Russian Amerika: Chapter Fifty

50 - Russia-Canada Highway near the Yukon River

    "…and we know Yak fighters scrambled out of Siberia and Tetlin, but they never got to Tanana." Blue paused and stared at Grisha and Wing on the seat beside her. "Do either of you know why?"

    Grisha concentrated on his driving, but managed one word, "Haimish."

    "Yeah," Wing said absently. "His last act seems to have borne fruit."

    "Hamish is dead?" Blue asked quietly. "What did he do to stop the fighters?"

    "I think he arranged for help from the USA, maybe got us a squadron of fighters, he worked for the Yanks, you know."

    "No, I didn't know that, but I ain't surprised. You sure he's dead?"

    "Yeah. And Chandalar, too."

    "Ah, damn!" Blue's voice broke for the second time in twenty minutes. "Losin' all these people I love, who helped me be the person I am, makes me die a little bit with each one. I don't know how much more I can take."

    The death of her brother, Lynx, didn't seem to jar her as much as hearing about Malagni and Slayer-of-Men. "You weren't sure about Malagni?"

    "I know he lost his arm and a lot of blood." It seemed like a million years ago to Grisha. "But I won't believe he's dead until I see his grave."

    "Yet Nathan the mind-bender still lives," Blue said shortly.

    "He's hurt," Wing said testily. "He might even lose an arm."

    Blue turned and stared at her friend. "But no bullet touched him, right?"

    "His arm was broken by a piece of falling roof." Wing sounded defensive. "No, he has no bullet wounds."

    Blue fastened her gaze on Grisha.

    "What do you think, little brother? Is our Nathan a witch or just damn lucky?"

    "Who knows? I believe he's especially intuitive. But if he can read minds he has an affliction I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," Grisha mumbled. "There's no way to turn off what others are thinking. Think how awfully boring that could become."

    Both women laughed, muting the tension.

    Blue sobered quickly. "It might be boring, but I think he can control people around him."

    "How can you believe that?" Wing asked incredulously. "He's been unconscious for hours and I don't feel any different than when he's awake."

    "I can believe it 'cause he's the strangest damn thing to come downriver in my lifetime," Blue said. "Grisha, how about you?"

    He yawned hugely. "I feel more awake when he's around."

    "I'm serious, Grisha."

    Grisha glanced past Wing at the larger woman. "If he's controlling me, I don't know about it." He paused. "But I almost wish he was, I'd have someone else to blame for my screw-ups."

    Nobody laughed.

    "What was the situation at Tanana when you left?" Wing asked.

    "Mopping up. Most of the garrison were cossacks and knew they were dead even if they surrendered." Blue's tone grew bleak. "They didn't surrender, but we took the redoubt anyway."

    "At what cost?"

    "Fred Seetamoona and his assault team feinted to draw their fire, they all died. That's how we were able to take the place at all."

    "Fred was on the council," Wing said slowly.

    "We've lost five council members that I know of over the past few days," Blue said.

    "How did you end up in this halftrack with a bunch of desperate survivors?" Grisha asked.

    "Pure, crazy chance. We captured three of these things and we only had two people who could drive them, so I volunteered to guard this one until somebody could come back for it." She grinned, showing the gap in her teeth. "The cossacks got there first and I just played dumb, which under the circumstances, wasn't too difficult."

    "So what's next?" Grisha asked.

    "What do you mean?" Wing said.

    "We've got Tanana, Chena is in ruins and won't be of much use to them or us for a long time to come-"

    "Not to mention Huslia, Koyuk, Fort Yukon, and Bridge," Wing said quickly.

    "Where?" Grisha asked.

    "Those are the other strong points on the highway now in our hands. We took Fort Yukon because we needed the air field," Blue said. "Finish what you started to say."

    "I already said it: what's next? Where do we go from here, attack south?"

    "No," Blue said quickly. "We're fighting a revolution for independence, we have no legal reason to hold more than the land of the Dena'."

    "But Nathan and Chan mentioned attacks on St. Nicholas and Tetlin."

    "Tetlin is inside the Dena' Republik and is the strongest redoubt outside St. Nicholas. We hope to negotiate them out of there," Blue said with a trace of bitterness. "We planned an attack on the slave pens in each place, to gain more followers, but that didn't happen."

    "Why not?"

    "Too cold. The prisoners would have frozen to death before we could help them. As soon as the ice goes out on the Yukon, we'll hit Tetlin, if they haven't freed our people before then."

    "Blue, you're pretty optimistic if you believe that," Wing said with a snort.

    "Finish answering my question," Grisha said.

    "We consolidate and negotiate," Blue said. "And, if we have to, we keep fighting."

    "The Russians will definitely counter-attack," Grisha said. "They won't give up this easily."

    "We've hurt them badly here-" Blue began.

    "Do you think this is the cream of the Czar's army?" Grisha said. "This is the frontier, a colony. This is where they send the people who are being punished or aren't worth the food they eat."

    He licked his lips, hating himself for demeaning the sacrifice of others. "You were able to plant charges at the strong points before your initial attack, weren't you?"

    "How'd you know what we did?" Blue asked.

    "It's what I would have done. But the point is; the next Russian troops you see will be more aware, better trained, and possess few social skills. The real Russian Army will be a lot harder to beat than these trash-heap garrison troops."

    Wing turned and stared at him. "We will fight until we die. I don't think the Russian Army cares that much about the Czar's holdings in Russian Amerika."

    "The leaders do the thinking; all armies are paid to fight."

    "If enough of them die, they will realize that to fight us is tantamount to death," Blue said with finality. "Their choices are to go home, join us, or die."

    "Maybe you should tell them that," he said in a musing tone. "Perhaps they would come to their point of decision much faster."

    "Propaganda's not a bad idea," Wing said. "Do we still have a printing press?"

    "More than one," Blue said. "We'll print up small notices in Russian and English and distribute them in all the Russian-held redoubts."

    "How will you deliver them?" Grisha asked.

    "Getting in and out of their areas is easy. We're all worthless Indians or Creoles to them," Wing said, "we've just got to be very careful."

    "They'll be looking at everybody twice from now on, especially Indians and Creoles."

    "What's the matter, Grisha, don't you want the job?" Blue asked with a laugh.

    "I think I'd be the wrong man for it," he said wryly, "give me something else to do."

    "I've been thinking about that," Blue said. "But I need to talk to War Minister Nathan about it first."

    "If it helps the Dena' Republik, I'll do it."

    Blue glanced at Wing. "With Chan dead, how do we finance this war?"

    "What do you mean?" Grisha asked. "What did Chan have to do with finances?"

    "That's right, you didn't know," Wing said. "Chan was the money behind the DSM and the revolution. His grandfather discovered gold up in the hills north of Chena way back in the '30s, and had the presence of mind to keep quiet about it."

    "Yeah," Blue said. "He kept the secret in his family. They operated that mine for years and years, hauled most of the gold down into British Canada to sell it."

    Wing nodded. "They were rich, the whole family. Then one of Chan's uncles got drunk and told another Dena' about it, and a cossack heard him."

    "Oh, hell," Grisha said in a reverent tone.

    "Yeah," Blue said. "Cossacks kidnapped the three brothers who had inherited. And their families were tortured to death in front of them. But no one told the location of the mine."

    "Because," Wing said, hesitating for a beat, "…the cossacks had missed getting Chandalar. He had been over in Nenana visiting a girl and her family. So the rest of the family died at the hands of the cossacks knowing Chan would revenge their deaths."

    "Chan told the girl he couldn't marry, but would always love her, then went looking for other angry Athabascans," Blue said. "And he found a lot of 'em!"

    "He recruited the first ten Dena' Separatists, " Wing said, "told them to find as many others as they could and he went down to the United States. He was arrested in a border town and turned over to the army. Within a week he was talking to someone on President Taft's staff."

    "That's when Hamish came north the first time," Blue said. "I was just a little girl, but I remember him coming through our door and wonderin' what he was, cause he looked like one of those Eskimo billikins."

    "But now they're both dead," Grisha said, sorry to pull them back to now.

    "Yeah," Wing said in a husky voice. "But to answer your question, Blue, Chan willed the whole operation to the Dena' people. We have bank accounts in British Canada, French Canada, and the United States with a lot of money in them."