by Dan McGirt
pattern, with five main buildings, including the chemical plant, extending like the points of a star from a central plaza that was really no more than a large expanse of concrete. The five buildings were linked by high walls enclosing the plaza. The south wall was pierced by gates large enough for heavy trucks to pass through. Through that gate now came emergency vehicles and running soldiers. All headed for Building 3, the burning chemical plant. The emergency responders paid no attention to Jack as he knelt beside Nika, no doubt mistaking him for one of their own.
"Nika!" he said, shaking her. "Are you all right?"
Nika came fully awake with a start. She lurched upright. "Papa! He's in there!"
"He'll be fine," Jack lied, restraining her.
"You!" she said. "You have done this! You have killed him!"
"Me?" said Jack. "You're the one who set your own husband up for murder!"
"No, that is not true! Yes, I spied on Sergei for my father, I am not ashamed to say it. Sergei was a good man, but naive. He hated soldiers and military things. He did not understand that Russia needs men like Papa! That some secrets must be kept! But I never thought they would kill him! I had no idea this would happen, you must believe it!"
"So you loved your husband?"
"Of course, yes!"
"Did he know who your father was?"
"No, never! I told him I had no parents and grew up in state orphanage."
"You loved him, but you lied to him about who you were and betrayed him and the cause to which he devoted his life, all for the sake of your father?"
"Yes, of course. Now you understand."
"I wouldn't go that far. You must know your father who had him killed."
"Of course I know this!" she snapped. "But I am Russian woman, trapped in tragic, dismal circumstances beyond my control."
"Kind of an Anna Karenina thing?"
"Whatever."
"But if you knew who ordered your husband's death, then why did you appeal for my help?"
"Papa told me to. He wanted to lure you here. I don't know why. Really, you must believe it!"
"At this point, I don't know what to believe, sweetheart. You're one badly confused, morally challenged, cold-hearted witch."
"What will you do now?"
"Me? I'm going home to the States before I get a permanent invitation to the gulag."
"Take me with you!"
"No chance."
"I have nothing here now. No husband. No father. No job. No family. Nothing."
"And whose fault is that?" said Jack.
"Yours!" she raged, assaulting him with her fists. "You! You! You!"
Jack pushed her away. Nika doubled over in the snow, clutching herself and sobbing.
"You," she moaned. "It was you."
Jack stood. "Guess again."
Galahad exited the burning chem plant at a run. He worked a handheld remote as he sped across the open ground. Jet thrusters and turbofans heralded the arrival of a ScarletTech VTOL Trisonic Jumpjet. The plane skimmed over the snow-blanketed trees, crossed the perimeter wall, and hovered overhead. A hatch opened in the belly of the craft. A retractable carbonweave rope ladder dropped down. Jack started climbing. Before he was twenty feet up, Galahad was on the ladder too and the Jumpjet was gaining altitude, leaving Volochanka-9 behind. Jack took a last look back at small figure of a broken woman huddled in the snow beneath the green glow of a strange toxic fire. Madness and sorrow. That was Russia every time. Madness and sorrow and a cold, cold place to die.
