Skeletons Read Online Free

face brightened. "I have one more trick."
    Shoving our way, he led me back to Lenin's tomb. We entered and went past the empty casket to the back wall. Victor stopped, began to talk to himself, closing his eyes.
    "Where, where," he said.
    "What are you looking for?" I asked.
    `There was a television special," he said. "A tour. They showed some of the secrets of the Kremlin. There is a set of tunnels underneath Red Square. One of the entrances is here, in the tomb. I remember it clearly. And I believe there is an exit somewhere near your stage—ah!"
    He moved to the right, his hand falling on the handle of a barely visible door. He twisted the handle up and down, to no effect.
    "I was stupid enough to think the door would be open," he said dolefully.
    'Thank you for trying," I said. "I'll just have to fight my way through the crowd."
    "I'll fight with you!" Victor said. He walked to the foot of Lenin's open casket, chose a large sliver of heavy glass, pulled off his jacket, and wrapped it around the lower part. "If I have to, even though you wouldn't approve, I'll cut my way through—Mother of God . . ."
    His eyes went wide, staring into the casket. Gingerly, he reached down, pushed the satin lining aside, widening a hole.
    "Quickly, help me!"
    Between the two of us we soon lifted the bottom out of the casket, exposing a gaping hole. Cold air washed up and over us.
    "It must lead to the tunnels!" Victor said. A hint of smile crossed his face. "Those sly communist bastards even left Lenin an out after he was dead!"
    He climbed up over the rim of the casket, lowered himself gingerly down into the hole, feeling around.
    "There's even a handrail," he said. Soon he had climbed down to the point where his head disappeared. "It's all right!" he called up. "Come down—there's even enough light to see by!"
    I climbed down after him.
    I found myself on a solid, dry floor. For a moment I saw nothing. Then my eyes adjusted, and I saw Victor in front of me, peering ahead. There was dim, shifting light ahead. As we approached it the muffled sounds of the huge crowd outside began to filter down to us.
    "Must be a grate above," Victor said, and sure enough we soon stood below a grate set high above us. It was nearly covered by shifting forms and let only a little light in.
    "It must be quite easy to see, without a crowd above," Victor said.
    More dull, faraway booms sounded in the distance, and the crowd above reacted by shifting first one way, then the other.
    Victor moved ahead, into the tunnel.
    I followed.
    We walked perhaps thirty yards before reaching another grate. This one, too, was covered with shifting forms. The mortar sounds from above were more regular now, though still distant.
    "I imagine the army is making some sort of stand at the entrance to Moscow," Victor said. For a moment I remembered the maggot-like horde of skeleton figures we had seen streaming from the National Cemetery toward the city.
    "This is not what I had in mind for today," I said.
    "No, it's not, is it?"
    We moved on.
    The next grate had a ladder built into the wall leading to the surface. But it, too, was hopelessly jammed with bodies. I estimated we were getting close to the stage. The next, as I had secretly hoped, was under the stage itself—but had no ladder.
    "Let me boost you up," Victor said, and he stood rigid, feet splayed, hands against the wall, as I climbed onto his back and then stood upon his shoulders.
    "I can't reach it," I said, my straining fingers just failing to touch the bottom of the grate.
    "Does it look like it can be pushed up?" Victor asked.
    "I don't see anything holding it down."
    "Good. Come down for a moment."
    I lowered myself from Victor's shoulders and followed while he marched back to the last grate, the one with the ladder. The mortar firings were constant now, but still far away.
    Victor climbed the ladder and began to poke up through the grate at the feet of those standing on it. "You there! You!" he