Answering God's Call - Chapter 4

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“Ugh, you’re heavy.”

Looking down at the deeply unconscious man, Tatyana let out the breath she had been holding. Because he was tall and solidly built, he was far heavier than she had expected. In the end, she had no choice but to drop him onto the bed, but his steady breathing didn’t change.

Leaving him fast asleep behind, Tatyana went back to the sitting room and picked up the candy box from his briefcase. Tearing open the palm-sized box and unrolling the small film hidden among the candies, the contents inside faintly came into view.

Found it.

With a detached smile, Tatyana immediately felt under the armchair and lightly peeled off something caught at her fingertips. It was the same kind of candy box that had been inside the briefcase.

After switching the boxes and securing the target, she immediately searched through the man’s trench coat and took all the cash from his wallet. After that, a fairly expensive-looking watch, cufflinks that also seemed quite valuable, and even a custom-made fountain pen.

Taking only what she could see that looked fairly valuable, Tatyana gathered them neatly and went back to the bedroom. She looked down at the man who still showed no sign of movement, biting her lip as if thinking something over, but only for a moment. One bill, then another, was pressed into the man’s limp hand.

This should be enough for a train ticket back.

Or not. Maybe it’s a little short. The thought that he might miss breakfast if he woke up late suddenly crossed her mind. There’s nothing more pitiful than going hungry….

After a brief hesitation, Tatyana showed a final bit of mercy and added one more bill, then, as if that settled it, she removed the wet wig.

Without taking her eyes off the man, the hand that tidied her disheveled hair gradually slowed, and before long, a hollow laugh caught in Tatyana’s lips.

‘Have we met somewhere before?’

Met where? What nonsense. If we’d actually met before, that would’ve been a disaster. What good could come of enemy operatives crossing paths in the middle of a mission? At best, one of them would end up dead. Fortunately, today passed without anyone dying.

‘Your face looks familiar. We’ve really never met?’

“Seriously. This face isn’t exactly common….”

The face she had carefully disguised for today seemed to resemble someone the man knew. She hadn’t intended to make the injuries, but it looked like she had gone a bit too far. Pulling her thick robe tight instead of a coat, Tatyana stared at the man who showed no sign of waking.

‘I don’t like violence inflicted on a defenseless opponent.’

‘….’

‘Being on the receiving end, and seeing it happen to someone else.’

Idiot.

“Who’s the one who let their guard down?”

Doesn’t he know that half-baked sympathy is forbidden for a spy? Whether it was shallow pity, genuine kindness, or some other reason she didn’t know, she would never find out, but… thanks to it, the job went smoothly, so it didn’t matter.

Right, that’s enough.

That’s enough. I got the list of agents, and you kept your life. Tatyana lightly tapped the man’s cheek, the one her lips had touched, then turned without hesitation and left the room.

Hoping they would never meet again.

***

April 1960. Southwestern coast of Lytton.

The ship’s horn announcing the passenger liner’s arrival sounded long and low.

A large passenger ship that had crossed the ocean over several days entered the harbor. As soon as it docked and dropped anchor, the crew preparing for disembarkation moved in perfect coordination.

Following the stream of passengers disembarking, Tatyana stepped onto land, passed through the routine questioning, and made it safely through the port checkpoint. She stared blankly at the large stamp pressed into her passport.

How strange.

All that changed was her nationality, and yet passing through inspection was this easy. She had often crossed borders with forged passports, but even now, more than a year later, the feeling was still new.

A nationality completely changed, and a mission that was similar yet different from before.

Just as Tatyana, holding a pale yellow parasol, was leaving the pier, a dockworker suddenly shouted. At the rough cry that a corpse had been found in the cargo hold, the patrol officers rushed over, but Tatyana didn’t look back.

Making a fuss over just one body.

Pretending not to hear, pretending to know nothing, she strolled out of the harbor, but Tatyana didn’t get far before her steps slowly came to a stop. She thought she’d seen wrong because the street was crowded, but she hadn’t. A familiar face was staring at her through the car window.

How did she even know to come here?

Letting out a short sigh, Tatyana approached and, without a word of greeting, got into the back seat of the glossy, high-end car. When the middle-aged woman tapped the driver’s seat, the car pulled away smoothly. Pushing the cumbersome seat belt behind her, Tatyana cast a casual glance out the window.

“I’m on leave. I guess you didn’t hear.”

“You’re on leave and there’s a corpse in the cargo hold?”

“That was on the side.”

You’re quick with the news. Quietly disposing of a Lubyanka Military Intelligence operative disguised as an embassy staff member didn’t even count as work to her. Leaning comfortably into the soft leather seat, Tatyana gave the woman beside her a bright smile.

“Still. It’s been a while, Svetlana. Has it been a year?”

“That’s right. You look well.”

“Thanks to you.”

At the tail end of an autumn two years ago when the rain was unusually frequent, Tatyana, then a Military Intelligence Directorate agent, was able to defect from Lubyanka to Lytton entirely thanks to Colonel Svetlana Belov, a senior officer in the Directorate and at the same time a double agent of Lubyanka cooperating with Lytton.

In truth, it was more accurate to say that rather than a defection, her death had been staged and Tatyana’s existence completely erased.

A fiancé executed because of someone’s tip-off, a false charge of murdering a Directorate official while trying to find that informant, interrogation that was nothing but brutal torture, a death sentence handed down without a trial despite her never giving a false confession, the single chance given to a condemned prisoner facing execution, and a defection that was, in its own way, successful.

It had been a turbulent year and a half.

‘Are you planning to die like a dog like this?’

‘If you become my hostage, Colonel, I can make at least a dog hole to crawl through.’

‘I’ll arrange a position for you, so go over to Lytton. Defect.’

‘…Are you telling me to abandon my homeland?’

‘Why are you surprised? Did you ever have anything like loyalty?’

‘No, I did not.’

Of course not.

She had been caught red-handed simply for standing next to a Directorate official’s corpse that still held warmth and was saddled with a murder charge. On top of that, they claimed the charges and evidence were clear, subjected her to nothing but torture without a proper trial, and turned her into a death row inmate. If she still had any loyalty left for Lubyanka, would she even be human?

She’d be a pathetic fool. A mad one.

From the brutal training that began in childhood to all kinds of biological experiments and missions that put her life on the line, she did everything Lubyanka ordered with a single determination to survive by any means. If the reward for that was a false charge of murder and execution, then to hell with patriotism, betrayal was more than fair.

Rotten bastards.

Thinking about it made her angry all over again. It’s not like she asked for a share of the gold bars and artworks she’d squirreled away as slush funds, or a medal for her merits, or anything. If they had just guaranteed her life and had her promptly deliver the information they wanted, she would have served as Lubyanka’s dog for the rest of her life.

For Tatyana, whose only concern was keeping herself alive, the hand of recruitment extended by Svetlana Belov was the opportunity of a lifetime.

‘I will defect.’

‘Good. There’s one condition for your defection. It’s simple.’

So the decision came quickly, and the condition was truly simple.

Retrieve the list of Lubyanka Military Intelligence Directorate agents obtained by Dochen’s Federal Security Bureau and hand it over to Lytton. Of course, working for Lytton’s Military Intelligence after defecting was included as well, but that was so obvious it wasn’t even considered a primary condition.

‘Then how do you plan to get me out?’

‘No need to make it complicated. In your case, it’s best to process it as a death during an operation.’

The final mission as a Military Intelligence Directorate agent, carried out as swiftly as her death sentence, proceeded as smoothly as its simple condition.

It was too easy.

All Tatyana prepared was a candy box to switch out, a strip of film to go inside it, a wig, and some light makeup, along with a pitiful act to draw the target’s attention. Thanks to the injuries from days of torture and beatings in a cramped cell, she didn’t even need to fake wounds to evoke sympathy.

It really was too easy.

‘Have we met somewhere before?’

‘Me?’

‘Who else would I be talking to here but you?’

The Dochen agent who was her target suddenly asking if they had met before did throw her off a little, but….