Orest Stelmach - The Boy from Reactor 4

NADIA HELD ON to Karel’s hips as he guided his motorbike toward the center of Chernobyl. Despite the urgency of the situation, she couldn’t stop thinking about Damian’s revelation that her father had lied about his past. He was a thief, not a war hero. The freedom-fighter image she’d romanticized was just a figment of her imagination.

Much to Nadia’s surprise, however, it didn’t bother her. Her mother was right. Her father had moved to America. He gave her citizenship and set an example by working tirelessly collecting garbage for the City of Hartford. He took his family to church almost every Sunday and did his best to be a family man, even if it was clear it gave him no joy. So what if he had a past? So what if he wasn’t a doting father? He hadn’t been part of the stolen-art and antiquities ring she’d uncovered in Hartford. Wasn’t that evidence he’d changed?

Not only did Damian’s revelation about her father not disturb her, his proclamation that she was a thief’s daughter felt strangely empowering. Perhaps if her father hadn’t changed and become a better man, her new identity would have bothered her. Instead, much to her own surprise, Nadia hung on to Karel loosely, comfortable in the moment, more confident she could outwit any adversary who tried to prevent her from getting to New York with the formula.

It was only 2:15, but the sky looked like dusk. Purple clouds swirled overhead. A squall had given way to a steady rain. Karel skidded and slid along the path from Oksana’s house, kicking mud onto their pant legs, his headlight barely illuminating the way. When they emerged on the main road, Nadia pulled a hand away from his waist to wipe rain from her eyes.

A clap of thunder erupted. The gate to the power station lifted. A truck passed through. Seven others waited in a queue to enter. A guard studied a driver’s papers beneath the hood of a poncho pulled down low. Derricks and cranes working on the shelter grumbled and groaned above the din of the bike’s engine and the relentless patter of rain.

Karel circled to the edge of forest at the far side of the station. He sliced through another muddy path toward the thicket of trees from which Nadia had emerged last night. Halfway down, one of the trees seemed to step forward into their path. Nadia shook the rain out of her eyes and looked again.

It was Hayder. He held the same covered carrier in his right hand.

Karel pulled up twenty feet away from him, as though he wanted privacy. Nadia climbed off the bike. Her hiking shoes sank in the mud.

“We will probably see each other again someday, yes?” he said.

Nadia hesitated. “Yes,” she said, smiling once she realized what he needed to hear. “I’m sure we will.”

“You are a poor liar, but thank you for trying.” He squinted. “Is there something you can share with a humble zoologist before you leave?”

“Such as?”

“You had a glint in your eye when you came out of Damian’s bedroom this morning.”

“I did?”

“Yes. You did. What did he tell you?”

“It was a family matter.”

Karel arched an eyebrow. “A family matter?” He revved the engine. “Come, now. You can tell me. He has the formula, doesn’t he? Did he give it to you? Are you taking it with you to the West?”

Nadia smiled. “Karel, I can tell you with one hundred percent honesty that I have only one formula in my possession. It’s the one I was born with, for getting into constant trouble.”

He studied her. “You have this talent for lying yet telling the truth at the same time. Somehow, it makes all your lies even more beguiling.”

“I have to go. I couldn’t have made it through the night without you. Thank you, Karel. Thank you so much.”

Nadia kissed him three times on the cheeks.

Karel nodded. “It was animal attraction from the beginning for you, too, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, yes.” She puckered her lips and blew him a kiss without her hands.

“Good-bye, Nadia Panya.”

Karel took off. Nadia sloshed down the path toward Hayder. She hadn’t given Anton much lead time. She’d called two hours ago asking for help. Hayder wasn’t pleased to have dropped everything to come get her out of the Zone. He looked like a king cobra ready to strike.

“This is what’s wrong with your fucking country,” he said, shaking his index finger when she was within earshot. “You think the whole world revolutions around you.”

Nadia stopped in her tracks, rainwater trickling down her nose. The bicycles rested on a clearing beside him.

“Excuse me?” she said.

“You couldn’t call Anton earlier to make the arrangements? You couldn’t call earlier this morning?”

“I know. I’m sorry. I was indisposed.”

“In what?”

“Indisposed. Busy—”

“You couldn’t wait for the storm to pass? You couldn’t get laid low for a while?”

“No. I’m sorry. I need to leave now. It’s important—”

“What’s so important? What? It’s urgent, Anton. Come get me. It is the matter of life and the death, Anton. Whose life and death? Yours? What makes you so special?”

“I know. It was inconsiderate. I apologize, Hayder. I’m in your debt.”

“Yurdet? What is this place? I am not familiar with it.”

“Your debt. I owe you.”

“Damn right you owe me.” He nodded at the carrier in his right hand. “Lucky for you, I transplant my business to an earlier time. Lucky for you, my business people are stand-up. Like your Martin Luther King and Chuck Norris. Not many stand-up Americans, but there’s two of them. Okay, we go now.”

Hayder strapped his carrier to the back of a bicycle and climbed aboard. Nadia followed him. The dense canopy of trees provided some relief from the rain. Traction was better than during the trip from Oksana’s house. When they arrived at the fifteen-kilometer fence, a truck was waiting for them on the opposite side. The driver, however, was not Volodya.

Hayder stepped off his bike. Nadia followed his lead.

“Stay here,” he said with a cautious edge. “I don’t know this guy. It is not the same truck. Volodya drove me here. Volodya should be here. I go, check it out, be right back. You watch my box for me, okay?”

“Okay,” Nadia said.

Hayder pulled the wire fence open and slipped through it. The driver rolled down the window, but Hayder motioned for him to step outside. At first, the driver refused, but Hayder insisted. A hairy brute donned a baseball cap that matched his camouflage uniform and stepped out of the vehicle. They began to speak in earnest, the woolly mammoth and the cobra.

Nadia’s eyes fell to Hayder’s crate. What was inside? Last night she had assumed it was the tranquilized lynx, headed to a private zoo or, heaven forbid, a taxidermist. Was it another exotic animal? A different species of wild cat? Growing up, Nadia loved wild cats. The cougar and the cheetah were her favorites. Whatever was inside wasn’t moving. What was the harm in taking a peek?

Nadia glanced at Hayder. He was still in the middle of an animated conversation. She looked down at the crate. Saw the hinges on one side and the small clasp below it. Flicked the clasp and lifted the top before she could change her mind.

The three sides of the crate were reinforced with steel, as was the cover. A large metal object lay inside. It had a six-inch diameter. It looked like a motor of some kind. Beside it were two metal rods. Rigid steel dividers kept all three items from touching each other.

Nadia closed the box and secured the clasp. She looked up.

Hayder was running toward her through the rain, left arm extended, gun pointed at her face.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he said, bug-eyed with disbelief.