tracks on foot, Trush, along with Shibnev, Gorborukov, and Pionka, drove
the Kung over to Svetly Creek, where they hoped to intercept the tiger.
The net was closing: “We had a feeling,” said Burukhin, “that we would
come over that ridge and he would be there.”
It was only a ten-mile trip, but between one thing and another Trush
and his men didn’t get over to Svetly until shortly before noon. In the
back of the Kung, there was a gun rack where the rifles were usually
stored, but the rack was empty now. That morning, everyone kept their
rifles by their sides. Because it was 1997, and chaos had become the norm
in Russia, these men had access to all manner of military surplus at
discount prices. As a result, Shibnev’s and Pionka’s rifles were loaded
with bullets that had been designed to kill soldiers inside armored
personnel carriers. These rounds, called BZs, can penetrate a slab of steel
three quarters of an inch thick, at which point they explode. Trush,
because he actually had a budget for ammunition, was using more
traditional hunting bullets called dum-dums. Made of lead, as opposed to
steel, these will mushroom inside the body as they carom around, tearing
up everything in their path. While there are some bullets made to stop a
charging man in his tracks, neither BZs nor dum-dums can stop a
charging tiger. The impact of an attacking tiger can be compared to that
of a piano falling on you from a second-story window. But unlike the
piano, the tiger is designed to do this, and the impact is only the
beginning.
Lazurenko’s team was still hiking up First Creek when Gorborukov
turned the Kung onto the Svetly Creek road. By then, the tiger had
emerged from the forest at the far end and was walking south, directly
toward them. Between the tiger and the Kung was Andrei Oximenko.
Oximenko was on foot, heading north, on a collision course with the
tiger. If he had a gun, it was because he had found a replacement for the
one Schetinin had confiscated—not that guns had been much of a
deterrent to this tiger. Trush and his men were not aware of Oximenko’s
presence there, so they proceeded slowly, the Kung’s huge tires churning
through the knee-deep snow, smoke billowing from the woodstove in the
back. Shibnev and Pionka were riding in back, too, and they couldn’t see
ron
(Ron)
#1