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"A Whiter Shade of Pale"
She said 'There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see'
- Procol Harum
They left Yuri outside tinkering with the helicopter—whatever damage he was going to do to it, he could do without anyone watching for a few minutes—and brought Antonov and Murray inside.
"What happened? Did they call?" Antonov asked.
"Yeah, they called. No one's coming for us. They're 'unavailable'."
"Who did you talk to?" Murray asked.
Hopper shrugged. "Some woman."
"Okay. And, uh, who exactly was this mystery woman?"
"Not sure. I mean, she wasn't exactly Miss Talkative, you know? I spent five minutes trying to convince her I was real. I'm supposed to be dead, remember?" Okay, maybe it hadn't been five minutes, but it had felt like forever, only to get exactly no help. "Anyway, I finally get around to half-convincing her, she starts to open up a little bit, then says that she's a friend of the doc's. I ask to talk to him, she says he's indisposed."
"'Indisposed?'" Murray repeated.
"It gets worse. She said the doc's with the girl. And the girl went off to fight some evil in Hawkins. Then they all went off-grid. The doc, the girl, everybody."
"'The girl' meaning … El."
"Yeah, it has to be," Hopper said, wishing it didn't. Wishing, God help him, that it was someone else's girl in danger. Not his, not again, not without him there to help her.
"Is this your daughter, American?"
"Mm-hm. And they're not alone. Joyce's kids are with them."
They all turned to look at Joyce, who sat off to the side by herself, looking numb. There was a long silence.
Broken, of course, by Murray. "Okay. I … I see the mood here is bleak. And understandably so," he added, holding up a hand toward Joyce so she wouldn't interject. "But I do think we need to consider the very real possibility that this mystery woman is, in fact, KGB."
Hopper looked at him in surprise, not having expected that.
"And she's—"
"No." Joyce's voice was filled with tears. "She's telling the truth. When we were in the lab, those particles we saw, they were alive. And if they're alive, that means a gate's open in Hawkins." Her hands were shaking, but she had the facts straight. And her voice was getting stronger as she spoke. Hopper was so proud of her strength and her intelligence.
"'Gate'?" Antonov echoed. "What does this mean?"
"It means we have to go home right now. What is taking so long?" Impatiently he got to his feet, striding across the room toward Yuri and his damned Katinka. "I thought you said he was close!"
"Yeah. Close to sabotaging us, you mean."
"We think he's playing us again." Antonov stared through the window at the lights and the dead helicopter in the center of them.
"So put a goddamn gun to his head."
"And then what? He just spits out more lies."
"It's moot, anyway," Murray said. "If your kids are truly in some kind of imminent danger, even if we were to leave this very moment, we wouldn't make it in time. The earliest we'd get there is late tomorrow."
Hopper was slowly peeling open a pack of cigarettes. He'd gone a long time without them, but they were here in front of him and God knew he either needed a strong drink, a smoke, or to punch somebody. No alcohol seemed available, and Antonov was right, if he punched Yuri they'd be up a creek without a helicopter.
"No. We don't have to make it back."
They all turned to look at Joyce, wondering what she meant.
"Not tonight," she explained. "Whatever this evil is, we know it's connected to the hive mind. And now we know part of that hive mind is in Russia. So we don't need to get back to Hawkins to fight it."
"All we need to do is destroy those particles." God, she was smart. Someone ought to hire her to run the world. Or at least the government.
"And if we're lucky, it'll hurt enough to give the kids the upper hand."
Murray frowned at both of them. "Wait, time out. We're talking about the particles inside the prison? The prison that we just narrowly escaped from?"
"We broke out. We can break back in." Hopper marched toward the crates of weapons, Murray hurrying behind him.
"Jim! The entire Soviet army is looking for us."
"Sure. And we'll be exactly where they least expect." He started hauling guns out of the crate in front of him, tossing them into Murray's arms.
"All right. There is a fine line between courage and stupidity, and this falls very far on the side of stupid. This is Dirty Dozen stuff. Except there are, uh, four of us."
Hopper looked over the gun in his hand. It was in fine condition, probably brand new, never used. Well, he'd be happy to break it in. On some Russian guards, on a demodog, whatever. "Three, actually." He turned to Antonov. "Breaking back in's going to be easier than breaking back out. Which is why we need an airlift. This is where you come in." He advanced on the former guard. "I don't care what it takes. You get Yuri in line, and you get that bird in the air." It never occurred to him that this man wouldn't stick with him as long as it took, and his instincts were dead right.
Antonov's mouth twitched as though he'd enjoy 'convincing' Yuri to work for real. "On it." He headed outside.
"Yuri mentioned something about a flamethrower, right?" Joyce asked.
Hopper nodded, grinning. Who didn't love a flamethrower? He started opening crates, not stopping until he found it. He pulled it out of the crate, sighting along the barrel. "Oh, yeah. This'll do. This'll do just fine."
The three of them carried their weapons out to the van. Murray got in the back and Joyce climbed into the passenger seat. Without a glance spared for Yuri, the spineless worm, Hopper strode over to Antonov. "Thank you. For this."
"It is for your daughter, yes? If it were me, and it were for my son, you would do the same."
Hopper nodded. "I would. I will. When this is over, Mikhail's going to be damned proud of his pops."
"Go. Do your work. I will see you at the prison."
They clasped hands, and Hopper got behind the wheel of the van.