Chapter 3          The KGB

         Liam woke up at about dawn and found himself on the couch, squished between Nadia and Rose.  Both were sound asleep. In fact, everyone on the couch was sound asleep. The TV was still on.  Apparantly, everyone had fallen asleep watching TV.  Liam managed to get up off the couch and woke Nadia up in the process. She yawned and stood up.
        "Yarg!" she said, "I'm tired, what time is it?"
        "Ummm," he looked at his wrist, but there was nothing on it, he looked at the clock on the wall, "Ummm, like, 7:30."
        "Hm, I'm hungry, I'm getting something to eat."
        "Have fun."
        Nadia went upstairs and got some Lucky Charms. She went outside and dug the newspaper out of a hedge in the front yard.
        "Goddamned idiot newspaper delivery weasel!" Nadia mumbled to herself, "Can't even throw a freaking newspaper in the right place."
        She looked around, it was just after dawn on Saturday. It was late in the winter, February or so. The air was cool, Nadia guessed the temperature was in the 40's. The air was crisp, there was fresh dew everywhere. It was a beautiful morning, Nadia thought. She looked at the headline on the paper, Threat of war rises, it read. Oh, joy!, Nadia thought. She already knew that, but what she didn't know was that this morning was the last morning she would see daylight through clear eyes, at least, not for a long time.
        Nadia went back inside and ate breakfast. She noticed a note left on the table.  She picked it up and read it:

                     Till we meet again.
                                      -Mike

        OK, she thought, whatever that's about, I have yet to know.  She went back downstairs, bringing the newspaper with her. The radio was on and everyone was awake.  Nadia walked over to a box of junk and found and ancient radio with a mike. She started fiddling with it and to her surprise, it was functional. To her even greater surprise, it started receiving something. She turned the knob until she could get a clear signal. It was in Morse code. Strange, Nadia thought, someone's using Morse code, no one ever uses Morse code. She automatically started translating it in her head.
        It's the end of the world as we know it.
        Nadia mind switched over to the music on the radio, it was that song by R.E.M., she sang along, "It's the end of the world as we know it."
        She listened to the Morse code, the message kept repeating. Then she heard voices…
        "Sir, where is Magi?"
        At first she thought she was picking up air traffic control, which she often did. The voices continued…
        "Sir, we have Magi with us. We have a boomer bearing one-nine-five, speed, five knots."
        "Hot damn!" Nadia was getting excited, "Hey! Liam! Rose! Jacqueline! Everybody get over here and         check this out!" Nadia didn't know that the mike was on.
        "Sir, did you hear that?"
        "Hear what?"
        "I think we're being interrupted."
        "What?" Nadia didn't know they could hear her.
        "Identify yourself."
        "My name is Nadia Litvak--" she was cut off.
        "Who is your captain, where are you, and what are you doing?"
        Nadia continued, "I'm a civilian, I live in Houston, I'm a Texas citizen, and don't ask me how I'm contacting you. I must have a magical radio or something."
        "I don't believe you."
        "Fine," Nadia said, "Don't believe me."
        "Hey, what's happening outside?"
        "What do you mean outside?"
        "The Outside World."
        "Oh. Well, lets see, there's a war brewing. Actually, it's finished brewing, we're just waiting for the first shot to be fired so that all hell can break loose. All of us in my basement say 'Hi!'
        "Hi!" everyone said.
        "Geez, how many of you are there?"
        "Let's see, there's me, Liam, Rose, and Jacqueline. That makes four of us." Nadia just thought of something, "Hey Liam, you know how to operate the satellite dish, right? OK then, put it on that Moscow station, they have killer recon satellites, maybe they know what's going on."
        "You speak Russian?" said the voice that Nadia had identified as Magi.
        "Yes!" Nadia said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She heard something in the background.
        "Sir, bearing zero-five-one, fire at will."
        Nadia knew exactly what was going on, "Oh, God no."
        The FM radio was interrupted, "This just in, the United States has declared war on Texas."
        "Awwwww, crap!" Nadia cried out. She leaned back in her chair and looked at the wall. On it was a poster of a B-52, next to it was a poster of a U-2, her mind immidiately started reciting Bloody Sunday discographies.  1985, the release of U2, Bloody Sunday's fifth album...
        She was surprised by the sudden silence.
        "Ivan?" She heard her mother scream from upstairs. She heard a crash, then a gunshot and another scream coming from upstairs. Everyone hid, except for Nadia. She didn't have time to react. She didn't have a chance. She was still sitting in her balanced chair when they burst through the door. She jolted to attention and fell back in her chair, hitting the floor hard. She scrambled to her feet and saw a strange man coming down the stairs.
        He walked up to Nadia, "Identify yourself!" he barked.
        "Nadia--"
        He shouted something to someone upstairs.
        "Follow me!" he only spoke to her in Russian.
        "But--"
        She heard the clicking of a gun somewhere.  That was all she needed.
        Nadia knew something was amiss, they knew who she was.  She followed the man out of the basement. On her way out, she looked back and saw Liam, watching her over the top of the couch, looking absolutely helpless.  He was broken.  His heart and his will had just been shot to hell.  And there was nothing she or anybody else could do about it.
        "I'm sorry." she whispered to him as she disappeared up the stairs.
        She followed them outside.  She was stuffed into the covered bed of a pickup truck waiting in the front yard.  At first she couldn't see anything, it was too dark.  But after awhile her eyes adjusted, and she could make out the usual pickup truck bed stuff, a toolbox, some rubber boots jammed between the cab and the bed, some oily rags, a spare tire.
        Soon they reached an office.  They went inside.  It was guarded by KGB agents all around.  They walked into a room with an official looking desk in the middle of it.  There was a fairly large man sitting behind the desk.  Nadia didn't know, but one man had a tape recorder in his pocket.
        "Sit down, please." The large man said kindly.
        "Who are you?" Nadia asked.
        "That is not important, the important question here is who are you?"
        Nadia was confused.  What's the KGB doing here? She thought.
        "Nadia Litvak.  I am a Texas citizen."
        "Then why are you Russian?"
        "My parents were Russian." She responded.
        "Where are your parents?"
        "I never knew my father, my mother was shot." She said coldly.
        "Then who is responsible for you?"
        "My mother, until she was murdered, by you."
        "We have reason to believe that you are a spy."
        "A spy?  Where'd that come from?"
        "I am not allowed to say."
        "Well I am not a spy."
        One of the KGB agents walked up to Nadia and handed her a revolver and a small radio.  "Now you are."
        She swallowed hard.  Choking with rage.  "But I am a Texan!  I cannot betray my country!"
        The general chuckled, "You have a strong sense of nationalism.  Just like a Soviet"  He leaned forward and whispered, "because you are a Soviet.  And I know, you will not betray the Party."
        "So," she finally accepted it.  "What is my mission and when do I begin?"
        The general leaned back and smiled with satisfaction.
 

© 1999 Laura Hutchinson