The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 4

Luo enjoyed the tour of Chornobyl village and Pripyat on Sunday morning more than he expected. Pripyat was the name of the town that had been built within the village for the benefit of the nuclear power plant workers. It had been abandoned since 1986. Visiting the nuclear ghost town had become a cult experience. Prior to his tour, Luo couldn’t understand the appeal. After seeing the damaged reactor and walking around Pripyat, however, he had a better sense of the attraction.

Chornobyl offered an eerie glimpse of what Earth looked like without humans. The tourist could decide if it was a glimpse into the past or the future. Either way, it was a desolate vision shrouded in mystery but punctuated with hope and possibility. It was the latter observation that surprised Luo the most. He had expected to experience a sense of loss and discomfort. He certainly felt those sensations, especially at the memorial statue to the firefighters who perished from radiation sickness. But he was also left with a sense of rebirth under way. The Zone of Exclusion was thick with vegetation. A variety of wild animals, many formerly extinct, roamed the land.

After the tour was over, the grumpy guide left. Luo stood by the gate to the power plant with a Ukrainian cop. The inspector looked like a boxer gone to pot. He studied Luo’s dark complexion, leather skin, and small eyes. Luo knew the look. Some Russians looked down on people who didn’t resemble the image in their mirror. Evidently some Ukrainians shared the same affliction.

“Where are you from?” the inspector said.

Luo smiled. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

The inspector spat on the ground. “You must know someone important if I was forced to get out of bed and meet you here on a Sunday morning.”

“Now there’s something that does really matter.” Luo’s former commander, a retired general, had gotten him access to the Zone.

The inspector raised his eyebrows. “Black Berets?”

The Black Berets were Russian special forces. They dealt with domestic counter-terrorism, riot control, and special situations. Some of those situations were rumored to have occurred in foreign countries. Luo knew firsthand the rumors were true.

He stared at the inspector but didn’t say a word.

The inspector nodded. “I can always tell. Chechnya?”

Luo stiffened. The mere mention of the place raised his blood pressure.

“First war or second?” the inspector said.

“Like I told you.”

The inspector frowned. “Told me what?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Luo looked the inspector in the eyes again. “Tell me about the fire in the village.”

“One of the abandoned homes burned down. About a kilometer and a half away. The fire trucks from the power plant put it out.”

“When was this?”

“Five days ago.”

“You investigated?”

The inspector lit a cigarette. “Everything burned to the ground. There was no sign of human life. As there shouldn’t be. It’s prohibited for anyone to live in the Zone of Exclusion.”

“If there are no people, how did the fire start?”

“I didn’t say there are no people. I said there are no people living here. There are workers in the power plant. And the occasional trespasser can’t be ruled out. For the record, the fire was started by causes unknown.”

“Off the record?”

“Off the record, there may be squatters. Old people who came back home.”

“And the house that burned down?”

“It was obvious someone had been living there. There was a freshly tilled garden beside the ashes. Someone was getting the land ready to plant a garden. And the outhouse.”

“What about it?”

“It had been used recently. And I don’t think it was the wild boars. Do you?”

“Did you find any human remains?” Luo said.

“No. But we found shell casings. From a rifle, a shotgun, and a handgun.”

“Not your garden variety vegetable-growing tools. What did you make of that?”

“I didn’t make anything of that. Because there’s nothing to make. Who knows when the bullets were fired and for what reasons? There’ve been poachers, scavengers, and thieves roaming the Zone for decades. Anyone could have fired those bullets.”

“Including the person who was living there?”

“Highly unlikely.”

“Why?”

“It was a babushka.”

The same babushka the scavenger, Hayder, had mentioned. She’d taken care of Nadia Tesla’s uncle and stayed in the house after he died.

“You’re certain?” Luo said.

“Her name is Oksana Hauk. It was carved into the bottom of some cookware that survived the fire. My men and I went door to door through the area. We found her living with an old couple half a kilometer away.”

Luo pulled a roll of bills from his pocket. “I need to talk to her immediately.”

The inspector licked his lips. “Off the record?”

“What record? I’m not even here.”

The inspector drove them through the woods to a ramshackle home. He knocked on the door and identified himself as a policeman. No one answered. He turned the doorknob and went inside. A minute later he emerged covering his nose with his sleeve. He coughed and waved for Luo to come over.

“Looks like someone else was looking for the same information you are,” the inspector said. “And he got here first.”

They went into the house. The stench of rotten flesh hit Luo right away but he was used to it. Two babushkas and an old man lay dead on the floor. They’d been executed professionally. Single bullet to the head. The scene confirmed to Luo that he was on the right track and added a new wrinkle.

Someone else was looking for the treasure, too.