Siberian Red

Imperial Reserves that the Czechs handed over at Irkutsk.’
    ‘You mean they just left the rest of the gold behind in Kazan? Is that it?’
    Tarnowski shook his head. ‘What happened was that, at the last minute, the Colonel decided we should take some of the gold with us. His uncle was expecting that gold and Kolchak was afraid to come to him empty-handed. We were moving more quickly when we pulled out of Kazan, but still not quickly enough. The Reds caught up with us. What happened after that was a slaughter.’
    ‘But how did you manage to prevent them from capturing it?’ asked Pekkala.
    ‘When we realised the Reds were only a day or two behind us,’ continued Lavrenov, ‘we sent Colonel Kolchak on ahead. At first, he did not want to go, but we knew what would happen if the Bolsheviks got hold of him. We begged the Colonel to save himself and finally, he agreed.’
    ‘Before he left,’ said Sedov, ‘he swore that he would not abandon us, and in return each man who stayed behind took an oath that we would never give up the location of the gold. That night, once we were sure that the Colonel had got away safely, we buried the crates in the woods beside the railroad, not two days’ march from this camp.’
    ‘How can you be certain it’s still there?’
    ‘If it had been found,’ replied Lavrenov, ‘word would have reached us by now.’
    Pekkala realised he was right. If that gold had been discovered, Stalin would have made sure that the whole country knew about his final triumph over the Tsar. He also knew the area where the Comitati had buried those crates. It was as wild and inhospitable a place as any he had seen. Once the gold was underground, no one would have stumbled upon it by accident, even if trains passed by not more than a stone’s throw away.
    During his years as a tree marker in the valley of Krasnagolyana, the railroad had marked the northern boundary of the Borodok timber-cutting region. Beyond it lay a region assigned to another camp, a notorious place called Mamlin 3, where experiments were conducted on human subjects. To be caught outside this region meant certain death.
    If the wind was right, Pekkala could hear the sound of the Trans-Siberian Express passing through the forest. Sometimes, overcome by loneliness, he would trudge through the woods on his home-made snowshoes until he reached the tracks. There, standing at the edge of his world, he waited for the train to go by, just to catch a glimpse of another human being.
    The railway guards on board the train would shoot at Pekkala if they saw him, whether on orders or for sport, he did not know, so he always stayed hidden, eyes fixed on the stuttering images of passengers, staring bleary-eyed out at the impenetrable wilderness of Siberia, unaware that the wilderness was staring back at them.
    ‘The next day,’ said Tarnowski, ‘the Reds attacked. The battle took place almost within sight of this valley. We held out for three days, but they outnumbered us by four to one. We knew we couldn’t win, but still we made them pay for every inch of ground. By the time it was over, of the two hundred men in the Expedition, there were only seventy of us left. The Reds marched us straight to Borodok and we have been here ever since. Since the Bolsheviks found no gold, they concluded that we must have left it all with the Czechs.’
    ‘And now your idea is to reclaim it?’
    ‘Exactly,’ replied Sedov.
    ‘But this time,’ said Lavrenov, ‘we are keeping it for ourselves.’
    ‘That gold belongs to us now,’ muttered Sedov. ‘God knows, we have earned it.’
    ‘A hundred times over,’ agreed Lavrenov.
    ‘Where will you go once you’ve escaped‚’ asked Pekkala‚ ‘assuming you can even make it through the gates alive?’
    ‘The border with China isn’t far from here,’ Sedov told him. ‘Once we cross over, we’ll be safe.’
    ‘But until then, you’ll be in the country of the Ostyaks. How do you plan to get past them when no other prisoner has ever succeeded before?’
    ‘The Colonel will take care of us,’ Sedov answered. ‘We have waited many years but at last the day of our deliverance is near.’
    ‘Are you insane?’ stammered Pekkala. ‘Now listen to me, for the sake of your lives. I admire your loyalty to Colonel Kolchak. No one could have asked from you more than you have already given. But that loyalty has not been repaid. The Colonel is gone. He has been gone for a long time. Even if he’s still