by Terri Dixon
Part XXX
I'd like to be a queen in people's hearts but I don't see myself being queen of this country.
-Princess Diana
A dead silence fell over the crowd in the street. Even the police officer didn’t know what to say for a moment.
The cop with the bullhorn lowered his head for a moment. “I won’t lie to you,” the bullhorn started. “I was told that you were in the area, and that I should arrest you so that they can take you back to Moscow.”
“I know that,” I replied. “Isn’t that why you took the tip to arrest my friends?”
“Yes,” the bullhorn said, after a lengthy pause.
“You’re hearing this,” I said, addressing the crowd in the street and the news people now. “They’re holding my friends hostage to draw me out. This is not a police function. This is the action of a madman. Your police are obligated to work for the powers that run your country. You know this. You know that this is wrong. You know that there is no solid code that gives any rights to the citizens. Why do you stand for it? I’ve heard that you would welcome me back to get rid of them. Why? Why do you need a Romanov to take your country back? Have you ever needed one for that before? Communism was not lead by a Romanov. Modern Democracy and all of this did not come by a Romanov. You can get together and do this on your own. I am not trying to take over the country. I am not trying to be a Tsarina. I want to go home. I was born and raised in the United States of America. I do, however want you to have what you want for a life and a country. I don’t want to see a place where people can be randomly arrested and held because of who they know. Monarchies tend to work that way. You don’t want a royal to come along and be your hero. In essence, you don't want me. The odds are that would be bad in the end. It’s time that you all took over together. It’s the only way. It’s worked reasonably well for my country for 250 years or so. I want to help, but I don't have the means. That leaves it up to you.”
I quit speaking on my soapbox issues after that and went back to my attempt at getting my friends released. “Mr. Officer, or whatever I need to call you. I just want to go home. I don’t want to run your country. Please, let my friends go. The girl is from the U.S. This whole thing will end up causing an international incident if you keep her incarcerated. Please, let them go.”
“What do you think you’re going to do if he says no?” Peter asked.
“I don’t know. I’m thinking. You’re interrupting that.” I waited for an answer from the bullhorn.
Finally an answer. “The message on the wire says that you are an imposter, and that we are to do whatever necessary to detain you. I have my orders.”
“Does that include arresting innocent bystanders?” I asked him.
“In a word, yes,” he replied.
I opened the door of the Hummer. “What do you think you’re doing?” Peter asked me.
“I’m going out there to talk to him.”
“He’s going to arrest you. We can’t have that.”
“Have you ever seen a truck rally?” I asked him as I opened the door.
“You mean monster trucks?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Yes.”
“Of course, why?”
“Because, when you see Tania and Steve come out of that building, which you will, I will give you a sign. Then you will need to drive up the street and come through here.” I gestured to the parking area full of cop cars in front of the Hummer.
“Here is full of cop cars,” he observed.
“Yes, it is,” I smiled. A look of shock come over his face. I knew that he understood me. I leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"What is the sign?" he asked.
"I'm working on it."
I climbed down from the truck and walked between the parked cop cars to where the officer with the bullhorn and his partner stood. They didn’t lunge for me. They didn't have any restraints in sight. I didn’t know whether or not they were armed. I didn't see any restraints either. I wondered if Russian cops carried handcuffs or weapons. I would have to check into that, preferably from my grandma's house in Indiana after I got home.
“Fine arrest me,” I said to them. “If you really want to keep working for thugs and living in a country where you have to pay the government not to come and tear your house down, then go ahead (I'd seen that story on television at home). Prove that you can’t think for yourselves. Prove that the government you live under is better than a government that was designed by the people and for the people. My country already has that. While it’s nowhere near perfect, it’s better than what’s going on here. I’ve seen enough to tell you that, and I've only been here a few days.”
The two officers stood and stared at me. They looked around at the crowd of people and reporters. The officer that had previously held the bullhorn was currently standing with the bullhorn at his side, still and silent. I stood in front of him. I didn’t flinch. I stared him right in the eyes, daring him to arrest me. I knew that if I made it out of there, I would soon collapse. Stress was starting to get to me.
“Who are you, really?” he asked after a pause of at least 30 seconds.
“Release my friends, and I’ll tell you,” I answered. “They’ve done nothing. I’m standing right here. You have me. You don’t need them anymore. Let them go.”
He took a handheld radio from his belt. “Release them. I have the one they want right here,” he said. He stared at me. “Now, who are you, really?”
I waited silently, working hard not to move. My grandma told me that if you stand still and strong, it will make your opponent nervous. I hoped that it worked. I watched the officer. He looked unsettled. I saw his eyes and was fairly sure that he was trying to make sense out of everything that was happening in front of him. I began to think that he wasn’t so sure that his government was worth believing in.
I could see confusion on the faces around me, but I didn't know where the situation was going yet. Everything that I'd ever learned about Russia led me to believe that the people there had always followed a leader of some kind. It was as though they didn't realize the power that they had as a group. I wondered where people got that feeling of helplessness from. There were millions of them. Why couldn’t they just change things? I knew that I was naïve, but it seemed so simple in my young mind. I felt bad for them, but they had what it would take. They didn’t need me. I was not the leader that they were looking for. I needed to go home and be a kid for a little longer. I wasn’t ready to grow up, and not my lineage or all the people in Russia could make me.
Finally after we waited for almost half an hour, Steve and Tania emerged from the building. It was getting late. I had a train to catch, God willing. I was glad to see that they hadn’t harmed them. I was worried about them. I didn’t know what a Russian police station was like. I didn’t know what an American police station was like. I‘d never been in any kind of trouble before I'd come to Russia.
Tania ran to me and grabbed me in a huge embrace. “Thank God!” She exclaimed. “I thought that they were going to keep us there forever. Why did they arrest us?” she asked. “Is this all to get to you?”
“I told you…” Steve started as he was giving me a small hug too. “They arrested us to get at Stacey.” He looked at me. “Why did you do this? You cannot be incarcerated in this country. You have a legacy to live up to. Even if you go home, you’re still the only Romanov.”
“It’s for real?” the police officer asked Steve.
Steve reached up and pulled my hat off once again. “What do you think?” he asked the officer.
Several police officers had come out of the building behind Tania and Steve. The crowd of bystanders stood all around us. There wasn’t a noise in the crowd anywhere. You could have heard a pin drop when they got a look at me without anything changing my appearance. The brown hair really did i
t. Even if I’d thought that I’d only looked like Catherine the Great to me when I was looking a mirror, I knew now that I was wrong. I must have looked like her to bring such a hush to a crowd that large.
“Dear Lord,” the cop with the bullhorn said. “What did you say your name was?”
“Catherine Anastasia Zerbst.” I replied.
He looked at Steve. “I’m telling you, she’s the real thing,” Steve replied. “She’s the real thing and the President is freaking out. That’s why he wants her. You must know that. He feels that if she’s running around the country, she’ll help you all take over. Don’t let him win. Stand up and fight back. Yuri Kostov and his followers are nothing but thugs. You know that. If you help him eliminate her, and don’t think he won’t do it, you will have destroyed the last Russian legacy that could emancipate your country’s people.”
The officers all stood silently for a moment. The one with the bullhorn finally spoke. “The ring. She has the ring? The legend talks of a ring."
I didn’t wait for Steve to reply. I pulled it out of my pocket. “Yes. I got it from my grandmother when she died.” I held it out.
I thought by the look on his face that Steve was going to have a stroke. I was nervous too, but I didn’t know how else to get through to the people. I could hear Peter revving the engine of the Hummer behind me. He was getting impatient.
“Go get in the Humvee,” I said quietly in Steve’s ear. “Take Tania.”
He shot me a look that I didn't understand and didn't take time to process.
“Now!” I snapped as quietly as I could.
As the cops gathered around me and looked at my face and the ring, Steve and Tania slipped away, and climbed into the Humvee. None of the police officers noticed.
The cop with the bullhorn looked up from the ring at me. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you believe enough to let me go back to America. I don’t want to run your country. All of you can do that. I want to go home.”
“If they find out they’ll kill me,” he said.
“You must be the chief here then.”
“Yes. I know my government. I know that they don’t care about the people or our lives. I know that if I don’t do as they say, they will most likely see to it that I’m killed.”
“Are you armed?” I asked.
“No.”
“Are any of your men armed?” I asked.
“No.”
I waved my arm at Peter over and behind my head. I heard the Hummer begin to move. I didn’t acknowledge it. I focused on the officer in front of me. He ignored the Hummer as well. He didn’t seem to have the slightest idea what to do next.
“Try to arrest me,” I told the officer.
“What?” he asked, shocked.
“There are a hundred witnesses and members of the press here who can testify to your valiant attempt to arrest me. Now, you try to put handcuffs on me, and I’ll hit you with them. I’ll make it look good.”
“How?”
I heard a noise. It was the horn on the train. It was pulling into the station down the street as we spoke. “Just trust me,” I said.
He took out handcuffs and reached for my arm. I could hear Peter behind me shifting gears on the Hummer. I felt the lights hit me from the side as he drove toward the parked cars. The witnesses gasped as the monster Hummer came toward the parked police cars. People began to move out of the way. The officer was distracted as the Hummer began to climb and crush the first of six cars parked in a row.
I snatched the handcuffs from the officer’s hands as he watched the Hummer crush his entire fleet of cars one by one. I took the handcuffs and swung them right at his head, striking him above the temple. He fell to the sidewalk. I felt bad, but I hoped that it would keep him from being killed. I took the handcuffs and threw them at the bay window of the police station. I expected it to be safety glass, but it was an old building and the window instantly shattered into a million pieces.
Glass flew everywhere. People started to run out of the way of the oncoming Humvee. The police fanned out to get the situation under control. The Hummer stopped next to me with two police cars left intact. I climbed up and onto Steve’s lap in the passenger side. I was glad that no one shot at us. Peter continued to crush police cars until he landed on the snowy street on the opposite side of the lot.
“We need to catch that train, Peter”
He shifted gears again and headed for the train station.
The Ring of the Queen