The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 57

As Bobby rose to his feet, Nadia screamed his name. When he didn’t acknowledge her, she continued shouting it repeatedly.

Simmy’s men overpowered Milanovich’s bodyguards. Afterwards, one of them found a grapple secured to the bottom of the guardrail. Nadia and Simmy rushed up the stairs. They arrived on the deck of the Swallow’s Nest to find Bobby and Eva skating away from shore. Then the ground began to shake beneath them.

Nadia held onto the guardrail with both hands and prayed the castle would not collapse. Her concern for her own safety proved fleeting. A thunderous cracking sound filled the air. The ice parted and Eva disappeared. Nadia stood helpless beside Simmy. She tried to imagine Bobby’s anguish.

The ice moved. The chasm disappeared and the lake became one. As Bobby rose to his feet, the spotlight from the Swallow’s Nest caught the blade of his skate. It cast a ray of light that shimmied up his clothes and face, and for a split second, Bobby appeared to glow in the dark.

And then, in a flash, he skated away into the darkness and he was gone.

“We have to do something,” Nadia said.

Simmy put his arm around her. “What would you have us do? I’m sure there are some skates around here. Which one of us is going to find him, let alone catch up to him?”

A premonition gripped Nadia. She would not see Bobby again. Ever. She tried to banish the thought, but it wouldn’t go away. He’d probably heard Milanovich’s promise to conduct biological experiments. Bobby was no fool. He would assume he’d be hunted for the rest of his life, regardless of whether Eva was dead or alive. Bobby would rather disappear from civilization or die. Toss in his anguish from Eva’s death, and he was probably ambivalent between the two alternatives at this point.

“He has the other man’s mobile phone, does he not?” Simmy said.

“I think so,” Nadia said.

“Then he will call.”

“Yes. He will call.”

She could hear the lie in her own voice. He wouldn’t call. Not for a long time, if ever. Not until the Milanoviches of the world had forgotten about him. Not until the world had given up on a formula that mesmerized even the richest of men and left bodies in its wake. A formula that seemed so real and valuable to Nadia up until five minutes ago. Now, faced with the reality that she might never see Bobby again, she couldn’t have cared less about it. For in the end life was about people, and the vanishing of a loved one rendered all material pursuits immediately irrelevant, faster than they’d become a compulsion in the first place.

Where would he go? What would he eat? Who would give him shelter? Nadia knew these questions would consume her, but for now she took comfort in what she knew with certainty. That Bobby was no ordinary boy. He was Adam Tesla, a boy from Ukraine, a country of survivors used to fighting adversity on a daily basis. He was smart, clever, and resilient.

No, he was not ordinary. He was extraordinary.

“Of course he will call,” Simmy said, “That which does not grow dies. A man can only grow if he is part of a community. Part of civilization. Bobby does not want to die. Therefore, by definition, he will return to you. He will probably find cell phone service on the other side of the lake across from Listvyanka. I predict he will call you tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Nadia said. “Tomorrow. Of course. He will call me tomorrow.”

And as she heard the deceit in her own voice again, Nadia was reminded of the most accomplished liar she had ever known. Victor Bodnar had let them go for some reason. She hadn’t thought about the potential reasons until this very moment. None came to mind except the obvious one.

He believed Simmy and she were worth more alive than dead. Whether he considered them as individuals or as a couple was an entirely different question, and one Nadia still hadn’t resolved in her own mind, though she was leaning toward the latter now.

More important to her was that Victor had let Adam go, too. He was out there on the ice, skating at warp speed toward a destination unknown. And as despair set in once again, it was her thought of Victor and Adam in the same breath that gave Nadia comfort. For Victor brought to mind another old thief, one she’d met in Chornobyl, and reminded her that wherever Bobby went, whatever his path in life, he would always be his father’s son.

He would always be the fox.