The People's Act of Love by James Meek Read Free Book Online Page B

be billionaires.’
    ‘A billion is a lot.’
    ‘It’s a hell of a lot. It’s a thousand millions.’
    ‘A thousand millions!’
    ‘Yes!’
    ‘When I was working on the farm in Bohemia we got ten crowns. Ten!’ Broucek grinned and his hands sprang fingers.‘You could buy all sorts of things with ten crowns. Kilo of coffee, or playing cards, or a handkerchief, or a bottle of cognac, or a pair of boots, or a day ticket to Hradec Kralove, or a newspaper, or an English hat, or an axe, or a mousetrap, or a mouth organ, or a bunch of carnations, or a bag of oranges. And the last time we were paid we each got, how much?’
    ‘Five hundred million crowns.’
    ‘Yes. And there wasn’t anything to buy, except sunflower seeds, and they cost a hundred million for a packet. Maybe it’s because Siberia is so big. Maybe that’s it. Like the same thing happens with the miles as happens with the money. In Bohemia if you travel ten miles everything changes. Here you go thousands of miles and everything looks the same. Flat, with birches and crows. Is that Masaryk in the picture?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You’ve drawn him well. When’s he going to bring us home, then?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    Broucek sniffed and leaned forward to scratch his nose on the tip of the rifle muzzle. ‘Must be fine for him in Prague,’ he said. ‘He’ll be in the castle now. He shouldn’t have left us here in Siberia, should he. Maybe he’s forgotten us.’
    ‘No, said Mutz. ‘But you know. When the French and the British and the Americans got together and decided how to carve up the Empire, everyone who wanted a bit of it had to bring something to the table. Something valuable, like gold, or coal, or blood. And Masaryk didn’t have any gold or coal to offer.’
    ‘Didn’t he?’ said Broucek. ‘I thought he was rich.’
    ‘Not in those things.’
    ‘So it’s blood, then.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Our blood.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘We fought the Germans. Wasn’t that enough blood for them?’
    ‘That was good, but now that the Germans are beaten, the French and the British and the Americans are worried about the Reds.’
    ‘Because they killed the Tsar.’
    ‘More because they want to divide all the property up and share it out.’
    ‘Yes, I heard that,’ said Broucek, nodding. ‘It sounds like a good idea. Isn’t that what Czechoslovakia is going to be like when we get back?’
    ‘I’m not sure,’ said Mutz. ‘Is that what you want it to be like?’
    ‘Yes. I don’t have any property at the moment. I always wanted a grandfather clock. And a piano. And a suit like the ones the English wear to the horse races.’
    ‘You forgot the gramophone.’
    Broucek shrugged. ‘Someone else can have the gramophone. I’d like to get back to see about the clock, though. It’s time. We fought the Reds already. They seem like Russians. So do the Whites. They all seem like Russians. They don’t need us here. They’re killing each other well enough without us. Maybe Masaryk wants to make a Czechoslovakian Empire, like the British and the French have. Maybe he thinks if the English on their little island can have the whole of India, the Czechs and the Slovaks can run Siberia.’
    ‘Not Masaryk,’ said Mutz.
    ‘The captain, is it, then,’ said Broucek.
    ‘Yes,’ said Mutz.
    ‘Some of the others think we should kill him.’
    ‘That would be mutiny.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘He pays Smutny, Hanak, Kliment, Dezort and Buchar in dollars to protect him, and they have the Maxim gun.’
    ‘You could lead us out of here. You could get us to Vladivostok without the captain.’
    There was a timid knock on the door.
    ‘Mr Balashov’s outside,’ said Broucek, standing up.
    ‘I’ll see him. You go down and ask Nekovar if the shaman’s all right.’
    ‘Nekovar’s not here, brother. He’s keeping an eye on the locals gathering in the back room of Mr Balashov’s shop.’
    ‘So no-one’s on duty outside the yard?’
    ‘There’s only the shaman in there,