CROSS-CULTURAL EFFECTS / CH. 9:REVELATIONS

EMBASSY OF RUSSIA, ATLANTIS. 5PM, FRIDAY DECEMBER 21ST

“Father God,” Yelena prayed, “Thank you for Misha, and letting us meet again, thank you for Yuri, that he's a good father to his boys, and a good husband to Natasha. Bless Yuri and Natasha and their baby with a safe and successful operation, I pray. Let it all be a success.” Yuri had just left for the hospital, having had a message that the operation had moved into its final stages.

“Yes Lord,” Mikhail prayed, “and I pray that you'll bless us with wisdom and love even after the hormones that are pulling us together fade. Do bless Yuri and Natasha with a safe delivery, Lord. Keep all three of them safe, and let the boys be good big brothers to this little one, and help them to treat their mother gently as she heals. Amen.” Those hormones... he thought and smiled.

“What are you smiling about, Misha?”

“I have had an idea you might shout at me about.”

“Well at least try to wait until Christmas,” Yelena said, guessing what it was.

“OK,” he agreed readily. He wondered if she knew the Mer followed the Western calendar.

“That was meant to be a joke.”

“I hope you don't want me to wait with asking important questions until after you're banished from here for three years.”

“Not really. But it'll be too soon, surely? And they're not just going to ignore their laws because we're engaged?”

“Trust me to find a diplomatic solution?” He asked.

“Of course, that's your job.”

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EMBASSY OF RUSSIA, ATLANTIS. 5.15PM, FRIDAY DECEMBER 21ST

“You really accepted someone's money for a passport and deliberately gave him an invalid number?” Mikhail asked.

“Not an invalid number,” Yelena corrected, “it was perfectly valid. Just his old one said he was a convicted child abuser, and he wanted one that didn't have that printed on it. No problem, I printed him a new passport and made sure that the conviction information went in the passport's electronic record. He also had an electronic tag that should have banned him from travel. I took that off for him too. He went away a happy man thinking predatory thoughts, and leapt on a plane to South-East Asia. I reactivated the tag and left it the airport, where its alerts set off all sorts of alarms, and the authorities at the other end got notified. The authorities there followed him and got his local contacts too. Two bad guys taken off the streets, and he got the death sentence he ought to have got the first time, if he hadn't bribed the judge.”

“You... exported a known criminal so he could re-offend?”

“I allowed him to break his bail under conditions I fully expected to lead to his arrest.”

“You gave one of my colleagues a complete nightmare of a diplomatic incident to deal with,” Mikhail protested.

“Tell him or her I'm sorry — off the record, of course. I actually expected our boarder guards to hold him with that thing in his passport, but it seems that guy was taking bribes too.”

“You know that?”

“I know he got transferred to foot-patrol duty on the Siberian coast.”

“That's not conclusive.”

“No.” Yelena agreed, “But it's indicative of performance issues.” she pointed out.

“Just slightly. OK. Next example of your nefarious ways?”

“Well, officially we have this ambassador in Atlantis, and I'm plying him with stories and when he ought to be on duty, I think.” She indicated a light on his desk that had started flashing just as she'd finished her last story.

“Oh! Thanks. Yes?”

“Sir, may I have a moment?” It was the captain.

“Certainly, captain.”

“I'll leave you to it,” Yelena said.

“Actually, Maam...” the captain started then hesitated, “I was wondering... your colleague.”

“Anastasia?”

“Yes, Maam. She's said some confusing things to me, and I'm not quite sure what to make of them.”

“Assume she's only getting to know you as a private person, captain, not in any connection to her work,” Mikhail said.

“She's urm, said that?”

“She asked if you were a Christian, and said something like 'oh good' when I said you were.”

“She seems convinced she can stay here,” the captain said.

“Yes. Have you seen her ancient artifact? It apparently gives her certain rights under Mer law. But as far as we know, it wouldn't allow her to leave and return, since she's also got the rank of captain,” Mikhail said.

“But surely, sir, she'll be under orders and can't absent herself without leave.”

Mikhail turned to Yelena to answer that.

“Captain, do you have a need to know? Are you just confused, or do you think there's a realistic chance of marriage?”

“We urm, seem to get on well, maam. And she's very pretty.”

“A /realistic/ chance of marriage?” Yelena pressed.

“I certainly hope so, Maam.”

“She is a deep cover agent, captain. Do not mention her rank in the imperial secret service to anyone. It is very unlikely you will hear of her receiving orders, though she might get some suggestions. You should expect her to mix as easily with royalty as with questionable company. Expect her to have high moral standards and expect them from yourself. Presume if you see anything questionable happening, that you don't know the whole truth. Maybe she doesn't know the whole truth either, but has been asked to play a certain part. Do not ever assign guilt where there's none, or crime when she's at work. She's a competent officer with wide-ranging legal powers. If we were at home you also ought to expect her to often be in the company of drug dealers and gun-runners. She might even be supplying them, either with the intention of trapping them or of building up a relationship where she can get to a bigger fish. When she feels it is the right time, they'll find themselves dead or in police custody with no idea who grassed them up, that is the way we work. But just because she mixes with scum that does not make her scum, nor does it make her immune to horror. You might need to give her comfort with no idea why she needs it. Needless to say, if you pass on what I've just told you, or anything she tells you, you could get her killed, possibly tortured to death. And therefore you shouldn't expect a public court hearing. You've heard rumours of secret service justice, I'm sure.

“She is deep cover, which means you should not ever expect her to resign from the service, her role requires that she be herself. Ninety nine percent of the events of her life must weave themselves into her cover or they must not happen. If you marry, you will be part of her role, and she must tell her criminal contacts either that you are involved in what she does or you do not know anything about it.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"It is possible you find yourself being asked to play a part in her work. Talk to her fully and openly if you find yourself unable to play that part, before the operation begins. It would be far better if you remained ignorant or uninvolved than if you start involved and then decide to back out. Backing out once things have started is not normally an option — if you previously knew what she does, how can she suddenly tell people you don't? It might also be that her cover requires her to be no more than a happy housewife and mother for the next fifteen years. You do not know, you will not know, nor will she, and you cannot dictate it. If you don't think you can cope with all this, tell her now. She is now at a turning point, it might be possible for her to tell her contacts she's falling for a soldier and is going straight. But there are risks in that. It might be safer if she simply vanish from her old haunts, and remain here, for example. I don't know if she'd be happy to do that.”

“How... how can she do those things as a Christian, Maam?”

“How can you hold a gun and be a Christian, captain? Did not Jesus say to turn the other cheek? Yet the centurion was not told to leave his post. We rationalise such issues in different ways. Anastasia is a good woman, new to her faith. If you have qualms about her role, ask her first what the council here said about her peaceful use of her knife, and then feel free to talk to me some more. Not that I'm that much older in my faith.”

“Peaceful use of her knife?” He was evidently confused.

“Yes, captain. Believe it or not, she has had to use her peace-knife.”

Bemused the captain thanked her for her openness and left.

“Wow, Yelena!” Mikhail said, “You were telling me that too, weren't you?”

“What do you think?”

“You've got a hard job.”

“For the record, Yuri thinks ambassador's wife is full of opportunities, so you don't need think you'll be asking me to stop work.”

“And if I want to ask you to stop?”

“We can talk about it if you like,” Yelena offered.

“You mean you won't?”

“I mean, we can talk about it.”

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EMBASSY OF RUSSIA, ATLANTIS. 5.30PM, FRIDAY DECEMBER 21ST

“Anastasia?” the captain knocked.

“Come in, Sergey, you can be horse for a while if you like. I'm getting tired.”

“Are you called Sergey?” Dimitri asked.

“Yes.”

“My baby brother's called Sergey.”

“Is he really?”

“Yes. You're a soldier, aren't you? It must be very boring. When I grow up I'm going to help kill evil people like Antonina and mummy and daddy.”

“Shhh, Dimitri, we don't talk about that.”

“But he's a soldier, Auntie Antonina, and he's a Christian, not an evil people.”

“We still don't tell people what mummy and daddy do, Dimitri.”

“I'm allowed to tell Vasily.”

“I don't think I know Vasily.”

“His daddy's going to be Tsar one day, Auntie Antonina.” Dimitri said helpfully.

“Oh, well, he's probably a special case. And Dimitri, we don't tell people about knowing relatives of the Tsar either. And remember? I've told you people know me here as Anastasia.”

“Why?”

“Because it's my secret name. Antonina's my work name.”

“Oh. But if it's a secret, why are you using it here?”

“Because I've decided I trust people here. Not like at home.”

“Oh, no. Don't tell the evil people things.”

“Exactly.” Anastasia said, “But it's best if you don't tell good people things about work things either, Dimitri. It might confuse them.”

“Because of the evil people?”

“Exactly. Normally good people don't work with evil people. We need to be very careful that the evil people don't find out we're good, and good people don't think we're evil. And if you tell people you play with Vasily, that might get daddy in big big trouble.”

“I forgot.”

“I don't think Sergey is going to tell anyone, are you Sergey?”

“Of course not, Anastasia. Urm, I was going to ask something about your knife. I'll ask later.”

“Have you seen Anastasia's knife, Sergey? Its very sharp. She once gilded an evil people with it.”

“Dimitri, it's an evil person, and I think the word you were thinking of is gelded.”

“Oh. That's right.”

“And what did we say about work?”

“Was that work?”

“Sort of,” Anastasia said.

“Oh. Sorry.” Dimitri said, and went to play with his brothers.

“You, urm, gelded someone?” Sergey asked, pale.

“Yes, like Dimitri said, an evil person of a certain type.”

“With what the Mer call a peace knife.”

“According to the Mer I was merciful, because I let him live. They take attempted rape seriously.”

“Truly an 'evil people',” he said.

“The man was a army captain, not even drunk. I wasn't expecting anything except business from him at all. Want to know about it?”

Sergey nodded, “if you don't mind.”

“It was a three-way deal, which are always risky, but anyway, the captain was giving me a key to a certain office, the drug dealer was giving the captain some drugs, and I was giving the drug dealer some information that was valuable to him. I'd expected trouble from the drug-dealer — he had a reputation, but that bit of the deal all went smoothly. We'd met in an old factory office, which they'd suggested and I thought, OK, it's out of the snow, at least. Stupid of me. The drug dealer got his information, and ran off, locking the door behind him, with the captain between me and the door. I thought he was planning to get the key back.”

“So, you hid it?” Sergey asked.

She checked the boys were playing, and continued in a whisper. “No. I left it on the table, and said 'fine, there's the key, deal cancelled,

I'll collect from the drug dealer myself.' I walked past him towards the door, and the next thing I knew he'd thrown me to the ground, and I was coming round with a splitting head ache, my jeans round my ankles and he was fumbling with trying to unbuckle his belt. For some reason he was facing away from me, and he hadn't checked my boots, which is where my knife was. I managed to draw just as he turned round. I slashed up, aiming for his guts, but misjudged the aim and caught him between the legs. He collapsed, fortunately not on top of me, and by the time I'd got my jeans back up there was a lot of blood and half a sausage on the floor and two little roundish things caught on the knife's serrations.”

“Justice,” Sergey said, from the heart.

“Glad you think so. I picked up the key, broke the office window and got away. I wiped the blood and the round squishy things off on the snow and called the office. I can't remember who called the police, but someone did, anonymous tip-off that a they'd just helped a distraught almost-rape-victim get to safety, and the rapist might be bleeding to death. Someone else paid the drug dealer a visit.”

“What happened to him?”

“I don't know. I don't want to know.”

“Do I want to know what the key was to?”

“Just an office. Nothing in fact. It was the wrong key. The boys decided to go in the other way after that, impressive badges and uniforms rather than sneaky-sneaky, and that didn't turn up what they were looking for either.”

“Not quite,” Yuri said, surprising them both, “assuming you're whispering about your shark attack. Ask Yelena to fill you in.”

“Is the news good?” Anastasia asked.

“We hope, we pray, we leave the final result to God. I've told Yelena, but I can take the boys to see their mother. Come, boys!”

“I've told Dimitri he shouldn't mention Vasily, Yuri,” Anastasia said.

“No, he shouldn't. Good job we can all keep secrets here, eh, Sergey?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So, since you can't tell Anastasia you know Vasily's daddy, perhaps I'd better, eh?”

“Sir, does Yelena know?” Captain Sergey asked.

“Not as far as I know. You're wondering if you can tell her?”

“Actually I was wondering if something she said about Anastasia was aimed specifically or more generally.”

“Oh, she gave you that talk did she? She meant generally, I'd say. Just keep who knows who within the room.”

“Very well, sir.”

After Yuri and the boys had left, Anastasia asked “You recognise Yuri?”

“I'm not on a first name basis with him.”

“Don't tell me his rank, OK? I don't know it, and want to keep my ignorance. What were you asking about me?”

“Yelena said you'd mix equally with royalty as with questionable company,” Sergey said.

“Hmm. Yuri obviously recognised it.”

“It could have been a standard talk. I don't know. I asked about your job.”

“And she told you?”

“In general. Deep cover agent. Moving in all sorts of levels of society, that somehow, if we marry, I'd be involved in your cover, either as the deceived husband or the knowing corrupted one. That you're at risk if you stay in your role, or possibly at greater risk if you stop.”

“Really?”

“Yes, unless you vanish totally, or your cover needs you to play happy housewife and mother for the next fifteen years, but that would be out of our hands.”

“It sounds like she's thought through a lot of that.”

“Yes. Oh, she also told me that if I passed on what she'd said or what you told me then I'd likely be responsible for your death and I shouldn't expect a public trial so much as a bullet through the brain or something like that.”

“She threatened you with a bullet through the brain?”

“No. She just said, 'you've heard rumours of secret service justice, I'm sure.'”

“That's vague and threatening, isn't it.”

“I imagine that was the intention.”

“I do wonder where Yelena got all that from.”

“Surely it must have been some kind of briefing to new whatever-rank-she-is.”

Anastasia laughed, “I doubt it. I really doubt it. Come on, I want to hear what Yuri told Yelena about Natasha's operation.”

“Why do you use first names and not ranks?”

“Because we're deep cover, Sergey. Very deep cover. Mixing equally easily with scum and royalty. Or maybe happier with the scum, actually, since no one expects them to know which set of cutlery to use.”

“Start at the outside,” he said.

“Unless there's a choice of dishes including fish,” Anastasia pointed out.

“Good point.”

“Which there is quite often in Atlantis.”

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