at the pieces so hard they started to blur and then he remembered. He moved each piece to a specific square. And then he did the same with the opposing pieces. At the last move, he heard a click, and the side of the box opened.
"You did it," Maya exclaimed. "You opened it. What's in there?"
He pulled out a roll of paper held together by a rubber band. He could see pages and pages of ink. "I think we just found my father's version of a journal." He met her gaze and saw the light of excitement in her eyes.
"Start reading," she said. "I want to hear every word."
He slid off the rubber band and unfurled the papers. As he stared at his father's writing, he felt a sense of deep foreboding. "Whatever he wrote here could change everything I know about my parents and myself."
"Yes. But knowing is always better than not knowing."
He hoped she was right. He picked up the first page and began to read.
"In case anything happens to me, this is my truth, the truth of Andrei Markov. I grew up in poverty, but I always excelled in school. When I was eighteen, I was told that a wealthy Russian patron would pay for me to go to Georgetown University in the United States. I spent eight years at Georgetown, getting my doctorate in mathematics before my twenty-fourth birthday. I also fell in love there with my beautiful Marianna. We married the day after I graduated. We had so many plans for our future. But those plans changed when I realized who had actually paid for my education and why they had done so.
My education, my teaching credential, my position as a mathematics professor at Georgetown was all part of a cover. I was to become his asset. I was to fulfill his plans, or my family would be hurt. I tried to find a way out, but I could not. I was forced to become a spy.
The friendships I had made within the DC circles proved to be quite valuable. My chess prowess also gave me access to power, and the opportunity to move freely around the world. I hated everything they asked me to do. I told myself I was just collecting information, but that was a lie. I was stealing secrets, and I was getting people killed. I shouldn't have been so naïve. I should have seen the truth earlier.
A woman tried to tell me. Her name was Natasha. She seemed to know what I was up against even though we didn't speak of it outright. She told me she would try to help, that she would hate to see me go down the same road she had traveled. But only days later, I heard she was dead. I knew that would be my fate as well. So, I followed orders. Marianna and I had a son and tried to create a normal life for him. When the three of us were together, it felt right, but every time I had to leave, every time I received a new mission, I felt like I was betraying everyone—not only my adopted country, but also my friends, and most especially my son.
I was lucky to have support from Marianna. I told her many times to leave me, but she wouldn't go. She said we would find a way out together. We've now made a plan to escape. If it works, I'll take this letter out and no one will ever read it. But if I don't come back, I hope someday my son will find this, and he'll know that I tried to make it right.
I'm including all the information I've gathered over the past ten years. I don't know everyone who I've worked for, but I've had two people who have given me orders. Ivan Novikoff and Constantine Dimitrov."
Jax paused, looking up at Maya.
"Constantine," she breathed, her eyes lit up with amazement. "He's the one in charge. He must be the Wolf. But who's Ivan Novikoff?"
"I don't know." He flipped through the other pages. "This is incredible. He lists all the people he spied on, the information he gathered, the companies that were targeted, bank accounts with wire transfers—it's all here."
"Do you see any other names we might recognize, like my grandmother's?"
"No," he said, skimming fast. "But you can look through the pages yourself."
"It sounded like Natasha tried to help him get out."
He met her gaze. "Maybe she had second thoughts, too."