Belly of the Beast by Blake Crouch, Douglas Walker Page B

steel sample canister, not a bottle. I left a note for Joseph when I left. He will leave one for me.”
    Yuri waited in the doorway. Niki reached out and touched her mother’s hair. “I’m sorry about everything,” she whispered, a tear in her eye. “I wish you could see your grandson. I’ll come back when I can.” Niki walked to the hall and quietly closed the door.
     
    “Maybe Joseph did leave a note,” Niki said to Yuri back in the car. “And there must be records of him. He may even be in the phonebook.”
    “You don’t understand,” said Yuri. “Mayak is the heart of the Russian nuclear industry. It, and every village around it, is closed to the rest of the world. There are no phonebooks. It’s not even on a map. The entire complex is known only by a postal code. But that’s academic. Joseph was exposed to enough radiation to kill an army. At the very least, his bone marrow must be damaged.”
    “But he’s my last hope.”
    “I’m sorry, Niki, but even If your father is alive, even if by some miracle he was a match, it doesn’t matter. We can’t go there, and if we could, we’d never find him.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

     
    “You were at Mayak.” Niki said as Yuri drove back toward his apartment.
    “I thought you agreed to clemency about anything Galina said about me. She is crazy. And don’t throw names around casually. People have died for knowing Mayak exists.” Yuri looked at Niki. “I’ve given you false hope. I shouldn’t have taken you to your mother. I shouldn’t have showed you that place. I’ve grown careless with age.”
    “Compassion is not a fault, but you’ll kill us both if you don’t stay in your lane.”
    Yuri jerked his car back to the outside lane. “There’s a fine line between life and death,” he said. “You have to forget most everything you saw and heard. It’s not just about you. You hold the fate of Lana, Galina, and Thomas.”
    “I thought Thomas just worked here. I thought he was American.”
    “So did the Americans. We were very good at what we did.”
    “I suppose you all knew what you were doing, and I bet you all knew your past could catch up with you, but my son is innocent of whatever you and Lana and Galina did. I won’t protect you at his expense.”
    “If you ask questions about Mayak in the wrong places, he’ll be an orphan.”
    “I’d do it to save him. Yuri, I only have one lead left. You know people. Please help me find my father. I have a truck. I’ll sell it to pay you.”
    Yuri sighed. “I wish I could help, but my political connections are as cold as a Siberian night, and I have many enemies. I can never return to the Soviet Union.”
    “The Soviet Union is dissolving. Maybe—”
    “Some things never change.”
    Niki drew in a deep breath. “Then I will go to Russia.”
    “Of course you are not serious.”
    “I’m going to save my son or die trying.”
    “There’s no way you could get into Russia now, much less get out.”
    “I’m not going to give up.”
    “I admire your determination, but . . .” Yuri exited the freeway and pulled to a stop. “Perhaps my son could ask a few questions. He lives in Sverdlovsk. Yeltsin is calling it Ekaterinburg again.”
    “Never heard of either.”
    “My point exactly. You may understand Russian, but understanding Russia herself is difficult even for a Russian, beyond comprehension for an American.”
    Niki thought for a moment. “If what Galina suggested is true, I was born in Russia. That makes me Russian.”
    “But as I said, most Russians don’t understand her, even the ones who live there. I’ll try to contact Pytor, but don’t get your hopes up.”
    “Tell him to pick me up at the airport.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “If I can’t find my father, maybe there’s someone else. Dr. Baxter said I probably come from a small gene pool. I could—”
    “You had trouble just flying to San Francisco,” Yuri interrupted. “Looking for your father or some lost