After a while, Wayne looked back again. The pursuers were slowly gaining. Their headlights, too, jumped and jerked in the darkness.
“Why aren’t we gaining? When you drove over open ground last time, you left them behind.”
“This car has sustained damage from the hard use we have given it. I have to drive more slowly now or else it may not last for the entire distance. The cars behind us have apparently not suffered as much. However, their gain on us has been very gradual.”
“Well…how far do we have to go?”
“We have covered seven of the approximately eighteen kilometers to the German lines.”
“How about this-radio forward to the Germans. They still believe we’re German spies, so they should help. What do you think? We can tell them that we’re bringing back important information.”
“We have none.”
“I know, but…it might help. We’ll think of something when the time comes.”
“We still cannot risk precipitating a battle.”
“That isn’t the Soviet military behind us; it’s a bunch of civilian cars. And German patrols must be out this way already.”
“I agree. I shall call.”
Wayne watched him in silence for several minutes.
“I have made contact,” Ishihara said finally. “I explained our dilemma and approximate position to the German radio operator who responded. I also told him we have spoken with Major Bach, whose name may help us.”
“You told him we have critical military information about the Soviets, right? What did he say?”
“Yes, I told him. I have been instructed to stand by.”
Wayne looked back again. The headlights behind them looked a little bigger than before. “Do you think we’re going to make it?”
“I do not know. As I said before, the First Law will require me to take you to another time and place before I allow you to be taken by the NKVD.”
“I don’t want them to get me, either. But maybe we could just jump forward a few hours. And behind German lines? Not so far into the future that Hunter will grab MC 4 in the meantime.”
“It is possible, but we would again have much explaining to do. They would want to know how we got back there, especially without their sentries noticing. We shall have a considerable challenge already in giving them any information about the Soviet military important enough to impress them but unimportant enough so that it will not alter the course of history.”
“Yeah. Just don’t make any move unless we just can’t get away from the NKVD any other way.”
“I agree. Further, I have good news. The German operator has just radioed back. He called the German patrol on duty in this sector. An armored car is coming out to meet us.”
“Great!” Wayne glanced again at the headlights behind them. They were closer than ever. “I hope they get here in time.”
“I suspect that only our claim to have military information has caused anyone to go to this much effort for us.”
“Yeah, well, whatever it takes.” Wayne grinned.
“I fear your history is poor. You do not realize just how horrible the Nazi regime was. We run the risk of angering them.”
21
The race across the frozen neutral zone continued. Wayne turned in his seat and watched in horrified fascination as the four NKVD cars behind them narrowed the gap. Slowly, but inexorably, their headlights grew larger. Soon they had closed within three or four car lengths. Then they began to spread out.
“Ishihara-they’re surrounding us. They’re going to close in.”
“I see,” said Ishihara. “However, look forward again.”
Wayne swiveled. He saw two tiny lights ahead in the distance, bounding over the horizon. “Ishihara! Is that the German patrol?”
“Yes. I have just made contact. It is Leutnant Mohr’s patrol again.”
“How close are we to the other side?”
“Not very. I estimate we are near the twelvekilometer mark of the total eighteen.”
Suddenly a loud, staccato popping sounded in the distance.
“Hey-are they shooting at us?” Wayne slid down in his seat. “What’s wrong with them?”
“Leutnant Mohr has ordered his machine gun to be fired high over all of us,” said Ishihara. “I acknowledged this without objection. It is merely a warning.”
“Yeah?” Staying low, Wayne turned again to look at the pursuit. All four cars were veering away from them in sudden turns. “Hey, that’s great. They aren’t going to challenge outright military power, are they?”
“No.”
Wayne grinned. “Wow. That was close.”
“Yes. It was. Now we shall follow the patrol back to German lines.”
“Do we have enough fuel?”
“I believe so. Just barely.”
Wayne sat up, weak with the sudden release of tension. He could see the armored car waiting for them up ahead. As they drew near, it turned and led them back to the west.
After that excitement, Wayne felt profound relief. The remaining six kilometers or so seemed very short now that no one was chasing them. Finally, the armored car led them back through the front lines to a place among the tents.
Ishihara stopped behind the armored car. As the soldiers jumped out of the back, Wayne and Ishihara got out of the car. Leutnant Mohr hurried to meet them, the fur cloak swirling about him in the wind as he spoke quickly in German to Ishihara.
Wayne waited while they spoke. The soldiers in the patrol were attentive, but not hostile. When Leutnant Mohr gestured to a small command tent, Ishihara nodded and turned to Wayne.
“He wants to talk to us himself. I think he is worried about getting into trouble for coming to get us.”
Wayne nodded and followed Ishihara into the tent while the rest of the patrol remained outside. Inside, a soldier sat at a small wooden table in front of a large metal box. Only the antenna told Wayne that it was their crude field radio; the rest of the unit was unrecognizable to him. The tent was a rather meager communications center.
He watched Leutnant Mohr and Ishihara speak in German. As the discussion progressed, Leutnant Mohr became more agitated. Ishihara kept talking, calmly but quickly. Suddenly Leutnant Mohr shouted and the soldiers in his patrol swarmed into the tent to surround Ishihara and Wayne at gunpoint.
Leutnant Mohr gave one more command and the patrol marched out their new prisoners.
Wayne was mystified. Ishihara did not speak, however. They were herded onto the back of the armored car again. This time, the patrol drove them through the lines of gaunt, hollow-eyed soldiers huddling together to the rear. There, they were ordered into a makeshift holding pen.
The pen offered no shelter, being merely a circle of open steppe surrounded by barbed wire guarded by sentries. A crowd of bearded men in ragged and dirty Soviet military uniforms lay huddled on the ground, their only protection from the winter wind coming from each other’s bodies. After Leutnant Mohr’s men had marched back to their armored car, Ishihara squatted and spoke quietly in Russian for a moment to another prisoner. The other man responded briefly and Ishihara stood up again.