Answering God's Call - Chapter 28

Tatyana glanced back at Ruslan standing by the darkroom door. At her small beckoning gesture, Ruslan came over at once and brought his ear close to the receiver.

“It’s tempting, but wouldn’t it be better for you if you just returned it? You’ve already made money off it. Not enough?”

—Not enough if you say it isn’t? The more money the better, right? Living in Lubyanka and then coming to Lytton and getting a taste for money, it’s really nice.

Perhaps because she was in a good mood at the thought of getting paid, Natalia Makarov’s voice sounded like a lively young girl. Tatyana drew in a long breath through her nose and asked as if she would at least hear her out.

“So. How much?”

—Forget the money. Just hide me. Send me somewhere no one can find me, clean my identity. Then I’ll return the classified materials. Setting aside the asylum applicants, it would be a problem if the list of Lytton’s agents operating in Lubyanka falls into the hands of the Military Intelligence Directorate, wouldn’t it?

“…Are you saying there’s another list of agents besides the one you already sold?”

—Yes. There is. This time it includes many of the operations those agents are currently handling and the ones about to start. Of course, there are also a few more past operation reports.

With irritated expressions, Tatyana and Ruslan both turned their gaze toward the darkroom at the same time. That damned Gilmore bastard. He’d talked as if the only items for sale were the list of those who applied for asylum from Lubyanka and the evidence of war crimes, but there were more Lytton agents and operations he’d siphoned off.

—I didn’t experience it myself, but a large number of Lubyanka operatives died in mysterious accidents last year, and some business sites were temporarily shut down… that was Lytton’s doing, right? The moment Lubyanka gets that list, they won’t do less, only more.

“….”

There was nothing to say. She was the one who had handed over that list. As Natalia said, Lubyanka would accept any condition to get their hands on the list she held.

She didn’t know which names were on that list, but if things went wrong, even Svetlana’s identity as a double agent could be exposed and she would be purged.

Standing close enough for their cheeks to nearly touch, Tatyana exchanged a brief look with Ruslan, then slowly spoke, “I’d like to agree, but that’s not something I can decide on my end. I’m just a disposable piece too.”

—That’s a shame. Then pass it on to your operations officer. If the negotiations fall through, I’ll hand this straight to the Military Intelligence Directorate. And for your information, the location of that laundromat is already exposed, so if you don’t want unnecessary trouble, you’d better get out quickly.

An unused business site has been exposed? Tatyana and Ruslan’s eyes slid as if buttons rolling. As they focused, as if checking something, a clear voice came from beyond the receiver.

—The contact method is written on the back of the photos, so check it and get in touch. If you miss the time, the negotiation is over, so keep that in mind.

The call cut off abruptly after saying what it had to say, without giving Tatyana a chance to respond. Tatyana and Ruslan, who had lowered the receiver from their ears, looked at each other. In case Gilmore might hear, Ruslan covered his mouth and whispered softly, “While we were on the call, did you hear it?”

“The noise? I heard it. My ears are fine.”

She had thought it was faint noise from old machinery because it was a place that hadn’t been used for a long time, but it was the sound of a listening device installed somewhere in the laundromat. Realizing she had called Natalia by name without knowing that, Tatyana clicked her tongue inward.

Ruslan didn’t know Tatyana’s name, so he had no reason to say it, but Tatyana’s expression grew complicated as she retraced her memory, wondering if she had ever called Ruslan’s name after entering this laundromat. At that moment, Ruslan whispered even more quietly.

“You didn’t call my name, Sister. Don’t worry.”

It was an answer as if he had read Tatyana’s thoughts. Tatyana, who had been lowering her head in thought, suddenly lifted it and flinched.

Because they had been listening together through a single receiver, their faces were close, too close. Startled at herself for not having noticed the excessive closeness until now, she pressed her lips together slightly, while Ruslan, who had bent his waist to whisper as quietly as possible, smiled as if to say it was fine.

“It’s just my wish, but if you weren’t worried, then it can’t be helped.”

“…You’re perceptive.”

Pointlessly perceptive. Tatyana, who had slightly stepped back from a distance where their bodies were almost pressed together, turned her body. The way his gaze, tilted to match her height, seemed to cling to her lips felt oddly uncomfortable.

Is it always like this when two people work together?

When she worked alone, whether anyone was watching or not, she only stayed faithful to the role of the cover identity she had been given, and every expression, gaze, manner of speech, intonation, step, tilt of the head, and gesture was carried out under thorough calculation. No. Tatyana quietly denied it. It hadn’t been like this when she moved in teams of three or more.

Is it because their relationship had been skewed from the first meeting? The work was going more or less smoothly, but she didn’t feel like herself. Since wandering across the continent without settling anywhere was her norm, the change in surroundings couldn’t have affected her. If she had to name what had changed, it was the man behind her.

Not just an agent from the same intelligence organization, but a man who had been demoted because of her, and who had been injured more severely because of her. Having concluded that was the cause, Tatyana soon composed her expression as if nothing had happened.

“…Sister.”

In the meantime, Ruslan, who had been searching around the laundromat, found something and called Tatyana. Without a word, Tatyana approached him and pursed her lips as if about to whistle. An old recorder was tucked under a metal cabinet.

Ruslan showed the volume meter and the needle that moved slightly in response to surrounding noise, then took out the recording tape. She thought he would take it as it was, but Ruslan pulled out a folding knife and lightly scraped the magnetic film of the tape.

Though it wouldn’t be visible to the eye, when the cassette tape was played, the recorded voices wouldn’t be heard. After damaging it that way, he put the tape back into the recorder.

“That should do it, right?”

After one last check of the volume meter’s needle moving with the sound, Ruslan closed the metal cabinet again as if he didn’t know about the recorder.

Only after thoroughly checking whether there were any additional recorders or listening devices hidden elsewhere did Tatyana return to the darkroom and cut the rope binding Gilmore’s ankles.

Whether Natalia had hidden it or someone else had, once the location was exposed, it was certain there was no benefit in staying long. Tatyana gathered all the photos on the worktable and hauled him roughly to his feet.

“We’re moving. Get up. Walk.”

“Where to…?”

“What kind of question is that? As long as it’s not a coffin, it doesn’t matter, right?”

“….”

Ruslan reached out as if to take him, but Tatyana stopped him briefly and savagely seized Gilmore by the nape, dragging him along.

***

The old laundromat fell silent.

After Tatyana and Ruslan left, someone stepped into the space they had vacated. To erase any trace of entry, the person came up through the drainage pipe and lightly dropped down from the window.

Moving like a feather and suppressing any presence, the figure approached the dust-covered shelves and the metal cabinet. Opening the cabinet, he retrieved the recording tape from the recorder, and only after confirming again that there was nothing else worth noting did he leave the laundromat.

Getting into the car, he checked his wristwatch and clicked his tongue in irritation. He had waited patiently, but there was still no contact from Natalia Makarov. He had sent her to bring back the classified materials, not to mess around. It was obvious she intended to seize the classified materials as well, since the money alone wasn’t enough.

This is why you can’t trust women.

The man dismissed the fact that thanks to that Natalia he had managed to obtain a large amount of Lytton’s classified information as nothing, and placed the recording tape into the small glove box. For now, listening to the voices on the tape wasn’t important.

He had to catch the Lubyanka traitor harboring other intentions before she achieved her goal and disappeared.

***

“If you want the classified materials back, help Natalia Makarov clean her identity?”

“It looked like she wanted asylum, but not Lytton nationality. It seemed she wanted to leave this side entirely.”

“She’s talking nonsense.”

Damian Hawkins, muttering that it was brazen to the extreme, crossed his arms. Even as the operations officer in charge of intelligence operations in Vandenberg, it wasn’t something he could decide lightly, and his expression darkened in thought.

“What is this, a down payment?”

As if asking who she thought she was, paying a down payment on her own, he pointed with his chin at the photos scattered across the table. They were the photos of the penal unit Natalia had left in the darkroom.

Natalia hadn’t called it a down payment, but… rather than these photos that were hard to even make out, Tatyana was more curious about who that so-called survivor was, and she swallowed the question rising to the tip of her tongue.

Ruslan, lightly nodding with a cigarette in his mouth, asked, “Will you accept?”

“If the classified materials are real, there’s no reason not to. No, we should.”

Branch Chief Hawkins, having finished thinking, answered readily. At the more positive response than expected, Tatyana scratched her brow. Well. They had accepted a Lubyanka operative on the verge of execution, so cleaning someone’s identity wasn’t much in comparison.

She had asked for her identity to be cleaned, not for ongoing protection, so whether she survived afterward would be entirely up to Natalia.

“Make contact while carrying a listening device on you so I can hear. We’ll proceed positively for now, but watch how things develop and make the final decision then.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Be careful not to get hurt. You got injured just from taking a short break?”