Dictator

14

“Now what do I do?” Wayne shouted over the roar of the engine as he gripped the steering wheel. “This can’t be right! It’s going a little faster, but it doesn’t sound like it did before!” He was driving down a city street now, but much too slowly.

“Push down the clutch again.” As before, Ishihara grabbed his hand over the gearshift and moved it into third gear. Instantly, the engine noise lowered and the car sped up.

“Okay,” Wayne muttered. “I’m getting some idea about how this works now. But where am I going?”

Ishihara pointed into the shadows ahead. “Turn left at the next corner.”

Wayne turned too fast. The tires squealed again and they both were thrown to the right in their seats. He hit the brake and slowed down, belatedly.

“Uh, sorry,” said Wayne. “I’ll need a lot of practice to get this right.” As soon as he had the steering under control again, he pressed the accelerator and sped up.

“Right now, we need to use an evasive pattern,” said Ishihara. “Our hosts are probably telephoning their main office for help right away.”

“Yeah? What are we going to do, then?”

“Once we have put some distance behind us, we can plan where to go. At the moment, however, I suggest you slow down. We do not want to attract attention by going unusually fast.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess not.” Wayne carefully braked slightly. This time the car slowed down smoothly. “There. That wasn’t too bad.”

Ishihara looked around. The streets of Moscow were empty and scoured by the wintry winds. So far, he could see no one following them.

“I am not certain what to recommend now,” said Ishihara. “The NKVD at large, of course, will have the description and license number of this car as soon as the agents call in a report.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Wayne. “Shouldn’t we stop somewhere and leave it behind, then?”

“We can risk using it for a short time. Then, as you say, we must find a place to hide the car. We shall have to flee on foot again after that.”

“Okay,” said Wayne. He clenched the steering wheel hard in both hands, tense with his crash course in learning to drive this vintage vehicle. “Just tell me what to do.”

Steve remained flat on the floor of the warehouse as Hunter toyed with the NKVD agents. When the agents took Hunter out, Steve cautiously sat up. Then Jane and Judy pushed themselves up, too, and looked around.

Most of the weary Russians around them lay back down again to go back to sleep. Some whispered fearfully to each other. A few people lined up for the rest room.

“They’re used to it,” Judy whispered. “That’s the worst part of it.”

“Is that why they’re just going back to sleep?” Jane asked, looking around.

“Yes,” said Judy. “Everyone has become so used to this sort of treatment that they just hope no one is coming for them or their loved ones.”

“That’s horrible,” said Steve.

“Yes, it certainly is. And beyond their own personal safety, the oppression doesn’t matter that much to them anymore. After the back-breaking work they do all day, going back to sleep is enough.”

“I thought they’d come for us, too,” said Judy. “This doesn’t make any sense. The guards at the front must have told them we came in together.”

“I don’t get it, either.” Steve patted the bulge made by the belt device inside his shirt to make sure it was secure. “I’m using the latrine. Be right back.”

He got to his feet and joined the line at the rest room. While he waited there, he kept one arm over the bulge in his shirt to hide it. Before his turn came, the people at the front table turned off the overhead lights, leaving on only a small lamp at their table. Steve relaxed a little, knowing that no one could any longer see him clearly in the shadows.

When Steve finally got inside, he turned on his lapel pin and began whispering. “Hunter, Steve here.”

“Yes, Steve.”

“What can you tell me? What’s going on?”

“I know very little. At the moment, the agents who arrested me are escorting me down the street on foot. Clearly, they had not come for Judy after all.”

“Why didn’t they take all of us?”

“They only gave my name and description to the guards. The guards merely pointed me out. No one told them that the rest of you were with me.”

“How did they get your description?”

“I believe Wayne Nystrom and R. Ishihara gave it to them.”

“Huh? How do you know that?”

“The agents’ car was stolen just as we left the warehouse. From my glimpse of the thieves in the shadows, I am certain that R. Ishihara and Wayne Nystrom took the car.”

“What do you want me to do?” Steve asked. “While you’re alone with those guys, you could get away and meet us somewhere. Should we slip out the back door again?”

“No,” Hunter said firmly. “I do not want the team on the run in the cold again. Remain sheltered there for the night. For now, remain calm and patient. I shall not risk calling you, so call me when you can.”

“All right.”

“Be warned that I may have to change my appearance before I return.”

“Okay.”

“Hunter out.”

Steve worked his way back to Jane and Judy in the dimly lighted room and sat down. No one else was moving around now. He relayed the conversation with Hunter to them in a whisper.

“I guess Hunter’s right,” Judy whispered back. “We can’t do much to help him anyway.”

Steve nodded. “I guess.”

“Definitely,” said Judy. “Besides, how could we agree on a place to meet? We don’t know the city.”

“That’s true,” said Jane. “And Hunter has so many more abilities than we have. He has a lot more flexibility without us. He won’t have to worry about us this way, since we’re sheltered here.”

“All right, all right,” said Steve. “Suppose we focus on our main target, instead. We’re spending all our time just trying to get along here. But what about MC 4?”

“I’ve been thinking about him,” said Judy. “Originally, I believed that the First Law would induce MC 4 to interfere with the German advance.”

“I remember,” said Jane.

“Well, maybe I was off base about that,” Judy said slowly. “Actually, as I recall, the German military is in very poor shape right now.”

“They’re the real aggressors, though, aren’t they?” Steve asked.

“Well, yes,” said Judy. “They are the aggressors, in that they’re standing on Soviet territory and they’ve been marching on Moscow. But in the coming battle, the Soviets actually conduct a counterattack.”

“I get it,” said Jane. “So now you think MC 4 might try to prevent violence by interfering with the Soviet counterattack.”

“Well, it’s just one idea. But also, MC 4 may learn about the NKVD itself. Their political prisoners are tortured and sent to labor camps where they are worked to death. MC 4 could be drawn to protect the labor camp prisoners from harm.”

“I can see that possibility, too,” said Jane. “Do you have others?”

“Two more. The Soviet army’s German prisoners of war are also treated brutally. Over on the German side, Soviet prisoners die by the thousands.”

“Labor camp prisoners and prisoners of war on both sides,” said Steve. “Plus the Soviet army command. That’s at least three important places MC 4 might pick out-not to mention any specific situations he happens to see.”

“I haven’t narrowed the possibilities very much, I’m afraid,” said Judy.

Jane nodded. “So many humans are being harmed in so many ways near here right now that the First Law might draw MC 4 in almost any direction. And, of course, he will have to begin by putting his energy into learning all of this. Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves. He could just be trying to find clothing and a way to fit in at this stage.”

“All right,” said Steve. “I know our sleep schedules aren’t in line with this time zone, but we might as well lie down and relax a little. When morning comes, we’ll see if we can meet Hunter somewhere and plan something.”

“Good idea,” said Jane.

Steve sighed. He was concerned about Hunter, but could not see anything he could do at the moment. This society was much more structured, even in the disruption of wartime, than the earlier ones the team had visited. Operating in it would be much more complicated than he had realized.

A pounding knock on the front door startled him. Feeling a surge of adrenaline, he forced himself to remain prone and simply turned to look toward the front. As one of the guards spoke through the door and then opened it, the thumping continued. People sleeping inside began to stir.

Four men in long, black coats strode inside. One of them switched on the lights. They had the same manner and clothing as the NKVD agents Steve had seen before.

“Everyone up! Immediately! Wake up! Stand against the wall!” The first man barked the orders. He drew a handgun and held it without pointing it at anyone in particular.

Two of his companions began grabbing people’s arms and pulling them to their feet. Most of the people were groggy from sleep and confused. The fourth man glanced around and then walked over to the front table, where he started looking around carefully.

Steve pushed himself up and helped pull Jane and Judy to their feet. At least the three of them were already awake. He led them over to the wall where the others were being herded, so they could get lost in the crowd.

The agent holding the gun kept it on the crowd. The man who had begun inspecting the front table slowly worked his way through storage cabinets down the wall toward the rest room, pulling out whatever he found and letting it fall. The last two men began kicking apart the bedding and personal items on the floor.

Since they had asked no questions, Steve could not tell right away what they were looking for. He watched as the two agents in the middle of the floor shook everything apart, throwing belongings in all directions. The people huddled around them watched in terror, without protesting.

“Does this happen often?” Steve whispered to Judy, lowering his head to stay out of sight.

“As often as they want,” said Judy. “But they’re looking for something specific, I think.”

Jane nodded. “Something too big for people to hide on their bodies. That’s why they aren’t searching anybody.”

No one else spoke as the three men systematically tore apart all of the personal belongings and threw the items in the storage cabinets onto the floor. The man searching the far wall also inspected the rest room. Finally, after they had finished, they turned and faced the crowd.

“Two secret radio transmitters have been detected functioning in this neighborhood,” said the man with the gun. “Who knows something about them?”

Steve froze with tension. His call to Hunter, when Hunter had still been nearby outside, had been picked up by Soviet receivers, along with Hunter’s response. For the authorities to have estimated the location of the two sources, at least two receivers had to have overheard them, and probably more. Since the man had used the word “neighborhood,” they had not been able to focus specifically on this building. Obviously, however, they had come very close.

Steve chastised himself for being careless. In all of their previous missions, radio had been unknown and, therefore, completely secret. Their only worry had been to avoid having Hunter call them on their lapel pins while they were in the hearing of local people.

He had completely forgotten that their messages could be intercepted by local authorities. Since Hunter had not warned him of this at the time, even Hunter might have taken the possibility lightly. Now they had caused this disruption and potential danger to everyone in the warehouse.

The crowd remained silent, some eyeing the four NKVD agents with fear and others turning their faces away. In turn, the four men stared at individuals in the crowd, frowning with suspicion. No one spoke for a long moment.

Steve frantically tried to remember the content of his conversation with Hunter. He remembered that Judy’s first name had been mentioned and also the names of Wayne Nystrom and Ishihara. He had addressed Hunter by name and used his own first name-and they had spoken in English. That alone would mark them as foreigners. Also, the brief exchange had raised the possibility of sneaking out to meet, which certainly would have sounded suspicious. Beyond that, however, he could not recall the exact wording of the discussion.

The agent with the gun walked up to the crowd and spoke in a low voice to someone in the crowd. Steve could not see him. He could not make out the words, either, but the tone was menacing, aimed at intimidation.

Steve decided that radio meant something much more important here than it did in his own time. Though his knowledge of history did not come close to that of Hunter or Judy, and was not as good as even Jane’s, he supposed that radio was the only broadcast tool available in this time. It would be especially useful for intelligence agents. These NKVD agents were probably looking for spies, though they had no idea that a transmitter and receiver could be small enough to hide in a lapel pin.

The agent with the gun shoved the person he had been talking to out of the way and studied the crowd, looking for someone else to question.