Atomsk: A Novel of Suspense by Carmichael Smith

Author:Carmichael Smith [Smith, Carmichael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hartworks, Inc.
Published: 2012-01-27T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Across the Divide

AFTER A DAY AND a night of sleep, Dugan emerged into a second dawn ready for more travel. He buried the extra sections of inner tube and tire casing with which he had done his tight-rope act on the power lines; taking a careful sight over the cliff below him, he tried to spot-photograph the position of the big tree on his memory so that he would be able to find tire and tube again if he ever needed them, though he dreaded the notion of climbing the towers again and moving on the high live wires.

Then he took stock of his position.

The fact that a sentry line had followed the river was evidence he was within the outer radius of Atomsk.

But the lack of special precautions along the river bank, and the probability that this little stream was one of the tributaries of the Doubikhe-which in turn had no signs of precautionary measures being taken against radioactive waste contaminating its banks-made him realize that he had to move into another watershed before he could expect to be near the real works themselves.

Again, the presence of heavy power installations was suggestive of the possibility that power was being fed from either coal or hydroelectric stations down near Spassk into the hills in which he now found himself.

But the air photographs had showed no power lines and the total non-concealment of the lines at this point probably meant that they led to a complete sham factory which, if seen from the air by a stray plane, would explain the march of pylons over the forested hills.

After all, even in Russia, people did not run major power cables off into the woods and extend their terminals into squirrels' nests. All the propaganda in the world could not explain anything as odd as that, nor could the secret police suppress all telling of such a peculiar sight.

The Soviet authorities had their own airmen to baffle, as well as ours. If they didn't fool everybody, they might as well come out in the open and let the pilots know the exact locations of freak installations. Furthermore, the planes around here all carried enough gasoline to get them to American Korea or to American Japan; and how could any secret police guess the even more secret hearts of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of flyers, all of whom had the physical capacity to flee? They could do something by pairing pilots with one another, or by holding the families of airmen as hostages; but that would be insufficiently secure.

After all, they had had the one American photo plane over, earlier in the spring. How were they to know when they would have another?

If this were an ordinary country, Dugan could have cut loose and moved in with the people, using impudence and talkativeness as a means whereby to triangulate the mystery until he was ready to strike for the center of it. But this was not long-inhabited, settled countryside. This was new, raw, and policed.

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