Orest Stelmach - The Boy Who Stole from the Dead

Nadia and Marko followed the guide deeper into the cave. They rounded a corner. Light came from an opening on the right side of the cave. Nadia heard a rustling noise. The sound of metal sliding against metal pierced the silence. It was the racking noise a semi-automatic pistol made when the sliding mechanism was pulled back and released to put the first bullet into the chamber.

Marko glanced at Nadia. She made a gun with her right hand. He nodded. She assumed he understood the signal meant someone had loaded the gun in the adjoining chamber. Instead, Marko reached down to his pant leg and removed his own pistol.

“Where did you get that?” Nadia mouthed.

In the glow of her headlamp, a glint shone in his eyes.

He had a gun. Somehow, her lunatic brother had procured a gun in Ukraine. Where? Kyiv? Lviv? Not Zarvanytsia, that’s for sure. And from whom? Not the concierges at their two fine hotels. Then she remembered. She’d left him alone at the café in Lviv after she’d lost the man with the pointed chin.

Her concerns about how he’d gotten the gun and the risk he’d assumed in getting it gave way to relief. Marko knew how to use a gun. They both did, courtesy of their training during summer camps.

The guide’s eyes widened when he saw the gun. Marko stepped in front of him and shut off his headlamp. He edged along the wall closest to the chamber. When he got near the entrance he squatted down to his knees. Took a deep breath. Nodded at Nadia to let her know he was going in. No discussion, no hesitation. He was going in. It was just like Marko, she thought. She wanted to help him. Pull him back. But toward what end? They had no choice. They needed to find Karel. And there was no way for her to share the risk. He was the one with the gun.

He pivoted into the doorway. The light illuminated him. Legs spread wide, both hands on the gun. He stretched forward and glanced in each of the near corners. No one there. He disappeared into the room.

The guide tapped Nadia on the shoulder. “Guns in the cave?” he said. “Not allowed. We must leave now.”

Nadia shook her head. Put her finger to her lips.

Marko came out of the chamber. “Clear,” he said. “I don’t know what we heard but it wasn’t from this room. It must have been an echo.”

The guide eyed the gun in Marko’s hand. “Who are you people? And this friend of yours who’s caving? Why would he have a gun?” The guide stepped back. “No guns in the cave. I’m leaving now. Are you coming or are you staying?”

“We’re staying,” Nadia said. “Go to the car and wait for us there. That way we can still get back to Lviv and you’re not in danger. If you see someone else coming out of the cave, you can take off without us. I promise I’ll make it worth your while for waiting. Fair enough?”

The guide thought about it, nodded, and took off.

She followed Marko into the chamber. They aimed their headlights at each of the four walls. One of the walls featured cracks in the form of an upside-down horseshoe. Nadia aimed her light at the floor. Crystal dust shone in the light, scattered over rocks. A ledge protruded from one of the side walls. It was slightly higher than knee height and wide enough to accommodate a seated person. Something glittered beside it.

“Over here,” Nadia said. She picked up a shiny blue fountain pen with gold trim. The pen was open. The cap was secured over the base. “This doesn’t look like something from the 1940s.” She pressed it against her yellow sleeve. Blue ink spread through the fabric. “Someone was here—”

“Drop the gun,” a man said in Russian.

He stood in the entrance to the room, a gun in his right hand and a flashlight in his left. He also wore a headlamp. The light from the latter two overwhelmed Nadia’s equipment and rendered her blind.

“Do it,” the man said, waving the gun. “Do it now.”

Nadia thought she recognized the voice the first time. The second time she heard it left no doubt.

“Karel, it’s me,” she said. “It’s me, Nadia.”

“Who are you? What did you say? Are you trying to trick me? I said put the gun down.”

Nadia switched to English. “Marko, put the gun down.”

Marko didn’t lower his hands.

“Marko, it’s him. It’s Karel.”

“How can you be sure?” Marko said.

“Nadia,” the man said in Ukrainian. “Nadia- Panya . Is that you?”

“Of course it’s me. What can I say, Karel. It was animal attraction. You knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away forever.”

The man approached. He kept his gun aimed at Marko. His flashlight continued to blind them. When he got to within three feet, he aimed it at the floor.

Wiry Einstein hair. The pale complexion, sunken face, and frail physique of a prematurely aged man. Large knapsack on his back. He lit up when he recognized Nadia. Stuffed his gun in the canvas belt cinched around his narrow waist.

“My God,” he said. “It is you.”

He stepped forward and hugged her. He held on a little longer than another acquaintance might have. Nadia didn’t mind. She expected it. He’d done the same thing when they said good-bye outside reactor number four in Chornobyl last year. She had been sure she’d never see him again.

Nadia introduced Marko to Karel. Marko put his gun back in the holster around his ankle.

“We heard you load your gun,” Nadia said. “But when Marko came in you were gone. How did you get out of here?”

Karel nodded toward the side wall with the horseshoe-shaped crack. “That’s actually a hole in the wall. The people who hid here during the war found a rock and chiseled it to close the opening. It was their escape route in case they heard the Nazis coming. It leads to a series of secondary passages that extend along the outer edge of the cave. Very narrow. Some treacherous passes. I circled around to confront you.”

Nadia showed him the pen. “Yours?”

He snatched it. “A gift from my friend Arkady Shatan. You remember. The scientist I told you about.” He glanced from Marko back to Nadia, as though making sure it was okay to speak of Arkady in front of him. “What news of the formula? I’ve been watching the papers. Trolling the Internet for a headline that you’ve changed the world.”

Nadia laughed. “Please, Karel. The gig is long up. You don’t have to play along anymore. Obviously I know the whole thing was a ruse. Obviously there was no formula.”

He frowned. “No formula? That’s nonsense. Of course there was a formula. Of course there is a formula. I showed you the slides. How the cells regenerated. I showed you the wolves. How they kept coming back for the water treated with the formula.”

“You made all that up.”

“I made nothing up. You must not have searched the locket properly. It must be there under your very nose but you must not be able to see it.”

Nadia stood flabbergasted. The formula for a radiation countermeasure had been a hoax. Or so she had thought. The last thing she expected from Karel was a heartfelt assertion that she was wrong. That it existed. And yet, here he stood before her, trembling with urgency.

“You must search it again,” Karel said. “Where is the locket?”

“In an envelope. With Adam’s other personal possessions. In jail.”

“In jail? Adam? This can’t possibly be. For what?”

“Murder.”

“Murder?” Karel mumbled under his breath. “I must be having a nightmare. But no, I’m awake. That’s complete nonsense. That boy would never hurt anyone. Life is too precious to him. Whom did he supposedly murder?”

“A young British businessman named John Valentine. But he was born in Russia. He was actually named after his father. His father’s name was Ivan Valentin.”