Abort!

A fiction story for 6th grade English class. Published in Spartans’ Stories.

            Bang! Igor Dimitrov woke suddenly at 3:00 am. Startled, Igor got out of bed and headed downstairs to see what had made the noise. As he slowly walked down the stairs he noticed nothing wrong. When Igor got downstairs he turned into the living room and let out a deep sigh. It was only his father watching television. The noise had come from a Soviet missile test on Soviet Central Television (the news channel). Fifteen seconds later Igor Dimitrov’s life changed.

            About a dozen men and one woman suddenly barged into the living room. They all had guns drawn and all of them were pointing at Igor.

            “Put your hands up and come with us,” said one of the taller men.

            “But, what?” Igor managed to stammer. His father nodded as if to say to go with them.

            In a nondescript building in central Moscow Igor was being briefed on why he was there by a KGB officer named Oleg Pavel.

            “Igor,” he said, “we have dragged you here today to tell you that you are now working for us, that is to say the KGB.'' Oleg paused for a moment and took a sip of coffee from the cup on his table. Igor was silent but finally asked, “Why me?”

            “Because we have decided that you would be the best person for the job we have for you,” said Oleg.

            “What is that job?” Asked Igor.

            “We can’t tell you yet,” said Oleg.

            “Why did you barge into my house, making it look like an arrest?” Igor asked, “Because of that, my dad now thinks that I am a criminal!”

            Oleg answered immediately, “Because we needed your family to think you will be away from them for a different reason. Do you think that you can just disappear for a year and come back without your family noticing?”

            “No,” said Igor uncertainly.

            “That's what I thought,” said Oleg.

            His parents were crying, his sister was hugging him, and his brother didn’t seem bothered. Igor did not know how he felt about the KGB taking him away from his family. His parents were not the best but he would miss his sister. The KGB had arranged this ceremonious goodbye because of Igor’s father’s wealth. His parents were under the impression that Igor was going to Moscow Reform School for Boys with Special Needs. The KGB had told Igor’s family that he had supposedly stolen a propaganda poster from a banned floor in a hotel. This was the story that the KGB officers (who were playing police in all interactions with Igor’s family) had invented. After a few more last-minute goodbyes Igor was in a large balck cart, heading back to the Lubyanka Building (the KGB headquarters) in central Moscow to receive his training and mission information. Igor could barely contain his excitement.

            At the Lubyanka building Igor was in a large conference room on the second floor. He was facing Oleg and a man who he did not know.

            The man held out his hand and said, “Hello, my name is Sten,” he continued quickly, “as you may know, we have brought you here today to give you information on what you are about to do.”

            “No kid stuff, alright, we are staying on topic,” Oleg added unhelpfully. Igor would have liked to retort but he kept quiet.

            “Thank you, Oleg. Now you were selected because of your family and because you are naturally good at disappearing and blending in with a crowd. You are also very smart.”

             “Hold it,” Igor interrupted, "How do you know this? Have you been spying on me and my family?”

            Oleg and Sten looked at each other briefly. Oleg said, “Well, we need to know the people who we could entrust this job to, so we did a little bit of poking around’.”

            “Have you been spying on me?” Igor interrupted.

            “Yes,” Sten said before Oleg could answer. There was a nasty silence and he noticed how very hot the room was, it must be at least 30 degrees (celcius) here Igor thought. For an instant Igor thought about running away but quickly thought better of it. He wanted to work for the KGB and the things that the KGB had to do to find him couldn’t get in the way.

            “Alright,” said Sten, “we need to get on topic now. Your mission is to infiltrate the CIA. Igor, do you know what the CIA is?

            “Yes,” said Igor.

            “What is it?” Oleg said.

            Igor said, “The Central Intelligence Agency, the American version of the KGB.”

            “You know your stuff, kid,” said Oleg.

             “Inside the CIA we will need you to gather data on double agents,” said Sten, “that is all, you are excused.”

            Igor retorted, “How will I do that?”

            “We will discuss that at a later date, after you have gotten your training,” said Sten.

            Igor stayed up late that night in the KGB training camp barracks wondering about his training and what it would hold. He found out in the early hours of the very next morning. Igor was woken by his roommate who was a thirty-six year old training to be a photographic analyst by the name of Lenin Sant.

            At what felt like 3:00 in the morning Lenin whispered, “Get up, time for morning drills.” This was not what Igor was expecting on his first day, but he still got up and clumsily put on his clothes with Lenin whispering, “Hurry up, hurry up,” over and over again. He didn’t realize why he needed to do this so quickly until he got to the “Drill Pit”, as the trainees called it.

            A man was standing on a large podium in the front of the Drill Pit. He started off by saying, “Alright, as many of you already know we have a new trainee,” he stared around the room impressively, “Igor Dimitrov, come here.”

            Igor walked slowly to the front of the room. When he got there he said, “Hello, my name is Igor. I am new here,” he paused, “I am excited to be here,” he said tentatively.

            “Thank you,” said the man, "Now get back down to your spot for drills,” Igor walked back to his spot next to Lenin. The man at the front of the room ran off the podium into a neighboring room. Everybody ran around grabbing knives, guns, and armor from secret spots in the room. Igor was expecting pushups not this. All the sudden around a hundred men in black suits burst into the room, all armed. Igor ran to find Lenin, he was standing in a corner of the room with about five other people, the man who had been standing on the podium was nowhere to be seen.

            Igor asked Lenin, “What is going on?”

            Lenin said, “We are under attack, grab a gun.”

            Igor ran to an open cabinet in the wall and grabbed a knife and a gun. He headed towards the nearest attacker. His hand with the gun was shaking badly. He pointed the gun at his attacker and said, “Put your hands up,”  just as the KGB had done when they allegedly arrested him in front of his dad. The man stared at him for a moment, glanced at the gun in Igor’s hands, dropped his own gun and slowly put his hands up.

            They were rounded up quickly, all of them were put in handcuffs and led away. After they were all rounded up the man who had introduced Igor earlier said, “thank you all for your participation in this. Igor, those were actually actors hired by the KGB to play CIA agents,” he paused, “You have passed the initial test.”

             Igor said incredulously, “That was a test?”

             “exactly, and everyone including Lenin knew it was a test,” said the man.

            The following day Igor was eating dinner with Lenin after his interrogation with the head of training at the KGB. It had been a tough few hours. They had gone over everything from Igor’s family to his grades of which he had a hard time remembering. After two more days of interviews Igor was finally cleared to start training.

            On Igor’s first day they went over how they would get Igor to the United States and how they would get him a job at the CIA, apparently he would be recruited by a KGB agent inside the CIA who was working as a recruiter, his job was to get all KGB agents inside the CIA with few questions asked. Igor would be working as an analyst inside the CIA and that job would give him clearance to information about double agents who might be a threat to the Soviet Union. Igor would get to the United states by being snuck over the border to Finland in the dead of night he would then be transferred by car to Sweden where he would be taken on a boat to London, England. In London he would take a flight to New York City and be taken to the CIA headquarters where he would do a job interview with a KGB agent posing as a CIA recruiter.

            The following day they went over American culture including things like how to walk and how to drink water in the American way. Igor thought some of this stuff was somewhat unnecessary in Igor’s opinion but according to the teachers every detail mattered. On the third day of Igor’s training they went over hiding in plain sight and conversation, on the fourth day they taught him about communication with the KGB during the mission.

            After six months of training they were off. Igor was in a normal car with tinted windows zooming down the road, on his way to the airport. At the airport Igor got on a flight to Tallinn. In Tallinn Igor was transferred to a flight to Murmansk, it was essential to not take a direct flight to Murmansk because it would be too easy for the CIA to track them. In Murmansk Igor transferred to a blue bus which took him to a small red car in the middle of nowhere. The bus drove off. Igor got in the red car with an agent named Nikita. They drove for about two hours. Nikita made a sudden swerve off the road into a field when there were no other cars in the vicinity in the middle of the field Nikita asked Igor to get out of the car with no explanation. Another car, this one green drove in from the road on the other side of the field. Igor was completely bewildered, "Sorry for being late, Nikita, there was a lot of traffic on the other road,” said a woman who had gotten out of the green car.

            “It is fine,” said Nikita, “this is Annika and she will take you to Finland.”

            Igor said, “Hello.”

            Annika responded sweetley, “Well hello, Igor.”

            Igor stepped into the car and they drove back to the road Igor was on originally. Nakita and his red car drove off to the other road where Annika had come from. After a few more hours of driving they arrived at the edge of a forest which straddled the border between Finland and the Soviet Union. Annika met with another agent who took the car and drove off. Annika and Igor set off into the woods. After a 2 hour walk they crossed the Finnish border in the dead of night. One hour later they set up camp for the night. They got up early in the morning, 3 hours later they arrived at a small country road where two cars were waiting. Annika got in one and Igor got in the other. They drove off in opposite directions.

            Three days later after many car switches, Igor got out of a black car and walked down a dock. Igor was in Gothenburg awaiting a boat to take him to England. A large fishing trawler pulled up to the dock, it had seventeen fishing poles sticking out of the back. A man got out of the boat, offered him a chocolate and said, “you look lonely,” Igor knew this was the agent who would take him to London. Igor thanked the man for the chocolate and said, “I am cold, may I get on your boat and warm up?”

            The man responded, “sure, maybe we can even go on a little boat ride so you can see the sights.”

            “Thank you,” responded Igor.

            Igor hopped on the boat and headed for the front. He knew from the preparations that there would be a hatch under a bucket of fish which would lead him to the safe area where he would make the trip. Igor was a little annoyed by this but the man who planned the mission said that he needed to be hidden in case a NATO ship boarded them. However Igor was pretty sure that NATO did not know who he was because he had never been on a mission before and he was a very tight secret within the KGB. Igor went down into the hull of the boat which was surprisingly posh for a fishing boat; the agent who would be taking Igor to London stepped down and introduced himself. He was a nice man by the name of Franz Lebidev, he had two kids and lived in Leningrad. Franz said that they would get out of the Baltic Sea that evening and would head to a dock in Stavanger where they would have dinner. They would have dinner on the boat which had a fully stocked kitchen.

           Four hours later Igor was having a good time, all of the stories he had heard from Lenin about how he would get sea sick turned out to not be true. It was a perfect day and there were barely any waves and when it got bumpy it was really fun. That evening once Franz had expertly pulled the boat into a dock in Stavanger they enjoyed a delicious meal of fried chicken and bread. Franz was an excellent cook, he said he would have become a chef if he hadn’t joined the KGB. Franz apparently took this route all the time and he was a regular fisherman (or atleast the locals thought he was a fisherman) in the town of Stavanger so his boat was not suspicious.     

          The following day Igor and Franz set off for London, they were scheduled to arrive at about 5:30 in the afternoon. After an unknown amount of time (there was no clock in the safe area) Igor heard Franz walking over to the hatch he slid down the ladder and said, “There is a NATO ship out there, looks like a french one, anyway just letting you know that someone might board the ship if that happens get armed and hide, they should not find the hatch to get down here but try to be as silent as you can so that they won’t get a clue that you might be here.”

           Igor responded, “Okay, what should I do if they find me?”

           “Let's hope that they don’t find you but if they do then you should probably shoot them, but remember your weapons train for firing in the hull of a boat, don’t shoot at the hull below the water line, there is a red line,” he pointed at a red line about halfway up the cabin, “which indicates the water line.”

           “Thanks for letting me know.”

           “No problem.”

           Igor waited and waited. Finally the sound of another boat’s engine getting closer all of the time. Igor was scared as he remembered the lecture about how the whole mission could be thwarted with a good, thorough search of the boat. When the engine sounded as though it was right next to them a French sounding voice said, “Do you have a permit for fishing in these waters?”

           Franz said, “yes,” in a perfect British accent.

           The French man said, “these are restricted waters.”

           “Are they?” Responded Franz.

           “Yes, you can’t have a permit for this particular area because we don’t issue permits for this area of the sea,” said the French man sounding exasperated.

           “I am so sorry I was just about to head back to my base in London, I did not realise that I was outside of legal fishing grounds, you can escort me back if you want,” said Franz.

           “There will be no need for that, however be warned, we will be watching you on the radar and if you do not head back to London there will be trouble for you.”

           “Yes, thank you,” said Lenin.

           After that they started making their way to London a little faster than before the encounter, as if Franz wanted to get away from the French ship.

           In London Igor got off the boat and was escorted in a black sadan to Heathrow Airport where he caught a flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. In Reykjavik he would transfer to a flight bound for Laguardia Airport in New York, he would have business fare so that if MI6 or the CIA were watching they would not know where he would be going until about two hours before departure. Igor would be flying in the front end of the plane, there would be another KGB agent towards the back of the plane. At Laguardia he would be picked up in a black car with a bumper sticker for The New York Flower Boutique (The New York Flower Boutique did not exist). Inside the car would be the KGB agent posing as a CIA recruiter who would be Igor’s partner at the CIA

           Igor boarded his flight and took off, he had never been on a plane before and the sensation of slowly rising into the air was an unforgettable experience. In Reykjavik Igor got off the plane and enjoyed the fresh air. Two hours later Igor boarded the flight to Laguardia. At Laguardia Igor headed straight for the exit and found the car he was looking for, he loaded his bags into the trunk of the car.

          They were silent as they started to drive to Washington. Finally the agent asked, “How are you?”

          “I am fine, what about you?” Igor responded

         “I am doing quite well thank you very much,” said the man, “My name is Andrey,  my name that we will use is Jacob Smith because it sounds American, what is yours?”

         “Igor Dimitrov,” responded Igor.

            “I like it,” said Andrey, “There will be around four more hours of driving, is there any music that you like?”

         “Classical,” responded Igor. Andrey switched to a radio station with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing Dvorak. Igor and Andrey were quiet for the next few hours. The scenery outside of New York was amazing. Fields rushed by the window, people going about their day, cars zooming by. Four hours later Igor got out of the car in Langley, Virginia (CIA headquarters). Igor and Andrey walked towards the entrance. As they passed Kryptos Igor looked up and suddenly felt glad he was not a codebreaker, it was absolute gibberish. Igor had no idea how anyone could solve it.

         In a small conference room on the second floor Igor and Andrey sat knowing they were being watched and couldn’t give anything away. They had arranged to fake an interview and they also had prearranged questions and answers so that Igor was sure to get into the CIA in case someone else was watching the interview who could veto the acceptance Andrey would give to Igor. Andrey started off by asking Igor his name and family details and other routine questions. After about an hour Andrey started to get to the tough questions such as, “Igor, if you were to feed the KGB information about a fake nuclear missile in Guam to draw their attention away from a lead they had about a real nuclear missile in a fake oil field just south of Barrow how would you convince them that the one south of Barrow was fake and the one in Guam was real?”

            To which Igor responded, “Well, first, I would get some fake paperwork and a letter from the CIA headquarters to the military base on Guam talking about how the missile should be propped up if it were to be fired. I would also tell them to go on a specific radio signal where the CIA would plant fake talk of sending another missile to Guam.”

            “Thank you Igor you may go to your hotel and I will make a decision about whether to hire you or not. Please come back to this office at noon tomorrow so that I can deliver your results.” As he walked out of the room Igor was pleased with his performance and thought that he might actually be hired if it was a real application.

            Igor took a cab to his hotel, Andrey had suggested the St. Regis in Washington DC so that is where he decided to stay. It was a very nice hotel. When he arrived at his room he switched on the television and flicked through the channels. He finally decided to watch the news and maybe some cartoons afterward. The news surprised him, he was used to a specific style of news, one that glorified the government and their ideals. This news however, NBC was not glorifying it was being honest, they talked about both of the political spectrum not just glorifying the president's side and putting down the other.

           After watching some cartoons Igor decided to go down and get some food. It was very good and he was treated like royalty. Andrey really knew what he was talking about when suggested the St. Regis. After some food Igor felt like he needed some fresh air, so he took a walk around the block. For a few moments he caught himself wondering what it would be like to live here and even became slightly envious of the people living here. As it started to get dark Igor headed back to his hotel room.

            The following day Igor had a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast with jam. At a quarter past eleven he took a cab back to Langley. At noon Igor met Andrey in the same conference room that the interview had taken place in the previous day. Andrey started off by congratulating Igor on his new position as a CIA analyst, “Congratulations, Igor, we have decided to hire you as an analyst for the CIA.” At that moment a man came into the room and said, “Hey Jacob.” For a second Igor didn’t know who the man was talking to then he remembered that his fake name was Jacob Smith.

            “Hi Mason,” said Andrey, “Igor, this is Mason Johnson, he will be your supervisor.”

            “Hello,” said Igor.

            “Hello, if you would like you can follow me to your new office,” said Mason.

            “Okay,” replied Igor.

            “Your office will be in the basement with the other analysts working on the Soviet Union, you will be working with a team that will also specialize in the USSR.”

            “Okay.”

            Igor followed Mason down the hall into an elevator which led to the first basement level. When they got out they were greeted by long gray tunnels which seemed to go on forever. Igor knew from his training that the CIA headquarters was designed to be confusing so that if there were to be an attack then attackers would hopefully get lost. In Igor’s opinion it was quite a brilliant idea but he was a little annoyed at how long it took to get from place to place, “Ah, here we are,” said Mason, “this is where you will be working,” Mason had just scanned his badge which had let them into a huge room with about a dozen people hard at work analyzing photographs, telegram signals, and radio chatter, all would be working with Igor in the department that specialized in the Soviet Union. Mason said, “Hello, everybody, this is your new colleague Igor, please make him feel welcome.”

            “Hello, Igor,” the room chorused.

            Mason took Igor aside and handed him a badge and said, “This badge will let you into any room that you have security clearance in, including this one.”

            “Thank you,” Igor muttered as he took the badge

            “Your desk is over there right next to William Brown and Michael Williams’s desks.” Igor walked over to his desk and said, “hello,” to William and Michael. They said “hello,” back and Igor got to work. Mason had stepped into his office which was right next door.

            Igor’s first order of business was to find the list of double agents in the KGB and report them back to Moscow.  Igor started off by checking the filing cabinets for agents dispatched to the USSR once he found the file he was surprised at how many people were there and even more surprised at how many were double agents. Igor took a very small camera discreetly out of his pocket and secretly took a photo of every page of the file. When he was done he put the camera back in his pocket, he would send the photos back to Moscow later that week. Igor would receive his next assignment when the KGB agents in Moscow checked over the photos to see if he had done the mission correctly. Igor knew they had to make sure he was trustworthy until they entrusted him to more dangerous tasks.

            When Igor started to work on the things that the CIA had asked him to do he knew he would have to do the harmless things correctly and the things that could be harmful to the KGB incorrectly but making it look believable so as not to draw suspicion to himself.

            Igor first needed to receive information from an agent stationed in Vladivostok about the Trans Siberian Pipeline and how the agent figured out how to stop the oil. The Americans wanted the pipeline disabled because the oil coming from the pipeline could help boost the Soviet war machine in areas of interest to the Americans. Igor decided that he should change some of the information coming from the agent because if the pipeline was disabled it could hurt the Soviets very badly. Igor decided the best way he to stop the information from coming through was that he could hide the communications and hope that the CIA would think that the KGB had discovered and captured the agent while also making a mental note that the KGB would capture this person in real life because they would have a list of agents and double agents stationed in the Soviet Union once Igor sent over the photos. After doing his work and reporting the fake communications error to the supervisor, Mason, Igor was excused for the day. When he was on his way to his new apartment Igor became very worried; what if he had been too obvious, what if he had been caught. Igor couldn’t believe how much time had passed, it was already a quarter to five.

            Igor had rented out an apartment in Warrenton Virginia. It was about an hour drive to Warrenton, when he arrived at his new apartment he marveled at how it was so easy to get a good apartment in the United States. He went out for dinner at a diner near the center of town where he ate a cheeseburger for the first time in his life. Igor wondered why they didn’t have burgers back home, it was very good, the burger was juicy, cheesy, and meaty at the same time.

            The following day was a Sunday so Igor had the day off,so  he decided to take a day trip to Washington. In Washington Igor took a tour of the Library of Congress, the Lincoln Memorial, and even stopped by the White House. After marveling at the White House for a good half hour Igor decided to take a stroll down Constitution Avenue to take a look at the Capitol building. Igor was very surprised that he could walk right up the front stairs into the rotunda. In Moscow he only got to see the inside of the Kremlin because of his father's status as a friend of Kruschev. If he was a normal person he would never have been able to see the interior of the building. After an early dinner at a fine restaurant just outside of the district he started his long drive back to Warrenton.

            On Monday Igor got up early, ate a hurried breakfast of cereal and oatmeal, and started his commute to Langley. He was only at his desk for a quarter of an hour when a man walked in and said, “The director of the Central Intelligence Agency would like to see you.” Igor’s heart skipped a beat he was sure he had discovered and been a little too obvious with that trick he had pulled on Saturday with the agent in Vladivostok. There were sure to be other means of communications other than radio. Igor said, “Okay, where do I go?”

            “Just follow me,” the man said.

            “Igor come with me, quick,” said Andrey who had just ran in through the door.

            “Jacob,” the other man said, “he is going to an urgent meeting with the director”

            “He won’t notice if he is a few minutes late,” said Andrey, clearly annoyed.

            “Fine but only five minutes, I will be waiting right here.”

            “Thank you for understanding,” said Andrey, obviously not thankful. Igor followed Andrey as they raced down corridors, staircases, and finally into a deserted bathroom, "Igor,” he whispered, "the mission has been aborted, we have significant intelligence that your cover has been compromised. So, how is your new job going?” For a moment Igor was confused but then realised that somebody had just walked into the room. Staging fake conversations was one of the things that Igor had learned in training so he had some practice, "It is good, I think I need to get back to work now though ,” Igor responded.

            “Me too,” said Andrey, They walked out together and immediately started sprinting down the corridor back to the man who would take Igor to the CIA director, “Be careful,” said Andrey, “if things go badly you know how to escape.”

            “Yeah, but hopefully it is something else,” Igor said without much hope.

            “Don’t get your hopes up,” Andrey said, “shoot, we only have thirty more seconds to get back to that guy.”

            “Sprint,” said Igor. Trying to muffle their footsteps they sprinted as fast as they could back to the man who was sent to take Igor to the director. As they ran Andrey said, “If things go sour then jump out the window we will have an escape car waiting for you, just run down to the road next to the Potomac, it will be waiting for you there.” Igor recognised that Andrey was still using the word if and he knew that Andrey thought that those small words would cheer him up, it did not, however Igor appreciated the effort.

            When they got back to the corridor the man said, “You got very lucky, you got here exactly seven seconds before your time was up.”

            “Yeah,” replied Igor, “so, where is the office?”

            “Just follow me,” the man said irritably. They walked about a hundred yards to an elevator where they took an elevator to the sixth floor. Down one last hallway and they reached a mahogany door with a plaque reading, “Allen Douglas, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency,” it was very intimidating especially because of what he thought was going to happen in that room.

            “Igor,” said mr. Douglas, “I think you know why we are here today.”

            “What?” Said Igor.

            “You are KGB, I know you are.”

            “What makes you think that?” replied Igor, trying to play dumb.

            “You were pretty obvious with that assignment you did on Saturday.”

            “Oh,” said Igor, “are you a KGB agent?” Igor needed to draw the conversation away from himself for as long a possible so that he could think of a plan.

            “That is not what we are discussing today.” Igor knew it in an instant, the director of the CIA is a KGB agent! Igor didn’t know what to think, he knew Andrey didn’t know he was a KGB agent, or at least ninety-nine percent sure he didn’t know. He knew the style of lie from training, it was a basic trick by not denying something but avoiding it while acting like (in this case) that it was so obvious that you weren’t a KGB agent that it wouldn’t be suspicious, "Now, Igor before I go any further I would like to offer you a deal of defection.” Igor knew he should defect but would not say so in front of the director of the CIA who was actually a KGB agent, this was a test to see if he was still loyal to Kruschev after he had a taste of democracy, "No,” he said, “I will not, I am loyal and I will stay loyal.”

            “Alright then, you will be charged with espionage, put your hands on the desk I am putting you under arrest.” Igor did not struggle, he knew if he acted like he stayed loyal then he would be released with no one knowing, instead he said, “Okay.”

            “Igor, if you were given the choice to defect to the United States would you do it?”

            “No,” Igor said, “I would also like to say that I am still loyal to the USSR and I will escape.”

            “Alright Igor,” said mr. Douglas as he took the handcuffs off Igor’s hands, “I am a KGB agent, you have just passed a test ordered by Moscow to make sure you are loyal.”

            “Thank you, it is my duty as a citizen of the Soviet Union to stay loyal to Kruschev and to the KGB,” said Igor. At that moment Igor knew nothing he said was true and knew what he had to do.

            Igor was going to defect, he knew that democracy would triumph and with time the USSR would collapse just like all the other brutal and oppressive regimes do. Igor was sad that his decision had come to this, but what other choice did he have.

            On wednesday he got an assignment to plant a bomb in the Library of Congress he knew he would never do this. This assignment scared him, if the KGB could just tell him to destroy a historic building in the United States capital then they could just as well tell other operatives just like him across the country to destroy a state capitol building or even the national capitol even worse one step to far and they could start nuclear war. Bombing the Library of Congress could easily cause a large investigation and possibly a militarized response. Igor thought about freedom and how, just one year ago he didn’t know what freedom actually was, he wanted Russia back, he wanted a democracy in his home country, but for the time being, until that happened Igor would call the United States home.

            When Sunday arrived the following week Igor did not take the day off, nor did he send the real list of double agents in the Soviet Heartland, instead he sent over a fake list of real KGB that were not moles. Igor thought it was a brilliant idea and was sure it would cause big trouble within the KGB. After Igor had dropped off the envelope full of fake moles he drove Langley and stepped into Mason’s office. He had decided to admit he was working for the KGB and announce that would defect to the United States to Mason because as his boss he would probably take it easier than someone at the top. Igor was going to tell Mason everything including that mr. Douglas and Andrey were moles, he would tell him about the plot to bomb the Library of Congress, and most importantly how he felt about democracy and the realization that a country that rewarded the friends of people in government and not the average person like communism was supposed to, just wouldn’t work for him, "Hello Igor,” said Mason, “to what do I owe this pleasure?” Mason listened as Igor told him everything and when Igor had finally finished he got up and started pacing around the room then he returned to his desk, picked up the phone and dialed a number that Igor could not see and said, “Igor, could you please step out of my office for a second.” Igor left, wondering what would happen when he came back in.

            Around fifteen minutes later Mason stuck his head out of the door and said, “Igor, you may come back in now.” Igor sat down across from Mason and listened as he explained that mr. Douglas and Andrey were both being arrested and charged with espionage, “We are very grateful that you came forward, because of this I have requested that all charges on you be dropped the new interim director of the CIA agreed, you are free to go and enjoy your new country. I suggest that you submit an application for a green card,” Mason took a deep breath and continued, “I am pleased to say that me and the interim CIA director believe we should keep you as an employee of the CIA, most people in the CIA do not agree with this decision but we think that you deserve to stay because of the enormous amount of bravery it must have taken for you ro come forward.”

            Eight years later, when Igor became a citizen of the United States he was awarded the presidential medal of freedom for his bravery, he had moved from his small apartment in Warrenton to a nice home in Washington. Igor married another CIA analyst, together they had three children. Igor enjoyed the United States very much but it just wasn’t the same as the Soviet Union. Over time he forgot his family back home. Igor dreamed of returning to Moscow, to his friends, to his home, for more than thirty years he waited.

            When Igor was fifty four years old the Soviet Union fell, he got a call from his sister, his parents had both died from of execution just after Igor’s betrayal of the KGB, he knew there was a chance that would happen but didn’t think about it much, his siblings had all been put into separate foster homes, his sister later found out that Igor’s brother had died of food poisoning in a hospital in Omsk just two years earlier. Igor was sad to hear that his family Igor passed away prematurely due to stage four pancreatic cancer in 2002, he couldn’t have hoped for a better death, in Washington DC, surrounded by his family and friends. In his final hours Igor thought back to the adventure that had brought him to where he was today, of his old home in Moscow, and most importantly his family, his wife, his children, his brother, his sister, and most importantly, his parents.