The Boy from Reactor 4

“You’re saying that everything that happened on Seventh Street was an act,” she said. “A ruse just to pull me in. You said, ‘The sale of a formula.’ Not the formula. A formula. Which suggests there is no real formula. That it was all just a sick game of some kind. That everything I went through was for nothing. For nothing at all.”

The men exchanged gratified looks with each other and turned to Nadia.

“No,” Yuri said. “Not for nothing. It was most definitely for something. It was for someone.”

“No one wants a boy from the Zone,” Simon said. He stepped over to the bar and reached up into a storage rack for glasses.

“What?” Nadia said.

“No one wants a boy from the Zone,” Simon said.

“That’s not entirely true,” Yuri said.

Simon raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

“There is a country.”

“Really? Where is this country?”

“North of the equator and just south of heaven.”

“What’s so special about this country?”

“It takes everyone,” Yuri said. “Everyone has a chance to prosper.”

“Everyone? You really mean everyone? Does an Arab have a chance?”

“Yes.”

“Does a Jew have a chance?”

“Yes.”

“Does a black man have a chance?” Simon said.

“A black man can become president.”

“What about a boy from the Zone?”

“Even he may have a chance,” Yuri said. “Especially in one particular city.”

“Oh? What kind of city is this?”

“It is a city that was built on the backs of the unwanted.”

“And where is this city?”

“At the mouth of the river where the woman stands guard by the harbor.”

Simon poured three vodkas. Yuri and Simon raised their glasses. Yuri and Simon glanced at Nadia as though waiting for her to do the same. She did not.

“Three days ago, a thief died,” Yuri said. “But still he steals from his grave. Today he steals freedom for his son.”

“To the best there ever was.”

“To Damian. Na zdorovye.”

They downed their shots.

“When I saw Damian,” Nadia said to Yuri, “he told me that, given your body had disappeared from Seventh Street, someone had yet to reveal himself to me. That someone…was him. He was pulling my string the entire time.”

“We had no idea you were in trouble with Victor and Misha because of that antiques business,” Yuri said. “We had no idea you would be followed and your life would be in danger.”

“That… That was never part of our plan,” Simon said. “This should have been much, much easier.”

Nadia glanced at Yuri again. “On Seventh Street… When you asked me if I was the Nadia Tesla who worked on Wall Street and I said, ‘Not anymore,’ you seemed disappointed. Upset, even. Why?”

Yuri shrugged. “It costs money to bring a boy to America. To raise him. To live in New York. Simon and I live on a fixed income. We barely get by. And that’s in southern New Jersey.”

Nadia laughed. “Well, there’s one on you guys. I’m unemployed and rapidly depleting my savings.” She tossed the vodka down her throat, coughed up a storm, and cleared her throat. “So if there’s no formula, what’s in the locket?”

“Locket?” Yuri said. He glanced at Simon, who shook his head. “What locket?”

A toilet flushed in the distant background. Everyone turned toward the curtain leading to the back room.

Adam walked into the bar looking refreshed. His eyes widened with excitement when they met Nadia’s. His lips parted, but no words came out, as though he couldn’t find the words to express himself.

Nadia bounded up to him and folded her arms across her chest. “Why did you run away from me? Why didn’t you wait?”

“I saw the government men. They were there for me. They were there to send me back, weren’t they?”

“No. They were there to arrest some other man. It had nothing to do with you or me.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Nadia lowered her gaze and found a few links of the necklace peeking out from beneath his shirt. “Where’s the locket?”

Adam swallowed, like a boy who’d done something wrong and knew he was about to be scolded, and touched his upper chest area.

“It’s time we opened it and took a look at exactly what’s inside,” Nadia said.

A shuffling noise from the direction of the front door broke the silence.

Nadia turned.

Victor Bodnar stood in the foyer. Stefan and another huge bodyguard held guns in their hands behind him.

“Yes,” Victor said, smiling. “Exactly what I was thinking. Let’s see what’s inside that locket.”

CHAPTER 85

VICTOR LOOKED TWICE at the two old men as he walked past their table. They looked vaguely familiar and recalled memories from his youth, but he couldn’t place them. He quickly turned his attention back to the necklace around the boy’s neck. All the riches of the world finally within his grasp. He never could have imagined they’d be in the form of a piece of microfilm in the possession of a boy from the Zone.

Adam’s face was burned and his lips chapped from crossing the strait. Nadia’s face was similarly damaged, and she looked as though she’d lost ten pounds since he’d seen her last in Ukraine. Victor detected fear in Adam’s eyes, but it was noticeably absent in Nadia’s. In its place was an element of disbelief. She was probably surprised he’d found them, Victor thought.