He shone the flashlight around him and discovered the Daniels family and Miquel, cowering in a corner.
They explained to Jack that they’d decided to hide there when the OGPU burst into the village and began firing indiscriminately. “I’m sorry, Mr. Beilis,” Joe Brown apologized. “I thought you were one of them.”
“But what’s happening?” Jack asked.
“It was Smirnov. He was laughing and yelling threats,” Harry Daniels replied. “This morning we saw him fire on the Petersons when they tried to escape. My God! He shot them down without a second thought, and then finished them off as if they were vermin. This is insane! We ran with only the clothes on our backs and hid in the forest.”
“What’re we going to do, Jack?” sobbed Mrs. Daniels. She was hugging her younger son, almost suffocating him.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to escape. No one’s safe here.”
“But how? To where?”
“I don’t know. Here.” He took five thousand rubles from his jacket and handed them to them. “It’s all I can do for you.”
“Jack, for the love of God! We have nowhere to go.”
He was silent while he looked at his friends’ frightened faces. He realized that their lives were in his hands. He cursed his bad luck. “All right! Do you have food?”
“A bag of kippers, some cookies, potatoes, and turnips,” said Miquel. “It’s all that was left.”
“Good. Then take only what’s essential and follow me.”
Jack loaded the car with the food that Miquel had managed to save, warm clothes, blankets, a can of gasoline, and a couple of knives, leaving the rest of their belongings on the ground. “Come on, get in!”
Without turning on the headlights, Jack drove the Ford A south. The sound of gunfire was soon replaced by the bang of explosions. In the distance, Jack saw one of the assembly plants go up in flames. When he looked back at the road, to his horror he discovered a barricade that had sprouted from nowhere. He swerved and left the road, fortunate not to hit any trees. A volley of bullets whistled around them.
“Get down!”
He didn’t have to repeat himself. He regained control of the vehicle as well as he could and accelerated until they reached the track that he and Natasha used to walk down together. After a few miles, he slowed down. “There’s an abandoned cabin somewhere around here. Get out with your belongings, and wait for me. Don’t use any lights. I have to go back to Gorky for Elizabeth.”
“I’ll go with you,” offered Miquel.
“No. It’s too dangerous. And you’re the only one who speaks Russian and knows the area. If anything happened to you, they’d be done for.”
Miquel nodded, but Joe Brown offered to come in his place.
“You will help if there is any trouble. I am good in a fight, and, believe me, I drive a helluva lot better than you do,” Joe said.
Jack thanked him. “Remember,” he said. “Keep quiet. If we’re not back by noon . . .”
He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.
Jack stopped the vehicle near his house. There was no time to take precautions. He asked Joe to wait in the car with the engine running. “If you see anyone approach, accelerate as hard as you can.”
Joe nodded. He moved into the driver’s seat and wished Jack luck.
Jack ran to the house, praying that Elizabeth had changed her mind. The street seemed deserted. When he reached the door, he inserted his key in the lock. But before he even turned the key, the door swung open.
Jack tensed. Gripping a knife in one hand and the turned-off flashlight in the other, he advanced through the living room in the dark. The only light came from the embers that crackled in the fireplace. He was tempted to call out to Elizabeth, but he stopped himself. Suddenly, he walked into a chair that was lying in the middle of the room, and when he stumbled, he lost the flashlight. He crouched down to search for it blindly, crawling forward. When he found it, he decided to turn it on. He heard a noise behind him and turned to shine the light in its direction. The beam illuminated some rough forms. Jack retreated, still aiming the flashlight at them. It was Walter and Elizabeth. He was holding her from behind and pressing a revolver against the back of her neck.
“Walter?”
“Where are they, Jack?”
“What’re you doing? Let her go!”
“Freeze or she’s dead! The reports. Where are you keeping them?”
Jack cursed himself for leaving Elizabeth alone, and for failing to see Walter for who he really was. He would have enjoyed ripping out his heart.
“Son of a bitch! What are you trying to do? Don’t you think you’ve done enough by making me believe I was a murderer?”
“Ha! So you finally figured it out.” Walter smiled. “And you thought you were so smart. Poor, stupid Jack. So smart you thought you could dazzle Sue with your good looks and your money.”
“I never thought I was better than you.”
“Oh, but you did. Remember when you punched me in the coffeehouse? Ha! I could have laughed for a week when you swallowed the lie about Kowalski. You fell for it like a fool.”
“Why did you do it, Walter? You could have left without me.”
“You’re wrong. When we went to Amtorg, I already knew they’d only accept skilled workers. Saul Bron was just fobbing me off. If you hadn’t intervened when you did, I would have brought up that you were a technician. I needed you, Jack. Without you, I would never have achieved my dream.”
“Have you lost your mind? How could you? How could you do this to us, Walter? What will Sue say?”
“Don’t even say her name!” He aimed the gun directly at Jack’s head.
“What will you tell her, Walter? That someone shot us? Will you make up another lie like the one about Kowalski?”
“I told you to shut your mouth!” Walter bellowed. “Do you think she cares about you? She doesn’t give a damn about you, Jack. Not one bit.”
“That’s not true. She helped me when—”
“When she visited you in jail? Is that what you were going to say? Because if it was, you should know that I was the one who sent her to figure out how much you knew.”
Jack fell silent. He looked his adversary in the eye. “How much are they paying you? What have they promised you?”
“Do you really want to know? Respect, Jack! Respect! No one laughs at my ideas here. I’m somebody here. I’ve had enough of being the poor idealist they poked fun at in his own country for his beliefs. I’ve had enough of being a nobody, of being invisible, looked down on . . .”
If he hadn’t feared for Elizabeth’s life, Jack would have leapt on Walter and ripped him apart with his bare hands. Walter was trembling like a frightened rat. Jack tried to buy time. “For God’s sake! Do you really think you’re important to them? Do you think you have a place in their history books? Come on, Walter. Let her go. Let her go and—”