longest to boil, then with knives to carve off the limbs. Roman sliced open the back to reveal a glistening sheet of fatback, and Maria and her friends scurried with plastic pails in anticipation of a year's hams, sausages, smoked fat.
Blue shadows had covered the village by the time the work was done, and Arkady and Zhenya had changed clothes and washed for the ride back to the airport. By the time everyone had kissed and had their farewell sit, a winter evening had settled in. So, into the car, Arkady and Eva in front, Zhenya in back, all waving to faces in the headlights. A bounce in reverse before finding the ruts that led like rails to the main road. A final burst of leave- taking and then they were free.
They could have been floating. On an overcast night in the Zone, there was no star, no lamp, no other traffic, only their headlights groping in a void. He looked at Eva. She reached to hold his hand and say, 'Thank you.' For what, he hardly dared say. He stole a glance in the rearview mirror. Zhenya sat straighter, as if he had shoulders.
Finding and following the road took all their concentration.
Dazzling crystals rushed to the windshield. Beads of light swirled around the car, tugged on the doors and beat against the windows.
No one slept, and no one said a word.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people generously offered knowledge and insight during the writing of this book.
In the United States, Jerry English, Victoria Bonnell and Grisha Freiden. In Moscow, Boris Rudenko; Detective Colonel Alexander Yakovlev and Anton; Colonel Vladimir Stoupin, commander of Butyrka Prison; Barsukova Mitrofanovna of the 'Otradnoya' children's shelter; Alexei Klyashtorin, radioecologist; Andre Gertsev; Lena Godina; the journalists Masha Lipman, Andrew Jack and Yulia Latynina; Galina Vinogradova and, virtually every step of the way, Luba Vinogradova. In Chernobyl, Tania D'Avignon; Nastia and Nicolai; Alexander Teplov and Kyril Otradnov; militia station commander Colonel L. P. Korolchuk; and Rabbi Yakov Bleich, High Rabbi of the Ukraine. From Israel, Aharon Grundman.
Knox Burger and Kitty Sprague, Luisa Cruz Smith and Ellen Branco read draft after draft. Nevertheless, there will be errors and for them I claim sole credit.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Martin Cruz Smith's novels include
