“I was afraid I wouldn’t find you alive,” said Lukas.
“I told you once before, they can’t kill me. They’ve tried again and again. Besides, what kind of a host would I be if I weren’t around to welcome you after I invited you? So you made it into the country all right?”
Lozorius’s colour was very poor. He was like a frog coming out of hibernation, pale, almost translucent. But for all his bad colour, by virtue of being alive, Lozorius was still on a winning streak.
They went inside the bunker and closed the lid behind them. The upper bunk was hopelessly wet, but they could lay their jackets and arms on the lower one and sit around the small table with their feet in a shallow puddle of water.
“Lozorius was almost impossible to get here,” said Lakstingala. “When I finally found him, he grilled me up and down about you. Then he didn’t want to come here, and he wouldn’t let me bring you to his own bunker.”
“What’s this all about?”
“I transmit from my bunker. I run the radio antenna up at night and I send out messages. I also receive. As far as I know I’m the only free radio sending information out of this country, and if the Cheka gets me, the last bit of light will stop escaping from here. No one comes to my bunker.”
There was a flash of the spirit that Lukas remembered, the confidence that made Lozorius so attractive.
“Don’t you give yourself away if you keep transmitting from the same place?” asked Lukas.
“Not if I’m very brief and infrequent. Did you bring a radio?”
“Not me personally. The others I came with might still have theirs, but I don’t know what happened to them.”
“I do. At least one of them is working for the Cheka, but I don’t know if he was always with them or if he was forced into this only after you landed.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because he’s sending information to Stockholm that contradicts mine,” said Lozorius. “He’s trying to undermine my credibility.”
“The Cheka know about you?”
“Of course they do. They’re looking for me so hard I’m afraid to breathe. I’m the last free transmitter in this country—they need to close me down. And here is the irony: I know your compatriot is compromised, and so is Stockholm, for all the good it does me. The villains know I’m here and I know about the villains, but those who might still be honest back in Stockholm can’t tell us apart.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying there is a hole in security somewhere. I had a farmer up in Palanga freelancing for me personally. The forest was full of Cheka troops before you landed, so you were expected. They set a trap for you, but you still managed to slip out. I’m amazed you got away.”
“I was lucky,” said Lukas.
“I hope that’s true.” Lukas looked at him, not quite understanding what he meant at first. “Don’t look so shocked, my friend. You can’t trust anyone anymore, unless it’s someone you’ve known for a long time, and even then you can’t be sure. But Lakstingala is not only lucky, he has a good nose. I knew he’d sniff you out if you were a smiter. I’ve known for a year that there were leaks on the other side.”
“What kind of leaks?”
“The Reds have penetrated either the British or the Swedish secret services. I don’t know which one and I don’t know who betrayed us. It might be Zoly himself, but I don’t think so. He’s too much the diplomat and he doesn’t like to risk himself, so he probably wouldn’t take the chance of playing a double game.”
“Just a moment. If you knew your communications were compromised, why did you ask for me in particular? You were calling me into a trap.”
“Because I knew if anyone could get in, it was you.”
“You’re saying you lured me back in?”
“In a way, yes.”
“And maybe you lied about Elena just to get me in?”
The bunker was so small that they were pressed in close to one another in a huddle, the candle shedding the only light. Lakstingala and Lozorius were both smoking. Lukas would have liked to smoke too, but the bunker felt airless enough as it was.
“No, that part’s true. Elena is alive and I knew you’d want to know it. A miracle, eh? I had to tell you, but I did compromise her a little by naming her. If all our communications are being read by the traitors in Stockholm, the Reds know she’s alive too.”
“You used her code name?”
“Our code names haven’t been secret for years. They know us all by our real names. There are files on each of us in Vilnius. There are investigators assigned to each of us and there’s money on our heads. Either you or I would bring enough to make a man rich. Even Elena has a price on her head.”
“Where is she?”
“In Merkine. She’s living with false documents.”
“How is it possible? Flint saw her die in an explosion.”
“We’ve all seen people die. Sometimes they die and sometimes they don’t. She was wounded and taken to a hospital. When she was almost well, she was sprung out with a few other women.”
“How can you know this?”
“I know this and I know a hundred other loose ends of information, but none of them is any good to me. Yours is the only thread that will take us anywhere.”
“I can’t understand all this. Why did you give away her secret through your transmission? And why did you call on me?”
“Because I knew if I told you she was alive, you would come. And I knew that you were the only one who had a chance of survival even if a trap was set for you.”
“But why did you need me in particular?”
“Because I need someone like you to help me get out of this country.”
“You gave an oath,” said Lakstingala. He had been smoking and listening to them in silence although he was very close to them, his face no more than an arm’s length away. His eyes had gone cold.
“What good are our oaths now? The movement is broken. I’ve seen that. The only ones left are the lucky ones like us. The whole structure has crumbled and what hasn’t vanished is shot through with betrayal. Most of the farms have been collectivized—we have no base of support anymore. I was ready to die for my cause when there was hope that someone from our side might win, even if it wasn’t me, but I don’t see hope anymore. The best we can do is get back out and take what news we have with us. I’d give anything to be sitting in a restaurant in Stockholm right now.”
“What are the spy agencies going to say about that?” asked Lukas.
“To hell with them. They were just using us anyway. The British or Swedes have been penetrated, and for all we know, the Americans too. I’m terrified of being taken alive. I know too much. I don’t think I could withstand the torture.”
“Then you should shoot yourself,” said Lakstingala.
Lozorius looked away from Lakstingala and would not look back again. “Do you have anything to drink?” he asked.
Lukas did. He had been saving some cassis Lakstingala had brought. He opened the bottle and poured each of them four fingers.
Lozorius drank half the liqueur and then rested his glass on the table. “I don’t think I want to die anymore. That’s the problem.”
“I’ll kill you if you don’t have the courage to do it yourself,” said Lakstingala.
“Don’t be so harsh,” said Lukas.