Okay, guys... It's gonna be long before you know what i mean by this fiction LOL, hope you have your nerve all okay h34r:
Summary: This happens in four years after Irina Derevko falls to her death in 5.17
Info: May have all the spoilers, esp. 517, 421 and 422. This is how I’d make Irina be good and alive.
Rating: PG-13
Disclosure: Characters of Alias belong to JJ Abrams and ABC Television.
My biggest "thanks" goes to Bev (она же lenafan) for being my beta (and also the one who makes me feel like i don't know english... Gosh, i never thought it was so complicated :lol: )
Chapter 1
"You can't really think you'll have the information, unless I'm willing to give it. Torturing will just make it worse, and then, I'll be even less cooperative. You know who I am, don't you? In that way, you know what to expect. I was trained to withstand any kind of questioning, any kind of pain. I can easily make it without any water or food for quite a long time. And as for drugs, well, you surely can inject me with something, I'd be truthful, and still, not telling anything you want. So please, save your time and my pain.
"What is your name? I heard the other officer calling you, I guess, Richard or… So, what is it? You know me and the only thing I know about you is that you want to hurt me to get Intel for CIA.
"I can tell you something you might be interested in. You wanted to know what I knew about Irina Derevko. That's a piece of cake, because I know a great deal. Still, I want an agreement. Don't be silent; it's been 8 or 9 days since I'm here. Don't you notice this is the first time I have spoken to you? I'm talking to you when I'm not in pain, Richard. That's the only way."
"No trading; you're nothing here," said the man, finally replying and turning to face the young blond girl who was seated in the chair, cuffed to the armrests. She was obviously smiling now, in spite of the interrogation she'd been through just one hour ago.
"I'm not trading, Richard. I'm offering, and there are two options here. You can accept my proposition, or you don't. It depends on you." The girl shook her head and looked up directly into the interrogator's eyes. He came closer, carrying a little needle in his left hand.
“My name’s not Richard.” He smiled back taking the finger on her hand and pointing the needle right under the nail, but not pushing it yet. They were both waiting.
"I can be mistaken as to your name. One of your assistants was beating me just the moment the other one called you. It was so noisy," she smiled again, her eyes watching the needle he still held dangerously close to her finger. "You want to end our dialog?" She asked him taking a deep breath.
"You haven't told me a thing yet." His eyes were now dancing with anticipation.
"You haven't removed this item either."
"Okay, let's try. You weren't actually too far mistaken about the name. Richard was the one they called; I came in instead," he paused, taking away the needle and getting a glass of water. "I'm Gavin."
The man brought the glass to her mouth; she sipped it twice, and then turned away.
"I thought you'd drink it all," Gavin said hesitating as if to give her the second chance to drink. "I don't think you'll have this opportunity again soon."
"I'm a trained human, not a robot. And you know I haven't had any drink for too long. I might collapse if I drank too much."
He knew she had her point. Here in the CIA interrogation center, everyone knew of her capabilities, and they wanted to test if that was true. It definitely was. Gavin watched every interrogation of her. She was beaten and injured. They stopped feeding her on her third day, and she had no water for five days.
Whatever Irina Derevko meant to this girl, it was astonishing.
This was the first time the CIA managed to capture one of Irina's op-team. In spite of Irina's death, it still operated and they still were out of touch of any government organization. All the Intel the CIA had for that group, code name 'Nameless', was that they had no headquarters (or at least none were known) and even four years after their leader's death they were as dangerous as Derevko had been.
Gavin remembered Irina Derevko’s death. It appeared her daughter killed her accidentally, letting Irina fall down when glass ceiling covering the atrium below cracked under her weight. Then, Sydney Bristow retired, and so did her husband Vaughn. Five months later, the CIA was fought by an unknown enemy and from then on, 50% of their missions failed. It was obvious someone hunted CIA agents. It took a year before they knew whom they were dealing with. There was Operative group of about thirty to fifty people, with no official motivation but money.
Some time later, the FBI learned that the group was founded by the U.S. enemy, Irina Derevko, in the mid-nineties. None knew who ran it now. The CIA asked Sydney Bristow to come back, and she refused. After her parents' deaths, she never returned to the CIA.
Surprisingly, two weeks ago the CIA tracked down one of the operatives of the 'Nameless'; it was a girl of 20-22 years, with no data available on her in their files.
Gavin took a deep breath to get him back to present. He was still standing in front of the girl, and she was simply staring at him waiting for something.
"You look concerned," she stated. "Don't know what to ask first?" She smiled shaking her cuffed hands to feel more comfortable.
"Let's start with you telling me your name"
"What? I thought you knew… Oh, you can call me Kamilla," she paused. "Can I have some water once again please?" He brought the glass to her mouth again, and again she just had a little.
"That doesn't sound like truth; you've an accent, Polish or German maybe. The first lie of yours in just the first minute."
"I said you could call me that. I never told you that it was mine. Okay-okay, Svetlana, or just Sveta is fine."
Gavin made a note, turning to the camera, then spoke: "Sometime I'll need to know what you are, and now, yes, Irina Derevko. You mentioned you knew a lot about her. Let's begin with how you met her."
"You might be surprised, but she just came across and asked me if I wanted to earn a lot of money. I was 15 then. In our country, it isn't bad to have money, and you don't actually have to declare where you've got it from. I agreed, and, uhhh…" Svetlana shook her head slowly. "I never regretted it."
"May I ask you what job did she offer to you as a young girl?" Gavin didn't look surprised but wondered.
"Oh, well, that was op-division. It didn't have any governmental support as far as I knew, and even though it wouldn't make any trouble, I wasn't a patriot of my country."
"What year was it that you first met Irina Derevko?" Gavin asked in a low voice.
"1998 or so. Guess that was the same time as Russia had its default."
The man seemed to remember something. He crossed his arms on his chest, hiding his nervousness. "You've been interrogated for more than a week, and now you are willing to tell us whatever we want to know. That doesn't make sense."
Sveta didn't look surprised by his question, nor was she worried. She thought he'd ask that earlier, and yet, she had to make sure she picked the right words. She tried to remember the previous two weeks, and the whole 'before' those weeks. The CIA definitely didn't know anything about her and she smiled to herself remembering the real reason she was here.
That wasn't her mistake nor was it anyone else’s that the CIA had caught her. She actually planned it to happen, and obviously it all went well. She was second-in-command of the ITC as they used to call themselves, and she needed some things to be done personally. The matter of the debt, she thought to herself. She had to find Sydney Bristow who had disappeared four years ago right after her mother, Sveta's boss, Irina Derevko, was considered to be dead. Sydney retired and the CIA had a way to hide those who used to work for them. That was the risk, but there was no other way to get to that woman and the ITC needed her.
Sveta remained silent, thinking to herself of Irina Derevko.
That was horrible, she thought, seeing her boss lying on the floor, bloodied and nearly dead after falling from the top of the atrium. She actually saw her falling, unable to stop it. Then two of Svetlana's team removed Irina's body, having realized her heart was still beating. Sydney and Vaughn were on their way down when the ITC made it impossible for them to check Irina's status.
Placing explosives in the atrium, they blew it up moments before the two arrived. No one would know that Irina survived the fall. In spite of broken bones, and a severe head injury, their boss was still alive. Later, however they found out the head injury had caused amnesia. It's been four years and still nothing changed. ITC kept her in their secret location; making sure nobody would ever see her in this condition. She was like a little girl, unable to remember who she was.
Svetlana hoped her boss would recover in time, and that the organization they were running would have her support again. Nothing happened and nothing was different, and except for amnesia, Irina was now physically fine.
During those four years, the ITC tried everything to help her get her memory back, including all sorts of therapy, stress. The doctor said, it was possible some scary things from her past may have their 'deja vu' for her, so Irina Derevko was tortured by the ITC. Still, nothing happened; she cried and screamed, not understanding why all these people were hurting her so cruelly.
Finally, Svetlana gave up; she secreted her ex-boss in the hidden location nobody knew about and moved on. Some more things had to be done, and there was too little time left.
Some time later, the ITC was attacked and 30% of its members killed. Svetlana knew that was a challenge; a new enemy was something she'd never expected. In eight months, 60% of the ITC were killed.
Then Irina Derevko was kidnapped. That was the first time Svetlana wished she had someone to help her.
"So?" Gavin asked impatiently. "I don't think we actually broke you. As you've mentioned, you can stand much more than this."
"I've told you already, I'm not one afraid of torture. Just don't seem to understand why you'd want to know anything about woman who died," said Sveta moving her shoulders as if to make the man see she was curious.
He, again, made some notes on his paper, and then smiled a little. Might this girl not know anything? Could she be just some field-op with no contact with the base of the organization?
Laughing to himself, he continued, "This doesn't matter. We need to fulfill some holes in our profiles, just in case."
The girl grinned, as he froze realizing he now answered her questions. "Nice try then," said Gavin. "Russian default? That is…"
"That was when all economical structures of the country went down, having…mmm… too little dollars there." She ended his phrase just as he meant her to. "That has nothing to do with Derevko. Just check some old newspapers, you'll see it there."
"Where did you … operate?" He had actually known about economical problems of all the countries of the post-USSR area, but never paid attention to what exactly they were.
"Everywhere" she smiled, "After training period, Irina and I…we… well, we traveled all over the world…"
"Training? What training?" He seemed concerned now. "Derevko had some sort of training base, didn't she?"
That was bad. Sveta was not to tell him anything about structure of the ITC, nor was she to tell him where the place was, so, she thought to herself, she had to tell him something different. Still, that had to be true in order that stupid lie detector to 'believe' her.
"Yes, it was located in north-west of Ukraine, near Lootsk, if you know that city. Some more wasser, please." (*1*)
She smiled at him. "Water, I mean."
"The training center first, please." Gavin serious; he finally had something more to probe her for.
"Are you in a hurry? No? Then, me neither, I am not going anywhere until we're finished. And I've doubts I'm going anywhere even once we are finished." She waited while he gave her some more liquid. "Training…" she remembered something and her body shook unwillingly. ”That was the worse part of all time I worked for Irina Derevko. But that was also time I was shocked the most. I'm not sure I know what trainings are like at CIA, but I'm sure it's far from what it looked like in Irina's organization.
"By the time..." Sveta paused checking if she still remembered what she was to reveal. "By the time I joined, I already knew my boss was ex-KGB officer, and I was little afraid of her. The 'Irina Andreyevna' was much different from the 'Irina' who offered me job. She was all business like, always serious and never smiling.
"And after learning shooting, hand-to-hand fighting, physical training, and …let's just call it studying how to look good, make up and stuff…" Svetlana's smile vanished. "There came a time for each trainee to learn how to withstand the questioning. We were all told that interrogator would stop the moment someone of us asked him to. No one actually made it through first ten minutes and neither did I. Interrogator simply brought hot steel stick close to my face when I screamed at him to stop it. Later on, Irina explained that pain is not what always breaks someone. It's often one's fear that makes it instead."
Gavin looked distant now; he was deep in thought although he did hear every word and made some more notes. "And how did Irina make you all… How many, by the way?" He asked.
"Don't know…" she said and the detector beeped loud. "I mean, we were all divided into groups of three to five. Can't seem to remember how many groups there were."
"And Irina took all of you there by force?
"No, we all respected her from the second day of the torture training. That was when she had herself unrestrictedly interrogated in order to show us no one had any privileges when he was caught. Irina was tortured for about 6 or 7 hours never giving out any word. Interrogator, I guess, would stop once she'd ask, but she did not. He used all the stuff he had for training part, electroshock, some drugs, fire, and…"
"What did she do that for?"
"I told you. We all respected her after that and did our best to learn art of being in pain." Her eyes became wild when she said the last words. "She never used some kind of torture for enemy unless she tried it for herself, so she'd know how that person felt. She could use that to break one even faster."
Sveta's mind gave her the picture of what had happened long ago: training. She did not lie, indeed that was the time everyone regretted that they agreed to work for the organization. Sveta just wasn't to tell all the truth. There were things no one would ever know, and those pictures she now remembered were ones of those things.
Eventually, the second morning Irina Andreyevna came into the training-center, wearing some jeans, jacket, and a t-shirt; no one actually saw her in clothes like that, and her hair was gathered. She greeted everyone, and then turned to speak to the interrogator. It appeared his name was Alexander, and some time later, every trainee used to call him simply Sanya. However, at that moment, he was Alexander Valeryevych; and after two or three minutes of talking Irina finally spoke to everybody. Almost everyone there spoke only Russian, so she had to use it.
"Вчера все вы подверглись проверке, и, как и ожидалось, провалились" she paused watching the reaction. Everyone remained silent, and so did Sanya. (*2*)
"Проблема либо в мотивации, либо в вас. Если дело в вас, то проблему решить очень легко. Если в мотивации – еще проще" Irina smiled, pulling off her jacket. (*3*)
"Работа в этой организации сопряжена с риском, вы это знаете. Любой из вас может быть схвачен , и в этом случае он вряд ли избежит допросов" sighing, she removed the ring from her left arm and placed it on the table, near the earrings she put there the moment before. (*4*)
"Никто не может быть исключением. Александр Валерьевич, все, что у вас имеется. У вас есть…" she glanced at her watch, and then put it on the same table, "… 7 часов". (*5*)
The woman then turned to face Alexander, and he immediately backhanded her face, pushing her into the wall. She obviously did not expect that, and lost her balance. Still saying nothing, Sanya took one of her arms and squeezed it putting the other hand behind the woman's back. Once having her both hands secured, he dragged her to the metal chair everyone had been seated yesterday. Irina didn't fight back, nor did she resist.
Sanya pushed her even harder, pulling a needle to the back of her neck. Irina made her way to where he led her, and in two moments she was placed in that chair, feet chained to the floor and head restrained to the back of the chair, her arms were now tied down to the armrests. All trainees were watching every thing that happened, they were actually in the same room, just 13 feet from their boss.
The interrogator placed four wires on her hands: two near the shoulders and two on the wrists. Obviously, the drug had taken its effect, as the woman began to shake even before Alexander did anything to those wires. And, once he did, Irina's body started shaking heavily when electricity went through her hands and to her feet grounded to the floor.
"You okay?" Sanya asked her to make sure he hadn't use too high voltage. He got no response, and continued. He hit her twice to her ribs, not too strong to break those, but still, that was enough for Irina to gasp for air and then breathe loudly.
"Ага , типа мы все так и поверили , что все по- настоящему" someone whispered, and the other voice agreed to that. (*6*)
Some time later, the blood flowed from Irina's nose, and she coughed. It was several hours since they began the procedure, and the only sounds they heard from the woman were 5 or 6 whimpers when Alexander raised the voltage or aimed the hot air to her unclothed hands.
"Бачиш кров? Вона справжня " Sveta whispered loudly, and others just shut up. (*7*)
Svetlana now remembered that was the first time she said something in Ukrainian ever since being in the training base; she used only Russian there, but at that very moment, she wasn’t paying attention to what she said. She was simply shocked, as she too considered it all a charade before.
Svetlana also remembered Alexander looking at his watch some more time later. He was pleased to stop what he was doing. His 7 hours were to end in three minutes. Placing the torture item, he held to the shelf, he approached Irina and took off the cuffs. He then helped her up, leading her to the nurses who appeared in the doorway. Irina grabbed her earrings and a ring, and in a minute, they were all gone, leaving the silenced trainees deep in their thoughts.
Yeah, Svetlana clearly remembered each of the trainees who were standing there that moment, unsure of what to do or what to think. Of course, she wasn't going to tell Gavin how many they were, but the picture in her head was now even more vivid; that day all of the ITC recruits were there and it was the day Irina Derevko made them totally hers...body and soul.
Sveta looked at Gavin again, not knowing why he was smiling this time. "What?" she asked.
"You liked Irina Derevko, didn't you?"
She nodded "Yes. I did. And I actually will kill the one who made her tot." The girl rolled her eyes and laughed. (*8*)
End of chapter 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(*1*) Germ. “Water”
(*2*) Rus. “Yesterday, you were all tested, and predictably failed.”
(*3*) Rus. “The problem is your motivation, or simply you. If that’s you what we’re dealing with, then, it’s all simple. If the problem is your motivation, then, it’s even easier.”
(*4*) Rus. “Working for this organization involves the risk of being captures, you know. Anyone can be caught, and once that happens he won’t avoid questioning”
(*5*) Rus. “No one can be the exceptional. Alexander Valeryevych, use everything you have. You’ve just…” “7 hours.”
(*6*) Rus. “Yeah, like we all would believe that’s for real.”
(*7*) Ukr. “You see the blood. It’s real”
(*8*) Germ. “Dead”
PAST IMPERFECT
BY Maria Purt
BY Maria Purt
Summary: This happens in four years after Irina Derevko falls to her death in 5.17
Info: May have all the spoilers, esp. 517, 421 and 422. This is how I’d make Irina be good and alive.
Rating: PG-13
Disclosure: Characters of Alias belong to JJ Abrams and ABC Television.
My biggest "thanks" goes to Bev (она же lenafan) for being my beta (and also the one who makes me feel like i don't know english... Gosh, i never thought it was so complicated :lol: )
Chapter 1
"You can't really think you'll have the information, unless I'm willing to give it. Torturing will just make it worse, and then, I'll be even less cooperative. You know who I am, don't you? In that way, you know what to expect. I was trained to withstand any kind of questioning, any kind of pain. I can easily make it without any water or food for quite a long time. And as for drugs, well, you surely can inject me with something, I'd be truthful, and still, not telling anything you want. So please, save your time and my pain.
"What is your name? I heard the other officer calling you, I guess, Richard or… So, what is it? You know me and the only thing I know about you is that you want to hurt me to get Intel for CIA.
"I can tell you something you might be interested in. You wanted to know what I knew about Irina Derevko. That's a piece of cake, because I know a great deal. Still, I want an agreement. Don't be silent; it's been 8 or 9 days since I'm here. Don't you notice this is the first time I have spoken to you? I'm talking to you when I'm not in pain, Richard. That's the only way."
"No trading; you're nothing here," said the man, finally replying and turning to face the young blond girl who was seated in the chair, cuffed to the armrests. She was obviously smiling now, in spite of the interrogation she'd been through just one hour ago.
"I'm not trading, Richard. I'm offering, and there are two options here. You can accept my proposition, or you don't. It depends on you." The girl shook her head and looked up directly into the interrogator's eyes. He came closer, carrying a little needle in his left hand.
“My name’s not Richard.” He smiled back taking the finger on her hand and pointing the needle right under the nail, but not pushing it yet. They were both waiting.
"I can be mistaken as to your name. One of your assistants was beating me just the moment the other one called you. It was so noisy," she smiled again, her eyes watching the needle he still held dangerously close to her finger. "You want to end our dialog?" She asked him taking a deep breath.
"You haven't told me a thing yet." His eyes were now dancing with anticipation.
"You haven't removed this item either."
"Okay, let's try. You weren't actually too far mistaken about the name. Richard was the one they called; I came in instead," he paused, taking away the needle and getting a glass of water. "I'm Gavin."
The man brought the glass to her mouth; she sipped it twice, and then turned away.
"I thought you'd drink it all," Gavin said hesitating as if to give her the second chance to drink. "I don't think you'll have this opportunity again soon."
"I'm a trained human, not a robot. And you know I haven't had any drink for too long. I might collapse if I drank too much."
He knew she had her point. Here in the CIA interrogation center, everyone knew of her capabilities, and they wanted to test if that was true. It definitely was. Gavin watched every interrogation of her. She was beaten and injured. They stopped feeding her on her third day, and she had no water for five days.
Whatever Irina Derevko meant to this girl, it was astonishing.
This was the first time the CIA managed to capture one of Irina's op-team. In spite of Irina's death, it still operated and they still were out of touch of any government organization. All the Intel the CIA had for that group, code name 'Nameless', was that they had no headquarters (or at least none were known) and even four years after their leader's death they were as dangerous as Derevko had been.
Gavin remembered Irina Derevko’s death. It appeared her daughter killed her accidentally, letting Irina fall down when glass ceiling covering the atrium below cracked under her weight. Then, Sydney Bristow retired, and so did her husband Vaughn. Five months later, the CIA was fought by an unknown enemy and from then on, 50% of their missions failed. It was obvious someone hunted CIA agents. It took a year before they knew whom they were dealing with. There was Operative group of about thirty to fifty people, with no official motivation but money.
Some time later, the FBI learned that the group was founded by the U.S. enemy, Irina Derevko, in the mid-nineties. None knew who ran it now. The CIA asked Sydney Bristow to come back, and she refused. After her parents' deaths, she never returned to the CIA.
Surprisingly, two weeks ago the CIA tracked down one of the operatives of the 'Nameless'; it was a girl of 20-22 years, with no data available on her in their files.
Gavin took a deep breath to get him back to present. He was still standing in front of the girl, and she was simply staring at him waiting for something.
"You look concerned," she stated. "Don't know what to ask first?" She smiled shaking her cuffed hands to feel more comfortable.
"Let's start with you telling me your name"
"What? I thought you knew… Oh, you can call me Kamilla," she paused. "Can I have some water once again please?" He brought the glass to her mouth again, and again she just had a little.
"That doesn't sound like truth; you've an accent, Polish or German maybe. The first lie of yours in just the first minute."
"I said you could call me that. I never told you that it was mine. Okay-okay, Svetlana, or just Sveta is fine."
Gavin made a note, turning to the camera, then spoke: "Sometime I'll need to know what you are, and now, yes, Irina Derevko. You mentioned you knew a lot about her. Let's begin with how you met her."
"You might be surprised, but she just came across and asked me if I wanted to earn a lot of money. I was 15 then. In our country, it isn't bad to have money, and you don't actually have to declare where you've got it from. I agreed, and, uhhh…" Svetlana shook her head slowly. "I never regretted it."
"May I ask you what job did she offer to you as a young girl?" Gavin didn't look surprised but wondered.
"Oh, well, that was op-division. It didn't have any governmental support as far as I knew, and even though it wouldn't make any trouble, I wasn't a patriot of my country."
"What year was it that you first met Irina Derevko?" Gavin asked in a low voice.
"1998 or so. Guess that was the same time as Russia had its default."
The man seemed to remember something. He crossed his arms on his chest, hiding his nervousness. "You've been interrogated for more than a week, and now you are willing to tell us whatever we want to know. That doesn't make sense."
Sveta didn't look surprised by his question, nor was she worried. She thought he'd ask that earlier, and yet, she had to make sure she picked the right words. She tried to remember the previous two weeks, and the whole 'before' those weeks. The CIA definitely didn't know anything about her and she smiled to herself remembering the real reason she was here.
That wasn't her mistake nor was it anyone else’s that the CIA had caught her. She actually planned it to happen, and obviously it all went well. She was second-in-command of the ITC as they used to call themselves, and she needed some things to be done personally. The matter of the debt, she thought to herself. She had to find Sydney Bristow who had disappeared four years ago right after her mother, Sveta's boss, Irina Derevko, was considered to be dead. Sydney retired and the CIA had a way to hide those who used to work for them. That was the risk, but there was no other way to get to that woman and the ITC needed her.
Sveta remained silent, thinking to herself of Irina Derevko.
That was horrible, she thought, seeing her boss lying on the floor, bloodied and nearly dead after falling from the top of the atrium. She actually saw her falling, unable to stop it. Then two of Svetlana's team removed Irina's body, having realized her heart was still beating. Sydney and Vaughn were on their way down when the ITC made it impossible for them to check Irina's status.
Placing explosives in the atrium, they blew it up moments before the two arrived. No one would know that Irina survived the fall. In spite of broken bones, and a severe head injury, their boss was still alive. Later, however they found out the head injury had caused amnesia. It's been four years and still nothing changed. ITC kept her in their secret location; making sure nobody would ever see her in this condition. She was like a little girl, unable to remember who she was.
Svetlana hoped her boss would recover in time, and that the organization they were running would have her support again. Nothing happened and nothing was different, and except for amnesia, Irina was now physically fine.
During those four years, the ITC tried everything to help her get her memory back, including all sorts of therapy, stress. The doctor said, it was possible some scary things from her past may have their 'deja vu' for her, so Irina Derevko was tortured by the ITC. Still, nothing happened; she cried and screamed, not understanding why all these people were hurting her so cruelly.
Finally, Svetlana gave up; she secreted her ex-boss in the hidden location nobody knew about and moved on. Some more things had to be done, and there was too little time left.
Some time later, the ITC was attacked and 30% of its members killed. Svetlana knew that was a challenge; a new enemy was something she'd never expected. In eight months, 60% of the ITC were killed.
Then Irina Derevko was kidnapped. That was the first time Svetlana wished she had someone to help her.
"So?" Gavin asked impatiently. "I don't think we actually broke you. As you've mentioned, you can stand much more than this."
"I've told you already, I'm not one afraid of torture. Just don't seem to understand why you'd want to know anything about woman who died," said Sveta moving her shoulders as if to make the man see she was curious.
He, again, made some notes on his paper, and then smiled a little. Might this girl not know anything? Could she be just some field-op with no contact with the base of the organization?
Laughing to himself, he continued, "This doesn't matter. We need to fulfill some holes in our profiles, just in case."
The girl grinned, as he froze realizing he now answered her questions. "Nice try then," said Gavin. "Russian default? That is…"
"That was when all economical structures of the country went down, having…mmm… too little dollars there." She ended his phrase just as he meant her to. "That has nothing to do with Derevko. Just check some old newspapers, you'll see it there."
"Where did you … operate?" He had actually known about economical problems of all the countries of the post-USSR area, but never paid attention to what exactly they were.
"Everywhere" she smiled, "After training period, Irina and I…we… well, we traveled all over the world…"
"Training? What training?" He seemed concerned now. "Derevko had some sort of training base, didn't she?"
That was bad. Sveta was not to tell him anything about structure of the ITC, nor was she to tell him where the place was, so, she thought to herself, she had to tell him something different. Still, that had to be true in order that stupid lie detector to 'believe' her.
"Yes, it was located in north-west of Ukraine, near Lootsk, if you know that city. Some more wasser, please." (*1*)
She smiled at him. "Water, I mean."
"The training center first, please." Gavin serious; he finally had something more to probe her for.
"Are you in a hurry? No? Then, me neither, I am not going anywhere until we're finished. And I've doubts I'm going anywhere even once we are finished." She waited while he gave her some more liquid. "Training…" she remembered something and her body shook unwillingly. ”That was the worse part of all time I worked for Irina Derevko. But that was also time I was shocked the most. I'm not sure I know what trainings are like at CIA, but I'm sure it's far from what it looked like in Irina's organization.
"By the time..." Sveta paused checking if she still remembered what she was to reveal. "By the time I joined, I already knew my boss was ex-KGB officer, and I was little afraid of her. The 'Irina Andreyevna' was much different from the 'Irina' who offered me job. She was all business like, always serious and never smiling.
"And after learning shooting, hand-to-hand fighting, physical training, and …let's just call it studying how to look good, make up and stuff…" Svetlana's smile vanished. "There came a time for each trainee to learn how to withstand the questioning. We were all told that interrogator would stop the moment someone of us asked him to. No one actually made it through first ten minutes and neither did I. Interrogator simply brought hot steel stick close to my face when I screamed at him to stop it. Later on, Irina explained that pain is not what always breaks someone. It's often one's fear that makes it instead."
Gavin looked distant now; he was deep in thought although he did hear every word and made some more notes. "And how did Irina make you all… How many, by the way?" He asked.
"Don't know…" she said and the detector beeped loud. "I mean, we were all divided into groups of three to five. Can't seem to remember how many groups there were."
"And Irina took all of you there by force?
"No, we all respected her from the second day of the torture training. That was when she had herself unrestrictedly interrogated in order to show us no one had any privileges when he was caught. Irina was tortured for about 6 or 7 hours never giving out any word. Interrogator, I guess, would stop once she'd ask, but she did not. He used all the stuff he had for training part, electroshock, some drugs, fire, and…"
"What did she do that for?"
"I told you. We all respected her after that and did our best to learn art of being in pain." Her eyes became wild when she said the last words. "She never used some kind of torture for enemy unless she tried it for herself, so she'd know how that person felt. She could use that to break one even faster."
Sveta's mind gave her the picture of what had happened long ago: training. She did not lie, indeed that was the time everyone regretted that they agreed to work for the organization. Sveta just wasn't to tell all the truth. There were things no one would ever know, and those pictures she now remembered were ones of those things.
Eventually, the second morning Irina Andreyevna came into the training-center, wearing some jeans, jacket, and a t-shirt; no one actually saw her in clothes like that, and her hair was gathered. She greeted everyone, and then turned to speak to the interrogator. It appeared his name was Alexander, and some time later, every trainee used to call him simply Sanya. However, at that moment, he was Alexander Valeryevych; and after two or three minutes of talking Irina finally spoke to everybody. Almost everyone there spoke only Russian, so she had to use it.
"Вчера все вы подверглись проверке, и, как и ожидалось, провалились" she paused watching the reaction. Everyone remained silent, and so did Sanya. (*2*)
"Проблема либо в мотивации, либо в вас. Если дело в вас, то проблему решить очень легко. Если в мотивации – еще проще" Irina smiled, pulling off her jacket. (*3*)
"Работа в этой организации сопряжена с риском, вы это знаете. Любой из вас может быть схвачен , и в этом случае он вряд ли избежит допросов" sighing, she removed the ring from her left arm and placed it on the table, near the earrings she put there the moment before. (*4*)
"Никто не может быть исключением. Александр Валерьевич, все, что у вас имеется. У вас есть…" she glanced at her watch, and then put it on the same table, "… 7 часов". (*5*)
The woman then turned to face Alexander, and he immediately backhanded her face, pushing her into the wall. She obviously did not expect that, and lost her balance. Still saying nothing, Sanya took one of her arms and squeezed it putting the other hand behind the woman's back. Once having her both hands secured, he dragged her to the metal chair everyone had been seated yesterday. Irina didn't fight back, nor did she resist.
Sanya pushed her even harder, pulling a needle to the back of her neck. Irina made her way to where he led her, and in two moments she was placed in that chair, feet chained to the floor and head restrained to the back of the chair, her arms were now tied down to the armrests. All trainees were watching every thing that happened, they were actually in the same room, just 13 feet from their boss.
The interrogator placed four wires on her hands: two near the shoulders and two on the wrists. Obviously, the drug had taken its effect, as the woman began to shake even before Alexander did anything to those wires. And, once he did, Irina's body started shaking heavily when electricity went through her hands and to her feet grounded to the floor.
"You okay?" Sanya asked her to make sure he hadn't use too high voltage. He got no response, and continued. He hit her twice to her ribs, not too strong to break those, but still, that was enough for Irina to gasp for air and then breathe loudly.
"Ага , типа мы все так и поверили , что все по- настоящему" someone whispered, and the other voice agreed to that. (*6*)
Some time later, the blood flowed from Irina's nose, and she coughed. It was several hours since they began the procedure, and the only sounds they heard from the woman were 5 or 6 whimpers when Alexander raised the voltage or aimed the hot air to her unclothed hands.
"Бачиш кров? Вона справжня " Sveta whispered loudly, and others just shut up. (*7*)
Svetlana now remembered that was the first time she said something in Ukrainian ever since being in the training base; she used only Russian there, but at that very moment, she wasn’t paying attention to what she said. She was simply shocked, as she too considered it all a charade before.
Svetlana also remembered Alexander looking at his watch some more time later. He was pleased to stop what he was doing. His 7 hours were to end in three minutes. Placing the torture item, he held to the shelf, he approached Irina and took off the cuffs. He then helped her up, leading her to the nurses who appeared in the doorway. Irina grabbed her earrings and a ring, and in a minute, they were all gone, leaving the silenced trainees deep in their thoughts.
Yeah, Svetlana clearly remembered each of the trainees who were standing there that moment, unsure of what to do or what to think. Of course, she wasn't going to tell Gavin how many they were, but the picture in her head was now even more vivid; that day all of the ITC recruits were there and it was the day Irina Derevko made them totally hers...body and soul.
Sveta looked at Gavin again, not knowing why he was smiling this time. "What?" she asked.
"You liked Irina Derevko, didn't you?"
She nodded "Yes. I did. And I actually will kill the one who made her tot." The girl rolled her eyes and laughed. (*8*)
End of chapter 1
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(*1*) Germ. “Water”
(*2*) Rus. “Yesterday, you were all tested, and predictably failed.”
(*3*) Rus. “The problem is your motivation, or simply you. If that’s you what we’re dealing with, then, it’s all simple. If the problem is your motivation, then, it’s even easier.”
(*4*) Rus. “Working for this organization involves the risk of being captures, you know. Anyone can be caught, and once that happens he won’t avoid questioning”
(*5*) Rus. “No one can be the exceptional. Alexander Valeryevych, use everything you have. You’ve just…” “7 hours.”
(*6*) Rus. “Yeah, like we all would believe that’s for real.”
(*7*) Ukr. “You see the blood. It’s real”
(*8*) Germ. “Dead”