John returned to the Embassy and told his superiors of his marriage to Galina. They were thunderstruck with John and Galina’s plan. They were appalled at the illegal action the couple had taken. John’s superiors were naturally concerned that this Russian woman was working for the USSR Secret Service—the KGB. The only logical thing to do was sever ties immediately. Biconish was put under house arrest, threatened with court marshal and immediately sent back to the United States. The young man’s short military career ended at that moment.
Galina tried to call him, but nobody answered the phone. She had just gotten married, John was gone, and facing this third disappointment in her young life, she felt like a widow. Her dream to go to America slipped away. She started to think she would not survive the disappointment, never see the free world, never breathe free. Galina never saw John again.
The next day, Andrei met a defeated Galina outside the doors of her apartment house.
“I cannot believe you did that without our permission. Did you forget that you just started to work for the internal secret service? You accepted the job, didn’t you?” He was extremely angry at her and confused by his desire to protect her, yet he did not wish to jeopardize his hope for promotion in the organization.
Galina began to show her frustration. She countered in a demanding voice, “What happened to John?”
Her tone puzzled Andrei. To his own surprise, his voice started to be softer. “He was sent home.” With anger returning to his voice he continued, “All because of you. The Americans were probably suspicious of you. What do we have now? We lost a valuable person of interest. You could be sentenced to life in prison. You’re supposed to be sent to some Siberian concentration camp. But you’re lucky, and you know why? You’re a beautiful girl and we need you. To bring a new girl to American House isn’t very smart now. Everybody there knows about your situation, they’ll feel sorry for you. You’ll go there as usual, be a little bit sad, play the role of the abandoned wife. He betrayed you; you didn’t betray him. There are still a couple of guys there who are of great interest to us. We’ll show them to you. It will be your new task to get acquainted with one of them, carry things further, and then we’ll see what will happen. I’ll see you tomorrow and show you a picture of an American we really want working for us.”
Galina was caught. The secret service was already angry but thankfully, they didn’t suspect that she wanted to leave the country. “If they knew that,” she thought, “I would be already dead.”
This was a turning point in Galina’s life that changed everything in her little world. She understood that the only way for her to survive would be to be obedient to these men. They were powerful and they could do with her life whatever they wished. She thought bitterly of an old Russian adage, “What God does is only for the better.” Was this better, what had happened to her and John?
“I will do everything possible for my family to be happy,” she thought. That was her moment of truth.
The next day Andrei invited her to walk in the nearby park where Galina loved to spend her free time when she was a little girl. He showed her a photograph of young man.
“Do you recognize him?” Andrei asked Galina. “He’s always at American House parties. I don’t think he’s a good dancer, but he’s always there. He’s a sergeant in the U.S. Army. His name is James Myron McMillin. He is of great interest to us. Do whatever you need to do, but we need proprietary information from him.”
Galina remembered him. Everybody at American House called him Jimmy, and he never missed the weekend parties. Andrei was right; Galina never saw him dancing or drinking alcohol. But Galina had noticed him. He drank Coca-Cola. He always stood in the corner, trying not to draw attention to himself. He swayed his head exactly to the beat of the music. He didn’t appeal to Galina—he had a poor complexion and black curly hair that was too long. He was skinny but strongly built; he looked like an athlete. Although she did not immediately think he was handsome, Galina liked his athletic appearance.
Andrei watched Galina carefully. “What are you thinking about? Do you remember him? He’s not a pretty one like many of the other Americans, but it doesn’t matter. Consider it your assignment. If everything goes smoothly, if you do your job well, it will change your life. Please, no more crazy stunts which could destroy your life and the lives of your relatives. You’re lucky that we can forget your stupid affair with Biconish.
“From now on you will report to me about everything that happens between you and this man, Jimmy. You must start to date him on a regular basis, every day. Take him to parks, museums, the circus—they all like the Moscow circus. Invite him to your apartment. Introduce him to your parents. Don’t tell him that your father is working for the secret service. I think he won’t like it.” Andrei grinned with a rather leering smile, yet his tone softened again.
“You can even stay in his room sometimes at American House. You see we let you do a lot of things. Do you job properly and everybody will be happy. Do you understand? We need this guy! Here is my phone number. If you have an emergency, call me immediately. I will talk to you later about your progress.” It gave him pleasure that he would be able to keep watch over Galina and gave Andrei a satisfaction that he didn’t quite understand himself.
As Andrei left, Galina resigned herself, careful not to show her fear and knowing that from now her every step would be watched by these men. She didn’t pay much attention to his phrase “if you do your job well, it will change your life.” Much later, Galina saw these words as a prophecy.
Chapter 3
James Myron McMillin, Jr. was born in a military family in February 1927 in the capitol of the United States, Washington, D.C. His father, James Myron Sr. was a career officer in the U.S. Army, graduate of West Point Academy. A year after James’ birth, his mother Everett had another child, his sister Patricia. It was a close family.
Discipline was a priority in the family but they had plenty of fun together as well. James remembered when he was four years old his dad taught him to play tennis, followed by basketball and then golf. That was the favorite game in the family. Every Sunday after church, everybody was on the golf course. They were disappointed when the weather didn’t cooperate for their Sunday game.
As McMillin Sr. was in the Army, the family was constantly on the move. James Jr.—everybody in his family called him Jimmy—started elementary school in Washington, continued in San Francisco, then San Diego, Honolulu, and the last year of high school in Boulder, Colorado. Their favorite move was to Honolulu. When his dad received his appointment there in 1939, the whole family was excited about it. At that time Hawaii wasn’t a state but it had the largest American military base. It was a big privilege for those in the military to serve there.
“The weather there is perfect almost all year,” Jimmy told his parents nearly every day when he found out they were moving to Pearl Harbor. “We can play golf every day and the weather won’t interfere with our game.” His young heart couldn’t imagine anything more disruptive than that.
At the end of 1941, James Sr. was made Colonel. He and Everett listened to the news on the radio with concern. The situation in the world was ugly with war in Europe; the Germans occupied almost half of the continent and were now close to the Russian capitol. America was in coalition with England and Russia, and was sending food and ammunition to their partners. But there was also Japan, who had close ties with Nazi Germany, and who wanted to control the whole of East Asia. Japanese troops already controlled almost every country in the region. Col. McMillin heard on the radio that President Roosevelt had appealed to the Emperor of Japan for peace. There was no reply.
Col. McMillin thought that probably war was imminent, but his
