1. Servant of Satan

· Fiery Trails - 1, Vestibule

You are in our hands, and your God will not help you. You believe in God, but I believe in and serve Satan. Yes, yes, I really do serve Satan. Look around, look at what is happening in the world; everywhere and in everything you will see the victory of Satan. The concepts of evil and good are relative concepts; it depends on which side you look from. What you consider good, in real life turns out to be evil, and vice versa. Therefore, whoever has victory, the truth is with him, and the concept of truth will be with the victor. Where have you seen good, in the form you understand it, defeat evil in the world? And even evil in your view is wrong; in life, evil always becomes good and truth. Look at the map,” and he pointed to the world map hanging on the wall opposite me, “not very long ago we were a small dot on the map, and now half the world is red, and we are moving, and no God can stop us. And if we were wrong, if Satan were not with us, would we have such success?” He took a pen and, like a geography teacher, began to show me:
“Look how we have moved and driven out God,” his pen glided across the map, “everywhere we passed, we drove out God, so Satan is stronger than God, and I serve this power.” During the conversation, he stood up, sat down, and his hypnotizing eyes never left me for a second.
I looked into the investigator’s eyes and thought that Satan himself was talking to me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Colonel Istomin, investigator for especially important cases, political department of the KGB. By the way, I handled the cases of Sergei Kovalev (geneticist, convicted in 1975 for human rights activities. After the fall of communism, he was the chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Russian Parliament — the State Duma), Alexander Ginzburg (One of the first dissidents in the Soviet Union, three times convicted for anti-Soviet activity. In 1979, Ginzburg and Baptist pastor Georgi Vins were exchanged for Soviet spies Enger and Chernyaev. After the exchange, he worked as editor of the Paris newspaper ‘Russkaya Mysl’). And many others of your like-minded people. I hope you have heard about me and understand that I did not come from Moscow just to take a look at you.”
Of course, I had heard who Colonel Istomin was and did not expect the KGB to attach such importance to my case, but I realized that they would break me mercilessly.
The two previous months of investigation under Lieutenant Colonel Kuzmin, two tortures with a chemical solution, and dozens of hours spent in ‘glasses’ — nothing compared to what awaited me. Istomin interrupted my thoughts:
“Now, closer to the point. We are interested in how and through whom you transmitted information abroad?”
“I refuse to answer that question.”
“Do you know American diplomat Robert Pringle, who was expelled from the USSR as a CIA agent?”
I am not acquainted with CIA agents, naturally I could not transmit any information to them, and the CIA has no relation to religion in the USSR.
We will talk about the information later. I will present to you everything you transmitted abroad, but now I am interested in how you met Pringle, under what circumstances? Did you transmit information through him? What information and how?
Whom I know among diplomats, I do not think it necessary to explain to you.
That is not an answer. I need an answer: yes or no. “I refuse to answer that question.” “All right, let’s move on. What do you know about the American diplomats — Hudson and Joe Presell?”
Answer quickly, don’t think, don’t think!
I refuse to answer.
Then I will load you up some more to clear your brains. We know that you entered into a criminal contact with a responsible KGB officer and received from him operational information of state importance. Given your connections with foreign diplomats and the information you could have received and transmitted, there is no need to explain to you what the consequences are, so unburden yourself. A sincere confession and cooperation with the investigation mitigates guilt. I hope you understand that we know your every step, but we are giving you a chance to repent and voluntarily tell everything. Keep in mind, much depends on me. That’s enough for today. You have something to think about.

In the doorway appeared the already familiar escort — two KGB warrant officers. One young, about twenty-eight years old, short in stature but of powerful build. The other, a thin old man, of medium height, with a sickly-looking face, but both seemed somewhat alike. I never learned their names — not allowed.
“Hands back, behind your back! Do not turn around! Do not talk! A step to the right, a step to the left, considered an attempt to escape! I shoot without warning!” the old man commanded, and we moved down the corridor of the KGB prison in Vladivostok.
We walked along a corridor, on the right and left of which were investigation rooms. On some of them hung signs: “Do not knock! Do not enter! Interrogation of a foreign agent in progress!” In these rooms, Chinese defectors were being interrogated. After the investigation rooms, on the right side, began the sections with cells. While walking along the corridor there is no feeling that you are in prison, only the presence of the escort reminds you of it, and only after turning into a section do you begin to feel that you are in prison. On the left side, four solitary confinement cells. How many more sections with cells there were further, I never found out. In the KGB prison, I was always in the same section and in the same cell, number 3.
It was a room two by three meters and about two and a half meters high. Just under the ceiling was a window of a size such that a person could not fit through it. The glass was frosted, with an embedded wire mesh. I always wondered: why such a window is needed at all, anyway you can’t see anything through it, and almost no light came through it.
The KGB cells are distinguished by high isolation from the outside world. The silence is such that it rings in your ears. And you never know whether anyone is in the neighboring cell or not.
I lay down on the plank bed and began to recall.

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