Heads You Win

Sasha never stopped pulling the rope up and down, before placing the contents of the box on the sideboard. Fergal served the fifteen men and three women with a relaxed charm that the chef assured Elena came from regularly kissing the Blarney Stone. Something else he had to explain to his new assistant.

An hour later, after the last diner had departed, Sasha collapsed into the nearest chair and said, “I’m exhausted.”

“Not yet, you aren’t,” said Fergal, laughing. “Now we have to clear up before re-laying the tables for breakfast. You can start by hoovering the carpet.”

“Hoovering?”

Fergal gave him a short demonstration on the strange machine before returning to lay the tables. Sasha was fascinated by the vacuum cleaner, but didn’t want to admit he’d never seen one before, although it couldn’t have been more obvious as he bumped into chairs and table legs. Fergal let him become familiar with it, while he laid eighteen places for breakfast.

“That’s it for today,” said Fergal, “so you can shove off now.”

Sasha made his way back to the sleeping quarters and knocked on his mother’s door. He didn’t enter until he heard her say, “Come in.” The first thing he noticed when he walked into her cabin was that she had unpacked both her suitcase and his lunch box. He also thought the room looked far tidier than he remembered.

“What’s it like being a waiter?” was her first question.

“You never stop moving,” said Sasha, “but it’s great fun. Fergal seems to have them all under control, even the captain.”

Elena laughed. “Yes, chef told me he’s broken several hearts over the years, and only gets away with it because the passengers are rarely on board for more than a fortnight.”

“What’s the chef like?”

“An old pro, and so good at his job that I can’t understand what he’s doing on a small ship like this. I would have thought the Barrington Line could have put him to far better use on one of their cruise liners. There has to be some reason why they haven’t.”

“If there is,” said Sasha, “Fergal will be sure to know, so I’ll find out long before we reach Southampton.”

5

ALEX

En route to New York

When Alex heard the cargo hold close and the boat ease away from its moorings he began to hammer on the side of the crate with a clenched fist.

“We’re in here!” he shouted.

“They can’t hear you,” said Elena. “Uncle Kolya told me the hold won’t be opened again until we’re well outside Soviet territorial waters.”

“But—” Alex began, then simply nodded, although he was beginning to understand what it must be like to be buried alive. His thoughts were interrupted by the unsteady rumbling of an engine somewhere below them, followed by movement. He assumed they must at last be making their way out of the harbor, but he had no idea how long it would be before they were released from their self-imposed prison.

Alex had hoped to be going to a football match with his uncle that afternoon, and ended up in a crate with his mother. He prayed to whatever gods there were that his uncle would be safe. He assumed that Polyakov had been found by now. Was he even trying to have the ship turned around? He’d told his uncle to start a rumor that his friend Vladimir had helped him to escape, which he hoped would end Vladimir’s chances of joining the KGB. He began to think about what he’d left behind. Not a lot, he concluded. But he would have liked to know the result of the match between Zenit F.C. and Torpedo Moscow, and wondered if he ever would.

He eventually drifted into a half sleep, but was woken by the sound of the hold door crashing open, followed by what sounded like someone tapping on the side of a nearby crate. He clenched his fist again and thumped the side of his prison cell, shouting, “We’re in here!” This time his mother didn’t try to stop him.

Moments later he could hear two, or was it three, voices, grateful they were speaking a language he recognized. He waited impatiently, and when the lid of the crate was finally torn off, he saw three men towering over him.

“You can get out now,” said one of them in Russian.

Alex stood up, and helped his mother as she slowly unwound her stiff body. He took her hand as she stepped gingerly out of the crate. He then grabbed her small suitcase and his lunch box before climbing out to join her.

The three deckhands, dressed in navy blue, oil-stained overalls, were peering into the crate to make sure their promised reward was in place.

“You both come with me,” said one of them, while the other two began to remove the cases of vodka. Alex and Elena obediently followed the man who’d given the order, as he dodged in between several other crates until they reached a ladder attached to the side of the hold. Alex looked up to see the open sky beckoning him, and began to believe for the first time that they just might be safe. He followed the deckhand slowly up the ladder, the suitcase in one hand, while his mother tucked his lunch box under her arm.