Northern Poland, Safe House near Lubicz
September 8, 1943, 1100 hours
Vladimir lay in the loft of the barn. He knew he should be sleeping after traveling all night, but his mind would not let him drift off. He was amazed at how far they had been able to travel in the past two days. Already they had traveled to northern Poland. Although he knew it would be more difficult from this point on, he still had the hope that he could reach Moscow in a few more days.
Vladimir looked over at the sleeping form of Zagoskin. He was happy the scientist could rest. The stress of the journey was already taking its toll on the man's nerves. He wondered if the scientist was also worried about what awaited him when he returned to Russia. Vladimir had been worried for himself, being a prisoner of war. He still was worried, despite Marya's assurances. But Zagoskin had actually worked for the Nazis, even though the rocket experiment had failed. In the back of Vladimir's mind, he knew that Marya was not just sent to bring him back to Russia, but to actually kill him if she found that he was collaborating. She was, after all, a Smersh agent.
Marya had left them in the barn while she tried to coordinate the rest of the trip home. Vladimir still marveled at how well organized the network was, and how Marya was able to make things happen. The more he found out, the more he believed that not only would she be able to get him home, but would be able to spare him any retributions for spending all that time as a prisoner of war.
Vladimir's thoughts were disrupted as he heard the door of the barn open, and someone climbing into the loft. He say Marya's head poke through the opening in the floor and look around. Seeing him awake, she smiled.
"You are not sleeping, Tovarish Vladimir?" she asked quietly.
"Nyet," he replied. "I am still too alert for dangers, a habit I picked up at Stalag 13."
"Since you are not sleeping, come into the house," she said. "I want to discuss some things with you."
Vladimir looked at Zagoskin. "What about him?" he asked.
"He will be fine," she responded. "He is sleeping now, and there will be someone outside at all times, so he will not be going anywhere."
When she said that, Vladimir knew that his suspicions were correct. Zagoskin would not be returning to Russia as a free man. He now wondered if Zagoskin would be returning to Russia as a living man, or how long he might live after he returned. Vladimir got up and climbed down the ladder of the loft. He saw that Marya was correct, there was a man sitting on a barrel in the corner of the barn, a rifle in his hands. The man nodded a greeting to Vladimir as he followed Marya to the house.
"I see what you were talking about," he said to Marya as they walked. "Would he have shot me if I had come down out of the loft?"
"Nyet," she replied. "The people here think you are my partner, so they will treat you as they do me."
"Your partner?" he asked. "It seems my service has started earlier than I thought."
Marya stopped walking suddenly and Vladimir almost bumped into her before he could stop. She looked at him for a second before speaking.
"I was wrong about you in the beginning," she said slowly. "And I have since changed my mind. That does not happen very often." She paused and smiled. "And you have not given me any reason to change it back, so as far as I am concerned, your service, as you put it, started before Hochstetter's men took you from Stalag 13."
Before Vladimir could respond, she grabbed his arm and tugged. "Come, we should not stand too long in the open," she said, walking towards the small farm cottage.
When they reached the cottage, Vladimir saw a man and woman already there. The woman was tending to a kettle over a fire in the fireplace, while the man was sitting in a chair against the wall looking at a map spread out on the table in front of him. Marya introduced them simply as Piotr and Zofia. Vladimir almost laughed when she introduced him as Sam.
"Sit at the table," Marya said. "I want to go over the plans for our travel. I want both of us to know in case something should happen along the way."
Vladimir sat and looked at the map. It was a map showing Poland and the Baltic Republics, along with the northwest portion of Russia. Marya sat and started pointing out details of the map.
"We are here," she said, pointing just to the south of East Prussian border, about halfway between Danzig and Warsaw. "We will be traveling along the coast until we get near Riga, in the Latvian Republic, then we will head inland to Pskov and Novgorod."
Vladimir looked at the map. "Why do we need to go so far north, just to come back south to Moscow?" he asked.
Marya pointed to the area around Smolensk. "From what we hear," she said, indicating Piotr sitting next to her, "there is heavy fighting all along the front in this area."
Vladimir nodded. That made sense. The area was just north of the Pripet Marshes, and the corridor between the marshes and the Baltic coast led straight to Warsaw and onward to Berlin. That would be the place where the Soviet army would try to attack and the Germans would heavily defend.
"Where is the front in the north, near Novgorod?" he asked.
Marya looked at Piotr, who traced a line on the map as he spoke. "From Leningrad east to the Volkhov River and then south along the river." He spoke in a mixture of Russian and Polish. Vladimir nodded to indicate that he understood.
"We will meet up with partisans in the marshes west of Novgorod," Marya said. "And they will help us get across the river and through the front. Once we are past the front, we will head straight to Moscow." She looked at Vladimir. "I hope you are not afraid to fly. Once we are across the Soviet lines, we will be flown to Moscow."
Vladimir shook his head. He had never been in an airplane before, so he was not sure if he would be afraid. But the trip to get to the airplane was already dangerous, so how could flying be any worse?
"The journey will be difficult between here and the front," Piotr said. "There is much partisan activity and the Germans are very alert."
"Do you know where all of our stops are along the way?" Vladimir asked Marya.
"Nyet," she said. "They know only the next stop. We will find out at each safe house where to go next."
Vladimir nodded. "We are still traveling at night?" he asked.
Marya shook her head. "Not all the time," she replied. "We will be dressed as locals, and can do some traveling in daylight hours. But it will still take us at least two weeks to get across the front from here."
Vladimir was disappointed to hear two weeks, but not surprised. As they approached the front, there would be more German activity, and they must be more careful.
Piotr pulled a German Luger from a bag on the floor and handed it to Vladimir, along with a small fabric bag containing extra ammunition. "She says you will need this," he said to Vladimir. "I have clothes for you also."
"Dziekuje – thank you," Vladimir said, using one of the few Polish words he knew.
Piotr smiled at him. "Nie ma za co – you're welcome," he replied.
Just then, Zofia began dishing the soup into bowls. "You must eat now," she said in halting Russian. She brought bowls to the table for everyone.
"Dziekuje," Vladimir said to her as she placed a bowl in front of him.
Marya burst out laughing. "Is that the only word in Polish that you know?" she teased.
Vladimir grinned at her and said, "Gdzie jest toaleta?"
Marya burst out laughing again, this time joined by Piotr and Zofia. "You will find that in the little building behind the cottage," she said. "The one that has the seat with a hole in it!"
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After they had eaten, Vladimir and Marya returned to the barn and woke up Zagoskin. The scientist then went into the house with Stanislaw, the man who Vladimir met in the barn, so that they could eat as well.
"You should change into your new clothes now," Marya told him. "It will be easier for us to blend in." She then shocked him by removing her clothes in front of him so she could change into her peasant dress. Seeing his embarrassment, she burst out laughing.
"You are shy, Tovarish Vladimir?" she laughed. "Or do you not like what you see?"
Vladimir could feel himself blushing, the warmth rising on his face. "Tovarish Marya, if I were not married ..." He left the sentence unfinished, afraid that if he thought about the situation too much, he might forget that he was married.
Marya laughed again. "While I would enjoy what you are too embarrassed to mention, I am only teasing you now," she said lightly. After she slipped the peasant dress on, she looked at Vladimir with no sign of laughter in her face. "Tovarish Vladimir, if I had to, I would gladly break up the family of someone I consider my enemy," she said, "but I would not break up the family of someone I consider my friend."
Vladimir looked deep into Marya's eyes. He saw no hint of the normal, calculating stare, or the mischievous sparkle that sometimes replaced it. He saw a lonely person reaching out for someone to call a friend. Vladimir felt a stirring deep within his soul; just like the one he felt when he looked into his dear Natashenka's eyes. For a moment, time stopped and he sensed nothing except the connection between the two of them.
The spell was broken when Marya spoke. Vladimir noticed the mischievous twinkle had appeared in her eyes as she said, "Now, Tovarish Vladimir, take off those clothes so I can see what I cannot have!"
Vladimir laughed. The spell was broken, but the connection it had brought to both of them remained. Yes, if I were not married, Vladimir thought.
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Vladimir and Marya were sitting just outside of the barn. The moon, high in the sky, was almost full and bathed the landscape with a soft light. Marya had decided that they would travel tomorrow, so they would stay the night in the barn. They had left Zagoskin sleeping in the loft. The scientist was thankful that they would not be traveling at night. Stanislaw had been sitting and talking with them, but had retired to his bedding in the barn a while ago.
"What will happen with Zagoskin when we return?" Vladimir asked Marya. "Will he be executed for collaborating with the Germans?"
"Someone else will make that decision," Marya replied. "But The Center wanted him returned alive if possible, so they may want to force him to work with other scientists in Russia."
"That makes sense," Vladimir said. "If they wanted him dead, you would have killed him already," he stated.
"Da," she responded. "It is part of my job." She fell silent.
"Does it bother you?" he asked softly.
Marya sighed and gazed out over the moonlit landscape. She was silent for several moments. Finally she said, "Someday it may, but if I let it bother me now, I could not do my job."
"It sounds like a high price to pay," he replied, "to give up your self and your feelings for a job."
"Sometimes you have place the good of the rodina above the good of the self," she responded.
"But, Tovarish Marya," Vladimir said, "sometimes you have to allow yourself to be you, to allow your feelings to express themselves, to laugh with friends, to love someone, in order to even have a self to give for your rodina."
Marya was silent for a long while, unmoving beside Vladimir. "In my kind of work, you cannot let your real self emerge," she said softly, her voice almost a whisper.
"Nyet," Vladimir replied strongly. "In your kind of work, you must keep your real self bottled up inside most of the time. But if you cannot let your self emerge occasionally, if you have nobody to share that with," he paused, searching for the right words, "then the person that you are will fade away forever, Tovarish Marya."
Marya didn't say anything. Vladimir looked over at her. She was staring out into the distance, looking at, but not seeing, the nighttime world before her. He noticed tears falling silently down her cheeks.
Continuing to stare out into the far away countryside, she reached over and took Vladimir's hand in hers. Finally she said, "My name is Svetlana. Svetlana Viktorovna Lebedeva." Then she closed her eyes and began to cry.