They left their horses in a copse at the bottom of the cliff. Down below in the valley, there were only scattered points of light — Semigorsk was already sleeping. Transparent clouds skidded across the greenish black sky, and the night constantly changed from bright to dark and back again. The plan had been drawn up by Achimas. Evgenia would open the small garden gate at the special knock they had agreed on. They would creep through the garden into the yard, stun both sentries, and go down into the basement. Evgenia would open the armored door, because her husband had shown her how to do it, and he wrote down the number of the combination on a piece of paper that he hid behind the icon in the bedroom. He was afraid of forgetting the combination, which would mean that he would have to take up the stonework of the floor — there would be no other way of getting into the iron room. They would not take everything — only as much as they could carry away. Achimas would take Evgenia with him.
