Mother Russia finally gets the children to sleep.
Truth be known, she'll be happy when Daziatnik rebuilds his own house and moves back in, because while she loves having little Michael with her, the girl, Natalie, favors her mother and is a real little bitch.
Quite hopeless, really, genetics being what they are.
Michael – Michael will be a little prince.
With some work.
But Natalie…
Mother Russia goes into the bathroom, brushes her teeth, scrubs her face, then takes a brush to her hair.
A hundred strokes, every morning and every night, and that is what will keep it beautiful and full, the way Daziatnik so admires it.
She finishes brushing it and stands back to admire her look in the mirror.
That's when she sees the man behind her.
It must be one of the new guards.
But the nerve, to come into her bedroom "What-" she starts to snap.
Then the man's hand is over her mouth.
A cloth over her nose.
Then blackness.