by Jade White
Sonja stepped out of the room, wrapped in Russell’s black silk bathrobe. “Wow, this looks delicious.” She marvelled as she stared at the plate.
“Thanks, it was something quick and easy. I didn’t want to cook anything with meat because it takes a while and I felt you were really hungry right now.” He didn’t want to tell her that he avoided all kinds of meat except fish to keep his instincts in check, but that would l come with time, he hoped. He couldn’t risk any taste of blood crossing his lips or else the transformation will take hold. “To be honest, I don’t eat much in the way of meat. It doesn’t sit well with me, in my stomach, I mean. I don’t know why but I’ve always had a hard time digesting it.” He lied smoothly.
Sonja dug in to the delicious looking pasta dish. “That’s fine. Just don’t keep me from eating a huge bacon cheeseburger every so often and we’ll be okay.” She replied before taking a bite.
“That won’t be a problem.” Russell chuckled as he dug into his food.
“This is delicious.” She raved. “I mean really delicious.” It reminded her of a fresh dish she had when she was in Sicily on an assignment. “I had something like this once, but it had steamed mussels in it and some crushed garlic.”
Russell nodded as he chewed. “That’s how I usually make it.” He said after he swallowed. “But I didn’t have the chance to hit the market today. I figure this was good without it.”
Sonja nodded. “It is, it really is. It doesn’t even need the mussels, it’s that good.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Russell replied. He looked over at his laptop and noticed a notification flashing in the corner of the screen. He decided to ignore it for the time being and eat his dinner in peace.
The pair ate silently through the rest of their dinner. Once they were finished, Russell got up and gathered the dishes. Sonja stopped him. “I’ll clean up. You already cooked. You need to see what that thing is on your computer, anyway.”
“Thanks.” He she placed his dish in the sink and hurried off to his couch. Russell sat down at the couch and clicked the icon.
ATTENTION MAJOR KAHN: COL BANKES DEMANDS YOUR PRESENCE AT 0800HRS TOMORROW MORNING. SAME OFFICE.
Russell placed his head in his hands and groaned. “My boss needs to see me tomorrow morning. I don’t know why, but I’m on vacation, for fuck sakes, why can’t he just leave me to it?”
“Because bosses can be dicks sometimes.” Sonja replied as she rinsed off a plate. “I don’t see the harm in it, go on in. See what he wants and come back. I can stay here.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Russell sighed. “Anyway, when I’m in the city, I’ll go scare up some paperwork for you to start your immigration process, might as well get it all done as soon as possible.”
“Da, that sounds great.” She replied enthusiastically.
“Alright.” He yawned. He looked at the clock and noticed it was nearing nine in the evening. “I don’t usually go to bed this early, but man I’m exhausted.”
“Same here, I’ll finish this up and we can go to bed.” She said as she placed the Pyrex bowl in the dish rack to dry.
“You’re going to sleep with me?” he asked. “I was just going to sleep on the futon and let you have the bed until you got more comfortable.”
“I’m plenty comfortable, darling.” She said. “If I wasn’t, we wouldn’t have had sex a while ago, now would we?”
“True.” Russell replied getting up and closing his laptop. “Let’s hit the hay, I’m exhausted, and you’re probably even worse. At least you waited until a proper bed time, best way to get over jetlag.”
“Exactly.” She replied as she turned towards the bedroom door.
He smiled and turned the knob and opened the bedroom door. He picked the pillows off of the ground and put them back on the bed. He fixed the covers as best as he could, pushed the button at the base of his skull four times to give him an adequate dose to keep him from transforming in his sleep due to a nightmare and scaring the shit out of Sonja.
Sonja noticed this and arched an eyebrow but said nothing as she removed the robe and crawled into bed. She was amazed by the softness of the mattress and the fine thread count of the luxurious sheets.
Russell walked over, flipped the AC unit in the window on and climbed into the other side of the bed. He rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes. “By the way, if you wake up and see anything odd, don’t panic okay?” he asked.
“Okay...” Sonja replied skeptically, “I’ll try.”
“I just sleepwalk.” He explained quickly.
“Oh, okay.” She replied rolling over to look at the steady green light that was part of the implant at the base of Russell’s skull. She examined it without touching, so as not to alert him. In the dim light, she could see the silver metallic star that was in his skin, and there were small vials in a small window in each branch. There was a green light in the middle of the star and she wondered what it signified. For some odd reason, he didn’t seem too troubled about Sonja seeing the device.
“Can I ask you something?” She said.
“Mmm?” Russell replied at the edge of sleep.
“What is that thing on your neck?”
“Oh, that’s my medicine. The Navy decided to try something new on me, to keep us going better in the field. If it’s green it means everything is okay and you don’t have to worry about it.” He explained.
Sonja nodded and rolled back over. She had heard of the KGB doing similar experiments on Russian soldiers. Some of the experiments were none too kind, either. She even heard rumors that the KGB were kidnapping poor women from the Crimea, Georgia and Chechnya to impregnate with genetically modified fetuses, and some of the babies survived, the rumors say. The KGB was full of rumors, and no one except for the chief intelligence officer knew which ones were true, and which ones were lies. She couldn’t wait to get out of that life. With that thought, she closed her eyes, heaved a big sigh, and tried to get some sleep.
*
Russell angrily sped his black sports car around the twisty roads to the city. He was seething that his boss wanted to talk to him again, twice in four days, during his leave. The light on the back of his neck slowly blinked red as he tried to reign in his fury so he wouldn’t change into his tiger shape.
He pulled into the parking lot and stormed into the office building. He shoved open the door to the colonel’s personal office and sat down in one of the seats provided. He pointedly ignored the secretary as his temper rose. The light began to blink more rapidly as he was made to wait.
The secretary noticed this and picked up the phone to page Colonel Bankes to hurry up, politely as possible.
Colonel Bankes opened the door to his office. “Major Kahn, come on in.” He said quickly.
Russell stalked into the office, slamming the door behind him. “With all due respect, sir,” he began. “I am on leave. I was enjoying the company of a beautiful woman and was going to show her the sights. Why have you asked me to come back?”
“Because, I believe the woman you picked up at the airport is a Russian spy. Well, she was a KGB agent, but our sources have told us she wants to defect. Now, you should always tell me when you go and pick up strange women from the airport.” The colonel stared at the younger man. “You aren’t to let on you know. Keep stringing her along until she gets her goal. Once we have the intel she brought here, we will bring her into custody and send her back to the Russian authorities to be dealt with.”
“Wait, why would you do that?” Russell asked.
“Because, Russia is our ally. Remember, you went and mauled that Ukrainian diplomat to death? Yeah, Russia wants the Crimea; we are going to facilitate that. If it keeps the Cold War from rearing its ugly head again, I’m all for it. All the top ranking generals in Washington agree with me.” Bankes turned his monitor around for Russell to see what was displayed.
“Sonja Fedorenko. She was really born in Pripyat, like her dating profile said. She was exposed to the radiation whe
n Chernobyl blew, but instead of causing harmful mutations, she acquired slightly enhanced endurance, strength and speed. She is deadly. The KGB kept tabs on all the children from that disaster, to monitor for any positive exceptional developments. There were more cancers than positive mutations, though, but those who displayed gifts, were quickly scooped up. Ironically, all of them were female children. Her brothers died of malignant Leukemia.”
Russell couldn’t believe what his CO told him. “So, this means what?”
“You, my friend, are boning the super-est super spy in all of Russia. You haven’t told her about your background, have you?”
“No, she asked about the implant but dropped it when I told her it was for enhancing medication.”
“Not surprised. The KGB performed experiments similar to our own, with the same success rate. She would have known exactly what it was for. You don’t have to tell her what animal your genes were spliced with. She’ll find out soon enough.”
Russell stood expressionless as the Colonel briefed him on his mission – and that’s exactly what it was, another mission. “So, you want me to babysit her, lead her on thinking she has reached freedom, and then take her to Russia to turn her in?”
“Exactly. It seems that she trusts you.” Bankes replied.
“You know, I’m getting really sick and tired of you spying on my personal life.” Russell snapped.
“Well what is a concerned father to do?” Colonel Bankes said patronizingly as he spread his hands in mock innocence. “In this matter, I thought it was pretty important because of the national security risk you took by bringing her into the country.”
“Wait she flew here on her own, I just met her at the airport.” He snapped back.
“Oh potato, potahto. You made contact, you kept contact, and you are definitely maintaining very intimate contact. The CIA are about to get involved with this and we can’t let those monkeys anywhere near this mess, do you hear me? Now, go to the Med Unit, get more Adrenal suppressant ampoules and go home to your...wife.” Bankes almost snickered the word out. “I’ll send an encrypted message when it’s time for you two to part ways.”
“Understood, sir.” Russell growled as he left the office. He wasn’t surprised that Bakes was spying on him. He was still an above top-secret military experiment after all. He was fortunate he was allowed to be independent as he was, all things considered.
He stalked to the med lab and swiped his key card. The woman at the supply desk smiled as she handed Russell a small cardboard box filled with glass ampoules full of green liquid. “I’m going to need at least three more.” He said to her. “I have a lady friend over and we’ve really hit it off, if you know what I mean.” He said with a wink.
The receptionist smiled and went to the back to fill his request. She came back with five boxes in her arms. “Here you go, a few extra, just in case.” She said with a broad grin.
Russell thanked the blonde woman and walked out with his medication. He looked at the amount of boxes he had and smiled. He probably could run off if he wanted to. There was only one problem and that was the small GPS transceiver in his implant that Bankes used to keep track of his every movement.
He would figure that out later. Now was the time for transparency between Sonja and himself.
CHAPTER THREE
Russell silently opened the door and crept inside the house. He didn’t want to alert Sonja to his presence just yet. He peeked over the breakfast bar into the living room, to find her sitting on the futon, flicking through the channels on his television.
He quietly padded to his bedroom to place the boxes of adrenal suppressants in his bag and left the room.
Russell sat down next to Sonja and gently took the remote from her. “We really need to talk about something.” He said softly.
“Oh?” Sonja said without losing her cool. She was good, he thought.
He looked around and found a piece of paper. “I need to write this by hand, it’ll take a while, but please be patient.” He explained
“Well let’s see, my CO wanted to meet with me because he knows what I do and where I go at all times. He knew I picked you up from the airport and he did some digging.” He paused for a reaction and saw anxiety creep into her eyes for just a moment, and disappear just as fast. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you my secret first anyway, I’m a splicer, for lack of a better term. My mother was a member of the Dalit class in India, an untouchable. The CIA kidnapped her off the streets of New Delhi and brought her to America. They removed her eggs as they matured and spliced them with tiger DNA. They forcibly impregnated her and out of all her pregnancies, I was the only one that was successful. They did it to other women, but none of their babies survived. I was raised in a secret military bunker by high-ranking officers. The implant is to keep track of me, and it also listens in to anything I say, that’s why I’m hand writing this. My computer has a key logger on it, so I can’t type it either. That’s my secret, what’s yours?”
Sonja looked at him and looked back at the paper. She took the pen from his hand and scrawled a note of her own. “He told you I was a KGB agent wanting to defect, didn’t he?”
Russell nodded.
“It’s true. I found out that Russia wants to take over the Ukraine again for their oil reserves. They also want to destroy everyone living in the country that is not loyal to the new regime. Gulags are being reopened in Siberia. Ukrainians, Roma, and Muslim people will all be loaded on train cars and sent to those camps for either re-education, scientific experimentation or euthanization. Those who are loyal to Russia, stay in the Ukraine to work the oil fields and the docks on the black sea to wherever it needs to go. There is even a rumor of a pipeline from Afghanistan through all the smaller territories, ending in the Ukraine to tap their natural gas reserves to sell to the rest of Europe and Asia for a hefty mark up. China has stake in it as well.” She scrawled. “It’s all on a micro SD card I have in my bag. I need to get to one of your officials with this information.”
Russell flipped the paper over and grabbed the pen. “I hate to break it to you, but the US Government has decided to help the Russians with this. Once they get that SD card, they will destroy it and send you back to Russia to be dealt with. We’ll need to get out of here before the colonel clues in. Hey moan a little; pretend to be having sex with me...they can hear everything and long periods of silence will set them off.”
Sonja nodded and began moaning and panting as if she was getting turned on. Russell grinned at the she put on a hot audio show. “Oh man your tongue feels soooo good, keep going...” she panted.
“Since Russia, China and the US are in cahoots we have nowhere safe to really go when we flee the country.” Russell wrote.
Sonja took the pen from him, “You turn, grunt and growl and stuff.” She instructed and he followed suit, moaning and panting for his unseen audience. “There are a few neutral countries, mostly in the EU, Germany, France and the UK do not want this deal to go through. They might be our allies but the humanitarian catastrophe that is about to happen reminded them of World War 2 and they did not want that happening again. Japan is also against this for the fact that China is involved. They are about to throw their treaty with the USA under the bus because of this, even some countries in South America would be willing to take us, I know Brazil would be a nice place, and they don’t have an extradition treaty with either Russia or the USA.”
Russell took his turn with the pen. “The airport is going to be monitored now. We’ll need to figure out a way to get off the Island and somewhere safe.”
“This place is rather badly situated. I think our best bet is to find a sail boat and get out of here under the cover of darkness. We can sail to the mainland and get a private small air craft to Brazil.”
“Or we can just steal a small aircraft from one of the air fields located on one of the smaller islands and fly to the mainland, fuel up and once we’re out of US Airspace we’re home free.” Russell replied on paper.
“That is a much better idea. We still need a boat, though.” Sonja replied underneath his message.
“I’ve got one, I can get rid of its GPS no problem, but we do have one other GPS we need to deal with.” Russell wrote down.
“The one in your implant.” Sonja said. They both kept breathing heavily and moaning sporadically to confuse the person listening into their lives. “Luckily they can’t see through your eyes.”
“Nope, I have that going for me, at least.” Russell smirked.
“I think I can do something about that, hang on.” Sonja recalled that a Chinese tech firm made the implants for the Russian splicer program, and wouldn’t be surprised if they did for the American one as well, since the tech was so unique. She remembered needing to go into the lab for some reason and saw the schematic. She made a really loud moan like she was climaxing and went to her duffel bag and pulled out a small tool kit. She went back to the futon and sat behind Russell as he scooted forward. “Oh man your cock feels so good in me.” She said out loud while she tinkered with the implant. “Mmm give it to me harder...oh yes.” She breathed.
Sonja pried off the small LED light bulb from the apparatus and saw the two things she was looking for. It was exactly the same as the Russian design. She saw a small speaker type thing, which was the microphone, and an RFID microchip. “Hmm if you keep this up I’m gonna dig my nails in and hurt you.” She said. The code wasn’t lost on him and he braced himself for the pain.
She grabbed a small flathead screwdriver and popped it under the microphone first and popped it out. Russell winced at the sharp pain that accompanied it. She then snipped the wires attached to the black button-like object and pried out the GPS chip. “This one is gonna hurt the most.” She explained.
Russell cried out as agony seared through his brain as she delicately pried the chip out of his implant. “Hurry up, just get it out of there.” He growled through gritted teeth. She noticed the hair on his back was growing longer and his muscles were rippling under his skin as his body transformed due to the agony.