A voice blurted from the background. “We don’t care about that. What’s the job? When do we get paid?”
“Greedy bunch of bastards you are.” Sasha didn’t like being interrupted. “As you probably have figured out, since you’re all submariners, we’re going to borrow a submarine from the Russian government.” This produced a few snickers. “It won’t be returned.”
“For who?” asked another voice.
“Not your business. We’ll pay each of you one hundred thousand dollars at the end. You don’t ask for whom, how long, or why. That’s the deal. You function the same as a crew in the Soviet Navy. You do what the captain asks with no hesitation. The better you perform, the sooner you get paid.” By bringing up the money, Sasha bought their loyalty. Each man had his own reason for being there, and each thought that the money could solve his problems. The crew was only borderline professional. “Good day,” spat Sasha as he left.
The cook leaned over to his assistant. “Soviet Navy?”
The assistant merely shrugged and went back to his duties.
The new arrivals took seats in the mess and melded in with the rest. Nick followed suit, leaving Marina standing in the middle of the room. There was nothing said as the others undressed her with their eyes. A small, greasy man with a crooked smile and gray teeth ventured forward. She met his gaze with an icy stare. The rest watched. The man raised his hand to stroke her hair, and she flipped it away, not giving any ground. He turned back to the pack and smiled. This brought more snickers from others.
Nick found himself growing very concerned. He visualized a gang rape happening any moment, and he would be powerless to do anything about it. She had to have known that this would happen, he thought. The debate raced inside his head whether he should intervene now and risk having the rest of the crew be skeptical about him or let events run their course.
Marina had anticipated this if she made the crew, and she knew how she’d handle it. When the greasy creature turned back around to face her, he grabbed for her breasts. Without hesitation, she caught the fingers on his left hand and broke them with a snap of her wrist. The man screamed in pain, yet Marina wasn’t through. She grabbed his arm and with leverage pushed him to his knees, breaking his wrist at the same time. Then she brought her right knee to his face, shattering his nose. To drive the point home, she kicked him hard in the testicles.
The room was dumbfounded as they watched the little man gulp out screams of pain between gushes of blood that poured from his face. His fingers were mangled, his wrist was twisted, and his balls had been kicked into his throat. The men in the room couldn’t believe what they had witnessed, even Nick. Marina stood relaxed, like it was old hat.
Nick was the first to recover his senses, and he began to applaud and laugh. Slowly, one by one, each man smiled and chuckled at the stupid little one lying semiconscious on the floor. The act endeared Marina to the crew, and they gave her the respect she was due. She would not be bothered for the rest of the trip. No one wanted to wind up like the small one.
There was one thing that Joseph Shepetovka liked about Moscow. That was the cold. When it was cold, he didn’t have to worry as much about spies infiltrating his meetings. People didn’t enjoy traipsing through the bitter night if they didn’t have to. It assured him somewhat that his group would be people who were committed to seeing the old communist regime established once more.
Joseph initially was glad to see the Gorbachev programs of Peristroyka instituted so the Soviet Union would be brought up to date with the rest of the world. He had been a factory worker in the Ukraine, manufacturing tractors for the collective farms. Things always seemed a little better south of Moscow than anywhere else in the state, and many people prospered in his area. He being one of them. His life never had a high point, but it neither had a real low one, either. Sometimes money was tight, but his job was always there, and he did have an apartment with a woman whom he had married for convenience.
Politically he had supported communism as long as it kept a roof over his head. Gorbachev was change, but it was slow enough that Joseph thought that some good would come of it. Yet when Gorbachev was in the midst of a coup from the conservatives in the 1990s, he still felt secure because returning to the old ways was not bad for him, either.
Yeltsin had scared him. He watched as the burly man and several thousand supporters quashed the coup and reestablished Gorbachev in power, but not for long. When Gorbachev was ousted through political means, Joseph saw this as his way of life, his security, being kicked out of his country. He was afraid of losing his job and his home. Both events happened as the infrastructure of the country collapsed. His wife ran off with another man, and Joseph became homeless. That was unthinkable in the Soviet Union. Yeltsin had destroyed his life.
With not much more than the clothes on his back, he set off to Moscow to protest the new Russian government. He found that he was not the only one. Many people from across the country didn’t want to change from the old way. In those early days, not many people admitted it. There was a sense of fear if a person still wanted communism to thrive. Joseph had lost it all; to him, it didn’t matter if he was persecuted for what he thought was a good way of life.
It was hard living, those first couple of months in Moscow. He had expected his death to come at any time and put an end to his misery. He attended a few rallies and found a few friends in some protest marches across Red Square. These people took him in and helped him get along. To make some money, he was fortunate enough to get hired as a maintenance man in a local Moscow hotel. His situation reinforced his belief that communism was the best government, and Joseph became more involved in the activities of what was left of the party.
Every day he anticipated the police might come and lock him up as an enemy of the new state. When the Russian courts decided that it was not illegal to be affiliated with the Communist Party, it gave the old Soviets new life. Now more people came out from hiding to voice their opinion about the new Western-style government and urge a return to the communist way. Since Joseph had been there in the beginning these people looked to him for guidance. He quickly assumed charge of a small pocket of communists, and they met every week to plan how they could establish a party in the existing government. For years, they held peaceful marches and demonstrations and tried to recruit people back into their organization. They found exceptional favor with those who had become disillusioned with the government after years of abuse and corruption.
Then came Ochinkin. Ochinkin’s first presidency found the West strong, and so Russia did not move. Ochinkin waited, served his term, was appointed prime minister of Russia (a post he had previously held briefly), and then was elected president for a second time. It was this second election that spoke to Joseph. The corruption Ochinkin brought with him on his second tenure Joseph would use against him. The West had fallen because of weak leadership from America, and Ochinkin knew this and began expanding his corrupt influence to the benefit of business associates. The rewards were heaped upon only a few. Change was at hand, Joseph felt, and so was the expanding Soviet ideology. To Joseph, the Soviet Union was lurking under the veneer of the Russian flag.
Joseph was preparing for a meeting in the basement of the hotel where he worked. Management knew nothing about it. He had good news to tell his people. In a week, there would be a gigantic rally in Red Square for the return of the communist state. He was hoping it would be the springboard to an even larger movement across the country.
All was in place for the rally. Other leaders estimated that at least two hundred thousand people could occupy the square, calling for the return to Soviet principles. Joseph was ready to whip his followers into a frenzy. He had a very good feeling about this one.