Dusk in Kalevia: Chapter 13

Kaija woke to the night wind stirring her hair. Vesa lay beside her, his hand warm in hers. She tightened her fingers around it, to assure herself it was real.

She tried to remember how they had ended up on the floor of this tiny room with broken windows. A dim recollection of a fight welled up in her head. A fight and…something else…

Kaija looked around them–at the gently blowing corners of the drop cloth tucked over Taisto’s body, at the broken window, at the toothless bomb lying in a tangle of wires, missing its detonator. She had a momentary conviction that she was missing something vital, a hole knocked out of the memory of the struggle. Some person, some thing, a burst of courage and fear–what was it?

Her thoughts were interrupted by shouting on the stairs outside. She shook herself to dislodge the dream.

Vesa was awake now, stretching his arms and sitting up, his face full of the same bewilderment that she felt. The footsteps grew louder, warning of their owners’ imminent arrival. As Kaija’s thoughts clarified, she gripped Vesa in a panic.

How can we explain…?

Vesa shook his head. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

As Mika burst through the door with a host of other guardsmen at his heels, she pulled Vesa into a hug so tight he gasped.

**

“He jumped of his own free will?”

“Suicide.” Kaija took a sip of instant coffee.

It had been a strange few weeks.

Kaija hadn’t imagined an interrogation in the dreaded gray tower would involve sitting in an armchair in the Deputy Chairman’s sunny office, being provided with snacks and drinks for the marathon questioning session. Although everyone had been remarkably polite to her, she still couldn’t wait for it to end. She pressed herself back into the cushion of the armchair, eyeing the short, highly decorated officer behind the desk.

“And why do you think he killed himself?”

“I think maybe he knew he had failed? I…I can’t say for sure.”

“Quite a story.” The Deputy Chairman of State Security clasped his hands behind his back as he rose. He slowly paced the length of his office, not looking at his prisoner.

“A conspiracy to bomb the Palace of Culture,” he clarified. “He planned to blame it on the partisans so he could step in and seize power… The kidnapping plot, the forest clan… It all sounds a little far-fetched, don’t you think?”

“But that’s how it happened.”

From his face it appeared that the Deputy Chairman was on the verge of concocting a retort, but a knock called him over to the door. He stepped outside to have a quiet conversation with his visitor, leaving Kaija sitting uncomfortably with her still-steaming cup in her hands.

Kaija was well aware that hers was a delicate situation–her role in the coup d’état was a troublesome enigma to those in the highest echelons of the intelligence agency. At the very least, she had Vesa as an advocate, and the gratitude of his exceedingly powerful father.

After all the years Kaija had seen the Party Chairman as the genesis of all suffering, it was strange to meet the mournful, bearded man in whose face she could see echoes of Vesa. He had been kind to her after the rescue, and later she would hear accounts of the heartfelt speech he gave during the Punaiset Day ceremonies. While it had shocked many by championing intellectual freedom and amnesty for political prisoners, all seemed to agree that it was one for the history books–an inspired ode to the Kalevian people–and even the handful of foreign correspondents in attendance wrote favorably of it in their Western journals. For his part, Vesa seemed somewhat leery of this newfound sentimental streak, but he accepted the de-escalation of tensions with his father as a positive development.

Finally, the Deputy Chairman reappeared and gestured brusquely toward the door.

“Your story checks out. You’re free to go.”

Mika was waiting for her on the other side, new medals pinned to his chest. If Vesa’s loyal bodyguard hadn’t caught her during her reckless break-in, she didn’t know if she would’ve managed the rescue.

“Vesa told them you were his girlfriend,” Mika said sheepishly. “And that sneaking us into the hall in uniform was his idea.”

“And that’s all it took? ” Kaija asked, shaking her head. “Neither of us was supposed to be there. How did they not rip you apart for this?”

“Oh, they probably would have, but…” He paused, as though unsure if he should share the information. “I heard they discovered some notes implicating Kuoppala as a conspirator in an unused office this morning, when they were getting it ready for the new KGB liaison. They found all sorts of weird stuff–space books, memos in Russian. The old guy must have been investigating something before he got recalled.”

“So he knew, too?” Kaija peering sideways at Mika. “Who was he?”

“I don’t know. Never met him.”

Kaija thought she was on the verge of remembering something important, but the next moment it was gone, like a momentary flash of déjà vu.

“Weird,” was all she said.

“Besides,” Mika continued, his grin returning, “We’re heroes now. We’re golden. I’m off suspension; they’ll give us anything we want.”

I want to go home, thought Kaija.

Proceed to Chapter 13, page 3–>