A SPY CAN BE IN LOVE by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2008 written on March 4, 1992 translated by the author English text kindly revised by Will Hawkins
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"A SPY CAN BE IN LOVE" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
CHAPTER 11 - Final destination
Walter drove Roger and Yuri to Anglesey, where they embarked for Dublin. At passport control there was no problem with their new identities. Roger had provided for Yuri a Yugoslav passport where he appeared as Milian Kossavich, and Roger used a Belgian passport at the name of Albrecht Verriest. In Dublin they bought tickets to Auckland, New Zealand, scheduled to leave three days later.
While they were waiting to leave they toured Dublin. Then finally the day of their flight to New Zealand came. As soon as they got to Auckland, Roger took a room at the Aspen Lodge Bed & Breakfast in Emily Place, downtown. Then the next day he went with Yuri to the bank - the money transfer in his name had already arrived. They opened a joint account in another bank, and then started to look for an apartment. They also went to a private immigration assistance agency for guidance and help in preparing the needed documents to get residence and work permits.
After five days of searching they found a small apartment in Wyndham Street. They furnished it in a simple and functional way. When they spent their first night there, they celebrated by making love all night long.
Meanwhile they also toured the town, discussing about how they could invest the money they had in their account to start some activity to make a living. Yuri got an idea when they visited the Auckland Museum where they saw Maori artwork and in whose shop they saw products of local handicrafts. They decided to open a shop for art objects and souvenirs for tourists and they would call it Tamaki Makau Rau, the Maori name of the town, which means "battle of the thousand lovers".
They finally found a small shop at the lower end of Queen Street, not far from the piers where the tour ships tied up, so they could start their business.
"Are you happy, Yuri?" Roger asked him while they went back home after their first day of work in their small shop.
"More than happy love. But it would be better you got used calling me Milian, don't you think?" the boy answered, embracing him.
Roger kissed him; they played a while with their tongues and gradually undressed each other. The two lovers were more than ever in love and were never too tired to show each other their mutual love.
"Do you regret having left everything because of me?" Yuri asked him while they were relaxing on their wide bed.
"I didn't leave anything important, Here I've everything I could desire - you!"
"Oh so gallant!"
"No, I'm simply sincere. But you, love?" Roger asked.
"I can say the same thing. And I like life way more here in New Zealand than in my mother-land... Above all because I'm here with you, but also for the atmosphere of freedom - I can breathe here. Here people are much kinder, hearty, open..."
"Yes. I think we will really have a good life, being here and together. New Zealand is a young country, full of promise, and it's wonderfully blessed by nature. As soon as we can we will buy an off-road car and begin to explore all its natural beauties. Is that okay?"
"Of course, love." Yuri said with a sigh of pleasure.
Their small shop did a good business, so that they could soon buy the space of a neighbouring shop and enlarge, hiring two shop assistants. Then they bought a car, and finally moved into a small house in Mount Albert Road. They were starting to make friends and acquaintances, among which there were also some gay people they could meet with for a party or for a trip. They were feeling well and were happy.
Some years elapsed and they both finally obtained New Zealand citizenship. Now Yuri was able to speak English with hardly any accent and they were both well adapted to their new life.
They had also hired a gay boy of Philippine origin, Efrem, who lived with them, keeping their house tidy, cooking and caring for the small garden surrounding their house.
Yuri and Roger were in their shop in Queen Street and Roger was serving some Japanese customers, while Yuri was tidying a shelf, when a couple of new clients came in and started to browse around. Yuri had noticed them out of the corner of his eye, but as they were accustomed to do, he let them go around the shop so that they could look at all the items.
Suddenly one of the two newcomers said aloud, "Yuri!"
The boy froze, felt chilled to the bone. What was he to do?
The same voice repeated, in Russian, "Yuri Dudaev, this is really a surprise!"
Yuri, feeling his guts squeeze in an icy vice, slowly turned, and saw Roger move in front of him with a protective expression and over his shoulder recognized one of the two tourists - it was Ivan Volkhogonov, Aleksandr Korobilo's assistant. At his side there was a youth whom Yuri had never seen before. He also noticed that the other customers had left.
Yuri looked at Roger, then said, in English, addressing Ivan, "May I help you, sir?"
Ivan answered in Russian, "Come on, Yuri, don't pretend you don't recognize me... Alright, several years have passed, but none of us changed so much as not to recognize each other. Come on!"
Roger, always in English, said to Ivan, "I'm sorry, sir, I cannot understand what you are saying. I cannot understand you. Can't you speak English?"
Ivan smiled, winked and continuing speaking in Russian, said, "I bet you are Yuri's Canadian target... I can't remember your name... but you certainly understand Russian..."
"You are wrong, my name is Milian and my partner is Belgian..." Yuri insisted, unconsciously changing to Russian.
"Come on, we are alone... except for the two assistants... but I don't think they understand Russian. Anyway, can we go to talk somewhere else? Can you leave the shop for a while?" Ivan insisted.
"Talk? About what?" Roger asked, he changing to Russian also.
"About this encounter. In a quiet place, crowded, if that would make you feel... safer. Anyway we two are here just as tourists, you have nothing to fear... So, then?"
Roger and Yuri exchanged a quick glance, and then Roger said to his two assistants, "We are going just for a moment with these two gentlemen. Take care of the shop, please."
All four went to a nearby pub, where there were other patrons and found a quiet table.
After giving their orders to the waiter Yuri, feeling very tense, asked, "What do you want from me? From us?"
Ivan smiled again, "Nothing. Basil and I are here on vacation, not for work. We are two simple, common tourists and I would never have thought to run into you, Yuri."
"You didn't come to... to eliminate me?" Yuri asked still tense as Roger, who was sitting near him, clasped his hand under the table.
Ivan shook his head, "No, absolutely not, Yuri. We don't have on us even a small pocket knife, no weapon, I assure you. And anyway we aren't here for you as I told you. I never ever in the world thought I would meet you here..."
"But now you have found me... And you will contact the Embassy in Wellington. I presume."
"No way, Yuri! Neither I nor my boyfriend, Basil, have any reason to do that. I swear to you."
"How can we believe you?" Roger asked.
"You surely know we have a new General Secretary in the Soviet Union, Comrade Gorbachev. And you surely have also heard about his brand new political style, perestroika, haven't you?"
"Yes, I have. So what does that mean?"
"Often, at the change of the General Secretary also a shakeup happens, in the high levels. At times a purge, a weeding out, at times forced retirement, or transfers of people who are no longer acceptable, to put in their place people close to the new General Secretary... You know very well how these things go, Yuri, don't you?"
"... Yes... I know that it happens often..."
"It always happens, I dare say. Well, also at the Lubyanka we had our small earthquake. Comrade Colonel Zhitnikov has been appointed ambassador to Gambia... and this means he has been put out to pasture. At his place came Comrade Valerij Aghilev. You possibly never heard of him... He's a Civil Servant, not a military man, transferred from the Foreign Ministry. He is a pragmatist, not an ideologue, and this means he is somewhat more... open-minded. Comrade Jusichev has been put on pension and his place has been given to our Aleksandr Korobilo. As a consequence, I took Aleksandr's place..."
"Congratulations to you and to Aleksandr... But I still don't see how these changes can make me feel safe..." Yuri said, hesitant.
"Old orders, and above all the liquidation orders, have to be countersigned from the new management to continue to be effective. Well, I know for certain that not only did Aleksandr not countersign the old elimination order against you, but that he definitively rejected it."
"Are you sure?" Yuri asked, still hesitant.
"Yes, he discussed the matter with me; so I am more than sure. You see, in Jusichev's mind yours was a real and true betrayal. Aleksandr and I knew that you didn't go over to the enemy-that you wouldn't work for a foreign power against the Soviet Union... We knew you well enough to be sure of your loyalty... And anyway, if we later discovered that we were wrong, a new elimination order could always be issued, couldn't it?"
"So, in my personal dossier, what is written? Disappeared? Or what?" Yuri asked, starting to feel somewhat relieved.
"Aleksandr simply wrote in it - discharged from service for personal reasons. That's all."
"So there is no more risk? Neither to me nor to Roger?"
"Of course, absolutely. You could safely assume you true identity, if you wish to."
"No, not that. At this point Roger and I are New Zealand citizens; we have our house, a work that we love, our friends... We are fine, believe me..."
"It's enough to look at you to see that you are fine, that you are well and that you fit well together." Ivan said with a friendly smile.
They chatted some more, then Yuri asked to Ivan, "Your Boris is a handsome boy, and he seems to me to be very sweet. How did you meet? Is he too from the New Dacha Operation?"
"Now he is in the NOD, but he works for me as my secretary, he isn't an external agent. When I first met him he had just been hired as Archivist in the Internal Section of the Lubyanka. The first time I met him there I felt terribly attracted to him immediately. So I started to look for pretexts to meet him again, but it seemed that destiny was working against me - each time I found a good reason to go to the office where he worked, now for one reason, now for another, he was not there
"But then one day, while I was inside one of our vans spying on the Bolshoi Square to show one of our recruits what the boys did to be picked up by a man, I saw my Boris again, and was lucky enough to see a man picking him up and taking him away. So, in the following days, feeling at this point self-assured about the fact that Boris too enjoyed having sex with men, I arranged to meet him at the end of his work day, at the door of his office. I invited him to come to have coffee with me. I told him I liked him very much and that I would like trying to become friends. I was lucky, because he too was feeling attracted to me so we became lovers. So, that is our story in a few strokes."
"How long have you been together?" Roger asked.
"Four years. And two years ago we got a nice apartment together, close to Prospekt Marska, in the same building where Aleksandr lives with his lover."
"Aleksandr... Who is he with, now? With somebody I know?" Yuri asked.
"No, I don't think you know him. He is a young cadet, the third son of one of the assistant secretary of the Education Ministry... He is a really agreeable boy, he has a nice personality I mean, and in some ways he resembles you, Yuri. It seems that Aleksandr is getting along with him really well."
By then there was a rather more relaxed atmosphere. They talked about many different matters. Then Yuri and Roger invited the two of them to come to their house that evening to have supper together. During the meal Ivan again reassured the two lovers, and promised them he would tell nobody about their encounter, not even Alexander. Also Boris, Ivan's boyfriend, promised them he would not tell a living soul about their encounter.
When Ivan and Boris left New Zealand, Yuri and Roger talked about that lucky meeting that made them now feel much more safe.
"Would you like to go back to Russia, perhaps just as a tourist, now that you know you are no longer running a risk? To see again your homeland, your people and, who knows, also your family?" Roger asked him at one point.
"No, my love. Nowadays I feel like I belong here, because here I have all a man could desire - a home, work and above all your love. You can think it is odd, but I almost don't feel any more that I am Russian... The past isn't important to me anymore, it doesn't count any more. You see, this is a young land, making its way into the future more than any other nation, and I like that. But you, Roger, aren't you missing Canada?"
"Just a little, possibly, but not too much. Yes, I totally agree with you, we are really fine here; we have all we could desire, all we need. And to me, the essential thing is being with you and having your love."
"Do you think it will last? At times I ask myself, anxiously, if happiness is nothing but a parenthesis in life, nothing but a fleeting moment... So then I ask myself - when will it all end?"
"Honestly I don't know. But I know that for me, I will do everything that is in my power to make it last. And I know that it is so for you too. You see, love doesn't consist of the awareness one has found the perfect person with whom to live, but rather in having found the person whose positive attributes are greater than his negatives ones, and with whom one wants to build his own future, day after day."
"Yes, I agree, I too think like you do. And just the thought that we two will go on to mould our future together, day after day, as you say, makes me feel serene, or rather happy."
"We could also have to face difficult moments at times, because of disagreement between us, I mean."
"But if we will always be sincere, if we will be able to communicate, if we will always try to understand the other, to respect him, to esteem him, to love him, I believe we will be able to overcome those moments, don't you?"
"Yes, and we will become more and more united, my love." Roger said with a wide smile.
They kept silent for a while, rethinking about what they had just said to each other, and to their common life.
Gradually their bodies drew nearer, interlaced, communicating to each other the intensity of their desire and the joy of being together. Imperceptibly, they felt again united in a new, wonderful love, a love they were joyfully expressing to each other through their bodies. At that point they knew each other's body very well, and yet they never got tired of exploring it, and trying to get to know each other even better.
THE END
In my home page I've put some more of my stories. If someone wants to read them, the URL is
http://andrejkoymasky.com
If you want to send me feed-back, or desire to help revising my English translations, so that I can put on-line more of my stories in English please e-mail at
andrej@andrejkoymasky.com