Stolen Souls

86

FOG STILL LAY heavy on the courtyard when Lennon helped Galya to the car, dawn two hours away. Ten minutes to the airport, he said, then she had half an hour to get through security and onto the plane. He pressed the documents into her hand. She had to go into the terminal herself, he said, and walk straight to security. All she had to do was show them the printed boarding pass and her passport.

Simple, he said.

Galya did not believe him.

She remained silent as Lennon drove. The car’s headlights barely penetrated the fog, and the hot water he’d poured on the windows to defrost them had frozen, making the darkened world appear to ripple and distort.

The vague form of the airport emerged ahead, revealed only by the glowing haze of its lights. Lennon steered into a car park facing the terminal. Galya could barely make out the shape of the building, and could see no one walking to or from it, but she knew they were there, hidden by the gray.

Lennon shut off the engine. He reached into his pocket and handed her a paper bundle. When she felt the coarseness and weight of it, she knew it was money.

“Three hundred and fifty,” he said. “It’s all I had. You should be able to change it in Kraków and get a train to Kiev. Once you get home, take your brother and leave. Don’t stay there. Strazdas will find you if you do.”

“Mama’s farm,” she said. “It’s our home. Where will we live?”

“I don’t know,” Lennon said. “You’ll figure it out. You’re smart and you’re strong. You’ll know what to do when you get there.”

Galya thought about it and realized that, yes, she would. Back home, the man whom Mama owed so much money to, he could take the farm. Galya and her brother would be free of him and his debt. She could live with that. She looked at Lennon’s lined face, saw the scars beneath his skin.

“Your friend Susan,” she said.

Lennon paused, then asked, “What about her?”

“You should make her happy,” Galya said. “Then she will make you happy.”

Lennon smiled. “Maybe,” he said.

“No maybe,” she said. “Only yes.”

“Let’s go,” Lennon said, reaching for the door handle. “You need to get on that plane.”

He climbed out and walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, and helped her out.

“Remember,” he said as he closed the door. “Don’t talk to anyone if you don’t have to. Go straight to security. They should be boarding by the time you get through. Go straight to the gate and get on the plane. That’s all you have to do.”

“Thank you,” Galya said. She hesitated a moment, then wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders.

He resisted for a moment, then returned the hug.

“Make Susan happy,” she said.

“I’ll try,” he said.

A few feet away, his voice deadened by the cold, someone said, “Jack.”