Missiles bristled in both countries. A half-hour passed, then an hour.
Finally, a call was made from Moscow to Washington. The Soviets were turning their fleet around. Khrushchev wanted his act conditioned on Kennedy's promise not to invade Cuba. Kennedy agreed. The next day, Khrushchev demanded the U.S. remove its missiles from Turkey. The U.S. removed the Turkey missiles, even though it wasn’t part of Kennedy's original deal.
The Russian fleet sailed for their home base at Severomorsk.
Franklin Bolling placed a call to the MI5 team in London. “We are pleased to report we have two guests with us tonight,” was all he said.
Shouts went up all over River House. P5 called the Director, who called Downing Street and spoke with PM Macmillan. Semenov had crossed the Soviet border with his daughter. Father and child were healthy and well and on their way to Britain.
87
11:00 a.m., Next Day, Petrol Station, Helsinki
In Helsinki, Roy Longfellow pulled into a carwash and made every effort to remove any signs from his car and trunk that Nikolai had been there. The Longfellows had earlier gone to a confused lawyer's office and begged a walk-in appointment. The lawyer was kind and listened to the Longfellows talk about the weather and Helsinki sports for a half-hour. Then they left in a rush and left one hundred pounds with his receptionist. The Longfellows then drove back to the car wash, finished up there, and then drove on to Moscow, where, with Rodney and Cindy Ballard, they were promptly put under Embassy arrest by the KGB and two days later thrown out of the Soviet Union as spies. They returned to London the next day.
Mikhail Mashky was waiting at Zvenigorod Station to meet the 11:13 train, but Nikolai was not in the last carriage. Mashky waited until the platform cleared, then drove back to his dacha, disappointed but trusting that Nikolai had done something excellent for his predicament. Deep down, he knew it had been a ruse. He only wished his friend the best. And he could keep the uniform, which he had acquired for a steal.
Numerous KGB officers returned to Directorate K defeated. They reported the loss of Colonel Bucharov, and they reported their failure to find Nikolai Semenov. Boats were dragging the channel and shoreline for Bucharov's body even then. KGB agents were ordered to search Moscow, and men were dispatched everywhere, searching lakes and rivers and train and railway stations. Nikolai's flat was watched night and day, for only Bucharov knew the truth.
88
MI5 moved Nikolai and Sasha to a private British estate outside London, where they remained for four months. It was like a five-star resort, complete with butlers, any food they could desire, posh bedding and furniture, London TV with all the kiddie shows for Sasha and real news for Nikolai. Eventually, they were visited by the team from ULYSSES. Nikolai was encouraged to begin writing his memoirs. His story was guaranteed to be a bestseller. Random House in New York called to talk about his book, as did Penguin in London.
One day, walking in the woods at the back of the property, he remembered when Anchev had assigned him the task of discovering ULYSSES's true identity. He had never reported back on that. So…Nikolai wrote a letter to Anatoly Anchev, KGB Moscow, Soviet Union, and put it in the mail.
The letter said: Dear General Anchev. I have discovered the identity of your mole. Unfortunately, you no longer have top-secret clearance since you were demoted as rezident and therefore cannot hear the name. Truly, Nikolai Semenov. On a darker note, Nikolai hadn’t forgotten it was Anchev who’d ordered Yulia’s murder. There would come a time when they would come face to face over that. Nikolai had sworn to his wife’s memory that he would settle up with Anchev. Her death would be avenged.
He repeatedly asked for news of his mother in Moscow. Would they send her to the gulag to punish him? So far, they had not. But Great Britain was prepared to exchange prisoners for obtaining her freedom to Great Britain. This was his new country’s promise to him. Nikolai struck up correspondence with her and kept it up biweekly, continually checking on her well-being.
MI6 reported that Lieutenant Makov had been returned to Moscow and summarily dismissed from the service. He was now driving a taxi. Was there anything else MI6 could help him with regarding Makov? Nikolai declined the offer of assassination. He would deal with Makov himself one day.
And he would see Makov first.
Epilogue
Nikolai Semenov traveled the world for the next six months. Sasha was always right beside him as he flew. He briefed intelligence agencies worldwide on the KGB, its structure, tactics, and last known strategies. He traveled to New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Canada, France, West Germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Scandinavia.
Six months later, MI5 bought a house in the London suburbs for Nikolai, who took up living there as John F. Johannsen, with his daughter, now Susan. He gave his child most of his time and attention after school until bedtime. During his off-hours, he would read and write. Sketches of Soviet life began appearing in monthlies and journals under his new name. A following developed, and he finally wrote that book London and New York had been clamoring for, with an anonymous byline. Now he was fixed financially for life, as was Susan.
General Viktor Masirov of KGB Moscow continued to thrive. Two years after Nikolai’s escape, he was appointed head of Directorate K and rose to the full general rank. After the collapse of Communism, Masirov founded Worldwide Security. In 1992, it was announced that Worldwide Security of Moscow won a $3.1 million contract to guard the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Nikolai read the press release and scratched his head. He assailed his soft-boiled egg in a cup—an English breakfast custom he had embraced—with a rap of his spoon and turned back to his paper with a sigh. It was never-ending.
England was pleasant, but for the rain. Still, compared to Moscow snow, it meant nothing.
One day, he was tapped on the shoulder. How would he feel about serving his country? The people at MI6 wanted to know.
Russia and Anchev and Makov? Yulia deserved no less.
Yes.
THE END
Questions to John Ellsworth
(most commonly asked by readers in their emails)
Question: Before writing God Save the Spy, you had written thirty-some legal thrillers. What prompted you to move over to spy fiction?
Answer: The first book I read after high school was Seven Days in May. When I fell in love with writing, I had just read Eye of the Needle, followed by The Day of the Jackal. When I fell in love with storytelling as something maybe I could do, I had just read John Grisham’s The Firm. (John still does the lawyer genre better than any of us.)
Sandwiched somewhere among these great reads and true inspirations were college and then law school, with stints here and there in post-graduate writing seminars, summer schools, and even a brief fling in an MFA program (where I and my twelve-string closed the local bar just about every night. Maybe the real reason I’m such a late bloomer). But I always keep coming back to this: I want the last 100 pages of whatever I’m writing to keep me up all night. If a book doesn't do that, put it on the shelf and find another. Legal thrillers don’t much do that for me, logical as they must be, though they have given me a new life and I’m forever grateful. But spy thrillers, especially the one spy against the world, maybe on the run, perhaps trying to save the world by herself, this is the story that keeps me coming back to blank pages, wondering what I’ll write today. So, this time out, I decided to draw on everything I know I like, add to it, and see what happened. As it turns out, we have God Save the Spy. By the way, as I write these words, I’m at work on a second Nikolai Semenov book I’ve titled Red, White, and Spy. It will be coming in 2021.