Orest Stelmach - The Boy from Reactor 4

“Good. Listen to me, Bella. Be good. Do whatever they tell you to do, and don’t show them any of your sass. Do you hear me, Isabella?”

She didn’t answer. By the time Kirilo realized the line had gone dead, Victor had already stretched his hand out to retrieve the phone. Kirilo gave it to him.

“You didn’t have a phone before,” Kirilo said. “You were worried I’d take it from you, triangulate the number you called, and find her. But you’re not worried anymore.”

“The boys are expecting me to call every hour on the hour from now on,” Victor said. “And you’re in my country now.”

“Yes, we’re in your country now. So why don’t you just let her go?”

“Soon, cousin. Soon.”

An airline employee announced that the flight to New York City would begin boarding in half an hour.

“You have her residence under surveillance right now?” Kirilo said.

“Yes, but she won’t go there. That would be too obvious.”

“Where will she go?”

“The question isn’t where she’s going. We can’t even be sure she’s going to New York. The question is, who does she trust? The question is, who’s going to know where she’s going?”

“Why do I feel as though you’re saving the best for last?”

“He wears his hair in an elastic band like a schoolgirl, is built like a man who worked the docks, and dresses like an Italian fashion designer.”

“What is this abomination’s name?”

“He calls himself Johnny Tanner, and I’m going to make him my willing accomplice.”

AS SOON AS she stepped foot in Robert Seelick’s house, Nadia called Johnny Tanner.

“How are you? Where are you?” Johnny said.

“That’s not important,” Nadia said. “I need you to do something for me and not ask questions.”

“Shoot.”

“I need you to find a biologist in or around New York City. A radiobiologist would be even better. Private sector or academic. But not a government employee. You hear me? He can’t be a government employee.”

“I hear you. What am I supposed to tell this guy?”

“That you have a friend in possession of a scientific formula with epic ramifications. And she’ll only reveal it to an American man of science. Can you sell that, Johnny?”

“I’ll try.”

“You have to do more than try. You have to make it happen. I need to go directly from the airport to a meeting with him as soon as I land.”

“When will that be?”

“Wednesday morning. I’ll call you back with the details when I have them.”

After she hung up, Nadia whispered to Adam, “Locket?”

He nodded confidently and pulled it out from under his shirt to show her.

That evening, Robert’s wife served a dinner of caribou steak, steamed vegetables, bannock bread, and frozen berries. She was a slight woman, with lithe features and a kind face. After dinner, they sat in the living room and had coffee, tea, milk, and fresh chocolate chip–walnut cookies.

“In Inupiat culture,” Robert said, “there is a supreme being called Silap Inua , but there is no afterlife. Instead, Inupiat believe that, after spending some time in limbo, the soul of a deceased is reincarnated in the body of a newborn infant.”

He paused for Nadia to translate for Adam from English to Ukrainian.

“There was a boy in our village some years ago named Aagayuk,” Robert said. “He vanished when he was two. He may have been kidnapped, he may have wandered off and drowned accidentally. No one ever figured it out. He had a lot of energy and showed promise to be a good hunter. He would have been seventeen in September if he were still alive. How old are you, Adam?”

“Sixteen,” Nadia said. She translated for Adam.

“Sixteen,” Robert said, nodding. “This boy’s parents, the Kungenooks, were older when they had their child. They lived in a nearby village and were close friends of ours. They’ve also died since then. They had no other children.”

Robert coughed to clear his throat while Nadia translated. When she was done, he opened the manila envelope.

“This is your new birth certificate,” he said, handing Adam a letter with a raised stamp on it. “And this is your Social Security card. A death certificate was never issued. This will allow you to travel to the Lower Forty-Eight with Nadia. You are under eighteen. No photo ID is required.”

Adam reached for the papers.

“There is one thing you must do first, though,” Robert said. “You must choose an Anglo name. It can be the name of any person that you admire.”

Nadia translated.

Adam appeared flustered for a moment. “Can I use your name, Uncle?” he said. “Can I be Robert, too?”

Robert didn’t need a translation.

“Robert was my father’s name. He chose it because it was the name of a man he admired very much. It was a man he worked for as a member of his campaign for president of the United States. This man’s name was Robert Kennedy. He was the brother of the former president John Kennedy. Will you remember that name, Robert Kennedy? Will you promise to learn more about him in America?”

Nadia translated. Adam nodded eagerly.

“Good,” Robert said. “If I am Robert, though, then you should be Bobby. Let it be so, then. From this day forward, you will be known as Aagayuk Bobby Kungenook.”

They started a small bonfire in the backyard and burned Adam’s Ukrainian passports. Robert’s wife trimmed and styled his hair so that it covered his ears seamlessly. Later in the afternoon, they bought him some new clothes in town, including a collared shirt, khaki pants, brown moccasins, sunglasses, and a plain blue baseball cap made of wool. Robert gave him an old navy blazer that was a little too loose in the waist but otherwise fit well. When he tried on his entire ensemble, Adam looked like a college student.

Nadia also bought him a cheap wallet and gave him five twenty-dollar bills to put inside, fresh out of an ATM.

“A young man should always have emergency cash in his pocket,” she said.

Nadia plotted a route back to New York with Robert’s help. After checking flight schedules on his computer, she called Johnny and gave him the details of her arrival. He called her back a few hours later.

“I found your man,” Johnny said. “Professor John Horton, Department of Radiobiology, Columbia University. He lives near the United Nations. We can meet there. In a public place. One thing we haven’t talked about. You realize you’re returning to Victor Bodnar’s home turf, right?”

“It’s my home turf, too. I’m tired of running, and I have nowhere else to go. Besides, I have you, don’t I?”

Johnny remained silent for a moment. “I’m not sure I’m a match for Victor Bodnar, but yes. Yes, you do.”

At 10:00 on Tuesday morning, they said their good-byes at the Kotzebue Airport. The bush pilot, a childhood friend of Robert’s, flew them to Seattle, stopping in Anchorage to refuel along the way. In Seattle, Nadia bought two one-way tickets for the Delta red-eye, Flight 1642, to JFK Airport.

There were no unoccupied adjacent seats in the economy cabin when Nadia booked the flights. When they got on board, she put Adam in the front so she could keep an eye on him from the other seat fifteen rows back during the flight.

Their cumulative flight time was fourteen hours. With the time change, they arrived at JFK on schedule at 7:13 a.m. on Wednesday. Nadia watched with pride as Adam helped an elderly lady wheel her carry-on off the plane, with his own bags slung over his shoulders. Five minutes later, it was her turn to leave.