Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(211)

"Yes, I was not happy with the living conditions. I was voting with my feet."

The generals exchanged looks. "You were convicted of treason, is that correct?"

"It is correct that that is what I was convicted of, yes."

"Do you deny charges of treason?"

"Whole-heartedly."

"They say you had deserted the Red Army when they were coming to resupply you and after meandering through the woods, you willingly surrendered yourself to the enemy and fought alongside them against your own people."

"I did give myself up to the enemy. I had not had any reinforcements in two weeks, I was out of bullets and out of men on a defense line of forty thousand Germans. I never fought against my own people. I was in Catowice and then Colditz. But surrenderingwas against the law for Soviet soldiers, so I am guilty as charged."

The generals were silent. "You are lucky to still be alive, Captain," said General Pearson of the Marines. "We heard that out of six million Soviet prisoners of war, the Germans let five million die."

"I am sure that figure is not inflated, General. Perhaps if Stalin had signed the Geneva Agreement, more would be alive. The English and the Americans POW weren't all killed, were they?"

There was no answer from the generals.

"So what is your rank now?"

"I have no rank. My rank was taken away from me when I was sentenced for treason."

"Why are the Soviets calling you Major Belov, then?" Bishop asked.

Half-smiling, Alexander shrugged. "I don't know."

"Captain Belov, why don't you start at the beginning, from the moment your parents left America and came to the Soviet Union, and tell us what has happened to you? That will help us greatly. We have too much conflicting information here. The NKGB has been looking for an Alexander Barrington for ten years. But they also maintain you are Alexander Belov. We don't even know if that is one and the same man. Why don't you tell us who you are, Captain."

"Be glad to, sir. Request permission to sit."

"Granted," said Bishop. "Guard, bring this man some cigarettes, and some water." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Alexander had been in for six hours. Tatiana thought he could have been taken away through a secret passage, but she kept hearing dim voices through the thick wood doors.

She paced, she sat--she crouched, she rocked. Her life and his floating before her eyes in the anteroom of the United States Embassy in Berlin.

They were learning to swim, and each minute did not get easier, each day did not bring new relief. Each day brought just another minute of the things they could not leave behind. Jane Barrington sitting on the train coming back to Leningrad from Moscow, holding on to her son, knowing she had failed him, crying for Alexander, wanting another drink, and Harold, in his prison cell, crying for Alexander, and Yuri Stepanov on his stomach in the mud in Finland, crying for Alexander, and Dasha in the truck, on the Ladoga ice, crying for Alexander, and Tatiana on her knees in the Finland marsh, screaming for Alexander, and Anthony, alone with his nightmares, crying for his father.

But there he is! With the cap in his hands, crossing the street for his white dress with red roses, there he is, every day coming to Kirov, stone upon stone, corpse upon corpse, there he is, in the Field of Mars under the lilacs with his rifle and she is barefoot next to him, and he is whirling her around on the steps of their wedding church, waltzing with her under the red moon of their wedding night, coming out of the Kama, coming at her broken and destroyed, bare, smiling, smoking, drowning Alexander. He is not gone yet. He is not vanished. Perhaps what remains of him can still be saved.

And there he is once again, standing on the river Vistula, looking out onto the rest of what's left of his life. One path leads to death; the other to salvation. He doesn't know which road to take, but in his eyes is the girl on the bench, and across the river is the Bridge to Holy Cross.

When Alexander was finished, the generals sat still, the ambassador sat still, the consul sat still.

"Whew, Captain Belov," said Bishop, "that's some life you got there. How old are you?"

"Twenty-seven."

Bishop whistled.

General Pearson of the United States Marines said, "You're telling us that your wife, without knowing where you were, came to Germany bearing weapons, found the camp you were in, found your cell, found you, and orchestrated your escape out of the maximum security Special Camp Number 7?"

"Yes, sir." Alexander paused. "Perhaps we can keep the reference to my wife out of this tribunal's report?"

John Ravenstock was quiet. The generals were quiet. "And what would you call yourself, Captain, if your American citizenship were reinstated?"

"Anthony Alexander Barrington," he said.

The men stared at Alexander. He stood up and saluted them. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

The door opened and the seven of them came out of the conference room. Alexander walked out last. He saw Tatiana struggle up from her chair, but she couldn't stand without holding on to it, and she looked so alone and forsaken, he was afraid that she would break down in front of half a dozen strangers. Yet he wanted to say something to her, something to comfort her, and so slightly nodding his head, he said, "We are going home."