"She failed! I warned you her conditioning and training might not have have been deep enough, or sufficient time given to her!"The man he was speaking to was facing the window in the hotel room where he and his associate had been staying. He turned, his hands still clasped behind his back.
His hair was still dark, though there were signs of grey at his temples, and he stared at the man speaking to him with narrow, piercing eyes.
"Comrade, I knew it was a mistake to engage your services. Your methods of brainwashing are obviously substandard, and I will no longer be needing you." Grigory Vladek raised his silenced pistol, shooting the man and killing him point-blank.
He was furious his plans had gone awry, and now he needed to move quickly before his complicity was discovered. He had to find the girl, as she could implicate him in the attempt on Kuryakins life. Failure meant trouble, but had he succeeded in having the U.N.C.L.E. agent killed, it would have helped him move up in the hierarchy of the KGB.
His superiors would have been most grateful for the elimination of the traitor Illya Kuryakin, though it would not have been made public knowledge it was Vladeks or the KGB's doing. Still, he would have had the bragging rights to having brought the traitor down and a promotion as well, but now the girl could bring him down instead. GRU would not be appreciative of his efforts, or perhaps the Kremlin either and, therefore, he could not take the risk.
She needed to be taken care of, and quickly.
The question was how to do that, as now she was in UNCLE custody, and if her conditioning were broken, Vladek knew he was doomed.
.
Illya again sat in the cell with Ivanna, today she was not as talkative as she had been the day before, if that could have been considered talkative. She had curled herself up in a ball, rocking to and fro, again reciting the rhyme over and over...
"Ring around the rosie, pockets full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down. Ring around the rosie, pockets full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down. Ring around the rosie, pockets full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down...all fall down, we all fall down, down...fall down."
"Ivanna, pochemu vy postoyanno povtoryal, chto ?Ivanna, why do you keep repeating that?" Illya asked her.
"YA ne znayu. On zastryal v moyey golove , i ya dolzhen pozvolit' eto._I do not know. It is stuck inside my head and I have to let it out. I need to let it out..."
He wondered if that were somehow a key to her conditioning.
"Can you tell me today, was Laslo Kurasov your father?"
"Yes, he was my father,' she said in a monotone voice.
"Ivanna, you are nineteen years of age. Kurasov's daughter is sixteen. Can you explain that to me?" Illya wondered if Laslo's child was even alive at this point.
"I am sixteen, you are wrong." She buried her head in her knees again, muffling her words, starting to recite the rhyme again. It seemed that saying it bolstered her confidence and that gave Illya an idea.
"Ivanna I want you to repeat these words after me please, can you try that?" He spoke slowly, deliberately... his voice hypnotic, and he hoped somehow he could replace her KGB conditioning with some of his own suggestions.
She lifted her head, nodding to him dutifully.
He began reciting another rhyme to her, an authentic Russian one, though much of it was nonsense words, he hoped the rhythm of it would help her focus.
"Tryntsy- bryntsy, bubentsy ,
Razzvonilis' udal'tsy,
Digi, digi, digi , don,
Vykhodi skoreye von! "
"Bubentsy- sani- kolokola,
Tryntsy- bryntsy- zvuk kolokola sani -
Razzvonilis' udal'tsy- v etom kontekste
Digi, digi, digi, don- Digi- Digi- Digi -Don
Vykhodi skoreye von ! skoreye von ! "
"Sleigh Bells" - sleigh-bells,
Tryntsy-bryntsy- sound of sleigh-bells
Razzvonilis Merry Men... in that context 'boys or children playing noisily,' the line was sort of old Russian, referring to some fairy-tales in a manner of speaking.
Digi, Digi, Digi, Don- digi-digi-digi-don" Nonsense words imitating the sound of a bell.
Get out there soon!- Get out there soon." *
The girl repeated everything word for word,eventually entering into a trance-like state. At that point Illya began repeating the last two lines, over and over again.
"Digi, digi ,digi ,don- Digi- Digi- Digi -Don. Vykhodi skoreye von! - Vykhodi skoreye von ! Digi, digi, digi ,don - Digi- Digi- Digi -Don. Vykhodi skoreye von! -Vykhodi skoreyeDigi, digi ,digi ,don- Digi- Digi- Digi -Don. Vykhodi skoreye von! - Vykhodi skoreye von ! Digi, digi, digi ,don - Digi- Digi- Digi -Don. Vykhodi skoreye von! -Vykhodi skoreye" von!
The more Ivanna repeated it, the deeper she was drawn into a trace.
Illya stopped, studying her with a discerning eye. "What is your real name?"
"Ekaterina Ivanova Aliyeva."
"Where are you from?"
"Leningrad."
"Did you live in an orphanage in Moskva?"
"No, with my parents, they worked for the..."she hesitated answering.
"Go ahead," Illya gently urged her still speaking Russian, "your secrets are safe with me."
"They worked for secret police in Moskva."
"Were you recruited by KGB?"
"Yes."
"By whom?"
"Grigory Vladek."
That came as no surprise as the man had been an associate of Laslo Kurasov, and one of the rats who abandoned the man as he sank quickly.
"How long ago did Vladek contact you?"
"Six weeks ago."
"What did he instruct you to do?"
"I was to kill you."
"Why?"
"He did not tell me."
That was a disappointment. Why would Vladek want him dead as Kuryakin had little to no interaction with him during the Project Strigas Affair. Illya wondered if somehow the mans association with Kurasov ended up being a blot on his record. Perhaps he wanted revenge? UNCLE was ultimately responsible for Laslo's downfall.
Many had become disgraced by a simple association with the wrong person, and often, lost their lives for much less at the hands of KGB. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense, but then again, the assassination of a traitor would have added a commendation to Vladek's record.
As Illya ran his fingers through his blond hair, he realized his death would have been a stepping stone for the man's upward movement within the Secret Police.
"At the conclusion of your mission, what were your final instructions?" He continued his questioning.
"I was to take my own life."
He was slightly surprised at that. The girl had not made one attempt to kill herself since her capture; she had been more defensive than anything...not the behaviour of one programmed to die by their own hand. That made him wonder if her conditioning from KGB had been faulty, six weeks was not a very long time to truly brainwash and train someone.
He made her repeat the new rhyme again, over and over...offering a different set of instructions to her now, ones he hoped would supercede those Vladek had given her. "When I snap my fingers, you will wake and feel completely refreshed. Do you understand me?"
"Yes."
Illya quickly counted, "Odin,dva, tri." He loudly snapped his fingers.
The girl blinked her eyes rapidly for a few seconds, and opened them wide.
"Zdravstvuyte Yekaterina , vy znayete , kto ya_hello Ekaterina, do you know who I am?" He smiled, still speaking very softly to her.
"Da, vy Illya Kuryakin_yes, you are Illya Kuryakin." For the first time, she smiled at him.
"I vy khotite menya ubit'_and do you want to kill me?"
" Zachem mne eto delat'_why would I want to do that?"
.
* Thanks to injj for the rhyme and translation.