Stephen Burke: The Reluctant Contact

Timur was so pleased with himself that at first he did not notice Catherine entering the room behind him. When he did, his smile disappeared. She looked at his gun, but he kept it pointed at Yuri and Grigory.

‘Catherine,’ he said. ‘It would be better if you left now. I will explain all of this later.’

‘I think you should go too,’ said Yuri.

Catherine looked from Timur to Grigory, and then Yuri. She did not say a word. Just stared at them all in turn. Finally, her eyes returned to Timur.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

‘These men are criminals,’ he said. ‘They need to face justice.’

‘Like you gave Semyon,’ said Yuri.

Catherine studied Timur’s reaction, and then she looked over at Yuri again. He saw her glance at a typewriter on the table nearest the door. She turned and nodded to Timur, and walked towards the door.

Yuri dropped his arms.

‘Hey,’ said Timur. ‘Did I say you could do that? Hands back in the air.’

Yuri did not budge.

‘Did you hear what I said, hands up,’ said Timur.

Catherine grabbed the typewriter and raised it above her head, before bringing it down hard on the back of Timur’s left shoulder with one swift movement. Timur staggered sideways but didn’t fall, nor did he drop his gun. He elbowed Catherine in the face as she reached for his arm. Then he raised his revolver once more. The sound of a silenced gunshot was followed by an unnatural breath from Timur. Blood spread across his shirt, from a bullet hole in the dead centre of his chest. He dropped his gun first, then he followed it to the ground. Yuri looked from him to Grigory. The party man had impressed him with the speed with which he had retrieved his gun from the top drawer of his desk. He only had time for one shot, and he had not hesitated.

Catherine knelt down beside Timur and checked him for signs of life. When she could see there were none, she turned her face away.

‘I thought you were not that sort of spy,’ said Yuri.

Grigory laid the gun and silencer flat on his desk. ‘I’m not. I’ve never killed anyone before. He is the first.’

Grigory rubbed his hands together. Yuri could see they were shaking.

‘Hopefully, you will never have to do it again,’ said Yuri. He turned to Catherine. ‘You all right?’ he asked.

She was standing now and seemed to be in a state of confusion.

‘He would have done the same to us,’ said Yuri. ‘And he wouldn’t have given it a second thought. One man is already dead because of him. And maybe one woman too.’

Catherine looked at him, and nodded her head. He could see there were tears in her eyes.

‘Tell Grigory he’ll be fine over there in the west. Won’t he? He has to go, and today.’

He wanted her to lie to Grigory, whatever the truth was. Catherine hesitated a moment. She stared down at Timur’s body again.

‘Tell him, please,’ Yuri repeated.

She pulled her eyes away and Yuri saw a coldness in them that he had never seen before.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘They will look after you, Grigory, I’m sure. You don’t have to worry.’

‘How would she know?’ said Grigory. ‘She doesn’t know anything about these things.’

Catherine did not take offence, if she heard him at all. She turned her gaze away from the body of her former lover, and she did not look at him again.

‘I am too old to be going to the west,’ protested Grigory. ‘I’m retired.’

‘You’ll be dead before the year is out, if you don’t,’ said Yuri. ‘Is that what you want? Plus, they’ll want to know everything you’ve done for the last thirty years, and they won’t mind how they get that information out of you. You get the picture. It won’t be pretty, Grigory. It’s up to you.’

Grigory nodded reluctantly. He was trapped and he knew it, with only one way out.

‘Same plan,’ said Yuri. ‘Except you’re going, not Anya.’

He picked up the gun off the table and stuffed it into Grigory’s pocket. ‘Here, you might need to point that at someone.’

‘What about him?’ asked Catherine, nodding at the body on the floor. ‘You’re not going to just leave him here.’

Timur had become as much of a problem in death as he had been in life. Yuri turned to Catherine, and he saw that she knew what he was thinking.

‘No,’ she said, shaking her head.

Grigory looked confused. ‘What is it?’

‘The coal furnace at the power station,’ he explained. ‘It’s the same as cremation. And he’ll be gone in minutes. No evidence. No one will ever know what happened to him.’

‘No,’ insisted Catherine. ‘We’ve done enough to him already. I am not doing that.’

Yuri was surprised to see that her feelings for Timur had been genuine.

‘Besides,’ said Grigory. ‘There are people here old enough to know what that smell is.’

‘Fine,’ said Yuri, throwing his arms out. ‘What then?’

‘I’ll take him with me,’ said Grigory. ‘I’ll find a place to leave him on the way. Is that acceptable to you?’

Catherine nodded her agreement.

‘How is that better?’ asked Yuri. ‘And it doubles our chances of getting caught.’

‘It’s decided,’ said Grigory. ‘As you said, there’s no time to argue.’

Yuri accepted the will of the majority even though he thought they were both idiots.

Catherine kept watch in the corridor as Yuri and Grigory carried Timur’s lifeless body out the office door. They rested him on the floor while Yuri opened the back window at the end of the corridor, and then they pushed him out. The corpse fell twelve feet and hit the ground with a dull thud, cushioned by a deep layer of fresh snow.

Catherine looked at them angrily.

‘It’s not hurting him now,’ said Yuri.

Timur rolled once on the incline and Yuri saw that the snow was already stained red where he had landed. All traces would have to be removed before they moved on.

‘Get whatever you need,’ Yuri said to Grigory, ‘and meet me out front in ten minutes. And remember, you need to stay light, so none of your books. I’ll look after them.’

‘What will I need, do you think?’ asked Grigory.

‘I don’t know,’ said Yuri. ‘Imagine you are going on a two-week holiday.’

Grigory nodded. ‘Thank you for this, Yuri.’

‘My pleasure,’ said Yuri. ‘Doing this never made any sense to me until today. Now hurry.’

Grigory left, passing Catherine, who was still standing at the door of the office.

‘I need you to do something else for me,’ said Yuri. ‘A last favour.’

‘What?’ asked Catherine.

‘I need you to keep Anya out of the way. We can’t have her talking to anyone else about this until Grigory’s well away from Pyramiden.’

‘I can do that,’ said Catherine. ‘But I get the feeling she’s not interested in any of us.’

‘You’re probably right,’ said Yuri. ‘She never was. But just to be sure.’

No one would accuse Anya of doing what she did for ideological motives. It had been a purely personal revenge. So hopefully they could count on her silence about Grigory, since there was no benefit for her in betraying him.

There was no reason for anyone to walk through the thick snow behind the building. Yuri knew he would have some time to get organised. Just to be safe, though, he covered Timur’s body in a tarpaulin. Then he piled snow on top of it. He kicked away the bloodstains where the body had hit the ground. When he was finished he walked around to the other side of the building. Catherine was keeping watch across the street. He waved to her that all was well, and she walked off to find Anya.

Yuri collected the keys to both snowmobiles. Luckily, none of the researchers had needed to take them out that day. He did not want to have to postpone Grigory’s departure for any reason.