Helena Halme: The Red King of Helsinki: Lies, Spies and Gymnastics

There was still no sign of the Russian bus.

Suddenly Heikki shouted, ‘Look, there are lights ahead!’

‘Yes, I can see them too. Iain drive faster!’ Maija put her hand on Iain’s knee again.

Iain skidded as he pushed the car to its limits. But he got to the coach just as it reached a sign saying ‘Border Control Ahead 1 km’. Iain overtook the coach, then turned the car so that it came to a halt in front of it. The Russian coach swerved, but stopped just short of Iain’s car, diagonally blocking the road. Maija looked at Iain. ‘Thank God!’ She stumbled out of the car, but Heikki had pushed past her and was in front, running. Heikki was already at the door of the coach and was banging hard on it when Maija and Iain got there.

‘Why aren’t they letting us in?’ Maija said. She was standing a little behind Iain, in the headlights of the Russian coach. The fumes from its exhaust filled the air. Iain looked further along the road, at the lights of the Customs building in the distance. Would they see what was going on? If the Russians didn’t let Pia go, would the Finnish border police come and help? The Colonel would not like this, Iain thought. He pushed Heikki aside and banged the glass with his fist, harder. Suddenly he heard the noise of a lever being released and the door swung open. A man in a black shiny jacket stood on the steps.

‘Can you help us?’ Iain said in English. He took a step into the coach, but the man would not let him pass. Iain shouted, this time in Finnish, ‘You are holding one of the Finnish gymnasts!’

‘Pia!’ Maija came up behind Iain and was trying to force herself past Iain into the bus. The man’s face registered surprise and he looked behind him. The Russian trainer had come to the door and stood in front of the guard. She was at least a foot taller than him.

Maija stood close to the woman and started talking in Russian.

Iain stared at Maija, but she continued talking, waving her arms about. Once, she turned around and said something about Iain, pointing to his face. Iain touched his cheek.

For a long while, the Russian woman stood and contemplated.

Heikki stepped forward and said something in Russian.

Everyone is speaking Russian all of a sudden, Iain thought.

Without saying a word, the trainer stepped back and let Maija into the coach. ‘You stay here,’ Iain said to Heikki. The boy hesitated, but stood still when Iain stepped inside.

Maija ran along the isle of the coach and shouted, ‘Pia, Pia!’

Iain walked behind Maija, past two serious-looking muscular men, one of them the man who’d opened the door. They sat at the front, and behind them, along rows of seats were the frightened, upturned faces of the Russian girls. Iain looked closely at their faces. No Pia.

The back of the coach was nearly empty.

Iain heard the trainer say something in Russian behind him, but then Maija screamed, ‘Pia, what have they done to you?’

Iain ran to the last but one row of seats and looked down at Maija, who had her arms around an unconscious girl. She was wrapped in a blanket, and when Iain pulled it away to reveal her face, he saw Maija was right. Pia’s eyes were half-open, and she looked drowsy. She was dressed in a white jogging suit, with the Soviet hammer, sickle and star sewn onto its chest. ‘Mum,’ she muttered and put her head in Maija’s lap. Iain turned around to face the Russian trainer. She had her hand covering her mouth, staring at Maija and Pia. Behind her, the two men looked equally astounded. ‘As I thought,’ Iain said. Addressing Maija, he said, ‘I’ll carry her out of here, follow me.’

As they left, Heikki nodded to the trainer, but said nothing.

When Leena came to, she realised she was hunched up on the floor of the car. There were angry voices. She saw Vadi was leaning towards the front, his body filling the middle space between the two front seats. Leena didn’t understand a word of the Russian Vadi and the woman were speaking, but she could tell it was bad. While her father was arguing the girl was very quiet. Leena wasn’t sure but she guessed they were arguing about her, because every now and then Vadi glanced angrily at Leena. She tried to pray, but it wasn’t helping. She couldn’t for the life of her remember the words of the Lord’s Prayer, even though she’d learned it as a child and always followed the pastor word for word in church. Leena leant her head against the seat in front of her, and suddenly she remembered. ‘Isä meidän joka olet taivaassa…’

The slap came as a surprise. ‘Quiet!’ Vadi hissed. His eyes were blacker than Leena had ever seen them. Leena tried to crouch further into the corner of the floor and continued praying silently.

Suddenly the car came to a halt. Vadi got out. Leena was shivering. She tried to be silent, but kept hearing a noise. She realised it was her own whimpering. Vadi opened the door to her side and took hold of Leena’s arm. ‘No, no,’ she whispered. Vadi held the gun close to Leena’s head. Leena stopped breathing and felt her bladder weaken. She sobbed as she felt the warm liquid flow between her legs. Vadi said something in Russian and sniffed the air, disgusted. The woman and the girl in the front seat looked behind them. Their eyes were wide and still.

Vadi pulled her out of the car and flung her onto the ground. Leena felt cold snow hit her face. She tried to sit up. She was surrounded by darkness, broken only by the bright headlights of the car. Leena saw how Vadi brought his daughter gently out of the car. He hugged her and placed something over her mouth. The girl went limp in his arms. Hurriedly, he laid the girl in the back seat and closed the door. Leena could hear the woman shouting loudly in Russian. She got out of the car and started screaming, and hitting Vadi. But Vadi punched her hard in the face, and threw her down on the ground. Her limp body landed on Leena’s stomach. Vadi was holding a gun, pointing it at Leena and the woman. Leena shut her eyes, and continued her prayer, ‘tapahtukoon Sinun tahtosi …

‘Are you just going to let them get away with it?’ Heikki said when Iain had been driving for a while. They’d not waited to see whether the border police were alerted. Iain wanted to get away. He hoped the Colonel would not get to know how close they’d come to involving the Finnish police.

Heikki and Maija had changed seats in the car. Heikki was now next to Iain while Maija was sitting in the back seat, clutching her daughter.

‘No,’ Iain said, keeping his eye on the road. ‘I’m not going to let him get away with it!’ He glanced at Maija in the mirror, ‘Is she waking up?’

‘No, but she’s breathing normally. What has he given her?’ Maija’s voice was trembling.

‘Maija, I need you to trust me.’ Iain turned half around and took hold of Maija’s hand. She looked at him, with tears running down her face. ‘We need to get to Kovtun before he reaches the West. He needs to pay for this,’ Iain said.

Maija nodded.

Iain thought about the Russian Maija had been speaking. Then he remembered how Maija had called Linnonmaa by his first name.

‘I didn’t know you spoke Russian,’ Iain said.

Maija was staring at him through the rear-view mirror.

‘I was a Russian translator at the Vaalimaa border before Pia was born.’

Iain nodded to himself, ‘And Linnonmaa?’

‘He worked there, too, but not with me. He was some kind of Internal Affairs official.’

Iain glanced at Heikki. The boy had been unusually quiet.

‘You know anything about this?’ Iain said.

The boy shook his head.

‘Iain, my work for the Customs has nothing to do with this!’ Maija said. Iain glanced at the mirror again and saw Maija had tears in her eyes.