BIG TIME ESPIONAGE
Chapter 7 – My name is Logan
Dimitri Chernetsky, now using his alias Logan Mitchell, is now back in the United States.
The Kremlin and the KGB network have prepared a house for him to live in at a suburban part of Los Angeles, California. Moscow decided to assign Dimitri, or Logan, in the West Coast so that his risk of being caught by the CIA or FBI will be minimal if compared to when Logan is given a house to live in near Washington DC or anywhere in the East Coast.
When Logan arrives at the house, he sees that it has been fully furnished for him, and its design, furniture and fixtures are consistent with a typical suburban American home. Add to that his American looks and American accent, he will blend in perfectly with the people in the neighborhood.
For the first few weeks, Logan is regularly visited by his Soviet comrades who also look and talk American, and also by his KGB colleagues who have infiltrated the CIA, FBI and even the Pentagon. And every visit is made to appear like housewarming parties and weekly lunch and dinner parties.
But the truth is, amidst the fun, laughter and revelry inside the house, Logan is also discussing serious matters with his subordinates and superiors who are also embedded in the US. So far, the instructions from the Kremlin is for a separate group of KGB agents who are working in the CIA and the Pentagon to find out if the United States is planning any action of attacking the Soviet Union. If that information is confirmed, the USSR will then pre-emptively strike by both sabotaging documents and systems in the Pentagon, triggering a communications blackout, while back in Russia, they will plan to shoot US reconnaissance and bomber planes down, and eventually launch ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles) with nuclear warheads targeted towards all throughout major cities in the United States. Of course, the embedded KGB spies will be informed beforehand so they can either escape to Mexico or, more preferably, to their ally Cuba, before they return to the USSR. And Logan is one of the three major officers who will consolidate the information to be passed on to other agents who will ferry the documents or transmit the information back to the Soviet Union.
Logan is clearly distressed by this, because his capacity as a KGB officer doesn't give him much flexibility to veto anything or to effectively stop any instruction from the USSR to nuke America. However, he regularly silently prays that God would grant him any opportunity to stop this madness of impending nuclear war, or at least grant another Soviet or American any opportunity to stop a possible nuclear war which could effectively destroy the entire world.
In the next few weeks, Logan is relieved as the high alert level in Moscow is eventually lowered, as information gathered from the Pentagon and CIA suggests that the US will just continue reconnaissance missions and no US pre-emptive strikes would happen after all.
Lucky for Logan, the low alert level status in Moscow became the status quo for the next few months as he eases into his new Los Angeles suburban home. After inspecting that his house's covert hidden cameras were really cleverly and safely hidden (the cameras were installed, according to the Kremlin, to protect Logan in the event of any rogue KGB agent planning to harm him, but Logan knows that the Kremlin is also keeping a close eye on him just to be REALLY sure), Logan became comfortable with inviting his American neighbors over as he attempts to be neighborly with everyone around him. With his natural charm, he is able to easily make friends with his US neighbors and became good friends with them. He even holds dinner parties for his neighbors now, aside from the "dinner-parties-slash-KGB-meetings" with his Soviet spy colleagues.
One time, he and his neighbors decided to have a Texas-themed neighborhood party, and Logan got to buy himself some Texas cowboy outfit. As he tried it on back home and when he wore it during the party at the neighborhood block, Logan feels weirded out because wearing his cowboy hat felt really familiar, but he was sure he hasn't worn anything like that ever before, even during his previous visits to the US. Either way, Logan loved his cowboy outfit, and he enjoyed the Texas-themed party. He loved it so much because it felt nostalgic in some mysterious way.
As the months went on, Logan enjoyed a quiet suburban life in LA, as Moscow continues to maintain a low level alert status. He is able to make more friends as time passed by, both because he needed to blend in with the locals, and because being with American neighbors felt more comfortable than being with Soviet neighbors. However, even though he was comfortable and settled in, he still exercised prudence, such as not dating any American or KGB female colleague, and especially trying his luck in tapping into his gay side. He still suspects that the KGB could still be spying on him despite his higher rank now. Eventually, it appears that he has totally earned KGB's trust and he feels like nobody's trying to monitor him anymore. But he still keeps his guard up, especially with his true sexuality and his true goal of finding a way to overthrow the communist regime back in the USSR and even in the GDR. And so, Logan continues to enjoy his quiet suburban LA life, dotted with the occasional clandestine meetings with KGB operatives somewhere within LA or at his house. He also gets a job at a local bank as assistant bank manager, so as to avoid any suspicion from neighbors and especially authorities. Life was finally calm and quite peaceful.
However, a few more months pass and the Kremlin becomes growingly ambivalent, and plans to just attack the United States even if unprovoked. And the whole KGB spy network in the US is fully reactivated and crucial information is being leaked from the Pentagon, CIA and the White House to Logan's house and the two other main KGB officers'. Fortunately, some Moscow officials are voting against unprovoked attack against the United States, but the officials who want to attack the US keep trying to have their way.
After a volley of stressful meetings with fellow KGB spies, Logan continues to become more and more depressed as the prospects of a nuclear war is starting to become a reality. Logan cannot stomach the idea of two countries being obliterated by nuclear weapons, and the possibility of the entire world being destroyed by nuclear warfare, because of the conflict between other First World (democratic) and Second World (communist) countries.
One day, Logan decides he has had enough of the stress and sadness, and so he drives to a nearby bar to try to drown his sorrows out with a few beers.
As he proceeds to down his first mug of draft beer, which was an American brand of beer, Logan looks around at all the people in the bar. Sure, there could be KGB spies hanging around, but Logan focuses his attention more on the regular Americans just having some good old fun with beers and stuff. Some are chatting with friends and new acquaintances while sitting on the barstools, while others are playing darts on one side, and the others were playing billiards and snooker on the other side, and others are playing card games on their tables. Clouds of cigarette and cigar smoke rise up from a lot of those tables, and for Logan, it was a tolerable and rather pleasant scent… For him it's like a scent that symbolizes relaxation and escape from any worries that these people could be having in their work, or from their "Imperialist American government" (if communist propaganda is to be believed, which, Logan luckily secretly scoffs off as rubbish). As he continues scanning the people around him, he sighs a bit at the fact that these ordinary citizens would probably be killed, or harmed in many ways, should a nuclear war erupt between the US and USSR.
Logan lights up a cigarette from his pocket as he orders his third mug of beer. He requested for a Heineken, which is a West German brand of beer, and although it was West German, it reminded him of Hans Honecker, his friend from East Germany. Logan briefly immerses himself in deep thought at the fact that the whole world seems so fucked up, with communist regimes oppressing their own people, while trying to vilify and annihilate non-communist countries, and then he tries to escape the negative thoughts by downing his beer bottoms up, and then taking a puff of his cigarette.
On his fourth mug, he requested for an American beer again, and because of his high tolerance for alcohol, is feeling only barely light-headed, but he's starting to feel a little calmness as his mind focuses more on enjoying the alcohol in his system rather than the worries that has been plaguing him for months. He then extinguishes his second stick of cigarette on a nearby ashtray, and he gets another stick from the carton in his pocket. As he tries to use his lighter to light the cigarette, he realises that his lighter has run out of butane, or fuel. Logan shakes his head as he firmly slams the empty lighter on the bar counter in annoyance.
"Need a light, buddy?" a voice suddenly asks. Logan looks at his right, from where the voice was coming from, and he initially sees a faint outline of the person. It was a guy sitting beside him in the bar counter.
"Huh?" Logan bewilderly asks. The guy chuckled a bit.
"I asked if you need a light? I noticed your lighter was out of fluid," the guy offered again.
Logan then nods a yes, and the man pulls out his own lighter and lights it up. Logan then leans toward the open flame, with the cigarette in his mouth, so that he can finally light his cigarette. He then lets a puff out as he exhales and smiles at the friendly stranger.
"Thanks, buddy!"
"You're welcome!"
"I'd better buy a new lighter or at least refuel this thing"
"Oh no, you can borrow my lighter while we're still here"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course!"
Logan was extremely pleased at the friendliness of this stranger. And so he decides to make some more small talk.
"Thanks! This is a pretty nice bar!"
"Yeah," the guy answered. "It's one of the best bars here in suburbia. Is it your first time here? Are you new to the neighborhood? I think I've never seen you before…"
"Yeah, it's my first time in this bar," Logan answers. "But I've moved in here several months ago."
"Really? Where do you live?"
"Somewhere along Henderson Street"
"Henderson? Oh wow! We're just two blocks away! My house is on Yuma Street"
"Oh, that's pretty near!"
"We should hang out here more often, since we're neighbors after all"
Logan smiles. "Yeah, it kinda sucks sometimes to live alone, and always work, then home alone, then work, then home alone, and then the occasional bar during weekends"
"Haha! I know how you feel buddy. Say, if you don't mind me asking, where do you work?"
"Oh, I work at a local Citibank branch downtown, as an assistant manager"
"Wow! That's awesome!"
"How about you?"
"Funny you should ask, I also work as assistant manager at a Bank of America branch outside downtown"
"Haha! Small world!"
"Yeah, small world indeed!"
As Logan's eyes continue to adapt to the dim lights of the bar, he finally is able to see what his new friend looks like. The guy has blonde hair, green eyes and quite prominently beautiful nose, lips, teeth and chin. "Wow, he's gorgeous!" Logan thought to himself.
"Hey, wait a second, where are my manners? We've been talking for some time now and you've lent me your lighter repeatedly as I continue to smoke." Logan chuckles.
"My name is Logan. Logan Mitchell."
"Pleased to meet you, Logan!"
"And what's your name, bud?"
"My name's Kendall. Kendall Knight"
TO BE CONTINUED
