Chapter 5
Alexei felt his stomach drop when they arrived at a concrete bunker. So this was where the torture would start. The incompetent spies were just transport. He took a few deep breaths. He could avoid giving anything away until Grigori came. He couldn't give anything away, since he didn't speak enough English. "Yes." "No." "Understand." "Thank you." "Please." "Stop." He hoped he wouldn't have to use that last one too much.
The spy inside made them look into the camera. The man introduced them. "Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Smirnoff."
"Alexei," Joyce corrected him.
"Alexei," Hopper conceded. Alexei found himself vaguely annoyed that Hopper had been making fun of him the entire time, and that he hadn't realized it immediately, but it was the least of his problems.
The spy inside and Hopper were arguing about something. Maybe they had mishandled the operation? What did that mean for him?
The spy opened the door and immediately pointed a shotgun at his face. "Get that out of my face, you bald American pig," Alexei said. He didn't know what the bald man wanted, and it didn't matter. No one understood him anyway.
The man cracked a smile. "I may be bald, but you're the one in handcuffs, Soviet scum," he answered.
Oh. This was an unwelcome turn. He'd have to resist. He couldn't pretend not to understand. And this man looked like he knew how to cause pain. He walked in as slowly as he could, as if an extra second was all Grigori needed to burst through the door.
The bald man pulled out a metal wand. Alexei expected to be hit with it, but the man just ran it over him. A metal detector? If he had a weapon, why would he have let them take him? He rolled his eyes. The detector beeped as the man moved it over his wrists, which were hanging in front of his groin. "Watch it," he said, and jerked his hands away. He didn't want his interrogator paying any attention to the most sensitive parts of his body.
"Silence, scum," the bald man responded, but then he was quickly distracted by an argument with Hopper. Joyce pulled Hopper away, and Alexei wondered if he was being left alone with this man. He didn't know if Joyce was merely acting, but he had the impression she wouldn't want to see him severely hurt. If he had to be interrogated, he wanted her in the room. But she was just arguing more with Hopper. It was even starting to annoy the bald man, who stopped searching Alexei to yell at them.
That was enough for Joyce. She started yelling at the bald man, then pushed Alexei in the chest and pushed the man. They'd brought him to this man, and the man wasn't suitably grateful. Alexei just looked at the floor and tried to make himself as small as possible. Joyce turned to him and kept yelling – something about magnets? – but he got the impression it wasn't him that she wanted to chastise. "Please," she finished.
The men were silent for a moment, and Hopper ushered Alexei inside. So Joyce was in charge, or at least the men didn't want to hear her yell again. This could work to his advantage.