The Gray Cardinal: The Wolfpire Saga; Book 3

By Raymond Van Zleer

THE GRAY CARDINAL

The Wolfpire Saga

VOLUME III

Books 5 & 6

Yang : Gray Cardinals

In the resurrected USSR, the American born wolfpire, Ilyana Yurievna Kirakova, struggles to unleash the Dream mankinds only hope.
Standing in her way is the KGB who ruthlessly crush even the mere hint of less than one hundred percent loyalty.
Especially within the Communist Party and the KGBs own ranks.
Yet within this elite bastion manned by the USSRs staunchest defenders, Ilyana must do more than topple the communists and the KGB.
She must find a way to guide the Dream into being and protect the people of this world from the hellish doom that the antichrist intends to unleash.
Life would be easier if she did not also have to deal with spies, criminals, traitors, power struggles within the Communist Party and the KGB, her own parents, and a boyfriend.


Yin : Old Baba Answers

The birth of the Dream begins the ultimate battle between good and evil.
A battle far from won, as Ilyana Yurievna Kirakova confronts the ultimate challenge.
Molding a new nation and transforming the former USSRs many contentious lands within into a unified nation whose peoples must voluntarily stand shoulder to shoulder against the antichrists evils or be crushed by them.
Looming too are major secrets from her past.
The timely revelation of one secret will hopefully doom her to death.
The untimely revelation of any could destroy the Dream and all of mankind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Apr 10, 2008
• ISBN: 9781490748634

Raymond Van Zleer

Raymond Van Zleer, the author of THE ANTICHRIST WHOM CHRIST DECLARED, now turns his hand to a work of fantasy, tackling the theme of good versus evil, in the world as it currently is.

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Copyright 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2016 Raymond Van Zleer.

THE WOLFPIRE SAGA, characters, names, logos, and all related indicia are

Copyrights of Raymond Van Zleer

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4251-4962-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-4863-4 (e)

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THE WOLFPIRE SAGA VOLUME II

THE GRAY CARDINAL

Yang : Gray Cardinals

1 : A Seemingly Innocent Change

2 : Underground Secrets

3 : Izvestia

4 : Graduation & An Editorial

5 : Dissidents & Subversives

6 : A Known Killer, An Unknown Spy

7 : Machinations

8 : Not Again…

9 : December Fourth’s Bits & Pieces

10 : Counter Moves

11 : Yemelya Na Pechi

12 : Internal Matters

13 : Politburo Politics

14 : Dealing With Change

15 : The Part Time Girl

16 : Infuriating Actions, Calculated Risks

17 : Battle Lines

18 : Homegrown Civil War

19 : Planned & Unplanned Events

20 : Endgame Moves

21 : The Last Letter

22 : Oval Office Plans

23 : Moskva, May 19, 2021

Yin : Old Baba Answers

1 : Alexey’s Deadly Victories

2 : Turmoil & Unexpected Calls

3 : International Response, May 20, 2021

4 : Wins & Losses

5 : Troubling Events

6 : Taking The Kremlin

7 : Initial Assessments, Sort Of…

8 : Bleak Alternatives

9 : The More We Learn, The Less We Know

10 : Old Baba & The WPA

11 : Issues, Problems, & Speeches

12 : Missed Connections

13 : Some Answers From The Recent Past

14 : Old Baba’s Stunning Revelation

15 : The Mystery

16 : Returning Home To Die

17 : May 7, 2022

THE GRAY CARDINAL

DEDICATION

To Nonviolent Revolutionaries

Reason:

From the King James Version of the Holy Bible:

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. (Revelation 13:10)

Therefore:

Those who use the sword will die by the sword no matter how justified their rationales appear to be.

Those who lead others into captivity and bondage,

be it economic, political, or whatever, always enslave themselves and will eventually be enslaved.

Therefore, those who use vile methods

curse and doom themselves in the hereafter.

And when the time is right, they curse and doom

themselves and their followers in this world too.

Hence the only escape from this

Self-Made Curse…

a curse imposed by this Universal Law of Creation

is Nonviolent Revolution.

THE GRAY CARDINAL

Book 5

Yang : Gray Cardinals

1 : A Seemingly Innocent Change

The day before Ilyana Yurievna Kirakova returned to Moskva State University to begin her third and final year of academic training, her family held one of the largest and most lavish parties they had ever hosted.

The date was Saturday, August 25, 2018, and the deaths of two more members of the family, Ilyana’s maternal grandfather, Aleksei Borisovich Druchatnykh, and a maternal cousin, Ludmila Guennadyevna Belyavskya, due to age and illness, had made everyone keenly aware of the need for a full gathering of kin.

It had taken almost six months to arrange this party and what made it even larger was that those who had friends they cherished as deeply as family, had invited them.

The total turned out to be just under three hundred and twenty.

Since accommodating this many people was beyond the resources of any household, the family had sought permission to utilize one of the numerous Party meeting halls and been repeatedly turned down.

Such rejections were reasonable because events had already been scheduled, but given their outstanding history of Party loyalty, the ongoing rejections were initially jolting.

Thankfully all ended well when one of the committees who turned them down, referred Svetlana to a hotel next to the metro’s Izmaylovskiy Park station. This hotel had been attempting to secure rentals prior to the completion of its massive remont, but had few takers since taking a risk on a remont being completed by the promised date was something only the desperate would gamble on.

In turn, this meant that the rental price for the vast ballroom, musical entertainment, food, and beverages, was within this extended family’s limited financial resources, though in actuality, it was not.

Everything from the hotel’s date of availability and its culinary offerings, down to the earlier committee rejections and timely referral, had been secretly orchestrated by the KGB, not that it had really taken all that much work.

A word here and there, along with a visit by Tina Valentinovna Kopustina to the hotel’s manager with the needed rubles and instructions, had enabled Ilyana to secretly pay for all but the family’s small share of the cost and she was exceedingly pleased with the results.

The hotel’s remont had been completed and done right.

Thus everything worked and the timing was perfect.

Paint and carpet smells had dissipated and the vast dining room was ample yet intimate enough, so that no one felt crowded or left out.

Even nicer were the plenteous offerings. Lavish food and non-alcoholic beverages and all adhered to cultural tradition by being in excess.

Since this feast was perfected by the summer’s harvest, it exceeded expectations, and carrying home generous helpings of this meal’s remnants had been a satisfyingly appropriate way to end this very successful event.

As for doings during the party, unobtrusive music performed by a small orchestra whose specialty was classical orchestrations and popular folk tunes, enabled those inclined to join in song and dance.

Comfortable chairs and ample tables made for relaxed groupings which changed with need and interest and everyone took full advantage of it.

During this time, Ilyana made her mark thanks to the photographs she had taken during her SOA trip.

From the Baltic Sea, to the cities, towns, and villages in Eastern Europe and Western Russia, to the mountains and rivers, the endless steppes, and the many peoples who inhabited all of these regions, she had done a masterful job of capturing all of it on film.

Her sense of presentation prompted one of her aunts to comment that she was definitely benefiting from her journalism training: Ilyanochka! Such photos are surely worthy to be placed in our finest magazines!

What this aunt, nor anyone else knew, was that some of these photographs were already slated to be printed in those magazines, having been screened and approved by the KGB, then archived and sent to those publications that needed these kind of pictures.

On the other hand, there were photographs that none of Ilyana’s kin knew about or even imagined.

Photos taken strictly for the KGB’s benefit, including those of Ilyana and her SOA comrade during the interrogation of their Calarasi Muslim prisoner.

These were revolting pictures and they had only one purpose.

If Natasha ever defected or betrayed the KGB’s trust, these photos could be used to discredit or convict her.

Like all of Ilyana’s Natasha KGB documents and records, these were kept in her file in the Ministry of Higher Education building and would only be viewed if word ever came down from the very top that they needed to be evaluated and used, and their existence was no secret.

In fact, Natasha had fully cooperated with the photographer who took them, to ensure that they were as brutally graphic as could be.

This was part of the unwritten KGB code of pride in one’s work.

Pride in one’s accomplishments on behalf of the Party and the People.

However, Ilyana had yet another motive for perfecting these graphic images.

She needed to document her guilt so that the dream’s followers would hopefully have no choice but to convict her and put her to death – the ultimate sacrifice that was mandatory in order to give permanence to the dream and ensure its success.

It was of course, and uphill battle, but progress was being made.

In fact, during her family’s party, Ilyana had been secretly overjoyed when she overheard several of her kin and their friends, openly discussing the dream’s song and its alluring vision of Communism’s ultimate ideals.

Thanks to what they said, Old Baba was able to provide the counselors with timely words that made their way swiftly down the now firmly established lines of communication.

The untraceable, tamper proof, yet simple methods of contact which those who loved the dream had informally established, then formalized, like a vase or icon seen in its accustomed place on a window ledge after a morning of absence, alerting a frequent passerby to have a momentary conversation with a friend who had no connection to vase or icon’s owner.

That friend in turn, would later visit a neighbor or call a close relative in a distance city or town.

There was enough redundancy that even if someone was sick or unable to make their accustomed rounds, the needed information would reach them and everyone else, and the route for questions or comments returning up the lines of communication to Old Baba, were equally as perfect, simple and foolproof.

These links now spread like the tenuous branches of a sapling birch tree, from Moskva to East Germany and many points in-between, as well as to many places to the south, north, and east.

Especially the places Old Baba had visited during Ilyana’s SOA trips.

Of course, the vast majority had no idea how many people were now involved, for it was happening one on one, in a personal and intimate manner.

Nicer still was that nothing was being said or done which would rouse the concerns of those in authority, hence the growth and strengthening of the dream in a predictable manner was now clearly visible within the worldly currents.

What was not predictable began happening the very next day.

The start of Sunday, August 26, 2018, was certainly ordinary enough.

It began with the eighteen year old’s move back into her now comfortingly familiar MSU dorm room.

A move that went smoothly and quickly thanks to prior experience.

Even her goodbyes to family and kin had become routine.

Though parting still had its rough moments, parents and child could now lapse into informal patterns and loving words that came easier than before.

Equally routine was Natasha’s scheduled visit to MSU’s secret KGB basement training facility, which took place shortly after she finished settling the last of her belongings into their now accustomed places.

It was in this moment that the unexpected began for both Professor Kansky and Tina Kopustina waiting for her.

Tina did the honors, her smile radiating intense pleasure: "Natasha. Due to how well you have done in all things, KGB and Academic, the formal decision has been made to change your final year of MSU academic training.

"Your only on-campus classes will be on Tuesdays, with only an occasional Thursday morning or weekday afternoon seminar mandating your attendance.

"As for German language classes, these are longer required.

"The doctors studying your Nemetskiy Yazik progress over last two years… or should I be more honest and say the total absence of meaningful progress… have formally decreed that its continuation is a waste of everyone’s valuable time and energy… so instead, the bulk of your KGB training will now occur off campus and since your MSU classes required fieldwork too, your time away from the campus will be the rule, not the exception.

"You will, of course, need to alert your family so they will not attempt to contact you during your prolonged periods away from the campus.

Here is the phone number your family can use leave messages.

This phone number turned out to be the one used by all KGB agents in the Moskva’s central sector and its receiving end was a blind operation.

Those telephone operators did not know for whom they really worked.

They simply followed the printed instructions, hence all Ilyana messages would be automatically routed to Tina who would see that they reached Natasha without anyone being the wiser.

As for the public rationale: Journalism fieldwork and on site training were beyond suspicion.

Especially within the university.

In addition, the teenager’s computer skills had advanced to the point where she could do her coursework anywhere she could find a computer terminal which in this day and age, all news media offices naturally had.

Besides, she was one of the university’s top students so having her do advanced independent studies off campus was a natural and acceptable means of enabling her to advance both her academic and professional careers, and Ilyana knew that she was not the only student doing this.

She also knew that most of the students doing this were not KGB.

However, all of the students she knew who were involved in off campus studies, were graduate students which was why this change was so unexpected.

Still, neither her new schedule nor the information just conveyed, prepared her for what Natasha was about to learn.

The real surprise.

2 : Underground Secrets

Since it was Sunday and Ilyana’s remaining MSU errands could easily be completed over the remainder of this day or the upcoming week – from acquiring text books and supplies, to updating her residency and university bilyeti, and her metro pass – Tina asked the girl to met her on Monday morning at the campus entrance for a Natasha outing.

As was the norm for such events, it began early in the morning.

This time, six a.m., and transportation was again by mashina.

Tina then did the expected by driving to a nice restaurant so they could enjoy a leisurely breakfast and chat.

Since this restaurant catered to those who were not KGB, the twosome could not talk freely, which did not hinder their conversation in the least.

The initial topic the teenager needed to grapple with was the boy-issue.

It began when she covertly asked if the date and ditch routine was still required and Tina noted that one or two boys all told might be advisable, provided it did not interfere with her upcoming academic endeavors.

It was then that the young one dared to voice her views on Alexey Nazarin: He is certainly the most mismatched boy I have ever met!

Her chosen words and the tone in her voice revealed that her criticism was being leveled only against whomever had dreamed up the misguided pairing in the first place.

Tina chuckled: Of course! He reminds me of the one I had to date… but at least yours had some manners. Mine still thinks that the only relationship a man and woman can have is in the bedroom and he still has no clue that it is possible to be friends with a woman, let alone speak to us in a language other than grunts.

Is there any hope for humanity given this level of male achievement?

There is, but it is around some far distant corner. Most of them eventually grow up and become delightfully civilized. But since you obviously do not give a bug’s poop about boys right now, I would not worry about it. When the right one comes along you will know… and one way or another, there are always ways to handle things so they work out.

Ilyana’s keen nose told her that Tina had found a nice man and wanting to give Tina the chance to talk without stepping over the KGB injunction against prying into another KGB agent’s personal life, she ventured: What makes your words reassuring is that you seem to be speaking from professional experience.

I am, but for me, such things are so personal that I do not discuss them unless I absolutely have to.

Tina’s words were an eye-opener for along with the accompanying scent, they confirmed that Tina had done more than just find a nice man.

She was deeply in love with him and she knew he deeply treasured her.

It was this gratifying satisfaction, filled with genuine love, that permeated Tina’s persona and one of the things Ilyana found so attractive.

It also forced Ilyana to confront a bitter personal truth.

She was lonely and she deeply resented it!

Unfortunately, the young wolfpire’s fate was already sealed since Ilyana’s life would have to be sacrificed in order for the dream to succeed.

However, even if the dream failed, her options were just as constraining.

If the communists prevailed and she somehow avoided detection, she would have to remain in the KGB, but if her role in the dream was ever discovered, she would be lucky to escape with her life, let alone with her wolfpire secret still intact.

These outcomes mandated no lovers or no husbands – for no matter what happened, they would be sacrificed or worse – they would impede her ability to do the things she now somehow had to accomplish.

They would also make it difficult or impossible for her to implement some, if not all of the arduous decisions and painful sacrifices that lay ahead.

This dilemma burned like salt in an open wound, but she did not bemoan her fate.

Instead, she acknowledged these inner realities and decided to ponder them later in the hope of at least a temporary resolution.

In response to Tina’s words, she offered a smile filled with heartfelt pleasure: I have no need to discuss such things at all, but I am very happy for you. Any advice for a future reporter who wants to be the very best?

Tina admitted that journalism was not her strong point, then used the opening Ilyana offered to lead the conversation elsewhere, and elsewhere was where they went the minute they left the restaurant, only the apparent destination had a name.

The Central Children’s Theater.

This renovated modernized building was located just off of Teatralny prospekt, within easy walking distance from Red Square, multiple metro stations, and from Ilyana’s middle school, hence she had been in this building numerous times and she had frequently walked past it.

Even its small underground garage used exclusively by theater workers and entertainers was familiar to her, for she had seen stage sets being constructed and on several occasions, she and her middle school classmates had helped build and paint them and the garage was an ideal place to do this kind of work.

Tina obviously knew this parking and which stalls she was free to utilize.

By then, Ilyana had been told: You will need your Natasha papers from here on out.

Since Natasha was ready, the twosome headed to the freight elevator which connected the garage to the backstage.

Once in the elevator, after the door closed, Tina pressed the door-closed button and held it while pushing a complex sequence of floor-button numbers, and despite the fact that Tina’s body shielded the panel from view while Ilyana deliberately turned her head away, the wolfpire’s keen hearing effortlessly memorized this number on the spot, even though she was not trying to do so.

This inadvertent memorization occurred because each button was individual enough that her ears could differentiate it and subtle sound changes between near and far, as well as up and down, enabled the wolfpire to learn the code in manner which put rote memorization to shame.

The moment Tina was done entering the code, she pressed the button which would normally take them up to the ground floor. Making no attempt to hide this last entry, she told the girl: "When the time comes, you will be given the code needed to use this elevator.

"Normally you will use a different elevator which has a different code.

Today, my job is to show you what you need to see and introduce you to the people you need to meet. They will teach you what you need to know.

As Tina spoke, the elevator descended and even if Ilyana had not had keen senses, she would have known that they were not just going down.

They were going very far down and when the doors finally opened, they revealed a long hall with a series of featureless, numberless doors, and several branching corridors.

Silently, Tina motioned for Natasha to follow.

After entering the second corridor on their right, they opened the seventh door on their left and went in. The room they entered had a picture of Lenin and two doors in each of the two side walls.

Two guards in full KGB uniform were seated at a desk behind a full length bullet proof counter and an equally protective Plexiglas window.

Following Tina’s lead, Natasha pulled her KGB wallet out of her purse.

Flipping the wallet open, she showed her identification card to the men as Tina spoke through the intercom imbedded in the window: Natalia is here at the Party’s request.

The guard nodded, picked up the phone and dialed a long complex number and spoke. Despite the thickness of the glass, the wolfpire heard both ends of the phone conversation, knowing that Tina could not hear any of it: Allo, Gorya, the sun is green tomorrow.

Dah, and the fish will be dry one month ago. He is here to see me.

Very well, have salted rain.

Martyrs never bury the verb.

While the final sentence was being spoken, the man at the desk reached beneath it and pressed several buttons in a complex sequence.

Only after this was done did he hang-up the telephone and push those same buttons again.

This time in a different sequence.

This time Ilyana was able to block out the sounds of the keys even though each key was distinct enough that she could have memorized them, faint though they were – for she knew that a corresponding, but different pattern was being entered by the person on the other end of this conversation and without that code and the timing of its entry, the sequences at this end would be meaningless.

Besides, listening to those faint sounds through the thick glass would have required concentration and she wanted to focus upon the results which were swift to come.

Within seconds, the outermost door to the right of Ilyana opened and the guard gestured for the twosome to enter. After they entered, the door automatically closed behind them, then a panel in this room’s floor opened upward, propelled by the quietest motor she had ever heard.

She was even more impressed by what came next.

After going down the long flight of stairs, they came to four branching corridors that were unlabeled.

Each corridor had a multitude of doors, none of them marked.

Choosing the corridor which branched to their left side rear, Tina led them to a door just past the mid-point which would have been door number ten on the left. Opening this door immediately plunged the corridor into blackness while Tina shepherded her teenage comrade three doors further down on the right. After they entered and closed this door, the lights came back on and another panel in the floor raised up to reveal yet another set of stairs.

As they went down these long stairs, Ilyana asked: Is it safe to talk?

Tina’s grin was as infectious as it was affectionate: Dah, it is safe to talk here, but only about the things one can talk about.

Like these stairs and that tunnel?

Far below them were the unmistakable signs of a tunnel.

A big one.

In the dimly lighted stairs, Tina nodded: "Yes… and though all of us think of this area as the tunnels, we verbally refer to it as the basement, just like we do the one at MSU, to hide it from those who should never even suspect its existence… which by the way, is why we use the word, basement, for these two areas and many other areas as well.

"What you need to know is that the way we entered is the most sophisticated route and in an emergency, it is the one which will be kept open long after all of the others have been destroyed beyond use.

"Deception and a sophisticated security and guard system protect it.

If any attempt is made to bypass either one, none of the pass through systems are activated. Should anyone ever attempt to thwart those systems, a rapid self-destruct sequence will commence and passage will be permanently thwarted.

Tina paused and when Ilyana had no questions, she added: This is probably the only time you will come this way, but you need to know it since this is the formal entrance and the doomsday emergency exit.

Long minutes later, they reached the tunnel which they entered midway down its side and if Ilyana had happened to harbored any misperceptions as to how deep down they now were or how vast this tunnel system was, these instantly vanished.

The large tunnel was well lighted and its hefty metal support beams, as well as the thickness of the stone blocks, confirmed how far down they were.

In addition to the sense of depth Ilyana acquired through her wolfpire senses, she could tell from the way the air conditioning system labored, as well as from the barely audible sound of the underground metro subway trains rumbling far above them that they were as deep underground as it was possible for any manmade system to safely be.

Tina voluntarily clarified: "These tunnels parallel the subway lines as much as possible. We also take our air supply from their system to mask our usage.

"Though not as extensive as the metro, they link the eight buildings that the KGB uses or accesses, including what all of us call the Public Office… KGB, of course.

"That office is just outside the Kremlin’s walls and it is down here that all critical functions of the KGB are housed.

"The imperialist invaders never knew or learned about these tunnels when they sought to destroy us during the occupation. This is one of our most treasured secrets and it reveals how highly we think of you, that as a trainee, you are being permitted to learn about it and use it.

There are many in the KGB upper and highest ranks who do not even dream that such a place exists. Now come, we have a ways to go.

Travel turned out to be easy thanks to the many electric carts scattered throughout the long wide tunnel and if Ilyana had harbored any illusions about what she was getting into, she no longer did.

The fact that she was in these tunnels and being permitted to use them, revealed that had made it into the inner sanctum and if even for one second, her loyalty ever became suspect, she would be on the wrong end of Hell’s fury.

After a considerable drive, including several turns which Ilyana’s familiarity with metro’s subway enabled her to mentally map, they came to yet another opening in the side of the vast tunnel.

Walking down a small narrow tunnel took them to a small cafeteria style room whose walls were a complex mix of doors and corridors.

Ilyana correctly surmised that they were now under a building, and Tina confirmed it: "Above us is the Russki State Library building.

Before I show you around, we need to get you registered. As the ultimate security precaution, this registration can only be done down here in person.

A convoluted walk brought the two women to a door marked: Library.

Entering, Tina and Natasha showed their identity cards as Tina noted: "She is the young lady who will be coming down here to train. Natalia Petrovna Ivanova, I would like you to meet Osip Yefremovich Rogov, the KGB’s head computer librarian. He is also in charge of computer and electronic security.

"He will take the iris-retinal, voice, and handprint scans needed to enable you to come down here and to access the areas you will be cleared to use.

The next time you meet, he will give you the codes needed to authorize your use of the basement’s computers.

This procedure was swift and without a word being spoken, Ilyana came to realize that Osip hated people.

His first and only love were the machines and computers that he tended with affection bordering on passion.

Hence it was no surprise that he considered Natasha’s presence to be an intrusion into his own little world despite the fact that this was a chance to show off what his prides and joys could do.

Thus his actions were brisk and perfunctory to the point of perfection and with an air of potency, he noted: You are now in the system. Your KGB number is your pass code to which you must add the first two odd numbers and the second even one.

Once the computer librarian clarified that the first two odd numbers were from her KGB number and that the second even number was from the beginning of that same numeric sequence, Ilyana was able to duplicate the code into the computer’s keypad without error and was ready to move on.

Osip in turn, accepted the thanks of both women, not because he was pleased that they found his skill and knowledge so superior and helpful, but because it meant they were leaving.

Once they were back in the hall and the door had closed, Tina sighed: There is still no question that when it come to computers and related security matters, he is the best of the best… East, West, and everywhere else.

Ilyana countered: I already like him a lot! I know that around him, boy issues will be the least of my problems!

As the two women chuckled, the teenager wondered: Will he be one of my teachers?

If you can bring that to pass, you will have worked a miracle comparable to any in the Holy Bible! Thankfully his assistants are magnificent teachers. They will teach you everything you need to know, so beyond giving you computer clearance codes, you will be lucky if you ever see him again.

Next came a brief tour of the underground complex in the immediate area, which turned out to be a complete world of its own, including dorms for men and women, a dining room with simple decent food, laundry facilities, and even a place where anyone, male or female, could get haircuts.

Also located here was a KGB research library and near it, a special room whose privacy precautions and sophisticated telephone had only one purpose: So KGB agents could use their real names in order to protect their covers without fears or concerns about being overheard.

Tina then showed Ilyana a tunnel map that was drawn and written in code.

Once deciphered, it showed the major interconnections and she was offered this reassurance: Others will show you the things you need to know, when you need to know them so you do not drive yourself crazy trying to learn all of it at once. With that in mind, do you have any questions?

Dah. Why are the files with all of our identity paperwork is kept up in the Ministry of Education, rather than down here?

Good! A basement question I can answer! Tina joked before responding: "Every ranking member of the KGB has to go up there at some point in time, but only about a thousand of us even know that these tunnels exist.

"In fact, only three men in the Politburo even know of them.

"With only a few rare exceptions such as yourself, the only low ranking members of the KGB who know about this basement are members of Internal Security and even they are very few in number.

"Like you, they are the ones who have repeatedly proven that they can keep secrets and that they are willing to die to protect those secrets.

"Also, if these tunnels are ever breached, it would be harder to assure total destruction of the records and please notice how important the word total is.

"The opposite can be said of the Ministry of Education building.

The way it was secretly rebuilt, the top four floors and the specially designed roof now have enough explosives and flammable materials built into them to assure that nothing remains but molten metal. Besides, all of its systems, active and destructive, are far easier to service and far less prone to accidents, failures, or remonts, than they would be down here.

Intimate knowledge of remonts and their unending verities, merited mutual smiles as they headed out the way they entered, Tina again noted: Please do not worry about learning this maze of entrance corridors either. You will be shown what you need to know when you need to know it. Not before.

The older woman might have had second thoughts if she knew how much information the super keen wolfpire’s senses had already given her teenage companion.

Things Ilyana knew that Tina knew nothing about, let alone even suspected.

3 : Izvestia

The remainder of this Monday outing revolved around a briefing by Tina, then an orientation of the daily newspaper Izvestia, given by a reporter who was not KGB, then one-on-one, Natasha introduced herself to her supervisor.

Gleb Pyotrovich Denisov was a KGB major who used his KGB name on the job and in private life.

Naturally, Ilyana knew that like MSU, only a tiny fraction of the newspaper’s staff were KGB and the newsroom consensus was that there were several KGB informers, and maybe an agent or two, just to keep an eye on things.

This was technically incorrect, because the KGB did not need informers or spies. They merely monitored the newspaper’s output and as long as it was in line with Party mandates, there were no issues.

Besides, no one worked in any branch of the news media unless they had fully earned the Party’s trust.

Therefore, the only time news media personnel needed to be watched was when they interacted with foreigners and subversives.

Those meetings were monitored almost to the point of perfection.

As the KGB insider’s maxim declared: We know more about what is in their underpants and what they did with it, than they do.

Therefore, beyond keeping a casual eye on news media doings, the KGB was not there, but there was an additional KGB reason for this absence.

To prevent those within the KGB from accidentally learning a reporter-agent’s identity, all news media organizations were designated hands off zones to everyone within the KGB unless they had Kremlin authorization.

In turn, the lack of verifiable KGB presence prompted everyone, including those working for Izvestia (News), to remind themselves that Pravda (Truth) was more than just the anointed clarion of the Party.

Pravda was the KGB’s newspaper.

The one in which spies posed as journalists at home and overseas.

Hence even after decades, a popular news media insiders’ joke still bluntly proclaimed: Pravda is so inept when it comes to discovering the truth that they need KGB assistance. Otherwise they would never find it!

This made Izvestia the perfect place for agents like Natasha and the only problem was that Ilyana’s actual identity – used on the job as it was at MSU – had to be forever be kept hidden from her supervisor, Denisov.

She in turn, had to remain forever ignorant of the other KGB agents who worked for this newspaper.

In reality, this was easily done, for Gleb Denisov had a very private office that was easy to unobtrusively access from three different directions.

It was also one of the gateways to and from the KGB tunnels, giving an agent a fourth means of visiting or leaving him without arousing newsroom suspicions – assuming they were authorized to use the basement.

Next came the fact that the seven KGB agents, including Natasha, had desks scattered around the outer edges of the vast common newsroom, which none of the other agents would ever pass as long as they stayed within their assigned building routes and never deviated from those paths.

Also, all of the nearly ninety reporters in this vast room were given their assignments by Denisov, assuring that no agent or reporter would ever be assigned to work with any of Izvestia’s KGB agents.

In addition, there were four procedures that made discovery of actual names even less likely.

First: Gleb never saw the newspaper articles or editorials written by his agents or the staff, for everything the reporters did was screened by those down in the tunnels who never knew whether they were meeting the actual reporter or the go-betweens who were used as blind couriers, since these couriers never met the writers either.

Pass through slots for all initial editorial review submissions assured anonymity and the routes for returning these submissions were foolproof.

That is, assuming the original writer ever saw a slot submission again, for news articles were swapped and each reporter was authorized to make minor final revisions before sending it to the submissions editor for final review.

Besides, the submissions editor was a KGB agent who knew nothing about the basement, or the doings of the other agents, or even Denisov.

Her job was to make certain that snooping by anyone was immediately reported to those at the very top of the KGB’s chain of command.

Second: None of Izvestia’s KGB agents casually gave out their names.

Like all newsroom staff, there were no name plates on their desks, nor would they address others by name and due to social politics, the others responded in kind.

Yet more important was that the only time these agents would answer to any name was when the other person was literally in their face.

Also, individually hardwired phone lines between each reporter and their supervisor assured that all talk would remain private and no one, KGB or otherwise, was ever permitted to go to Denisov’s office without phoning first.

Third: Gleb never visited reporters at their desks and only rarely assigned news stories to his agents, but since these stories were always credited to Izvestia news staff, the end result was that even these stories could never be used to track a name.

Fourth: Each new group of interns and staff started work on the same day.

Thus Ilyana was one of forty seven new faces, in this instance all female, whose collective works from the paper’s four newsrooms would further mask who was who – as did the fact that the major did not know his agent’s Izvestia job title, be it intern, reporter, freelancer, or editorialist.

Hence the only thing Gleb knew was that Natalia was still a KGB trainee and until she became an agent, his only job was to relay KGB messages.

As for MSU messages, these went straight to Tina because she was Ilyana’s Izvestia intern supervisor and Denisov did not interact with Tina either.

As for Denisov’s monitoring of the newsroom, each newsroom in the building had a theft deterrent security camera system.

This had been necessary during the sham democracy and it had never been removed. Instead, the KGB had transformed this video-only system, so Gleb could monitor his reporters via a viewing screen secreted in his office.

Video views that never showed any reporter’s computer screen.

In addition, Denisov’s manual view screen controls automatically returned to the neutral setting the second hand-button contact was broken.

Ironically, given how public this building was, going down to the KGB’s tunnel-basement was no trouble at all, because there were two elevators.

One came up from the parking garage, and the other was the freight elevator reasonably close to Denisov’s office – and each elevator used the same procedure as the one in the Central Children’s Theater.

Looking into the faceplate of the elevator at just the right angle allowed the covert electronic scanner to take an iris-retinal scan.

Once this was done, entering one’s KGB identification number, its add-on sequence, and the elevator’s unique code, took the agent to the intermediate tunnel located two stories below Izvestia’s underground parking garage.

Walking through the maze of doors and passages that interconnected the two elevators, enabled one to reach a secret door, enabling entry into a room which housed a third elevator that did not need codes because this elevator deposited its passengers in the heart of a security checkpoint deep within the tunnels, and since the entire route was tightly monitored, only those approved by KGB security, ever got down there anyway.

In addition, there were secret stairs behind the cabinet in Gleb’s office.

The pass code that opened the secret entries to these