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FunTranscript
00:00Moscow, 2018.
00:02While investigating an arms trafficking ring run by Russian oligarchs, CIA agent Jack Ryder
00:08vanishes after a clandestine meeting and is presumed dead.
00:13Four years later, Dmitry Volkov, the retired Russian double agent who recruited him, suspects
00:19a dark secret when he notices mysterious FSB activity at an abandoned Soviet military facility.
00:27Haunted by a dead of conscience, Dmitry launches a personal investigation, only to uncover
00:33a horrifying secret orchestrated by a seemingly patriotic oligarch and a rogue faction within
00:39the FSB.
00:41In the brutal world of espionage, what will be the price of this unexpected bond forged
00:46between two men who once fought on opposite sides?
00:50This chase, which begins in the freezing cold of Moscow, will shock you with its stunning
00:55twist ending.
00:57If you're ready, let's begin.
01:04The cold of the Moscow night in 2018 was a physical entity.
01:13It was a predator of warmth and life, a palpable presence that seeped through the thickest wool
01:19and settled deep in the bones.
01:22CIA agent Jack Ryder felt it gnaw at the edges of his collar as he walked along the Moskva River,
01:28the grand illuminated facades of the Kremlin, a distant, mocking spectacle of power.
01:34Every shadow seemed to stretch, animated by a malevolent will.
01:39Every whisper of the wind through the bare branches of the trees sounded like a footstep behind
01:44him.
01:45This was the nature of his world, a constant, low-humming paranoia that was not a symptom of
01:52madness, but a finely tuned instrument of survival.
01:55His handler's voice, a calm, measured baritone that had guided him for months, echoed in his
02:02memory from their last secure communication.
02:04The contact will be at the agreed point.
02:07They have the final piece of the puzzle, Jack.
02:10The shipping manifests.
02:11This will blow Orlov's entire network wide open.
02:15But be careful.
02:16The air has changed.
02:18They are hunting.
02:19Jack had been in Moscow for eighteen grueling months, meticulously mapping the tendrils
02:25of an arms trafficking network that reached into the highest echelons of Russian oligarchy.
02:32He had lived a life of lies, a carefully constructed identity as a mid-level financial consultant,
02:38a man so bland he was invisible.
02:41He was a creature of beige suits, polite, noncommittal smiles, and a meticulously boring routine.
02:48But beneath that drab camouflage was a razor-sharp operative, the best the agency had.
02:55His target was Viktor Orlov, a man publicly lauded as a patriot and philanthropist, a titan
03:02of industry who funded hospitals and orphanages, but privately the kingpin of a vast illegal enterprise
03:09that armed failed states and terrorist cells.
03:13Orlov was a monster who built his public pedestal on a mountain of skulls.
03:19He checked his watch, the luminous dial, a small green beacon in the gloom, 2345.
03:26The rendezvous point was a small disused pier under the Krimsky Bridge.
03:31The location was chosen for its multiple escape routes, its poor lighting, and the ambient noise
03:36of the city that could swallow the sound of a brief, whispered exchange.
03:41He saw a silhouette at the end of the pier, a figure huddled against the wind, their form
03:47indistinct in the oppressive darkness.
03:50The agreed-upon signal was a lit cigarette held in the left hand.
03:54The figure raised a hand, and the tiny orange ember glowed in the darkness.
03:59It was the left hand.
04:02Jack's training, years of brutal, repetitive conditioning, screamed at him.
04:07Every instinct, every nerve ending went taut.
04:11Something was wrong.
04:12The posture of the figure was too stiff, too military.
04:16The way they stood wasn't like a nervous informant waiting to trade secrets for a new life.
04:21It was like a soldier waiting for a target to enter the kill zone.
04:26But turning back now was not an option.
04:29Aborting meant the manifests were lost, the network remained intact, and months of dangerous,
04:36soul-crushing work would be for nothing.
04:38He had to proceed.
04:40He had to see it through.
04:42He walked forward, his stride even and unhurried, his hand casually in his pocket, fingers wrapped
04:49around the cold, reassuring steel of his compact pistol.
04:53The air grew thick with unspoken threat, heavy and suffocating.
04:58You have the package? Jack asked, his Russian flawless, his tone carefully neutral.
05:04The figure didn't respond.
05:06Instead, it stepped to the side, a deliberate, theatrical movement.
05:11From the deep shadows behind a set of massive concrete pylons, two more figures emerged.
05:17They were large, dressed in black tactical gear, their faces grim and professional.
05:23Jack's heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat of adrenaline and resignation.
05:29It was a set-up.
05:31His informant had been turned, or, more likely, eliminated.
05:36He didn't hesitate.
05:37He drew his weapon as he dropped to one knee, a single fluid motion born of a thousand hours of practice.
05:44The first shot was his, a deafening crack that echoed over the frozen river, a violent punctuation in the quiet night.
05:52One of the large men grunted and stumbled, a dark stain blossoming on his chest.
05:58But before he could acquire a second target, a blinding light flooded his vision, from the side.
06:05A fourth man.
06:06He hadn't seen the fourth man.
06:09A sharp, searing pain exploded in his side, a white-hot poker that stole his breath and his strength.
06:17He felt his legs give way.
06:19He hit the cold, unforgiving wood of the pier, his gun skittering away into the darkness.
06:25A splash of sound, followed by silence.
06:28The world began to tilt, the distant lights of Moscow blurring into a meaningless smear of color.
06:35The figures converged on him.
06:37He felt a heavy boot press down on his wounded side, forcing a strangled cry from his lips.
06:44A man with cold, dead eyes knelt beside him.
06:47He didn't recognize the face, but he recognized the look.
06:51It was the look of a man for whom violence was not a tool, but a language.
06:56Agent Ryder, Viktor Orlov sends his regards.
07:00He is very eager to meet you.
07:03A black hood was pulled over his head, plunging him into absolute, suffocating darkness.
07:09He felt hands grabbing him, dragging him across the rough wooden planks.
07:15The last thing he heard before the world dissolved into a vortex of pain and unconsciousness was the gentle lapping of the river against the pier.
07:24A sound of ordinary life continuing on, as his own came to a violent, silent end.
07:31Back in Langley, Virginia, the silence was of a different kind.
07:35It was the sterile electronic silence of a communication link that had gone dead.
07:40The silence of unanswered protocols.
07:43The silence of a ghost.
07:45For a week they tried everything.
07:48Satellite sweeps, human intelligence assets on the ground, diplomatic back channels.
07:53Nothing.
07:54Jack Ryder had vanished from the face of the earth.
07:58After a month, the search was quietly scaled back.
08:02After six months, a file was closed.
08:05A star was discreetly carved onto the memorial wall at CIA headquarters.
08:11Another anonymous patriot lost in the great, silent war fought in the shadows.
08:17The official assumption was that he had been compromised and executed by the FSB.
08:23His case became a cautionary tale for new recruits.
08:27A file studied for its tragic lessons.
08:30The agency moved on.
08:32The world moved on.
08:34Jack Ryder was dead.
08:36Four years later, in a small dacha nestled in the birch forests outside of Moscow,
08:42a retired man named Dmitry Volkov stared out at the first snowfall of the winter.
08:49The snow blanketed the world in white, a shroud of forced purity that failed to cover the sins buried beneath.
08:56Dmitry had more sins than most.
08:59For 30 years, he had served Mother Russia as a KGB and later SVR officer.
09:06For 15 of those years, he had also served the CIA as one of their most valuable double agents,
09:13a man living on a razor's edge between two worlds.
09:17Retirement was supposed to be his reward.
09:20A quiet life of fishing, reading, and trying to forget the faces of the men and women he had betrayed or sent to their deaths.
09:29But one face always remained.
09:32A ghost that sat with him in the quiet evenings.
09:35The face of a young, idealistic American agent he had personally recruited.
09:41A young man full of fire and a belief in the inherent goodness of his cause.
09:46A young man he had guided, trained in the arts of deception, and ultimately sent into the belly of the beast.
09:54He had been Jack Ryder's handler.
09:58The news of Jack's disappearance had hit him hard.
10:01He felt a profound sense of responsibility, a debt that could never be paid.
10:07He had followed the official reports from his old CIA contacts.
10:11Presumed dead, case closed.
10:14But Dmitry, a man who had built a career on understanding the unspoken, had never truly believed it.
10:21The FSB were brutal, but they were also proud.
10:25Had they captured and executed an American agent of Ryder's caliber, they would have paraded his confession on state television.
10:33They would have used it as a propaganda victory.
10:36But there was only silence.
10:38A complete and total information vacuum.
10:42And in a world of espionage, a vacuum is never empty.
10:46It is always filled with something terrible.
10:49For the past few months, Dmitry had noticed something unusual on his infrequent trips to the nearby village for supplies.
10:58FSB vehicles.
11:00Not the standard patrol cars, but the unmarked black sedans used by the agency's most secretive departments.
11:08They were using the old, crumbling access road that led to the abandoned Zarya 12 facility, a relic of the Cold War.
11:17Zarya 12 was supposedly a decommissioned Soviet military research base, a place left to rot, its secrets buried under layers of concrete and forgotten history.
11:29Curiosity, the old instinct that had kept him alive for so long, began to stir.
11:35Why would the FSB's elite be interested in a derelict base?
11:40He started watching.
11:42From a high ridge overlooking the road, using a pair of powerful binoculars, he logged the comings and goings.
11:49The vehicles came and went at odd hours, always under the cover of darkness.
11:54They weren't carrying troops or standard equipment.
11:58They were carrying supplies, medical equipment, food.
12:02And they were bringing people in, but he rarely saw anyone come out.
12:07One evening, his blood ran cold.
12:10He saw a man he recognized get out of one of the sedans.
12:13It was a high-ranking FSB colonel, a man known for his loyalty to a particular faction within the service,
12:21a faction rumored to be in the pocket of one of Russia's most powerful men, Viktor Orlov.
12:28The name hit him like a physical blow.
12:31Orlov.
12:32The very man Jack Ryder was investigating when he disappeared.
12:37It couldn't be a coincidence.
12:39The gears in his mind, long dormant, began to turn with terrifying speed and clarity.
12:46The abandoned base, the secret FSB activity, the connection to Orlov,
12:52and the absolute silence surrounding the fate of Jack Ryder.
12:56The official story said Jack was dead.
12:59But what if he wasn't?
13:01What if they hadn't killed him?
13:03What if, for four long years, they had kept him?
13:08The thought was a chilling whisper that slithered into his soul.
13:12A fate worse than death.
13:15Staring out at the falling snow, Dmitry Volkov made a decision.
13:20He had lived a life in the shadows, a life of duplicity.
13:25He had betrayed countries and ideals.
13:28But he had made a promise to that young agent, an unspoken vow between a handler and his operative.
13:35He had promised to watch his back.
13:38He had failed four years ago.
13:40He would not fail again.
13:42The debt had to be paid.
13:45The ghost of Jack Ryder deserved an answer.
13:48And Dmitry would tear down the walls of hell itself to find it.
13:53His retirement was over.
13:55The decision, once made, settled in Dmitry's soul not as a fire but as a block of ice.
14:02It was a cold, heavy thing, a purpose that chilled him to the bone and sharpened his senses.
14:09For four years he had been a man of ghosts, haunted by the memories of his past.
14:15Now he would become a ghost himself, a whisper in the machine, a presence felt but not seen.
14:23His first move was not towards the fortified compound of Zarya XII, but down into the damp, earth-smelling cellar of his own dacha.
14:33Behind a false wall of stacked firewood, a relic of a lifetime of paranoia, was a long, steel footlocker.
14:42It hissed softly as he broke the seals.
14:45The air that escaped smelled of gun oil and thyme.
14:49Inside lay the skeleton of his former life.
14:54A Makarov PMM pistol, perfectly maintained.
14:58A set of lockpicks, their steel still gleaming.
15:01Forged identification papers for three different identities.
15:06He looked at them, the tools of a trade that had consumed his youth and his morality.
15:12He had hoped never to see them again.
15:15Now they were his only allies.
15:18For the next week, Dimitri did nothing but watch.
15:23He was a patient man.
15:25Patience was the first and most important lesson the KGB had taught him.
15:30From his hidden vantage point on the snowy ridge, he spent hours, motionless, cataloging the movements at Zarya XII.
15:39He learned the patrol schedules.
15:42There were two four-man teams moving in opposite directions along the perimeter fence.
15:48They were professional, disciplined, not conscripts.
15:52They were FSB.
15:54He noted the shift changes, which happened with clockwork precision.
15:58He mapped the camera locations, identifying the few narrow blind spots where the fields of view did not quite overlap.
16:07The facility was a fortress, an active, high-security black site.
16:13Direct assault was suicide.
16:15He needed a key, a crack in the monolith.
16:20The key, he knew, would not be found in the modern technology of the fence or the cameras.
16:27It would be buried in the past.
16:29Zarya XII was built in the 1960s, a Soviet creation.
16:34And Soviet creations, for all their brutalist strength, always had flaws.
16:41He needed to talk to someone who knew the facility's bones.
16:45He found the old quartermaster in a smoky, dimly lit tavern in a village that time had forgotten.
16:52The man was a husk of his former self, his face a road map of broken capillaries, his eyes clouded with bitterness.
17:01Dimitri sat down opposite him, placing a fresh, unopened bottle of premium vodka on the stained wooden table between them.
17:10The old man's eyes, which had been dull, flickered with interest.
17:15It has been a long time, comrade, Dimitri said quietly.
17:19Dimitri, I thought you were dead, he rasped.
17:23I have a question for a friend with a good memory.
17:27Zarya XII.
17:29I am interested in its plumbing, specifically its outflow.
17:33The old man poured himself a generous measure of vodka and downed it in one go.
17:39He shuddered.
17:41A geothermal runoff conduit.
17:44It was a design flaw.
17:46It drains into the swamp five kilometers south of the facility, two meters in diameter.
17:53It was classified a potential back door, they said.
17:57It was supposed to have been sealed with three feet of concrete during decommissioning.
18:02The old man gave a cynical, wheezing laugh.
18:06But the colonel in charge sold half the cement allotment on the black market to build his dacha.
18:12It was sealed with lies and a thin layer of brick.
18:16This was it, the key.
18:19Do the schematics for this conduit still exist?
18:23Dimitri asked.
18:24The quartermaster smiled, a yellow, broken thing.
18:29Everything exists for the right price.
18:32Dimitri left with a faded, rolled-up blueprint tucked into the lining of his coat.
18:38The price had been the last of his retirement savings, but it was a price he paid without hesitation.
18:45His reconnaissance now had a new focus.
18:49For two days, he trudged through the frozen, treacherous swamp south of the facility.
18:55The work was exhausting for a man his age.
18:58On the second day, he flattened himself into the snow as an FSB patrol passed less than ten meters from his position.
19:07The close call was a reminder.
19:09The stakes were absolute.
19:11Finally, late in the afternoon of the third day, he found it.
19:16Almost completely hidden by a thicket of dead reeds and covered in snow, was a round concrete structure, the outflow point.
19:26A heavy iron grill covered the opening, rusted but intact.
19:31Back in his dacha, he spread the old blueprint across his kitchen table.
19:36The paper was brittle, the blue ink faded, but the information was clear.
19:41He traced the path of the conduit from the outflow point in the swamp all the way back to the geothermal power station in the heart of the underground complex.
19:51It was his way in.
19:53He packed a small bag with a crowbar and a high-powered flashlight.
19:57Outside, a snowstorm was moving in, the perfect cover.
20:01He put on his coat, pulled a dark wool cap over his head, and stepped out into the storm.
20:07The blizzard was not cover.
20:10It was a living thing, a predator of sight and sound.
20:14Dimitri found the concrete outflow point and, with immense effort, pried the iron grill open.
20:21He dropped into the darkness, into a foot of stagnant, ice-cold water.
20:26He switched on his flashlight, the powerful beam revealing a massive concrete pipe stretching into infinity.
20:33He began to walk.
20:35His footsteps echoed unnervingly.
20:38The journey through the conduit was a descent into a mechanical underworld.
20:43A low, deep hum began to vibrate through the concrete under his feet, the sound of the geothermal plant.
20:51He walked for what felt like hours.
20:54He found the maintenance ladder from the blueprints and climbed towards the intense heat.
20:59At the top, he pushed a heavy hatch open and scrambled out.
21:03He found himself on a narrow metal catwalk in a cavernous, automated engine room.
21:09Below him, a web of massive pipes and turbines pulsed with raw energy.
21:15He was inside.
21:16He followed the catwalk to a heavy steel door and slipped through into a long, sterile, white corridor.
21:23He was a ghost, moving through the camera blind spots he had memorized.
21:28He descended stairwells into the oldest part of the complex, where pristine walls gave way to unpainted, brutalist concrete.
21:36At the bottom was a single, heavily reinforced steel door.
21:41A single guard sat at a small desk nearby, reading a newspaper.
21:46Dimitri waited in the shadows.
21:48At the 2200 shift change, as the new guard settled in, Dimitri crossed the space in absolute silence.
21:56His fingers, nimble from years of practice, danced over the lock with his picks.
22:01A soft, satisfying click.
22:04He slid the heavy bolt back with excruciating care and slipped back into the shadows.
22:10An hour later, the guard stood up and walked down the corridor towards a washroom.
22:15It was now or never.
22:17Dimitri crossed the space again, pulled the heavy door open just enough to slip through, and closed it silently behind him.
22:25He was in a short corridor with twelve cells.
22:29A faint light leaked from under the door at the very end.
22:33Cell 12.
22:34He approached it with a sense of dreadful finality.
22:38He slid open the small metal viewing slot.
22:41The sound was like a gunshot in the utter silence.
22:44He put his eye to the opening.
22:46The cell was a bare concrete box.
22:49Chained to the wall was what was left of a man.
22:51He was skeletal, his body a horrifying canvas of scars.
22:56But it was him.
22:57Beneath the ruin, Dimitri recognized the young, confident agent he had sent into the abyss four years ago.
23:05It was Jack Ryder.
23:07A wave of nausea and rage so profound it almost buckled Dimitri's knees washed over him.
23:14This was a debt paid in another man's flesh and soul.
23:18The figure's head turned slowly towards the door.
23:21His eyes were hollowed out things, dark pools of endless suffering.
23:26But for a fleeting impossible second, as they met Dimitri's in the narrow slot, a flicker of something ignited in their depths.
23:34It wasn't just recognition.
23:36It was the last dying ember of a man who refused to be extinguished.
23:41Dimitri's own eyes burned.
23:44The ice in his soul finally broke.
23:47I am here, Dimitri whispered, his voice thick with an emotion he had not felt in decades.
23:54I am getting you out.
23:56The promise was an oath.
23:58Freedom had to be bought with action and blood.
24:01The guard would return any moment.
24:03Dimitri slid the viewing slot shut and moved back to the stairwell.
24:07When the guard emerged from the washroom, Dimitri was already in motion.
24:11He slipped into the washroom and hid.
24:14Five minutes later, the guard came back in.
24:17In the reflection of the cheap mirror, he saw a gray shape.
24:21It was the last thing he ever saw.
24:23Dimitri's arm snaked around his throat in a move of brutal efficiency.
24:28He gently lowered the man to the floor, taking his sidearm and key card.
24:33He moved back to the cell block door and used the keys.
24:36The lock on cell 12 turned with a heavy grinding sound.
24:40The door swung inward.
24:42The smell of sickness and despair was overpowering.
24:45Jack Ryder looked up and flinched, expecting a blow.
24:49It's me, Dimitri said softly.
24:51We have to go.
24:53Now.
24:54He knelt beside Jack and took out a small pair of hydraulic bolt cutters.
24:58This will make a noise, he warned.
25:01He squeezed the handles.
25:02With a sharp crack like a breaking bone, the link snapped.
25:06Then the second.
25:07Jack was free, but he slumped forward, his body lacking the strength to even hold itself
25:12up.
25:13Can you walk?
25:14Dimitri asked.
25:15Jack tried to answer, but only a dry, rasping cough came out.
25:19He nodded weakly.
25:20Dimitri pulled him to his feet.
25:22Jack's legs buckled immediately.
25:24He was a dead weight.
25:26As he supported Jack, a faint noise reached him from one of the other cells.
25:30A soft tapping.
25:31He had come for one man, but the sounds of other living souls gnawed at him.
25:36Leaving them here would be a death sentence.
25:39He was no longer just a spy paying a debt.
25:42He was a liberator.
25:43Working quickly, he opened two other cells, finding a well-known investigative journalist
25:49and the aid to a liberal politician.
25:51They were ghosts, forgotten by the world.
25:54I am getting you out, he said to them in Russian.
25:57But you must be silent and you must help me.
26:00We carry the American or none of us leave.
26:02The two men, gaunt but with a fire rekindled in their eyes, nodded.
26:07Together, the three of them supported Jack.
26:10They were heading for the stairwell when the world exploded in sound.
26:14A klaxon.
26:15A harsh, blaring alarm.
26:17The sterile white corridors were suddenly bathed in flashing red light.
26:22They found the guard, the journalist rasped.
26:25This way, Dimitri commanded.
26:27He led them deeper, towards a computer terminal.
26:30Keep going!
26:31To the big roam with the pipes!
26:33Wait for me!
26:34He pulled a small USB drive from his pocket.
26:37It was a data worm he had prepared.
26:39He jammed it into the port.
26:41A few frantic keystrokes.
26:43He wasn't stealing information.
26:45He was planting a virus that would copy and upload everything from Orlov's network to secure servers.
26:51It was a digital atom bomb.
26:53He hit enter.
26:54A progress bar appeared.
26:56Too slow!
26:57He heard boots and pulled the drive.
27:00It was enough.
27:01The worm was in the system.
27:03Dimitri ran, catching up to the others in the geothermal exchange.
27:07The chamber was a chaotic vision of flashing lights and hissing steam.
27:11Figures in black tactical gear were already appearing on the catwalks above.
27:16Stay in the steam!
27:18Dimitri yelled over the din.
27:19A shot rang out.
27:20Then another.
27:21Dimitri shoved them all behind a massive turbine.
27:24They were pinned down.
27:26He pulled out the guard's pistol.
27:28He fired two shots back towards the catwalks, not aiming to hit, but to make them take cover.
27:33The response was a hail of automatic fire.
27:36Escape seemed impossible.
27:38The hatch!
27:39He yelled to the journalist, pointing towards the floor.
27:42The one I came through!
27:43Open it!
27:44While the two freed prisoners struggled with the heavy iron wheel, Dimitri provided covering fire.
27:50He was a ghost in the machine, using the thick clouds of steam to appear and disappear.
27:56The hatch groaned open.
27:58Go!
27:59Dimitri ordered.
28:00Get him in!
28:01The journalist and the aide carefully lowered Jack's limp body into the tunnel.
28:05The aide jumped down.
28:07The journalist hesitated.
28:09Go!
28:10Dimitri roared, firing his last two rounds.
28:13The journalist disappeared.
28:15Dimitri threw the empty pistol at the approaching guards and dove headfirst into the darkness,
28:20pulling the heavy hatch closed just as a volley of bullets hammered against it.
28:25They were back in the pipe, in the absolute echoing darkness.
28:30They were free.
28:31The darkness of the conduit was absolute.
28:35The only sounds were the ragged, desperate breaths of the four men and the slosh of their feet in the freezing water.
28:42Jack Ryder was a dead weight.
28:45Dimitri, his own body screaming with pain, took the lead, his flashlight beam the single, wavering star in their private universe of black.
28:57Emerging from the outflow pipe back into the blizzard was like being born into a world of chaos.
29:04But the storm was their salvation.
29:07It was erasing their tracks, hiding them from the hunters.
29:11The five-kilometer journey back through the swamp was an epic of silent suffering.
29:17Dimitri led them not to his dacha, but to an old abandoned hunter's cabin he had stocked years ago, a final paranoid bolt hole.
29:27Inside, they collapsed.
29:30Dimitri, moving on reserves he didn't know he possessed, started a fire in the old iron stove.
29:37As the small space slowly filled with warmth, he turned his attention to Jack.
29:43With the help of the journalist, he gently stripped the filthy rags from Jack's body.
29:48The full extent of the horror was laid bare in the flickering firelight.
29:53Dimitri's hands, which had killed a man only hours before, were now impossibly gentle as he cleaned the wounds on Jack's wrists.
30:03Jack was barely conscious, muttering things that made no sense.
30:07For two days they hid, listening to the storm rage outside.
30:12For two days, Dimitri and the other two men nursed Jack, forcing sips of warm broth and water between his cracked lips.
30:21On the third day, the storm broke.
30:24Dimitri took out a small, battery-powered shortwave radio and began to scan the frequencies.
30:31The news, when it came, was a flood.
30:34The data worm had worked beyond his wildest dreams.
30:39It was the lead story on every international broadcast.
30:43A massive leak from Viktor Orlov's servers had exposed one of the largest illegal arms networks in a generation.
30:51Shipping manifests, bank records, encrypted communications.
30:55It was a digital apocalypse.
30:58Viktor Orlov had been arrested.
31:01The Kremlin, in a public statement, expressed its shock and outrage.
31:06Orlov, the patriot, was now Orlov the traitor.
31:10His usefulness had ended.
31:12In a sterile windowless room in the Lubyanka, Viktor Orlov sat opposite a quiet man in a plain suit.
31:20He was not in chains.
31:22He was not bruised.
31:23The American, the quiet man said.
31:26Holding a CIA agent for four years, that was reckless, Viktor.
31:31Orlov took a slow sip of his tea.
31:34He was not a complication, Orlov said, his voice calm.
31:39He was leverage, a tool.
31:41As long as I held a live, high-value American agent, my rivals within the FSB could not move against me without creating an international incident of catastrophic proportions.
31:54His continued existence was the shield that protected my empire.
32:01It was a brilliant strategy.
32:03Back in the cabin, the journalist and the aide listened to the news with a stunned, triumphant silence.
32:09Their tormentor was caged.
32:11We can go home, the aide whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
32:16There is no home to go back to, the journalist said, his tone harder.
32:20But we can build a new one.
32:22We owe you our lives.
32:24He looked at Dimitri with a respect that transcended politics or nationality.
32:30You owe me nothing, Dimitri said.
32:33Go, disappear into the chaos.
32:36A car will be left for you at the old logging road by sunrise.
32:40That evening the two Russians left, melting into the night.
32:44The cabin was quiet again.
32:46Dimitri sat by the fire watching Jack, who was sleeping, his breathing finally even.
32:52For the first time in four years, Jack Ryder was not in pain.
32:57His eyes fluttered open.
32:59They were clearer now.
33:01He looked at Dimitri, truly seeing him for the first time since the rescue.
33:06His voice was a dry, weak rasp, but the single word was clear.
33:11Why? asked Jack.
33:14Dimitri looked into the fire, the flames dancing in his old, weary eyes.
33:19He thought of the young, idealistic agent he had recruited, and the promise he had made and broken,
33:26and the debt that had festered in his soul for four long years.
33:31I owed a debt, Dimitri said.
33:34It was the only explanation necessary.
33:36It was the only truth that mattered.
33:39Now get some rest.
33:40Getting you out of here will be harder than getting you out of that prison.
33:44They traveled north in a stolen Lada, a car so old and common it was practically invisible.
33:52They drove only at night, hiding during the day in the skeletal remains of abandoned collective farms,
33:58or deep within the endless, silent birch forests.
34:02The Russian winter landscape was a vast, unforgiving canvas of white and gray.
34:08Jack Ryder was slowly returning to the world of the living.
34:13The broth and rest had begun to knit his ravaged body back together.
34:18But the real healing was happening behind his eyes.
34:21He would stare out the window for hours, piecing together four years of a black, featureless void.
34:28I remember the river, he said one evening, his voice still a rasp as they huddled around a small fire.
34:35The cold, a light, then nothing, for a long time, just pain, and a voice, Orlov's voice.
34:45He would visit, talk to me, not asking questions, just talking, about his business, his rivals, his philosophy.
34:54It was like I was his priest, and the torture was my confession.
34:59Dimitri listened without speaking.
35:01He did not offer empty words of comfort.
35:04He simply offered his presence, a silent acknowledgment of the horrors the young man had endured.
35:11He was the author of Jack's Tragedy, and now he was its editor, trying to write a final, more hopeful chapter.
35:19Their destination was a small, unremarkable town near the Finnish border, a place where the lines between countries were blurred by centuries of trade.
35:29In a grimy, all-night café that smelled of stale cigarettes, Dimitri made a call from a public payphone.
35:36He spoke in a series of clipped, coded phrases.
35:40An hour later, a man entered.
35:43He was large, with a beard that seemed to contain the frost of a dozen winters, and eyes that had seemed too much.
35:50He and Dimitri did not shake hands.
35:53They simply looked at each other, a long, silent conversation passing between two men who had survived the same cold, dirty war.
36:02The package is fragile, Dimitri said.
36:06They always are, the big man rumbled.
36:09He drove a logging truck.
36:11The secret compartment, built among the massive fragrant pine logs, was small and claustrophobic.
36:18It will be cold, the trucker warned Jack.
36:22Jack, after four years in a concrete box, simply nodded.
36:27The border crossing was the longest hour of Dimitri's life.
36:32He was not in the truck.
36:34He was miles away, at a designated lookout point, watching the checkpoint through his binoculars.
36:40He saw the truck pull up.
36:42He saw the bored, uniformed guard, approach.
36:46They exchanged papers.
36:48The guard walked around the truck, his breath pluming in the frigid air.
36:53He kicked the tires.
36:55Dimitri's heart was a block of ice in his chest.
36:58He held his breath.
37:00The guard said something, laughed, and then waved the truck on.
37:05It slowly rolled across the line painted on the asphalt.
37:09It was in Finland.
37:11It was over.
37:12Two hours later, on a deserted forest road, a sleek, modern sedan with diplomatic plates was waiting.
37:20Two quiet, professional-looking men in warm parkas got out.
37:25They were Americans.
37:27They helped Jack out of the compartment.
37:29He was stiff and shivering, but he stood on his own.
37:33One of the men gently placed a thick blanket over his shoulders.
37:37Welcome back, sir, he said softly.
37:40Dimitri was there.
37:42The trucker had brought him across at an unguarded point, a final favor for an old comrade.
37:49He stood apart from the Americans, a relic from another time, another world.
37:55Jack walked over to him, the heavy blanket trailing behind him.
38:00He was still gaunt, still a shadow of his former self, but his eyes were clear.
38:06He looked at the old Russian, the man who had recruited him, the man whose silence had condemned
38:12him, and the man who had torn down the walls of a fortress to pull him from the grave.
38:18He told me once that honor was a currency for fools, that loyalty was just a tool to be used
38:25and discarded.
38:26He paused, looking at the two Americans waiting by the car.
38:31He was wrong.
38:33Dimitri looked at the young agent, at the life that had been so close to being extinguished,
38:39now rekindled.
38:41He saw not a CIA agent, not an enemy or an asset, but simply a man, a good man.
38:48Some debts are not paid with money, Dimitri said, his voice rough with unspoken emotion.
38:56He extended his hand.
38:58Jack took it.
38:59The handshake was firm, a bridge across a chasm of ideology, betrayal, and pain.
39:06It was a simple human gesture that meant everything.
39:10It was forgiveness.
39:12It was gratitude.
39:13It was an end.
39:15Thank you, Dimitri, Jack said.
39:19Dimitri simply nodded.
39:21He released Jack's hand.
39:23He did not watch the car drive away.
39:26He turned his back and began the long walk back towards the border.
39:31The sun was just beginning to rise, casting a pale, watery light over the snow-covered pines.
39:38He was a ghost, melting back into the grey dawn of the country he had served, betrayed, and ultimately, in his own small way, redeemed.
39:48The debt was paid in full.
39:51His war was finally over.
39:57Don't forget to subscribe to the True Stories Live channel and like the video.
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