Chapter 6

When we had cleared customs in Sofia, there was a driver with a board saying ‘Holdsworth’ on it. In the car he took us to our hotel. We checked into the hotel and our bags were carried up to the room. Tipping the two boys as they left, we closed the door. We freshened up, changed into jeans and tops, then went down to the reception, booking a dinner table for two, before walking outside and stretching our legs doing a little bit of sight-seeing.

I bought a local paper from a kiosk and looked through it for shows. There was one that caught my eye. It was the same drama company that my previous target had worked with, now with Gregor as the producer.

We strolled to the theatre and bought two tickets for the opening night. The play was Ivanov, one of Chekhov’s early works. We went back to the hotel, ate, and went up to one of the softest beds I have ever slept in. We did the tourist bit until the night of the play. One trip we did, by taxi, was to the Park Aerogara, where he drove us up to the turn-around. We asked him to stay and got out. As we had seen from the tourist map, a few yards from where we stood was a wide amphitheatre. I supposed that there was quiet periods when there would be no planes coming in or taking off from the airport, next door. We got him to take us to other parks, and, when he asked, I told him that we were looking at settings for an outdoor wedding.

On the night of the show, we dressed in our finery, made sure our make-up was perfect, and got a taxi to the theatre, not wanting to walk that far in heels. When we entered the foyer, the first person to see us was Sofia, talking to some dignitaries. She gave us a wave and pointed to some seats along the wall. We went and sat until she had finished her discussion. When she came over to us, I rose, and we hugged.

“Welcome back to Sofia. Gregor will be over the moon to see you again. You’ve no idea how happy he’s been since taking over the drama group. I saw the rehearsal to this play, and it’s good. We have several new faces in the club, now, several Russians. I think they still need to get alongside the other members. Surprisingly, a few have turned out to be fine actors.”

I introduced Adrianne, my assistant, and Sofia wanted to know where we were sitting. When I showed her the tickets, she huffed and stalked off to the box office with them, coming back with a pair, in her row, and told me that I was sitting next to Gregor. The man, himself, then came up to us and hugged all three of us. Telling me that I was more than welcome to critique the play for him, which would save him having to think of his column, again.

The play was spoken in Russian, but there were transcripts you could buy, in several languages. That was an eye-opener, for a start, and allowed me to follow the deep plot and complex characters. It was lovely, in the intermission, to be talking to a few of the local dignitaries, who were praising the new look of the drama club. For a bunch of amateurs, they were good.

At the end of the play, when the lead actor commits suicide on stage – well, it is a Russian play – there was good applause. Gregor turned to me and said what was on his mind.

“I hope that you’re not here to take away any of my actors. They’re mine, I tell you, mine!”

“Not this visit, Gregor,” I laughed. “Although the two who played Nikolai and Eugene would go well anywhere.”

“They’re both newbies, from the Russian Embassy. The one who plays Eugene is a genuine font of knowledge - about Russian theatre, of course.”

As we went back to the foyer, he invited us to the hotel, around the corner, to meet the cast when they had changed. It was an interesting night of drink and a lot of laughter. Adrianne got into a conversation with the lighting manager, from the British Embassy, while Gregor introduced me to the cast as ‘Davina, who took three of our mediocre actors on her last visit and has given them parts on British TV’, then grinned and told them that he had put them all out of bounds, at least for this season.

At the end of the evening, he went and retrieved his car, taking us back to the hotel, before going home with Sofia. At the hotel, he stopped and then spoke quietly.

“I hope that this is a social call, Davina. The last time you were here was almost too much for my heart.”

“It is mainly social, but there is something serious I want to talk to you about. Can you meet us at the amphitheatre in the Aerogara Park, sometime tomorrow? You as well, Sofia.”

“All right, we will be there at eleven. If you two are alone, so will we be alone.”

“You have my word, Gregor, there will be just the two of us, no back-up, no recording equipment and no watchers.”

He nodded. “We will see you then.”

Back up in our hotel room, we carefully took off our good dresses. Adrianne was quiet, then spoke.

“That little party was amazing. There were people from at least seven different embassies. No wonder that Vlad ran it so tightly, it must be a goldmine of tittle-tattle.”

We went through the process of getting ready for bed, then held each other as we dozed off to a slightly fuzzy sleep. No doubt, she was thinking the same as I was. Tomorrow will be the crunch day.

After breakfast, in our room, we dressed for hiking – jeans, sweater, low boots and minimal make-up, and we hugged before leaving the room. We took a taxi to the airport, then waited until it had left to walk to the park and around the lake to the seating. There, we sat and looked out over the lake as airliners took off and landed on the other side of the fence line. Eventually, we saw a car come and park in the turn-around. Gregor and Sofia got out and came over to us.

We stood and we had a general hugging session. We then opened our bags to show that we had nothing. Sofia followed suit, while Gregor just opened his coat to flash his shoulder holster. We then walked along a path by the lake.

“Gregor and Sofia,” I began. “What I am going to say is classed as Top Secret by my government. The first thing I want to get out of the way is if Sofia is at that level, I expect that with your job, you are.”

“I can vouch that she is at that level, Davina. You will have guessed that we are both agents for Hungary, Sofia has a nice little line with the baked goods. She is in and out of nearly every embassy in town. I want to openly thank you for that operation you pulled, last time you were here. Taking Vlad out of the picture was one of the cleanest black ops I’ve seen. He wasn’t a nice man, and the whole town is much more open with their comments without him standing over them.”

“All right. Adrianne and I are at the same level. We want to tell you about a little operation our government had, that went drastically wrong. But first, I want to tell you that I know about Warsaw towards the end of ’64.”

He stopped dead. I stood in front of him and gave him the photocopy of the note.

I waited until he read it, then looked him in the eyes, both on the same level.

“Both the Bonds were tall. Sofia said that I have my mother’s eyes, well, I think I have my father’s stature.”

“But this is addressed to Barry?”

“That was what I was christened and remained until an operational error with a parachute jump led me down the path to who I am now.”

“So, you were my son that I never knew I had, and now my daughter?”

There were tears in both our eyes as he hugged me tightly. Sofia took the paper out of his hand and read it. She then gave out a hoot of laughter.”

“So, you were Bond – Barry Bond?”

I disengaged myself and looked at her.

“Hey, that was my line. It’s Barbara Bond now, when I’m not under cover.”

“To us, you will always be our wayward daughter, Davina.”

Then she hugged me as well.

“We never knew them as the Bonds,” Gregor mused. “They were always something else, and always different. Thank you for telling us this in private. My government would court-marshal me if they knew that I had an affair with a British agent. Not only that, but remaining friends afterwards would see me shot. You now have me chomping at the bit to know what else you have to say.”

“I don’t know how to break this to you gently. My father was recruited by the Russians in the forties, remained a double agent all the time you knew him, and disappeared in Africa, not long after you last saw him, along with my mother and two tons of gold bullion.”

That stopped them both dead in their tracks.

“The whole time, he was working for the Russians?”

“I’m afraid so. I didn’t know about any of this until I found that note. We made a new search of the house and came up with enough passports to take two cricket teams on holiday. Why I’m here is to ask you to think about all the times you were with them. Did he say anything about his retirement? Did he offer any idea about where he could be now? I can tell you that this has all been said with the full approval of the head of the SIS. We have already issued a code red on him; he is now walking around with a price for his head."

We turned around and walked back to his car. Both were deep in thought, no doubt wondering how they had been taken in. He offered to take us back to the hotel, and the drive was in silence. At the hotel, we got out, and so did Sofia. She hugged us both, Adrianne first. When she hugged me, she whispered in my ear.

“We’ll have a good think about this, my wonderful new daughter. Don’t tell your partner, but I’m really Gregor’s controller, as well as his wife. Stay in town until we get back to you.”

She got back in, and he drove away.

“That put the cat into the pigeon house,” quipped Adrianne. “Even though I said nothing, that was the most dramatic meeting I’ve ever been in.”

“I think I need lunch and a stiff drink; I’m shattered after that.”

It took three days until we were invited to a dinner party at their apartment. We dressed well, in cocktail dresses, and a car was waiting for us at reception. I had the feeling that the driver was from the Hungarian Embassy, and the car was a lot better than a taxi. When we stopped, he got out and opened the door for us. As I stood, I sneaked a look into his jacket and saw the distinct shape of a gun in a shoulder holster.

Sofia must have been looking out for us, as she opened the door of the complex and hugged us before leading us to the lift. On the way up, she smiled.

“Don’t be surprised with who you see, tonight. We are all friends, here, more so than I ever would have thought. I took your news upstairs and got an amazing result.”

In the apartment, we were warmly greeted by Gregor, looking somewhat distracted. We were then introduced to the Hungarian Ambassador, and ‘Mister ‘X’ our spy-in-residence’. I had seen this guy around when I was here last. He had been on the periphery of the drama group.

“How wonderful to be able to meet you, in private,” he said in perfect English. “Your operation last time you were here is still being discussed back in the office. No-one can quite believe how you managed to get Vlad to kill a British diplomat, the fall-out of that, alone, has altered the balance of power in this town. Half the countries who had leaned towards the Russians now don’t trust them.”

“That’s for me to know, and you to think about some more,” I smiled. “I’ll just give you a one-word hint – ego.”

We sat at their dining table, and the meal was served by two women who I guessed were embassy staff. With the Ambassadorial car in the street, he expected more than home cooking. It was delicious and the talk was mainly small talk, about the drama group, the way the city was evolving, some chit-chat about other embassies, and it was a very much ‘getting to know you’ affair.

Afterwards, we were sitting in the lounge, with snifters of a good brandy, when the Ambassador cleared his throat and took control of the room.

“I have to say that I find this a very strange situation. You brought some information to my friends, here, that I find disturbing, to say the least. It’s not a usual thing for us to talk openly but you scratched our back, now I must scratch yours. I knew the couple you have now told us were called the Bonds. I find that name hilarious, but not what he has done. Your information has allowed our government to have closure on cases that go back nearly thirty years. I, myself, was taken in during the early days of the Warsaw Pact. I gave him information that I now know took down more than one cell. I have more reason to kill him than anyone else in this room. He caused the death of several of my compatriots, as well, as my first wife, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He stopped to take a drink, and ‘Mister X’ took over.

“Our service had been aware that Gregor had an affair with your mother. What we didn’t know was that there was a child from it. We put it down to youthful energy, and he knew nothing, at the time, that could cause any trouble. The reunion with the Bonds, later, was a bonus, having one of ours in a relationship with one of yours. We are devastated that one of them was a Russian spy. But we must move forward. I have put out feelers to my friends in other services, letting them know that we have suspicions and that they have disappeared. We have discovered that the two of them were seen in Belarus, with her in a wheelchair. We have found that they flew from there to Sochi but have no definite location.”

“That’s what we surmised,” I nodded. “Thank you for that. I suppose that you want to know about his final crime?”

“If you can?” sighed the Ambassador.

“The short story is this. They were given the job to take two tons of bullion to southern Africa, to help a minor despot look at us with gratitude. It all changed in France, and they went directly south, into Spain, across to Oran, and then down to Lagos. We believe that the gold was transferred while traveling, by train, to Kaduna. The camper was found near Abuja, their clothes, and weapons still in it, but no gold. The despot went towards the Russians after that.”

Adrianne had remained quiet, and the Ambassador looked at her.

“And what has been your part in all of this, young lady?”

“I was assigned to Davina at the beginning of her transition, then I was here as her contact when she was here before. We have both read all the files and made the connections that lead us to being here, tonight. We’ve been together now, as a team, for some time.”

“Good girl,” smiled the Ambassador. “That gels with the little we know of you, so I know you are both telling the truth. Tell me, do you have nightmares about the shotgun?”

“Not anymore, sir. It seems that nothing is secret. I did have nightmares when I was told how Barry was injured in a similar fashion. If I still had my nuts, I would have been crossing my legs when I thought about that.”

I saw all three guys go slightly white, and then the Ambassador was all business again.

“Do you have a plan? You can call on us at any time if you need help. We can give you a code word that you can tell any of our Cultural Attaches anywhere in the world.”

“We’re just gaining the information at the moment,” I admitted. “When we know where they are, we can think about it then. It would be easier to just take him out where he lives, but I think our government wants him back to wring him dry. I’ve been told that recovering the bullion is not a priority, with the recovery of my mother only slightly above that.”

“Good, you’re not getting ahead of yourselves. I can tell you that Gregor and Sofia have only added to their reputation by bringing this to us. I spent many years in the field, so I know that having someone tell the truth, in this game, is a not a common occurrence. I’m very pleased to have met you two, very brave girls. If you’re in town again, you must come along to one of our dinners at the Embassy. Now, my driver will take you back to your hotel, I need to stay here for more talking. The driver will give you the envelope with the codeword. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have had more drink than my bladder can hold.”

We were ushered out of the apartment, with hugs and kisses, and ‘Mister X’ escorted us down to the car. He opened the rear door, told the driver that it was all right, then bade us goodnight with the parting words.

“Goodnight, ladies, I just wish I could have you in my team. You both are out of the box. I hope the SIS appreciate what they have with you.”

On the way, the driver passed over an envelope, which Adrianne put into her bag. He let us out at the hotel and then left to go back to the apartment complex. We didn’t say much, too wrapped in our thoughts.

Next morning, while we were having breakfast, Adrianne commented that it was weird that they had known so much about us.

“Yes, the more you do, the bigger the file. I think we would have files on their agents. I think we have done what we needed to do, now we know that they both went from Belarus to Sochi. You don’t carry bullion on a plane, so we have to say that it’s now well gone. Let’s book our flight out, this afternoon, if possible.”

Adrianne did her admin thing, getting us on a flight via Hanover that left at four. We used the morning to pack our things, and Adrianne called our embassy to arrange a car to take us to the airport. We then went down to get lunch and check out of the room.

The car was outside at two, as arranged, and took us to the airport. The driver was getting our bags out of the car when Adrianne gave a little gasp and put her hand on his arm.

“Do you see those beefy guys just along there, putting those duffle bags into that van?”

He and I looked. The guys were chunky, to say the least.

“Try and get the number of that van as you leave, I think those four are a Russian hit squad. The one in the red jacket was holding a shotgun pointing towards my nuts the last time I saw him. He wouldn’t know me now unless they have pictures of the two of us.”

We carried on as if we had nothing on our minds but did it with our backs toward the Russians. We both gave the driver a kiss on the cheek, and I whispered to him.

“Tell the top spook. I think that lot are here for revenge.”

The van was pulling away from the kerb as we waved our goodbye and went into the terminal.

“That was close,” I mused. “That must have been your last memory as a boy.”

“If I had a gun, I would have shot him, there and then, and hang the consequences.”

“That wouldn’t have solved thing, darling Adrianne, but there’s something going on and I think we must remain here to see where this will lead. They don’t know that I eliminated Vlad, so, if it’s linked to the drama club, they must be after Gregor. The Russians usually import someone for the dirty work.”

While Adrianne looked after the bags, I first rang Gregor at home. Sofia answered. I told her what we had just seen and that one of them was responsible for my partners’ current look. She said that she would make sure that there’s a rise in security. I then offered to help.

“Sofia, we have tickets home, via Germany. I can see if I can get them changed. Is there one of your embassies, somewhere close, that can give us assistance. We would just need Bulgarian ID. We could change our appearance and come back, by train, and remain in the background. One of us wants to even the ledger.”

“I can do better than that. There is a safe house where you can go, where we can supply everything. Get changed and wait outside the terminal. I’ll come and get you.”

We went into the toilets and changed in cubicles. When we came out, we looked like a couple of hikers. We bought backpacks and caps from the shop and threaded our ponytails through the gap at the back. We then found the lockers, and deposited our bags, paying for a week, after putting all our needed items in the backpacks.

We had to wave Sofia down as she drove slowly by. She stopped and we were quickly in the back seat. She drove out to a suburb of detached houses, pointing one out as we drove by, then letting us out of the car a street away, pointing out a way to get to the house from the back. Thanking her, we got out and walked away.

When we got to the back of the house, the door opened, and our friendly Mister X ushered us in. There was another guy, in the kitchen, who wasn’t introduced, but sat with a drawing pad and pencils in front of him. We had to describe each of the Russians, as best we could. Of course, Adrianne could describe one very well. When we had done what we could, there were the four pictures that could be checked against photos, and the artist nodded to us as he left, no doubt going to his embassy where he would do just that.

Mister X then looked at us, with a smile.

“So, how are we going to give the Russians something to chew on, then?”

Marianne Gregory © 2023