The invasion of Ukraine reveals a Russia awash in corruption. A base commander in Siberia responds with a plan for a new Russia - if Catherine will help. Catherine struggles to survive long enough to get her daughter and two dozen Ukraine women and babies out of Russia. She will pay a price.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine destroys Russia’s social fabric. Crime and corruption are far worse than before the war. A base commander in Siberia has two responses. First, he kills any criminals in his command. Second, he uses his captive - Catherine Johnson - to help him build a new Russian culture based on family. Schools will teach child care, sewing, and cooking to girls. Boys will learn marksmanship and computer repair. Girls will marry at 16. It will take a generation, but Russia will have the young soldiers it needs to be an empire again.
Catherine’s fellow captives are Ukrainian women. Most will be married off to young Russian men. She plots to get a group of these women – and her daughter - out of Russia. They make a run for Lithuania. To successfully escape, Catherine must pay a price.
Excerpt
Wolf Hunts
There was still snow huddled in the shelter of the pines, but it was largely cleared in any open area. A bright sun created small puddles in every direction. The ground was still frozen, but soon it too would warm and become an endless marsh hundreds of kilometers in every direction. Impassable. Even for tracked vehicles. This was the last hunt.
Colonel Yuri Korsakov drove the third truck in the column. He preferred to drive. He wanted to see the road and feel the road. He wanted to know how much farther they could go into the Siberian marshes. He felt his truck slide slightly to the left and knew they were getting near the end.
An open area lay ahead. He beeped twice. The signal for the column to stop. The men were busy for the next hour. Wood was gathered and a large fire constructed. Five men set up a propane stove and heated stew. Four men sat on the ground, their hands bound behind them, two men with rifles standing over them.
Mosquitoes were out. Full daylight and snow on the ground, yet somehow mosquitoes were already out. A few. Not the hordes that would explode from the puddles in the next weeks and suck the life from any mammal still in the marsh. Annoying. A warning to get this hunt done and not return before October.
Korsakov hoped he would never have to return. This was his fourth “hunt.” He wanted it to be his last. The first three hunts had taken out one man each. Department heads. Robbers running the commissary and mess hall and construction crew. Invited out to join the other officers for a spring wolf hunt, they had not returned. Listed as deserters. They would never be seen again.
Four this time. The motor pool. Crimes there were unforgivable. Thirty men had eagerly joined the colonel for this hunt. Korsakov waited until every man had eaten. The sky darkened. The temperature dropped. Men moved closer to the fire.
