Wolfhound Century: Radiant State Part 14

'They must live somewhere,' said Elena. 'There aren't enough apartments, not yet, and what there is is far away, and there are so few buses... For many people, this is better.'

She pulled aside a sheet of corrugated iron and went down broken concrete steps. Knocked at a door.

'Konnie? Konnie? It's Elena.'

The door opened. A woman in her early twenties, vivid red hair straight and thin to her shoulders, green eyes in a pale freckled face. A clever face. Bookish. Intense. Interesting. She looked like a student. When she saw Elena her eyes widened.

'Elena! s.h.i.+t!' She grabbed her by the arm and pulled her forward. 'Come in quickly. Maksim is here. We can help. Maksim!' she called over her shoulder. 'It's Elena! Elena is here!' Then she saw Lom and frowned. 'Who's this?'

'A friend,' said Elena. 'It's OK, Konnie. He's a friend.'

'Oh.'

'I trust him,' said Elena. 'I want you to help him.'

Konnie hesitated.

'OK,' she said 'Then you'd better come in.'

Lom followed the women through the entrance into a low bas.e.m.e.nt s.p.a.ce. Bare plaster walls lit by a grating in the ceiling with a pane of dirty gla.s.s laid across it. The room was divided in two by a tacked-up orange curtain. It smelled of damp brick. The part this side of the curtain had planks on trestles for a table. There were two chairs, a sagging couch, a single-ring gas stove on a bench in the corner.

'You have to get away, Elena,' Konnie was saying. 'The militia have your name. They know it was you that shot Rizhin. They're searching for you. You have to leave the city.'

'No,' said Elena. 'I'm not leaving. Never. My girls-'

'Maksim!' Konnie called again.

There was a stack of books on the table. Lom glanced at them. Drab covers with ragged pages and blurry print. Wrinkled typescripts pinned with rusting staples. Dangerous thinking, circulated hand to hand. He scanned the t.i.tles. The Ice Axe Manifesto. Bulletin of the Present Times. Listen, We Are Breathing. Someone Konnie presumably, it was a woman's handwritinghad been making pencil notes in a yellow exercise book. Lom picked it up. 'ALL GOVERNMENT,' she had written, 'rests on possibility of violence against own citizens. Cf Jaspersen!Principles of Interiority Chap 4. Apeirophobia.'

'Hey!' said Konnie. 'Put that down.'

'Sorry.'

Maksim came out, b.u.t.toning his s.h.i.+rt, from behind the orange curtain, where presumably there was a bed. His hair was long and tangled. He was tall, taller than Lom. He looked as if he'd just woken up.

'Elena?' he said. 'What's happening?' He saw Lom and Konnie glaring at him. 'Who is this?'

'It's OK, Maksim,' said Elena. 'He's a friend.'

'What's he doing here?'

'I'm looking for advice,' said Lom. 'Maybe some information. Elena said you might-'

'What's your name?' said Maksim. He was trying to get the situation under control. An officer, used to command.

'Lom.'

Konnie frowned.

'I know that name. They're looking for you too.'

Lom looked at her sharply. 'Who is?'

'The militia. They have two names for the shooting of Rizhin: Cornelius and Lom.'

'No!' said Elena. 'Not him. He wasn't there.'

'How do you know this?' Lom said to Konnie.

Konnie shook her head. 'We know.'

'I was on my own,' Elena was saying. 'He only came later.'

'I let them see me in the hotel. I put my prints on the gun.'

'You did that deliberately?' said Elena.

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'To make things happen. To get their attention. To get involved.' Pull a thread. See where it leads. 'They've done well. I thought it would take them longer.'

'That's insane,' said Maksim.

'It was quick,' said Lom. 'I can't do what I do from the outside looking in.'

'And what exactly is it you do?' said Maksim.

Lom looked him in the eye. 'I'm here to bring Rizhin down.'

Maksim pulled the outside door shut.

'You've put us in danger coming here,' he said.

'I'm sorry,' said Elena. 'I didn't know. About the militia. The names. I'd never have come here if I'd known.'

'You have to get out of the city quickly,' said Maksim. 'Both of you. We have a car. Konnie, you will drive-'

'No,' said Elena. 'I'm staying. I'm not going anywhere. I can't leave Mirgorod. It's impossible. I must be here when Galina and Yeva come home.'

'Elena, it's not safe,' said Konnie.

'They won't find me at the Subbotin. I am Ostrakhova there.'

'They'll come for you. They always find you in the end.'

'The VKBD will hunt you down,' said Maksim. 'You cannot imagine. You cannot begin to imagine how they will hunt you now.'

'You have no children, Maksim. I will not abandon my girls.'

'Six years, Elena, it's been six years. I hope they survived the bombing, but even if they did... They're not coming back. You must know that.'

'My girls are not dead. They were taken but they will find their way back.'

'You must disappear now,' said Maksim. 'If they capture you, if they question you... you will endanger us all, Elena.'

Konnie put a hand on Maksim's arm. 'Please. Enough.'

'You don't need to leave the city,' Lom said to Elena. 'You can come with me. I know a place. They won't find you there, and you can stay as long as you want. You'll be safe.'

'With you?' said Maksim. 'Who the f.u.c.k are you anyway? Where did you come from? We don't know you.'

'I trust him, Maksim,' said Elena. 'I want you to help him. That's why we're here.' She turned to Lom. 'Maksim is an old friend,' she said. 'A comrade. He was in the army, an officer, a good fighter. After the war he was one of the ones who wouldn't go back to the old ways.'

'You're right to be cautious,' Lom said to Maksim. 'I would do the same. But I just need some advice, that's all. We're on the same side.'

'Side?' said Maksim. 'What side is that?'

'The side that Rizhin's not on.'

Maksim studied him. Weighing him up. 'Were you in the army?'

'No,' said Lom. 'I was with the Political Police.'

'The police?'

'It was a long time ago.'

'Maksim,' said Elena, 'I'm only asking you to listen to what he's got to say.'

'But...' Maksim let out a long slow breath. 'Oh s.h.i.+t. OK. You're here now. So what do you want?'

'If you had proof of something that could bring Rizhin down,' said Lom, 'if you had doc.u.mentation which, if it was used properly, would expose him and empty him out and turn the world against him, would you know what to do with it?'

'What kind of proof?' said Maksim. 'Proof of what?'

'Later,' said Lom. 'Say there was such proof, what would you do with it? How could it be used? Do you have the means? Are you prepared for this?'

Maksim thought for a moment.

'It's good, is it?' he said. 'This proof? It's something dangerous? Something big?'

'Yes. It would be explosive. It would make Rizhin's position impossible. Everyone would turn against him. Everyone. He'd be finished. He would fall.'

Maksim's eyes gleamed.

'That would be a great thing indeed,' he said. Then he frowned. 'But no. We couldn't use it. We wouldn't have a chance. We haven't the means. We are too few.'

'We know journalists,' said Konnie. 'The newspapers-'

'The papers wouldn't print it,' said Maksim. 'Never.'

'The Archipelago then. We have friends at the emba.s.sy.'

'If it came from the Archipelago, who would believe it? It would be dismissed as propaganda and lies.'

'Then wouldn't you need...?' Konnie began and trailed off.

'Yes?' said Lom.

'Someone in the government. Someone big, with power and influence, who isn't afraid of Rizhin. Someone who could step in and push him out.'

'They're all Rizhin's creatures,' said Maksim. 'They're all terrified of him, and anyway whoever ousted Rizhin would be just as bad, or worse.'

'All of them?' said Lom. 'Is there no one?'

'Well.' Konnie paused. 'There's Kistler. You hear things about him. There are rumours. He has connections... Kistler could be worth a try. Maksim?'

'Maybe,' said Maksim. 'Maybe Kistler. Possibly. He's stronger than the others. He has an independent viewsometimes, apparently.'

'Do you have a link to this Kistler?' said Lom. 'Are you in communication with him?'

'No,' said Konnie. 'Nothing that firm, but there is talk about him. Like I said, you hear things.'

'How would I reach him?'

'I'm not sure about this,' said Maksim. 'I wouldn't trust Kistler more than any of the others. But... we have the address of his house. We have all of them. We know where they live.'

'Give it to me, please,' said Lom. 'I'll go and see what this Kistler has to say.'

He was flying blind. Throwing stones at random, hoping to hit something. But he didn't know another way.

'Like I said, it's just a rumour,' said Konnie. 'A feeling. You shouldn't place any weight on what I say.'

'It's the best lead I've got,' said Lom. 'The only one.'

'Do you have this proof, then?' said Maksim as Lom and Elena were leaving. 'Really?'

'No,' said Lom. 'Not yet. But tomorrow, I hope so. I should have it on Wednesday.'

Maksim looked puzzled. 'But today is Wednesday,' he said.

'Is it?' said Lom. 'Is it?'

The clocks tell you something, but not the time.