1964
The world was fast becoming a dangerous place.
General Secretary Khrushchev had stared down the Americans in October 1962. The Americans, they had previously been caught spying on the Motherland, using high altitude surveillance planes. Soviet heroes shot it down. Directorate S agents illegally in America were needed now more than ever.
In 1963, the Americans had encroached on Southeast Asian soil, replacing the French - all to protect fascist governments in Vietnam.
Then in November 1963, the unthinkable happened - yet all too predictably given the make-up of America. They killed their own President. Right on the street of a major American city.
The intelligence shared with us in Directorate S training, was that under Lyndon Johnson, the military presence of America in Vietnam - and in Asia - would increase to major levels.
As such, there we were in February 1964, all of us. We'd never been gathered as such before. There were faces in that hall that I did not recognize - many, though, we had 'rubbed shoulders' with (to use an Americanism) - especially in our sexual exploitation training. Up until then I had tried to ignore their faces - yet I'd been called out for that, it was precisely their faces I was to study when exploiting them.
What could this gathering mean? Emmett had told me that General Zhukov himself was going to address us, the whole of Directorate S. That there was a major shakeup for us in the wind.
Me, I sat beside Emmett, with his colleague-comrade (Leanne) on the other side of him. Beside Leanne on the other side of her was Elizabeth - who'd not come with me to this command performance, she'd come on her own. She'd ended up beside Leanne (rather than with me) out of choice, I suppose.
During the chatter prior to the officials taking the stage, Emmett pulled on my arm. He said, "I hear some of us are having our deployments moved up. Me, I hope it's me and Leanne - man, that woman is insatiable."
Whenever he talked that way, I had long-since stopped trying to engage him - much less 'compete'. Those of us in Directorate S work, those of us paired with a colleague that is, we were not there for the sex. We had been paired for our abilities for teamwork - teamwork in dangerous places overseas, where we would have to 'work without a net', another Americanism.
Elizabeth and I consistently showed up our comrades in our 'in-the-field', team-work abilities. In live-fire exercises, Elizabeth and I were seamless, we acted as one. It was remarkable to be part of it.
We had to rely on one another during an operation - apparently not in the bedroom. Our 'marriage', it was a cover, the main camouflage element that would get us through our 5-year tour. After, we would return to our lives and be done with one another - perhaps become KGB trainers.
Sex? Emmett be damned, I was having my fill. Just never with Elizabeth, though we were 'married' and shared a cottage. My body was only servicing the State. How Emmett could even talk about normal marital relations with Leanne - in a faux marriage, for heaven's sake - was beyond me.
Truth be told, Elizabeth never talked about that side of things. She and I had been sharing a training cottage, living as husband and wife if even just for the practise. But she had never mentioned, not at all, what her training experiences were, not with me anyways. With both men as well as women.
GENERAL ZHUKOV
Suddenly, the room quieted. High ranking colonels from the KGB entered from the left and climbed the stairs to the stage. When they were in place, we all stood - to our applause in came General Zhukov himself, ascending the stairs and taking his place at the lectern.
He motioned us to stop applauding and to sit. Which we did.
"Comrade Agents and heroes of the Motherland, I greet you. I thank you for your sacrifice, and for your commitment to the protection of our homeland. The Great Patriotic War continues, only for us it goes underground, and we take it to their soil. Our land, it has bled enough." It was the beginning of a truly stirring speech. He spoke as a man who'd 'been there', back when the survival of our Union itself was at stake, which it continued to be.
What followed was Zhukov's vision for the overseas network that Directorate S represented. He promised us that by the 1970s, that we'd be home. The next generation of illegals would have more support, available in situ, the mechanics of which would be gleaned from our own five years. We were then to teach a new generation of KGB technicians, while we were observing technology from America's space program and industry, so that one day we might perhaps be in 'same-day contact with The Centre'.
All of us, we had known that The Centre had existed. We had drilled on protocols that would be transmitted to and from home by shortwave radio - numbers stations, and one-time pads. As Elizabeth and I were still set to be deployed next year, 1965, the little calculation in my head revealed that our five-year tour would be complete before any of the really fancy technology would be in place.
Then Zhukov went silent, as did we.
He said, "the world is fast becoming a dangerous place." He then rehearsed what we knew, that our Comrades in the Revolution, the Cubans, were still in peril. "Communism is within 90 miles of the American mainland, and that needs protecting," he said.
He then went silent again.
In a more somber tone he said, "to feed their military industrial complex, last November they even killed their own President. They then put a Texan in the White House, so that their ill fated escapade in Vietnam will only get more dire." He then concluded by stressing the importance of Directorate S in all this, which he called, "boots on the ground." He had learned his own Americanisms well.
He then smiled and said more cheekily to our laughter, "or stilettos and silk-hose on the ground."
Swallowing his smile, he then said, "so it is I get to the reason for today's gathering." He was handed a list, from which he prepared to read. "I know that deployments from this group were meant for 1965. I have here a list of names, your names, of people who will be pressed into service by this coming summer."
THE FOUR OF US
We rarely sat together in the canteen. We took this opportunity given that Emmett's and Leanne's names had been on Zhokov's list. Emmett, Leanne, Elizabeth and me - yet, it was me and Emmett who had been friends. Elizabeth, she did not really have friends, not me that's for sure. In our training cottage, she was the one who prepared the meals - me, I cleaned up. As Americans do. She would then retire to her room to read. Unlike Emmett and Leanne - he would fill me on on how they would 'enjoy themselves' apart from work.
So it was Emmett and I, in the canteen we paired off. As did Leanne and Elizabeth, who were now talking as if old pals. That was the most animated I'd ever seen her, focussed in on Leanne - she'd not even slipped from her remarkable American English accent. I, one again, tried to superimpose Irina onto that image, it should have been Irina who had inherited that name - 'Elizabeth Korman'.
Our trainers had been correct - in a hand-to-hand firefight, there was no one better than the version of Elizabeth, now chatting with Leanne. I was lucky to be going overseas with her - we just may survive our five years. But, damn it, 'Elizabeth' should have been….
My thought should have concluded with Irina's name, but Emmett was competing for attention.
"Well Philip, it looks like we're going to beat you to America by a year. You heard the Comrade General, the world is a dangerous place, and Americans need to be held to scrutiny."
At my silence, he continued. "Okay, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so happy to be deployed, when speaking to you."
I said quietly, "no, that's all right. Ours is to follow orders - as Directorate S illegals, as they say, you either follow orders or you get killed, it's that's simple."
Emmett said silently, "you know, you and Elizabeth - you're the best team here. By far. And that's saying something." He paused, looked over at the two women who themselves were engrossed in chat, he then said, "but if I were with her, I'd have constant ache, right here…." he said pointing to his groin.
"Don't be gross, Emmett. That's my partner you're talking about."
"Well, me, I'm just glad it's me and Leanne headed out before the summer. I won't miss winters around here, but then again, five years and we'll be back, ready to restart our lives. The Comrade General, he has promised."
I tried to be serious with Emmett, the man known for never being such. "How do you do it? Me, I can't. With all the 'intimacy training' we get, how do you save anything for home?"
Emmett leaned forward towards me and smiled, "I stay away from vodka. It saps the vital bodily fluids." He then leaned closer, "I also stay away from guys. I don't think they've noticed, our bosses. I've never once been with a guy. I guess that means I have something left for the cottage with Leanne."
I now worried for Emmett. In a few months, he'll be an illegal in the United States. Leanne's and his loives will be in each others' hands. Of course, he would not rush into operations - they would establish themselves first, as taught. They would become comfortable with the shortwave network, numbers stations and such. Only then might Emmett be put to the test. If it turned out that it was a guy who needed to be 'worked', he would have to have ALL the tools at his disposal.
He'd get Leanne to do it.
HOMELIFE
At the cottage, Elizabeth had just finished the meal she had prepared, one that she had eaten apart from me, curled up in a chair with a English language book, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.
She'd done that uncharacteristically in our little common area, rather than reading in her room. I guess that was her version of intimacy with me.
While I was cleaning up, I asked her what the book was about. Truly I had not expected a response. Even though I never gave up trying, those sorts of 'conversation starters' rarely amounted to anything.
She put the open book face down in her lap. Looking up and seemingly far away, she said, "it's the innocence of youth, in the context of America's original sin of overt racism. I cannot imagine why they would allow a book like this to be published in that fascist State. It's why I don't want to be like them."
I parroted a line from our early KGB training, "their illusion of free-speech is actually a cover. It allows them to say, 'oh look, we even write about it'." As the years were to unfold, I was to mellow on that belief.
Elizabeth just sat there looking far off.
She then said, "I can't believe that Leanne is already there."
I added, "as well as Emmett, Elizabeth, as well as Emmett."
"Yes, yes, I know," she quickly conceded. "But I'm thinking of Leanne."
I finished the last of the clean-up and then sat in a chair opposite it, about as far away as our tiny cottage would put us.
I asked, "Emmett and I were never 'paired'….. for what Emmett bragged he'd never done. Did you and Leanne…?"
Elizabeth sat up with obvious offense. "Philip, you are my comrade-colleague. You only have the right to know what I tell you. Are we clear?"
I said meekly, "yes, I'm clear. I'm sorry."
She then confirmed something that I'd gleaned back when we'd been first introduced by Zhukov some years ago. The confirmation came from her.
"You were not the first comrade presented to me, you know." She said it almost accusingly.
Was this why she and I had not been on Zhukov's list for early deployment? Was something going on?
I get it, we are not entitled to know everything about Directorate S, other illegals, our partner-comrade, or even what we'll face in America. We are to simply do our duty.
Elizabeth closed her book, went into her small room, and closed the door. Under it, I saw that her light had gone out.
Me, I prepared for my own sleep. While dreaming, that was the only time I could be at peace.
With Irina. I dreamed that she had been Elizabeth Korman. I did not even know who the other Elizabeth was, and we'd lived together, now coming up for two years.