Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(51)

"Comrade!" Alexander yelled, taking a small step forward. "I am warning you. Donot continue." He was a half-meter away from Slonko. He could put his hands on Slonko's shoulders in a fraternal gesture if such a gesture were called for at this time. It wasn't.

"No?"

"No," said Alexander. "Trust me with this, Comrade Slonko. You are inciting the wrong man."

"Oh, why is that?" Slonko asked warmly. "Because youwon't be incited?"

"Quite the opposite," replied Alexander. "Because I will be."

Slonko fell quiet.

Alexander fell quiet.

"Well, aren't you going to shoot yourself full of penicillin, Major?"

"When you leave, yes."

"I'm not leaving."

Alexander shook his head without stepping back to the wall. "Stick to the business at hand. Have you gotten me a tribunal in front of a military command? I'm sure you will be welcome to sit in on the proceedings, to hear an innocent man acquit himself in your country."

"Inyour country, Major," Slonko corrected Alexander.

"In my country," agreed Alexander, not moving any part of his body. The cell was barely two meters long, a meter wide. He waited. He knew that Slonko did not have a tribunal set up. He had not been given the authority for anything--for a tribunal, for an execution, for a thorough investigation. He wanted a confession out of Alexander while no one else gave a damn. For all Alexander knew, since the star witness was lying dead in the snow, Mekhlis himself could have already said to Slonko, free Belov. We can't afford to lose good men, we have no information on his espionage except from a dead deserter, and Stalin did not issue an order for Belov's death, which is the only order I will listen to. At the same time, Slonko was not giving up. Why?

Slonko could not touch him. Alexander would pass a man like Slonko on the street and not acknowledge him. That's how far the proletariat had come. A man like Slonko, a Party pig all his life, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

had no power over a man like Alexander, his prey for seven years.

That was so right in Alexander's world, yet obviously so wrong in Slonko's.

Alexander waited. After a few moments, he said, "Why don't you leave, comrade, and come back when you've got something more. Bring me before the generals. Or bring me my release order."

"Major, you will never be free again," said Slonko. "I have recommended that you will never be free."

"When I die I will be."

"I will not allow your death. Your mother has died. Your father has died. I want you to live the life they planned for you, the life they brought you here for. They both thought so much of you, Alexander Barrington. They both told me so. Do you think you have fulfilled their dreams?"

"I don't know aboutthem , but I have fulfilled my own mother and father's dreams, yes. They were simple farmers. I have gone far in the Red Army. They would be proud of me."

"What about your wife's hopes, Major? Do you think you have fulfilled your wife's?"

"Comrade, I have already told you--do not speak to me about my wife."

"No? She was quite willing to talk about you. When she wasn't--ahem--otherwise--"

"Comrade!" Alexander stepped toward Slonko. "That will be thelast time," he said. "There will be no more."

"I will not leave."

"You will leave. You are dismissed. Come back when you've got something."

"Oh, I'm not leaving, Major," said Slonko. "The more you want me to, the more I want to stay."

"I don't doubt it. Youwill leave, though." Not a flicker moved through Alexander, who stood as if he were a statue. He was barely breathing.

"Major! I'm not the one arrested. I'm not the one whose wife has been arrested. I'm not the American."

"As to the last, I'm not either."

"You are, you are, Major. Your own wife told me so when she finished sucking my cock."

Alexander's hand slammed into Slonko's throat. Slonko didn't even have time to breathe in his surprise. His head snapped back against the concrete wall, eyes bulging, mouth open. With his free hand, Alexander plunged a syringe filled with ten grains of morphine through Slonko's sternum, straight into the right chamber of his heart. He pressed his palm against the thumb plate and snapped Slonko's jaws shut. Slonko could not emit a single sound even if he wanted to.

In English, Alexander said, "I'm surprised at you. Didn't you know who you were dealing with?" Gritting his teeth, he squeezed Slonko's neck, and saw the eyes first cloud, then glaze over. He whispered, "This is for my mother...and my father...and for Tatiana." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Convulsing, Slonko was sinking to the ground. Alexander held him up with one hand on his throat, as Slonko's neck muscles stretched and relaxed, as his pupils dilated, and when Slonko stopped blinking, Alexander let go of his neck. The chief investigator dropped to the floor like a heap of stones. Alexander pulled out the empty syringe from Slonko's chest, threw it down the drainpipe, came up to the door and yelled, "Guard! Guard! Something is wrong with Comrade Slonko!"

The guard ran in, looked around the room, looked at Slonko limp on the floor and said in a confused voice, "What happened?"