The Man from Leningrad Read online

  Maddux waited for at least an hour, maybe more. He couldn’t be certain since he was unable to see his watch. And while he wasn’t even sure he could see his hand two feet in front of his face, Maddux figured that evened the odds if anyone was still awake when he decided to sneak outside.

  Carefully creeping out of his bed, Maddux slipped into his drysuit before collecting all the items necessary to sabotage the sub. He also put on his ear muffs to help him deal with the nighttime cold. Once he was certain he hadn’t forgotten anything, he stole across the floor, fearful that a slight creak might awaken one of the soldiers. But it didn’t.

  Maddux slowly turned the knob on the door leading out of the barracks. He eased outside and relaxed when he didn’t see anyone. After trudging through the snow for several yards, he froze when a light was cast in his direction.

  He turned to see a guard wielding a gun and a flashlight.

  “What are you doing?” the soldier asked.

  “I needed to get outside and take a break,” Maddux said, hoping the man didn’t notice the drysuit.

  But he did.

  “The kind of break where you need to swim?” the soldier asked.

  “I find dips at night invigorating,” Maddux said. “Don’t you?”

  The man chuckled and shook his head.

  “Not in the least. Now, drop your belongings. You’re coming with me.”

  Chapter XVIII

  MADDUX EASED THE oxygen tanks onto the floor and raised his hands in the air. While everyone had turned in early before the big mission the next day, one soldier had been assigned to watch for deserters—or troublemakers. He used a pistol to direct Maddux to a cramped room down the hall.

  With just enough space for a table and a pair of chairs, Maddux took a seat across from the man who kept his gun trained on his prisoner.

  “Is John Roe even your real name?” the soldier asked.

  Maddux nodded. He had to make a tough sell, even though he knew the guard wanted to believe the story. The last thing he likely wanted to do was wake up Admiral Volkov to report a spy sleeping among them, especially if it wasn’t true.

  “What were you planning on doing with those oxygen tanks?”

  Maddux sighed and looked toward one corner of the room.“I told you that I was going for a swim.”

  “Do you know how crazy that sounds?” the soldier asked, his eyes widening. “You will freeze to death if you stay in that water more than ten minutes.”

  “That’s why I’m wearing a dry suit. Have you ever worn one of these things? They keep you quite warm.”

  The soldier shook his head. “I think you were up to something else. Why don’t you make this easy and tell me what it was—and take those ear muffs off while you’re at it. It’s plenty warm in here right now.”

  Maddux obliged, placing the ear muffs on the table in front of him. However, he disagreed. Inside the rickety wooden building, Maddux still felt like the air temperature was barely above freezing.

  “I’m only going to give you one more chance to tell me who you really are and what you’re doing here,” the soldier demanded.

  “And then what?” Maddux asked.

  “Then I’ll go wake up the admiral. And I can assure you that the fact that you are a spy will be enough to incite his wrath. But doing it the night before the most important mission of his life? It won’t end well for you, even if you did share a bottle of vodka with him.”

  Maddux slumped back in his chair, interlocking his fingers and placing them behind his head.

  “Fine. You win. They say the truth will set you free, so I’m going to try that route. I’m a spy, and I’m here to sabotage your sub.”

  The guard chuckled. “I knew it from the moment I saw you enter Barentsburg. We never get special deliveries.”

  Maddux clapped mockingly before responding.“Congratulations, you’re smarter than your stupid admiral. Now, I’ve told you the truth. It’s time for you to do your part and just let me go. Just let me borrow that team of dogs outside the front and I’ll be out of here forever. You don’t have to worry about me sabotaging anything, and you don’t have to worry about waking up Admiral Volkov. What do you say? Deal?”

  The soldier narrowed his eyes as he glared at Maddux.“Did you really think that was going to work?”

  “No, but I thought this might.”

  Maddux snatched the ear muffs off the table and depressed a button on the left side, activating the pepper spray. With the spray directed toward the soldier, he scrambled to get out of the way. However, before he could fully react, he covered his eyes with his free hand, moaning in pain and grimacing as he tried to regain his bearings.

  Meanwhile, Maddux made a dash toward the door. But he didn’t get far before the man cocked his gun.

  “I suggest you stay right there,” he said, squinting as he wiped at his eyes.

  Maddux threw both his hands in the air in surrender. He could tell the man was still having trouble focusing.

  “Sit down,” the soldier commanded, motioning toward the table. With eyes watering, he flung the ear muffs against the wall.

  Maddux eased back into the chair.

  “Put these on,” the soldier said, sliding a pair of handcuffs across the table.

  Maddux pondered the consequences of refusing to comply before deciding to go along with the soldier’s directive. Based on his wincing and grimacing, the pepper spray was still burning and there would be an opportunity for Maddux to strike back.

  Once the cuffs clicked into place, the soldier resumed their conversation.

  “I don’t know what you think you’re going to do, but you’re not getting out of here tonight,” he said. “Whatever you came here to do, forget it. Admiral Volkov will deal with you accordingly in the morning.”

  “So, I’m just going to sit here all night?” Maddux asked.

  The soldier nodded. “All night.”

  During the next few moments of silence, Maddux took the opportunity to scan the room for anything that would help him escape captivity without waking up the entire barracks. Tears streamed from his captor’s eyes as he tried to clear the toxins. Maddux noted the ear muffs were lying against the far wall and contained a knife. He also noted a table that wasn’t anchored to the ground. All he needed was a chance to get to it.

  “You bastard,” the soldier said. “Will I ever be able to see again?”

  “You need to wash your eyes out with water. I can help you.”

  “No. I don’t want any more of your help. You’ve already made this far more unpleasant than it needed to be.”

  “My apologies. I’m a spy and I have a very specific job. Unfortunately, you’re standing in the way of that.”

  “And I will continue to stand here until Admiral Volkov wakes up.”

  “If we woke him up now, we could resolve this much more quickly.”

  “You imbecile,” the soldier said with a growl. “The point is to make sure he remains asleep until morning. Anything else will earn you an even more vicious beating than you will undoubtedly already receive.”

  “How do you know that Admiral Volkov isn’t my contact here?” Maddux asked.

  “You have a contact here?”

  Maddux shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Once I’m put away, you’ll never know. For your entire voyage, you’ll be wondering who the traitor is among you.”

  “There is no traitor,” the soldier said. “I know you’re lying.”

  “Do you know that for sure?”

  The soldier sighed and leaned back in his chair. After a minute of silence, he eased forward, re-engaging with Maddux.“You’re Russian is excellent. I wish I could speak English that well.”

  Maddux saw the soldier’s guard drop, presenting an opportunity.

  “Since we’re going to be here all night, I can teach you how to speak English without the accent,” Maddux said.

  “I would appreciate that. This time together doesn’t have to be so combative.”

  Maddu
x forced a smile and patted the table.“Let’s start with this,” he said. “Stol.”

  “Stol,” the soldier repeated.

  “Table,” Maddux said in English, translating the word.

  “Tah-bow,” the soldier attempted to repeat.

  “Nyet. Table.”

  The soldier attempted again, this time worse than the first time.

  “Do I sound like I have a Russian accent?” he asked.

  “Yes, and very thick too. You need to work on this.”

  The soldier scowled. “I can’t seem to get it right.” He then repeated the word several times, his accent remaining prevalent.

  “No, it’s like this,” Maddux said, pausing before standing up and flipping the table on the man. He fell backward out of his chair, the table tumbling on top of him. As he tried to break his fall, his gun fell out of his hand and bounced on the concrete floor. Maddux slid the weapon behind him with his foot before snatching up the earmuffs.

  Pushing a button on the right side of the muffs, a little compartment sprang open and revealed a small blade. Maddux yanked on the aluminum shaft connecting the muffs, revealing a more rigid piece near the right ear. He slipped the blade onto the end, creating a knife sufficient for fighting.

  The soldier drew his knife, and the two men began to dance around the room before a full-fledged fight ensued. With two aggressive swipes, the soldier demonstrated his aptitude for close-quarters combat. Maddux narrowly avoided a slash across his suit, which would’ve created serious problems for his attempted sabotage.

  Still handcuffed, Maddux remained undaunted. He responded by going on a weak offensive, lulling the soldier into the belief that he held superior skills with the weapon.

  On his next run at Maddux, the soldier overcommitted. Maddux avoided an attempted thrust, shuffling aside before stabbing the soldier in the arm. Instinctively, he grabbed for the wound, allowing Maddux to slash the man across his throat. He collapsed to the ground in a bloody heap.

  Maddux freed himself by fishing the man’s keys out of his pocket. Next, Maddux cuffed the soldier to a radiator pipe in the corner of the room. It felt cruel to Maddux, but his captor would be dead in a matter of minutes anyway, and Maddux couldn’t afford him sounding an alarm for any other guards who might be milling around the village. But to ease the man’s pain, Maddux picked up one of the oxygen tanks and used it to bash the soldier’s head once. The man fell unconscious.

  Maddux slung the guard’s body over his shoulder and found a shovel just outside the building. More than a hundred meters away from the edge of Barentsburg, Maddux noted a small valley and worked quickly to dig a deep enough hole to throw the body into. With a storm fast approaching, Maddux could only hope a fresh coat of snow would cover up any tracks and the trail of blood.

  Satisfied that the situation was under control, Maddux gathered his oxygen tanks, buoyancy compensator, flippers, and other supplies before striking off toward the dock. With no moon to provide any light, Maddux stayed out of sight, hustling from one structure to another to prevent anyone from seeing him. He glanced over at a fenced-in area teeming with huskies. Most of them appeared asleep inside their kennels, but Maddux didn’t want to stir any of the animals and moved cautiously to avoid awaking them.

  A light snow began to fall accompanied by occasional gusts of wind. Maddux could only see half the stars in the sky. Another storm was fast approaching.

  While Barentsburg wasn’t much in the way of a village, the dock consisted of state-of-the-art technology. There were cranes for offloading containers as well as a railway system that worked in conjunction with a suspended conveyor belt to transport the coal directly there. And on the eastern side was the Soviet military’s slip, used for small boats and submarines.

  Maddux watched a trio of guards roam along the deck, cigarettes marking the men’s movements. At any one time, two of them would be right next to the sub. At all times, one man would peer into the water while the other two would scan the vessel. After a few minutes of observing their patterns, Maddux took a deep breath and put on his goggles. He stole around the western side of the docks before suiting up and then easing into the water.

  Surprised at how deep it was so close to shore, Maddux dove fifteen feet before activating his light. He swam around the perimeter before arriving at the sub. The dark paint on the Soviet ship made it difficult to see even when it was illuminated.

  This is nothing like diving in Bali.

  Even with his suit on, Maddux could feel the icy water lowering his temperature. It would take less than a minute for his body to go numb without such a warm suit. But Maddux didn’t care to be in the perilous fjord any longer than necessary. He maneuvered beneath the sub, surveying the best location to place the charges. Dex had mentioned in one of their conversations that the engine room was in the aft portion of the ship. Maddux figured an explosion there would hamper the ship’s ability to navigate. And if the hull were to be breached, the sailors would have a difficult time repairing the damage while wading through freezing water.

  He tucked the flashlight beneath his right armpit while removing the charge from his watch. Just as he was about to place the explosive device on the submarine, a flicker of light arrested his attention. Maddux whirled around just in time to see someone swimming straight toward him. The bright glow blinded Maddux for a moment, slowing his reaction time. He tried to paddle out of the way, but there wasn’t enough time.

  The aggressive swimmer wielded a knife in one hand and took a swipe at Maddux’s neck. He moved but not fast enough to avoid the blade ripping through the midsection of his dry suit. Seconds later, water started pouring inside it as he started to drift into the depths.

  Chapter XIX

  MADDUX TOOK A DEEP breath and surveyed his options. He wanted to make another run at the sub, but his attacker had swung back around and floated near the hull, scanning the water with his flashlight. And even if he could, his more pressing issue was staying afloat before his entire body went numb from the cold.

  As the water gushed through the hole in Maddux’s suit, he realized he didn’t really have any alternative than to swim for his life. A U.S. government agent getting caught sabotaging a Russian sub could inflame the pending conflict he was attempting to stop. With only about two minutes before the cold would overwhelm him, he couldn’t consider any other possible routes.

  Maddux dropped his weight belt and plowed through the waters. It didn’t take him more than a minute to reach the unlit industrial side of the docks. Maddux could barely feel his legs but managed to stumble onto shore and duck behind a cargo container to change clothes. In the distance, he heard the sound of thundering footsteps across the deck as soldiers rushed toward the sub. He glanced around the corner and noticed the number of armed guards had tripled as they searched the surface for the perpetrator.

  Maddux hurriedly toweled off and slipped on some warm wool socks and other undergarments before getting fully dressed for the weather. He tugged his ushanka down taut over his ears and jammed his hands into his pockets. With his head down, he plodded across the center of Barentsburg. Guards dashed and darted in various directions. Maddux rounded the corner where a Soviet soldier was feverishly attempting to harness a team of huskies to a tow line. The opportunity was too great to pass up.

  The wind picked up as did the snow. Objects that hadn’t been tied down were tumbling along the intersecting pathways around Barentsburg. In the feverish call to get search teams out to look for the saboteur, the Soviets appeared singularly focused, unaware that the man they sought was still in their midst.

  Maddux crept up behind the musher, who was joining the final dog’s tug line to the sled’s tow line. Once he completed the task, he spun around only to be greeted by a vicious blow to the head. Maddux was convinced that his identity had remained protected before taking the man’s military issued jacket and hat and donning them.

  Then Maddux guided the team over to the area where he had buried the soldier, digging
him up. Shaking his head as he stared at the dead body, Maddux used the front tip of the shovel to separate the head. Tossing the stiff into the front basket, Maddux reburied the head. And he also snagged the man’s passport for future use.

  “You’re more useful to me dead than alive,” Maddux said under his breath. “Sorry ole comrade.”

  Maddux mushed his team of huskies forward, a blur lost in the growing frenetic activity around the small village.

  The temperature continued to drop as the storm swept across the island. However, Maddux didn’t mind too much. He’d learned that the colder the weather, the faster the dogs ran. And he quickly discovered that assertion was true. The huskies dashed across the snow as if they were in a hurry to reach their final destination, running for their lives. They churned through the snow, and Maddux glided easily over it. He looked skyward, admiring the faint green glow of the Northern Lights dancing across the heavens in the distance in front of him as the snow fell.

  This would be a great place to visit if I wasn’t on a mission like this.

  After fifteen minutes, Maddux arrived near the scene of the polar bear attack from the day before. Milanovich’s body was still there, picked over by more than just polar bears as tracks of other animals were crowded around the cadaver.

  Maddux dumped the guard’s body at the same site, but not before redressing him. Swapping identification documents, the headless man now would be identified as John Roe. It’d make the Soviet soldiers stop looking for him, if they even decided to pursue him this far.

  Once he finished re-creating the scene of a polar bear attack, Maddux trudged back to his sled. The dogs were braying again, itching to get the command to run. The snowfall grew heavier as the tip of the front had all but vanished in the night sky.

  “Mush,” Maddux yelled, releasing the brake.

  The dogs lunged forward in unison, all moving as if they were intent on escaping from the tow line. In a matter of seconds, they were zipping back east toward Longyearbyen. And Maddux couldn’t get there fast enough. He’d failed spectacularly and wondered if in doing so had cost the lives of millions of innocent people, maybe even some friends and family he loved dearly.