“What did that note say?”
Imran looked toward the Russian’s building and then back up at Dublin.
“A few years ago, one of Yakov’s daughters became very ill, a rare form of Leukemia. She was dying. The typical cancer vaccine is hard enough to get in Canada. The New United Nations tries very hard to prevent any of it from getting smuggled outside of government approved zones. In this case, because of the type of Leukemia, the vaccine available was even more rare. Very, very tough to access for anyone up here. The Russian begged the godfather to help him save his daughter. Two months later, the vaccine arrived. Even I don’t know how the godfather obtained it, but it had to have been very expensive. Today, for your trip to Manitoba, the godfather was willing to call in that favor owed to him by the Russian for saving his daughter. I was told not to use the note unless I had to. Well…I felt I had to, and Yakov, being an honorable man, agreed to pay the debt owed to the godfather. He will pay that debt by taking you to the priest in Manitoba.”
A massive door began to slide open in the front portion of the building, revealing the front of a dark black locomotive. Mac, Bear, Cooper, and Reese stood next to Dublin and Imran, looking in wonder at the Russian’s train. Inside the building, the Russian, three young girls, and a woman, could be seen moving swiftly in and then back out of the train.
Yakov pointed to the group and motioned for them to come inside the building.
“Put your things in the passenger car. Back there.”
Mac and the others walked into the building and then back to the last part of the train, a large, square passenger car that had been meticulously restored to its former glory. Imran opened the rear door and motioned for the others to come inside.
“This passenger car is over a hundred and twenty years old. Used to run the main line between Seattle and Vancouver when the wealthy would return to their summer homes up north. The Russian spent nearly two years fixing it up, replacing parts, sanding and staining the wood…it is now quite beautiful. There is a small cooking area, seats that convert to beds, and even a self contained bathroom! And look here, a chess set! Playing cards! Books that were published when this train was still in service!”
Dublin couldn’t help but smile at Imran’s enthusiasm over the passenger car. She admitted to herself it was a remarkable restoration and would certainly provide them some very comfortable travel accommodations to Manitoba.
The Russian entered the passenger car and looked down at the assorted backpacks that were sitting on the floor.
“Put those by your seats. Out of the way. Then go back outside and wait.”
Imran pointed toward the front of the train.
“The train is taken out from the building by a pulley before it is started up. He wants us to go back outside before he begins to take the train out.”
Mac and the others followed Imran back outside and watched as the Russian crawled under the front of the locomotive and placed a large iron clamp over a steel ring hanging from the bottom of the machine. He then walked quickly over to a large wheel bolted onto the interior wall of the building and began to turn it slowly clockwise. The sound of a chain moving through some kind of pulley echoed inside the building as the train began to move forward to the outside. Reese pointed to the train tracks.
“He has a manually powered pulley system inside the tracks. Just hook it onto the train and it can pull it frontwards or back from inside the building. This guy must have some serious mechanical skills.”
Imran nodded at Reese’s observation.
“Oh yes – the Russian can fix or build just about anything.”
Unlike Reese, who was focused on how the Russian was moving the train by turning the wheel inside the building, Mac’s attention was focused on something he saw at the very front of the locomotive.
“Well, I’ll be damned, will you look at that?” He’s got a Ronson flamethrower hooked up to the front of that thing! Looks like an old tank unit system.”
After the train was completely out of the building, the Russian jumped inside the locomotive cab and began shoveling coal into the flame box, building up the heat that would eventually create the steam to power the train. Soon he was joined by one of his daughters who grabbed her own shovel and worked nearly as quickly as her father. Yakov’s smile could be seen flashing through his beard as he looked over at the girl working so hard to help him prepare the train.
Imran whispered to the others standing next to him.
“That was the daughter who was dying from the cancer.”
Nearly ten minutes went by before Yakov and his daughter stopped filling the flame box with coal and stepped back outside where his other two daughters and wife were waiting. The Russian kneeled down to kiss the foreheads of each of his daughters before standing back up and hugging his wife. Yakov pointed to the machine gun housed in the second floor of the building.
“As always – anyone come, shoot. No questions. Just shoot.”
Yakov’s wife, her long blonde hair tied back behind her, appeared to be at least ten years younger than her husband. Hearing his instructions, she simply nodded and hugged him again, repeating several times that he was to come home.
The Russian turned to face the group and pointed to the passenger car.
“Get on. If you need to see me, walk the plank on the side. Don’t fall. You fall, you probably die.”
The plank Yakov referred to was a one foot wide wood beam that ran the length of the passenger can and from which one could, if they were careful, walk alongside the train as it was moving, in order to reach the front.
The Russian paused as the group was about to walk into the passenger car.
“Also…if we are being attacked, open windows and shoot. Very simple.”
Bear watched as Yakov jumped into the locomotive cabin, his hand still rubbing the bottom of his neck. The Russian began frantically using a manual blower to speed up the process of heating the fire box.
Everyone in the group then turned around to find Imran standing alone, not moving toward the train. His face betrayed the sadness he was feeling.
“I cannot go with you, my friends. I must continue to transport goods for the godfather, especially in the absence of the Russian. That was part of the deal.”
Mac was the first to reach Imran, his hand extended out in front of him.
“Glad to have gotten to know you, Imran – and thank you for all the help.”
Dublin, Reese, and Bear were the next to tell Imran goodbye. Cooper and Brando were the last to walk up to the small man. Cooper tilted his hat upward slightly and then shrugged.
“Don’t care much for goodbyes, Imran, so let’s just leave it at see you later, and call it good.”
Imran ignored Cooper’s words and wrapped his arms around the rancher.
“Be safe, Coop. Be safe.”
Imran then leaned down and hugged Brando as well.
“You too, Brando. Keep an eye out for everyone, ok?”
The Doberman pulled his lips back and gave Imran a particularly enthusiastic snarling smile.
Dublin and Reese sat next to each other staring out one of the many windows of the passenger car as the Russian’s family looked back at them. Yakov’s wife appeared particularly unhappy to see her husband being temporarily taken away from them. One of the girls though, the one who had been saved from dying of Leukemia, smiled back and waved as the train began to inch its way forward on the track, picking up speed as large clouds billowed out from the locomotive’s smoke stack.
Within another twenty minutes the train’s speed had increased significantly. The landscape was one of flat, snow covered terrain for as far as the eye could see. Reese estimated the train to be moving at nearly twenty miles an hour and traveling south east. He looked over at Cooper, who was sitting silently staring out the window nearest to his own seat.
“You know where we are heading, Coop?”
The rancher looked over at Reese and then back to the window.
“Has to be going through a place called Terrace. It used to be one of the main hubs for this part of Canada. From there he’ll likely cut northeast to Dawson Creek. We’ll want to keep as north as possible, stay away from the bigger urban areas where the more powerful Muslim warlords are found. I don’t know much about what is after Dawson Creek, though. I know we have a few mountain passes to get through, weather’s gonna get real cold, but hopefully, we’ll be making pretty good time. If there’s no trouble, we could make Churchill, Manitoba in about four days. That’s if the Russian sleeps at least a little. He can’t stay awake shoveling coal to keep us going all that time. Even he has to rest up.”
Bear sat down next to Cooper and stretched his neck, trying to keep it from stiffening up after his encounter with Yakov.
“That guy’s one of the strongest men I’ve ever met, and during my football days, I played with some beasts. Another ten seconds of him squeezing me like that and I’d have passed out.”
Cooper Wyse looked down at Brando, who had curled up at his feet.
“Lucky thing Brando jumped in there when he did, huh?”
Bear scowled down at the dog and then remembered the Doberman biting into the Russian’s forearm. The scowl turned into a grin as Bear leaned down to scratch behind Brando’s ears.
“Good boy.”
Outside, the landscape was passing by just a little more quickly as the train’s speed had picked up to nearly thirty miles an hour.
On the opposite side of the passenger car, sitting alone, Mac winced in his seat as the pain in his lower back transformed from a throbbing whisper into a screaming attack. Without any doctor telling him so, he knew the cancer had spread from his lungs. He could almost feel the tumors multiplying inside his body.
Mac Walker was running out of time.
XXXI.
Dublin found the noise of the train soothing, making staying awake increasingly difficult as both the hours and the scenery outside passed by together. Reese sat next to her holding her hand, his head beginning to dip down toward his chest as sleep overtook him as well.
Mac had fallen asleep within the first hour of the train beginning its journey, his head resting against the glass of the window he sat next to. Dublin sensed the fatigue in Mac, and knew the others in the group did too. He was trying so hard to hide how tired the trip was making him, but as the days wore on, that deception was proving even too difficult for the once incredibly strong and still proud Mac Walker.
Bear and Cooper were sitting across from one another playing chess. The rancher shared how his former wife had taught him the game shortly after they first met. Cooper was never able to beat her, but over time, he had grown to appreciate the quiet intellectual challenge that a good chess match presented.
Dublin’s mind wandered to the possibilities of what lay ahead of them. The day they left Alaska, though recent, now felt so long ago. She wondered what would become of Imran and his life at Wilfrid. And of the godfather and his strange yet understandable obsession with living in the long ago world of the 1950’s. Was the promised threat by those Muslim animals who killed that poor family, legitimate? Would a jihadist uprising wash over Wilfrid and then into Alaska?
Mac had told Dublin not to worry. Alaska had been notified and was prepared, though according to Mac, the far greater threat was the increasing drone sightings that were taking place above the Alaskan skies. It was becoming clear the New United Nations was preparing to re-establish its dominance over the newly freed state, thus making the purpose of their own mission to Churchill, Manitoba, that much more critical.
They had been on the train for nearly four hours, traveling for most of that time at nearly thirty miles an hour. Cooper had indicated earlier it would likely take about six hours for the train to reach Terrace.