“You just redeemed yourself somewhat, Mr. Needham.”
Smolst walked over, glanced at Needham and then gave Buhrman a sidelong look. “I knew you were fast, Del, but that was amazingly quick.”
He gave Smolst a big grin. “I wish I could claim full credit, but Mr. Needham here told me that Murphy had a boot knife. We would have hung him anyway; he was one of the killers.”
“Well, you’ve certainly done better with Mr. Needham than I did with Murphy. I couldn’t even get him to tell us his name.”
Needham cleared his throat. “When you people came into the mercantile, Murphy knew you were looking for the shooters. He thought we could bluff it out and get away later.”
“You’ve stopped stuttering!”
“I knew I could talk my way out of your threat, but I also knew Murphy would kill me if I did.”
“You’re not out of the woods yet,” Buhrman said.
Needham’s mouth twisted into a small smile. “But I’m willing to tell you everything I know.”
Colonel Buhrman smiled in return. “Heinrich, let’s find some transport back to Tanana. We have a trap to set.”
“What about Murphy?”
“Pay someone to bury him and forget where they did it. Mr. Needham, you are my prisoner for now. Sergeant Papke and Corporal Badberg here will see to your accommodations.”
The two had come up behind Needham and he didn’t know they were there until they nudged him and pointed toward the mercantile.
“So what kind of trap do you have in mind?” Smolst asked.
“The best kind, of course!”
107
Tanana, Provisional State of Doyon, Alaska Republik
Sergeant Major Tobias answered his knock on the door.
“Colonel Yamato, please come in. The general is expecting you.”
Jerry stamped as much snow off his feet as possible and then entered the warm apartment, pulling off his large, fur-lined mittens. “I have never been this cold in my entire life!”
“Jerry, how good to see you!” Wing said, entering the room. “I see you have learned how to dress for the Alaskan winter.”
Jerry hung his parka on a hook near the door, draped his wool scarf over that and pulled off his knit cap and jammed it into the parka hood. He sat down on a chair and untied his mukluks.
“It’s a good thing I agreed to work for you folks when the weather was warm. I’m not sure I would have agreed so readily if I had already spent a winter here. The thermometer outside my cabin only goes to minus forty and the mercury has been down there for a week!”
“It’s about sixty below zero right now,” Wing said, “but you seem to be doing fine.”
He pulled off the mukluks and fished out the felt booties and put them on over his heavy socks. “I had no idea when I was given these things that they would save my life.”
“Your wolf parka is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of them.”
“Won’t it smell like wet dog if it rains?”
“You don’t wear a parka like that in the rain,” she said. “You wear your old RCAF raincoat.”
“I just hope it warms up enough to rain someday.”
Tobias and Wing both laughed.
Grisha walked into the room. “What’s all the noise? Oh, hi, Jerry, glad you made it.”
“General,” he nodded. “Good to see you, sir.”
“Jerry, you’re in my home.”
“Sorry, Grisha, this takes some getting used to.”
Wing laughed. “It’s January! You’re more set in your ways than my grandfather was.”
“Not fair, Wing,” Jerry said. “Military titles have a reason. I’ve been bending my head into the military mold for five years now. Some of this stuff is habit forming.”
“What do you hear from Magda?” she asked.
He sighed before he could stop himself. “She misses me. Hell, I miss her! She doesn’t understand why I have to be here and she has to be there.”
“Why does she have to be in Delta?” Grisha asked.
“Grisha, if my future father-in-law was more intimidating than he already is, he would be illegal.”
“What does he have to do with it?” Wing asked. “It’s Magda’s decision.”
“Well, this isn’t exactly San Francisco. I can’t just ask my fiancée to move in with me.”
“You don’t think that people who love each other don’t live together before marriage up here in the frozen north, not to mention people who just like each other?”
“Wing, I couldn’t ask her to do that!”
“You mean you haven’t? Jerry, you’re in your twenties, but you’re acting like a man in his fifties!”
“And there’s a lot of attention on me from every direction. I wear a uniform that has no tradition or history. We are all making that history and we have to be somewhat circumspect to be responsible to the People.”
“Bravo!” Grisha shouted and applauded.
“Jesus, you are my grandfather!” Wing said, feigning shock.
Jerry tried to smile but his heart wasn’t in it. “I think she has a point, you guys. Why do I need to be up here in Tanana. Couldn’t we talk by radio?”
“Sure,” Grisha said, abruptly losing his grin. “And everybody north of the 55th Parallel would be in on the conversation.”
“We don’t have secure communications of any kind?”
“A courier that you trust is about it. We use the old Russian telephone system for most of our traffic. Although we don’t need operators any more, anyone could tap into a phone line that goes for hundreds of miles through the wilderness.”
“I could act as your liaison from there if we had regular meetings. I could fly back and forth in one of the P-61s the RCAF gave us.”
Grisha’s grin flashed back. “Ah, now I understand! You get to see your girl and you get to fly!”
“I think it sounds like a good idea,” Wing said. “We need to spread our people around more.”
“But Tanana is the capital of the republic, or will be.” Grisha waved one hand in the air.
“Are you sure of that? It will be up to the first legislature to sort out—if we ever sort out the legislature.”
“Wing has a point, Grisha.” Jerry suddenly reflected that he used to think the RCAF was informal, but he had never before called his commanding officer by his first name. “Once each state gets set up and sends a delegate to the AR Council, there’s going to be a fight over the location of the capital.”
“Well, they won’t be putting it farther north, that’s for damn sure,” muttered Grisha. “I’m just afraid that if they put it in Sealaska, the Tlingits will dominate the government.”
“Which is what the Tlingits, Aleuts, and Eskimos think the Dená are doing now,” Jerry said quietly. “Major Lauesen said his people are getting that message from all directions.”
Grisha rubbed his jaw, and stared at something only he could see. “Well, I’ll be amazed if they all send a delegate. I’m afraid they’ll all declare themselves republiks and do it all their own way.”
“They can’t afford to do that since Doyon State already has the majority of US and ROC military bases. They’ll send delegates, but the price will be a capital that isn’t on the Yukon or Tanana Rivers. I’ll put money on that,” Jerry said.
“We’ll find out next May,” Wing said. “Are you both ready for dinner? Sergeant Major Tobias and I have worked up something we think will please you both.”
108
Delta, Provisional State of Doyon, Alaska Republik
Pelagian came through the door, kicked it shut behind him, and dropped the load of firewood in the dented and scarred box next to the stove.