The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 26

Nadia held the phone to her ear. She glanced at Johnny across the dinner table. “Bobby,” she said.

Johnny’s eyes lit up. He leaned forward. Nadia didn’t have the speakerphone on and Johnny wouldn’t be able to hear, but he still moved closer to the phone. There was no hiding his genuine affection for the boy.

“How are you?” Nadia said. “Where are you?”

“In a town called Takaoka,” Bobby said. “At a pay phone in a ferry building. I lost my phone.”

“I know. Are you hurt? Are you all right?”

“I’m a little stiff but I’m good.”

A dozen questions raced through Nadia’s mind. She performed some quick mental triage. “Are you in danger?”

“Nope.” He hesitated. “At least I don’t think so.”

Nadia imagined him looking around. He was a self-aware and cautious kid. He could take care of himself.

“No,” he said. “I’m safe. I’m sure of it.” His voice was peppered with ebullience. He sounded better than safe. He sounded excited. “I’ve been worried about you.”

“You’ve been worried about me? Are you kidding me? I’m the one who watched you dive under that truck and grab hold of it. How long were you under there?”

“Not sure. Two fifty, maybe three hundred miles.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, but we stopped at a gas stand so I got a break.”

“Why did you do something so reckless? You could have been killed so easily. What were you thinking?”

“I couldn’t let that truck get away. It was that moment that comes in life, you know? Where you have to take a stand and say, no matter what it costs, no matter what the consequences, this is something I’ve got to do.”

“For a formula that may or may not exist?”

“No.” He took a breath. “For Eva.”

“Who?”

“Eva.”

His friend from the Zone in Ukraine. The girl who’d died from surgery complications. Nadia remembered Bobby’s stories about her. They’d been inseparable. “What about her?”

“I think I saw her.”

“You think you saw Eva?” Nadia softened her voice. She feared the kid had lost it. Maybe he’d become delusional during his ordeal hanging under a truck for who knew how many miles. “Where?”

“Back in Fukushima. As the truck was pulling away. I caught a glimpse of Genesis II. Of the other boy. Except he wasn’t a boy. He was a she. A girl with short hair. And she was Eva.”

Nadia imagined Bobby seeing Genesis II’s face. Had he really seen her or was she a figment of his imagination. “Are you… are you sure?”

Bobby hesitated. “Yes. Absolutely.”

Nadia tried to make her delivery as gentle as possible. “You sound like you had to think about it.”

“No. Not at all.” He sounded angry and defensive. “I’m sure. I’m one hundred percent sure.”

“Okay,” Nadia said. She let a moment go by. “I believe you. But listen. If you have any doubts, it’s okay to tell me. We promised to be honest with each other. Remember?”

A moment of silence passed. Bobby took a deep breath. “I was sure when I saw her. Then time passed and every time I caught a glimpse of her — at a gas station, in the train station, on the train — I never got a chance to see her face again. Today has been crazy. I’m so tired. And now I’m like… I’m not sure of anything anymore.”

“I understand,” Nadia said. “You’re exhausted. You’re traumatized. Like you said. As soon as you get some rest you’ll remember better. The important thing is you’re safe.” Nadia saw the waiter approaching. “Hold on a second, some food is being delivered.”

A waiter delivered a plate of steaming grilled chicken skewers and an enormous platter of shrimp tempura. Johnny kept his eyes planted on Nadia’s the entire time as though he were interpreting her conversation with Bobby by reading them.

“Tell me about the trip to the ferry building,” Nadia said. “In detail.”

Bobby told her about the support beams under the truck, the stop at the gas station, and the train rides. Nadia marveled at his determination, endurance, and resilience. She’d known he was athletically gifted, but his ability to survive such long drives while hanging onto the bottom of a truck seemed like a remarkable feat. For the first time since she’d met him in Kyiv, Nadia wondered if Dr. Arkady’s treatments for radiation sickness had given him a permanent physiological boost of some kind. All those months of watching him play hockey, the bursts of speed that left teammates and opponents in the dust, his victory against one of the fastest professional hockey players in a race at the rink in Central Park, he just seemed gifted. Now, he seemed more than gifted. He seemed special.

“Where are the driver and Genesis II now?” Nadia said.

“You mean where are the driver and Eva?”

Nadia detected the pain in his voice. She’d offended him by suggesting he was imaging things. She regretted her choice of words. “Yes. Sorry. Force of habit. Where are the driver and Eva?”

“They went through immigration about ten minutes ago. But the boat doesn’t leave for another forty-five minutes.”

“Immigration? Where is this boat going?”

Bobby’s answer came out in a throaty whisper, as though he were trying to sound impassive but couldn’t contain his nerves. “Vladivostok.”

A bolt of anxiety wracked Nadia. Vladivostok. Siberia. The largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, close to China and North Korea. Home of the Russian Pacific Fleet. Neither of those characteristics, however, bothered her that much. It was the mere thought of Bobby stepping onto Russian, Ukrainian, or any type of former Soviet soil that stood her nerves on end. He’d suffered enough during his young life. He was an American now. He belonged in New York. He belonged with her.

“Are you sure?” Nadia said. “Does the boat make multiple stops? Is there any chance they’re going somewhere else?” Nadia tried to conjure a more palatable destination but realized she was fantasizing. The men who’d taken Genesis II had been Russian. The driver was Russian. They were going back to Russia.

“It’s the Far Eastern Shipping Company,” Bobby said. “Ferries run to Vladivostok and South Korea. This one’s going to Vladivostok. It takes two and a half days. It cost forty-eight thousand yen, which is about five hundred dollars.”

“Cost? As in the past tense? You bought a ticket already?”

“Yup. I put it on your credit card. We should probably talk about that.”

“Don’t worry about my credit card. I’ll call and get my credit limit boosted. And I’ll start using another one. But you are not getting on that ferry. You’re going to stay put right where you are. Johnny and I are going to rent a car at the hotel, get a driver if we need to, whatever it takes. And we’re going to come get you. Right now.”

Johnny’s lips parted in mild surprise. Then he closed them and nodded.

“Sorry, Auntie,” Bobby said. “Can’t do it.”

“Can’t do what?”

“I can’t wait for you.”

“Sure you can. Not only can you, but you know it’s the smart move. You’re acting on emotion right now. You saw Eva, you don’t want to lose her. Again. So you want to follow. I understand. Believe me, I understand. But you’re just a…” Nadia stopped herself before she said he was just a kid. That wouldn’t help her agenda. And besides, he was mature and resourceful beyond his years, and he knew it. “You’re just one man. Your father would have been the first to tell you to wait for help. There’s a reason he coaxed me into coming to Kyiv to get you. He didn’t want you to make that trip to America alone. And now here you are, a year later, trying to do exactly what he didn’t want you to do. Be smart about this, Bobby.”

“You’re right. My father would say it was a dumb move. Because everything was about money for him. And this isn’t about the money. It’s not about the formula, and it’s not about the money. Not anymore.”

“But you’re acting on emotion. You know that. And deep down you know how dangerous that is.”

Bobby considered her comment. “My decision to follow may be emotional. But that doesn’t mean I’m not cool in the moment. Do I sound emotional to you now?”

No, he didn’t sound emotional. He never sounded emotional. He rarely showed any emotion in the best or worst of times. “No, you don’t sound emotional. That’s the problem. You’re too cool for your own good.”

He chuckled. “Damn straight, Auntie.”

Nadia knew she was losing the argument. If Bobby got on that boat she might not see him again. She simply had to find a way to stop him.

A thought hit her. A ray of hope. “Wait. Oh my God. We’ve forgotten the obvious.”

“What?” Bobby said.

“You’re going to Russia, right?”

“Yes.” He sounded uncertain.

“Getting into Russia is not the same as getting into Ukraine,” Nadia said. “An American citizen like you — with an American passport to prove it — can get into Ukraine without a visa. But to get into Russia, you need a visa. How are you going to get through immigration without a visa?”

An audible sigh of relief. “You don’t need a visa if you’re taking the ferry from Takaoka.”

“Who told you that?”

“The woman at the information desk, here at the ferry building. If you’re planning to stay in Russia for less than seventy-two hours, you don’t need a visa to get on the ferry. My guess is it makes business easier and helps with tourism.”

Great, Nadia thought. There was a career for the kid in international relations if he survived this ordeal and the hockey thing didn’t work out.

“I didn’t want to say this, Bobby, but you leave me no choice. I forbid you to get on that boat.” Nadia didn’t hear a sound on the other end of the line but she could sense him tensing. “Do you hear me? Are you listening? I’m your legal guardian, and I’m telling you you’re not getting on that boat.”

He remained silent for a few more seconds. When he spoke, he sounded like a surgeon giving his nurse the most familiar instructions. “I need you to go to Kyiv for me.”

His delivery was so relaxed, his request so unexpected, Nadia was rendered speechless. “What?”

“I need you to go to Kyiv. You could investigate over the phone but there’s no substitute for looking a person in the eyes, you know? My father taught me that, too.”

“You expect me to go to Kyiv? Just like that? I don’t even know what to say to you.”

“You’re the only one who can do this. You’re the only one who can help us. Genesis II is not a boy, she’s a girl. And the girl is Eva. That means she’s alive, not dead — obviously — and she might have the second part of the formula. I need you to go to Kyiv to find out if she really died. To look into the whole thing using her as your angle of investigation. You didn’t consider her last time you were in Kyiv digging around into the past.”

“While you’re following her and her captors all over Siberia? Are you even listening to yourself?”

Bobby continued talking as though she hadn’t interrupted him. “If you confirm she’s alive, or can’t confirm she’s dead, I need you to go to the Division of Nervous Pathologies. That’s where Dr. Arkady treated us. He’s dead, but he had an assistant. Her name was Melnik. Mrs. Ksenia Melnik and she had a son, too. They may know more about Eva, the formula, everything.”

Nadia still hadn’t accepted the reality that he was going to get on the boat to Vladivostok. The thought of him telling her what she should be doing infuriated her, and yet with each passing second, she saw the logic in his words. She couldn’t stop him from boarding the boat. While he was at sea, she could ask some valuable questions. Especially if she could get to Kyiv quickly, and then somehow catch up with him.

“I’m going to be on the boat for two and a half days. That gives you time. When I get to Vladivostok, I’ll try to buy a cell phone. If I can’t find one, there’s got to be plenty of pay phones. It’s a huge city. I’ll call you one way or another, for sure. Just remember. The trip takes two and a half days. So I won’t be in touch until Sunday morning at the earliest, wherever you are.” He paused for a moment. “Okay, I better get going.”

“Wait,” Nadia said. “Not so fast—”

He resumed talking in his cool, clinical voice. “You’re a forensic security analyst, Auntie. You’re the best investigator no one knows about. You can tear companies apart to reveal the truth like no one else. Same goes for people.”

“No. I meant not so fast because I need you to repeat the name for me. Ksenia who?”

Bobby repeated the details about Ksenia Melnik and her son.

“You take care of yourself,” Nadia said.

“You too, Auntie.”

“Make sure you call me.”

Nadia heard a click before she finished her sentence. When Bobby didn’t answer, she knew he’d hung up. A fleeting sense of anxiety washed over her. He was going back to Russia on his own. To Russia.

Johnny had started digging into the food. He pulled chunks of chicken from a skewer onto a plate with his chopsticks. “Bottom line,” he said, “the kid’s still alive. You got to pause and give thanks for the major gifts of life.”

The phone rang.

A surge of hope swept through Nadia. Maybe the man wasn’t taking Eva to Vladivostok. Maybe Bobby had misread the situation. Nadia hit the RECEIVE button without even looking at the screen and pressed it to her ear.

“Bobby?” she said.

But it wasn’t Bobby. It was a Japanese man speaking broken English. He said his son’s friend had found a cell phone at a gas station and this was the most frequently dialed number. He wondered if Nadia knew the proper owner and how he could go about returning the phone to him.

Nadia asked him to ship it to their hotel in Shibuya along with his address so she could reimburse him for the postage and include a reward. He declined the reward like a classy Japanese gentleman. She thanked him for his kindness.

“Oh, hell,” she said, after hanging up.

Johnny pointed toward the plates of food with his chopsticks. “Try some appetizers? Mighty tasty. Can’t get shrimp tempura like that in Kyiv. Can you?”