“I-I’m not sure exactly when the commotion started outside the Church…” Sergio stammered, recalling his daydreams about the Dark Ones, but not wanting to include such talk in discussions with the Colonel as of yet. “I was standing guard at the spotlight, but I hadn’t seen anything until someone called the alarm. I turned on the light and the others were already going out the door. Watchmen.”
Vera nodded his head slightly, but gave no hint of any expression that told what he was thinking.
“Soon, they were overrun and Grigori Igorevich told me to come down with my weapon and I did. We formed a circle right outside the door and closed it up. One of the watchmen tackled me, I guess I was dazed for a bit, every one spread out and they were still shooting. I was lying on the ground at the side of the road with my weapon but it was all going so fast. Next thing, a demon was screeching and Semyon Antonovich was telling me to run. We didn’t look back, just ran. He said the others had made it down the road to Oktyabrskaya, but neither of us was certain.”
“So, Semyon went with you?” Vera said with surprise, sitting back and gesturing for Sergio to finish.
“Yes, but, after half a kilometer or so, he stopped. He gave me his pistol and told me how to get to Venice.” Sergio paused, seeing in his mind the face of the rugged soldier coughing fitfully with sweat dripping into his eyes. “His mask was cracked open, and I didn’t have another…”
“It’s alright, Sergio. We all know the risks.” Vera was quick to comfort him for some reason. “What happened when you got to Venice?”
“Senya said it was a free station, and that they had a radio I could make contact with Polis via Sicily. Did the message ever come through?” Sergio found himself questioning the purity of that man Valya that he’d met there at Venice. He was a solid member of Roten Spaten, and seemed to be their main intelligence officer but Sergio hadn’t had much time to judge his character.
“Of course. But we were worried when you didn’t come back for three days after that. So, what next?” Vera said gruffly, but then relaxed and leaned onto his desk. He seemed genuinely interested in how Sergio had wound up at Avtozavodskaya. Perhaps Marco wasn’t so willing to give up her secrets of how she managed to capture a Hunter.
“They gave me a tent for the night, and in the morning the guy who’d let me in had two friends with him. I guess they were traders, refugees from the Red Line, and they told me they were going to Avtozavodskaya and needed help carrying some stuff through Sicily. It wasn’t that far past the Ring, so I helped them go by. You have to go through Paveletskaya too, and it’s all patched up there now.”
“I see. I’d never known what was beyond the marked stations on that line.” Vera made a small note on a paper to his left. Had Marco really told him nothing of her station?
“Well, when we got there they led me into a room right before the station. Marco, or, Sara Polo was standing there. She said she had a few questions, but then I could go. She had a cartridge, the same as the one Sacco gave to me to give to you.” Sergio leaned forward in his seat, engrossed in his own story as the memory of each moment played like a cinema film in his mind while he talked. “What are these cartridges for? Are you supposed to give one to someone you trust if you think you’re going to die? For them to be your replacement?”
“No.” Vera replied shortly, and Sergio felt his heart sink the same as it did when Maro didn’t answer him on the subject. “Really, it’s just an old communications system. Radio messages can be intercepted, letters too. But I suppose with Sacco it was a small bit different—” The Colonel cut himself short.
Sergio fell silent, his head swirling with this new information. After all this time with Marco and her cartridge he was beginning to think it was some significant token when it was really nothing more than another avenue of communication. But the Colonel had said it was a different case with Sacco, so was he perhaps some kind of a recruiter for the Brotherhoodns?
“You said she had questions for you? How did she even know who you were?” Vera led Sergio to continue his story with his own questions.
“I don’t think she was looking for me specifically.” Sergio entertained the notion for a few seconds but remembered her genuine shock to learn of his story with the Dark Ones. “No, I think she just had her people looking out for anyone with the same uniform. Any of us might have known about Sacco.”
Vera nodded his head, trying to hide a wry smirk, apparently impressed with Marco’ tactics, and then gave a grunt to spur Sergio to continue.
“Well, she asked me if I had seen him and I only told her because of the cartridge. I knew it was something important because… and the mission is over now so…” Sergio paused, searching the Colonel’s face for a reaction, still waiting for the moment he would say something that would earn him a reprimand. “I told her he’d gone to the Gardens and disappeared. They had heard about the Dark Ones… Do you think Sacco told her where he was going, too?”
“It’s quite possible. It seems he may have visited her before his patrol and subsequent visit to your station.” Vera put a hand to his stubbly chin thoughtfully. “Go on.”
“Well, the next day they had said they would escort me back to Polis, but it seems everything went wrong as soon as we left. We were going to go through Sicily of course, but then one of her men said he spotted a spy there named Sturmann – a Nationalist. He was, or is, looking for Marco.”
“Yes, unfortunate, but that is how they run things in their stations. Did she ever say why he was after her?” Vera continued to reveal that there were still many things he didn’t know about her background although he had assumedly talked to her for a few hours.
“No, just that she had escaped from Tverskaya. It seems they have a ‘no tolerance’ policy, sort of like the Reds.” Sergio also considered the possibilities to that question, what exactly was she running from?
“What next?” Vera asked harshly, pulling out a sheet of paper from the short stack of them on the desk and searching for a pen.
“We, uh, we went north to Madrid, and there some bandits started a fight with her man Andrei Sokolov. Marco and I had gone the other way, but then there were gunshots. There was a panic, and a fire, and everyone was running. Another of her guys Semyon put us on a boat, I think he lives there, she didn’t want to leave her men, but we had to. We were heading to Revolution Square initially, but the boat wouldn’t go that way so they dropped us at Kitai Gorod. Then there were mutants in the tunnel and we went over the surface to Kuznetsky Most.”
“This is quite the trip. No wonder it took you so long.” Vera furrowed his brow, making a scribble on the paper beside him, then sighed and seemed to relax. “Well, at least it’s a good story. Go on.”
“We passed a squad of Red soldiers led by a Comrade Major. I don’t know where they were going, but they said that they had to go around because of Madrid.” Sergio struggled to recall any further important details from that encounter, he wished he had more information for the Colonel but they hadn’t been cavalier enough to speak openly about their plans.
Vera made another note along with a grunt.
“At Kuznetsky Most there was a cordon, so we had to wait overnight, and then passed to Lubyanka in the morning. After there, two of Marco’ men found us and that’s when she named Nikolai as her successor until she got back. I don’t remember his other names but he has a twin brother named Dmitri, those two traders who I walked with the first time. They went back to Avtozavodskaya and we crossed through this eerie tunnel from Prospekt Marx. There was a big fight there, strange nosalises with black fur, and blood everywhere.” Sergio was gesticulating the size and shape of the monsters.