Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(15)

Alexander handed him a cigarette. He wanted Nikolai to stop talking. He did not think Ouspensky would be particularly pleased to discover that Tatiana had saved him only long enough to be now sent into Mekhlis's clutches.

Taking out his Tokarev pistol, Alexander got up, pointed at the back door and fired, blowing out the padlock. Maikov squealed. The truck slowed down. There was obviously some confusion in the driver's cabin as to the source of the noise. Now down on the floor, Ouspensky was no longer blocking the window. Alexander had seconds before the truck stopped. Flinging the doors open, he pulled the pin out of the grenade, pulled himself above the roof of the creeping vehicle and threw the grenade forward. It landed a few meters in front of the truck's path; seconds later there was a shattering explosion. He had just enough time to hear Maikov bleat, "What is that--" when he was thrown from the truck onto the ice. The pain he felt in the unhealed wound in his back was so jolting he thought his scars were tearing apart a millimeter at a time.

The truck jerked and began to rumble to a sliding stop. It skidded, teetered and fell sideways onto the Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

ice, crunching to a halt at the ice hole made by Alexander's grenade. The hole was smaller than the truck, but the truck was heavier than the broken ice. The ice cracked and the hole became wider.

Alexander got up and ran limping to the back doors, motioning for the two men to crawl to him. "What was that?" Maikov cried. He had bumped his head and his nose was bleeding.

"Jump out of the truck!" Alexander yelled.

Ouspensky and Maikov did as he commanded--just in time, as the front end of the truck slowly sank beneath the surface of the Ladoga. The drivers must have been knocked unconscious by the impact against the glass and ice. They were making no attempts to get out.

"Major, what the hell--"

"Shut up. The Germans will begin shooting at the truck in three or four minutes." Alexander had no intention of actually dying on the ice. Before he saw Ouspensky and Maikov, he had had a small hope he might be alone, and would, after blowing up the truck with the NKVD men in it, make his way back to the Morozovo shores and into the woods. All of his hopes seemed to have this one common denominator nowadays: short-f*cking-lived.

"You want to stay here and observe the efficient German army in action, or you want to come with me?"

"What about the drivers?" asked Ouspensky.

"What about them? They are NKVD men. Where do you think those drivers were taking you at dawn?"

Maikov tried to stand up. Before he could say another word, Alexander pulled him down onto the ice.

They weren't far from the shore, maybe two kilometers. It was pre-dawn. The cabin of the truck was submerged and cracking a larger hole in the ice, large enough soon for the whole truck to fit through.

"Pardon me, Major," Ouspensky said, "but you're talking out of your ass. I've never done anything wrong in my entire military career. They haven't come for me."

"No," Alexander said. "They've come for me."

"Who the f*ck areyou ?"

The truck was disappearing into the water.

Ouspensky stared at the ice, at the shivering, dumbfounded and bleeding Maikov, at Alexander, and laughed. "Major, perhaps you could tell us your plans for what the three of us are going to do alone on the open ice once the truck sinks?"

"Don't worry," said Alexander with a heavy sigh. "I guarantee you, we won't be alone for long." He nodded in the direction of the distant Morozovo shore and took out his two pistols. The headlights of a light army vehicle were getting closer. The jeep stopped fifty meters from them, and out of it jumped five men with five machine guns all pointing at Alexander. "Stand up! Stand up on the ice!"

Ouspensky and Maikov stood instantly, hands in the air, but Alexander didn't like to take orders from inferior officers. He would not stand up and with good reason. He heard the whistling sound of a shell Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

and put his hands over his head.

When he looked, two of the NKVD men were lying face down, while the other three were crawling to Alexander, rifles aimed at him, hissing,stay down, stay down . Maybe the Germans will kill them before I have a chance to, Alexander thought. He tried to make out the shore. Where was Sayers? The NKVD jeep was stationary, providing a convenient practice target for the Germans. When the NKVD men got very close, Alexander suggested to them that maybe they should get back inside their vehicle and return to Morozovo with all deliberate speed.

"No!" one of them yelled. "We have to get you across to Volkhov!"

Another shell whistled by, this one falling twenty meters from the jeep--the only transport they had to get either to Volkhov or back to Morozovo. Once the Germans hit their jeep, the cluster of men would last several unprotected seconds on the open lake against German artillery.

On his stomach, Alexander stared at the NKVD men on their stomachs. "You want to drive to Volkhov under German fire? Let's go."

The men looked at the armored truck that had carried Alexander. It had nearly gone below the surface of the water. Alexander watched with amusement as self-preservation battled it out with orders.

"Let's go back," said one of the NKVD. "We will return to Morozovo and await further instructions. We can always get him to Volkhov tomorrow."