‘Grigory is strong man and can look after himself. It’ll be fine.’
Reluctant, Sean nodded. What other choice was there?
The grey clouds turned deep purple as the sun sank below the horizon, and street lamps blinked on as they entered a small, quiet town. The taxi turned off the main road, weaving through a compact estate of rough housing, and pulled up at the kerb. Aleks paid the driver and they disembarked, Sean stretching the ache from his limbs as the taxi pulled away. A sting from his grazed hand made him flinch. He brushed off the dirt to inspect it.
‘Is your hand okay?’ Aleks asked.
‘It’s fine, I think,’ Sean said, shaking the pain from it. He looked at Aleks, whose bruised face shone under the street light. He couldn’t help but laugh at how pathetic his own graze was in comparison. ‘More importantly, how are you? You look terrible.’
‘I’ve had worse.’
Once the taxi was out of sight, Aleks led Sean down a side street, and they stopped outside a small, single-storey building with rickety shale walls and a moss-covered roof. They wandered up the path through the front garden, which was littered with old building materials. A bag of cement propped the porch door open, next to a pair of dirty trainers. Aleks knocked, and they waited.
A light clicked on behind the door, which then opened. A wave of hot, nauseating smell flooded out, and following it came a man who was well over six feet tall, had a scratchy beard, deep-set features and a stained vest. In one hand he held a bottle of something that looked home-brewed, and in the other, a pistol. He lowered it as soon as he saw Aleks and a grin broke upon his face.
‘Aleks!’ he boomed, pulling the man in and thumping his back. He let go, and they exchanged some cheerful chatter, and then Aleks explained their situation. The tone dipped; they both looked at Sean, and then back at each other. Grigory nodded, stepped back, and waved them in.
‘Thanks, Grigory, we really appreciate it,’ Aleks said. ‘Come on in, Sean.’
Sean didn’t respond. As he followed Aleks into the house, the hot odour grew stronger. The smell, he decided, was blood.
When Sally found Novitskiy the next day, he was already working on Soyuz. She could hear him talking to himself long before she saw him, and as she helped herself to her morning meal, he carried on working, unaware of her presence. Her meal was half-finished before he realised she was there.
‘Oh, hello,’ he said, stopping himself as he flew out of Soyuz at breakneck speed. The wide smile he had been carrying faded almost the instant he saw her. ‘How are you today?’
‘Fine,’ Sally said. In reality she was unsure how she felt; the dread that had overwhelmed her when she’d been alone in her quarters was gone, but it hadn’t been pushed aside by fear, or regret, or even resentment. She just felt — numb. Tomorrow was a blank page with no clues on it to guide her, and she was left empty and unsure. She recognised it as a mental defence mechanism, and was grateful for it. ‘How are you?’
Novitskiy didn’t answer right away. He looked like he wanted to speak, but he didn’t, his lips twitching as they formed words, yet held them back. ‘Look…’ he said at last, but Sally already knew what he was going to say.
‘It’s fine,’ she reassured him. ‘It’s the only way.’
‘It’s just that Gardner and Williams are injured, and I’m the only one that can—’
‘I know, I know. I’ve told you, it’s fine.’ She rubbed his arm, forcing as comforting a smile as she could manage. ‘I mean it.’
Novitskiy nodded, and behind his eyes a little glimmer of excitement twinkled. She could hardly blame him for that. ‘Thank you,’ he said, and left her to carry on with his preparations.
Sally spent the rest of the morning helping Novitskiy ready Soyuz for departure. He also showed her what daily maintenance she needed to do on the station. It was straightforward stuff: pretty much all the systems were self-monitoring, and all she had to do was check readings and levels and tick them off a list, plus give the place the odd clean. It was nice to have something to do to take her mind off things, and the hours rolled by far quicker than she was accustomed. By the time they had buckled up a comatose Gardner and a sedated Chris, she had built up a healthy sweat.
‘What else can I do?’ she said, moving herself towards an air outlet to let the cool stream wash over her.
‘That’s it,’ Novitskiy said. ‘All you need to do now is seal the hatch behind me.’
Sally tried to ignore the horrible flutter in her stomach. ‘Well, I guess this is goodbye then.’
‘I will come back for you,’ Novitskiy said, and before Sally could decide whether it was the light, or if his eyes were filling with tears, he had swung his arms around her and squeezed her tight. She reciprocated, although she couldn’t match the desperation with which he clung to her, the trembling in his arms that he couldn’t hide. He let go, and his eyes were indeed shining with tears.
‘I won’t ever forget what you’ve done for me,’ he said in a strained voice. He looked at her for a moment, then turned and entered Soyuz. Sally did as she had been instructed and manoeuvred the large hatch shut, watching through the shrinking gap to savour her last few moments of human interaction. Her eyes met Novitskiy’s just before the hatch shut completely, and the flutter in her stomach became a nauseating jolt. Hatch met seal, and she pulled the locking lever home. That was it. She was now the loneliest human being to have ever existed.
Chapter 19
Grigory, as it turned out, was a gracious host, and made Sean and Aleks’ stay a pleasant one. He was a former special forces operative, and through patchy English, had some fascinating stories to tell. He had been discharged following a leg injury on a tour of duty, and had so far spent his retirement in the countryside. He dabbled in hunting, particularly for musk deer, which were abundant in the area. It also turned out that he was a fantastic cook, and Sean’s anxiety had dropped the instant the smell of cooking venison had overpowered the smell of blood. They would need to lay low for a while, stay off the grid, and this place was ideal.
Once Sean had decided it was safe enough to report home on the satellite phone — having ditched his mobile — Grigory drove him twenty miles into the hills for him to make the call. Better to be traced to a knot of trees in the middle of nowhere than back to Grigory’s house, Sean figured, and the others agreed.
‘Hi, it’s Sean. Can you hear me okay?’
‘Sean — I’ve been wondering what happened to you. I was starting to get worried.’
‘I’m touched. Look, I’ve got to make this quick, so here’s the gist: the US Department of Defence are planning on detonating a weapon to destroy an unidentified vessel they’ve codenamed UV One. Not only that, but they have a crew up there and—’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘What? I’m talking about the unidentified—’
‘Have you not heard?’
‘Heard what? I don’t really get to read the news where I am at the moment.’
‘They’ve come back to Earth. The whole crew. It turned out to be a communications problem after the solar storm knocked out the main array. Nothing sinister at all.’
‘What…?’ Sean said, the revelation disorientating his mind in one sucker punch.
‘They landed a few days ago. There is a story worth running though — the International Space Station is now empty. First time it has been since it was launched. NASA and the RFSA are sending another crew as soon as they can.’
‘But…’ Sean stammered, searching his brain for something that made sense. ‘But Aleks said—’