These Are Very Dangerous and Difficult Times [dated to 10/31]

[chesspolitik]

By the day of Halloween, Anatoly was completely convinced that danger was lurking around every corner and that no corner of the island was safe. There was simply no telling where Molokov or de Courcey could be and he was afraid that if he stepped outside, even for a moment, that they would find a way to snatch him. He could only begin to imagine what sort of things they would have in store for him and he did not want to find out how the reality matched with his fears.

But as inconvenient as it was, he did need to do things like shower and eat and for that, he had to leave his hut. If Lex had not been there to act as his faithful bodyguard, he would have been content to remain a hungry and rather ripe grandmaster. Their trip to the compound passed without incident and after being reassured several times that Lex would be waiting in the rec room for him, Anatoly went to take a shower.

When he emerged and headed to the rec room, clean (if not exactly clean shaven), he found not Lex but a note in his handwriting. Opened, it simply said that Lex had spotted Molokov lurking about and advised him to leave the compound as soon as possible. He would be waiting outside and then the two of them could go to the IPD.

Without thinking or even stopping to pack up his chess set, Anatoly fled the rec room, heedless of the startled looks around him. He burst outside of the Compound and turned the corner, expecting to see Lex waiting for him. Instead, he found Molokov with de Courcey besides him with a nasty smirk. There was a burst of pain as Molokov's fist connected with his face and then he knew only blackness.

When his consciousness finally returned, he found himself tied to a palm tree on a deserted stretch of the beach. Lex was tied to a tree beside him, looking rather worse for the wear. Molokov and de Courcey weren't in sight but he had no doubt they were near, concocting some devious plan.

"Molokov, you Chekist bastard!" he shouted in Russian as he struggled futilely against his bonds. "What do you hope to accomplish by this?"

Comments

[decourceyonrocks]

Walter tsked softly. "You always were hard to handle, Ms.Vassey. But you did prove useful in the end. It really was a shame about your father."

Then he smiled the slick smile that was useful as both a TV producer and a spy as he pulled a gun out of his pocket. "I'm afraid I will have to insist. And if you think you can outrun me...I'll just have to use this on your Russian boyfriend." He considered the gun for a moment. "Do you think it would hurt him more if I shot him or his new boy toy?"

[loveofmasters]

"You can't get away with this here, this isn't home, there's nowhere you can go." She tried to keep from sounding frightened, but the truth was, she was starting to be terrified. She'd never had a gun pointed at her, she'd never been threatened like this. Everything that had happened to her had been the results of behind-the-scenes manipulations, never anything this... brash.

But she wasn't stupid, so she started moving. Hopefully they'd run into someone. Hopefully someone would interrupt them. In the meantime, she just had to keep talking. "You don't have any right to bring up my father. Ever."

[decourceyonrocks]

"Oh, but I think I can. It's amazing what you can get away with when you can spin a good story." Walter was still smiling as he moved closer to her and grabbed her arm. Behind the scenes had it's moments, and so did being brash. This was just a moment for the latter.

"Shame. He made such nice leverage. Sergievsky ate it hook, line and sinker."

[loveofmasters]

"You can't talk your way past this. There's no CIA, no KGB, and too many of our friends know about you." Or so she hoped. She hadn't really said too much to Jack, she just didn't like to think about those days, if she had to break with the past she had wanted it clean.

She gasped when he grabbed her and she began to struggle. "Let me go! You can't do this!"

[pitythetrumper]

"If I had any ideas on that front, don't you think I would have searched there? If I had any hope at all, do you think I would have come here of all places? You were my last resort. ...my second-to-last resort and you already said you don't know where Florence is." That meant that Freddie didn't have one clue where Florence was, where Anatoly was, or even where Lex was. He was more concerned about the first two than the last, although if he were honest with himself, he wouldn't have wanted to see Lex go, either.

"So no, I don't know where they are." His fists clenched and unclenched as he thought about what might be happening. Nothing good, that was for sure.

[travellingjack]

"Actually, I thought you came here on the thought that Flore and Anatoly were off shaking the trees behind my back," Jack commented. "Okay, so, not helpful and not a fucking clue where to search. No way to track them, either, since sand is crap for holding a decent footprint. Christ, what I wouldn't give to have Wolf still here...." Jack waited for the sting of pain and loss - it was there, but duller than it had been. Bittersweet.

"Let's head in towards the Compound," he said at last. "Feds don't often make me think of guys out camping."

It wasn't much, but it was a start.

[lysistrategic]

"The longer we stand here talking, the more danger Anatoly's in," Joan replies. It's not disagreement at all. Arthur knows her well enough to read her taking his assessment into account and moving on.

She leans in and up to kiss him, not quickly. There's danger here and she is willingly putting herself in its way for a man who isn't her husband. If he loses her, she doesn't want his last memories to be that she ran off to save a friend without a thought for him.

[carriesabigstick]

One of the many things that he loves about Joan is her capacity to care for those she considers friends. That she would do with for Anatoly doesn't surprise him and makes him love her more. He cups her face and returns the kiss, letting it linger a minute more.

"Then I guess it's time to match wits with the Cold War." Arthur says with a soft caress against her cheek before he lowers his hands.

[pitythetrumper]

Freddie ground his teeth and bit his tongue. He'd been there already. He'd been there and scoured the place and had found nothing. And these guys weren't feds. At least Molokov wasn't and if the pair of them were working together instead of against each other... The idea was horrible, but he didn't have any better options for finding them. He'd run out of them. He'd failed.

"Fine," he said shortly. "Even though I've looked there already."

[molokovcocktail]

With Lex captured and de Courcey off to apprehend the irritating Miss Vassey, there was only one person left to take before Molokov could begin his game in earnest. How Sergievsky managed to draw beautiful women into his spell he did not know but by all accounts, this Joan was certainly his type.

Certainly he would have expected him to drop the little rent boy he was living with and fling himself into her arms but that had always been the problem with Sergievsky. He was completely predictable until something caught his fancy and then he would stick with this person long beyond reason would have said to let her go. Molokov had never quite figured out Sergievsky's critera for his moments of stubborn stupidity but that wasn't a matter of concern any longer. Tonight, he and de Courcey were going to have their revenge.

[decourceyonrocks]

"Like who? Sergievksy's little pet? He was the first we grabbed. Trumper?" Walter laughed as he pulled her down the beach. "Please, we both know that won't happen. Your little catch?" He trailed off, smiling cryptically.

[loveofmasters]

"He's a cop, he'll know I'm gone." She just wasn't certain what would happen then. Would he even try to rouse the IPD? On a day like today? Or would he run off after her?

She didn't like the sound of the rest of it. Lex already taken, Anatoly probably as well since she didn't imagine the two being apart. Freddie, God, she hoped he was with friends that could keep him safe.

"Let me go, Walter! Why are you doing this?! Everything's already done, you can't change anything here!"

[lysistrategic]

There's no point, Joan and Arthur decide, to her attempting to conceal a weapon, whether Arthur's ATF stunner or a knife. For one thing, she's never carried one, and for another, it will only tip her hand to de Courcey and Molokov when they apprehend her. Arrogant, overly manipulative, over-confident, yes, but neither stupid nor sloppy.

She also declines to play the damsel in distress when she approaches Lex and Anatoly's hut for the second time today. Joan moves gracefully, with the confidence of power and purpose, striding up to the door to rap sharply on it. "Toly, are you home?"

Normally, she wouldn't call out with the knock, but now, it's important to focus Anatoly's tormenters on her connection to him. "Toly?" she says again, letting tension seep into her voice and raising it in pitch. "It's not like you to miss a chess date."

[decourceyonrocks]

"And what exactly can a cop do here? You might play at order and society but come now, Florence, how effective can they really be against those who know how to play a much more complicated system?" Walter said, not bother to hiding his cockiness.

"That is for you to find out. Now, let's not keep our comrade waiting, shall we?"

[carriesabigstick]

Arthur is shadowing nearby, keeping out of sight of anyone that might be watching. His instincts kick in easily despite the length of time since he'd been in the field. It's almost second nature how to handle it. A small smile curves as he listens to Joan's tension in her voice. She was one of the best before she was moved to a Department Head and her skills are still sharp.

There is a tension in Arthur's own muscles but that had more to do with a husband watching his wife going into an unknown dangerous situation than it did with a boss watching one of his own go in.

[loveofmasters]

She dug in her heels. If he wanted to take her, she was going to fight because now she was thinking that if she went, she might not be coming back. She was a pawn, after all, that made her rather expendable. It wasn't a thought that sat well with her and it made her want to fight him all the more.

[molokovcocktail]

"I am afraid that Anatoly has been called away," Molokov said, smoothly stepping behind Joan. "He was very desolated to be missing his game with you, I assure you."

He gave her what he considered his most charming smile. She had no idea of what was going on, he was certain. This would be almost disappointingly easy. "But I can take you to him."

[capable_of]

As Lex started to wake up, he groaned. Not from the fact his head hurt, because it did, but because he hadn't missed the feeling of waking up with a sore head from Smallville. Then, he remembered why he was feeling this way and he sat up, straining against the bonds holding him to the tree.

"Anatoly, are you alright?" He asked in a low voice, his anger growing as he looked around for the damn cause of this mess.

[lysistrategic]

"If he's busy, I can come back later," Joan demurs, looking a trifle uncertain, as though she wants to be persuaded otherwise. As though she's been very much looking forward to their 'game'.

No point in making it too easy for Molokov. It would make her suspicious in his place. And it allows her a moment to pass her hand through her hair to neaten it, imply that the chess game had been something more intimate. The more important she seems to be, the more incautious Molokov is likely to be in reeling her in.

[chesspolitik]

"I am fine," Anatoly answered, his voice rough from all of his previous cursing in Russian. He wasn't fine, not by any stretch of the imagination but the last thing he wanted to do was show Molokov or de Courcey how afraid he really was. "Are you?"

[capable_of]

"Nothing an aspirin and murder can't cure." Lex said with another shake to clear his head. "Where are the two likely suspects of my headache?"

[molokovcocktail]

"No, he would very much like to see you," Molokov said as sweetly as he could manage. If he had to drag her to the beach, he would, but he preferred her to come with him of her own free will. It would make her sense of shock and betrayal all that much sweeter. "Please, allow me to take you to him."

[chesspolitik]

"I don't know," Anatoly said quietly. "I came to and they were gone. I am not sure where they went but I am very much afraid that I can guess."

Florence was almost certainly their target and if Molokov really wanted to hurt him, he could think of a few others that could be in danger.

[lysistrategic]

"If you're absolutely sure it will be all right?" she asks, still looking slightly nettled and uncertain. "I wouldn't want to interrupt anything..." Joan presses her lips together, and debates making a stronger implication that they've been sleeping together. No. Too much and he might become suspicious. "But I was rather looking forward to seeing him."

She nods, signalling she's decided for herself that it will be fine, and smiles her prettiest (and least threatening) smile. "I'd appreciate it, you taking me to him."

[capable_of]

So could Lex and he didn't like the thought. The little super heroes Anatoly was fond of came to mind, as well as a few others. He strained to free himself again before slumping back against the tree. "Do we know what they want?"