Lose a child, and you lose your soul.
Irina took the phone in her hand again and this time she didn't hesitate to press the button.
"Finally," snapped Ian Kabra. "Have we got anything to worry about?""Yes," said Irina. She'd arrived at the pond and stood staring into the algae-covered water. "Someone helps them.
Someone high up in the Lucian branch. It must be.""What makes you think so?" Ian asked."They've just left Alexei's Playroom. They must know about the Lucian connection to the Romanovs."
"Make sure they don't find themselves in possession of sensitive material. You know what's at stake. One step closer and you'll have to remove them.""I know."Irina paused, but the temptation to goad was too strong."It won't be just me your father punishes," she warned softly, and clicked off her phone.
At least she wasn't being asked to do anything too drastic to the children yet. She took a device out of her pocket and turned it on.
A small screen came to life."Where are you off to now, Dan and Amy Cahill?" she said.
Irina had already placed the coordinates from the parking lot into the device. A distant satellite beamed images onto her screen, zooming in closer and closer until the top of a blue car came into view.
"Not bad," Irina said, pleased with the clever device the Lucians had only recently put into use in the field.
The car was blurry and lacking detail on the screen, but the tiny blue top was unmistakable.
This will be easier than I thought.
Irina got in her own car, keeping the blue on-screen as she took chase. Two minutes later, the small car turned right."Off the main road," she mumbled, seeing Dan and Amy turn off the highway.
"You two are full of surprises."A few minutes later, Irina had unexpectedly caught up, finding herself on a one-lane dirt road.
She no longer needed the satellite viewer because she was quickly overtaking the small car. She hadn't intended to get so close to Amy and Dan, and she certainly didn't want them spotting her.
But the road was narrow, with plowed-over fields on both sides, and she had a big car. What was worse, the blue car had stopped and was turning around.
This will be complicated, thought Irina as the little car zoomed closer.
It was going way too fast, as if the driver was planning to slam right into her front grill. Irina threw her car into reverse and began backing down the dirt road."Stop, you maniacs!" she screamed.
Her car fish-tailed violently, caught the edge of a big rock, and spun out into the thick, tilled farmland.
The blue car buzzed up to Irina and screeched to a halt. Its driver was a gray-bearded man whose smile revealed a missing front tooth."Who gave you this car? Where did they go?"
Irina screeched in Russian, rolling down her window.
The man nodded with some enthusiasm, which made Irina wonder if he had understood her questions. She peered into the empty backseat."Tell me, you idiot!"
Irina screamed.The name-calling seemed to upset the driver and his smile evaporated. "Americans," he began. "Gave me ten thousand rubles plus the car in exchange."
"Exchange for what?" yelled Irina."My truck," said the man.
"What color was the truck? Which way did they go? Skazhi!"Irina should have known better than to hound an old Russian farmer. He was not amused by her angry tone, and he stared into the farmland as if he were made of iron.Irina reached into her pocket and pulled out a small revolver.
Her eye was twitching furiously, but when she turned back to the car it widened in shock. The old farmer had slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, shooting a plume of dust and mud through her open window.
Chunks of farm road flew into Irina's face. She threw her car into gear and hit the gas, but the soft tilled earth she'd backed into gave way and her rear wheels dug in.
She was stuck.
Irina coughed and spit, trying to clear all the mud from her mouth. The gunk in her eyes and mouth wasn't nearly as bad as the awful truth.
“I've lost them.”
* * *
"Do you think we've lost her for good?" asked Dan. It had been his idea to enlist the help of the farmer walking along the dirt road.
Dan's backpack full of money was coming in handy in more ways than he could have imagined."I have no idea, but I don't think I can stay in here much longer. Tiny Tim's trunk is like a mailbox and your feet stink.""I hate to break the news, but it's your feet that stink, not mine," said Dan.
Amy sniffed."Actually, I think it's the farmer. He needs a bath."Tiny Tim slowed to a crawl and turned a hard right. A few seconds later it stopped and the trunk popped open.
"You pay now?" asked the farmer.
"We pay now," answered Dan, crawling out of the trunk and peering around him. Amy came out next and ran for the driver's seat before Dan could beat her to it. She caught his eye in the rear-view mirror and stuck out her tongue.
When Dan got in the car after paying the farmer, he made his broccoli face."Next time, let's get help from someone who hasn't been walking around in cow manure all day," said Amy.
They rolled down the windows and Amy hit the gas as the old man wandered into the open farmland, counting his rubles.
Amy was pushing Tiny Tim as fast as it would go, straight for the airport in St. Petersburg.
She assumed they'd need to visit one of the two non-Siberian places left on their hunt: Moscow or Yekaterinburg.As the little car strained along, Dan juddered in his seat, holding the honey-colored stone Amy had discovered in Alexei's closet.
It was an oval, about two inches around and flat like a skipping rock.
[Proofreader's note: The writing on the rock says M,S -> 52 with 4 broken bones underneath.]
"No way this thing was missed all those years," said Dan.
"NRR had to put it there for us.""I agree. I just wish what was inscribed made more sense. He's not making it easy on us.""No kidding."Dan looked carefully at each of the elements on the stone and tried to piece them together. It was just the kind of thing he should be able to figure out.
"A pile of bones, the number fifty-two, an arrow, and the letters M and S separated by a comma. Cryptic to say the least.""Is the arrow pointing toward the M and the S or away from them?" asked Amy."Away from them," answered Dan. "And the bones, now that I get a better look at them, are cracked. These are broken bones."Amy slammed on the
brakes way too hard and Tiny Tim swerved along the shoulder of the road. Cars honked from behind and Dan came inches from smacking his head against the windshield.
Drivers passed by, screaming abuse and honking their horns. Amy tried to catch her breath; the near accident had really shaken her up."You almost sent me through the windshield!"
Dan yelled.
Then his eyes lit up and he turned to his sister. "My turn to drive?"Fifty yards up was a tree-lined side road that looked much more calm than the two-lane highway. Amy put Tiny Tim into low gear, crawled to the turn, and drove another hundred yards before swinging a U-turn and parking on the side of the road. She'd finally calmed down enough to talk.
"S-s-sorry about that. Obviously, I'm not ready for prime time behind the wheel. We need to retire this thing before someone gets hurt. But here's the good news -- I know what the message means. Where's the guidebook?"
"Can I drive now?" Dan asked again."Not a chance.""Come on! Let me drive! Please!"Within the space of thirty seconds, Dan asked if he could drive nine more times before finally handing over the guidebook. Amy flipped to Siberia, to a picture she'd seen with a caption that had interested her.
"Okay, check this out. A long time ago, back when they had labor camps in these Siberian outposts, they put a lot of the political prisoners to work on this one road. It was long. I mean really long, and it was a grueling job. Sometimes, when prisoners dropped dead on the job, they'd use their bones in the road itself."