man out from three directions at once. Do you ever stop talking long enough to give a body time to think?”
“Don’t be cocky with me, Nikolai. You may be ahead of Grigoriy in field-stripping weapons, but yer jist as lackin’ in political science.”
“It all boils down to power,” Nik said. “Those that don’t have it, want it. Those that have it, want to keep it. What’s not understood?”
“How to share it, that’s what’s elusive,” Haimish said with authority.
“In Russia the Czar rules with the advice of the Duma—which means he rules as he wishes. But he really isn’t the power, he’s only the figurehead.”
Grisha pulled off the blindfold in exasperation and threw it on the table. He quickly reassembled the weapon and pulled the trigger. The hollow clack. filled the small room.
“Who rules in Russia if not the Czar or the Duma?”
“The bureaucracy, the system itself, is the power in Russia. The Russian Amerika Company, the army, the navy, the foreign service, cultural affairs, even the Cossacks, are all part of this huge mechanism continually fighting itself for dominance and it grinds up people like us to feed itself. Other countries have the same sort of mechanisms but wi’ different names.”
“What would be different about this ‘Dena Republic’ you keep nattering about?” Nik asked.
“Nattering, is it? The Dena Republic would borrow from every other republic in North America. But it would borrow only the best parts from each. Secret ballots, representational governments, an elected congress, absolute limits to elected terms, a separate, powerful judicial system, I could go on and on.”
“We know!” Grisha and Nik said together.
“But who decides which parts to borrow, to keep?” Grisha asked.
“We all do,” Haimish said with a wide grin, “by consensus.”
“Everybody just works together with no strife,” Nik asked.
“It’s not quite that simple. There will be political parties, and factions within those also.”
“Then why do we need to learn about weapons and bombs?”
“Because a lot of people don’t agree with Haimish,” Nik said dryly.
“Now you’re catching on.”
“But, Haimish,” Grisha said. “Have you seen Tetlin Redoubt? Or St. Nicholas? Or even Akku Redoubt? How can a handful of escaped convicts, deserters, and Indians beat that?”
“I wish you’d stop calling me that,” Nik said.
“To answer your first question, yes. I haven’t personally seen the fortresses in Russian Amerika, but I have seen photographs of them. Very detailed photographs, I might add.”
“So—”
“Wait, let me finish. We don’t necessarily attack them frontally, nor do we attack them all. We pick a number of weak targets, go in, destroy them, and be gone before they know we’re there.”
“Just—”
“I’m still not finished. We pick targets that have high international visibility. Odious targets, like slave camps, or prisons. We make sure there are foreign journalists in every location.”
“They don’t let foreign journalists into the country.” Grisha felt smug.
Nik shook his head. “You haven’t witnessed the ‘New Freedom’ proclaimed by international treaty. In Alexandr Archipelago alone there are nearly a dozen foreign journalists. The Russian Amerika Company wishes to make riches off our southern neighbors in the form of tourism.”
Haimish waved his arms around when agitated or excited. Now he appeared to be trying to fly. His face reflected an inner fire.
“They call this the ‘last frontier,’ wilderness unspoiled by man. That appeals to those in the North American Treaty Organization. They are crowded down there compared to the vastness of Alaska.”
“We’re going to attack prisons for tourists?” Grisha felt baffled.
“We are going to attack prisons because they are used to subjugate the people of the Dena Republic. If visitors are close and see the event, it will be widely talked about. If some of the prisoners escape, we have new recruits. Either way, the press will report it to their readers, and their governments. We will build international consensus to create a new republic.”
“So you believe the Czar will give up the Dena Republic just so tourists will spend rubles in what’s left of Russian Amerika?” Nik asked. His tone reeked with hostility.
“Nik, what’s wrong?” Grisha asked. “It really doesn’t sound all that far-fetched if you think about it.”
“They’ll send the Cossacks and
Grisha gave Haimish a beseeching look. “What brought that on?”
“I don’t know. But he’s right. They will do that, you know, if they can. We have to pick our targets carefully and hit them all at the same time. The Russians can’t be everywhere at once with a large army.”
“Fragment them!” Grisha said. “Take bites and chew them up.”
“Yes,” said Haimish. “Now it’s time to master the bow.”
“Bows and arrows?”
“Exactly. They are deadly and quiet.” Out of a rubberized bag Haimish pulled a common recurve bow. “This is our most efficient weapon. It’s light, accurate at long distance in the hands of an expert, and absolutely silent.”
“We never used these in the Troika Guard,” Grisha said, running his hands over the smooth wood. “But we used pretty much everything else.”
Haimish stared at him. “You were in the Troika Guard?”
“Ten years and a few months. Didn’t Nathan tell you?”
“Nathan never tells me anything, him and his ‘shaman of mystery’ crap.”
“Okay, let’s go play with this and I’ll tell you about my military career.”
Haimish glanced at his wrist watch. “Too close to lunch. Let’s go eat first.”
The main hall swarmed with people. The rich aroma of salmon stew and baked bread filled the air. Nik and Cora sat at a small table in one corner, talking intently.
Wing’s return seemed to trigger a realization in Cora. She and Nik now spent a great deal of time together, their mutual attraction obvious to all. Yet Nik appeared to be more tense than ever.
At first Grisha escaped their notice, and he wondered if he should impose on their conversation. Then Cora glanced up and saw him. She energetically waved him to their table.
Nik glanced up at him and then resumed talking. Grisha could tell by the way Nik hunched over that his friend was in a serious mood. Feeling reluctant, Grisha went to the table.
“… the thing is either important or it’s not,” Nik said to Cora.
“That’s all I have to say.”
Cora looked up. “Would you sit with us for a minute, Grisha?”
He sat down and smiled at her. “How are you?”
“I feel really good,” she said. “I got good friends, and I’m attracted to a good man, despite the fact that he doesn’t want to live with me.”
“I do want to live with you,” Nik said, “as man and wife.”
“What do you think, Grisha?” she asked. “Should a man and woman have to marry to share their lives?”
He shielded his chest with his hands. “You’re talking to someone whose wife left him for another man, and whose new companion got him thirty years hard labor for something she did. I think maybe you’re talking to the wrong Ivan.”
“I accept your reservations,” she said. “Now answer the question.”
Nik hid behind a flat stare and tightly crossed arms over his chest.
“Okay. After pointing out you two haven’t known each other very long, I guess the first question would be, how long do these two plan to share their lives?”
“Exactly!” Nik said with a fierce grin.
“I don’t see what that has to do with it,” Cora said at the same time.
