From Russia Without Love

28

Chris searched Xander’s pockets and cleaned out the Azeri cash and a cheap pocketknife — probably taken from the poor passenger he killed on the cruise ship. Chris used the knife to cut some vines to use as rope, then hog-tied Xander.

“You make one wrong move or sound, I’ll kill you,” Chris promised. And it was a promise he intended to keep. He took off Xander’s other shoe and sock, so if Xander miraculously recovered enough to make a run for it, he’d have to run in his burned bare feet. He stuffed the sock in Xander’s mouth as a gag and used the vine to tie it in place. Then Chris dragged him through the woods for several minutes, having to stop for a moment to rest, before he found his vehicle.

Still not functioning at one-hundred-percent strength, Chris strained to hoist Xander into the vehicle. Then he crawled into the driver’s side and started the engine. There would be trouble waiting for him to the south, near the Russian supply port where he and Xander had jumped ship and stolen the vehicles, so he drove to the nearest port and absconded with a boat, tarp, and two containers of fuel. He covered Xander with the tarp and cast off.

After motoring south on the Caspian Sea for a while, he was alone on the water with his prisoner. He uncovered Xander, who remained quiet and motionless. Xander had his eyes open, squinting at the sunlight, but he was still alive. The vines remained tied tightly. Chris undid the gag and let Xander breathe freely.

Chris observed him. “Did you think it would end like this?”

“I was fulfilling destiny,” Xander said, slurring his words, spittle dripping from the corner of his mouth.

“So was I.”

“I am KGB.”

“FSB,” Chris said.

“Whether I am called KGB or FSB, I am still alive and thriving,” Xander said.

“It’s true that you’re alive, but I wouldn’t call your present situation thriving.”

“Everything I did, I did for my country. You should understand that.”

“Maybe that was true for you at one time. It was true for me at one time. Immediately after 9-11, everything I did, I did for my country. But after a while, everything I did, I did for my Teammates. My guess is that now everything you do, you do for yourself.”

Xander said nothing.

“Did you ever try to be anything different?” Chris asked.

Xander groaned. “I have. More than once. This is all I know how to do. This is all I want to do.”

Chris shook his head. “It doesn’t sound like you tried very hard, then. And now your days as a spook are over. Your body is so paralyzed you can hardly speak without slurring your words and spitting on yourself. You are something different. A prisoner.”

The skin around Xander’s eyes drooped as if under a tremendous burden.

“And now you have no protégé to carry on your legacy,” Chris said.

Xander’s voice shook as he spoke. “You have no idea how hard I searched for him. And you cannot comprehend the investment of time, the laser focus, and Herculean efforts I made to polish him.”

“You speak of Animus as if he was a tool.”

“He was. A very valuable tool… You and I are not so very different. We both devote our lives to creating valuable tools.”

“Don’t confuse your life with mine.”

“As long as I live, I will remember you, and one day I will make you pay.”

Chris thought for a moment. “You’ll have to take a number and stand in line.”

Xander gave an odd stare as if he didn’t understand.

Chris spotted a vessel up ahead in the distance. He turned to Xander. “Babushki bayu.” He gagged Xander with his sock again and covered him with the tarp.

Chris kept composed and didn’t try to hide. On the boat was a net and a man who wore what looked like a wetsuit overall. He neared Chris’s vessel, so Chris waved at him and cruised past.

He sailed until the gas tank ran dry, and he used one of the cans to refuel. Then he continued until the sun surrendered to the evening, and he arrived in Baku. There, he broke into a car, locked Xander in the trunk, hot-wired the ignition, and drove to the Agency jet at Heydar Aliyev International Airport. Chris was so exhausted and weakened he feared he might lose consciousness at any moment. He parked the car and stepped out. Hannah and Sonny must have seen him approach the tarmac because they met him on the stairs.

Hannah was the first to join him, and they greeted each other with a hug. Her eyes filled with concern. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m alive,” he said. “Xander is in the trunk.”

Her face lit up like she’d been given a brightly wrapped birthday present.

“You’re shitting me,” Sonny said.

Chris barely had the energy to shrug. “See for yourself.”

Sonny pushed past Chris and Hannah, skipping steps as he raced to the bottom. He reached the vehicle, opened the driver’s side, popped opened the trunk, and hurried to the rear to peek inside. “Hot damn!”

When Hannah took her turn to look inside the trunk, she let out a whoop and high-fived Sonny. They wasted no time in dragging Xander out and dumping him on the tarmac. There, they searched him. When they picked him up to his feet, he fell.

“What did you do to him?” Sonny asked. “Looks like you stuck him in a bathtub full of electric eels. Holy shit. Dude can’t even stand up.”

Chris couldn’t see Xander’s face from his perspective, but he imagined Xander with slobber on his chin and a scared look in his eyes. He wanted to help them carry Xander onboard the jet, but he barely had enough strength to carry himself, so he boarded the plane and took a seat.

After Hannah and Sonny brought Xander aboard, Hannah told the pilot to go wheels up and take them to Langley.

While the pilot made preparations for flight, Hannah and Sonny checked out the homemade vine ties Chris had used on Xander and the dirty sock in his mouth. “You totally went primitive,” Sonny said with glee. “I love it.”

But they cuffed Xander to the plane, anyway, and put sensory deprivation headphones, blinders, and a black hood on him. Sonny volunteered to take the first watch over their prisoner.

Hannah returned to Chris and sat beside him. “You look like you’ve been shot out of a cannon.”

“I feel like it,” he admitted.

“Do you need medical attention?”

“Just some rest. Feels good to sit in a cushioned chair.” He paused a moment. “How is Mikhail?”

“He’s out of critical condition, but he’s undergoing surgery again,” Hannah said. “He’s got some tough bark on him, though, so we think he’ll be okay.”

Sonny had a bag of nuts and munched on them like a damn squirrel at a movie theater while he watched Xander. Chris let out a soft chuckle, then met Hannah’s eyes, his expression serious. “Did the Azeri Coast Guard mistreat you?”

“We had a cell to ourselves, and they were professional about it,” she said. “The Agency bailed us out pretty quickly. It was no big deal. But don’t worry about that now. We’ll do the full debrief when we return to Langley.”

He smiled. Being with her lifted his spirits. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I want to hear all about how you captured him, but you look like you could use some rest.”

Chris smiled weakly. “Thanks.”

“I have to make a couple calls,” she said before giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze and leaving him.

Chris savored the catlike grace in her stride as she made her way to the cockpit. He closed his eyes, keeping her in his thoughts. At Harvard, he’d read the writer-philosopher Elbert Hubbard who said, A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. Hannah knew more about Chris than he knew about her, but he hoped in time the scales would balance.

The plane’s hull rumbled beneath him and an unseen weight pressed his body back into the seat. He opened his eyes and continued to feel the heaviness against the front of his chest as the jet accelerated and lifted off the runway. Baku’s city lights became smaller and smaller and were eventually extinguished by the clouds. Soon, the weight melted off his body, and the plane reached cruising altitude.

Hannah returned from the cockpit, and Chris fluttered his eyelids open. She reclined his seat back before she sat next to him and reclined hers, and the cabin lights dimmed. He closed his eyes again, and just before he fell asleep he felt the softness of her hand on his.

And in the realm between reality and dreams, he thought he heard Sonny’s voice. “Bubkes.”