Private Moscow (Private 15)

The old instincts of a host hadn’t died and Nikita emerged from the kitchen with a pot of tea and four glasses. He sat next to me in his pajamas and a threadbare dressing gown, and spoke to Dinara and Leonid as he poured the tea. His English was limited to “hello” and “OK,” which is what he said when he handed me a glass of milky sweet tea.

“Show him the picture,” Dinara advised me.

I produced the photograph Agafiya had taken in the Novoko Bar and showed it to Nikita.

The old barman smiled and started talking.

“He says he remembers them. Well, the one in the middle, at least,” Dinara translated as Nikita pointed to Ernie Fisher. “He would always come to the bar and try to impress Agafiya. He would hang around trying to get her to go on a date.”

“Where was he from?” I asked. “Was he local?”

Dinara translated, and Nikita shook his head.

“No, not local. Not really,” Dinara said. “Apparently Ernest Fisher got very drunk one night and Nikita had to drive him home. He took him to the gatehouse of Boltino, an army base six kilometers north of here.”

My stomach lurched as my worst fears about my friend gained substance.

Dinara continued. “Boltino Army Base was shut down in 2002, but before then it was a key strategic installation. One of the most restricted places in all of Russia.”

CHAPTER 71

IT TOOK DINARA and Jack almost an hour to cover six kilometers. Boltino Army Base was located northeast of Volkovo, and they almost missed the overgrown access road off route P104. The rusty way-markers were largely lost to snow, and only the very tips of the metal poles were visible.

The access road was buried beneath two feet of snow, and the truck’s four-wheel drive struggled to cope with the conditions. Jack had to jump out every so often and clear a path with Feo’s shovel where the snow had drifted higher in places.

Leonid had stayed in town. Nikita had given him the names and addresses of locals who’d worked at the base, and Leonid planned to quiz them for more information, and see whether anyone else recognized Karl Parker, Ernie Fisher and Elizabeth Connor.

Dinara tapped the steering wheel as Jack returned to the truck, tossed the shovel in the back, and climbed into the passenger seat. He was sweating and breathing heavily, which wasn’t surprising. He’d just cleared a twelve-foot stretch of road. Dinara drove slowly forward, the car inching along the furrows Jack had dug, the chunky snow tires digging into the crisp powder. The trees were close on both sides, and cast everything in shadow. The edges of the road weren’t clear, so Dinara simply stayed in the middle of the long thin scar that had been cut through

the forest. The route banked right; then, after a long, sweeping turn, it straightened up, and Dinara saw the remains of a gatehouse ahead of them.

Beyond the derelict structure lay a dozen buildings, ware-houses, silos and stores. Even with the cleansing blanket of snow, Dinara could see the extent to which the structures had decayed. There were dark holes in the roofs, and rust was eating every visible surface. Most of the windows were cracked or missing entirely, and steel shutters were either buckled or absent.

“The snow is getting deeper,” Jack said. “Let’s leave the car here.”

Dinara nodded and slowed to a halt. She put the truck in neutral and pulled on the parking brake, but left the engine running.

“So nothing freezes,” she explained as she and Jack got out.

They grabbed their coats from the back seat and trudged through thick snow to the deserted base.

Once they were away from the vehicle, the only noise came from their steps. Otherwise the place was eerily quiet. The snow deadened sound, but there was none to be heard. No animals, birds or people, not even a whisper of wind. The clouds hung low above them and didn’t seem to move. Dinara shivered as she and Jack approached what looked like the main administration building, but she wasn’t sure the chill she felt was entirely a result of the cold. She couldn’t shake the sense they were being watched, and, out here, far from help, they were vulnerable.

If such fears troubled Jack, he didn’t show it. His eyes were fixed with grim determination. Dinara could only imagine what he was feeling. Each new revelation would shake the foundations of his friendship with Karl Parker, so the need to discover the truth must be unbearable for him.

The faded sign beside the long three-story structure said “Central Command,” and Dinara translated it for Jack. The main doors were locked but the floor-to-ceiling windows had been smashed, so they stepped over the rusting frames and went inside.

The only thing in the lobby was a broken office chair that had been gnawed by animals. Snow had fallen through a hole in the roof, and huge shining icicles hung from the ragged edges of the collapsed ceiling two stories above.

Dinara and Jack moved further into the abandoned building. None of the interior doors were locked, not even the three-inch-steel blast doors that had been designed to protect critical sections from any kind of attack. It was in one such section, in the east wing of the building, where they discovered an unusual set of rooms. They found four dormitories, each of which contained twelve concrete bunks. Any mattresses were long gone, but there was no doubt these were sleeping quarters.

“Soldiers wouldn’t usually be housed in the command block,” Jack observed. “Why are there sleeping quarters here?”

Dinara didn’t have an answer, and they left the room and continued through the eerie, derelict building.

Further along the wing, they found a large room with panoramic windows that overlooked the rest of the base. The panes had been smashed and a high drift had been blown across the room. When they stepped inside, Jack noticed something protruding from the snow, and he pushed through it to reach a sheet of wood, which he struggled to lift. As she approached to help, Dinara realized the object was an old-fashioned school desk.

She and Jack pulled it free of the icy grip of the snow, and dragged it off the drift onto the concrete floor near the door. Jack opened the lid and found yet more snow, but when he dug around inside, he discovered a Captain America pencil case, and a frozen book that had almost rotted away.