The extraordinarily attractive bride looked dreamily into the eyes of her extraordinarily attractive groom. She parroted the minister as he recited the vows. The double doors at the end of the aisle flew open and a large, extraordinarily attractive, older man burst into the chapel.

“Samantha,” the older man said. “Stop this at once. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

The bride stormed down the aisle. “No, daddy, I’m marrying Steel today, and you can’t stop me.”

“You don’t understand, sweetheart,” the older man paused, “he’s your brother.”

Samantha gasped and the director yelled “cut”.

“Was that any good?” asked the older man, AKA Vince Starling, patriarch of the mythical Starling family, AKA Lance Manley, actor and former Soldier Boy body double.

The director nodded. “We can use it.”

“You need me for a while?”

The director shook his head. “We’re done with you for the day.”

Lance went to his dressing room. As he unbuttoned his shirt, he noticed a man in the corner. “May I help you?” Lance said.

“Perhaps you can,” the man said with a Russian accent.

Lance was never too good with faces, but voices stayed with him. He was older than the last time they met, but this was definitely Yuri Kasov, the Red Menace. Without a script handy Lance was at a loss for something to say. He just stared with wide eyes.

“Relax, Mr. Manley, the Cold War is long over. I swear I mean you no harm.”

That was not reassuring. Lance saw the Red Menace in action on one occasion. The man killed with the cool ease of someone switching off a light. “I don’t… I haven’t… I…” He collected himself. “What business do you have here?”

Yuri laughed and repeated the question with a parody of Lance’s resonate baritone. “So dramatic. Daytime drama suits you.” He strolled easily toward Lance. The actor towered over Yuri and was much beefier, but Yuri had a commanding presence. “I’ll get to the point. Has anyone come to question you about the Soldier Boy Project?”

“Why do you want to know?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, that’s what I was wondering.”

Yuri and Lance turned toward the voice to find Jag Reynolds standing in the doorway. “Jag!” they said in unison with broad smiles on their faces. Jag entered the room; Yuri stepped forward to greet him. Lance hid behind Jag.

“That’s the Red Menace,” Lance said.

“Oh, right,” Jag said. “Lance, this is Yuri. Yuri, this is Lance.”

“We’ve met years ago,” Yuri said with a ‘the better to eat you with’ smile.

Jag rolled his eyes and threw an arm around Yuri’s shoulders. “Let’s step outside for a sec.” They went into the hallway and Jag closed the door behind them.

“Okay,” Jag said, “what are you doing here?”

“I would imagine you and I are here for the same reason,” Yuri said. “I’m looking into this Geoff Geoffrey unpleasantness for you.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“Oh, Jag, you needn’t ask. After all you've done I'm happy to help.”

Jag rolled his eyes again. “You don’t… Okay, we’ll talk about this after I’m done with Lance. You go smoke one of those nasty eastern bloc cigarettes of yours. Yuri smiled and bowed slightly at the waist. Jag reentered the dressing room.

“Oh my god,” Lance said. “That’s the biggest scare I’ve had since the program.”

“Yuri’s harmless. Don’t worry about it.”

“Harmless? He tried to kill me once.”

“That was an accident. He just thought you was me. Kind of funny when you think about it.”

“We disagree there.”

Jag shrugged. “Anyway, about that question Yuri asked. Have you heard from a guy named Geoffrey?”

“You could say that,” Lance said with an annoyed chuckle, “countless emails, several phone conversations and two face to face meetings. There would have been more such meetings, but I’ve had him banned from the set.”

“No shit?”

“None at all. He seems to have figured out my role with the program.”

“So, you ain’t working with him or anything?”

Lance looked insulted. “Of course not. I promised to keep my involvement in the Soldier Boy Project a secret, and I honor my promises.”

“I have to say I’m surprised. I always thought you’d jump at the chance to smear me. I mean, you hate me and shit, right?”

“No, Jag. I don’t hate you. I merely hold you in contempt for being a pig.”

Soldier Boy laughed. “Well, you’re in good damned company then. Speaking of my ex-wife, Karen says hello.”

“You can return the sentiment for me. I hope she’s doing well.”

“Hell yeah, she’s a bit long in the tooth, but still bangable.”

“And we’re back to you being a pig. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No, that’s about it. Thanks for helping me keep a lid on this thing.

“No problem, Jag. We did a lot of good work back in the day. I’d hate to see anyone sully that.”

“Yep, we did good work. Yes we did.” Jag gave Lance a nod and left the room. “We did.”

Jag found Yuri down the hall. One of the show’s staff was berating him for smoking. Yuri seemed amused by the woman's exasperation.

“You just love to start trouble, don’t you?” Jag said as he walked by and motioned for Yuri to follow him.

“I learn from the best,” Yuri said. They negotiated the narrow hallways until they emerged in the blinding light of day in the parking lot.

“Lance says Geoffrey has been calling and sending emails for the most part,” Jag said.

“Seven phone calls and twenty-one emails,” Yuri said. “I’ll send you transcripts. Did he mention Geoffrey’s two visits to the set?”

“Yeah, he did. Hey, wait a minute. If you already knew all that why were you interrogating him?”

“I knew he wasn't speaking, but I feared he may waver. I wanted him to have more incentive to remain silent.”

Jag shook his head. “Once a commie spook, always a commie spook.”

Yuri chuckled. “This biographer of yours, he could do real damage. How do you suppose that happened?”

“Someone gave him SBP payroll data. Chris is looking into that.”

“Your son is a good man, Jag.”

“Damned skippy,” Jag said. “Hey, how is your son these days?”

“Gregor is living in Berlin and doing well. He and Ilsa just gave me my third grandchild, a girl.”

Yuri stopped at his car. “Back to this Geoff Geoffrey thing, Jag. Just say the word and the problem goes away.”

“Just to be clear,” Jag said,” what do you mean by that?”

Yuri popped open the car’s trunk to reveal a state of the art sniper rifle. Jag slammed the trunk closed. “Not only no, but hell no!”

“People die every day, Jag.”

“No.”

“He would scarcely be missed.”

Jag grabbed Yuri by the lapels and pulled him close. “I said no!”

Yuri gave out a resigned sigh. “Fine, but the offer stands.”

Jag released Yuri. “I thought you weren’t in that line of work any more.”

“For the most part I’m not, but I’m willing to come out of retirement if you need me. Anything for you, my friend.”

Jag winced. “Scares the crap out of me when you talk like that. You sound like you want to be my bitch or something.”

Yuri laughed heartily. “If my inclinations were such I could do much better for myself than you.”

“You wish, but seriously, I’ve never understood why you’ve become such a fan boy.”

“You know why.”

“Kiev? Damn it, Yuri. It’s been twenty years. Let it go.”

“It’s more like twenty-nine years, and I won’t let it go. I can never fully repay my debt to you.”

Jag rolled his eyes. “Is that a Russian thing?”

Yuri shrugged and got behind the wheel of his car. Jag knocked on the driver's side window which Yuri lowered.

"I want you to stay out of this," Jag said as he leaned on the car. "I'm on top of it."

Yuri nodded and Jag turned to leave, stopping for a brief moment. "Any debt we had is paid in full. You don't owe me nothing. Not a damned thing."

The ever present smirk on Yuri's face faded as he watched his former enemy walk away. "I wish that were true, my friend."