prisoners. He kept his questions simple. He asked Bela where the women and children had gone. He asked Horvath where Juli Popovics was. He repeated the questions loudly and clearly. When he received nothing more than a sneer from Horvath, he smashed the barrel of the pistol across Horvath’s face.
“Stop!” shouted Bela.
“No!” said Horvath. “Say nothing.” Then to Komarov, Horvath said, “You’ve got me. Let him go. He has nothing to do with this.”
“Your accomplice is still on the loose,” said Komarov. “These people were obviously prepared to hide you. Was your sister-in-law also involved in Chernobyl sabotage? Did she run away because she has something to hide? Technical knowledge of exactly how her husband caused the accident and how he’d planned to escape? Only he didn’t escape! And now…”
“You’re insane!” shouted Horvath.
Komarov hit Horvath with his pistol again. And when Horvath appeared to lose consciousness, he hit Bela.
“Tell me where they are!” repeated Komarov over and over.
“Tell me where they are!”
When Komarov felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned and saw Brovko staring at him.
“Major, I think it’s time to stop. It’s almost dawn.”
“What do I care what time it is?”
“I thought you might have lost track of time. It’s been a long night. The men are still outside and…”
“The men? You have the nerve to defend idiots who let women and children escape from under their noses?”
“I’m not defending them, Major. I was simply wondering how long this will go on.”
“It will go on, Captain, until these traitors tell me what I need to know or until their faces are changed into borscht.”
“I’m sorry, Major, I don’t understand why we need the women and children. We’ve got Horvath. Nothing has been proven. We should take Horvath back to Kiev now and…”
“Captain! Perhaps you would like to speak directly to Vladimir Kryuchkov at the Lubyanka in Moscow after we leave this cesspool of a farm and find out who is in control!”
Brovko spoke calmly. “I was not aware your authority reached such high levels, Major. Of course, you are in control.”
Komarov turned around, saw both Horvath and Bela looking at him. Both had heard his officer question his actions. Instead of shooting Horvath, the men had let him get inside. Then Brovko had hurried in, interrupting his chance to shoot Horvath and have it appear he was defending himself. No one had been killed. But if there were an escape attempt…
“You may go now, Captain.”
“You don’t want me to stay?”
“Correct. Please leave immediately.”
Komarov turned, watched Brovko move for the door. He released the safety on Detective Horvath’s pistol. As he aimed at Brovko’s back, he wondered if he would be able to unlock Horvath’s handcuffs before any other men arrived. He wondered if he would have time to make it look like an escape attempt. During his moment of hesitation, the door opened inward, causing Brovko to step back.
Nikolai Nikolskaia stood in the doorway, staring at the pistol aimed at Brovko’s back.
Komarov lowered the pistol, spun around, and fired all eight rounds at the feet of Horvath and Bela. When it was over, no one had been hit, but Bela was weeping.
Komarov turned back to Brovko and Nikolskaia. “I hope I did not frighten you. I simply wanted the traitors to know that I am serious!”
Because cars and a van were parked in front of the house, Juli went off the road and climbed the remainder of the hill through the weeds.
When she got closer, she saw several men near the cars. There was also a man at the side of the house, and one in back.
Maybe Lazlo hadn’t arrived yet. Or maybe he had arrived and had been able to kill Komarov. If so he would have had to escape, unless…
No. Lazlo would have escaped. Lazlo would have shot Komarov and run out the door. But where could he go with all the guards and no place to hide? No place to hide except the wine cellar he had told her about.
Juli raised her head and looked through the weeds, but it was too dark to see the entrance to the wine cellar. Lazlo said it looked like a box, most people never knowing it was a cellar at all. If she went to the back of the house, away from the men at the cars, she might be able to see the wine-cellar entrance, or she might be able to see into a back window.
As she crawled, she saw the man at the front of the house go to the door. The door opened, and light swept across the yard. She crawled faster.
Suddenly gunshots erupted in the house, one after another. The men out front and the men at the back and sides of the house ran toward it. Not knowing what else to do, Juli ran into the backyard.
Then she saw it, a box shaped like a coffin. She hid behind the box for a moment, felt along its edge, pushed up one side, then the other.
She lifted the edge of the box, glancing to the house, where two men with rifles stood in the doorway looking in. She lifted the lid of the box farther, felt for the ladder, and started down. As she eased the lid closed, she could see the men with rifles through the crack.
They turned and spread out, going back to their positions.
The cellar was darker than the night had been, but it was warmer.
When she reached the bottom of the ladder, she stepped off onto soft earth. She turned away from the ladder and stood perfectly still.
After a while she heard a sound, something like an animal feeding.
She thought of rats, and a chill went through her. She thought of Lazlo. Lazlo could be here hiding.
“Is anyone here?” she whispered.
“Who are you?” It was a woman’s voice.
“My name is Juli. Have you seen Lazlo Horvath?”
“My God!” whispered the woman harshly. “Lazlo is in the house where the shots came from! He’s with Bela! Tell me they’re all right!
Tell me they’ve escaped from the madman!”
“I don’t know,” said Juli. “I was coming up to the house when I heard the shots.”
Juli moved closer to the woman’s voice. She heard a murmur. A baby! Lazlo had said Mariska had a baby.
“Did Lazlo tell you about the wine cellar?” A voice from Juli’s left, a different woman.
“Yes.” Juli knew she did not have to ask, but she did anyway.
“Who are you?”
“I am Nina Horvath, Juli. You must recognize my voice.”
Juli backed away, found the ladder, sat on the dirt floor, and wept.
33
The cellar, at first warm in contrast to the cold night, soon felt like a tomb. The tomb was damp and cold, conspiring with Nina Horvath to make Juli feel as though she should die. This was the place Mihaly and Lazlo had spoken of, the wine cellar deep in the ground behind the house, the wine cellar with its wine-cellar smell making tears seem bitter and self-serving.
After Juli’s arrival, she heard Mihaly’s daughters whispering to their mother, asking who this woman was. “She’s a friend of Uncle Lazlo,” Nina had said. “Now be still, little dears. Try to sleep. Soon it will be a new day, and we’ll be out in the sun.”
