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

It was embarrassing seeing the Admiral wait for her outside the gym hall at school, in full view of everybody. He waved his hand, gesturing for Pia to come to him when she was hurrying for her next class. She was late.

The Admiral told her to meet him at something called the British Council after school. He gave Pia detailed instructions on how to find it. When Pia didn’t say anything, the Admiral took hold of Pia’s arm and whispered, ‘We need to talk about the Tournament.’

‘Why?’

The Admiral looked uncomfortable.

‘There is something I need to tell you.’

‘What, why can’t you tell me now?’

‘It’s complicated. C’mon Pia, it’s only for half an hour or so. It may be in your interest. You want to win, don’t you?’

Pia thought for a moment, ‘Does Mum know you’re here?’

The Admiral was staring at her. But he didn’t say anything, just shrugged his shoulders. All of a sudden everybody’s interested in the Friendship Tournament. But the Admiral was right. She did want to win. ‘OK,’ Pia answered.

You need to ask in English, ‘I want to borrow an English book to improve my language grades.’ The Admiral hurried off, waving his arm. ‘See you later, Pia’.

Pia had never been to the British Council. After school she took the tram straight to Erottaja in the centre of Helsinki. When she stepped out of the lift on the fourth floor, as the Admiral instructed her to, a woman behind a wooden counter said, ‘Can I help you?’ in English. She had on a brown jacket over a cream blouse. Her hair was pinned up. She looked at Pia over her gold-rimmed glasses which had long chains attached to them. She took off the glasses and let them fall onto her chest. A green brooch rattled from the contact with the glasses, and she looked briefly at the two objects and then adjusted herself.

Pia hesitated for a bit – seeing the high shelves of books reaching far behind her, she blurted, ‘I want to borrow an English book to improve my language grades.’

‘I see,’ the woman said and walked around the counter. ‘Follow me.’

Pia felt very shabby walking behind the smartly dressed woman whose jacket was part of a suit, the narrow skirt hugging her wide hips. Pia had on her white jeans, which were a bit dirty because she’d had no time to wash them. Her white down jacket, a Christmas present from her father, was becoming a little grey too. Her corduroy school bag had a hole in one corner.

‘You put too many books in there, surely you don’t need all of that just for one day?’ her mother had said just that morning when Pia told her she needed a new one. As usual it was money that was the problem, so she hadn’t said anything more to Maija, just shrugged her shoulders.

The woman took Pia through a large room with shelves and shelves of books. There were no other people about, and when the woman opened a door at the end of the room, Pia began to feel uncomfortable. She didn’t know anything about the Admiral. Perhaps she should turn around and run out of the building? The woman stopped and let Pia continue towards a desk at the end of the room, where two men were sitting with their heads bowed. Behind them was a large window, where Pia could see the treetops of the Esplanade Park.

The men looked up as she approached. ‘Thank you, Mrs Cooper,’ one of them said in English. Pia couldn’t make out their faces very well because the light from the window was shadowing their features, but when one of them stood up, Pia saw it was the Admiral. She was relieved; at least she’d got to the right place. He was wearing a dark suit with a pink shirt and blue tie. Pia looked back to the closed door that the woman had disappeared through, and felt uneasy again.

‘Pia, sit down with us,’ the Admiral said, in English, taking hold of her arm, ‘there is someone I want you to meet.’ Pia said nothing, just looked at his hand on her arm. The fingers were long and bony, and the grip he had on her was too strong.

‘It’s OK, Pia, don’t be afraid,’ he said.

‘Speak Finnish,’ Pia said, looking squarely at his face. The Admiral widened his eyes, lifted his eyebrows and let go of Pia’s arm. He mumbled something to the other man and he laughed. Pia wondered what the hell she was doing and decided not to sit down. Would she be able to run quicker than the men? How many doors had she been led through?

‘Pia, all we want to do is talk with you,’ said the Admiral, this time in Finnish. ‘There is no danger here.’

The other man was sitting back in his chair watching Pia as the Admiral spoke. He was dressed just like the Admiral, but instead of a pink shirt he was wearing a light blue one. Their ties looked the same too.

‘Pia, this is Colonel Williams.’ The Admiral had switched back to English again.

‘How do you do, young lady.’ The man reached out his hand. It was warm and much softer than the Admiral’s. His face looked kinder too – it was round and had fewer lines on it. He had very blue eyes, peering out from behind a pair of small glasses, and almost no hair, just a rim of pale wisps around and above his ears. When he smiled, his mouth reached from ear to ear, just like a clown’s.

‘Now, the Colonel does not speak any Finnish so I will have to translate. Perhaps we can try to speak English?’ The Admiral was looking at Pia without smiling.

‘OK,’ Pia said.

‘Can I take your coat first?’ The Admiral got up and stretched his hand out.

‘Now,’ the Admiral said, sitting down again. He put his hands on the table palms down and continued, ‘This Tournament. We want to know everything you know about it.’

‘Why should I tell you?’

‘Because you know we can help.’

‘Help with what?’ Pia looked over to the Colonel. He was watching Pia and listening carefully to everything she said.

‘Help Anni.’

‘Is she in trouble? Where is she?’ Suddenly Pia couldn’t breathe.

‘She may be, we don’t know. But you must trust us. Trust me,’ The Admiral put his hand on Pia’s. She quickly pulled it away and put both of her hands on her lap. The Admiral said nothing but leant back in his chair. He glanced quickly at the Colonel, who nodded.

‘OK, Pia, I will go first. It’s not Anni who’s in trouble. It’s her father. But because of him, she may be affected too.’

No one spoke for a long time. A loud clock was ticking somewhere in the background. She glanced at the new watch that Grandmother had given her for her birthday. It was ten past five. It would be dark outside and her mother would be home by now. During the weekdays Pia had promised to be home by six o’clock, if she wasn’t going out. Maija kept forgetting that she was an adult.

‘Please, Pia, tell us what you know of the Linnonmaa family.’ The Admiral stretched his hand towards Pia on the table, leaning his body over. His face was so close to hers, she could see the black and grey stubble on his chin and cheeks.

‘Anni is my best friend.’

Both of the men nodded.

‘And her father is a diplomat and they live…’

‘We know all this,’ the Admiral said interrupting. ‘We need to know what happened at school yesterday. The announcement about the Gymnastics Competition, the Soviet official, everything.’

‘Yes, yes’ the Colonel said impatiently, glancing at his watch.

‘Anni was behaving really oddly on Monday…’ Pia looked up at the two men. The Colonel nodded as if for her to go on, so Pia told them all about the Russian, how Anni had reacted to it and how she’d not been to school today.

‘We were supposed to go out last night and I phoned Anni but there was no answer.’

When she’d finished there was a long silence. The Admiral was staring at the empty table in front of him. He was pulling the skin of his chin into small folds with his thumb and forefinger, then letting go and starting over again. The door behind Pia opened and the woman walked quickly towards the Admiral. She whispered something into his ear and then both of them looked at the Colonel.