Page 100 - double revenge 3.

PERIVALE APARTMENT

RD
THURSDAY APRIL 23 1998

The round trip to New York in just over twenty-four hours had left its mark on me. I had grabbed
some sleep on the return flight but my body clock did not have a clue which time zone I was in. I got
into my apartment and crashed out on the bed.

The ringing of the telephone brought me round.

‘It’s Bren. Glad you are back. The old Man is going ape. He wants you in the office first thing
tomorrow. He knows you have been to New York.’

‘Does he now? See you tomorrow.’

I pumped the pillows up and lay back to consider what Warner had told me and to consider how
much to tell Mcluskey.

I took the miniature tape recorder from out of my bedside drawer and spooled through to where
he described his association with the Russians.

“My meetings with Mr. Lester slowly revealed my parents commitment to Russia and the meetings
gradually became indoctrinated to persuade me to turn against America and the Capitalist society
but I wasn’t influenced by his arguments. I went along with them solely because of the promise that
eventually I would see my beautiful Mother. I looked at her photograph many times every day.’

‘Do you still have her photograph?’ I asked.

‘Yes. I still keep it in my wallet.’

‘Show it to me.’

There was silence on the tape whilst I examined the photograph. It was contained within a small
cellophane envelope held closed with a press-stud. The envelope also contained two halves of a

ten-dollar bill.

‘OK Carry on.’ I ordered.

‘Two weeks after graduating I was contacted and told to tell my foster parents I was going away. I

was picked up and taken to a motel where I had to strip and dress in Russian made clothing. I was
given a Russian Passport in the name of Stepan Chernetsky, my mother’s name, and flown to
Moscow as part of a diplomatic corps.

From the airport, I was driven to the Kremlin where a group of Military Officers greeted me. One, a
woman, with numerous medals pinned to her uniform, handed me the other half of the ten-dollar
bill. She was my mother! I would never have recognised her. Gone was the softness of her