The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark (The Nadia Tesla Series Book 3)

by Orest Stelmach

  When Johnny got home, the only thing on his agenda other than eating and sleeping was pulling out his world atlas. Last year he’d kept track of Nadia’s location on the atlas when she called him during her trip to Ukraine. Maybe he’d be able to do the same this year. Maybe she would call him tonight, he thought.

  But she didn’t.

  CHAPTER 38

  BOBBY DEVOURED A fist-sized chunk of buckwheat bread and washed it down with a bottle of Leninade. It was a pink-lemonade-flavored soda, a bit too sweet for his taste under normal circumstances, but these weren’t normal circumstances. He craved sugar. Once he started drinking, he couldn’t stop. He knew the craving was a function of the stress of the last forty-eight hours. He knew this because he’d experienced the same sensation while being bullied at school, whipped during hockey practices with the Coach, and scavenging with Eva. Sugar soothed his mind.

  The label on the bottle consisted of a hammer and sickle, the communist symbol for peaceful labor. The red star on the neck of the bottle represented military service and the Red Army. Beneath the star was an invitation. “Join the Party!”

  Bobby realized that Luo was staring at him.

  “I knew a fellow who wore that same expression,” Luo said.

  Bobby’s fellow passenger hadn’t said a word since introducing himself. Instead, they’d sat quietly as the plane took off. Bobby had closed his eyes to meditate. When he cracked them open to spy on Luo, he saw that the Siberian man also had his eyes closed. After the plane leveled off at cruising altitude, Luo had shared his Leninade and bread.

  “What expression is that?” Bobby said.

  “Disapproval. The Leninade not to your liking? A bit sweet, is it?”

  “No. It’s fine. I like it very much. I was just thinking that we’re flying over Siberia, where fifteen million people suffered in the labor camps—the gulags—and more than a million died. My father was sentenced to a gulag for twelve years.” Bobby looked at the bottle. “And here I am, drinking a soda that makes fun of the man who started it all, the one who gave birth to Soviet communism.”

  “Would you rather be drinking Stalinade?”

  Bobby managed a chuckle.

  “Putinade?”

  “The more questions you ask, the less thirsty I get.”

  “Look at it this way. You’re drinking Leninade only because the Soviet Union collapsed and the individual republics freed themselves. If Soviet communism existed today, you wouldn’t be drinking that soda. And we wouldn’t be here. Which raises the question, why are you here?”

  Bobby’s guard immediately shot up. He could hear his father’s voice in his ear. Be wary. This man who called himself Luo had said he wanted to sleep. Now he was asking personal questions.

  “Same reason as you,” Bobby said. “I need to get to Irkutsk.”

  “I know that, but what were you doing in Japan?”

  “How did you know I was in Japan?”

  “I was on the ferry with you. You don’t remember me?”

  Bobby had studied faces. If Luo had been on the ferry, he would have seen him. Unless Luo was trained to avoid detection, and he hadn’t wanted Bobby to see him.

  “No,” Bobby said. “I don’t remember you.”

  “That’s no surprise. I blend in with an Asian crowd. Because there’s almost nothing special about me. You know what the only special thing about me is?”

  Bobby didn’t bother answering.

  “The self-awareness that tells me there’s nothing special about me at all.”

  Bobby was starting to think the truth was to the contrary.

  “So why Japan?” Luo said. “Why the ferry? And why a cargo ship to Irkutsk instead of a commercial airliner?”

  “I thought you weren’t going to ask questions. I thought you were sleepy.”

  “Must be the Leninade. Makes me inquisitive. How about that? Must be the sugar, you know? You on business or studies? You look more like a student to me.”

  “Yeah, I’m a student. And if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to get some rest.”

  “Sure. I understand. Get some rest. If I keep chattering, don’t mind me. It’s just that bootleggers and drug dealers have been known to use cargo planes to get from Vladivostok to Irkutsk. Sometimes there are cops waiting at the airport in Irkutsk. Sometimes they interrogate the pilots and the passengers. I know some of those police. I’d hate for any misunderstandings to ruin your trip. Irkutsk police station. Prison cell. They’re not recommended tourist destinations. Sometimes paperwork gets lost, a judge goes on holiday, a person can get lost in that prison cell.”

  Bobby realized that Luo could be a cop. Evading his questions might antagonize him. Instead of ignoring him, Bobby told Luo the same story he’d told the immigration officers about competing in a writing contest. It had sounded reasonable then, but not as plausible now on a cargo plane traveling from Vladivostok to Irkutsk. Still, Bobby sold it as best as he could.

  Luo smiled and nodded like a good listener. On the surface he acted as though he believed the story, but Bobby’s instincts told him otherwise.

  “You know what I think?” Luo said.

  “What?”

  Luo grinned. “I think you’re going to win that writing competition.”

  “I hope so. What about you? What’s your business? Why were you on the ferry?”

  “Oh, come on. You know the answer to that.”

  “I do?”

  “Sure. It’s obvious, isn’t it? I was following you.”

  A hot flash seized Bobby. He waited for shock to pass. It didn’t take long. Three seconds, maybe four. He was used to it. Adversity likes to strike when its victim least expects it. He composed himself, considered Luo’s claim that he’d been following him.

  Impossible, Bobby thought. Only Nadia and Johnny had seen him slide under the truck in Fukushima. The other men were dead or seriously injured. If no one followed him then, how could anyone have picked up his trail when he’d been hidden under a car for over two hours? How would anyone know to be at the gas or train stations?

  But there was no sense in disagreeing with the man, so Bobby asked the obvious question. “Why were you following me?”

  “Because I’m pursuing a treasure.”

  The formula. Luo knew about the formula. That still didn’t explain where he’d picked up Bobby’s trail—

  The boomerangs.

  Luo was the angel! He was the one who’d saved their lives.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What treasure?”

  “The girl you used to scavenge with in the Zone. Her name is Eva. They say she’s dead, but I think that’s a lie. I think she’s alive. And you either know where she is or you’re looking for her, too. You see, I am her father. And she is the treasure I seek.”

  CHAPTER 39

  LUO STUDIED ADAM Tesla’s reaction. He’d been impressive from the moment Luo had met him. Cordial but not engaging. Responsive but not revealing. The sound of Eva’s name, however, had caused him to freeze. It had injected an intensity into the boy’s eyes.

  “I don’t know any Eva,” Adam said.

  “I was a soldier in the Russian army. On leave in Moscow. Eva’s mother was a student at a university. She was studying nursing. I met her. We became sweethearts. I did well in the Army. I liked the structure. I liked the action. We exchanged letters, but I rarely came home. I only saw Eva three times before her mother died. She was two. Her aunt and uncle took care of her from then on. The war in Chechnya broke out. I lost touch with them. But I never forgot. I have this picture. She’s so young you may not recognize her but take a look anyway.”

  Luo fished a photo out of his wallet. It was a picture of Eva and her mother when his daughter was two years old.

  Adam glanced at it. He revealed no emotion. He handed the photo back to Luo.

 
“Why do you think she’s alive?” Adam said.

  “Because a wolf only finds peace with others.”

  Adam frowned. “Excuse me?”

  Luo laughed. “Something the groundskeeper at the cemetery told me. I went to visit her grave. The groundskeeper told me what he knew. I got curious. I went to your old school. Asked some questions. The two of you had become inseparable. There were rumors you scavenged in the Zone. I went there and spoke to a guard. He’s ex-military, too. Guards in the Zone hear stories after the fact. I bribed him. He told me he heard something about the Zaroff Seven and a pair of scavengers that fit your descriptions. He also told me an American woman had been seen in the Zone twice in the span of a year. I found her driver, a professor named Anton Medved, and the scavenger who’d brought her in. A man named Hayder. The babushka, the Division of Nervous Pathologies, Ksenia and Denys Melnik. They all pointed to a treasure. Something priceless in the hands of a boy and a girl. And now here we are. Both looking for the same thing. Except I don’t care about money. I only care about the girl.”

  Adam studied him. “I only care about the girl, too.”

  “Then we should discuss a partnership.”

  “But if you were following me the entire time, you had to have seen her face. You had to have seen the driver and the girl. On a train, in one of the stations, in the ferry building. You had to have seen her face.”

  “Obviously I knew you’d jumped under the truck for a reason—”

  “Then why didn’t you walk right up to her and look in her eyes? Why didn’t you pretend to bump into them or something like that?”

  Luo hung his head. “I did.”

  “And?”

  “I didn’t recognize her. I thought it would be like the cinema, you know? I thought I’d see some part of her mother or me but I just wasn’t sure. The driver kept her so wrapped up in that hood I wasn’t even sure she was a girl. And I couldn’t try again or he’d become suspicious. My best move was to keep following you. Be patient. You know about patience, don’t you?”

  “I know about patience. But how is the situation better now? We don’t even know where she is anymore.”

  “I’m not worried about that. I’ll find her. And I will be better off because we won’t be in a public place. And their guard will be down. They won’t be expecting me. They won’t be expecting us.”

  “Us?”

  “Two men stand a much better chance than one.”

  “Why should I trust you?” Adam said. “How do I know you’re really Eva’s father? How do I know you didn’t make all this up to earn my trust so you can get the other treasure? The one everyone else wants. How do I know you’re not lying?”

  “That’s the beauty of the situation. It doesn’t matter if I’m lying or telling the truth.”

  “Why not?”

  “If I’m lying, and I’m not Eva’s father, and all I want is this other treasure, our interests are still aligned. It will do me no good if you are harmed, and it will do me no good if she is harmed. We can still help each other.”

  “Meaning, I can trust you no matter what, up until that moment in time when I won’t be able to trust you at all.”

  Luo grinned. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

  “My father had a name for this type of scenario.”

  “What did he call it?”

  “A fool’s bargain.”

  “Your father was a wise man. We are all fools for falling in love. I fell in love once. That love produced a child. And then you fell in love. With that child. Most men are fools until they die, and those who aren’t are already dead.”

  “I would prefer to stay alive. The thing is, even in a fool’s bargain, there has to be some token of trust to get the relationship started. If I give you my trust, what will you give me?”

  Luo shrugged. “What do you want?”

  “What else do you have in that bag besides Leninade?”

  “A toothbrush, some soap, a towel, some bottled water, some reindeer jerky, and these.” He pulled out three boomerangs. “Ever use one?”

  Bobby shook his head.

  “Then they’ll be of no use to you.”

  Luo put the boomerangs back in the bag and placed it on the floor. He lifted his left pant leg. A ten-inch knife pressed against his calf. He unstrapped the holster and offered it to Bobby.

  “It’s a G10 handle—the stuff they use for structural supports—and a high-carbon Damascus blade,” Luo said. “It never let me down in the tundra or the battlefield. Check it out.”

  Adam took the holster. He slipped the knife from its sheath. The midnight blue handle seemed to mold to his hand.

  “You like it?” Luo said.

  “I don’t like guns or knives. But I like this one.”

  “I thought you might. Keep it.”

  “Really?”

  “As a token of good faith.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Make sure you don’t strap it too tight.”

  “I thought I’d just keep it in my bag.”

  “Not a good idea.”

  “Why?”

  “Two reasons. You may need to drop your bag to defend yourself. And if you get caught, your bag will get searched before your legs.”

  “What do you have strapped to your other leg?” Bobby said.

  Luo looked up but didn’t answer. For the first time, Adam had asked him a question he hadn’t expected.

  “Let’s hope you don’t have to find out.”

  Adam attached the holster with the knife flush on his calf.

  “No,” Luo said. “Put the knife to the outside of the leg. Secure both Velcro straps tight but not too tight. Make sure it’s comfortable.”

  Bobby stood up and walked around. “What do you do for a living?”

  Luo grinned. “I thought you didn’t want to talk. I thought you wanted to get some rest.”

  “I do. But sometimes a question nags at me and keeps me awake.”

  “I get that, too. I’m a retired soldier living on a pension. Sometimes people hire me to find people for them. In this case, I hired myself.”

  “Do you have a mobile phone?”

  Luo reached into his knapsack and pulled out a cell phone. “Coverage could be spotty as soon as we get away from Vladivostok. If you need to make a call, I’d make it now.”

  Adam sat down. Luo handed him the phone.

  “So tell me,” Luo said. “And be honest. If you had to guess now, do you believe I am who I say I am?”

  Adam shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Our interests are aligned.” He paused before adding a final thought. “For now.”

  Luo smiled, closed his eyes, and reclined his head against the wall. “Smart boy.”

  CHAPTER 40

  NADIA RECEIVED A call from Bobby midair between Kyiv and Vladivostok.

  It lasted only ten seconds. The pilot told them that altitude was not the problem. Cell phones were built to transmit a signal up to ten miles, and an altitude of 30,000 feet was the equivalent of six and a half miles. The problem was that the plane was moving quickly. On land, a call might be facilitated by a network of three towers pointing in different directions. In a plane, the caller might lose access to two of those cell towers before the call was completed.

  Nadia tried calling the number from which Bobby’s call had originated but she couldn’t get through. Nor did the phone ever ring again.

  “Cargo . . . Irkutsk . . . father.”

  Those were the defining words Nadia had heard.

  “You’re the forensic analyst,” Simmy had said. “What do you think?”

  “The key words are cargo and Irkutsk. There are two possibilities. Cargo is leaving Vladivostok for Irkutsk. Or cargo is arriving from Irkutsk to Vladivostok.”

  “That one seems rather obvious.”

&n
bsp; “Given Genesis II is the cargo,” Nadia said, “and the cargo was moved via ferry from Japan to Vladivostok, it makes less sense that it’s coming from Irkutsk. More likely it is going to Irkutsk. That means Genesis II is being taken to Irkutsk.”

  “Agreed. But would a boy who is in love with a girl—and we can assume that Bobby is acting as though Genesis II is Eva—would he refer to that girl as cargo? English is not my first language, but in Russian, no man would ever speak about a woman this way. No matter what his age.”

  “No, he wouldn’t. I still think cargo is heading to Irkutsk, but Bobby’s use of the word wasn’t in reference to Genesis II.”

  “Then what was he referring to?” Simmy said.

  “Maybe it was part of a phrase. What word might Bobby have spoken after cargo? Ship? Truck? Plane? Aren’t they the most obvious?”

  “Especially in a port city. Especially in Vladivostok. A ship is unlikely. Irkutsk is accessible by the Angara River but that would be slow. So would a truck. My guess is they’re moving Eva to Irkutsk via a cargo plane.”

  “That’s possible,” Nadia said.

  “The question is where is Bobby?”

  “We don’t know. The only conclusion we can be comfortable with is that wherever he is, he’s headed to Irkutsk.”

  “What about the last word you heard?”

  “Father?”

  Simmy nodded.

  “That makes no sense. Can’t be Bobby’s father. He passed away last year. Can’t be Eva’s father. He told me she’s an orphan. The only thing that makes sense to me is that I misheard him and that he said ‘farther.’ As in, ‘If you’re in Vladivostok, you need to go farther west to Irkutsk.’ Or, ‘Don’t land in Vladivostok, keep going farther.’”

  “Either way, we need to reroute for Irkutsk.”

  “It’s logical but not a sure thing.”

  “It’s not realistic to expect a sure thing, “Simmy said. “But the odds are a touch better than you suggest.”