The Boy from Reactor 4

CHAPTER 74

“THEY’RE GETTING AWAY,” Kirilo said.

“It’s the damned fog,” the colonel said. “My men can’t see anything. The helicopters are useless.”

“Tell them to go lower,” Major General Yashko ordered.

“They’re getting away,” Kirilo said. “Lower, dammit.”

The colonel said, “Any lower and they will collide. Do you want to be the one who explains to the highest authorities why two helicopters collided in the fog over Gvozdev? Do you want to explain the nature of the mission to your superiors, Major General?”

Major General Yashko glanced alternately at Deputy Director Krylov and the fog in the observation window. The two men shrugged at each other.

“Call the choppers back,” Yashko said.

Kirilo pounded his fist on a table. “No, no, no. Are you people out of your minds? Do you know what’s at stake? Do you? Get those helicopters lower. Now.”

Yashko glared at Kirilo. No doubt he wasn’t used to being screamed at by a civilian. But Kirilo had to give him credit. He wasn’t fuming. He was thinking. He turned to the colonel.

“Call the choppers back,” Yashko said, “but radio the coordinates where we last saw the woman and the boy to the men you have out there. Quick.”

“They cannot cross the international date line,” the colonel said. “That’s less than two kilometers from where we saw them last. That could be interpreted as an act of war. And we cannot have any incidents.”

“Do it,” Yashko said.

The colonel radioed the coordinates. The soldiers formed a line and marched in the fog toward the American island. But it was an impossible assignment. All the woman and the boy had to do was detour half a kilometer east or west and take a circuitous route to the American island, and they’d never be found. That assumed they had a compass, and Kirilo was certain they did. The woman was too resourceful to be unprepared.

The solders searched in the fog to no avail.

Victor stood quietly in the corner through the entire event. He never said a word. Kirilo kept peering through the telescope even though he knew there was nothing more he could do. His influence had reached its limit. The Tesla woman, the boy, and the formula had been so close he could have touched them, but now they were gone.

They were in America.