Lie in the Dark

CHAPTER 18

On the way to the rendezvous point Vlado tried to calculate the depth of Damir’s betrayal. Perhaps he was only a glorified errand boy who’d conducted the search of Vlado’s apartment and done nothing else-it would have worked perfectly, any neighbor who’d seen him would have recognized him as a friend and never have suspected anything unseemly. Maybe he’d filed regular reports on Vlado’s comings and goings, his contacts, while little knowing the true role of Kasic. That would explain a few things, he supposed.

And perhaps there really was a frantic U.N. man, who really was trying to reach Vlado with vital information.

Then again, maybe Damir had engineered the whole thing, hoping to bring Vlado to a dark and vulnerable spot after curfew, where anyone killed would be written off as yet another victim of a sniper.

Even if the more benign role was the case, Vlado asked himself if he would have done the same. No, he would never inform on a colleague, not without warning the colleague of the arrangement. But Damir had concluded it was okay. Betrayed by his own father, the embittered Damir had decided he could play that game as well. In Vlado’s eyes he was guilty. The only question was one of degree.

If Vlado had the time to consider the matter further, and on a full stomach, he knew he might skip the meeting altogether. But his momentum had reached the point where he felt he had no choice but to plunge along.

The walk was only a few blocks, but Vlado used his extra time for a roundabout approach. Going directly might have put him in place first. He might even have beaten Damir to the spot, a decided advantage. But a Damir who couldn’t be trusted might have been telephoning from anywhere a few minutes ago, including the Interior Ministry right down the street. And if Vlado was walking into a setup, everyone would be in place by now anyway, perhaps even expecting him ahead of schedule.

The cloud cover was heavier than ever, blotting the moonlight from the sky, and the curfew had emptied the streets. Sniper fire and artillery had been light that day, as if everyone in the hills were saving their energy and ammunition for tonight’s Orthodox New Year. Heavy firing was expected, and the prospect had seemed to clear the bars and cafes early, with everyone heading home to their most secure rooms. Vlado doubted whether even the prostitutes had stuck to their posts as late as usual. If one wanted to plot a meeting with as little chance of witnesses as possible, this was the night to do it.

As he came within a block of the meeting point, he kept to the side of the street, as close as possible to an abandoned office building. He stopped and listened closely. Nothing but the faint gurgling of water, the sound creeping up from the steeply angled stone walls banking the Miljacka River. But there was something else, too, a sound he knew but couldn’t identify. It was a ticking sound, slower than a clock. It was the noise a car makes as its engine cools.

He took another few steps, still unable to make out anything ahead. Then a few more, and there it was, a car. No, two cars, facing each other about ten yards apart, only one was easier to spot because it was white. From its silhouette it seemed to be a jeep, and a white jeep could only mean U.N. He supposed that was reassuring, but the second car wasn’t. Damir didn’t own one.

Vlado waited a few moments, breathing heavily against the pressure building in his chest. He considered turning and walking quietly back toward the city center. Let them make the next move, whoever they were. But where would he stay in the meantime? Where would he work? There was no getting out of this now, and there was certainly no getting out of Sarajevo. He slowly took three more steps, then stopped when a voice broke the silence.

“Vlado. Is that you?”

It was Damir, sounding happy, welcoming. Vlado eased his satchel aside and reached into his pocket, clutching for the gun. A cigarette lighter flicked on, illuminating Damir’s face. He was smiling, casual. He might have been sitting on a bar stool waiting for a pal for all the worry apparent on his face.

“He’s down here, Vlado. He found me before I found him. Come on down and then I’ll move off to a discreet distance so you can talk in private while I keep watch.”

Vlado took another two steps and stopped, now within ten yards of Damir and the edge of the riverbank, but still saying nothing. Damir was squinting into the blackness, trying to find Vlado, and a look of worry began to crease his brow.

“Vlado, it’s okay. Nothing can go wrong. I’m here.”

“And that’s really the problem with this setup, isn’t it,” said Vlado, startled by the sudden loudness of his own voice. “Especially now that you’re collecting my soldiers. Do you get the rest of them once I’m down in the river? Is that part of the deal?”

With that, Damir’s smile collapsed. His lighter snapped out, and someone else took the moment in hand. The jeep’s headlights flicked on, illuminating Vlado against the building like a man on a stage. He ducked away from the beams, running for the middle of the street. As he did a gunshot crackled. Vlado turned sharply toward the river, darting behind the second car and diving for the ground as another shot sounded.

It was so loud, he thought, so loud. Then he was down on the grass and rolling, well out of the headlights now, feeling the wet blades brush his face, then rolling again, footsteps clattering quickly toward him, voices shouting. An iron railing brushed against his back, and as he rolled beneath it Damir shouted, “He’s going for the river!”

Free of the railing he was suddenly plunging, his stomach leaping toward his throat. He bounced once, a glancing blow against the stone wall, then fell fifteen feet to the water below. He hit with a loud splash, shocked first by the cold and then by the stony bottom. The river here was no more than two feet deep, and the impact nearly knocked the wind from him. He spluttered and gasped, hearing shouts and more running. There was another shot, striking in the water somewhere to his right. He dove, but found it hard to stay under in the shallowness. But the current, which had always seemed so lazy from up on the bridges, was already driving him downstream, pressing him toward safety.

The shouting continued, Damir’s voice joined by two others, Vlado recognizing neither. Then he realized that for the moment he was safe, rescued by the city’s helplessness. The river was an impenetrable gorge of darkness, with neither streetlamps nor city lights to pierce it. Someone had turned the jeep around, but its headlights were useless, leaping out above the river like searchlights aimed to the heavens. Nothing could angle them down to where Vlado paddled.

His problem now was the cold. He kicked for the opposite bank, but his legs were already feeling heavy, his wet clothes sagging around him. His satchel floated ahead of him, the strap chafing at his neck. The gun sagged in his pocket like an anchor, useless by now, and with difficulty he pulled it free and it sank to the bottom. The water tasted gritty, metallic, like a handful of dirty coins.

By now he was some twenty yards downstream. He heard a small splash, followed by cursing and thrashing. His teeth began to chatter. He realized he couldn’t stay in the water much longer. There were a few more minutes at the most before he would collapse from hypothermia. Climbing out and clawing up the bank was still too risky, nor was he sure he could make it to one of the spots where iron rungs laddered up the wall. The jeep’s headlights were now easing downstream along the road above, the driver probably peering down the bank to see if Vlado had emerged. Whoever was in this bunch probably had the connections to mobilize more men to stake out the north bank for the rest of the night, on one pretext or another, although the New Year’s bombardment would complicate matters for them at midnight.

Damir’s voice sounded again.

“The spillway! The spillway! Get on the bridge and we’ll see him as he comes through!”

Vlado knew exactly what he meant. Every quarter mile down the river were three-foot drops creating a series of small, neat waterfalls that trapped garbage and toy boats at their base. Even in the darkness, a body coming through would show up against the white cascade, an easy target for someone quick on the trigger. Even if the bullets missed, the current might trap him underwater and slowly do the job for them. He kicked again for the opposite bank, legs heavier than before, arms going limp. The current seemed to answer each movement with a force twice as strong. Now he could hear the approaching rush of the spillway, a hiss rising to a roar. He glanced toward the bridge just downstream and saw a figure vaguely silhouetted against the dim sky. A second form appeared, and a beam of light leapt from it and vectored into the river. They had a flashlight.

He surged again for the opposite bank, finally reaching it but feeling only the slime of a wet stone wall, too smooth and steep for a handhold. The current rose around him, the water deepening in the lull before the spillway. The roar of its cascade now drowned out every voice from above, though he could sense the beam of light playing about on the water behind him.

A black, round hole appeared just above him, two feet out of the water. It was one of the storm sewers draining the south side of the city, and with a grunt Vlado was just able to raise his left arm high enough to grab the trailing edge of the pipe as he slid by His feet slipped into the surge of the spillway, and it took all his strength to pull himself back against the current, though now he had both hands on the pipe. With his final reserve of energy he pulled his head, shoulders and chest into the opening, wondering all the while when he would be spotted and shot. The men on the bridge must be pinning all their hopes on the spillway.

Vlado dragged up his legs and sagged into a shallow stream of water sluicing down the pipe. The air was warmer here, refreshing even, despite its heavy sour smell. The bottom and sides were slippery with algae, but there was ample room to move around. He needed to get away from the opening before the beam found him, so he crawled, wobbly at first, his head bumping lightly against the top. It wasn’t so bad, he told himself, although the absolute darkness ahead was ghastly The only sound was the gurgle of water, echoing from deep into the blackness. But he was out of the river. More important, he was out of sight.

He rested for a few moments, letting his muscles relax even as his teeth continued to chatter. Feeling a bit stronger, a little warmer, he began to blindly crawl ahead. There would be no exiting the way he had come. Eventually someone might realize where he must have gone and decide to come in after him. The tunnel headed uphill, in a direction that could only mean trouble, he knew. The wrong side of the lines was no farther than a hundred yards or so. But for the moment it seemed there was no such thing as a right side of the city. Now all of Sarajevo was off limits for Vlado. He continued his slow, steady crawl.

Stopping briefly to rest, he remembered his cigarette lighter. It was in his pocket, down by the little soldier. Reaching for it he felt the tiny sword, taking care not to break it. He drew out the lighter. The flint was soaked, but after a dozen or so tries it flickered on. The tunnel snaked onward as far as he could see, well beyond the range of the light.

He took stock of himself. His satchel, although wet, was still zipped shut, perhaps sealed enough to have kept everything inside reasonably dry. He let the light go dead and continued.

He kept crawling for what must have been another half hour, across sticks, a dead rat, and other objects he could only guess at, stopping every few minutes to light his way and catch his breath. Each time the path ahead was nothing but further blackness. He passed a few smaller pipes connecting from either side, but so far each had been too small to allow a detour.

A few moments later he felt something smooth and metallic pass beneath him. It was round, roughly the size of an inverted salad bowl, and almost immediately his face came up against a rough tangle of iron wire smelling strongly of rust. Pulling his face away he felt a sharp snag at his left cheek, followed by the warm ooze of blood, and with a gasp he realized where he must be.

He flicked on the lighter and rolled onto his side, seeing that he had passed across a land mine. By all rights, he should be dead now, but the mine had beaten him to it, overcome by its prolonged exposure to the water. Beyond it was a rusting coil of razor wire, and he spent the next twenty minutes gingerly untangling it and pulling it aside, nicking his hands several times in the process. Slowly he pulled the uncoiled strands past him toward his feet, and when the way was cleared he continued, flicking on his lighter every few minutes to check for further mines. If one side had bothered to mine the tunnel, both sides might have.

But there were no more mines, no more coils of wire. Now he was in enemy territory.

He continued for another half hour, passing another opening on his right. During one stop he heard a vehicle rumbling overhead. Finally he saw a dim shaft of light ahead, reaching it to find a storm grate directly above. There was enough room to rise into a crouch, and he clutched at the iron grid. It was heavy, but movable. He flicked his lighter just below the grating, waiting a full minute for any reaction. When there was none, he forced the grate aside and lifted himself free.

The clouds were breaking, and the moon shone through. Vlado’s watch had somehow made it through the evening, which made him wish he’d held on to his gun. It was just after 11 p.m. He had about an hour before the New Year’s celebration would illuminate the streets, although here, as on the other side of town, people seemed to have already battened down the hatches in anticipation. In windows here and there he could make out the pale glow from candles, lanterns, or meager gas flames, but mostly there was darkness.

The street was vaguely familiar, though Vlado still didn’t know his exact location. But he knew from the heft and heaviness of a black looming hill just ahead that he was far across the river, and well into the Serb neighborhood of Grbavica. And as long as he was here, there was one stop he wanted to make before trying to find his way back. If the wildest of his hunches was correct, he’d find shelter, and perhaps even information.

If he was wrong, there’d be no help at all, only further signs of death, including harbingers of his own.