Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(49)

"Your wife is being questioned at this very moment--"

"By someone other than you?" said Alexander. "I'm surprised, comrade, that you would entrust someone else with such an important job. You must have many qualified men working for you."

"Major, do you remember what happened three years ago in 1940?"

"Yes, I fought in the war with Finland. I was wounded and received a medal of valor and was promoted to second lieutenant."

"I'm not talking about that."

"Ah."

"In 1940, the Soviet government established rules for women who failed to renounce their husbands for crimes committed under Article 58 of the Penal Code. Failure to renounce your spouse was a crime punishable by ten years in a hard labor camp. Do you know anything about that?"

"Not much, comrade, thankfully. I was not married in 1940."

"I'm going to level with you, Major Belov, because I'm tired of playing games. Your wife, Dr. Sayers, and a man named Dimitri Chernenko tried to escape--" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"Wait," said Alexander. "Surely Dr. Sayers was not escaping? Wasn't he with the Red Cross? They're free to cross international borders, no?"

"Yes," snapped Slonko. "But your wife and her companion were not. There was a border incident in which Private Chernenko was shot."

"Was he your witness?" Alexander smiled. "I hope he wasn't your only witness."

"Your wife and Dr. Sayers made it to Helsinki."

Alexander remained smiling.

"But the doctor was gravely wounded. Do you know how we know that, Major? Because we called the hospital in Helsinki. We were told that the doctor died two days ago."

The smile was frozen on Alexander's face.

"We were also told by the very helpful Red Cross doctor that Sayers had come in with a wounded Red Cross nurse. She fits the description of Tatiana Metanova. Small, blonde, apparently pregnant? A gash on her face? That would be her?"

Alexander made no motion.

"I thought so. We had asked him to keep hold of her until our men got there. We met up with her in the Helsinki hospital and brought her back early this morning. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes," said Alexander, struggling with himself to stand. He decided to remain sitting. He steeled his face and he steeled his arms and he steeled his entire body. But it was no use. His legs were shaking. Yet in a steely voice he said, "What do you want from me?"

"The truth."

Time--what a funny thing it was. In Lazarevo, it had blinked through them; blink and gone. What was it doing now, standing still, as he tried to breathe through the seconds, as he tried to keep calm. For a moment as he looked down onto the dirty wood floor, he thought, to save her, I will tell him the truth. I will sign his f*cking paper. From me, there actuallyis truth. Iam who he says. But then he thought, what about Corporal Maikov? His truth was that he had known nothing; certainly he had not known me. What truth could he have given them before they shot him? To Slonko, lies are truth and truth is a lie. The answers we give, the answers we keep hidden, he knows it's all a sham, yet his life's achievement is measured by the success of how many lies he can get out of us. He doesn't think I'm anymore Alexander Barrington than Stepanov is, than Maikov was. What he wants is for me to lie so he can declare his mission a success. What he wants is the seventeen-year-old boy he never got to question. The nerve--the audacity!--of a convicted agitator to escape and not die. That's what he's responding to. What he wants is for me to sign a piece of paper that will tell him it's all right to kill me, now, seven years later, whether or not I'm Alexander Barrington. He wants absolution for killing me. With my confession I would give it to him.

Slonko was twisting the truth, trying to make Alexander weak. Tatiana had disappeared, that was true. They were looking for her--also true. Maybe they did call the Helsinki Red Cross. Maybe they did find out that Sayers had died. Poor Sayers. Maybe they did find out there was a nurse with him and without Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

knowing her name, just from the description alone, they deduced it was Alexander's wife. It had only been a few days. Could they really have gotten one of their operatives to Helsinki that quickly? They had trouble retrieving supply trucks from Leningrad barely seventy kilometers away. Helsinki was five hundred kilometers from here. Could they really have not just intercepted her, but brought her back, too?

Would Tania have stuck around Helsinki? True, Alexander had told her they couldn't stay in that city, but in her abandoned distress, would she have remembered?

Alexander lifted his gaze back to Slonko, who was staring at him with the expression of a man who is rubbing his hands together before he digs into the feast in front of him. With the expression of a man who is about to witness the goring of the matador.

Coldly Alexander said, "Is there some truth you haven't gotten from me, comrade?"

"Maybe, Major Belov, you don't care for your own life, but surely you will talk to us when the life of your pregnant spouse is at stake?"

"I will repeat my question to you, comrade," said Alexander, "in case you didn't hear me the first time. Is there something you want I haven't given you?"

"Yes, you haven't given me the truth!" exclaimed Slonko, slapping Alexander very hard across the face.