‘Yes. I heard it was a fair load. The tractor’s called for — here, it’s coming. You’ll step inside for refreshment?’
‘Not — just for the moment. I’ll see them started first. I don’t want any dawdling here. Be so good as to look out the medical indent for me, Major. I’ll look at it on the way down. And I’ll join you inside very shortly. Come on, now, hurry it along!’ she called to the approaching tractor.
An Evenk was driving the tractor, and another one was in the small flat car that it was pulling. Porter recognised them both — they had been with the herds: the changeover had taken place.
As the major withdrew inside, his subordinate took over, and supervised the unloading.
‘Now, men, make fast work!’ he urged the Evenks. ‘The medical officer has to get off on a case.’
‘You won’t be seeing us today, Doctor?’ one of the Evenks asked. Maddeningly, both Evenks were grinning at her broadly.
‘Not today. I’ll have to come back. Careful with those cartons,’ she said severely. ‘There are bottles inside.’
‘What case you on, Doctor, what’s the urgency?’
‘Never mind the case! Just look what you’re doing. And don’t throw, now — carry them!’
The driver was pulling the light goods out of the back and tossing them to his mate for stacking on the flat car.
‘Only two pairs of hands, Doctor,’ the man complained. ‘And if we’re to hurry it up —’
‘Shall I get a few extra hands?’ the guard asked her.
‘No, no, they can manage perfectly well. Just see they do it properly. Look, they’re stacking too high, everything will tumble. See it’s re-done-’ she looked at her watch ‘ — and the crates have still to go on!’
The guard hurried to supervise the restacking, and the Evenk at the bobik hurried to haul out the crates. The crates, having been stowed well up front in the van, required him to jump inside to get them; and to assist him the Chukchee jumped in with him. Once inside he swiftly removed his mink hat, balaclava and lumber jacket; and just as swiftly the Evenk removed his own upper gear. The Evenks were clad in deerskin jackets, fur-side in; their crude caps worn flaps-down. In no time they had swapped over.
‘Quick, take my papers!’ Porter said. ‘You’ll need them to get out.’
‘Papers? Where the devil should I put —’
The man had still found no place to put the papers when the guard, at the flat car, noticed the Chukchee in the bobik.
‘Hey! You there — come out!’
The two men looked round at him.
‘You, in the fur hat, come out at once! You’re not allowed!’
The man now in the fur hat came slowly out, shaking his head at the medical officer, and the guard walked suspiciously over.
‘Now, officer,’ Komarova said, swallowing. She had observed the shake. ‘Those crates are very heavy. One man can’t handle them on his own.’
‘Well, he can’t handle them. You know that, Doctor. No outsider handles anything here.’
‘Yes, you’re right,’ she said, but remained staring at him. ‘This — it’s your first trip here? I don’t remember examining you before.’
‘No, first time, Doctor.’
‘Put your tongue out.’
‘My tongue?’ The man bemusedly extended it.
‘Yes. Slight soreness. And some nausea, too, I expect.’ All the guards had slight soreness and some nausea the first few days. ‘Let me see your eyes.’ She helped herself to them, pulling down a lower lid and getting him to gaze skywards while she did so; at the same time noting that papers had changed hands behind her and were now secreted. ‘It’s the altitude. Not so good for your heart, I’m afraid. I’ll take a look at you later. For now, carry on. And get the men moving.’
This the man did, at speed, but still in a state of abstraction over his heart.
‘You’re coming back when, Doctor?’ he anxiously asked.
‘Not today. And tomorrow’s out of the question. It will be the day after. Ah — and I have a message for you!’ she called to the Evenks. ‘Tell Stepan Maximovich his grandchild will be premature, perhaps with complications. Let him choose names without delay, for a boy or a girl.’
‘Wonderful! We’ll celebrate. But they keep us dry as a bone here, Doctor! Can’t you bring us up a drop?’
‘No, I can’t. Tell him to write the names down, and I’ll take them when I come. You shouldn’t be drinking up here,’ she told them sternly.
‘Doctor,’ the guard said. He was earnestly staring at her. ‘Is there anything I shouldn’t be doing here?’
‘Yes. Try not to sleep on your back. Or the left side. Use the right.’
‘The right,’ he said.
‘And call the jeep for me now. I won’t be long with the major.’ She glanced at her watch again. ‘A sick woman is waiting down there! See the sergeant is here in the jeep. And I’ll be out in two minutes.’
And in two minutes she was; with the medical sheets and a flurried major. The sergeant was there in the jeep. The Chukchee was there in the bobik. And the small convoy was off once more; through two sets of opened gates and down the icy path to the guard post. There the two certified visitors — checked down below, checked on top, and now checked out — were saluted off the premises; security one hundred per cent. The guards saw them safely down the ramp, and removed it. And the medical officer was back in the creek again, with her driver. It was the first time the man had seen it.
Up on top, his replacement was also seeing things for the first time. He had accompanied the tractor back to the storage sheds, receiving many winks from the Evenks working there while the guards slowly patrolled. Now he was helping transport another load, to the supply bay.
The supply bay was at the rear of the complex, and as they neared the boundary fence he suddenly saw what he’d come for. Beyond the perimeter, a lake. A great basin of it, now iced, but with machinery of some kind mounted, evidently at work to keep a section of the floodlit water open. The water that it kept open was black, inky black. Reached at last. It was here: Dark waters. Tcherny Vodi.
40
Major Militsky, the camp commandant of Tcherny Vodi, was a rosy young man, not quite thirty years old, but risen fast in his profession. His present job he greatly disliked. Twice before he had been rotated to it, and each time he had disliked it. But this time he disliked it the most. It was his first time here in winter; and for an ambitious security man in winter Tcherny Vodi was an insult. The place was impregnably secure.
In summer some problems could arise. All supplies had to come by air then, and strict routines were needed to prevent contacts between the Evenks and the aircrews — vetted crews, naturally, but given to stretching their limbs and loitering in the fine mountain air.
In winter there wasn’t even that. The crews that arrived went right to the heated crewroom and stayed there. And not so many did arrive. For in winter deliveries could also come by land; and they did, to the lower guard post, for later collection by the camp’s own vehicles. An excellent system — no contact possible between the truck drivers and the camp.
With the Facility, of course, no contact was possible at any time. It was perched 1200 metres up a mountain. It was built actually into the mountain; with the camp securely on top of it.
The camp occupied Levels One and Two of the plateau: Level One for the guards’ barracks, the major’s suite, and all other visible structures. And Level Two for services: the kitchen, bakery, laundry, boilers, workshop, and Evenk quarters. Underneath all that, on Levels Three and Four, was the Facility, but about this the major knew nothing. The Facility ran itself, through a body called the Buro.