excerpt
She was like a tortured Anna Karenina in love with the wrong man. How melodramatic. Volodya was startled when she suddenly snickered. The betrayal was only beginning to sink in.
Just as her humour was giving way to anger, an extraordinary thing happened. A garbled voice boomed over the intercom—“What did he say?” asked Jennifer aloud—and the stewardesses moved through the plane with more speed than they had hitherto shown, speaking quietly to passengers as they went.
“We’re making an unscheduled landing,” Maria said, leaning over, looking frightened. “I’m sure I heard the words ‘prepare for landing.’”
After conferring with a stewardess, Chopyk stood up to pass the message on to the others. “No need to panic, everyone. They assure me it’s not an emergency.” He made a soothing gesture. “There’s nothing wrong with the plane. We’re putting down at a minor airport for a security check, the stewardess says.”
After 21 days in the Soviet Union, during which time the group had heard many contradictory claims of safety given by many so-called authorities, the passengers seemed disinclined to believe him. Even Hank and Marty were terrified and Lona fidgeted nervously.
“Where will we land?” asked Volodya loudly. No one answered him.
“Hey, it’s got to be Sweden,” Hank called out. “We’ve already passed over the Gulf of Finland.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Jennifer muttered, turning to stare out of the window. The ground was moving to meet them very quickly and the terrain appeared to be solid forest. No towns, no bodies of water. “Could be Sweden or Finland, or…the Soviet Union.” She saw that Volodya’s face had turned ashen. Lona looked around anxiously, rose from her seat to exchange a few words with Chopyk.
“Seatbelts, please,” intoned a stewardess. “Return to your seat, devushka. This stop will delay the flight by 20 minutes only.”
“But where are we landing? The Soviet Union again?” Lona asked the woman. The attendant only shrugged as if it were of no consequence to her. The passengers fell utterly silent for the next few minutes.
“It’s probably Sweden,” Jennifer whispered to Volodya. “Don’t worry.” But she had to admit that a small part of her was taking a vengeful enjoyment from the timing of this crisis, as if some mighty ear had heard Volodya’s betrayal speech…
Libros Libertad 