Page 65 of Fear and Desire

“What did you say to that soldier?”

Anders grinned. “Well, apparently your mother is not a very good cook, and she made a soup that gave you food poisoning. You’ve been throwing up for days, so a local doctor hooked you up to the IV and sent us off to the hospital in Pskov.”

Laura smiled. “What else were they laughing at?”

“He asked why all these men were with us. I told him they were the employees of my business, and I hadn’t paid them for their work today, and they weren’t going to leave my side until I did. I also told him I suspected they just wanted an excuse to go into the city to pick up women.”

Laura laughed out loud, something she hadn’t done in a long time. Dan looked over at her and gave a brief smile, then resumed his thousand-yard stare at the receding road.

“Where are we?” she asked between sips. Her mind was clearing.

“Russia. Near the Latvian border. We should be back on friendly soil by tonight.”

“That soldier—do you think he suspected anything?”

“I think he’s suspicious by nature, but I doubt he would have let us go if he had any genuine concerns.”

“And if he hadn’t let us go?” She was almost afraid to know.

“Let’s not dwell on that. You’ve had enough real nightmares; you don’t need to imagine any more.”

“Okay. So where did you learn to speak Russian?”

“I learned it from my grandmother, who emigrated from Finland as a young bride. She learned it from her mother in Finland while it was part of Russia. My great grandmother always said it was a wise idea to speak the language of your oppressors. Speaking Russian was part of the reason Dan asked me along on this jaunt.”

The dirt road changed to pavement, and they passed an occasional car. Anders carefully removed the IV from her hand. When they rounded a curve, the road ahead was empty, and Anders threw the bags and tubing into the woods.

But that was not an excuse to stop drinking the electrolyte drink, Anders scolded her.

“Yes, sir.” She smiled. Dan shot her a look she couldn’t interpret.

Pskov was a decent-sized city whose architecture was a curious blend of old and ornate, and new and stark. Twenty-story apartment buildings, in groups of ten or more and with absolutely no features, stood next to perfectly preserved Orthodox Churches with their onion domes. Laura peeked over the side of the truck as much as she dared, earning a glare from Anders, but no orders to lie back down. Dan said nothing.

They stopped for gas once, and after an animated conversation between their Latvian guides and Dan’s team, the truck with the guides, and the other truck with some of Dan’s team, headed in a different direction. The driver of their truck, a woman named Sinclair, hopped back in the cab, and they resumed their journey.

In the late afternoon, they turned off the main road and into the woods. The truck’s springs got a good workout. Laura was grateful for the mattress under her. They bounced around for most of a wearying hour as the trees grew more dense. Twice, the men hopped out of the truck to remove trees that had fallen over the path. Once the truck had moved forward, they replaced the trees. Then suddenly, they stopped and cut off the engines. The woods were dark and still, with only the occasional bird call breaking the blanket of silence that lay over it.

Laura peeked up over the side of the truck to watch Sinclair and one man set off into the trees. Anders jumped out and headed in a different direction. They all drew their guns as they disappeared. She looked over at Dan with a question.

“We’re about a quarter mile from an unofficial border crossing.” He was whispering. “They’re checking it out to make sure no one is waiting for people to try to cross without papers.”

“Like us.”

“Like us.”

“What happened to the other truck?”

“It’s safer to cross in separate spots. We were supposed to come across this way, so we knew where this crossing was, and the guides are going to show the rest of my men where another one is. We got internal passports—the ones Russians use to move around inside the country—but we couldn’t get international ones, so we couldn’t use official crossings.”

“You went to a lot of trouble for me.”

He stared at her for a moment, then turned away. “It’s my fault you were here.”

She reached her hand out to him, but he was too far away and made no move to take it. She rolled herself to the side of the mattress and sat up. The world wobbled a bit but held.

“What are you doing?” He was at her side in an instant.

“I’m fine. Or at least better. I wanted to come sit next to you.”

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