The Undaunted (Book 2 of The Undesirables)

Chapter 45: The Choir Boy

Bobby leaned his head back against the wall as he told his story, taking comfort in the dull pain of broken plaster scratching his scalp. "The last time I saw you, when you decided to leave me and stay in Russia," Bobby explained, "I was arrested." He stared out the shell hole so that he wouldn't have to look at her. "They didn't even wait until we were back in America. They arrested me right here, in Russia. They wouldn't let me fly myself home. I guess they were afraid I'd try to bail out. Instead I was handcuffed and transported as a prisoner back to the United States. Then I was transferred to a military prison."

"Arrested? For what?!" Karen asked, horror in her voice.

"Espionage," Bobby replied.

"Espionage?!" Karen repeated in disbelief. "You're not a spy!"

"Aren't I?" Bobby asked. "That's what I was when I told you our plan to bomb the Baku Oil Fields, to bomb Chelyabinsk, if it looked like Russia was going to lose the war. It's what I was when I told you about America's plan to destroy Russian industry and resources before they became German industry and resources."

"I still don't understand," Karen said, shaking her head. But he could see she really did understand – she was just refusing to believe it.

"That plan was a secret," Bobby explained.

"So what?" Karen denied. "You didn't tell it to anyone important."

"I told it to you."

"I'm not important."

"You're a soldier of the Red Army. You told Petr – another soldier of the Red Army. Either one or both of you could have told a political officer, or an NKVD agent. By now Stalin could know all about it – all about America's secret plan – top secret plan – to bomb Russia if she capitulates. All because I opened my big mouth."

"We didn't tell anyone."

"The U.S. Army doesn't know that. And if I were to tell them at my trial, I don't think they would be reassured."

"What trial?"

"A military tribunal. They haven't gotten around to convicting me yet. They've been busy organizing a war."

"But you're not in prison now," Karen wondered. "They must have released you."
"In a sense, yes," Bobby admitted. He decided not to get into the details of his staged escape.

"Then despite it all you're free."

Bobby laughed bitterly. "Only temporarily. If I ever return to America I'll be arrested and sent back to prison."

"Then why did they release you? Temporarily?"

"To appeal to you."

"Appeal to me?"

"To recruit you."

Karen stared at him, silent for a moment, as understanding washed over her. "To turn me into a spy."

Bobby shrugged. "You've got to admire the mathematical symmetry to it. It's a balanced equation: they release me, a spy, in return for creating you, a spy." Bobby glanced at Karen. She had her eyes closed, now, as if in pain.

Bobby continued, trying to condense the pain to a single, intense moment, like ripping off a bandage. "They want you to tell them when the Soviet Union is about to lose. They want to know when Stalin and the Red Army are about to capitulate, but before that capitulation is actually announced."

"Because they still plan to bomb Russsia."

Bobby nodded. "It's factories and oil fields, yes."