“Francis?”
Lena’s voice refocused him on the present. She was offering him a glass with a shot of brown liquid brooding in the bottom of it.
“Here, take this.”
He discovered that someone had draped a heavy blanket over his shoulders. He lifted the vessel and drained it in a single gulp. It warmed his throat all the way down.
“I’ll take that.” She pulled the now empty glass from his hand.
Hamlin looked down and noticed that several scratches and imperfections in the floor lined up by coincidence to form an almost perfect isosceles triangle just to the left of his foot. He was surely losing his mind, he decided.
Lena patted him on the shoulder. “You just stay here and get warm. I’ll check in on you in a few minutes.”
“Okay,” Francis responded. It’s all he could come up with. He was making plans to catch the next train out of there.
There wasn’t time to deal with his issues, Lena figured. There were simply too many other things to do.
An indeterminate period of time passed before Hamlin snapped out of it. Suddenly things came back into focus. He stood up slowly and then draped the blanket over the back of his chair. He looked around the room to get a feel for what was going on. Only faint, muddy visions remained of what had transpired since he’d found Sokolov.
“There you are. Back with us, are you?” Lena walked over and gave him a quick visual evaluation. “How are you feeling?”
Hamlin had to think about it. “Okay.” The truth was more like numb. “What’s going on? It seems so quiet.”
She thought carefully about how to word her response.
“We’re just doing some cleaning up.”
Hamlin looked back toward the kitchen. Only Zoya was there and she was obviously cooking something on the big, old stove.
Lena positioned herself directly in his field of vision. She was almost the same height.
“Not that. We are disposing of Sokolov and Konstantine in a good and proper manner. We had to add some dignity and finality to their ultimate fate.”
Hamlin was still trying to get his mind to function at normal speed.
“What do you mean?”
She had a very determined look. “We will no longer leave these abominations to lie around and haunt us in various ways. And the outer lab was simply unacceptable to leave in its state. If I may say so, in my opinion, it was also terribly disrespectful to Konstantine, our friend and trustworthy coworker.”
“So what are you doing about it?”
“Sokolov has been cleaned and prepared as best we could. They are dropping him off at the lab as we speak. When they are finished, I think it would be good for the entire remaining crew to go out there and watch. We will use the lab as a pyre to remove this blight from our presence. When we are finished, there are but two issues that demand our attention.”
“Pechkin and Kuvayev.”
She nodded. “Yes. Once they have been dealt with, we will come up with a new, workable agenda for getting through the rest of winter in a productive manner. Surely there are still good and positive things we can accomplish. Do you not think so, Doctor?”
Hamlin couldn’t think of anything, but surely she had to be right.
“Yes, of course.”
“Find your warmest clothes and get ready. As soon as the Cat returns, we will shuttle people out to the outer lab. It will take several trips, so be prepared.”
“Yes. How much time do we have?”
“They should be back any moment now.”
“Very well.” He shuffled listlessly toward his room.
She was right about being warmly dressed. It was a calm evening, but even then the cold was brutal. In the end, they all huddled together in a tight, little group. Francis was just thankful that he couldn’t see inside the room. He already had a lifetime’s worth of that memory.
Barinov and Kravchuk volunteered to go in and start the blaze. They soon came out (who would want to linger in that horrible environment?) and joined the others. They all stood in silence waiting for signs of the fire. It took some time. At first, there was nothing. Then all they could see was a soft orange flicker reflecting on the outside door, which they had left ajar to facilitate airflow to feed the flames. The glow grew gradually brighter, and soon the sounds of popping could be heard as the fire began to consume various materials inside the lab. One particularly loud bang was accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. No one cared.
Finally the flames were visible through the open door. Soon they were licking at the wall and upwards toward the roof. Momentum shifted in favor of the inferno as it grew quickly and simply engulfed the building. Flames shot out through holes in the walls and roof. Hamlin could actually feel the heat radiating through the air. All of their faces glowed in the reflection of the now impressive conflagration.
The flames continued to rise higher. When they reached their zenith, Hamlin actually started to feel uncomfortably hot for the first time in weeks. The unstoppable, cleansing power in the flames gave them all a sense of peace. At least a part of the horror would be erased forever. There would be little more than ashes left by the time the fire went out. It finally reached a point where consumable materials were starting to dwindle, and the flames diminished gradually until the show was no longer as impressive. It was clear that it was time to return to the barracks. They all felt a little better—like they had taken control and changed their situation for the better.
When they returned, the food was ready. They all sat and had a decent group meal. There was some talk, and even a couple of moments of laughter. Everyone started to reminisce about Sokolov. There were many stories to tell. Most had a theme of dislike due to the way Sokolov chose to manage the outpost, but there could be no doubt that there was respect present as well. Hamlin didn’t have anything to add—besides, he felt it would be disrespectful to the men and women who had served with him much longer than he had. He was the rookie here.
After relaxing and listening to the stories as best he could (when they spoke English), he had a sudden thought flash through his mind. He couldn’t be sure if it meant anything or not, but he thought it might. He didn’t want to bring it up in front of the whole crew. He got up casually, strolled over and sat beside Lena.
“So, how are you now, Doctor?” she said. “Feeling all right?”
He nodded. “Yes. Not bad, all things considered. Say, could I steal a moment or two of your time?”
“Now?”
He nodded again.
“Very well. Your place or mine?”
“Sokolov’s office, if you don’t think it too inappropriate.”
“It depends what you have in mind. But, yes, that is fine. I will follow you. Please.”
He tried to walk casually, afraid everyone would be watching them go, but that only made his movements seem stiff and unnatural. Thankfully he didn’t trip and fall over anything. No significant amount of attention seemed to be paid by the rest of the crew to the fact that they were about to enter the former boss’s command post. That was good. Hamlin didn’t want a riot or mutiny on his hands.
He stood aside and let Lena enter. He stepped in and closed the door gently.
“All right. What is this all about, Doctor?”