Getting Started
Yuri Petrov painstakingly checked every weapon in the guarded arsenal he had amassed over the past year. In the beginning, the head of Cassadine security personally checked the weapons once a week. As the specter of the asteroid grew closer, Petrov increased his examinations to every other day. It would not be long before even that changed into a daily routine.
The isolation of Spoon Island came a little earlier than the anticipated schedule. Information had been discovered that put the life of the Mistress in danger. It was generally agreed that the safest place for her was Wyndemere. If the information had not come from a reliable source, anyone hearing it might be tempted to be skeptical. It provided Stefan Cassadine a plausible reason to hasten a course of action for which he was already preparing. But when faced with the safety of his wife, there was no decision for the billionaire magnate to make.
After careful discussion, both Yuri and the Master agreed that the entire isolation timetable should be moved up. The possibility of such a scenario had of course been considered. As had many others. The endeavor they were attempting did not allow any room for lack of planning or miscalculation. Every scenario, no matter how implausible, was considered and prepared for.
Once the Master made the decision to escalate proceedings, he instructed Yuri to put the plan in motion that same day. Up until that moment most of the advance planning regarding the asteroid had been limited to Master Stefan and the team of experts he'd assembled. Still, Yuri had sat in on every meeting, every phone call. It was important that he have a complete picture as he made decisions impacting the security of those in his care.
Logistically it was no small decision to move the timeline up . The nuts and bolts of it all was pretty straightforward. Data was calculated and recalculated. Resources were adjusted to counter the ripple effects that would spread out across every aspect of their well-laid plans.
It was the human factor of their plans that had presented the most dangerous element. With a need for privacy even greater than anticipated, each move needed to be done with as little attention drawn as possible. Calls were placed to certain family and other individuals providing them with a date by which they should be present on Spoon Island. For most of those summoned, the decision to move up the timetable caused no major inconvenience . Almost all of them had been staying at various Cassadine holdings only moments away from Spoon Island. Others, like Princes Nikolas and Andresj', had long had their travel curtailed by their father.
The change in schedule presented Cassadine servants and employees with their first inkling of what the Master had put in place for them. He gathered them in the Great Hall and informed them that arrangements had been made to return them to their families in Greece and Russia. Travel would soon be impossible, even for a man with such wealth as he possessed. It was only his power and influence that had allowed them to wait this long to make the journey back to the homeland.
Most of those in the Great Hall assumed that the members of the Cassadine family would make a similar trip, albeit in finer accommodations. They would not question key members of the staff being left behind when the majority of servants traveled home. Someone, after all, was needed to serve the family's needs. Upon arriving home, the servants would be pulled aside and informed that the Cassadine family would not be traveling to Greece after all, but would instead remain at Wyndemere.
The Yuri had worked for Stefan Cassadine long enough to know that so impersonal a manner of imparting such vital information disturbed the man. It smacked of cowardice that he would not be the one to personally inform the servants of his decision. Still, Master Stefan had showed no reaction other than a fleeting frown to Yuri’s review of that part of the plan.
The thankless task of breaking the news to the servants would be entrusted to Iakovos Korosidis. Korosidis was one of the older Cassadine servants. At 73 years of age he was still healthy and fit, though the younger servants sometimes teased him as having been put out to pasture. The old guard accepted their taunts with good humor, content to savor the expressions on their faces as he easily manhandled them in combat training drills.
Korosidis’ fit condition had also caught the eye of the unmarried women of the town. At 20 he had married a bride promised to him since childhood, only to lose her in childbirth a year later. For over 40 years Iakovos chose to remain unmarried. Then at age 60 he took a young bride one third his age. She promptly gave him a son- the joy of his existence.
The boy’s chance for a future was the reward Master Stefan offered Iakovos in exchange for his silence and loyal service when the time came. Iakovos would keep the secret of the Cassadine’s upcoming survival attempt and in return, 13-year-old Theo Korosidis would have a place reserved among the extremely limited number of people attempting to survive the asteroid.
Iakovos accepted without hesitation. Even now young Theo was on a supply plane bound for a private air strip on the outskirts of Port Charles.
The teenager would discover his fate upon arrival at Spoon Island. Back in Greece, his mother would learn for the first time her son’s fate as well.Yuri did not envy Iakovos’ fate when that moment came. He understood the old guard’s decision. Yuri would have done the same. But it would not be easy news to break to his wife. Iakovos assured Master Stefan that after the initial shock his wife would be grateful for the choice her husband had made. Despite her age Iakovos had married her for her calm head and sensible thoughts. She would come around.
