‘Just some girl earning her keep,’ Kolya said, following my gaze.
He set off towards the footbridge. I stood for a moment longer, peering down the hill, my eyes straining to pierce the darkness.
‘Come on,’ Kolya called quietly.
I followed him, carefully picking my way across the wet earth towards the path. Kolya’s footsteps echoed in the night’s stillness as he hurried on to the bridge, the metal railings reverberating softly. In the shadow of a tree I paused and looked back: nothing stirred down the long hill. I stepped into the light of the street lamp and followed Kolya on to the bridge.
‘Where in the park is it?’ I asked, catching up with him halfway across.
‘Not far, according to this,’ he said. ‘Just a little way into the woods.’
Above us, the trees rose darkly now. Below, obscured by the night, the river ran swiftly, tumbling, revealed only by the small, glittering, globular reflections of the street lamps. Kolya was breathing heavily, and as we passed beneath a lamp I noticed that a thin film of sweat coated his forehead, even though the night was cool. Across the centre of the bridge rainwater had pooled in the cracked and sunken concrete, forming a puddle of some depth. We waded through it and hurried on towards the shadow of the trees.
On the far side of the bridge the bank rose up into the woods. The footpath branched off in two directions. Kolya took the left fork, running parallel with the river, along the edge of the park. I followed him as he paced up the track, muttering under his breath, casting his eyes from side to side in the gloom, seemingly searching for some object.
‘Is there a marker?’ I asked.
He waved his hand, irritably, for me to be quiet. A few moments later he paused and dug a lighter from his pocket. In the dim light of its small flame he read from the back of the letter. Turning from the path, away from the river, he plunged in among the trees. Glancing back along the path, deserted and quiet, I followed him, hurdling low brush, ducking beneath the branches, arms up to protect my face from the sharp back-slash as Kolya pushed through them before me.
‘How can you be sure this is the right route?’ I called to Kolya impatiently, as my shoes sank in the soft earth.
As if in response Kolya stopped dead, looked around, glanced back towards the path, and turned. He brushed past me and made his way back to the path. There he stood, as a stray beam of moonlight broke through the heavy layer of cloud, illuminating the woods with a cool light, looking around him, hand against his forehead.
I glanced at my watch. It was two o’clock. Kolya slipped down the bank from the path again and examined the bark of the closest tree. Turning from it, he examined those on either side. Shaking his head, he moved off, down the tree line, feeling the rough bark.
‘Blyad! Are we going to have to examine every single tree in the park?’ I complained.
Kolya ignored me, working quickly from the bark of one to another. A few metres along the path, his fingers found what they were looking for. He gave a little cry of pleasure.
‘Found it,’ he said, and plunged once more into the wood.
He progressed more cautiously this time, working his way from one tree to another, following the signs carved into the trunks of the thick pines. Occasionally he would stop, unsure, moving from one tree to the next, discovering small clearings where trees had fallen, having to work past them, picking up his trail on the far side.
‘Two trees,’ he said, turning to me, his face obscured in the darkness. ‘There are two trees marked in a particular way. Between the two of them, exactly halfway, it is buried.’
I caught up with him.
‘Here.’
He took my hand and placed the tips of my fingers on the cool, coarse bark. I felt the grooves cut deep into it, a cross, thick and long.
‘Stand here,’ he said.
He moved, feeling his way from trunk to trunk until he had found the one he was looking for. He stood with his back to it, resting, his face a pale blotch. There in the earth between us, the box was buried. I felt a childlike thrill at the thought of it. And Kolya, I noticed, as he paced deliberately across the space towards me, was grinning.
Finding the spot, Kolya knelt down on the damp earth and brushed back the thick drift of pine needles that had settled across the ground. I knelt beside him, my heart beating fast. Kolya took a penknife from his pocket. Opening out the blade, he dug it into the earth, loosening the soil.
‘It’s buried not far beneath the surface,’ he explained, his voice quivering a little.
He was scrabbling with his fingers now, pulling up clods of soil, his hand cupping the loose earth and swooping it out of the small hole. His fingernails scratched against metal. Working quickly, he cleared the earth from the top of the box and worked his fingers around it, prising it up from its shallow grave.
He laid it on the slippery bed of pine needles by the hole and for some moments we sat in silence, gazing at its rusting surface. Blue paint flaked from it.
He shook the box gently. There was a soft knock as something moved inside. Taking out his penknife again, Kolya slipped it under the lid and pulled it up. The rusted metal gave easily. He slipped his fingers inside the box, which was barely visible in the gloom, and grinned.
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
‘When we got to Ghazis,’ Kolya explained as we worked our way back through the trees towards the path, the box tucked beneath his arm, ‘we slipped away from the platoon, into the backstreets where Kirov had arranged to meet his contact. The man we met took us down a passage into a courtyard. Vassily feared we were being lured into a trap. We were taken up to a large room at the top of some stairs. To our surprise, we found Hashim was there.
‘Three or four other men were in the room. Shady looking characters. Kirov’s friends. KHAD, as we were to find out later. To begin with Hashim took out some pieces of jewellery, lapis lazuli, nothing of any significance. I could see Vassily was beginning to get restless. He threw the pieces contemptuously across the floor.
‘And then Hashim took a leather pouch and went and squatted down by Vassily. Taking his hand, he shook out the contents of the pouch on to Vassily’s palm. We could all see it was just one bracelet. Vassily sat perfectly still, the bracelet resting on his palm, hardly breathing. Kirov, noticing his expression, wandered over. Slowly Vassily turned it over and examined it carefully from every angle. He asked whether Hashim knew what it was, whether he had any idea what he’d given him, Hashim told him that it was stolen from the Kabul collection.
‘Kirov nodded to the KHAD agents and they left. We didn’t realise its significance then; we didn’t know the full price we were paying for the bracelet. You see it, wasn’t just the arms they wanted.’
‘What do you mean?’ I said. ‘What was the price?’
‘The government was trying to crack down on the anti-Soviet revolutionary women’s group, Rawa. They were, as you know, orchestrating campaigns against the activities of the government. They were stirring up trouble everywhere they went.’
‘What are you trying to say?’ I felt my heart flutter with fear.
Kolya paused. He looked at me for a moment, then turned away. ‘KHAD wanted Zena.’
I stopped on the path. I felt my knees tremble and begin to give. Kolya paused and looked back. The frail light of the moon, which struggled still against the rain-heavy clouds, cast a waxy sheen over his thin face. He looked apologetic.
‘She was sold for the bracelet?’ I whispered.