Alaska Republik-ARC (43 page)

The Captains Fedorov came in, poured themselves huge mugs of tea and grabbed sandwiches. Georgi put two in his pockets before eating a third in four bites.

Magda wrapped four sandwiches in a cloth napkin and put them in the pocket of her parka. After eating two, she was still surprisingly hungry. She walked over to Wing.

“Tell me about Nowitna. I’ve never been there.”

“It’s a small village, up a large bank on the north side of the Yukon. There are two or three islands in the river, very close to the village, and the river is about three miles wide. Farther upriver the Yukon narrows to about a mile but there are islands all along there.

“From the reports we’ve received, Jerry went down in one of the open stretches of river between islands. The weather there is worse than it is here, so visibility is at a minimum.”

Wing chewed her lower lip for a moment. “Magda, if he crashed and burned, which is the current conjecture, it’s going to be hard to take.”

“Wing, his plane may have crashed, but he is still alive. I
know
it!”

“I hope you’re right, cousin. My prayers are with you both.”

An RCAF officer came through the door. “The Delta helicopter is ready to go.”

Magda followed the Captains Fedorov out into the wind and cold.

124

On the Yukon near Nowitna

Colonel Del Buhrman pulled himself out of the dogsled and looked back at the musher. “That was fun, Mr. Anderson. I wish we were out here under different circumstances.”

Lieutenant Colonel Smolst poked at metal shards and regarded Buhrman. “There isn’t enough here for a whole plane. Where are the wing parts and fuselage?”

Wind whistled down the ice-locked river and blowing snow whirled and capered around them in the bright day. Blue sky could be intermittently seen straight up, but at ground level, visibility was less than fifty meters.

Colonel Buhrman peered at his compass. “He was headed that way.” He pointed upriver and the wind suddenly stopped for a long moment and visibility stretched to a half mile. Metal reflected in the distance before the wind again ripped snow off the ice and swirled it over the searchers.

Buhrman climbed back on the sled, Smolst onto another. The dogs responded happily and tore across the frozen river. Less than five minutes later they all stopped at an ice ridge.

“This is just the wings,” Smolst shouted over the wind. “Did he actually fly
through
this cut?”

“If he did, he didn’t get far!” Buhrman responded through a grin. He realized that the explosion they had seen the night before was either armament or something else. The plane had landed on the icebound river in one piece.

“Let’s go through the cut and see what we find,” Buhrman shouted.

In moments they found the fuselage. They studied the ice-rimmed aluminum for a moment. The canopy was translucent with frost on the inside.

“It occurs to me,” Smolst said in a tone of conjecture, “that if there wasn’t something warm in there, there wouldn’t be any frost.”

“Excellent deduction, Doctor Watson!” Buhrman said in a bad parody of an English accent.

Both men laughed, feeling their tension evaporate with the almost certainty of a happy ending to their quest.

Buhrman stepped up and pounded on the side of the fuselage.

They waited. He pounded again. No response.

“How do you open these damn things?” Buhrman asked with a sidelong glance at Smolst.

“Do I look like I know anything about aircraft, Colonel?”

“No. Sadly enough you look as ignorant as I feel. Let’s try and figure this out.”

125

Over the Yukon River

“There are people down there!” Ivan shouted over the roar of the engine.

Georgi banked and brought the Sikorsky back around for another look.

Magda shouted, “He’s right! They’re waving at us!”

Georgi landed on the river and cut the engine.

Magda stared through the window at the fuselage of the P-61. From this angle she could see the closed, frosted cockpit and the lack of a body out on the ice. She burst into tears.

Georgi opened his door and shouted at the people on the ice.

“Who are you?”

“Colonel Buhrman, RCA, and Lieutenant Colonel Smolst, ARA.”

“What is ‘ARA’?” Georgi shouted back.

The helicopter blades ceased revolving and reduced the background noise.

“Alaska Republik Army!” shouted Colonel Buhrman.

“Is good, is good, no need to shout,” Georgi said.

“We’re trying to see if there’s a downed pilot inside this bird. Can you help us?”

“We are here to search for Lieutenant Colonel Yamato,” Georgi said.

“That’s who we’re looking for! Who are you people?”

Magda unhooked her harness and stepped up between the two pilots. “I’m Magda Haroldsson. Jerry Yamato is my fiancé. We flew in from Delta to help look for him. Is he still alive?”

“We don’t know, Miss Haroldsson. We think he’s still in there but we haven’t been able to rouse him.”

“Please, it’s Magda, Colonel Buhrman. Isn’t there a latch or something?”

“That’s what we were looking for when you folks showed up.”

Captain Georgi Fedorov emerged from the helicopter. “What kind of a plane was this?”

“P-61 Eureka,” Magda shouted over the sudden gust of wind. The snow striking her face felt like tiny slivers of glass and she pulled her parka hood up.

“I don’t know that kind of aircraft.” Georgi stared for a moment. “But it is much like a Yak. Therefore…” He moved close to the fuselage and ran his hand along the base of the canopy.

“Aha!” He pulled a handle and the canopy popped back a few inches.

Colonel Buhrman tried to climb up on the wing stump and the fuselage rolled toward him, pushed by the wind. He scrambled to keep on his feet.

“Well, damn!”

“Pull the canopy back,” Smolst yelled over the cutting wind.

Buhrman grabbed the canopy and jerked it aft. The wind caught it and ripped it free of the fuselage and whirled into the air over their heads. It disappeared in the blowing snow.

Jerry hunched over in the cockpit, completely covered by the wolf pelt parka.

Magda scrambled up to him and pulled the hood back.

“Jerry! Jerry, are you all right?”

He stirred as if deep in sleep. One eye cracked open.

“M-Magda? Is that really you?” He sounded weak and disoriented.

She felt tears well up. “Of course it is, you silly man!”

A long gust of wind blew a shower of snow crystals over them and Magda tried to cover his face.

Buhrman, Smolst, Georgi, and the two dog mushers all helped pull him free of the wrecked plane and carried him to the helicopter. Without stopping, they slid him into an insulated sleeping bag brought for that purpose.

“Can we go now?” Magda asked. “I want to marry this guy before he gets away from me again.”

“I feel warmer already,” Jerry mumbled deep in the sleeping bag.

126

Klahotsa on the Yukon

“So the whole idea is to shoot as many elected officials as possible when they are presented to the public?” Riordan asked.

“Exactly. Think about it. It would devastate everyone there. Chaos would reign. All it would take is a voice of authority to bring them into line.”

“And that would be you, right?”

“Who else, Mr. Riordan?”

“That’s
Major
Riordan, thank you.”

“Of course.”

“Even if they have no idea in hell as to who you are?”

“Won’t matter. Pass me the bottle, please.”

Riordan regarded the whisky bottle as if it were a relic.

“I think it may be empty,” he announced, and threw the bottle over his shoulder with force.

It smashed against something.

“Hell, I can fix that,” Bachmann said. He pulled himself out of his chair and staggered behind the bar. “Let’s have the good stuff. Nobody ever buys it anyway.”

“When do I get paid?” Riordan asked.

“For what?”

“For being the officer in charge of your troopers. Whattya think?”

Silence reigned and Riordan twisted around to peer at Bachmann on the other side of the store.

“But you got them all killed. Why should I pay you anything?”

Riordan suppressed the instant flash of rage. He willed it to evaporate like dew on a sunny morning. This was important.

“
Who
was in charge of this entire plan?” Riordan asked as nonchalantly as possible.

“Well, I was.”

“So
whose
orders did I follow to the letter, like it or not?”

“Mine?”

“Exactly. It was
your
plan that got them all killed, not mine.”

“But you led them—”

“Following
your
orders, doing exactly what
you
ordered and exactly when
you
ordered it!”

Silence drifted through the store.

“What did we agree on?”

“Two hundred fifty in gold,” Riordan said.

“Stay where you are. I’ll be right back.”

“Sure.”

As soon as he heard the office door close, Riordan leapt to his feet and hurried to the back of the store. He eased the door open and through the crack saw Bachmann opening a door built into the wall of the building.

I would have never found that.

He pulled out his pistol, opened the door, and stepped into the office.

Bachmann whirled about and yelled, “I told you to wait!”

“Too late,” Riordan said, and shot him through the head.

127

Over the Yukon River

“Colonel Buhrman,” Ivan said from the pilot’s seat, “there is a radio message for you.” He handed him the headset.

“Buhrman here, go ahead.”

They all could hear the crackle of the voice in the earphones but none of the words were intelligible.

“Does that tally with our body count? Okay. I’m sure Captain Fedorov told you we found Jerry. He’s cold but he’s alive. Thanks, Buhrman out.”

He handed the headset back and turned to the others.

“Our people have accounted for every one of the attackers except for Riordan and his buddy, N’go. The store at Klahotsa was empty except for the body of Bachmann. Someone shot him in the head at close range.”

“When thieves fall out…” Smolst muttered.

“But where the hell are they going to find shelter in this weather?” Buhrman asked.

128

Klahotsa

“I have heard nothing for hours, Tim,” N’go said.

“Me neither. But it could be a trap.”

“Let me go look. This tiny room is crushing my soul.”

Riordan pushed the safety off his weapon and slowly turned the latch on the door. He eased it open and only darkness greeted them. The door made no sound; Bachmann had kept the hinges of his secret vault well oiled.

Riordan pulled out the tiny torch he always carried and aimed it at the floor before he switched it on. They had moved Bachmann’s body, but his blood lay frozen in a small pond where he had died.

“Don’t slip,” he murmured to N’go.

The large man flashed a smile and nodded before he moved out into the office. He inched the office door open and waited. Silence reigned.

Abruptly N’go slipped through the door and into the general store. Riordan hurried to the door and waited a long moment before sliding through the narrow opening. His heart thudded in his chest while he waited for a shot or a command to surrender.

“There is nobody here, Tim.” N’go’s voice was as soft as a lover’s whisper.

“We need to check outside.”

Riordan went out the side door and nearly fell over something in the path. After a full minute of frantically searching the area without moving anything other than his head, he knelt and moved the blanket away from Bachmann’s frozen face. The man still looked angry.

N’go eased around the front corner of the building.

“They all left in the lorry that brought them.” He nodded at the covered form. “That be Bachmann?”

“Yeah. Probably put him out here to keep him cold.”

“I would wager they will not return until warmer weather.”

“Good,” Riordan said through his sudden grin. “That gives us somewhere to live for a couple of months.”

129

Tanana, Provisional Capital of the Alaska Republik

“Where did you get flowers in the middle of winter?” Bodecia asked.

“Colonel Shipley brought them from California on the transport,” Magda said as she peered into the mirror and edged the garland of woven flowers slightly to the right. “Is that straight now?”

“It’s fine, now leave it alone. That transport was jammed with boxes and people. It was nice of the RCAF to stop and pick us up; don’t know how we would have made it otherwise.”

Bodecia admired their similar dresses in the mirror. Both were made of split moosehide so thin it could have passed for silk. The hide had been worked until attaining a pearl sheen. The beadwork on both enhanced their individual forms. A band of beads began at the neck, ran down the slope of the shoulders and dropped to the end of the short sleeves and then continued from the armpit to the hem on both of them.

Bodecia’s dress featured intricate florets across her bosom that seemed to twist and drop to the midriff. Magda’s dress featured a jagged, lightninglike design that shot out from the band beneath the armpits and curved down and across her midriff as if to hold up her bosom. Both dresses were stunning in their simplicity and rich from the beadwork.

Nobody can bead better than an Athabascan woman!
Bodecia thought.

“General Grigorievich asked Colonel Shipley to stop for you. I’m glad he agreed. But I was surprised to see Rudi.”

“He said he wouldn’t miss this wedding for all the gold in St. Petersburg, even if he did have to take his life in his hands and fly here.”

“Is everything ready? How much time do we have left? Are the—”

“Magda! Calm down. Everything will be fine. You have to trust that all is going according to plan.”

Wing hurried through the door; her flushed cheeks set off the sparkle in her eyes. “Are you ready, Magda? There are a lot of people out there waiting for you.”

Magda turned from the mirror and stared at Wing. “Did they do a good job with the hangar? I always thought I would get married in a church!”