Last Of the Breed (1986)

by L'amour, Louis

  What he did not know was that Alekhin had landed, only hours before, in Gizhiga. Another thing he did not know was that not two hundred yards away, hidden in the brush, a man was watching him.

  Ostap was no woodsman. He had fled Magadan when Shepilov arrested his wife, barely escaping. He had gone to the woods, to a place where trappers sometimes met. None were there when he arrived, but there was food, fuel, and warmer clothing.

  He was in serious trouble, and so was Katerina. She knew nothing, but that would not help her and might even work against her. It was always better, Ostap had discovered, to have something to tell.

  On this morning he had walked out into the forest and climbed a small knoll. There, in a place sheltered from the wind, he had sat down to study the country. Almost at once he had seen the American, and from the first glimpse he had no doubt who it was on whom he looked.

  The man’s very caution was a dead giveaway. Frightened as well as intrigued, Ostap had the sense to remain still. Had he moved, his presence would have been revealed. His heart began to beat heavily.

  Talk about luck! There he was, the man they all wanted. If he could only capture him — !

  But that was foolish. Whatever else he was, Ostap was no fighter. He was a trader, a conniver, a trickster, if you will. To attempt to capture the American was out of the question. Of course, the idea had occurred, but it fled his mind in the same instant.

  The point was, he knew where the American was. He knew! That kind of knowledge was worth money. It was worth a trade; it was a chance to save Katerina. For a moment he hesitated: Katerina or the money? No, it had to be Katerina. There was one thing he valued above money, and that was his personal comfort. Katerina took care of him. Above all, she understood him. She accepted his foibles, his trickiness, and his weaknesses and took care of him anyway. He could find other women, he knew. Occasionally, he had, but they were too demanding of him, of money, of his time. Katerina took him as he was, and was therefore priceless. Of course, he told himself, he might get a little money on the side, too.

  But whom must he speak to? He was far from Magadan now, completely out of touch with anybody there. Besides, if he went back into that town they would arrest him.

  It must be somebody nearer, somebody involved in the search. But if he were to bargain for Katerina, it must be someone in command. Someone who could actually say yes or no. That meant, as far as he was concerned, either Shepilov or Zamatev.

  He could not deal with Shepilov. That one would have him up and given the treatment until he told whatever he knew. With Zamatev he might bargain, and with Zamatev he had an in. He had Kyra Lebedev.

  He would watch a bit longer and see what direction the American took, and then he would head for Evensk.

  He held himself very still, waiting. Would he cross among the lakes? It was a long trek, and there was much swampy country down there, still partly frozen, however.

  Joe Mack edged along the woods and started off to the north. Waiting only a few minutes longer, Ostap got to his feet and ran down the dim trail toward the road below. Even as he approached it, he heard the sound of motors and saw four cars coming along the road toward Evensk. The cars slowed and stopped when they saw him, and a man in the lead car motioned for him to approach.

  Wary, but unable to avoid the meeting, he went up to the man who had motioned. He had never seen him before, but he knew at once that he faced the legend. This was Alekhin.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To Evensk. I must speak to Colonel Arkady Zamatev or to Comrade Lebedev.”

  Alekhin eyed him thoughtfully, his flat, heavy-lidded eyes revealing nothing. “Why must you speak with him?”

  Ostap hesitated. If he told Alekhin, he would get nothing, nothing at all. “I have information about the American.” Then, firmly, he added, “It is for one of them only. Nobody else.”

  Alekhin stared at him. This one he could twist in his hands. He could wring him out like a rag, but no one intercepted information meant for Zamatev.

  Leaning from his seat, he called to the driver behind him. “Boris! Take this one to Evensk! Call Colonel Zamatev! If you cannot, speak to Comrade Lebedev! Quick now! Then bring him back to me unless the Colonel wishes him.”

  He looked at Ostap. “You speak to him. Tell him. You better have good information, or I will speak to you after. Go now. “

  In Evensk, the connection was not a good one, but Boris got Kyra on the phone for him. “What can you tell us, Ostap?” She sounded abrupt, impatient.

  “I have seen him,” he said, “the American.”

  “What?”

  “I want Katerina released,” he said, “and a little something for our trouble. You see?”

  “You have actually seen him?”

  “He is not waiting for you,” Ostap said, “but if you move now, he cannot have gone more than a few miles.”

  “Describe him.”

  Ostap was a good observer. His description was quick, accurate and brief.

  “It was one of Alekhin’s men who called. How did you meet him?”

  “Alekhin has gone north searching for him. I told him nothing. I want Katerina released.”

  “I know,” she replied brusquely, “and a little something for yourself!”

  “I could have called Comrade Shepilov,” he replied.

  “Katerina will be freed. Take Alekhin to where you saw him. I shall be there within the hour. If this is just a story — !”

  “It is not.”

  When he left the office he said to Boris, “Take me to Alekhin. I know where the American is.”

  “I heard you,” Boris replied. “You should have told him on the road.”

  “Katerina is my wife. Shepilov arrested her. I want her free.”

  “And a little something for yourself,” Boris said. “All the Soviet Union needs is a few more such patriots.”

  Ostap flushed, but he did not reply. Boris was a very tough, competent-looking man. The less said to such a man the better.

  Boris was speaking on the radio. Then they drove off, moving rapidly. Ostap hung on desperately as the car careened around sharp curves and raced over bumpy roads that were hardly more than trails.

  Alekhin was waiting beside the road. He reached a hand into the car and jerked Ostap out of his seat. “Tell me! Where?”

  Frightened, Ostap led the way to where he had stood and pointed. “Over there, at the edge of the trees.”

  “Stay back!” Alekhin ordered. Then he walked over. Ostap watched and then said, “By that old tree! To the left!”

  Alekhin moved and then stopped and began to look around, very slowly, very carefully. The American left so little sign. He moved a step, looking, then looking again.

  Yes, there was a slight indentation in the moss at the foot of the tree. Something or somebody had been there. Slowly, carefully, he began to work out the sign left by the American. As always, there was very little.

  He walked back to Boris and indicated what must be done. “There are roads on three sides! I want patrols, very slow patrols! Night and day! He must not escape this area! You understand?”

  “I do. It will be done.”

  “What of him?” Boris jerked a thumb at Ostap.

  “Let him stay. We have no time to take him back. Besides, the Colonel wishes to speak to him.”

  Alekhin paused, thinking about it, and then he added, “If we do not have him by dark, I want cars with headlights on the road. I want him taken. I want him stopped. If you must shoot, shoot at his legs. Break his legs, but do not kill him.”

  By midday Joe Mack knew he was trapped. Through a gap in the scattered trees he glimpsed several cars on the road below. Moving further north he glimpsed more cars cutting him off in that direction. So they knew he was in here. Somehow they had seen him. Somehow they knew without doubt he was here. Warily he worked his way further north and west into the roughest terrain. They had cornered him in one of the few places around that had roads on three sides
, even though they were scarcely more than trails.

  At a steady trot, he headed north. They knew where he was, and this time they would not let him get away. He would try, but his chances were slight. They were going to get him, so what could he do?

  He could try to escape again, of course, but they would give him no chance this time. They would cripple him or put him so tightly in manacles that he could not escape. Yet, suppose he could?

  He would hide his bow and arrows. He would hide his knife. He would hide the little meat he had that was dried and smoked. He would hide his goatskin coat, or better still, the suit and shirt.

  Soon they would be making a sweep with helicopters and then ground troops. He could, of course, fight until they killed him, until they had to kill him.

  That was one way.

  He moved on north into the woods, but when he had gone only a little further he saw from a mountain ridge, saw afar off, the glint of sunlight on the windshields of cars. He could try to run between them, but they would be expecting that, and they would shoot him down.

  As he walked, his eyes searched for a place to hide, any place at all where they might not find him.

  There was nothing but bare rocks, sparse trees, and occasional clusters of birch. North of here there were, he had heard, no trees at all.

  He slowed to a walk. He had the AK-47 and some ammunition. He had the pistol. He would cache the pistol, too. But it must be soon.

  Well, Joe Mack, he said, you gave them something to worry over. Now we will see. To hold out here, where defensible positions were few, would be wasted effort. He could get a few of them before they got him, but he would not get the ones he wanted.

  He walked now, choosing a careful way, ever alert for a place to hide. He found nothing that they would not find within minutes. Some stretches had had many good places for concealment, but this seemed to have none.

  Was it all over, then? Talya, he said to himself, you would not like to see this. But we had our dream. We had it for a little while.

  He could not give up. He could not surrender. But these men were not the men he wanted. Zamatev was the one and Alekhin. These others were but tools to be used by them. Good men, some of them, men who did what they were told the best they knew how.

  He fought to keep cool. Now he must think, he must plan. Night was coming, and with night there might be a chance.

  From a ridge he looked down toward the road. Two cars had stopped, and the soldiers were talking. Others were scattered along the road, the road that was barely a trail.

  Crouching at the base of a tree, he tried to think of something he might do, anything he could do.

  Nothing. There was nothing. He was trapped.

  He could expect some rough treatment. He could expect torture. They would take no more chances with him now. He thought of Pennington’s family, never to know their husband and father had not abandoned them.

  Never for a moment had he forgotten them or what his message to them would be.

  Alekhin! The big Yakut would win after all.

  Slowly, carefully, he moved down the slope, keeping from sight. He knew that Alekhin was behind him. He knew his trail was slowly being worked out, and Alekhin would have soldiers with him. There were waiting lines of soldiers and moving cars on three sides now and he was moving down toward the north. Behind him was Alekhin.

  He looked at the cars and the men. Could he shoot his way through? There was no chance. There were simply too many, and they were too scattered out.

  He crouched by a tree to study a route and saw a long crack in the rock. Suddenly he moved. He laid his bow and arrows in the crack, thrusting the pistol and ammunition into the quiver. When all was hidden, he placed bark over it and then leaves. The earth was too frozen to use.

  They had seen him with the AK-47, so he kept it.

  He could go down there shooting, but he doubted if they would let their men fire, except at his legs. They wanted him alive, and he did not want to be crippled. If he were crippled, his last chance would be gone. He was going to need his legs.

  Zamatev was not down there. Neither was Alekhin.

  He walked down the slope and stepped into the open.

  “Are you looking for me?” he asked.

  Chapter 45

  They were wary. Slowly, guns pointed, they moved in around him. One jerked the AK-47 from his hand; another, a man in civilian clothes, struck him viciously in the kidney with a rifle butt. He started to fall, caught himself, and remained erect. His hands were jerked behind him and handcuffs put on.

  Several men moved in around him, pushing the soldiers away. These were KGB, and there seemed no good feeling between them and the soldiers, who watched with expressionless faces. Joe Mack stared straight ahead, his mind busy.

  What else could he have done? He was surrounded, there were too many of them, they were closing in, and up there he had no place to hide. Not even a good place to make a stand. It was bare rock, a few scattered trees, a few spots of snow.

  He knew he would be beaten. He expected to be tortured. He could endure pain. He had been through that before, but what he must do was escape again. If they had shot his legs from under him, he would have had no chance. Now there was still hope.

  Long ago, when his people had been captured by other Indians, they had endured torture, and as the poet had said, they ‘had not winced or cried aloud.’ Indians had known how to endure pain and to laugh at those who tortured them. Often, if they showed bravery, the tortures were stopped and they were adopted into the tribe. Some of the mountain men had survived the same treatment. Joe Mack had taken the greatest gamble of his life, and the chances of escape were a thousand to one against him, yet shot down and crippled he would have no chance at all.

  An officer was on a radio, talking. The soldiers stood around, staring curiously. He ignored them, standing tall, looking toward the mountains where he had hoped to be. His heart was pounding heavily and he was asking himself if he was brave enough, if he was the man he wanted to be, the man he had trained himself to be. Now, he whispered to himself, you will find out. He had been told the story of a great-grandfather who had been captured by the Blackfeet and tortured and finally burned at the stake. Even as the flames rose around him, he had laughed at them. He had sung his death song in a voice that did not quaver, and the Blackfeet had marveled. An old warrior of their tribe had told him the story. Was he that kind of man?

  One of the KGB men came to him. “Alekhin comes,” he said. “If he leaves anything, we get our chance.”

  Joe merely looked at the man, and infuriated, the man slapped him across the mouth. Joe Mack’s expression did not change. Angered, the man shoved him, then kicked his feet from under him. When he fell the man kicked him brutally in the ribs. Then he stepped closer, drawing back his leg for another kick. Joe Mack rolled over, the kick missed, and the man fell. The soldiers laughed.

  Furious, the man lunged to his feet and caught up a heavy club. Frantically, he began beating Joe Mack, striking him on the head, shoulders, and back. Bobbing his head, Joe Mack avoided the worst of the blows, but his scalp was split and blood trickled down over his face.

  Suddenly a car wheeled up and stopped. Alekhin stepped down. Joe Mack knew him at once by his size and the small blaze of white where the hair had lost color over an old scar.

  Alekhin walked over. “So! We have you. Now we shall see!” He turned to the KGB men and motioned to an old stable that stood nearby. “Take him inside.”

  A Russian officer started to speak and Alekhin turned his back on him, saying over his shoulder, “You are not needed anymore. Go!”

  Ostap got out of the Volga. He stared at the blood on Joe Mack’s face and felt sick inside. He did not know what to do. Nobody had sent him away, and he had no way in which to leave. He must stand and wait for them. He was frightened.

  The officer had turned away, angrily. His men were forming up and moving to their trucks. Ostap wanted to go with them, but he had not been dis
missed and he feared to displease Alekhin.

  It was very cold, and he wished he was back in Magadan. Was Katerina free? Had they lived up to their bargain? Why would they want her, anyway? She knew nothing.

  He hunched his shoulders against the wind and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. Several KGB men were standing around, talking among themselves.

  Suddenly he heard a loud thump from within the stable, then more. He heard no screams. One of the KGB men came over to him, grinning. “They will teach him! They are artists! They know how to beat a man! You will hear him scream!”

  He did not scream. Two men came out after a while, dripping with perspiration, their fists bloody. Two others went in. Ostap turned away, sick to his stomach. He had done this. He had told them where the American was. Many times before, when hearing of such things, he had laughed and shrugged. “Serves them right!” He had said that, said it several times.

  He could hear the impact of blows, hear the grunts of the KGB men as they struck.

  He walked off a little way, shuddering, wishing he dared leave, that he even had a way to leave. The KGB cars were the only ones left.

  Alekhin came out and gave orders. Zamatev was coming. They were to put up a tent for him. He would ask some questions here. Then they would take the American away and fly him back to prison.

  Alekhin smiled. “No more beatings!” he said. “We must leave something for the good Colonel!” He looked around, his eyes going from one to the other. “But we’ve softened him up! We’ve softened him for the Colonel! Now let’s have a drink!”

  The tent was rapidly going up, and some folding chairs and a table were taken inside. Alekhin breathed deeply of the mountain air. Suddenly his eyes lighted on Ostap.

  “Ah? It is you! Come have a drink with us, and then I’ll send you back to Evensk! I would come, too, but the good Colonel wants to see him before he is moved.” He chuckled. “Not that there is much to move.”

  “I did not hear him cry out,” Ostap burst out involuntarily. “I thought — “

  Alekhin shrugged. “He did not cry. He is tough, that one.” He smiled, looking at Ostap from his flat black eyes. “Zamatev will see to that, and after Zamatev, me again.” He clapped Ostap on the shoulder. “It is good! Without your help, we’d not have had him! Maybe for weeks!”