Liberty

Начало книги

The night was sinister. In the vast grassy steppe of central Asia there were no towns, no villages, no isolated farmhouses with electricity to power a light that would break the great darkness. Overhead, twenty thousand feet of clouds blocked the light from moon and stars, absorbed all of it and left the Earth with nothing.

Two vehicles drove along a crumbling asphalt road, an old Ford van without windows and a two-axle truck with an enclosed cargo compartment. Their headlights were the only sign of life in the night. Beside the road was a large fence of woven wire topped with three strands of barbed wire. Occasionally, small rusted metal signs were attached to the wire, their Cyrillic lettering all but illegible.

Several hours after dark the van and truck topped a gentle rise, and their drivers saw a light in the distance. As they approached they could see it was a naked bulb mounted high on a pole beside a gate, a break in the wire. Beside the gate was a guard shack. Four armed men, soldiers, lounged near the gate, two seated, two leaning against the gate itself, a metal pole that blocked the entrance.

Читать дальше →