Chapter 5: Anatoly's Sticky Patch

Stockholm. The Night of Vyera's Release.

While Petra has been searching for Tracy Randolf, Jennifer McEwan's career as Vyera Anatolyevna, the non-consensual 'professional' slave is reaching its apogee. She is aboard the Andrei Tupolev, the yacht belonging to Anatoly Kustensky which has cast off its moorings in Stockholm Harbour and is preparing to set sail. It is evening and the sun is low in the sky.

The Retreat To Moscow

It is time to leave. The Captain gives orders for the boat to let go its moorings. He reverses the engines to pull the yacht away from the Strandvagen Quay and out into the clear water of Stockholm Harbour. (1)

Using engines and rudder, he swings the vessel around in a lazy circle and begins to nose towards the Galaparken shore and then starboard into the deep water channel between Djugarden and Skeppsholmen islands. The harbour is busy with other yachts, ferries and pleasure craft.

The Bridge on the yacht has a forward view but all other viewpoints are covered by look-out cameras. As he glances over his controls and instruments, a monitor screen displays the view over the harbour to port, to starboard and over the stern. A second monitor shows a sequence of shots from each of the cameras that show the activity on the various decks of the boat.

The boat swings to a course of 135 degrees and begins to move south east past the Djugarden Quay. The Captain notices a movement on the deck surveillance monitor. Sveta Kustenskaya and the slave Vyera are in conversation. Actually Sveta is doing the talking and Vyera is merely listening. She does not look very happy!

The Captain takes his eyes from the scene. There's nothing remarkable about it. No doubt Vyera's performance is falling below expectations. Besides he has plenty of other things to concern him. He re-checks his course, and speed, the proximity to other vessels and their courses.

"Captain?"

Yuri, the ship's technical officer, draws his attention away from the ship's radar.

"What?"

"On the stern deck. SK and Vyera. Something is going on."

There is an unmistakable urgency in Yuri's voice. The Captain looks across at the deck monitor – and gasps. Sveta Kustensky is helping Vyera over the ship's rail. Vyera does not seem as if she wants to go, but Sveta is obviously determined that she should. Vyera stands unsteadily, her hand in that of her Mistress...

The Captain has only a moment to act. He shouts at one of the crewmen, also on the bridge. "Crewman! Port side! Stern deck! Incident! Yuri, you have the helm!"

In the time taken to issue the command and run across to the port window of the bridge, Sveta has let go of the slave and Vyera has executed a graceful dive away from the ship. She is airborne for a second before she is gone, beneath the waves.

The Captain watches as Sveta takes one of the emergency loud hailers and begins to call to some of the people on shore and waves, as Vyera makes her escape, through the dark waters.

The Captain and Yuri glance at one another, open mouthed. "I heard she had not been well," begins Yuri until a glance from the Captain stills his voice...

Anatoly has arrived beside his wife on the deck and is watching in horror the receding figure of his slave Vyera as she swims towards the shore. He's running through a whole series of options in his mind. Launch a zodiac to get her back, turn the Tupolev to run her down, follow Vyera into the water himself. None of them are remotely practical. All he can do is to let the boat continue as though nothing has happened. (2)

The crewman sent by the captain arrives at the companionway and Anatoly stops him with a shake of the head.

Anatoly wants to grab hold of Sveta and shake some sense into her but, seeing how she is staring transfixed by the sight of the girl in the water, he knows this will be of no use. Instead, with a great effort he masters his emotions and gently places an arm over her shoulder.

To the crewman, standing by the companion way to the upper deck, he says, "Go to the bridge and tell the Captain to get us into international waters as fast as he can. Tell him I do not care how much fuel he uses!"

To Sveta he says, quietly and calmly, guiding her away from the rail. "Come on in to dinner. We don't want to spoil what has been prepared. I'll serve and we can both clear away. When it comes to it, I suppose you better wash and I'll dry?" He laughs: washing up and clearing away. Not something he is used to, just as it is a long time since the two of them had to endure the chore of washing up. The incongruity breaks the tension. Sveta's mood calms. She places her hand in his and together they resume their dinner, ignoring the momentous nature of the evening's events.

The Crewman reaches the Bridge. "Did you see that?" He is, like the rest of them, completely astonished. "The Boss is there now. He says to maintain course and get into international waters as fast as we can. Oh and don't worry about diesel!"

With what seems to be conscious effort, the Captain, Yuri and the Crew resume their duties. As the Captain scans his instruments once more, he notices that the AIS beacon is 'Off'. Maritime regulations say he should switch the beacon on at once, but he stills his instinct. This might be one occasion to overlook the demands of Regulations. The Boss, he thinks, might prefer not to let the whole world know who they are and what their position is. (3)

In the Dining Room, the meal ends. As soon as Sveta has gone to their cabin, Anatoly goes to the office on the boat and sits down to take stock of the situation. His mind has just begun to engage with the problem when a there is a knock at the door. "Boss?"

It's the captain.

"Well?"

"I just thought you should know. When we left, Yuri forgot to activate the AIS beacon. It's standard procedure on a boat this size. I'm sorry. There might be repercussions from the Port Authority. So I thought you should know."

"Which means that the Tupolev would be visible to anyone who cared to look such as a Coastguard and also on radar but we would not be transmitting ID?"

"Yes, exactly."

"So who would report us?"

"Perhaps other vessels. We passed a Baltic Ferries ship coming in from Helsinki, for example. But in harbour people are busy, maybe no one noticed."

"Ah ... well thanks for letting me know. When did you realise?"

"As soon as I did a navigational check once we were out of the archipelago. Do you still want me to take the boat to Tallinn?"

"Tallinn? Fuck Tallinn! Go straight to Peter. (4) Get us a berth at the marina so Svetlana Nikitechna and I can disembark and we will go back to Moscow by train. You know that we are one person short?"

"Yes: woman overboard."

Anatoly responds with a sigh. Woman overboard all right but perhaps fortune really does favour the brave?

At least they had not broadcast their identity and position right from the time the Andrei Tupolev slipped its moorings...

As soon as he was once more alone, Anatoly thinks about his father, the General. What did he used to say? 'Reconnaissance before planning. Planning before attack. Attack before dawn!' It's time for Anatoly to start taking control of the situation.

Reflections on Uncertainty

In Moscow, Igor Mendeleyev is rudely awoken from sleep by his bed-side telephone. He is not used to late night calls nowadays and it takes him several seconds to understand what is happening. He lifts the receiver. "Yes?"

"Igor Ivanovitch?"

"Yes?"

"Anatoly Sergeyevitch"

"Ah, oh? Who?"

"Anatoly Sergeyevitch!"

"Anatoly ... Anatoly Sergeyevitch? But?"

"Igor Ivanovitch. I have a crisis to deal with..."

By now Dr Mendeleyev has realized that he is not dreaming and has managed to gather his wits together. When was the last time Anatoly Sergeyevitch called in the middle of the night? Adrenalin begins to run through his veins in response.

"Please, Anatoly Sergeyevitch, tell me."

"Sveta Nikitechna has released Vyera."

"What? She did? Where?"

"Stockholm?"

"Stockholm! This is serious Anatoly Sergeyevitch."

Anatoly stops for a moment. Of course it's serious. He knows it and Mendeleyev must know that he knows it. He bites back the angry snap that is beckoning. "Serious is not the half of it. We were on the boat, leaving port. Vyera's husband and parents were sitting on a bench on the quay. Just a very bad coincidence. Vyera saw them and Svetlana Nikitichna saw that something was suddenly wrong with Vyera. I am not sure exactly what happened next but by the time I got out on deck, Vyera had dived overboard on the instructions of Svetlana Nikitichna who had used a loud hailer to attract the attention of Vyera's family and everyone else in the area."

At this point Dr Mendeleyev starts to believe he must still be asleep. This story has a nightmarish plausibility but is surely it is the stuff of dreams? Surely he must have misheard?

Anatoly has not finished. "The question is what will Vyera do now? Will she be loyal and keep our confidences or will she betray us? If I have to take radical action time is short. It will be sunrise in two hours."

By now Mendeleyev is sitting on the side of his bed, fully awake. He fumbles for his spectacles. Problems seem to come into sharper focus if the room is in sharper focus. He knows his advice could spell disaster for others, disaster for Anatoly and possibly disaster for himself.

"I ... I ... cannot be certain. Seeing her people she knew from her past would be a major trauma. It would upset her conditioning even if she was still in our custody but now she is in such an alien environment ... er ... Anatoly Sergeyevitch I think in the short term Vyera will remain loyal to the system that has trained her. The long term is another question. She will come under pressure to revert. The pressure of being once more in her old environment and the pressure from her husband and family to tell them what has happened to her ... and then there will be the British Authorities. It is imperative that you get her back!"

"I think I know that, thank you, Igor Ivanovitch"

"Quite so, quite so".

"Your role now is to help us plan our campaign."

"You said Sveta Nikitechna provoked Vyera to escape? But what about her collar?"

"The collar had malfunctioned and had been removed earlier in the day."

"Ah! With no collar, Vyera was free to leave. Now I understand Oh dear, oh dear. What bad luck!" A memory stirs in Dr Mendeleyev's brain, something reported to him by Julia Romanova, an account from Neena. "Actually, Anatoly Sergeyevitch I think we may have a little time in hand."

"Why?"

"Neena Alexandrovna must have a picture of a radiograph showing her spinal repair and just before your vacation, Neena caught Vyera looking at it. She could have punished Vyera for impertinence but instead, Neena explained to Vyera what it was."

"So?"