|
"So you will help with the project?" Alexei interrupted him.
"Of course I will, just as I helped the guys in Kiev. Did I tell you that I nearly tipped one of those cranes over?"
"No! You didn't."
The next hour was spent with Boris recounting to Alexei some of the more hair-raising moments of his days in the construction camps at Kiev. It was intentional. The time passed more quickly that way, but more importantly, it passed without having to come to terms with a nuclear-armed world.
Boris was happy now, about the way the day unfolded. Before they reached Sverdlovsk he remarked to Alexei that he was glad they had met at the airport, and that he had told him about the construction job. He said that he now had something nice to look forward to, apart from playing computer games with him.
Alexei smiled and added that he was glad, too.
"Except, I rarely ever win against you," added Boris. "Before I can think of a strategy to protect my civilizations you find a gap in my defenses and knock them out."
+++
The tables were turned against him the moment that Boris entered the commissar's office to report his arrival at the base. It was his duty to report in. In fact, it was his first priority the next morning, even before breakfast.
It was in the commander's office that morning that it became instantly clear to Boris that Alexei had been serious about everything he said. The nightmare of their talk at the airport was re-kindled. He had barely entered the office when he noticed a large drawing spread out on the table, - the construction plans. Those were the construction plans that Alexei had spoken to him about. Recreation; was all he could read at first glance. He was drawn to the plans like by a magnet. The base commander was not in the office when arrived. The plans confirmed to Boris that this man, Zalygin, existed, if this was indeed his name. Boris' fears certainly existed. Was Alexei responding to his fears or was he exploiting him? He suddenly felt that he was drawn into something he didn't want to be part of, in spite of his fears for humanity, but was no longer able to back out of. Alexei had even hinted that this might happen.
He walked across the room to the commissar's desk, hoping to find nothing in these planes that linked his promised participation with the hopes of the party to do this great and secret thing for the world that would usher in a new era for mankind. He looked at the plans in passing. The word, recreation, stood out now like a bad dream. There, right in from of him on the table lay tangible evidence of a nightmare that now was promised to come but might yet be preventable. Everything that he and Alexei had talked about became instantly alive again in his thoughts. But what about backing out of it? He gave his promise only to Alexei.
He sat himself down in front of the commissar's desk, as he was requested when the man entered the room, and listened to the commissar's words. He heard every word, but his mind was at the other table, and the two were somehow intertwined, so it seemed. He recalled the few things he had been able to make out on the drawing, and was puzzled about them and about what he expected to see, or expected not to see. Barely aware of the commissar's routine questions, he answered a mechanical YES whenever it seemed appropriate. Finally the commissar stood up and shook his hand. He vaguely was aware that he had agreed to participate in the construction project as he had already promised Alexei that he would, who had apparently passed the promise on without his knowing. News like these travel fast at the base, he thought.
The commissar told him in a proud gesture of approval, as a father might be proud of a son who brought home an excellent report card from school, that he really appreciated his eagerness to help. He told him that his help was especially valuable during the excavation phase. "We've got no one else on the base with actual work experience in handling large bulldozers..."
Next Page
|| - page index -
|| - chapter index -
|| - Exit -
||
|
