Illya drew his Tokarov from behind his back in one quick gesture, pointing it straight at Nicholaí.
"Does this give you your answer? I could have drawn this weapon quite a while ago." Illya sneered as he stood, taking back his Makarov and relieving Nicholaí of his own pistol.
"I am going to put the weapons away. You are not going to die by my hand Nicholaí Ivanovich, unless you give me good reason to kill you. I am willing to help you if you will accept it. What is your answer?" There was a cold confidence to his voice.
Alexandrov glanced nervously at the door through which Nada had disappeared, then back at Kuryakin.
"My family must survive, and they cannot do it without me. What is your plan?" He again offered his hand, this time in trust and friendship.
Illya declined to shake it, a handshake now would make it too personal. He could not allow himself any attachments or feelings for this, his former Comrade...better to remain distant as it would make things easier if there were trouble.
"We need to get you out of here, the city to somewhere in the countryside. You will have to disguise yourselves. From there you could perhaps make your way north, get across the border to Finland if you wanted to. Yet there are many enclaves along the way in the country where you could hide for a long time. The Lake Ladoga district is desolate enough and the many island there could be used as safe havens."
"What do you want me to do?" Nicholaí whispered.
"First, you need to tell your wife."
Nada was in the front room, sitting in a chair rocking the baby, as he'd just finished nursing him. Nicholaí gave her the news without any sugar-coating.
"What?" She blurted out. "Kolya, why do we have to leave? This is our home?" Grisha began to cry, startled by his mother's sudden outburst.
She looked at Illya, then back at her husband. "Everything was fine until he showed up. What is going on here?" Her tone of surprise was replaced with one of demand.
"I cannot tell you exactly, but Illya is here to help us...there is trouble and we must go."
Illya nodded his head gravely. "I am sorry, I know you are frightened but it is true. You must leave now while you can." He hesitated, but decided to tell her the truth.
"I was sent here to kill your husband."
Nada suddenly reached out, slapping him across the face, enraged at what this stranger just told her. She hit him again, until he stopped her, grabbing her wrist tightly.
"You know what your husband does for a living, if not then you must suspect it. He and I trained together for GRU and I was ordered by the Directorate to assassinate him. They claim he is defecting, but I suspect this is all part of a test for me."
"Kill my Kolya? Then if this is so, kill me and my child too, as I do not wish to live without my husband!"
"No. I refuse to murder innocents, that is why I have decided to help you all escape."
"Illya if you do that, then you doom yourself." Kolya said.
"Not if I can help it. Now pack what you need, and keep it light. We must travel quickly. I think getting you across the border to Finland will be the best for you rather than you remaining in the country. I fear if you do, you will eventually be discovered."
Nada hushed Grisha, laying him in his basket as she packed a small suitcase and a carry bag for the baby's things. The couple didn't own much and had little to leave, but the last thing she grabbed was a small icon of the Madonna that was on their wall, stuffing it in with the child's things."
They waited for nightfall, and slipping out the door, they made their way up the street to Illya's little Pobeda and got into it. He started the car, turning on the headlights after he had already pulled out onto the dimly lit street.
Illya did not see the car that pulled out after him, as they did not turn their headlights on.
.
He had the route planned out in his head, though he'd never travelled that far north by car.
The only time he had been much farther was when he and Nicholaí had spent time as part of their training in the Solovki prison camp in the Solovetsky Islands, in the White Sea. Once a monastery, it was actually the mother of all the gulags and the oldest such camp in Soviet history. By Lenin's decree, the buildings there were turned into, Соловецкий Лагерь "особого назначенияthe... "Solovki Special Purpose Camp," and became the prototype for the gulag system.
The place was eventually turned into a prison, due to the harsh, isolated conditions that made escape near impossible. It was supposedly closed before the Second World War, as the camp was situated close to the border with Finland. The buildings were then transformed into a naval base, with the navy cadet corps was deployed in the monastery buildings. Illya did his mandatory service in the Navy for a year, but was never stationed there.
That was what everyone thought it was...a naval base, but Solovki was in fact still maintained as a prison and used at times for the training of Soviet Intelligence operatives. What better training ground for interrogation but a prison, with the unfortunate inmates used as guinea pigs; those who were forgotten, and lost to the world.
Illya and Nicholaí's class had been brought to the cam by plane via Angelesk for special training during which they suffered some of the indignities that a prisoner might experience, though some of it had been taken to extremes. There they learned the methods of interrogation and how long the human spirit might last under such circumstances.
One of the officers in charge of training took a dislike to Illya and nearly had him starved to death, though he never broke the young blonds spirit. If it had not been for the intervention of his sponsor, Viktor Karkoff, Illya might have died during his training.
That seemed to be his life, a series of endless close calls and he hoped his venture with Nicholaí and his family would not be another one.
Illya never told anyone of his background, remembering his father's advice as a child to keep secret his family's noble origins; his grandfather Count Alexander Sergeivich Kuryakin died at the Solovki gulag while being 're-educated.' Illya tried to find information about his grandfather while he was there, but was never able to discover how he died or where he was buried. There were many unmarked graves scattered all over the island.
Solovki was a terrible place that seemed to suck the life out of everyone, not just the prisoners. The inmates lived and died in such despondency, and he hoped he would never see such a place again. Its very existence made him feel ashamed to be a Soviet citizen.
Illya supposed that was why he was so willing to help his former Comrade; Nicholaí was not deserving to die due to a whim of the Soviet government, and was actually an innocent, just as Kuryakin's grandfather, the Count had been.
Illya's father had lectured him to respect that which was innocent, and though it was difficult at times, he swore to honor his Papa's wishes. He taught him right from wrong, and how to survive and knew that sometimes in order to do that, one had to compromise...but not this time.
Somehow he was going to save Alexandrov and his family, and his own life as well and still be in the good graces of the Directorate.
He chose their escape route carefully, and would skirt near the cities and settlements of Chudovo and Tosno, taking them to Lake Ladoga before heading on to the city border of Leningrad in the Pushkinsky District. From there to the Finnish border the distance was approximately 200 km. They would go to the border between Russia and Finland, crossing by foot. It was a dangerous plan, but there were not many other options.
Nicholaí and his little family might be able to stay hidden on one of the many islands of Lake Ladoga if they could go no farther, but eventually and even with false identities they'd be discovered.
It was better to take the risky route across the northwest border, choosing a rugged and remote location for that; he could see them through part of it, but eventually he would have to leave them and hope they'd make it to the Finnish side, where they would ask for asylum.
"этот план является слабым, Куракин_this plan is weak, Kuryakin," he told himself. Strategy was not always his forté, but boldness and stubbornness were.
If it were only Alexandrov, the crossing would be much simpler, but with Nadia and the baby in tow, they would be slowed down substantially once they were on foot.
It was of the utmost importance that Grisha be kept quiet as quiet as possible; that perhaps would be almost as difficult as crossing the border through the forests. Illya's idea was to head for the Karelian Isthmus a wide stretch of land situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, its northwestern boundary is the relatively narrow area between the Bay of Vyborg and Lake Ladoga.
Vuoksi, the largest river, ran southeastwards from Lake Saimaa in Finland to Lake Ladoga, dividing the isthmus into two uneven parts. Saimaa Canal linked Lake Saimaa to the Bay of Vyborg. They would travel to Lake Ladoga and the isthmus, and use the canal to Saimaa. It was there that he would see them across to Finland. The only thing they needed to avoid were the guards and their dogs that patrolled the forests, once they left the canal.
It would be his job to distract them while Nicholaí and his family escaped.
The isthmus was mostly covered by forests formed by Scots pine and Norway spruce dotted with numerous smaller lakes as well as small grass moors and peat bogs. The forest itself covered nearly 12 km. of the isthmus, more than three quarters of its total square acreage having swampy areas popping up in many places. Those were the areas they could use to hide in, as the guards and their canine companions would not patrol there. The swamps themselves were treacherous and they would have to take extra care.
This was going to take days, and they would have to keep moving constantly. Illya would be gone longer than the twenty-four hours had been allotted him by the Directorate to complete his task, but these sort of things do not always go like clockwork and they would understand that as long as he returned with proof of a kill.
Illya would take Nicholaí's identification back with him to Moskva, and one last detail he neglected to tell the man; Nicholaí Alexandrov would have to sacrifice a finger as proof of his supposed death. Nicholaí was aware of it as standard procedure, but it just wasn't brought up in conversation...yet.
Illya would return with the bloody trophy, and no doubt the fingerprint would be checked, and thus verifying his story, or at least he hoped. This minor detail, he would hold off telling Nicholaí for as long as he could.
It all sounded so simple in Illya's head, but at the same time there was a little voice telling him he was crazy for doing this, saying he needed to take care of his own zhopa.
He chose to ignore the voice.