Checkmate: Kseniya and Zhenya do the CIA

“Karpov only won the game

by kicking Kasparov under the table

and psyching him out,” Kseniya opines.

“But Kasparov was beaten

by that big blue computer,’ Zhenya retorts.

“Amerikanski computer beat Kasparov,

Karpov beat Kasparov with psychological

kick. Therefore, Karpov beat Yankee computer

too, QED. With just psychology, kick, trick,

we beat military hegemony,

leap-frog , like dear leader Tweedle-Dee

do now over cybertech prowess.”

Zhenya moves a queen in and

Kseniya has run out of moves. Quietly,

Kseniya turns her King prone down on the board.

*

Zhenya has a thing for guys in uniform

she hopes doesn’t show.

Kseniya is all over the crew-cut

middle-aged man-child,

“I just love your apple-pie looks,

your starched khaki kit, your stern

hypocrisy, your family values, your guns

and old-time religion, and your sweet

teasing idea of a kiss.” She crawls

up onto the desk brushing the confidential

dossiers aside and kisses soldier on the lips.

“Miss, we don’t do things like that here,”

Soldier sternly replies.

Zhenya is shrouded in a hoodie and shivering

alarmingly. “Is she alright?” soldier-boy

asks Kseniya into her dewy blank soulless empty eyes.

“Do you have any drugs here?” Zhenya

starts up and asks bluntly with a banal

yet pleading look.

*

Kseniya throws herself

into the arms of soldier boy

in a sudden burst of joy and relief.

“Game’s over,” soldier boy replies,

“Where’s the thumb-drive?”

Zhenya stuffs a stubby-fingered hand

into her panties and pulls it out.

“Here you are, Sir,” she smiles,

methadone running through her veins.

Soldier-boy cannot resist the question.

“No. I just piss on him. Watch the video,

Soldier-boy,” Kseniya smiles back at him,

as she wipes a little dribble from Zhenya’s

mouth and puts her mouth

to Zhenya’s ear. “Job done,” she whispers into it.

“Now it’s our turn to have some fun.”

*

“Your name really is Soldier,” Kseniya cries out

as she glances at his neatly laid out

credentials on the bedside table beside.