The Boy from Reactor 4

CHAPTER 73

ADAM STARED AT the barrel of the rifle. The soldier was either going to shoot him or take him prisoner to get the locket. The first option was bad. He didn’t want to die. But the second was worse. To come this close to executing his father’s plan and then be taken without a fight was unacceptable.

The soldier had a face that could have grated potatoes. He looked as happy as the coach the morning after a vodka bender. His rifle was wedged in his armpit as he operated the radio transmitter that was attached with Velcro to his shoulder.

“Yes, sir,” he said. “Standing by.”

Adam had to make a move, and he had to make it now. He had quickness and the element of surprise in his favor. Lunge, lift, wrestle. Lunge forward, lift the barrel, and wrestle it out of the guy’s hands.

“Up. Up,” the soldier shouted, stabbing the air with the point of his rifle. “Get your hands up.”

He’d let some slack develop near his elbow. It was a big mistake. Now the soldier was even further on edge. He raised the rifle to eye level and pointed it between Adam’s eyes.

“The order is shoot if necessary but don’t kill,” the soldier said. “So wounding is okay.” He lowered his aim to Adam’s right knee. “You want to live in a wheelchair the rest of your life?”

Adam raised his hands as high as he could and shook his head. No. Not the knees. If he got shot in the knees, he might never skate again. Better the heart or the head than the knees.

“Why are you staring at me, boy? You shouldn’t have stared at me, boy.” He cocked his head to the side, moved one eye to the sight, and closed the other.

A figure rushed out of the fog from the soldier’s blind side and rammed him with a shoulder. The soldier and his gun went flying. He landed hard on the ice. Didn’t move.

Adam glanced at the figure. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Nadia. Of course it was, he thought. Who else could it have been? But it was a woman. An American woman had knocked out a Russian soldier.

“Awesome,” Adam said.

A look of pride washed over Nadia’s face. Replaced with her usual intensity. “Quick, get your bags,” she said.

Adam grabbed his knapsack and satchel.

They disappeared into the fog.