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

[pitythetrumper]

Freddie snorted and relaxed a little. "Maybe if they're both gone, they're gone together if you know what I mean. It wouldn't surprise me. He's done it before. Cheated on someone. His wife. And she's cheated on someone before, too. With him." If that was the explanation, it was something Freddie could live with. Lex wouldn't like it and this guy wouldn't like it, but it would be an explanation. Freddie didn't want to wonder if the explanation was something else, like maybe a certain American someone and Russian someone who liked to play games with people's lives. Funny how that hadn't occurred to him until now.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll show up soon with some sort of excuse about how they were both missing...separately." Although now he was starting to get his own twist in his stomach.

[travellingjack]

"I know exactly what you mean and there's no way in hell that's what it is," Jack fired back immediately. "I don't care what she did before she came here, that's not the woman she is now." There was no sound of rationalization in his voice because he wasn't rationalizing anything. He knew Flore, he'd seen her face when she talked about what life had been like when she first stepped off that elevator and onto Twisted Fantasy Island.

And speaking of twisted.

"I talked to Anatoly not long ago. He was shaken, like he'd been spooked. The same spooked look I've seen on a lot of faces around here lately. During that conversation he made me promise to look after Florence." Jack ran a hand through his hair. "I think this is more the island fucking around than a pair of old lovers nipping into the trees for a quickie."

[pitythetrumper]

"I would have preferred the quickie," Freddie muttered. "Although I think you're deluding yourself. She's still the same woman. I've known her for a hell of a lot longer than you have." He let that comment sit for a moment and then swore profusely. Gone might even be preferable to this. Molokov and Walter on the island or Anatoly crazy. Neither were alternatives he really wanted to deal with, but they were the only alternatives he had.

"All right, we need to find them. He thinks that there are two people on the island and maybe if Florence is gone, he's right. That means they're both in a crapload of trouble."

What was making him nervous was that he hadn't seen either of them. There was still the option that maybe Anatoly had taken Florence because he thought he could keep her safe. No, neither of the possibilities were ones he liked.

"Has she told you about Walter and Molokov? The two people manipulating our lives behind the scenes?"

[travellingjack]

For her, he'll keep his comments to himself about anything other than what's going on now. It'd just be a waste of valuable time to stand here bickering about it and, lets face it, it's not like he's ever going to be best friends with this guy.

"She's told me a little," Jack responded, walking into the hut and grabbing the taser he'd checked out a week or so before. "But since those aren't some of her favorite memories, I haven't asked. So maybe you can fill me in on the basics?"

[pitythetrumper]

"Think CIA and KGB and you might get an idea of just how screwed we are if they're really here." Of course, he wasn't sure that either man was part of the organizations he'd mentioned, but it had sure seemed like it from the time he'd watched those musicals. If they got one part of the story right, it was entirely possible that they'd gotten the other part of the story right and in both versions, the men had seemed to work for something greater than a chess grandmaster and Global Television.

"And their greatest joy seemed to be from causing us misery. The best thing we can do is find them and find them as soon as we possibly can. If we're lucky, he's only being paranoid. If we're not..."

Well, he for one didn't want to find out what two spies could do on an island when they were bored.

[travellingjack]

"So a whole truck load of joy," Jack snorted, then shrugged. Maybe it was why he'd always been a good cop, but to his mind, if the bastards after you couldn't use magic or any other supernatural crap - like unleashing a werewolf with a taste for human flesh on a 12 year old kid - it never seemed as bad as it could be.

"Right. So. We've got a whole island to search. Any thoughts on where Pain and Suffering might take them? Would they find a building, a hut, head into the jungle and camp?"

[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.

[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."