Free Belly of the Beast by Blake Crouch, Douglas Walker

here.” Yuri unlocked the front door and led Niki upstairs.
    In the front bedroom on the second floor, Lana sat like a neglected plant, pale and limp. No expression traced the thin-skinned lines of her skeletal face. Niki looked away.
    From the bed on the other side of the room, a woman cleared her throat. Gray hair spread across her pillow like roots of a willow tree; above recessed eyes, deep furrows crossed her forehead.
    Niki thought, this is hardly living, but politely asked,“Who takes care of them?”
    “Thomas. He’s probably in the kitchen.”
    Niki looked back toward her mother. “She got old. God, she’s not even sixty.”
    Lana didn’t move, her eyes fixed on a small rainbow cast on the window casing by sun shining through a crack in a windowpane.
    Niki studied the lumpy veins on the back of the old hands. She looked at her own hands, smooth and tan. “Maybe she’s not my mother.”
    “Actually, I’m sure she is,” said Yuri. “I have seen you both ski.”
    Niki thought for a moment about growing old, about what lay ahead for herself.
    “That leaves the date or the place,” Yuri continued, “but I doubt we’ll ever know.”
    Niki shook her head as if to clear it and pulled a syringe from her pocket. “Alex is all that matters.”
    Yuri stepped forward. “What are you—”
    “Doing what I came here to do.” Niki took out a vial half-filled with yellow liquid.
    Yuri moved between Niki and Lana.
    “I’m just getting blood samples,” said Niki as she took out more vials.
    “You are not exactly a nurse, are you?”
    “I’ve done this before; hold these.”
    Yuri took the vials and stood back as Niki rolled up Lana’s sleeve.
    “There must be some consent required,” Yuri added.
    “She didn’t ask for consent to leave me.”
    “You got all this stuff from Bay Area Nursing when I let you out.”
    Niki nodded. “I left a note. I’m going to pay them back.”
    Niki drew blood; Lana never even blinked.
    “Let’s go,” said Niki as she put the vials in her jacket pocket and stepped toward the door.
    “Don’t you want to say anything to her?”
    Niki turned. “If you’re a match for Alex, we’ll be back.”
    Yuri shook his head. “A little compassion wouldn’t hurt.”
    “ She abandoned me ! Where was her compassion? Do you know what my life was like? I was fourteen years old. I had to lie about my age just to wait tables.”
    Yuri led Niki to the hall, shut the door, and turned her toward him. “I know you’ve got a lot on your mind, but think about what she did, what she had to do.” Yuri paused a moment, then added, “Does Alex understand every time you have to leave him?”
    “I would never leave Alex.”
    “You came to San Francisco without him.”
    “Of course, I had to.”
    “And his young mind understands?”
    “He was upset that I couldn’t take him shopping, but I’m doing what’s best for him.”
    “Your mother did what she thought was best for you.”
    “But—”
    “Let me finish. She didn’t escape from Russia to find a better life, and she didn’t escape on principle. As far as we know, she never revealed a single Soviet secret. She risked her life to get you, her unborn child, away from the radiation she knew would hurt you. From then on most of her decisions were made in desperation. She may not have known how to do it well, but she just wanted you to be safe. She is not unlike you going to a Russian stranger in a deserted parking lot at night. That wasn’t very smart.”
    “I didn’t know what else to do. Don’t you understand? I have to save Alex.” Niki paused. “I guess you do understand. I guess I was desperate too.”
    “Would Alex understand all this?”
    Niki drew a deep breath. “Could we go back inside for a moment?”
    Yuri opened the door.
    Her lip trembling, Niki walked to her mother’s side and gently picked up her hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. If only you had told me what really—”
    “She couldn’t,” Yuri