Page 6 of Mysterious Teacher : Arrival
Keeping stride with Igor, Boris looked around. “What kind of deserted hell hole did we land in?”
“Land?”Igor said, shooting him another glare. “We crashed.There was no landing that plane. You crashed it.”
“Fine. Crash...land...whatever. Where the hell are we, because this sure as hell doesn’t look like South America.”
“How the hell would you know? You’ve never set foot outside Russia.”
Boris had no reply.
“Judging by the latitude we’d reached just before we began to have trouble, we’re probably somewhere in North America.”
“Canada? Oh, hell. Please tell me that we’re not in Canada. I hear the winters are even worse than back home.”
“Most likely the United States,” Igor said.
Boris slammed the palm of his hand against his forehead. “Even worse. What state, you think? Texas? New York?”
As they walked on, Igor pointed to a street sign. “There’s your answer right there. San Diego that way and Los Angeles that way.”
“What does that mean?”
“We’re in California. We’re in sunny California.”
Unimpressed, Boris pulled a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his camel hair blazer. “Well, at least I still have my smokes. Beside the two of us, this is the most important thing to have survived that plane crash.”
“Ha,” Igor snarled. “That crash was nothing. We’ve survived far worse these past months.”
“These damned Americans,” Boris said as he lit a cigarette. “So arrogant. They say the war is over. They think they’re such heroes. Damned Yankee bastards. They may have helped win the war, but now we are a Super Power, too.And we will spread communism around the world, like we did with China.”
“Yes,” Igor said.“Our Soviet Marxist-Leninist ideology and its model of a one-party dictatorship state formed the initial theoretical basis for the Chinese Communist Party.And, Boris, the Communist International, our group, played a direct role in the formation of the CCP in 1921.”
“We have our puppets.Now we shall do the same by infiltrating America,” Boris muttered softly.
“America and all its freedoms!Bah,” Igor spat.“I prefer letting our state decide for everyone.Who needs private ownership?The state owns everything.”
“But, seriously,” Boris said, puffing on his cigarette. “What do we do if someone suspects anything? Like you said, our accent. I can’t fake an American accent. Damn. If the American authorities catch us, we’re just as good as dead.”
“First off, I doubt any American would suspect that we’re Russian agents. Secondly, if they do suspect us, we’ll make sure they don’t live to tell anyone about their little discovery.”
They walked on in silence for a while, each lost in their thoughts. Boris finished his cigarette and quickly lit another.
“Hurry up and put that out,” Igor ordered.
“Why? Are you my mother now?”
“It’s going to be dark soon, in case you haven’t noticed. The glow of your cigarette will be visible.”
Boris hurried through the cigarette then tossed it. “Getting a little paranoid, no?”
“Shut up and walk.”
A slight crescent moon rose to offer minimal light while the setting sun lit the path, they were on with a warm glow. Caught up in thoughts of food and shelter, Igor barely noticed the stark beauty of his surroundings. With the last rays of the sun, he glanced at the endless orchards that spread far and wide until they reached the bald mountains of red rock in the distance.
“How much longer?”Boris said, finally breaking the silence. “I don’t even know what we’re looking for.”
“Shelter,” Igor reminded him. “We need to find a safe place to hide. Then and only then can we slip out and go looking for that buried gold.”
Boris let out a sardonic chuckle. “Yes, the gold those two Nazi soldiers we caught spoke about.They said Adolf Hitler had buried all the gold they’ve confiscated.How much do you think is there? Millions?”
