Robert Thomas - The Bear - Red Star Rising

“We’ll only be a few minutes.”

“More police,” he said as he tilted his head to the right.

“We’re just an ordinary couple. Nothing more.”

“We know that, but do they know that? Who knows what was passed along to whom? A gunfight in the middle of the city and no one reports it to the police? I’d rather be suspicious.”

“Point taken,” she replied.

The train pulled in, its doors letting go of a flood of passengers. This was their ticket out, their first stop on the way home. Ivan stood as another pair of police walked to the doors and stood beside the train. They weren’t paying attention to those getting off the train.

“It’s show-time, girlfriend.”

Ivan stood, hoisting his pack again on his shoulder. Polina stood and placed her arm around his waist again. She tugged on his coat sleeve and he bent down to be rewarded with a quick kiss on the lips.

“Got to play the part, right?”

Ivan grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. Her show gave him a new sense of security. They were just a young couple out for an adventure, out to see the world. They waited until a few moved in front and tried to blend in with the crowd, as much as a six foot seven inch man can do in public. As they made the door, Ivan ducked as he nodded toward the policeman, who simply stared at him, then looked away.

The train station faded into the background as Anya accelerated into the growing traffic. The lights of the city only foreshadowed the coming morning. As Anya looked into her mirror, the tell-tale embers of mornings first light were tapping the horizon. She swerved abruptly as another vehicle cut her off.

“Ohhh. Can you stay in one lane?”

“Sorry Danil. Just trying to get used to Russian drivers.”

“How you feeling?” Sasha asked.

“Not too bad, considering. Although I really don’t know how I should feel after being shot.”

“The bleeding seems to have stopped. You did a good job on that, Anya.”

“I had some training, Sasha. Best I could do under the circumstances.” She looked up into the mirror again and tried to find Sasha’s face. “What do we do now?”

“We can’t leave on public transportation like we hoped. Not like this, anyway.” He looked over to Danil who leaned against the seat with his eyes closed. It looks like our last resort is our best option.”

“The plane? He can’t pilot a plane in that condition.”

“Well, we sure can’t drive out of Russia.”

“I can fly that plane in my sleep.”

“I don’t doubt that, Danil, but being wounded does funny things to a person. I don’t know that we can take that chance,” Sasha replied.

“I don’t know that we have another option. Get me behind the wheel of that thing and I’ll get us out of here.”

“At least no one knows about the place,” Anya noted. “That gives us a leg up.”

“A leg up. Funny,” Danil chuckled. “Oww, that hurt. Why does a leg hurt when you laugh?”

“I sure as hell hope they don’t know about the farm. If Donald is tied up with them, seeing his body with three bullets in his back may give them some ideas. We’ve been under the illusion that Donald was a lone wolf. That might be completely false. They may have their own team on the way.”

“Something we have to take into account,” Sasha replied. “How long till we make the farm?”

“About an hour, give or take. I have no idea on earth what traffic will be like.”

“But we’ll be heading out while others head in to the city.”

“It works that way in America. Maybe here too. Who knows,” Anya replied.

As the sun wandered over the horizon, with first light breaking the skyline to the east, Anya eased up on the accelerator. Traffic seemed to be lighter on their side of the road, something she was grateful for. She didn’t want to risk getting a speeding ticket, ‘or whatever the hell happens over here’, she thought. She was sure Moscow had their own brand of rogue cops and sure as hell, it would happen to them. She decided the best course of action was to keep her eyes on the road and obey the laws as best she could understand them. She looked in the mirror again, finding Sasha’s face in the reflection. He was looking out the window, watching the city pass by, obviously deep in thought. She found Danil resting his head on the seat. He was asleep. ‘Less than an hour’, she told herself.

The large grouping of trees that signaled the beginning of the lane leading to the farm seemed to spring out of nowhere. She had been daydreaming. She scanned the snow-covered fields as they closed the distance. Nothing was in sight. It would be a beautiful place in the summer. Her thoughts took her back to her home town and the care-free days of her youth. The city was her life, but she often wondered what life would have been like in small-town USA. She slowed but kept going, looking down the lane as she passed. The acceleration woke Sasha from a nodding sleep.

“What?”

“Tire tracks in the snow up the lane.”

“Not ours?”

“I don’t think so. There are two sets. One out, which would be ours… “

“And one in,” Sasha replied.

“What now?”

“There’s a back way in, an old gravel road that leads in from the west side of the property. It’ll take us a few minutes to get there, but we might be able to sneak in on their flank.”

“Spoken like a true infantryman, Major.” Anya turned toward the rear seat. “We can’t just jump on board the plane and fly it out of here.”

“Why not?”

“I thought you were asleep,” Anya said as she looked at Danil.

“Just resting.”

“Because they’d be on us like maggots, and we sure can’t drag you into a firefight. Not like this, anyway.”

“I can hold my own,” Danil replied as he looked at Sasha. “I can still hold a gun.”

“Get on down the road, Anya. Let me think about this for a minute.”

The car pulled in before an old gate that looked like it hadn’t been opened in years. It was nearly buried in a snow drift, its wooden rails split and rotted. Sasha opened the car door and pushed through the snow to the gate. Its end posts were overgrown with thick bushes that did not look like they had been tended to in decades. At least that’s what it seemed. Sasha reached for the gate to pull it through the snow, but the rails simply pulled out of their sockets. He shrugged as he threw them one by one into the snow.

“I hope this car can clear the drifts,” Anya said as Sasha slid in beside her in the front seat.

“I hope so too. At least it’s quiet.”

“Do you know how far this takes us in?”

“Not a clue.”

“Donald told me about this way in. I don’t think he meant to. It might have been just a slip, something he didn’t think was important.”

“So, what are we going to do?”

“Get as close to the plane as you can. Since the path was cleared in case we needed it, we’re ready to go.” Sasha looked at Danil, who looked exhausted. “You’ve preflighted everything?”

“Did it two days ago. This plane won’t need a long stretch to get off the ground, so the original idea should still work.”

“Should?” Sasha’s face showed surprise at the remark.

“We hadn’t planned on new snow. It isn’t much, but it does put a new layer beneath the wheels.”

“Oh. Hadn’t thought of that. Think we can still make it?”

“No guarantees,” Danil said as he leaned forward. “Just get me to it.”

Anya pulled through the snow, the bottom of the car scraping out and clearing a path as they went. She pulled up behind the building furthest from the farmhouse and cut the engine. Sasha helped Danil from the rear seat and pulled his arm around his neck while Anya gathered their weapons. Three minutes later, Danil was perched behind the wheel of the Cessna, his face bathed in sweat.