Boyd Morrison
The Roswell Conspiracy
For Randi, my idol.
PROLOGUE
Ivan Dombrovski sloshed through the muddy bog, stopping only to catch his breath. Tracking dogs howled in the distance, their task slowed by the stench of rot suffusing the air. He checked his holstered Nagant revolver to verify that it hadn’t come loose. When the time came, he would need it to ensure the future for his beloved Tsar Nicholas.
The rain clouds parted briefly, and he ducked to avoid the glow of the full moon that would make him visible among the shattered trees that surrounded him. The showers gave way to hordes of mosquitoes and horseflies, but Dombrovski’s head-to-toe wool clothing and the netting over his face protected him from the bloodsucking insects. The heat from the outfit was bearable only when compared to the unrelenting swarms that had driven half of his team mad during their trek to this forsaken stretch of Siberian wilderness.
His heart pounding loudly in the sudden silence, Dombrovski poked his head up and searched for any sign of his adversary, who would also be keeping well ahead of the baying hounds. Vasily Suzdalev must be close. The footprints in the mud meant they’d been circling each other, but the rain had drowned out any noise of Suzdalev splashing through the swamp.
Dombrovski could see nothing but death, an entire forest of eighty million trees denuded and scythed flat. Although he had been in the Tunguska region for more than a week, he was still agog at the expanse of devastation caused a decade ago. According to the reports of the Evenki natives, the Tunguska cataclysm had happened in mere seconds, a blinding flash in the sky followed by a sound like a million cannons firing at once.
By Dombrovski’s estimation the razed area measured twenty kilometers in every direction from the center of the blast, larger than Moscow. He knew of no power capable of such an event. Yet despite the unprecedented scale of the destruction, the area was so sparsely populated that no one had been killed by the explosion.
Suzdalev, a Bolshevik agent for Lenin, had come to this desolate region two years ago and discovered a metallic substance never before found on this earth. During the subsequent lab tests, an accident destroyed the specimen, and now Suzdalev was back on another expedition to find more. Dombrovski had been sent to retrieve the secret material from him before Suzdalev could return to Moscow with it and seal the fate of Mother Russia.
Dombrovski would sacrifice himself rather than let the communists claim it for their own. They had already killed his wife and daughter. He would not let them destroy his country as well.
The clouds shielded the moon again, and raindrops pelted him anew. With one last look around, he hoisted himself up onto the log he’d been crouching behind and ran along it to avoid the quagmire. Where the tree ended at a splintered stump, he leaped over to the log next to it. A hand shot up and snagged his boot while he was in mid-air, causing Dombrovski’s foot to miss the log. His chest slammed into the trunk and he fell backward into the mud.
Suzdalev, who must have been lying in wait for Dombrovski to make exactly that move, jumped onto him and kneed him in the stomach, driving the air from his lungs. Suzdalev scrabbled at the pistol holster, trying to draw the Nagant.
Dombrovski grabbed a handful of muck and threw it in Suzdalev’s face. The Bolshevik wiped at his netting in an attempt to clear it. Dombrovski launched a fist at Suzdalev’s neck. Suzdalev grasped at his throat and collapsed from the blow. Dombrovski rolled over and pulled the pistol free. He staggered to his feet, keeping the gun aimed at Suzdalev, who was on his hands and knees wheezing. The man was no longer a threat. If he’d had a weapon, Dombrovski would already be dead.
More baying. The dogs were closer, and Dombrovski could now hear the shouts of the fifteen armed men with them.
“Where is it?” Dombrovski demanded.
Suzdalev sat back on his haunches and spit mud from his lips. “It won’t do you any good.”
“You’re wrong. It will be a powerful weapon for the tsar—”
“By now the tsar has been executed, along with the entire royal family.”
Dombrovski narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”
The clouds parted again, and he could see Suzdalev’s smile just below the shadow from his hood. “I mean the Romanovs are no more. It is only a matter of time before the glorious revolution transforms our country into a worker’s paradise.”
“How do you know the tsar is dead?”
“As one of Comrade Lenin’s most trusted agents, I am privy to much. Nicholas was scheduled to be shot on the night of July eighteenth.”
Almost a week ago. As isolated as they were, it would take news even of such momentous proportions quite a while to reach them. Suzdalev might be telling the truth. But it made Dombrovski’s task that much more important. If the Reds took over and gained possession of Suzdalev’s secret, the communist revolution might not stop at Russia’s borders.
Two dogs barked as they latched onto a stronger scent.
“I know you found another sample of xenobium,” Dombrovski said. “Tell me where it is, and I’ll kill you quickly.”
“I hid it an hour ago. You’ll never find it.”
Dombrovski shot him in the left knee, drawing a scream from Suzdalev and shouts from the dogs’ handlers.
“You’re lying.” If Suzdalev had hidden the specimen during his midnight escape, there would have been no way for him to find it again among the countless identical logs. He had to have it with him.
Dombrovski spied a knapsack inside a cavity beneath the log. With the pistol trained on Suzdalev, he snatched the pack and rifled through it until it was empty. The material was not inside. He checked Suzdalev’s pockets with the same results.
“Where!” Dombrovski shouted and fired into Suzdalev’s right knee.
Another scream. More shouts. The trackers were almost upon him.
Then Dombrovski spotted a glint reflecting the moonlight next to Suzdalev. The Bolshevik followed his eye and grabbed for it, intending to fling it away, but Dombrovski stepped on his hand. Suzdalev must have tried to bury it beside him after he’d been defeated in the melee.
Dombrovski plucked it from the mire and wiped it on his sleeve. No bigger than a piece of hard candy, the multicolored surface of the xenobium shimmered in the light. Whoever could puzzle out the secrets of this object would have a tool to dominate the world.
Dombrovski bent down and ripped the net and hood from Suzdalev’s head. The ravenous mosquitoes descended. Dombrovski could see the pure hatred in Suzdalev’s eyes.
“I warned you, tovarisch,” Dombrovski said, spitting the despised word for comrade. “You should have told me. Now you will suffer the way my family did.”
Suzdalev launched himself forward but cried out in agony when his legs wouldn’t support him. “Your kind will be extinct soon!” he shouted as he swatted at his face. Even the thick mud was no match for his insect tormentors. “You cannot stem the tide of history!”
Dombrovski said nothing. He pocketed the object, took the pack’s rations, and left Suzdalev cursing and writhing in pain, at the mercy of Siberia’s natural horrors. With no food and dozens of kilometers to the nearest settlement, his last days on shattered knees would be excruciating.
It took less than five minutes for the tracker team to catch up with Dombrovski. The team’s leader, his rifle at the ready, eyed him warily. “Did your idea work?”
Dombrovski nodded. “The dogs drove Suzdalev straight to me. Our mission is accomplished.” He would secure the specimen in a lead-lined case when they returned to camp.
“So now we return to Yekaterinburg and rescue the tsar, sir?” the man said.