Neither Despise Nor Fear by V M Knox

Author:V M Knox [Knox, V M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Finnish-Soviet Border

10th April 1966

As Alistair ran through the trees, the overhead branches swayed in the wind, the dappled moonlight flicking ghostly shapes across the forest floor. He hurried on, his footsteps sinking into the fresh snow. Slowing, he checked his compass again. The moving shadows heightened the nerves, making him see shapes that weren’t there. His heart was thumping. Heading due east and staying within the forest, he ran for about a mile before he saw the Soviet border town of Svetlovorsk.

He crouched at the edge of the tree line. He could see the lights of the village across a wide, snow-covered field, about three hundred yards away. Svetlovorsk was small, he thought, most likely a farming village, with about a dozen run-down timber buildings, none of them large. A huge watch tower stood about two hundred yards from him, and a little distance from the village. It had large lights illuminating the surrounding area. Beside it was a high, razor-wired gate. From where Alistair crouched, he could see the fences, approximately twelve feet high and topped with more barbed wire. They extended in both directions. The wide open field before him made for a sort of no-man's-land.

Alistair pulled his binoculars from his pocket and trained them on the tower. Two guards kept look out there, their sub-machine guns slung over their shoulders. Crouching on the cold, snow-covered ground, he reached for his watch and waited. Fifteen minutes later, a guard descended the tower and walked about fifty yards along the perimeter fence. Alistair could see the torchlight flashing over the snow then the guard returned and checked the gate, his torch pushed through the wire, the beam of light panning across the area and over the snow-covered road, beyond the reach of the tower lights. Alistair couldn’t see any footprints or recent tyre tracks on the road, and he guessed no one had approached the Soviet outpost from the Finnish side since the last thick coating of snow had fallen. The flashlight flicked over the ground, then the guard turned and walked along the fence line, the torch beam constantly arcing over the snow. The guard was beyond the tower light now. He walked on until he was about twenty yards from where Alistair crouched. He held his breath. If he tried to retreat deeper into the forest now, the guard would see him. Alistair lowered himself onto the ground so that his body lay flat, his head down and half concealed behind the trunk of a large tree. Drawing in some cold air, he held his breath, not wanting his warm exhaled air to float away in the cold night. He lay motionless as the torch beam flowed over his head. Then it moved away. Alistair exhaled. He lifted his head. He could hear the guard a little further away now. Silently standing, he crept further into the trees and waited for the man to return to the tower. If the guard had dogs, Alistair believed he would surely have been found.

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