1
1936 Soviet Azerbaijan
The complaint began to rumble deep down in the mule’s throat. Alexsi hopped up from the ground and rubbed her nose and ears before the sound could work its way out and erupt into a deafening bray that would ruin them all. She scuffed her front hooves in the sand, settled down, and kept silent. If you gave a mule something to think about other than what was annoying it at that particular moment, it tended to forget all about it. You really couldn’t force a mule to do what it didn’t want to. The other men would beat them, of course, but then people just liked beating things. Especially what couldn’t beat them back. But all he had to do was offer the mules the occasional sugar beet and they would follow him like dogs.
The desert looked flat from a distance. But once you were inside it there were all kinds of subtle hills and valleys that could hide men and horses and a string of mules from plain sight. And a teenage boy.
Alexsi looked up at the progress of the moon and saw that it was past midnight but still at least three hours from sunrise. It was a half-moon. Any fuller made it easier to see at night, but also made it too easy to see them. From the stars he knew they were on course. It was cold, and now that the mule was quiet he stopped stroking her and stuck his hands back into the pockets of his lamb’s fur coat. She nuzzled him, though he knew it wasn’t out of love. She was looking for a treat.
He checked her load to make sure it wasn’t rubbing on her. The two long rolls strapped to the yoke harness contained Mosin-Nagant rifles wrapped up in canvas like carpets. Rifles were one of the few things the Soviet Union produced that someone in another country would want to trade for. The other mules also carried rifles, and tins of rifle ammunition.
The border with Iran was up ahead. At this spot it was just a horse road patrolled by Russian border guards, but the talk was that soon there would be a tall wire fence and land mines. So everyone was rushing to make what money they could before that happened.
The men he was with were Shahsavan tribesmen, as were those they were waiting for. Nomads, Azeri-speaking, and the arbitrary Soviet-Iranian border had cut them off from their traditional pasture migrations from southern Azerbaijan to northern Iran and back. When Reza Pahlavi, the one-time sergeant who now called himself Shah, seized power in Iran in 1921, his first goal had been to bring all the independent tribes to heel. He defeated the Shahsavan in 1923 and exiled their chiefs. Some of the tribesmen moved to the city of Ardabil and settled down. The rest still ran their flocks of sheep, camels, and horses between pastureland according to the grass seasons and tried to keep a step ahead of the government. But fewer pastures meant having to fight for them. And smaller flocks and less powerful chiefs meant more raiding to stay alive. So they always needed guns.
On the other side of the border their Azeri cousins had taken one look at collective farms and Soviet power and gone into smuggling. Alexsi knew they were on borrowed time but he wasn’t sure they did. They still talked about being free men.
They allowed an outsider to ride with them because Alexsi could do three things they could not. The first was read and write. He’d been living by his wits on the streets of Baku. Then one morning he bumped into four Shahsavan, looking much harder than the usual yokels from the hills, wandering about hopelessly lost looking for a smuggling contact. Though Alexsi hadn’t known that at the time. Always on the hustle for a few kopecks, he’d offered to guide them and they’d accepted out of sheer desperation.
During the meeting he’d had to wait outside in the hall for his money, trying to look young and meek while a couple of enormous thugs stared him down. When it was over, the rubles the tribesmen paid him were obviously counterfeit. After he quietly passed that information along, the knives flashed out and an instant later the two thugs were left vainly trying to hold their cut throats together. It was even worse than slaughtering sheep, since sheep were tied up and didn’t run around spraying blood everywhere once the killing cut was made. At that point Alexsi was thinking that leaving without his money might not be the worst thing in the world, but the Shahsavan, who took being cheated badly, kicked down the door in order to reopen negotiations with their contact.
Things only got worse. All the noise attracted attention, and with more thugs pounding up the stairs, Alexsi was presented with the choice of greeting them by himself in the hallway or running into the room where the fight was going on. Inside, and with no good options, he dove for the nearest neutral corner and tried to make himself as small as possible. It wasn’t like a boys’ fight: a live-or-die contest never lasted long. This one ended with the contact and four of his men spilling their guts on the floor and screaming their last breaths while the tribesmen fished the real money out of their pockets. The Shahsavan, he learned, only cut throats when they were in a hurry, wanted things kept quiet, or didn’t feel the need to make a point. Having seen all he wanted to, Alexsi was the first one out as soon as a safe path to the door presented itself. He wasn’t alone. The tribesmen thundered after him, either out of instinct or terror at the prospect of being lost in the big city again. Later the Shahsavan were enormously impressed that, rather than head down to the street where they might bump into more of the disemboweled criminal boss’s henchmen, he’d led them up and over three adjoining rooftops, choosing to ignore the fact that he hadn’t exactly been waving his arms and urging them to join him. As soon as they all were safe and laughing at their good luck, they offered him a job.
The second thing that kept him in their company was his ability with locks. During their escape he’d opened a locked rooftop door in a few seconds, and the tribesmen thought that was the most amazing thing they had ever seen. Urban life and its tools and ways were foreign to them, and they’d been used to kicking their way into and out of places. A confederate who could open locks was more in keeping with their stealthy desert instincts. Not to mention safer.
The third reason was that, incredibly enough considering their trade, he spoke Russian and Farsi and they didn’t. You needed Russian for school, and growing up on a kolkhoz, a state farm near the Iranian border, meant you picked up a lot of Farsi. The Shahsavan only spoke Azeri and their tribal dialect, and with their nomad sense of superiority didn’t feel the need to know anything else. Usually any stranger they bumped into during border crossings ended up being disposed of by the jackals, but they considered having someone who could translate very useful in emergencies.
Riding and shooting were second nature to the Shahsavan, and they taught him to do both better than he’d ever dreamed. They also taught him to live in the desert and scout without being seen. They insisted he become a Muslim, and to keep from ruining a good deal he agreed, praying when they did.
After a few trips he had more rubles hidden away than most party bosses in the Soviet Union, let alone sixteen-year-olds. He didn’t even have to break into the state food stores to eat anymore. Though he still did occasionally to get the good stuff they kept locked away for themselves, and for the sheer thrill of burglary. It had been his routine since escaping from the state orphanage three years before. Whatever he didn’t use himself he sold in the flea market in Baku. The market might not be Communist, but the authorities allowed it because things were so bad that if they didn’t let people sell their possessions in order to buy food there might be a revolt. They kept a close watch, though, so Alexsi had learned it was better to get some old woman to sell your loot in exchange for a piece of it.
They were waiting there in the desert because the smugglers didn’t bother keeping track of the Russian border guard patrols. They had a much simpler and more direct method. While they paused just short of the border, four tribesmen were sneaking up on the nearest border guard post a kilometer away. The guards were used to harassing rifle shots from angry tribesmen, but when these four opened fire with their brand-new Degtyarev light machine gun the post would panic and shoot off their emergency flares to summon all the roving patrols back to their aid. And the smugglers could then cross the border unmolested.
Sometimes the rifles would be exchanged for Iranian gold, which was best. Sometimes opium, when it was in season. But usually they drove back a flock of sheep, the tribe’s main currency. Harder to manage, but food on the hoof outside the state system could always be turned into good money.
The rifles came from a Shahsavan sergeant in the local Red Army garrison, the Azerbaijan Division. Older weapons packed in grease and set aside for wartime mobilization. Replaced in their crates with broken rifles that were supposed to be disposed of. The crates were counted regularly but no one ever bothered to look inside. The same with the ammunition. The wooden crates were still stacked up in the armory, but the metal cans of bullets that had been inside them were long gone.
Sound carried a long way in the desert at night, and everyone heard the shooting start at the border guard post even though it was kilometers away. Usually the machine-gun fire was followed by a patter of frantic shots from the post, but this time there was a roar of return fire. It made the mules jump, and Alexsi had to go down the line to calm them.
The flares popped in the far distance, little pinheads of red and white light. Now everyone was counting down the time for the patrols to ride to the rescue.
A soft, low whistle spread through the air. The kind of muffled sound you hear for a brief instant at night and then dismiss that it ever happened. The tribesmen could make it carry a very long way. Without further command everyone silently slipped back onto their horses and the column of riders headed out. Even the mules got moving without complaint, probably because it was warmer to be walking.
With flankers on both sides of the column looking out for ambush, they crossed the border road into Iran. The Iranian border guards didn’t even have to be paid off. They didn’t patrol at night. It was too cold and too dangerous.
After a while they stopped, and following the usual routine Alexsi rode up to the head of the column.
Selim, the leader of the tribesmen, softly called out, “Anatoli, time to go.”
It was a world of informers—Alexsi knew that only too well. So when the Shahsavan first asked his name, and names were of enormous importance to them, he had given that of his worst enemy back in the kolkhoz. If word ever got out of a Russian boy riding with a group of tribal smugglers, and it probably would, the authorities could go back to the farm and arrest Anatoli. Every time they called him that, Alexsi imagined Anatoli desperately trying to convince the police he wasn’t a smuggler, and it was hard to keep the smile off his face.
It was his job to go out and meet with the scout for the Iranian group, and then bring them all together. This was much safer than two groups of armed men bumping into each other in the darkness. Everyone was always alert to the possibility of other raiders waiting in ambush to take their goods.
“There was a lot more shooting at the border guard post,” Alexsi whispered.
“Don’t worry,” Selim replied. “They probably put more men in there since the last time.”
Alexsi was worried anyway. It sounded like a lot more men. He slid down from his horse and handed the reins to Selim. “Rashid, let’s go.”
He and Rashid always went out together. One man wandering alone in the desert at night might never be seen again.
“I can’t walk,” Rashid replied. “I’m sick.”
Rashid was his age. The Shahsavan considered a sixteen-year-old a man, and as a matter of practicality liked their scouts to be the fastest runners and smallest targets. Rashid had never been sick before. If he’d been sick, why had he come along in the first place?
Alexsi walked down to Rashid’s horse. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sick to my stomach,” Rashid said with a groan. “I can’t walk.”
Alexsi instantly knew that Rashid was lying. It wasn’t even a good act.
“I’ll send someone else with you,” said Selim, who had heard everything.
“No, I’ll go by myself,” Alexsi said quickly.
There was a pause while Selim thought that over. “Are you sure?”
“I’ll be all right,” said Alexsi.
Selim thought it over some more. “If you get lost or there’s any trouble, fire one shot and we’ll be right there.”
“I will,” said Alexsi.
Selim leaned over his saddle and pointed out the small hump of a hill in the near distance. One desert hill in the dark of night was never the same as any other to the Shahsavan.
“I see it,” Alexsi said.
Selim patted him on the back.
Alexsi left his rifle on his horse. It was too unwieldy at night. Ducking low to be out of sight, he unhooked the water bag from his saddle and slung it across his back. Straightening up, he reached under his coat and drew the Nagant revolver from the leather flap holster, the same as the secret police bluecaps wore. He looked back at Selim, who nodded, and trotted off into the darkness.
As soon as he was out of sight of the column, Alexsi squatted down on the sand to think things over. Something was definitely wrong. Rashid was obviously faking so he wouldn’t have to go with him, so there was something more out there in the desert. Perhaps the tribesmen had decided to get rid of him, and Selim was a better actor than Rashid? No, they would have just cut his throat instead of putting on a big act. Probably Rashid together with his brothers had made a deal with someone and arranged an ambush to take the guns. Back there Alexsi had wanted to get on his horse and gallop off, but the Shahsavan would have ridden him down and killed him. In any event he wasn’t about to go walking straight up to that hill.
Alexsi rose and headed off to his right to make a wide circle around the nearest high ground. He moved very slowly. The Shahsavan had taught him that the secret to quiet movement was just tamping down your natural impatience and going achingly slowly. He walked bent over, so as not to present a human profile on the desert horizon.
Alexsi stopped every few paces to turn his head about and listen carefully. And especially to smell. The clear desert air gave away many secrets. At that moment the wind shifted and he smelled cigarettes. Not someone smoking. The smell of it on their clothes. So there was someone out there, and not just up on the hill he was supposed to go to.
He dropped to the ground and began crawling on his stomach. Such a smell wouldn’t carry very far. He moved into the wind so it could continue to bring him information.
There was a slight rise to his front, and Alexsi inched his way up toward it, feeling with his hand for any rocks his movement might dislodge. He stopped. Someone was up there. He could feel it. Then he heard the metal rasp of a water bottle being unscrewed. It puzzled him. Tribesmen used skin water bags, not canteens. As if to reward his patience, the breeze brought him more information. Rustling. Whispers. The wooden clunk of a rifle stock hitting a stone.
There were a lot of them, and they were all around. His column of Shahsavan seemed to be in the middle of a crescent of ambushers. But too noisy to be other tribesmen. Iranian soldiers? No. Iranian soldiers wouldn’t come out at night. And these were more skilled than Iranian soldiers, though not as skilled as tribesmen. They had to be Russians. But why would Russians be inside Iran?
And then he realized. This meeting was the only sure place they would stop. Rashid must have been caught by the Russians and squealed to save his skin.
As always fear first announced itself in the pit of his stomach. Alexsi’s finger caressed the curve of the revolver’s smooth metal trigger, but he withdrew it. Firing a shot would be like shouting his presence to the world. And between the Russians and the Shahsavan was not the place to be once shooting started.
What to do? Running back to the Shahsavan meant dying with them. Trying to sneak through the line of Russians while they were ready for ambush would be next to impossible. Alexsi thought about finding a place to hide, and then making an escape after the battle. But even if he didn’t get shot in the cross fire, the Russians might wait until daylight and then sweep the area for survivors. And he was on foot. How far could he get before being caught? The Russians had to be on horses. Horses.
Alexsi set his revolver on the sand and pushed the wooden toggle out of the loop to open the large lower pocket of his coat.
The Shahsavan lived by rifles. Machine guns were a wonderful modern novelty but frowned upon for the way they gobbled up scarce and expensive ammunition. And the crate of Model 1914 hand grenades from the Great War that turned up in one shipment they regarded only as exciting toys. With instruction provided by one tribesman, a deserter from the Red Army who left immediately after castrating his Russian lieutenant for the unpardonable insult of striking him, they passed an enjoyable afternoon throwing the grenades in the desert: exclaiming loudly at the explosions and nearly blowing themselves up because they had no tradition of throwing things and were barely able to get the bombs far enough away to keep from being killed.
But Alexsi had kept his, thinking it might come in handy.
The grenade was shaped like a small bottle with a stick extending from the narrow end, except it was all made from sheet metal. Remembering the huge explosions that came from those metal sticks was making his hand shake. Alexsi put the grenade down and flexed his finger to make it stop. He picked it back up, grasping the handle and depressing the spring-loaded priming lever. There was a metal safety ring that went around the handle to keep the lever from flying up and activating the fuse, and he made sure that was between his third and fourth fingers. He armed the grenade by turning the safety catch away from the hammer at the end of the priming lever.
Quickly, before his hand could start shaking again, he reared back, judging the distance, and hurled the grenade at the top of the rise. As it left his hand the ring between his fingers slipped off the handle and let the lever fly up, completing the firing sequence.
There was a loud pop from the grenade in midair as the primer ignited the powder train, and someone up on the hill fired a nervous shot in response.
Alexsi hadn’t been counting on that. The Shahsavan instantly shot back, and the entire hillside around him erupted in muzzle flashes. There had to be more than a hundred Russians.
This was bad. Russian bullets cracked overhead and Shahsavan bullets exploded into the ground all around him. Alexsi stuck his nose into the desert sand and curled up into the smallest shape possible. Bullets cracked like cart whips around him. Their passage was so close he could even feel the air move. The sound of so many guns was deafening. Now his hand was shaking so badly he was afraid he’d pull the revolver trigger without meaning to. So much time seemed to go by he thought he’d made a mistake with the grenade, and it was his only hope.
Then there was a huge bang followed by screaming atop the hill. That was it.
It seemed like the whole world was pressing down on him in an effort to keep him there against the ground. The last thing he wanted was to get up but he knew it was certain death to stay there as the Shahsavan found the range.
He lurched up, even though the usual strength had drained away from his legs. He scrambled up the hill, clawing the sand with his free hand while the other held the revolver. He could practically feel the flames from the Russian muzzle flashes. He definitely felt the Shahsavan bullets remorselessly lashing the air all around him.
Reaching the top, Alexsi ran into the billowing black smoke cloud from the grenade, which was the only place there wasn’t any shooting going on. He stepped on a soft body that screamed in response, and as he recoiled away from it violently collided with someone running in from the opposite direction. The impact slammed him onto the ground and nearly knocked him senseless.
Alexsi struggled to both get his breath back and find his feet again. The other party loomed over him, wearing that silly Red Army budionovka felt hat with the high central peak that looked like he had a funnel on his head, and bellowed, “Watch where the fuck you’re going!” Then looked down a little closer through the smoke and said, “Hey…”
Alexsi shoved the revolver in his face and pulled the trigger. The muzzle blast shocked him—he had never fired the pistol at night—and seemed to set the Russian on fire. The Russian fell backward over his legs. Alexsi frantically kicked him off so he could get up. As he did, he snatched up the budionovka hat with his free hand and swung the revolver around, ready to keep shooting.
But the noise of all the Russians on the hill firing their rifles was so deafening that his pistol shot had been swallowed up in it. As the grenade smoke thinned out, Russians were running around. They were probably screaming, but it was impossible to hear them.
Alexsi slapped his own lamb’s fur papak hat off his head, replaced it with the dead Russian’s hat, and came up off the ground right into a dead run. As he went over the top of the hill, someone close by shouted in Russian, “Come back here, coward!” A pistol shot zinged by him, but it only made him run faster.
He picked up speed going down the reverse slope, so fast that he nearly got ahead of his legs and fell on his face. He leaped over scrub bushes and was concentrating so hard on his footing in the dark he almost didn’t see the Russian holding the six horses.
The Russian’s rifle was slung so he could grasp all the reins. “What’s going on?” he shouted to Alexsi in his Russian cap.
“Bring up the horses!” Alexsi yelled back in Russian, rapidly closing the distance between them.
“What?” the Russian called out, just as Alexsi slammed into him and smashed the butt of the revolver between his eyes.
The Russian crumpled to the ground, breaking Alexsi’s fall. He dropped his pistol and lunged for the horses’ reins before the startled animals could realize they were free and run off. One of them got away from him, but he had the other five. Then he frantically scrambled over the ground to reclaim his pistol. It seemed that every time he reached out his free hand the excited horses he was holding in the other would rear up and yank him back.
He was just about to abandon the effort when his hand touched metal in the darkness. Alexsi jammed the revolver back into his holster and swung up onto the saddle of the nearest horse. He spurred it into a gallop, pulling the rest of the animals along behind.
When he reached the nearest rise the desert lit up faintly as the Russians began firing flare pistols over the Shahsavan’s heads. Alexsi could see the Russian muzzle flashes all around them, except for in the rear where they had ridden in, and he knew that the Shahsavan would be following their usual drill when in trouble and scattering to the four winds, only to rendezvous at a prearranged place later. He thought he might still be able to convince them that the first shot had been his and he’d tried to warn them.
As if to prove him both right and wrong, firing broke out at the rear of the Shahsavan column. But there were at least two Russian machine guns, and Alexsi was awed by the sight of them firing some kind of special bullets that made paths of light in the darkness, telling them where to aim. The spitting lines of light crisscrossed along the rear of the Shahsavan column, sealing off the only escape route.
Alexsi turned and spurred his horse even faster, knowing his smuggling days were over. There were no canteens on the Russian horses, though he had enough water in his own skin bag to make it. He thought briefly about a life in Iran, then turned the horses back toward Azerbaijan and what he knew.
He galloped his horse until it collapsed from exhaustion. He left it splayed out on the desert sand, blown, ribs heaving, and jumped onto the next one, which had had a much easier time running without a rider. When the third went down he kept the last two at a steady trot, alternating between them whenever one tired. As long as he stayed away from the roads, the Russians, with one man to a horse, could follow his tracks for as long as they liked but would never be able to catch up with him.
Copyright © 2017 by William Christie
