Casually, keeping her head down while she continued to dig, Judy spoke quietly to the other woman.
“Where is that other brigade from? Do you know?”
“What? Which one?”
“The one working right next to us.”
The woman looked up at her suspiciously. She was missing a couple of lower teeth. “Why?”
“Well…” Judy smiled and shrugged in what she hoped was an embarrassed manner. “There is a man over there I would like to meet.”
“Ah!” The woman laughed. “Ah, yes, I see. Well, they spend their nights in that school near us. You know the one, that was bombed. They had to fix up the roof.”
“Uh-yes. It’s down the block from us?” Judy did not want to admit how little she knew.
“No, no. It’s on the next block.”
“East of us?”
“No, my dear. North.”
“Oh, yes. I’m sorry.”
The woman looked over toward the other brigade. “So which one is he?”
“Well…I don’t see him right now. He’s a rather short fellow.”
“Short?” She laughed, shaking her head. “Ah, you’re so silly.”
They went on digging. Gradually, Judy worked her way back to Steve and Jane. When they were far enough from the others not to be overheard, she told them what she had learned.
“I just wish we could get a good look at him,” said Steve. “If we knew for sure it was MC 4, we could make some definite plans. Maybe we could even grab him, take him back, and then return for Hunter.”
“Really?” Jane asked. “You’d do that?”
Steve grimaced. “I wouldn’t like it much. It’s a possibility, but I’m getting worried about Hunter.”
Eventually, Ishihara could see the military patrols ahead of them on the rolling steppe. Sentries blocked the road. It was 2:37 P.M.
“Have you decided what you’re going to say to them?” Wayne asked.
“I shall say something similar to what we said to the commissar in the factory.”
Ishihara slowed the car as they approached the checkpoint. Wayne stiffened visibly in his seat. Ishihara rolled down his window, preparing to speak to the sentries.
Without a word, a uniformed sentry nodded grimly and waved them through the checkpoint. Wayne glanced at Ishihara in shock. Ishihara showed no sign of surprise as he nodded back and drove past them.
“This is really easy,” said Wayne, with a sudden laugh. “This NKVD car makes all the difference, doesn’t it?”
“I believe part of the reason is up ahead,” said Ishihara, pointing. Ahead of them on the same road, another car similar to their own was just moving out of sight in the distance. Ishihara slowed down a little.
Wayne looked. “What do you mean?”
“I suppose that the agents in that car explained what their business was out this way,” said Ishihara. “The sentries just assumed we were with them. That is why they felt no need to question us. Even in the military, no one in this society wants trouble with the NKVD.”
“But now we have to worry about those other agents,” said Wayne.
“I have already slowed down to let them move away from us,” said Ishihara.
“What if they saw us?”
“If we find them waiting, I shall turn around the car and we shall flee. However, I do not expect that. I believe that they will be searching for MC 4, just as we are, without great concern for us.”
“But you said that the theft of our car has been reported now. Why wouldn’t they check us out?”
“Maybe they will,” said Ishihara. “However, they would not expect the car thieves to be following them. Most likely, they expect us to flee at the very sight of another NKVD car. Remember that the alert to find MC 4 here went out to all the NKVD cars. The agents who come here will expect to see each other near the ditches.”
“I hope you’re right,” Wayne muttered quietly.
“I expect so.”
Ishihara drove over the next slight rise in the ground. Ahead of them, down a long but very gentle slope, work brigades dug ditches with shovels. The NKVD car ahead of them had turned right and stopped. Two agents had just left the car and were walking toward the nearest work brigade.
Next to him, Ishihara saw Wayne slide down in his seat, covering the side of his face with one hand.
Instead of continuing straight down the slope, which would have taken them close to the NKVD agents, Ishihara turned at an angle. He began driving left down the slope, leaving the road. One of the NKVD agents glanced back over his shoulder at the sound of their car. Then he turned back to his business at hand, uninterested in them.
“Okay so far,” Wayne muttered.
Ishihara took the car down to the ruts that ran behind the ditch. The tracks of large truck tires filled the ruts. They had spontaneously carved a rough service road simply by driving up and down here every day.
“I still hear nothing concerning us on the NKVD radio band,” said Ishihara.
“Good.” Wayne sighed. Then he looked back over his shoulder. “Those agents are out of sight now. You want me to drive? Then you can scan the workers for MC 4.”
“Excellent.”
They traded places and Wayne drove slowly down the rough road. When Ishihara instructed him to slow down or stop, he did, always nervously looking around for more NKVD cars. Gradually, they moved down the length of the ditch as Ishihara searched the work brigades. The ditch was full of people digging up and down its entire length.
“Didn’t the alert identify which work brigade MC 4 was in?” Wayne asked.
“No. It only gave this general vicinity.”
“You could radio MC 4 directly,” said Wayne. “And tell him that we are from his own time.”
“That would merely alert him to the pursuit,” said Ishihara. “He would flee.”
“That’s what I mean,” said Wayne. “We might flush him out that way.”
“Ah, I understand. You mean, instead of remaining camouflaged, he would reveal himself by running away.”
“Maybe. What do you think?”
“It could work if he is in our sight,” said Ishihara. “If he is too far ahead of us, or if he was in the other direction when we turned left, then we would not see him.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“These ditches are very long,” said Ishihara, looking ahead. “To protect Moscow from attack, they must be many kilometers long. We have many workers to consider.”
“This is as close as we’ve come so far,” said Wayne, shrugging. “Besides, I’m really getting the feel of how to drive this car now.” He grinned wryly.
They continued their slow progress down the length of the ditch. The sun was low over the horizon when Ishihara heard the rumble of large trucks behind them, still in the distance. He did not bother to turn and look.