spent. He edged through the open door of a cell and flattened against the wall.
They streamed past with no thought other than getting to their wounded comrade. Bear saw Valari as he slipped out behind them. The door creaked as he pushed it open.
Heart-stopping cold swirled around him. St. Anthony Redoubt lay over a hundred kilometers to the southeast. The colonel mentioned an armored column but Bear hadn’t paid attention, his thoughts centering on Chena at the time.
He pulled his parka hood up and thanked the woods spirits the Indian hadn’t cut the buttons off
46
Wing and Karin worked frantically on Nik, trying to staunch the flow of blood. They contained the arm wound, but the chest wound continued to seep. The bubbles around the edges weren’t a good sign, either.
Wing stared at his face and found him staring back at her.
“Not gonna make it, am I?”
“Nik,” she said softly, not wanting to admit even to herself that he was in a bad way.
“’S okay, think I’ll catch up with Cora.” He coughed. She wiped his mouth with her hand and found dark blood mixed with the sputum.
“I thought I hit the bastard!” Grisha said, searching the area with the second lantern. “It was Crepov—I saw him drop.”
“We have to get out of here,” Nathan said. “Can he be carried?”
“How cold is it outside?” she asked.
“About forty below.”
“Why can’t we just stay in here?”
“Whoever shot Nik knows about the back door, Wing,” Nathan said tiredly. “They’ll be back with Russian troops sooner or later.”
“Nathan,” Grisha said from the darkness, “why don’t we post guards and rest for a while. The Russians hit us with planes, not ground troops. Even if they do roll in soon, things have to be crazy up there. They won’t search the ruins until they get reinforcements.”
“
“Okay,” Nathan answered. “You take charge of the guard and I’ll get everyone in here sorted out. By the way, Wing, when you have a minute, I think my arm is broken.”
“Let me see.” She sat back and looked up at him.
“No, you take care of Nik.”
“Nothin’… she can do, for me.” Nik said. “Let ’er… fix it.”
Wing knew Nik was right, but she didn’t say anything. “Let me see your arm.”
Nathan awkwardly slid his coat off. She saw white bone, jagged and sharp, dripping blood, sticking out of his arm.
“My God, you’ve got a compound fracture. Grisha, give me a hand here.”
Grisha moved out of the darkness and she saw tears streaking his face as he stared at Nik. She glanced down at the dying man. Nik’s eyes were closed and his chest shuddered with labored breathing.
“Grisha,” she said softly, “we have to go on or it was all for nothing.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Put your arms around Nathan’s chest. When I say ‘now’ you pull him back a meter—just as hard as you can. Understand?”
“
“Nathan, this is going to hurt, a lot.” She gripped his wrist with both hands. “Now!”
Grisha pulled the slightly taller man completely off his feet as she jerked his wrist in the other direction. The arm straightened with a liquid snap and Nathan silently sagged, a sudden deadweight.
“Lay him down. See if anyone has an emergency medical kit with them.”
Grisha moved off into the gloom and she looked around for something to tie around Nathan’s arm. The leather ties in Nik’s mukluks caught her eye and she pulled them free without hesitation.
For a splint she tied a long fragment of wood to Nathan’s arm. Grisha came back with a medical field kit.
“Give me the syringe,” she said.
He started to hand it to her, then stopped.
“What’s in this?”
“Morphine, I want him to sleep.”
Grisha hesitated. “Nathan has to travel, soon. Why don’t you give it to Nik?” His lower face shone with moisture.
Pulling her gaze from Grisha to look at Nik was one of the hardest things she had ever done in her life. His eyes were still closed and his chest heaved as his drowning lungs tried to process enough oxygen to keep his body functioning.
She remembered how happy he had been with Cora, how radiant the two of them looked when they were together. For both of them to die in such a short space of time broke her heart. She had unconsciously seen them as a test case for her and Grisha.
Abruptly she wondered if that had doomed the couple. For some reason, a spirit or god or something hated her. Violence had taken her husband, then Alex, and now these two beautiful people. She couldn’t endanger Grisha in the same way; it wouldn’t be fair to him.
Nik’s eyes opened and stared at her. “Don’t… waste time…” His chest gurgled with his words. “… waiting. Love him… now.”
“And then he died.
47
Tired of the frigid, icy dungeon, Valari felt it was time to make her move. Amazed at still being alive, she had instantly obeyed every terse order given to her by Jackson. She thought the Indians would kill her when they discovered she had brought death down on them.
Her anger at the command in Tetlin knew no bounds. They had been all too willing to sacrifice her and Crepov in order to kill the rebels. Someone would pay for that, just as this rabble would pay for their treason. She shifted her weight in a vain search for comfort.
Jackson stared fixedly at her and the barrel of the Kalashnikov he held didn’t waver from her chest. She didn’t know him, she reflected. Maybe she could lull him into a mistake and fall for one of the oldest stratagems a woman could use.
Only one other person remained awake, and he sat by the door that led to the frozen forest outside. She turned her attention back to Jackson and smiled tentatively at him.
“It’s a shame we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances, Benny Jackson, you’re a very appealing man.”
“In what way?” he asked quietly.
“You seem so virile.” She hesitated and ran her tongue over her lower lip. “Perhaps we could explore that a little more?”
“What did you have in mind?” His voice remained quiet and controlled.
She slipped off her coat and unbuttoned her wool shirt, watching his eyes for the first sign of lust. As the shirt slid off her shoulders she unhooked the front of her French brassiere and let her breasts swing free. His eyes
