He decided not to speak again on the phone himself.
But when the next call came, in under the hour, he took it most eagerly, having heard where it came from.
‘Mitlakino! You’ve found the fault?’
‘Yeah. A break. See, they have this conduit, running into a junction box, and what we —’
‘Was it cut?’
‘Well, it doesn’t look frayed. Only nobody said —’
‘All right. You. What’s your rank?’
‘Sergeant, sir.’
‘Stay by that phone. Tell the director of the camp, from me, to check his vehicles again. Every one of them has to be checked. He is to inspect them himself, including anything they have at the mine. He will report to me personally, and he had better not miss any. Do that now. I’m waiting here, I can hear you. When you’ve done it I have another order.’
The other order was for the civilian aircraft on the air strip to be inspected again. It was to be inspected from nose to tail, every centimetre of it; every seat, under every seat, the cargo space, the toilets, any hollow part of the fuselage.
‘But stay by the phone yourself. Somebody will talk to you. If they don’t talk, still stay on the phone. Keep this line open. Don’t let anybody else use it.’
This was at five o’clock.
At five-thirty the director of the camp asked permission to come on the phone, and the general gave it.
‘Well?’
‘General, there’s no actual vehicle missing —’
‘What actual? What are you talking about?’
‘Not a vehicle. We checked them all hours ago. It’s just — a snow plough isn’t here. It could have broken down and the driver be spending the night at Tunytlino. They don’t have a phone there but what I’ll do right now is send —’
‘Tuny what? Have they any vehicles there?’
‘Yes, they have vehicles. They have special tracked vehicles for going out to −’
‘How far to Magadan from there?’
‘To Magadan?’ There was a puzzled silence. ‘Well, I don’t know. I would say maybe — two thousand kilometres?’
‘Two thousand —’
For the first time the general was aware he didn’t know exactly where Mitlakino was. Since nothing of note existed there and it wasn’t on Tchersky’s maps nobody had given him the location. But the airbase had the location. He had thought the airbase was near Magadan. He had thought Mitlakino was …
‘Where the devil are you?’ he said.
‘Where am I?’ the director said in a strange voice. ‘I’m at Mitlakino. Above Lavrentiya. Below Cape Dezhnev.’
‘Cape Dezhnev!’ The general’s flapping hand had summoned maps. ‘Dezhnev … Dezhnev. You mean — the Chukotka peninsula?’
‘Yes, certainly. The Chukotka peninsula.’
‘I see a lake. And a marsh, is it?’
‘The lake and the marsh. Yes, General, we’re between them.’
‘With Tuny — Tunytlino, away on the coast?’
‘Thirty kilometres away. That’s where I think the driver of the snow plough —’
‘The coast of the Bering Strait?’
‘Certainly the Bering Strait.’
‘Good God! Good God!’ the general said. ‘He’s not going south. He’s going — Is that sergeant there? Give me that sergeant.’
By six o’clock, the helicopters were airborne again and making for the string of coastal villages between Tunytlino and Keyekan. Their orders were to land at the villages and search them.
By six-thirty all were reporting dense fog over the coastal area. They could see nothing on the ground, and nothing of each other. They asked permission to return.
‘No! Refused. Absolutely not!’ the general told the airbase. ‘They are to land at those villages.’
‘But they can’t see the villages.’
‘Let them go down lower and look.’
‘General, I can’t endanger my men or their aircraft in these conditions. You’ll see on your map there are hills in that vicinity.’
‘And you’ll see on yours there’s also a strait there. The Bering Strait! Let them fly over it, a little offshore. The villages will have lights. If they get out on their feet they’ll find them.’
By six forty-five a helicopter had found Tunytlino.
It reported that nothing was known of the man there but the villagers had heard a vehicle passing in the night. It had passed soon after 2 a.m. It had passed in the direction of Leymin.
Shortly afterwards Leymin called in.
Nothing of the man there, either, and no vehicle had passed through.
‘He’s made his try in between, then,’ the general said. ‘Or he went inland a bit.’ He was tracing the route on his map. ‘Let them search both villages. But I think he went on to the next, Veyemik. From there he has a clear run, due east, to the islands. But not with the snow plough — too soon detected. He’s on skis. He took them with him! But on skis he couldn’t have made it yet. And in the fog … I think he’s still there. He’s either spun them a yarn or he’s hiding there. He’s in Veyemik!’
At six fifty-five Veyemik called; and the general’s heart sang.
A stranger had come in the night to Veyemik. A terrified stranger. He said a vehicle had chased him. It had chased him from the mines at Mitlakino where he had been accused of stealing money. He had been in fear of his life and they had taken him in. Their menfolk were looking after him. Had they done wrong?
In no way! Lay hands on him immediately; subdue him, take him back to the base, keep him bound at all times! And promptly report his arrival. He would come himself as soon as notified.
Very good. One squad would remain there until the fog lifted. Then they’d go out and get him. The menfolk of Veyemik were presently at their fishing station. The man was with them.
He was where?
It took some minutes, the babble going there and back from the helicopter, for the general to gather that the fishing station was fifty kilometres out in the strait. That it was only ten kilometres from the first island. And that the party would not yet have reached it. They had left twenty-five minutes ago.
Twenty-five minutes!
‘Go out now!’ the general said. ‘Go immediately, don’t delay! He’ll slip off — this is what he’ll do!’
Go where? How could they find the fishing station in the fog? The Eskimos found it by beacon. The beacon was controlled from the island. The helicopters couldn’t be directed to it by the island because –
‘All right. I’ll manage the island. The helicopters are to take off immediately — all three of them. Sweep behind him, go due east. He’s still in a car, going there! From fifty metres they’ll see the car, even in a fog. Get them down to twenty metres! I’ll call out aircraft from the island. You’ll find him between you. If he tries to slip away and go left or right he’ll miss the island, and he’s lost in the fog. Then we pick him up at leisure. How long is the fog due to last?’
The fog was due to last, according to latest information, another two to three hours … But if aircraft took off from the island there could be mid-air collisions — visibility was zero! The best instrumentation couldn’t –
So arrange a corridor. The fishing station was fifty kilometres out? Fly forty-five. The island would be informed accordingly. Keep communication with them. He was contacting them himself immediately.
Which, immediately, he did.
From the island, after a few minutes’ delay, he learned that the Eskimos’ vehicles had already arrived at their fishing station. Three vehicles had been monitored arriving. Yes, island aircraft could reach the station very shortly. With the beacon, fog was not a problem.