by D. L. Line
“Well, maybe. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve been accused of that.”
“Why does this not surprise me?”
Shelby shrugged. “Considering everything else that’s happened since you found me yesterday, I think it only makes sense you would think I was crazy. I mean, I’m supposed to be this big, badass CIA courier, and it turns out I can’t shoot a gun, and let’s not forget about the fainting at the sight of bullet holes thing. I’d be surprised if you thought anything else.”
“Da, that makes much sense to me.” Tasha continued to stare, until she seemed to come to a decision to let it all go. “So, Shelby Hutchinson, are you ready to show me what you are able to do?”
“Um, sure.” Shelby wasn’t certain she was ready to display the true depth of her ineptitude to Tasha, but hey, no time like the present. “What should I do?”
“Hit me,” Tasha said as she motioned toward her own face with her hands.
“What?” Shelby couldn’t believe her ears.
“You heard me, Shelby Hutchinson. I want you to try to hit me.”
“But I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I am fine. Please, you try.”
“Well, okay…” Shelby balled up her fists and struck the closest approximation of a boxing pose she could manage. Still, she wasn’t certain about throwing a punch for real, so she dropped her hands to her sides. “Are you sure?”
“Da, is time to stop with fooling around.”
“Okay, if that’s what you want.” Shelby danced around a little while she pulled her fists up for the second time, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and swung as hard as she could. Not surprisingly, she met with nothing but air as Tasha neatly dodged the blow. With no way to stop her forward momentum, Shelby spun around like a top and tripped over her own feet, landing on her butt on the mat-covered floor with a dull “oof.”
As Shelby tried to scrape together what was left of her pride, she looked up to see that Tasha was biting her own lip, in what Shelby could only assume was an attempt not to laugh. Tasha held a hand out to help her up. “That was, how do you say, smooth.”
Shelby accepted the assistance. “Well, yeah. Sorry, that was pretty lame. I suppose you aren’t terribly surprised to find out I’m a huge spaz in addition to being a lousy courier.”
“It’s okay, Shelby Hutchinson. It’s only your first try. You will do better next time. Try again, but keep your eyes open this time.”
“Okay.” Shelby got back into her boxing stance and prepared to swing again. The results were much the same as she swung and missed, only this time she managed to avoid landing hard on the floor when Tasha caught her around the middle and held her up. Despite the fact she was starting to feel like a complete idiot, Shelby couldn’t help but notice how strong Tasha was. The well-muscled arms around her waist, holding her from behind felt awfully good. Maybe a little too good, since Shelby found she wasn’t in any hurry to extricate herself from the embrace.
It didn’t appear as if Tasha was in any hurry to let her go either. “Shelby Hutchinson, I think you are not paying attention to the fight.”
Shelby held the arms against her, trying to make it look like she needed more help. It was obvious she needed more help, but thoughts of learning to fight were quickly slipping away with the last shards of Shelby’s shattered dignity. She nodded while she struggled to come up with something witty to say. Hell, anything to say was better than just standing there, but the warm body wrapped around her back was playing havoc with her senses. She closed her eyes against the barrage of feelings. “Yeah, I’m having a little trouble here, um…concentrating.”
“Da, I noticed that.”
Shelby could swear she detected a bit of reluctance once Tasha finally did let her go, turning her around to take her by the upper arms. “Shelby Hutchinson, this is important. There are people, many people, who wish to keep you from your task and will stop at nothing to do so. I am afraid for you.”
Shelby found that as much as she wanted this attention, it was proving to be more than a little overwhelming. She let her gaze drift to the floor. “I know, Tasha. I get that. It’s just…”
“It’s just what?”
“It’s just…well…never mind.” Shelby pulled herself together as she waved off Tasha’s concerned look. She squared her shoulders, straightened out her tank top, and dug deep to find some resolve to continue. “Let’s try this again, but maybe you could show me something else besides the spin-around-and-fall-on-my-ass-like-a-dork maneuver.”
From the set of Tasha’s jaw and the look in her eye, Shelby could see that she was thinking, trying to come up with a new idea. “Do you know about a Japanese fighting technique called aikido?” Shelby shook her head. “It’s a kind of fighting that uses the attacker’s own, what is the word…movement against them.”
“How about if you just show me?”
“Okay, this I can do. You come at me slowly.” Tasha encouraged Shelby to move, gesturing toward herself with both hands. Shelby did as instructed, coming in low and slow. Rather than try to stop her, Tasha pushed, directing Shelby’s momentum to the side, forcing her to pass by harmlessly. The huge math and physics geek inside Shelby got the point immediately.
“Oh, I get it. It’s the redirection of inertia.” Tasha screwed up her face as though she didn’t understand. “It’s like this. Inertia is the principle wherein an object in motion tends to remain in motion until acted upon by an outside force. You’re teaching me to be the outside force. That is so cool!”
“Da, that is exactly what I am showing you. Try again, only faster.”
“All right.” Shelby had a newfound sense of confidence. She lowered her head, charged, and immediately found herself airborne, feet up and head down, right before she landed flat on her back. From her spot on the floor, Shelby tried to catch the breath that had just been knocked from her. “Wow, I didn’t see that one coming.” Tasha reached down to give Shelby a helping hand up.
“Are you okay, Shelby Hutchinson?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Shelby accepted the assistance, pulled herself to her feet, dusted off her sweatpants, and glared at Tasha. “How about a little warning next time, okay?”
“I am sorry, but you must learn, and sometimes it’s necessary to do the, how do you say, hard way. You try now, okay?”
Shelby was mollified, at least for the moment. “Okay. I’m ready.”
Tasha lowered her head and charged with a roar. Shelby yelped in response and at the appropriate moment, shoved with all her might, knocking Tasha off course and off her feet at the same time. As she tumbled all the way over and popped up on her feet, Tasha smiled and nodded her head. “Da, Shelby Hutchinson. That is the right idea.”
“That was so cool! Can we try again?”
“Da, we will do that again, many times.” With no additional warning, she charged again, and Shelby responded. And again, like promised, many more times. Just for good measure, Tasha switched it up and had Shelby charge, demonstrating how force plus leverage equals one bad guy flying through the air to land on his ass. Shelby was elated. Every time she managed to get Tasha airborne, Shelby would squeal with delight, until one mistimed application of leverage sent Tasha out of control to land hard on the mat.
“Oh, shit, Tasha. Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean, I mean I thought, well, I didn’t think, I just did, and you were all wonky with the half-gainer and all. I’m so sorry…”
“It’s not a big deal. It’s like, how do you say, shit is happening.”
“Shit happens,” Shelby said as she went over to offer a hand up from the mat. Tasha accepted the hand, but instead of pulling herself up, she pulled Shelby down to her. Before she even knew what hit her, Shelby was on her back on the floor, pinned to the mat by Tasha, who was now straddling Shelby’s midsection with knees on either side of her waist. “What the…?”
“Ah, Shelby Hutchinson. When you knock a bad guy on his butt, run away.” Shelby nodded, wide-eyed, as T
asha leaned forward to pin her hands to the mat on either side of her head. “You must always run away, okay?”
“What if I don’t want to run away?” Shelby decided she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Tasha leaned forward and Shelby could feel her smooth tummy through the fabric of her shirt, the delicious pressure as Tasha’s breasts flattened against her own.
Shelby felt breath, mere inches from her mouth, and heard Tasha say, “Are you sure you should not be running away now, Shelby Hutchinson?”
Shelby shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.” Shelby felt the distance close between her mouth and those lovely Russian lips. She licked her own lips in preparation, but got nothing but a loud noise as the front door of the studio burst open and a deep male voice called out.
“Natasha?”
“Oh shit.”
Tasha mouthed a single word in Russian that Shelby guessed meant something similar to what she had just said. “Who is that?” she asked.
“Shh.” Tasha released one of Shelby’s hands to cover her mouth. “It’s Boris. Shit.”
Since she wasn’t able to speak, Shelby stared back, scared half to death, wondering what the hell was going on.
But Tasha had a plan. “Stay low. Go to the changing room. Lock the door and wait for me. I will knock three times when the coast is clear, okay?”
Shelby nodded, too panicked to offer much else, and rolled onto her knees to crawl back toward the changing room. Once there, she closed the door, cringing against the click of the latch as she slid the bolt to lock the door. From the safety of the changing room, Shelby blew out a long breath and dropped to the floor with her back against the wall. She hugged her knees close, struggled to control her breathing to keep from hyperventilating, and waited for Tasha to knock.
Chapter Four
Shelby wasn’t sure how long she sat curled up on the floor in the changing room. It could have been hours as far as she knew, but she didn’t have a watch, so it remained a mystery. After what seemed like an unusually long time, Shelby startled to the sound of three soft raps on the door. She jumped up, unlocked the door, and pulled it open, hiding behind it as Tasha pushed her way into the room.
“Are you okay, Shelby Hutchinson?” Shelby nodded as Tasha closed the door behind her. “Good. We have only a few minutes. I told Comrade Boris I needed to use the bathroom, so he is still here. We have to get you out of here.”
“What? Leave? Why? Tasha, what the hell is going on?” The last thing Shelby wanted at this point was to be separated from Tasha. Especially considering Tasha had been about one breath away from kissing her when Boris showed up. Talk about lousy timing.
Tasha didn’t budge. “I will tell you everything, but it must be later. Right now, you need to head back to the apartment. Go out the window, down the alley, and out to big street. There you will be able to find a taxicab. Tell the driver to take you to Einundsechzig, that is sixty-one in English, Libauer Strasse. I will meet you there soon. Can you remember this?”
Shelby nodded her understanding. Leaving was not her first choice, but she also knew, deep down, she didn’t have much of an option. Tasha stopped her as Shelby picked up her new jacket. “Wait, I have a gun and holster for you.” She pulled out a medium-sized handgun, wrapped in a holster and shoulder straps, from her black nylon bag. Tasha helped Shelby into the rig, showed her where the extra magazines were located, and began to give her the seriously condensed version of Soviet pistol training.
“This is a Makarov PM.” Tasha held the weapon out for Shelby to see.
Shelby immediately recognized the semiautomatic handgun from her video game back home. “Yeah, I know. It’s the standard-issue sidearm for the Soviet Red Army.” A look of disbelief crossed Tasha’s face. “What? I’m not a total idiot. I do know some things, you know.”
“Of course. I am sorry.” Shelby could hear the sincerity in Tasha’s voice, but it was gone quickly, replaced by a military-style detachment. “Anyway, this button releases the magazine.” Tasha demonstrated, pulling the magazine free of the gun. “So you can see it’s also loaded. Slide it in, like this.” She locked the magazine in place with the palm of her hand. “It has double action, so you can keep it in the holster, and it’s always ready to shoot. Point the gun away from you. Pull the trigger. The gun goes bang and the bad guy goes down.” She handed over the Makarov. “Do you understand, Shelby Hutchinson?”
“Yes, I understand.” Shelby slid the weapon back into its new home under her left arm and snapped the strap closed to keep it secure. “Taxi to Einundsechzig Libauer Strasse. You’ll meet me there soon. Makarov PM. Don’t shoot myself in the foot. Got it.”
Tasha helped Shelby shrug into her leather jacket. “Also, keep your jacket zipped to cover the Makarov.” She dug in her pockets and pulled out a key, which she handed to Shelby. “Here is the key for the apartment. I will knock three times again. Now go, Shelby Hutchinson, and please be careful, yes?”
“Hey, it’s me,” Shelby said with a weak grin.
“That is why I am worried.”
“Smart ass.” Shelby turned to grab her bags and climb out the window. “You be careful too, please.”
“I am always careful, Shelby Hutchinson.”
Shelby felt hands on her butt pushing her headfirst out the window and into the adjacent alley. Once back on her feet, she turned right, as instructed, and trotted out toward the bigger street and the safety of a taxi. One whistle and a friendly wave later and Shelby had a ride. The driver asked her destination and she quoted back, “Einundsechzig Libauer Strasse, please…I mean bitte.”
The driver confirmed the order with a nod and pulled slowly into traffic. Shelby finally had a couple of seconds to think, which was good because she had lots of things to think about. Russians named Boris and Natasha, one very mysterious and one with a truly fine ass, although no less mysterious. She could only shake her head and wonder what was going on with Tasha. Enigmatic promises of “later” to Shelby’s questions were proving to be more than a little disconcerting, but Shelby couldn’t deny her attraction to the cryptic, yet drop-dead gorgeous Tasha.
Shelby had to laugh to herself. Maybe “drop-dead” wasn’t a great choice of words, considering the guns and the motorcycles and the grenade launcher. She also had to consider who was attracted to whom. The near kiss, after all, hadn’t been Shelby’s idea, now, had it? And what about Tasha’s invisible comrades? Heavily armed martial arts studio owners, and who knew what else besides the mystery comrade named Boris who had shown up looking for Tasha. Shelby was puzzled, especially considering the fact only an hour or so earlier, Tasha had growled at Boris and hung up the phone on him.
Yep, Shelby was puzzled all right. But she was also hungry. A shining pair of Golden Arches drew Shelby’s attention. Wow, she hadn’t been in or even seen a McDonald’s since she was a little kid in 2021 when the World Health Organization shut down every last one of the fast food chain’s establishments shortly after declaring them to be a public health hazard.
Shelby didn’t care. She wanted a Big Mac.
The cab driver parked by the curb and waited while Shelby ran inside. Five minutes later, she was back in the cab clutching a bright white bag of nutritionally bereft joy and a Coke in a cup the size of a small wastebasket. Ten minutes after that, Shelby was standing in the middle of Libauer Strasse, watching the cab’s taillights as they disappeared around the corner. She wanted to laugh as she looked down at the image she presented—shopping and food bags in one hand, monster drink in the other, and someone else’s Makarov, loaded and stowed under her brand-new leather jacket. Lots of changes in a couple of days, and Shelby was a little overwhelmed. Food and a bit of rest would fix that, so she made her way up to the apartment. There was a television in the living room and she turned it on for some mindless company, then sat cross-legged on the bed to eat.
That’s where she was, two and a half hours later, struggling to watch classic Star Trek dubbed in Germa
n, when she heard three light taps on the door. Shelby bounded from the bed to unlock and open the door and Tasha pushed her way into the small apartment.
“Oh good, Shelby Hutchinson, you are safe. I was concerned.”
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“Nyet, all is okay.” Tasha set her black nylon bag on the dresser, looked around the room, and shrugged out of her jacket. “Is the grenade launcher also okay?”
Shelby hadn’t even thought to check on the condition of the grenade launcher, so she pulled out her duffel bag and discovered quickly all was well there too. She breathed out a sigh of relief and noted a noise behind her that sounded as though Tasha had reacted the same way.
Shelby stood to face her. “Tasha, what’s going on?”
“What? Everything is okay.” Tasha looked away to toss her jacket onto a nearby chair.
There it was again. No real answer to her question, so Shelby pushed a little harder. “No, that’s not what I meant. I know we’re supposed to take the grenade launcher somewhere else, but you’re being all cagey Russian agent, or whatever the heck you are, and then there’s the angry phone call, Boris shows up, and you’re all with the shoving my skinny butt out the window. What gives, Tasha?”
“Gives? I am not giving anything.”
“No, no. Sorry. It’s just another expression that means I don’t understand what we’re doing here. Every time I ask you what’s going on, you promise to tell me later. Well, it’s later, and I want to know what we’re doing here.”
Shelby could see Tasha was getting frustrated as well. “Shelby Hutchinson, you were also not being truthful with me. You say you are a courier, and you are here with the prototype grenade launcher, but you have no weapons, no help, no plan.” Tasha ticked off the points with her fingers. “What is it you want me to believe?”
Shelby had no idea how to answer that question. Any nonsense she could cook up about being an adventure seeker from the future wasn’t going to fly. Add to that the fact she was out of her element and trying to pretend to be something she wasn’t left her with a huge problem. Shelby was screwed and had no choice but to try to convince Tasha to blindly trust her.