An army of one woman, part 3; conclusion
By Gersheimer   gersheimer77@seznam.cz
edited by michael-leonard


________________________________________________

I was certainly no Grandmaster, but I still had a kind of personal chess
history. I was probably at my best during the high school years, when I
regularly won several regional junior tournaments. My principal strength had
then been in my capability of making rapid decisions; I always felt best when
the game got into time shortage on both sides. However, later at the
University, I lacked time to practice and started finishing in third to fifth
place at the tournaments; after graduation I stopped playing competitively at
all.

I would probably have forgotten every chess skill I'd ever acquired, if I
hadn't spent that post-doc period in Novosibirsk, since chess is practically a
national sport there. Our excavation site in the mountains was about two-day
journey from the nearest settlement, so there was anyway hardly anything else
to do after sunset each day -- for almost three years. So, I spent my spare
time there playing countless games with the local students under my
supervision, as well as with my colleagues and random guests. I have to admit
that many, if not most of them, were very good players, and the long battles
on a chessboard that I enjoyed with them prompted me to return into the pool
of active competitive players again, adding to the respect I enjoyed there.

But now, after just a few initial moves, I found out that Lyudmila was no
ordinary adversary. She moved the tiny magnetic pieces with her oversized
fingers with a wonderful grace -- and much more quickly than me. She needed
just seconds after each of my moves to assess the situation and decide on her
next move. Her face was totally stony and this added up to my previous
nervousness, slowly turning it to fear.

My friends, apart from Arthur, who was still lying unconscious on the ground,
stood up and made a semicircle around me, watching the game intently. Although
I hadn't translated Lyudmila's last words -- and not a word was exchanged at
any time during the game -- they probably understood what was at stake and
tried to cheer me on, erupting into childish glee every time I took one of the
white pieces and screeching their teeth when one of the black was taken,
regardless of their type and position.

However, even to them it must have been soon obvious that the White was taking
a firm lead and I was on the defensive. At around the 20th round, Black King
was challenged for the first time and I had to move it away from various
threatening white pieces almost constantly. Every round, I needed more and
more time to consider the multiple dangers, while Lyudmila played like a
computer, never needing more than two or three seconds. At round 30, the
pieces on the board had thinned on both sides. I was lacking one rook, one
bishop and two pawns, and White was attacking my King with her Queen and one
of the rooks. I was fully concentrated on the game, but still sensed a lot of
despair in the faces of my companions. In the meantime, it had gotten totally
dark outside, but Phillip brought the gas cooker, lighting it up and putting
it next to the chessboard. Its dwindling flame lightened just the immediate
surrounding, giving the game a very special -- I would rather not say morbid
-- setting.

But everyone makes mistakes and at one point, I thought I had seen one on
White's part. I moved one of my knights closer to the Black King to strengthen
its protection, and in the new position it forked both the White Queen and a
rook. Then the Queen moved away and I was about to use my knight to take the
important White rook. But, at the last moment, a slight feeling of something
improper came to my mind, seemingly from nowhere. I removed my hand, looking
once again at the baselines. The White King was still in its initial
position... wait... What about a castling? We're at round 35 and White hadn't
castled yet? That's very uncommon. Why?

And that's when I clearly saw the deadly trap ready to close. Lyudmila would
castle as her next move; after that there was no way I could avoid a checkmate
in two more moves. I transferred my hand from my knight to the King and moved
him to relative safety, counting quickly the safe and endangered fields around
it.

And that's when Lyudmila for the first time spent over a minute thinking
before making her next move ? and a weak one, at that. My friends didn't
understand it and hissed in protest, but in the next round I started to move
my King through White's crippled offensive wing, taking a few of her pieces
and forcing an exchange of Queens in the process during the next few rounds.

The battle on the chessboard continued for three more hours, well beyond a
point where one of the players generally offers a draw. But, I was too scared
to do it, not knowing what it would mean to Lyudmila and her resolutions.
Somewhere around round 70 only four pieces remained on either side on the
board and I was technically stronger with a knight against a pawn, but White's
positioning was still better.

And then suddenly, after five hours from starting the game, Lyudmila took a
breath and, for the first time, she raised her face from the board, looking at
our still, nervous faces with her piercing green eyes. And smiled. "Nichya,
kazhetsya... Looks like a draw, now... You have earned my respect, Joe.

And this tells me that I should keep my initial promise not to harm any of you
? as long as you don't attack me again. Let's go to sleep now and tomorrow we
will enjoy my shashlik for an early lunch instead of today's dinner. Then we
will have some fun and then, in the evening, I will bid you a goodbye and
release you all, as I have promised earlier."

We waited some ten minutes until we heard quiet snoring from the other side of
the bars and only then we started talking again in a whisper. We checked our
wounds, and found most of them only superficial -- only Michael and Arthur had
probably a rib broken each, and Phillip nursed a bleeding wound at the back of
his head. Despite being promised a release soon, the SAS soldiers decided to
continue cutting the iron bars on turns the whole night, and I offered to help
them do the task in the second half of the night. Michael and the other Joe
began cutting first, one bar each. The noise made by the woolen threads
rubbing the sand against the iron was reasonably quiet and didn't seem to
disturb Lyudmila from her sleep. In fact, its monotony lulled me to sleep
after a while.

My comrades woke me up after some three hours and I relieved Michael from his
work while Arthur, awoken in the meantime, took on cutting of the other bar
after Joe the tracker in the limited space at the bars. There already was a
groove about three millimetres deep around each of the bars, but still they
resisted any attempt at straightening or breaking them. I spent the next three
hours cutting and got quite exhausted, while the first signs of daylight
started to appear in the outside world.

Just then, when the bars were cut to more than half of their thickness,
Lyudmila began to stir on her bed in front of the bars. We immediately stopped
working and mingled some pre-prepared dirt mixed with fat to the grooves so
that they weren't visible at first sight, the lay down and pretended to be
sleeping.

Lyudmila snoozed for a long while, rolling upon the floor and sticking various
limbs out of the sleeping bags and pulling them back again, cooing softly and
yawning in the process like a little girl. Finally she opened her eyes, stood
up and watched us as we still pretended to be sleeping. And then she walked
silently away from the tunnel towards the nearest trees, disappearing from our
sight.

We weren't sure how long could she be outside so we couldn't settle on whether
to continue cutting the bars or not. In a few minutes Lyudmila returned with
an armload of wooden branches and set it at the entrance of the tunnel. Seeing
us awake, she flashed us her widest smile yet: "Hello guys; welcome to your
last day behind bars! I will take a cold bath now, and when I return I will
start preparing our lunch."

She was out for a little longer than could have been expected but still we
didn't dare to resume cutting the bars. When she returned, though, she brought
the sheep meat on a loose iron bar like a spit, kindled the fire, and set the
spit on a makeshift construction over it. In the process she started some
small talk with each of us through me as an interpreter, careful not to
disclose anything important about herself, even when she made the basic polite
introductions with the SAS soldiers, shaking their hands through the bars. The
only new information she revealed was her place of birth -- a hunter's cabin
somewhere north of Lake Baikal.

She then asked us to use the gas cooker to boil some rice still available
among the supplies and to pass her some seasonings to spice up the meat.
Before the meat got ready as well, she proposed playing one more chess game.
Even though I was much less nervous then the last time, and even though
Lyudmila was distracted with her duty to keep turning the spit over the fire,
I had to give up by my 35th move; I was com- pletely overwhelmed by the
concentrated attack of white pieces. She just waved off the result with her
most pleasant smile and said: "Oh, I see the meat is ready now and I think it
would not be proper to have our lunch separated by this grille. Do you mind if
I come in there to eat with you?"

We all froze a little, but of course, I had to say "No," aloud so as not to
upset her. She took hold of the first twisted bar, pulled its ends with her
amazing might... and it broke. This didn't seem suspicious to her so she
repeated the process with the second bar.

It broke as well with a sharp clank, and this time she looked at the ends and
saw the deep cuts in them. We all visibly froze, awaiting her reaction for a
few seconds, while she watched us with a surprised look.

And then she broke into intense laughter: "Oooh, haha... stubborn like little
children...." After a minute her face assumed a somewhat more serious look and
she continued: "In fact, I admire your sense of duty that led you to do this
very much. But you don't know what's going on. I am not permitted to tell you
-- and you wouldn't trust me anyway even if I did. Still, hear this, and I am
totally serious: Do you want to go through World War III in near future? No?
Then you should not oppose me and let me do the task I was given. Let's stay
good friends for now and enjoy our dinner."

However, she did take another bar and twisted it again around the latch,
locking herself inside with us. We all sat down in a circle and ate; the meat
was actually quite good. The small talk continued smoothly, even if we were a
bit startled by what she had just said, and when we were done eating, Lyudmila
said with a serene look: "I would like to ask you a favour, boys; would you
mind?" Not knowing what to do, we all shook our heads no after a few seconds,
waiting.

"You probably have noticed the ladies manicure and cosmetic set among the
supplies I stole," she continued with a mischievous smile. "I couldn't resist
when I saw it in the camp... and now I would enjoy a proper use of all
equipment that is inside -- on me. Would you please, pretty please, give me a
thorough complete manicure...? You see, with me being a rough army girl
originating from the Siberian taiga, my hands and feet are more than a bit
neglected in this regard. But be assured, I'm still feminine in my heart, and
for once in my life I also want to look it! Would you mind each taking one of
my limbs, as I lay down here on my back, and giving it complete care? And,
perhaps the man who remains could give a tender massage to my sore neck and
shoulders.... I promise to reward you all duly when you are done, so don't be
shy...!"

Well, whatever we expected her request to be, it definitely wasn't this! None
of us had any special experience with providing manicures, especially not the
over-masculine SAS soldiers. After I had shakily translated what she said, we
looked at each other incredulously for a while, our mouths open but not
emitting a sound.

After a while the stares of all, including Lyudmila, fixed on Arthur, as the
natural leader. "To hell with this... after all that has happened... this is
just outside of any rulebook -- and outside any experience we ever had. So,
let me say it: I seem to sense genuineness in this woman, whoever she is...
Joe, do you sense it, too?" he asked. Joe the tracker nodded silently. "So
Joe," he now said to me, "tell her that we will do her this favour."

When I did so, Lyudmila jumped in the air and squeaked like a little girl, her
face shining with glee. She then unexpectedly tore the remains of her
camouflage t-shirt and pants and stood in front of us completely nude, leaving
us bug-eyed. Her breasts were about size CC, but firm and almost defying
gravity, while her nether region was covered with delicate transparent light
blonde fur -- and the thickness of her lower lips seemed very promising.

Lyudmila then lay on her back on the heap of sleeping bags and, with some
reluctance, each of us assumed his place. I took her left foot, the other Joe
at her right, Phillip and Michael at a hand each, and Arthur at her head where
he immediately started to massage her neck and shoulders with a fragrant
eucalyptus massaging oil from the set.

We four had first to wash her hands and feet with the remaining water from the
bucket and a bar of soap from the set, as they were quite dusty and dirty. We
then transferred our attention to her nails, which were neglected, dirty and
broken in many places. However, using an ordinary cutter and a fine manicure
file from the set, I was able to make her foot look quite presentable before
passing the tools to the other Joe. I then took the tiny bottle of bright
reflective pink nail polish. In the corner of my eye I saw Michael and Phillip
doing the same to the nails on her hands, as well. Lyudmila's pretty face
emitted an air of total heaven, with her eyes half shut and a wide smile on
her full lips.

After her nails were done (I finished first and mention with some pride, that
the other manicurists were constantly looking at me for some type of guidance,
repeating what I had been doing) we all spent some time blowing on them so
that they'd dry faster, before transferring our attention to the massive hands
and feet themselves. Though the skin almost everywhere on them was rough, dry,
tough and full of cuts, bruises and callouses, they still bore some feminine
appearance.

Fortunately, the woman that the manicure set had belonged to was prepared for
everything. There was moisturizing milk, a peeling solution, and petroleum
jelly as well. I started with the last, trying to soften the horny skin
apparently created by many hours of walking barefoot on rough surfaces. After
a few minutes, I was able to remove some callouses with the help of pincers
from the set, then removing most of the other rough skin around using the fine
file. The other three manicurists continued to glance towards me, repeating my
acts. Arthur visibly strained when trying to knead Lyudmila's extra massive
and hard shoulder muscles. Slight moans of pleasure started to escape
Lyudmila's half-opened lips, but other than that she didn't make a sound.

Then came about an hour of repeated peeling of the rest of the horny skin --
and with Lyudmila's 16-inch long feet and foot-long hands, there was a lot of
it to be removed. Then we cleaned and dried the objects of our care and
started their final moisturizing, massaging them deeply and intensively with
the fragrant body milk for long minutes. After that, the oversized foot in my
hands became so alluring that I approached it with my lips and gave it a short
peck on the tip of the big toe. And then hundreds and hundreds more kisses
everywhere around....

In fact, I am not quite sure which came first; either that the moans from
Lyudmila's lips intensified and took on a distinctly sensual character, or
that Michael and Phillip, dealing with her hands, became bolder and started to
massage and kiss her tits as well. What is sure is that I myself, and sooner
or later everyone else, became lost in the allure of her body and started to
cover its nearest region madly with kisses as I have mentioned. And, speaking
of our remaining bodily reactions, I have to assure you that we all had been
suppressing urgent erections for a long time before then! In any case,
Lyudmila didn't express the slightest disapproval with any of our actions and,
instead, her breathing slowly became hot and heavy.

When her moans became almost constant and louder than ordinary speech, we
watched each other with anticipation. Finally, Lyudmila lifted herself to
sitting position and exclaimed with an excited voice: "Oh, oh! Thank you,
boys! I am on fire from inside me! I accept... with love... your devotion to
me, and I will gladly please every one of you, one by one. Joe, my translator,
will be the first."

I forgot to translate this time; who could ever blame me after hearing such a
heavenly promise? But everyone seemed to get the basics of the message anyway.
I jumped from my sitting position, plunging my face into the tender blonde
bush of surprisingly soft and delicate pubic hairs, and starting licking the
entrance to the feminine treasury. Michael and Phillip meanwhile intensified
their boob massages and began licking the erect inch-long nipples protruding
out of the breasts. Arthur, now seated, bent over and massaged Lyudmila's
scalp with his fingers, his face lost in the hair on top of her head, kissing
it wildly.

I licked her nether lips and clit enjoying the intoxicating sweet smell of her
womanhood for about a minute, only because then Lyudmila suddenly stood up,
took me under my armpits and hoisted me high in the air. I had no reason to
complain however, as with some manipulations she took me to even higher
heaven.

She removed my trousers and pants with one hand, freeing the most intense
erection of my life. Before I could think of anything, she put her other hand
under my butt and manipulated my body easily up so that our lips met and I was
almost gagged with a long, sensuous French kiss. Then my body suddenly dropped
over a foot as she expertly manipulated my member (together with the rest of
me, using just one of her hands!) into her slit.

Being quite short compared with her, I couldn't continue kissing her lips in
that position, but my face was at the same level with her boobs and I took one
of the steely nipples into my mouth and started sucking while caressing each
with one hand. Even though they were rock-solid, the skin upon them was
sensitive enough to give her apparent pleasure.

I started to moan as well, being held in her ultra-strong arms, and she began
to dance to imaginary music, making small steps into a circle. Then she
started rhythmically lifting and dropping my entire body, with one hand
supporting my buttocks and the other arm around my shoulders. Even though I
was trying to prolong this heavenly sensation with all my strength, it didn't
take more than one minute before I experienced a mind-blowing orgasm -- the
strongest in my entire life, so strong that I probably even fainted for a few
seconds.

I came five more times this same way in the following ten minutes, while the
giantess kept humming, and then silently singing, some songs in Russian and
yet another, unknown language, and dancing on the makeshift bed barefoot with
her eyes closed for most of the time. I felt her come several times as well,
yelping with pure pleasure. Yet all good things must come to an end, and after
my fifth orgasm (and about fourth on her part) Lyudmila gently manipulated me
out of her, gave me yet another French kiss, bent over and set my body on the
ground with great care.

I was exhausted and almost unconscious, but I still managed to watch Lyudmila
catch the other Joe into her embrace and submit him to the same treatment as
she had me. And then came the others, one after one, Arthur being last. And
only he enjoyed a single change in the treatment in the form of an initial
blowjob that was delivered to him while being held high in the air above
Lyudmila's head. Of course, I kind of envied him, despite being now totally
spent myself.

But even Lyudmila looked exhausted after such an incredible serial sex party.
When I looked at my watch, I saw it was past seven p.m., about one hour to
sunset, while the lunch that had preceded it finished at around one o'clock!

She spent some time breathing hard after gently putting spent Arthur on the
ground, drenched in sweat and leaning on the grille, and then she straightened
and said, still smiling: "Now, boys, that was something absolutely incredible!
Thank you very much! I think I will remember this day forever!" Of course each
of us felt the same way.

She then approached us, lifting each of us once again with a firm hug and a
kiss, me being last. "Come with me outside, Joe," she said and led me with her
hand through the gate in the grille. When we were outside, she once again
twisted a loose bar against the latch, leaving my friends inside and
indicating that she wasn't ready to set them free yet.

Then, still completely naked and barefoot herself, she led me to the bottom of
the valley outside the forest where there was a small mountain lake with
crystal clear water. There she thoroughly washed herself and motioned me to
join her, which I did after a while. Even though I felt totally frozen after a
few seconds in the icy water, I enjoyed the kind of childish frolicking with
the beautiful giantess, looking now like a Rusalka (water nymph) from Slavic
folklore.

Then we returned back to the tunnel. She changed into spare clothes of the
same kind as she wore before (just T-shirt and pants) and, turning towards my
comrades behind the grille, she said with her beautiful smile: "Boys, the time
has come to say goodbye. Thank you again for your nice companionship and let's
hope that... that we will never meet again, because I do not expect to leave
Russia the Motherland except in case of war or an absolutely exceptional
occasion like this one."

"I have to change my initial plans about how to release you a little. Too much
is at stake and I absolutely must finish my task undisturbed on this night,
and so I will still leave you locked here. But I will now take Joe, my
interpreter, with me and release him on my way, some time after midnight when
there would be absolutely no chance that any of you could ever stop me. Joe
will return to you by morning and release you, or you may just start cutting
the bars again once I leave."

>>From somewhere she pulled a tiny metal box that looked lost in the middle of
her enormous hand. Approaching the grille, she said: "I also have a little
present for every one of you, as a compensation of your inconvenience." The
box opened and it took us all a moment to recognize what we were looking at:
some tiny shards of glass...? No, these were rough uncut diamonds, totally
clear and some five or six carats each, worth tens of thousands of pounds at
the black market!

Each of us received one and Lyudmila gave a last short kiss to all of my
friends behind the grille... then added one more twisted bar around the latch.
And then she put on her boots, threw a plastic bag over her shoulder, and
turned towards me: "Are you familiar with this region and these mountains,
Joe?"

I denied that, saying that I was here for the first time intending to do some
hiking, but she decided not to take any risks: "No, I still think it would be
better to blindfold you for the next few hours. Sorry, my friend," and tearing
some cloth off, she put it around my head and secured the knot (it has become
reasonably dark outside by that time anyway).

I then felt her putting her arms around me and lifting me off the ground and
then we started to move with her long strides. Her skin was warm once again
and the touch of her was very comforting. After a while she started to sweat
slightly, soaking me with her pleasant natural scent. That made me incredibly
lightheaded again and my erection followed only a bit later.

Lyudmila paid no attention either to this or to anything else but her
direction. I felt her alternately running, jump-running and walking with my
over-160 pound weight in her arms, not even breathing hard. I lost sense of
time and just enjoyed this incredible and unique experience. Her arms were so
strong and so tender at the same time, as well as her tits that I was pressed
against. I subconsciously longed this journey to last forever; I never felt so
secure and happy in my entire life.

But as I already said, all good things must come to an end. Suddenly, after
some two hours, Lyudmila stopped, put me down on the ground, and removed my
blindfold. It had grown totally dark now, and I had trouble discerning her
face even from the shortest distance. She took my face into her hands softly
and said: "The time has come to say goodbye, Joe. I will remember you and your
friends for the rest of my life. You probably wonder whether we will meet each
other again. As I said, I am too conspicuous and thus I am not expected to
travel abroad in peacetime. In wartime, you would not desire to meet me at
all, be sure of it. But should you ever come back to Novosibirsk for some
time, I will find a way to visit you there."

I thought I saw some glint in her eyes in the darkness, and started to kiss
her again wildly, eager to enjoy her presence to the last moment. She returned
those kisses including some French ones and after some hesitation she took me
back to her arms, pulled down her pants and repeated her actions from the last
day, bringing me -- and herself -- once again to an amazing, but silent
climax. Then she put me down for the last time and pulled her pants back up.

"There is a main road about five kilometres behind you the way we came, you
might get your bearings there, and then continue to the valley with the mines
where your friends are. Help them to get out and... enjoy your life... hoping
that there won't be any war ever. You should wish me success in what I am
going to do, but of course you don't know what it is..." she finished in a
somewhat mysterious way again.

"I... I don't know indeed, but I trust you," I exclaimed quietly. "You are not
only the biggest and strongest person that I have ever met but also the
sweetest, kindest and smartest. God bless you then in whatever you are
doing... and be careful... and watch yourself, Lyudmila!" I said at the end.

And then I received one last sensuous kiss, being suspended high above the
ground in her embrace, before she set me down, turned and set off running,
disappearing in the darkness only after a few yards. It was about half past
one a.m., and in two hours I managed to arrive, limping on my sprained ankle,
to the mentioned road. In fact, it was the artery connecting Aberdeen and
Inverness. I waited two more hours and then I hopped on the first westward
morning bus, switched in Laggan and then hopped off the second bus in the
hamlet where the SAS Humvee was parked.

It was still dark then but now I had nothing to fear, so I entered the valley
leading to our last encampment. At around nine o'clock, I was there at its end
and found the remaining military rucksacks still there. I then cut out the
handles that were laden with plastic explosive, and taking those with me,
continued over the mountain pass towards the tunnel where my friends waited,
arriving there an hour later.

The SAS soldiers were already awake and cutting the bars, painfully slowly, so
they looked relieved when I passed them the explosive. After two minutes and
two blasts, they were finally free. We went back over the pass, collected
their equipment and continued to the Humvee. Only a very few words were
exchanged among us and the mood was rather sour. I thought I could put myself
into their boots, awaiting reprimands for not fulfilling such a seemingly
simple task -- catching one prankster with inverted boots in the open
countryside.

Before we came to the car, I decided that I would rather continue with my
original plan and spend the remaining week in the mountains alone. There were
anyway many more reasons now to clear my mind as deeply as possible. The
soldiers couldn't persuade me otherwise and we said our goodbyes.

"There might be an investigation, Joe, and you would be approached as a
witness. Tell the truth; there is no other way. Maybe I will be able to meet
you again and tell you what spectacle we have just been playing in... " said
Arthur before all we shook hands, and they all left me.
________________________________________________

The following week was still blessed with unusually good weather over Scotland
and, indeed, I crossed the Scottish mountains in complete solitude. I cleared
my mind reasonably well but I kept feeling Lyudmila's presence around me all
the time, especially so every evening when I went to sleep in my tent with my
clothes still soaked with her natural scent -- even though that was fading day
after day. And, every morning I woke up with a strong erection and, my mind
filled with thoughts of her.

On the last day of the fortnight break that became an odyssey I hopped on a
bus back to Glasgow, leafing absent-mindedly through a newspaper. It mentioned
some kind of a recent national security scandal leading to a thorough
personnel earthquake at the highest posts in the Army and the Navy, as well as
in the Cabinet. Nothing concrete was revealed, and so I put it out of my mind.
If there was any investigation of the events of the previous week, no news of
it reached me at all.

I started teaching the winter semester at the University and, when the winter
break came in January, I received an invitation to oversee some Paleocene
excavations in South Africa, for just two weeks.

Of course, it was full summer at that time in South Africa, and one evening,
as I was sweating in the warm stale air in my tent, I heard a familiar voice:
"Professor, Joe, are you there?"

I looked and was surprised to see Arthur McCafferty there, in civilian
clothes. I cried out his name, and asked: "What are you doing here? How has
your SAS career gone? How are the others?"

"It's over and gone", he said with a voice and a sneer that froze me to the
bone instantly. "But, is there some place we can sit for a while undisturbed?"
he asked. We went to an isolated place outside, since no one besides me was
generally present at the excavations after 6 p.m. There, he continued:

"First, I should tell you what happened during that last night that we were
imprisoned by that Russian.... Not I, or anyone else, was told anything
officially; it's still officially Top Secret -- and I am not telling you,
either....

"This is what I was told outside protocol by one of my closest friends, who
works in the Navy. There was a secret naval research institute at Nairn, on
the coast about 40 miles north from the mines. For years, they had been
developing a super-sophisticated military sensory device, code-named ELRAD --
Extreme Long Range Densitometer. It was ready at that time; its examinations
were over with complete success, and the next day it was scheduled to be
passed to our U.S. allies for replication and widespread use within the NATO
forces. But, on that night, it disappeared without a trace....

"From what I pieced together, that device is able to measure density of all
substances around from a distance -- with almost unlimited range. It can be
put on a ship, an airplane... or a satellite -- the last use is most effective
-- and find any large concentration of metals anywhere in the world. Like
wrecks on the seabed, as well as larger concentrations of ores underground, or
iron ships at sea and, last but not least, submarines under the sea surface.

"Now you see, that's the obscure reason why that Russian giantess was sent to
Scotland: to steal the only functioning ELRAD device in the world. And, in
which she obviously succeeded, even though I still can't fathom how."

After taking a breath, Arthur continued: "You know that since the early
seventies NATO and the Soviets lived under so-called "Mutually Assured
Destruction" doctrine, and it has survived even the break-up of the Soviet
Union as well as the emergence of China as a new superpower. It helped to
deter any temptation for an all-out First Strike with nuclear weapons on
either side because its core component was strategic long- range submarines
carrying ballistic missiles.

"The point of their existence was that they were basically undetectable in the
correct depths under the sea surface -- until now. It's been for sure that
they would survive the First Strike and retaliate then with their own
missiles, even if all bases on the ground and all the command posts were
destroyed by the enemy. And so there would be no victor in WWIII at all.

"Now, this device put on a satellite, can locate any submarine at any depth
all over the world with accuracy in any single moment, and thus a First Strike
can hit the adversary's submarines as well, theoretically leaving the enemy
with no adequate weapon left to strike back. Then a total victory would be
secured for the power doing the First Strike, with open road to unlimited
domination over the rest of the world."

"...And now that device is in their hands?" I asked, my teeth rattling with
the conclusion.

"Yes. It can be replicated by our side in some three more months and then put
on orbit. But until then, the generals and admirals in Brussels and
Washington, as well as politicians in London, will be waking up in horror
every day. And, you can easily imagine how angry those big wigs were when they
found it had been stolen..." explained Arthur. 'And,' I thought, 'the cause of
all the personnel earthquakes.'

"And now, let me tell you details of what happened there at that night. At
about 3:30 a.m. the electricity at the institute went out. Backup generators
kicked in, but even those went out only a few seconds later and total darkness
ensued. Then even mobile communication links went out, as if their batteries
suddenly discharged completely," continued Arthur.

"There was a doubled watch inside on that night, consisting of eight riflemen
on duty and eight others sleeping inside the perimeter. The two men on the
outside posts stopped reporting immediately and were later found unconscious,
but alive, on the ground. Same with the next two at the inside perimeter posts
after a few minutes. The four who remained woke up the other eight and
everyone went to search through the institute building and immediate area.

"And then, it went like in the movie "Friday, the 13th" -- with the exception
that no one was killed. All the guards were simply hunted down in the
corridors, and one after another, were rendered unconscious. They were, of
course, shooting on slightest suspicion, but didn't hit anything in the dark.
Some of them reported a glimpse of a giant person ? usually at the last
instant before being knocked out -- but that was all they were able to report.
The first ones to regain consciousness, about two hours later, found the main
gate open and the ELRAD device missing... And some oversized inverted
footprints leading to the seashore. And that was all..."

"And not a single fatality? How come?" I asked incredulously.

"I don't know how exactly, but for most part she used the tranquilizer charges
stolen from my own patrol. And that's why we all decided to evade becoming
obvious scapegoats by leaving the country," said Arthur. "Sharp Eye returned
to his family in Canada and we other three fled here to South Africa. We've
become bodyguards to a local Boer billionaire. The pay is fine -- way higher
than the British Army -- and considering the present security conditions in
South Africa, the work is maybe even more challenging. But we got used to it.
And, considering the new possibility of the First Strike that I just
described, we are all quite happy to be in the other hemisphere," finished my
guest with a conclusion that sent dread back deep into my bones.

"But still, let's get back to the incident at the institute: she had to have
some external aid in any case," I reasoned.

"Most probably yes. There was one civilian in the institute at that time, Yuri
Frolov, a leading physicist. And he disappeared without a trace that very
night. A Russian by origin, he had defected to Britain in mid- nineties, from
economic rather than political reasons, I presume. He was one of the key
brains behind the construction of the device and for many years he was known
to work long into the night. Thus no one ever suspected him."

"I'm just wondering what kind of aid he could have given her, being almost
seventy years old and walking with a cane. But the switching off of the power
and communication was obviously his work. They then probably departed by boat
on the open sea and were later picked up by a submarine. By the way, now I
understand why they had to send such a conspicuous woman to pick this kind of
cargo; even though the device is not that large, it weighs over 500 pounds and
can't be disassembled without very special tools," finished Arthur after a
while.

"Well, quite a heavy load to carry in one's arms on foot, but of all people on
Earth, Lyudmila was surely up to this task," I said after a while. "Still, I
am thinking over the fact that she didn't cause any permanent harm, either to
us or to the people in the institute -- and those were probably her orders
from the start. Does it seem to you like the activity of someone planning a
First Strike in an all-out nuclear war? She even once mentioned that she had
been sent there to prevent it, didn't she?" I asked him at the end.

"I am tempted to agree, Joe. That would indicate that there might have been
someone on our own side considering the First Strike. We may never know the
truth. But what about the scary chess game, then?" replied Arthur.

"Perhaps a rather harsh joke on her part. You know, I have memorized that game
and re-played it tens of times. Even after I evaded the trap with the
castling, she had a few opportunities to put me into checkmate. So why didn't
she? But tell me, Arthur: if she suddenly appeared here... now... what would
you do?"

He babbled for a while, quite uncharacteristically for him, but at the end he
admitted that he would probably melt down completely and submit to her charm;
that he would let her do anything and everything she would ever want to do
with him. Just as I would.

..............................................................................

Two years have passed since then, and the world is still here, just as it was.
Some kind of balance-of-power in the world has thus, obviously, been
re-established. Even if the big wigs keep it clandestine. I am still teaching
students in Glasgow, but recently I became a little bit bored with it and
started looking for a change.

And then, about a week ago, a thick envelope postmarked with Russian stamps
appeared in my cabinet. Inside, there was a letter signed by the Chancellor of
the University in Novosibirsk, informing me about the opening of a new
paleontological excavation site of high prospect in the Altai Mountains in
Siberia, saying that they would be honored if I once again took part in the
excavations as a leading researcher. There were other documents inside, like a
visa support letter and so on (how could they be so sure that I would accept
their offer right away? I wondered) and some photographs from the opening of
the site with hardly anything special to discern on them. And then, one other
small white envelope without a single letter on it.

When I opened it, I was puzzled first. There was just one distorted photograph
inside, looking vaguely like a selfie, with the face of the person shooting it
left outside the picture. Just a streak of long light blonde hair on the left
side framed a picture of a double stroller with happy-looking, fair-haired boy
twins, about two years old inside.

I shook my head in confusion and turned the picture over. At the top of the
backside were two small, red-brown smudges that looked like they were made by
two drops of blood that had fallen on the paper. There also were two arrows
pointing at them from the bottom, with a short message in Russian below, that
made both my heart and my mind jump, and left me out of breath for a while:

"One of you is the father of these beautiful twins. Most probably you, Joe. If
you want to try a DNA test, just follow the arrows. : - ). And welcome then to
Siberia! Will be happy to see you again! With love, Lyudmila".