“Good enough.” She raised her vodka and said, “Kippis.”
He picked up the vodka and repeated, “Kippis.”
Then they both downed the vodka, a drink that Karl had learned to tolerate over the past few months in Russia.
They drank beer for a while, talking about nothing and everything. Moved on to a second beer and downed another shot of vodka. Karl decided Hanna was an interesting woman, and not just physically. Although she was constructed nicely in that area as well. But she was someone with intriguing interests, from literature to music. He wished he had more time to get to know her better. In the back of his mind he remembered what his father had told him recently. In this game, he would meet a lot of good people, a lot of assholes, and then those who wanted to kill him. Hanna was a good person he would remember forever.
Hanna checked her watch and said, “I should be going to bed.” She stood up and grabbed the empty bottles from the coffee table, bringing them into the kitchen.
Karl helped her by bringing the depleted bottle of vodka and the two empty shot glasses, setting them on the counter.
Returning to the main living area, Hanna stopped and glanced at the sofa. “I only have one bedroom. I can get you some sheets and blankets and a pillow.” She hesitated and added, “Or we can be adults and share my bed.”
He could only take that offer one way, and the events of the evening, including the loosening of inhibitions with alcohol, made his choice obvious. Karl followed her to her bedroom and they made interesting and passionate first sex. Although Hanna seemed reserved in tone upon first meeting, something changed when she reached the comfort of her own bed.
Afterwards, Karl lay in bed listening to her heavy breathing, knowing she was asleep. But he couldn’t shut down his mind. The last few days were bothering him — from the drone video that had started this whole thing, through the encounter with the GRU officers in Murmansk, and on to the encounter earlier that evening with unknown Russian officers. Did it matter if these attackers were GRU or SVR? Not really. They were equally as dangerous.
He slipped his underwear and a T-shirt back on and quietly wandered back out to Hanna’s living room, where he sat on the sofa and stared at his SAT phone.
Trying to calculate the time change, Karl decided that it didn’t really matter. His father had told him to call at any hour on any day if he had something he wanted to discuss. Karl knew that part of his father’s generous offer was due to the fact that he had not been there for Karl during his youth. But that was no fault of Jake Adams. He had not even known of the existence of Karl until after the death of his mother just a few years ago.
His father answered the call on the fourth ring. “Your phone simply reads unknown caller,” Jake said. “You need to get more creative with that. It’s pretty late, so I’m guessing you’ve either gotten some young girl pregnant or some operation has you perplexed.”
Karl smiled, wishing he had grown up knowing his father. “Well, it’s not the former, dad.”
“Good to know. I’m too young to be a damn grandfather.”
Getting right into it, Karl quietly explained his situation, from the drone to that evening. When he was done, he felt better. He didn’t give his father any classified data, because nothing had been classified yet. Besides, if anyone had the ability to keep a secret, his father had proven to be that person with his dedication to America through the years.
“Situation normal, all fucked up,” Jake said. “Sounds like business as usual in that game. What do you need from your old man?”
“I don’t know.” That was the truth. “Clarity perhaps.”
Based on his silence, Jake was thinking it over. Finally, he said, “I’ve dealt with the GRU and the SVR and the old KGB too many times to count. The Russians think strategically long term. Sometimes our country, or at least some within our country, have the attention span of a gnat. But the Russians have a plan for damn near everything, including post-apocalyptic domination following pandemics or a nuclear holocaust. In their dictionary, hegemony equates to normality.”
“Okay. Good to know. What do they want with me?”
“Well, son. They want to kill you. Your job is to not let them do so.”
Karl explained that he didn’t even have a gun at this time, because of his status as a student undercover in Murmansk.
“That’s standard operating procedure, Karl,” Jake explained. “If the GRU had found a gun when they trashed your apartment, you’d be in a Draconian dungeon right now getting tortured. Or, worse yet, end up in a shallow grave out in the frozen tundra. But, going forward, you need to get yourself a gun.”
“Makes it harder to travel,” Karl said.
“True. But now you just need to stay alive long enough to get back on U.S. soil. If you have some time off, maybe we could hang out for a bit. I wish you had flown back through the Azores.”
“I don’t make those choices,” Karl said.
“I understand. But if I were making the decisions, I’d send you across from Helsinki to Tallinn on a ferry and have you catch a military transport. You could have caught up with an old friend over there.”
Karl had considered that also. His last assignment in the Army had been in Estonia, where he had been involved with a female intel officer. “I’m not sure what she’s up to now,” he said reticently. “Besides, I think our people have something planned for me.”
Jake laughed. “Yeah, they do. You can be assured of that. But don’t let those bastards hang you out to dry.”
His father had to be the most reluctant former spy on the planet. Luckily his disdain for structured intelligence was surpassed only by his love of country — despite the fact that he had not lived in America since the Reagan administration.
“I should probably get some sleep,” Karl said.
“I hear you. Let me know when you plan to meet your little sister.”
“I’ve been busy with training,” Karl explained.
“I’m not judging, Karl. Just putting it out there. It’s freezing in Montana now anyway. We’ll go in the summer and I’ll teach you how to fly fish.”
“Maybe play catch?”
“Don’t be a smart ass.”
“It’s in my DNA.”
Jake laughed. “Not just from my side.”
They both hung up and Karl sat back on the sofa, feeling much better about his situation. His father was right. He needed to hang low and then arm himself.
He quietly wandered back to bed.
10
The two of them slept in the next morning until nearly eight a.m. There was no real awkwardness. They had sex again before showering and getting dressed.
Instead of eating at her place, Hanna drove them to a nearby coffee shop for cappuccino and Finnish pastries.
Hanna got a number of texts during their meal. Finally, she excused herself and wandered outside to make a phone call.
Karl used that time to verify that his flight would be going out. Based on the sun shining brightly and the snow starting to drip from the roofs, he guessed the Finns would have no problem clearing their runways. Once he saw that his flight would leave on time at five p.m., he sat and watched the reaction of Hanna on the phone. Something was going down with her, and it wasn’t good.
Within seconds, she touched off her call and shoved her phone into her pocket before stepping back inside and deciding not to sit down.
“We must go,” Hanna said.
Karl nodded and followed her out to the SUV.
Once they settled into the privacy of the vehicle, Karl asked, “What’s going on?”
“They found the man you shot last night with my gun,” she said. “Someone dropped him off in front of our best trauma hospital. He went to surgery but didn’t make it.”