Life in the institute was little better than prison for Anton. His cell did have a small window, and one of the medical personnel checked on him every few days, but that was it. A week after his internment, he was only beginning to adjust to the change, and he wondered about his Russian parents.
Other things bothered him. The first of the weekly tests one of the personnel took him to, in a medical office in the institute, had been very uncomfortable. Also, the food tasted funny and left him feeling tired and light-headed.
He was looking out of the window at the country fields, when one of the personnel unlocked the door and came in. He did not look like he was concerned about the welfare of the institute's patients.
"How have you been today?" the man asked Anton in an unemotional tone.
"Bored stiff." Anton responded in a tone that showed mixed emotions. Then he realized the man was carrying a newspaper, as well as the clipboard the personnel took notes from.
"Perhaps we should put some extra tranquilizers in your food."
"They don't really help me." Anton then decided to change the subject, "Anything new in the news?"
The man looked at his paper for a second, then continued with Anton, "What about your dreams?"
"They're gone."
"So, the medication did do some good."
"I think an exciting vacation would have done the same; I just needed a change in scenery, not a prison. There is nothing for me to do here."
"I'm not going to say whether your conditions will get better or not, but in the meantime, here's something." He dropped the newspaper on Anton's bed.
Anton managed to say "Thank you.", despite his negative feelings. The man, however, was unmoved.
"Tests will be in two days, if you really think that will help." The man then left the cell.
With nothing else to do, Anton eagerly read the newspaper. He knew it was state run and censored, but it was reading material nevertheless. After reading a few articles, he came across another:
Yesterday, Yuri and Catrina Sheranadze of Kubyshev were executed by electrocution. The day before, they had been found guilty of spying for America. Their son, Anton, has been committed in a mental ward to recover from the abuse they inflicted on him through the years.
Anton stared at the article in disbelief. When he finally realized what had happened, he choked and cried.
Jerry's depression became worse than ever. He almost never talked to anyone, including his parents, and his attention span in class was nill. His father tried to talk to him, but Jerry would not listen. In private, he felt absolutely hopeless about his situation and was considering suicide. Jerry's father was on the verge of sending him to a psychiatric center, but Steven had an idea.
He saw Anton walking down the school hallways (slowly as if in pain, and with his head bent low with an emotionless expression), and went up to him from behind.
"Hey Jerry." he spoke to him. Jerry did not even look at him and walked on, "Hey Jerry, I have some great news." Jerry stopped walking, but did not turn around to face Steven. Fustrated, Steven turned Jerry around himself. "Look Jerry, I know your'e feeling bad, but there's no reason why you should be. You'll kill yourself if you keep this up! You have a terrific life ahead of you, but you act like the living dead!
Jerry managed to raise his head to face Steven, who continued,"I talked to your Dad, and we thought that maybe you need a change in scenery. How'd you like to stay at my house over the weekend?"
Jerry managed to push back his depression just enough to speak, "Steven," he paused for a moment, then continued, "I have a serious and, unbelievable problem of which depression is just a symptom. I think, that given events, I should tell you, when we are alone."
"Of course, you can tell me. Do your parents know?"
"No. By the way, I will go over."
"That's great! I got some great recorded movies. I got some science fiction, some old war movies, this movie where a computer hacker nearly starts World War Three ....."
"What was that?" Jerry's voice had a tone of excitement.
"I forget the name, but to prove the vulnerability of the nation's defense computer, a hacker breaks in and, well, I'm not going to tell you and spoil the excitement." Steven looked at the hall clock, "It's almost time for class, so we better get going." Steven then ran off, and Jerry quickly walked to his class. The plot of Steven's movie gave him the feeling that maybe he could do something to get back at Russia. He was not completely out of depression, but he no longer felt hopeless.
Jerry went over to Steven's house on Friday night. Steven had the movie ready right away, and they both watched it. Jerry had his eyes glued on the film every minute. The part that inspired him the most was when the hero, the hacker, broke into a Russian computer. When that happened, Jerry managed to crack a smile and snicker for the first time since he as Anton had been arrested in Russia.
When the film was over, Steven expressed his curiosity for Jerry's behavior by asking him, "You really thought that was funny when he broke into the Russky computer?"
"Yes I did." Jerry spoke with a smile, "Could you teach me how to do that?"
"What? Are you crazy?"
"What I meant was ..... I want to learn computer science."
"Oh, (whew) but I thought you didn't like it."
"I think I need a new track on life. Maybe being able to create programs will do it. If it doesn't work out, at least I'll have a good knowledge of mathamatics."
"Well, if that's what you want, okay. In the meantime, let's watch another movie."
"Why not," Jerry rubbed his hands together in satisfaction, "I have plenty of time to learn."
Jerry had learned only the basics of computer programing up to now. Starting the next morning, he started to learn more. Over the weekend, he learned to make simple programs on Steven's computer. After that, he started to learn on his father's computer, making more detailed pro- grams.
About a month after Jerry had started to act out the American part of his plan, he decided to act out the Russian part. When one of the medical personnel came in (not the same one as the one who gave Anton the newspaper), Anton noticed that the look on the man's face suggested that he was in a somewhat good mood. Anton decided to make his move now.
"So what's been on your mind lately?" the man asked.
"I've been thinking," Anton responed, "about the United States and Russia."
The man looked at the clipboard he was holding, "According to this, you've expressed a re-evaluation of your political views in the past two visits."
"Perhaps I was brainwashed as you say. I'm not certain; I'm not really certain about much of anything now. I would like to appreciate the system, but I don't."
"But you would like to." The man took a pencil from the clipboard and wrote something down, "You were scheduled for tests today, but given what you told me, it will be postponed for a day or more." The man then noticed the newspaper lying under the bed, "What's that doing there?"
"One of the staff was nice enough to give it to me a few weeks ago. It was a good paper, except there's a page missing."
"Page missing? The printers always get the number of pages right." He went over, picked it up, and went through it. The page with the article on Anton's parents was missing, "Hmm. Apparently not this time." The man gave the paper back to Anton, and left the room.
Neatly tearing that page out and hiding it until an opportunity came about to put it into a garbage can wasn't that easy, Anton thought. He now felt confident about his plan going into action.