Irkutsk Ch. 24

Astra smiled at that. "I want to know one other thing first. We know you were offered freedom in exchange for us. You could have been back in your old life, safe forever from us. Why didn't you accept that offer?"

I thought for a while. "I don't know how to answer that question. Don't you know the answer?"

Astra looked over at Nadezna, and they appeared to have a brief, silent conversation. She looked back at me. "You just tried to apologise to Nadezna just now didn't you?"

Clearly I had no secrets now. That didn't matter - however she had known, there was no doubt that she did know. "Yes."

"Why did you think you owed her an apology?"

Like the Lord, my mind works in mysterious ways. I recalled the old movie "Love Story" and its tagline "Love means never having to say you're sorry". I pushed that thought to the back of my mind where it belonged. "I had been selfish with her."

"No you hadn't. You did exactly what she wanted; what she asked you to do. And in any respect, you've been unselfish and given us what we want often enough. I'll ask again. Why did you need to apologise?"

Love means never having... No. Focus. "I wasn't sure that I had contributed enough to justify just taking what I wanted. I was feeling insecure."

"Thank you. Perhaps we're insecure too. So answer my question. Why didn't you accept their offer?"

I am a lawyer. I didn't enjoy being cross-examined. But I did owe her. I owed them all an answer if they wanted to know. "I can measure my life in two halves. Before I went to Olkhon Island my life lacked purpose. My love life was a disaster. My sex life was mainly separate from my love life, and that was an entirely separate disaster. I had given up on finding a purpose to my life, or love, or a good sex life. Now I have all of these. And all with my Ladies.

"Now I have had a taste of how good life can be, I couldn't possibly return to the way I was. But even that is not a complete answer. Every single one of you has been treated like dirt, despite your wonderful contribution to your people, your country; to the world. Despite your capacity for a continuing contribution. What worried me mainly was that you might not be allowed into Australia without me.

"You will be a hit, a great success in Australia with or without me. Not just for your own benefit, but for Australia's benefit. I couldn't live in Australia knowing that you were back in Russia being devalued and with your talents being withheld from world. I'd have to try and rescue you. The obvious way to do that was to ensure you never returned to Russia so the question would not arise."

Forty three smiles. But Astra still wasn't satisfied. "And you still felt the need to apologise to Nadezna? Do you recall your marriage vows?"

"Yes, of course."

"And do you remember Chris's vows?"

"Yes, they were the same."

"So you know she loves you?"

"Yes."

"And you know that goes for all of us?"

"Yes."

"Then just remember. Sometimes we have the right to give you a treat. Let us all contribute to the marriage."

"Yes. Sor... Yes, I understand."

"Now we won't speak of that again." I felt like a small child who had been reprimanded. But the meeting wasn't over. Astra looked over at Chris and spoke once more. "Chris coordinated the action from when you were taken until we got back on board. She can tell you and fill in the gaps for the rest of us."

Chris took up the commentary. "We knew you had been captured and were just in time to se you being lowered into the boat. We knew there was nothing on board this ship that could follow that boat, so we radioed for a helicopter. Astra, Dominika and Tina had experience with undercover incursions, so Tatiana flew them back to find you. We thought you might need to get out of Russia quickly once they had extracted you."

Quickly? I guess you could say Mach II was "quickly"!

"We weren't sure how strong the psychic link was, but we thought it worth doing what we could, and Hana, Angéle, Maria and sometimes I tried to send mind messages. But we were all thinking of you. And we know that you received those messages because we felt your responses. Even though you left them out of your commentary. However, we knew you were working hard and so we tried not to intrude too much."

I nodded in response.

"We had the tracker for the transmitter we had inflicted upon you. It was embarrassing in retrospect that we had done that, but it was a misjudgment that turned out well. We were worried about trying to get a trace. Our incursion team was lucky to locate you on their first try, once they had landed on the coast east of Vladivostok. They had you pinpointed in your cell from then on.

Tina arranged to be dropped off in Vladivostok to arrange transport back here while Astra and Dominika came after you. They had contacted Joseph to provide land transport and were on their way to pick you up when they noticed your trace showed you moving again.

"Meanwhile Tina picked up an old four-seater military plane that was never going to be used again. It was still in working order but overdue for a service. We hoped it would make two more flights. Tina bribed him to look away while she refueled it and took it to the abandoned airstrip that you saw. Joseph provided the local transport again.

"The three of them waited near the settlement and tracked you as you walked towards them. They were worried about picking you up as they could not see where your captors were staying. They got a visual of you about 400 yards from the settlement and decided you would be likely to work your way around to a high position."

I knew that had been a bad move and I pulled a face. Chris saw and settled my fears...

"No, you did the right thing." She looked a little embarrassed at Astra for a moment. "Astra and I discussed via radio what to do then. We were still concerned that we might come unexpectedly upon your captors, so we agreed to set a trap. Astra and Dominika concealed themselves around the area we thought you would head for, and when you got there Tina simply walked in between the huts and called out. The two men came out and she just pointed you out. They took the bait, ignored the risk she herself represented and instead approached you, obviously thinking you would be an easy target. While Astra and Dominika were mopping up the hostiles, Tina quickly checked that there were no others.

"You know the rest, but it is only fair for you to know that your apparent imminent capture was not because of your poor decision-making, but because we took a gambit to flush out the hostiles."

Most of that seemed par for the course for a team of superwomen, but there was one part of the equation Chris had just outlined that didn't make sense. "So can you just call up M on the radio and ask him to deliver a supersonic aircraft?"

Chris looked a little embarrassed. "When I was in the Russian military, we had an exchange with the North Korean military and I served there for three months. Unlike the Russians they didn't bully me and it was the best three months of my army career. I had kept in touch with some of my colleagues, and I knew they had one of our Tupolev bombers. The Russians forces had given it to North Korea, convinced that North Korea would see it as the best fighter around and buy more. North Korea liked its performance, but maintenance would have been too expensive and they would have had to keep a separate stock of parts. One of my contacts was retired from the Korean Peoples' Army Air Force and was now working as caretaker of a boneyard for out-of-service aircraft in North Korea. The Tupolev was parked away in a corner, never to fly again. We offered the caretaker a million $US and to use our contacts to get him and his family out of North Korea. The last we heard of him he was in Taiwan."

OK, I already had had some idea of the Brigade's financial capacity, but this had to be a major outlay.

"How does that affect our finances?"

"It put a dent in our bank account, but we'll manage fine. Certainly better than if we didn't have you."

Well. It's not everyone who had been given such a clear picture of how much they are worth to their family. Or perhaps that meant I had a big deficit to work off before I became a net asset to the Brigade.

I must have looked worried, because Chris looked at me and said, "We all agreed that if necessary we'd spend our last ruble to get you back, and we're happy that it didn't cost that much."

That seemed to be the end of the meeting, and people started chatting in small groups. I was still stunned at a range of issues. But everything that belonged to a member of the Brigade belonged to every member of the Brigade. Now we were getting to Australia it was probably about time I told them that I had a little money behind me. The house I had lived in for years before I had embarked upon the adventure of a lifetime. And other assorted investments that would have been sufficient to keep me secure into old age. On the basis of my previous lifestyle at least!

I was also delighted in a childlike way to learn that my tactics in scoping out the settlement had not been as flawed as I had thought. I didn't mind that my whereabouts had been given away by my Ladies. My rediscovery by my captors had been a tactical decision that my escape had made available to my rescuers.

A third thought that had been taking seed in my brain for a little longer was Joseph. Twice now he had come to our aid. On the second occasion he had placed himself at risk, and I was worried whether he was safe from reprisals. I wondered if we would do anything for him.

I was still sitting there starting at my shoes pondering these matters, when a quiet "ahem" brought me back to my surroundings. Tina, Dominika and Astra clearly wanted to speak to me, and I couldn't recall how long I had been sitting there lost in my thoughts.

There was something I wanted to say to these three. "I don't know how to thank you for coming to get me. I hadn't really thought out my next step, and whether I had been recaptured or not, without you I would have been in a hopeless mess. I didn't even have any idea where I was."

Dominika replied, "You should know that I was with a group imprisoned in that very hut about five years ago. It never occurred to us that we would be able to escape, and you did it on your own. How did you do it?"

Everyone was listening again, gathered around silently. I hadn't gone into detail of the tunneling from the hut, and so I now gave a full accounting in detail, including the humorous aspects and the setbacks. Me being caught half-dressed. The slate bouncing back and hitting me in the knee. Me getting stuck half in and half out. Maria rescuing me with a "visitation". Nearly getting lost instead of following the road.

Dominika looked strangely at me. "I nearly went out of my mind, stuck in that cell. For you it seems to have been almost a happy time. How did you stay sane?"

I thought about that. "I was busy, and I had visitations from my Ladies to encourage me. And I was comfortable with my priorities. I knew I wasn't going to let myself be the means by which these men got you all back to Russia. I trusted that the Brigade would help, and you did."

Tina looked at her watch. "The others said that our reward for getting you back was to have you to ourselves for 24 hours. You have a day to rest, and then you're our toy. What would you like us to do?

I looked around at them. "You rescued me. You do what you want. Or get me to do what you want. But before I do, there is another thing I must tell you all. I was going to tell just Chris, but I think you all deserve to know." I definitely had their attention now.

Before I left Australia, I had gathered enough to live on for the rest of my life. I didn't go to Russia for the money, but because I was... stale. I have investments that need now to be taken into account in your asset calculations."

"What have you got?" This was from a lady I remembered as one who had tied me down, wired me up to various devices and used me as a sex aid. I had never learned her name, but she now introduced herself as Zdslava. I explained that I had various stocks valued (shortly before I had left Australia) at just under half a million Australian dollars, and six investment properties in Melbourne worth about two and a half million. Plus a bank account that must be about a quarter of a million now with my income from my work in Irkutsk. And then I added my own home that I hadn't thought of as an investment property but which had been rented when I left. There was about million still owing on the investments, so the net value was between 2½ and 3 million Australian, or a little over 2 million US dollars. I wasn't sure what that might be in rubles - perhaps a little over a hundred million.

"So we have captured and tortured a millionaire?" That was Chris, sounding nervous.

"Yes, and I have no idea how I can ever thank you. On the other hand, I have my own thanking to do. Tina, Dominika and Astra can do anything they want with me for twenty four hours." I looked at them in turn. "I promise you I'll enjoy it."

"How can you be sure?"

"This is the Brigade's reward, my reward, to you for bringing me home. Even if I don't enjoy it, which is unlikely, it will still be better than being stuck alone and with nothing in the wilds of Russia, whether in a cell or outside. And in any case, even if whatever you have in mind is not physically pleasurable, you will give me the rewarding experience of learning more about you and giving you pleasure. Again I say; whatever you want."

Yulia spoke up then. "But first you will relax for twenty four hours. Nothing vigorous. Nothing stressful. No sex. Forty four of us will make sure of that. Then our brave recovery team will do their best to make you regret that offer."

I spent a day relaxing, wandering carefree around the ship, enjoying the peace normally associated with an ocean cruise, surrounded by beautiful women who were off limits (for the next day).

I then spent some time on the bridge with the Captain, watching the bows cut through mile after mile of a sea that was calm for the moment as the sun set on the starboard beam turning the sea to brass, and then the sky to a red and orange fairyland. After a long while he broached another subject.

"I was planning a rather unusual ceremony for the crossing of the equator, but for the first time ever I thought to cancel the celebrations. Never before has one of my charges been kidnapped from my ship. Now, however, we are all together again, and I was wondering if you felt ready tomorrow. We should cross the line itself at about 9pm, and we would generally start an hour or so beforehand."

I thought of my promise to my rescuers. I thought they would be happy to defer collecting on their reward. Yulia's insistence on a day's rest could be accommodated. I told him to go ahead and that I would make it right with my ladies. I had previous experience of the crossing the line ceremony, and I was sure my Ladies wouldn't want to miss such a rare experience.

I bade the Captain farewell, and wandered down to speak to my three rescuers. They were happy to defer extracting what they wanted out of me, and full of anticipation for a new experience of the nautical world. I was a little worried that they may have looked into my mind and thus spoil the surprise, but they genuinely seemed not to know what was awaiting them.

For the second day in a row I went to bed alone, rested, calm and positive about the future.