in places, and rumors of minefields being created by the Russians, but like I said, there are plenty of ways through. If we could wait until dark, it would probably be easier.”
“Not if the border guards have night vision gear. Which I’d imagine at least the Russian side would.”
“True. I didn’t think of that.”
Jet froze, listening, as a sound carried over the field. She looked around and indicated a thick area of vegetation fifty meters away. “Let’s hunker down there. Move as fast as you can.”
“Why? What is it?”
“I heard something. Voices.”
“Where?”
“Come on. Move. We can talk about it later.”
Yulia limped behind Jet to where she’d indicated and they crawled into the brush. Yulia peered from her position and appeared to be about to say something when Jet reached over and squeezed her arm in warning.
Six Russian soldiers carrying assault rifles materialized from the tree line at the far end of the field and crossed it, weapons at the ready, obviously alert and prepared to engage. Jet lay still as the soldiers neared; they passed close enough so that she could smell cloying aftershave on the light breeze. She and Yulia remained motionless until they disappeared by the tracks, and only after they were well out of sight did Jet shift closer to the Ukrainian.
“We need to get out of here,” Jet whispered. “Which way from here?”
Yulia angled her head south. “The border should be that way. Close as we are, it shouldn’t take too long.”
“You think if they stop us, we’ll get a break because we’re unarmed women?”
“We can always claim we’re refugees, but they’ll take us in and run our prints, and then we’re off to prison after being charged with the murder of the cops.”
“So that’s not an option.”
“No.”
They rose and picked their way through the bushes until they came to a faint track. Yulia murmured to Jet as her eyes followed it through the brush. “Probably a smuggling trail. There are many.”
Jet allowed her to lead, setting the pace based on how well she was managing with her ankle. They pushed through the vegetation for the better part of an hour without seeing anyone else, and were preparing to make a run across a clearing to where a snarl of barbed wire stretched east to west when Jet called to Yulia with an urgent hiss.
“We need to take cover.”
“We’re almost across. That fence is the border.”
“Don’t you hear that?”
“What?”
Jet glanced off to her right and looked skyward. “Helicopter.”
Chapter 44