Chapter Two Thousand Five Hundred Eighty-Nine
6th November 1976
Whitby, Ontario
“If you want to prove that you really are as clever and talented as your grandfather says you are, you’ll make your own invitation this weekend” Bert Lane had told Marie Alexandra a few days earlier. “Just tell Mr. Mayne that I sent you when, or should we say if, you get into his office.”
Then he had given Marie an address located near Toronto on the shore of Lake Ontario that curiously was a blank spot on the map. She recognized that he was trying to entice her with a challenge, one that was several hours out of her way. It was also abundantly clear from the sort of nearby rail infrastructure was a lot more than just empty space because it was exactly what would be necessary if heavy equipment was moved in and out of there. Marie understood that it would be incredibly stupid to go anywhere near such a place and if Bert Lane knew she was coming then so would everyone else. Yet still there she was having taken the train to Toronto the night before and then the bus out to the small suburb of Whitby.
Marie knew that if she was really expected, then they would be looking for a twenty-year-old woman with long red hair. Regrettably, Marie’s normal appearance was a rarity, a key part of the reason she disliked it so much. That was why she had worn a black wig on the long journey from Montreal. The cold November weather had been that the bulky wool coat she had worn had drawn little notice and it had made her age and physical description difficult to ascertain. She had ditched the coat and wig in Toronto and had switched to the trashy blond look she had used the summer before in Montreal. The idea of that was one that her mother had once told her about. If she couldn’t hide who she was, then she needed to make it work in her favor. That was why she was outside the gates of what was doubtlessly a military installation of some kind shivering in clothes that were for someone far more concerned with their appearance rather than the climate. The only nod to the weather was the thin University of Montreal sweatshirt which didn’t do much beyond providing a bit of misdirection in case this didn’t work and she had to run.
“I’m looking for that piece of shit Billy Gagnon” Marie said with as much venom as she could muster as soon as she got close to the guard at the gate, she knew of several men in Montreal named William Gagnon so the odds of one being here were extremely high. “I know he works here in all that hush-hush stuff, yeah. Apparently that includes not telling me that he is married.”
The guard gulped when Marie said that bit about hush-hush, it was just a guess on her part but apparently it was a good one. Still, that didn’t stop him from trying to look down the front of her shirt. Her mother had pointedly warned her since she had reached adolescence that men were stupid that way. There were rumors that her mother had used it as a distraction during the Soviet War, often with a fatal result for those distracted. Marie wasn’t her mother. She didn’t have it in her to shoot people in the head no matter how much they might have it coming. Instead, she used the small device hidden in the sleeve of her sweatshirt and pressed the two needlelike probes into his side.
The guard froze as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through him. When Marie stepped back, he fell to the ground twitching. It looked exactly like someone having a seizure. “If I could get some help here!” Marie shouted drawing the attention of everyone within earshot.
“What happened?” One of the other soldiers, this one wearing the stripes of a Sergeant demanded.
“I was talking to him, and he just fell over” Marie said in a panicked voice. “Twitching and stuff. Is he okay?”
“About what?”
“That’s none of your business” Marie said, shifting her tone to being indignant.
The Sergeant face grew cloudy before he grabbed Marie’s arm and yanked her past the guard post, through the gates and into the installation. “I’ll be the judge of that” He muttered as he dragged Marie across what must be a parade ground and into a musty building. Marie was acutely aware of how she was breaking one of her mother’s most important rules; That most men were bigger and stronger than her, so never, ever let them have the upper hand. Of course, Marie also had been told by her mother that there were times when she needed to break the rules.
As they passed into what looked like an administrative building, they got more than a few curious looks, before the Sergeant shoved Marie into a room with Bert Lane and an unfamiliar man who was roughly the same age having a discussion. The two men paused to stare at them as the Sergeant snapped to attention.
“You warned us of an infiltrator” The Sergeant said, “I think she did something to the man on guard duty.”
“Then you are a fucking idiot” The man with Bert said, with an Irish accent.
“What Colonel Mayne is trying to say is that her instructions were to get in here” Bert said, “No one said how.”
“What is this all about?” Marie asked, having had enough as she removed the bleach-blond wig.
“Welcome to Special Training School Number 103, which also happens to be the home of more than a few secrets” Bert replied, “I was just telling the Colonel about how I dared the daughter of the Tigress of Pankow to test our security.”
Mayne just laughed and the Sergeant looked at her like if she were a live snake that had just slithered into the room.