Louise woke at the orphanage with a start, still in her heels and dress. She had dozed off around four in the morning after settling Grisha and Alina in their blankets on the canvas and wood folding cots that the orphanage used for beds. She saw Natalya, still where she was when Louise had dozed off, standing watch over her two sleeping children.
This was where Louise’s plan had ended, with the children safe in the orphanage, driven there by Pulkkinen.
She had no idea what to do next. Perhaps that was appropriate she thought. She’d gotten Natalya sprung from the flat and the children to the orphanage. Natalya now faced the gravest moral choice of her life. This part of the plan had to be solely hers. Louise felt her heart weeping for her friend, sitting silently and loving her children with her eyes—with her whole body—clearly grieving. The choice had already been made. It was clear that Natalya did not want this brief last time with her children to end.
Kaarina, face drawn from lack of sleep, walked into the room full of sleeping children. She saw Natalya sitting there. She motioned to Louise to join her outside the room.
“She’s got to get out of here,” she whispered. “The Russians will be looking for her as soon as they discover she and the children are gone. My guess is the young guard will be relieved at eight and someone will look in on Natalya around that time. God help that young man when they find them gone.”
Louise felt a sharp spasm of remorse. The young guard would almost certainly be sent to the gulag if he wasn’t shot. There was no escaping the situation. It was the kid—a stranger to her—or Natalya and her children. She felt good about getting Natalya out—and bad about very likely getting the young man tortured and killed. Arnie had once said that there were very few unambiguous moral choices in war, mostly because whatever you chose to do, someone died because of your actions. Louise now knew viscerally what he meant. The old adage that you can’t make an omelet without cracking an egg came to her mind. She immediately rejected it. Talking about human lives in cooking metaphors should repulse everyone. Curious how it came to her mind so readily. Was it war that made people callous, or was it that people were callous, and they made war?
“We’ve got to find a place for her to hide.”
“I’m taking quite enough risk keeping the children,” Kaarina said.
“OK. I’ve got to find a place for her to hide.”
“What about Arnie?”
“He’s been beating down doors, trying to make a stink, hoping the MGB action will be exposed. He’s also still hoping Mikhail might be alive.”
Kaarina harrumphed. “We’re talking Lavrentiy Beria and Joseph Stalin here.” She looked Louise directly in the eyes. “He’s dead.”
“I’ll get her to the legation. She can seek asylum.”
“Louise,” Kaarina said quietly. “The Russians will have every approach to the legation covered. She won’t have a chance.”
“Sweden then.”
“The ferries will be covered. The Finnish police will probably have to help. It’s seven hundred and fifty kilometers to the border. It’s February. There are no towns up there. Few roads. Neither of you will survive. And who knows if the Swedes will let her in. They don’t want to anger the Russians any more than the Finns.”
Louise said nothing.
“Why do you think Natalya’s saying goodbye to her children?” Kaarina asked gently.
It hit Louise very hard. “She can’t,” she whispered. She rushed back inside.
She knelt in front of Natalya, who seemed to be somewhere far away now. “Natalya, we’ve got to get you out of here,” she said quietly.
Natalya’s attention came back into the room. She smiled at Louise.
“Natalya, you’ve got to try.”
Natalya looked wearily at Louise. “My dear innocent girl from Oklahoma. I have found our friendship …” She started to tear up but caught herself. “Nearly a quarter of this country are Communists. The word will go out. Something like a fleeing spy. Whatever. They’re very good at storytelling, as you know. Anywhere I go, any direction I take, the MGB will be informed.” She stood. “The one thing I must do is get captured as far from this orphanage as possible.”
Louise gulped back a pain in her throat. “Natalya, you can’t—”
Natalya smiled gently. “It’s not hopeless, my friend. Maybe they just threw Mikhail in prison. Maybe they’ll do the same with me. Who knows, a year, maybe five years, it’ll all blow over. Kaarina can stay connected with them. They’ll almost certainly get adopted.” She smiled and gestured. “I mean look at them.”
Natalya grabbed Louise, kissed her on each cheek, and walked rapidly to the door. Louise followed, but Natalya had disappeared into the February darkness.