5. 5
I was able to sleep for a few hours with Elias, but eventually had to go back to my own seat. It simply wasn’t comfortable. He resigned to reading a book I’d recommended for the rest of the flight, checking in with me periodically.
Our layover was in Dubai, for two hours, and because we had been fed so well on the plane, we just snuck off to one of the lounges and stretched out until it was time to board our next flight.
While nowhere near as fancy as our first plane, it was still very nice.
The first-class seats were more like cubicles, and we had adjoining seats in the middle row.
There was a partition that separated us, so we lowered that and watched movies together on the small screen, napping when we could.
We landed in Moscow, and our luggage arrived safe and sound, too.
We made it through customs without being abducted and taken into custody, and Elias relaxed quickly after that.
Things were a tad more complicated at this point and we had to stop by the U.S.
Embassy, pick up Elias’s weapons, then head back to the airport.
Security was different here, now that we were acting as diplomats, rather than just people traveling, and we were able to check Elias’s guns, along with our suitcases, again. We were escorted to a much smaller plane that would eventually land in Norilsk.
After we reached Norilsk, I was completely spent.
I was ready to never have to make that trip again, and even though we weren’t leaving the next day, I was already dreading the journey home.
Elias shared a similar sentiment, and while he didn’t say as much, his speech was very plain, and he didn’t make a single joke the rest of the way.
The last leg of our journey was in a snowcat, and as I stepped up into the cab I knew that we were getting close, but it didn’t move very quickly, so it was still over two hours before we reached the outpost. I rested my head on Elias’s shoulder, staring out the window into the white wasteland and waited.
A long brown building sat on stilts ahead of us, and small windows were situated near the roof, lining the structure.
In colder regions of the world, I knew that buildings were lifted off the ground to avoid melting the permafrost underneath them, so I wasn’t surprised to see it raised, but it was an interesting sight.
The driver hopped out of the cab, opening the door for us. Elias exited first, and I handed our luggage to him before he helped me down. He exchanged pleasantries with the driver in Russian, and then we were left alone.
Wind whipping at our faces, the air threatening to blow our luggage away, we jogged through the deep snow to the steps leading up to the building. We blew through the first set of doors and waited until they closed before we turned to face each other.
We spoke at the same time.
“It’s too fucking cold–”
“You speak Russian?”
We tried to answer each other at the same time, too.
“You’re not going to be able to take your morning–”
“Just basic stuff like–”
Elias shook his head, laughing. “You go first.”
“I was thinking that you’re not going to be able to take your morning jogs,” I said.
“Definitely not, but I’m sure they have some gym equipment, even if a bunch of nerds live here,” he said, bumping me with his elbow.
“Rude.”
“To answer your question about speaking Russian–not really. I know the basics: hello, goodbye, thank you, where is the bathroom,” he clarified.
“Do you speak anything else?” I asked. “Besides English and Spanish, obviously.”
“A little Farsi. Even less Arabic. I normally take a language course if I’m going overseas, but they didn’t give us much notice this time.”
“You should speak in Spanish more,” I suggested.
I definitely wouldn't mind that. It rolled so nicely off his tongue, and as someone who could only speak a single language, I was in awe of his ability.
He rarely did, though I caught him mumbling under his breath in Spanish more than once.
On the rare occasion that he spoke to a member of his family on the phone, namely his sister, he spoke in Spanish.
“Claro, cari?o.” He tapped the tip of my nose with his finger. “Ready to go to sleep for a few days?”
“What time is it?” I asked.
He glanced at his watch. “It’s just after one in the morning.”
“But it’s still light out.”
“Yeah, we’re in the Arctic. It’s Twilight.” He clicked a few buttons, scrolling through his watch. “We’ve been traveling for thirty hours. And because of the time change, we are now an hour into day three of our journey.”
“Are you kidding?” I asked. “Thirty hours?”
“I wish. I just hope they have curtains for the windows because I’m not using a blindfold. I hate sleeping with something over my face.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The sun isn’t going to set. Ever.”
“Oh my God,” I groaned, throwing my head back.
I tugged on the door in front of us with some effort, the pressure difference making it difficult to open. With a gust of air, we pushed inside, and a man was resting on a nearby bench, a book in his hand.
“Hello, friends,” said the man. His accent was thick, but I appreciated that he spoke English. I hadn’t considered that I might not be able to communicate here. Rookie mistake. “I am Dr. Novikov, it is wonderful to meet you.”
“I’m Dr. Cassia Hayes and this is Special Agent Elias Correa.” I wondered if I should have left out that he was an agent, but I was sure that if they knew the government was sending security, it wouldn’t be a random guy.
“Correa?” His brow quirked up in question. “Habla Espa?ol? Necesito practicar.”
“Por supuesto,” said Elias, smiling. “Puede practicar conmigo.”
Dr. Novikov smiled in return. “Más tarde. Later, later.” He clarified in English for me, but they hadn’t really said anything too advanced, just a few phrases that students would recite to each other.
I took a few years of Spanish in high school, and a semester in college, but the most difficult part of their interaction was trying to understand their accents when I had only practiced Spanish with other English speakers.
Elias’s accent was natural, having grown up speaking Spanish at home, but Novikov’s was nearly impossible.
“I assume you are tired, yes? Jet lag?” He asked.
Elias and I nodded simultaneously.
“I will show you to your room.”
We followed Dr. Novikov through the dimly lit hallways.
The ceilings were uncomfortably low, and I winced as Elias barely fit under a hanging light fixture.
The walls were metal sheets, occasionally a white panel was layered in front of the metal, and every wire and pipe was visible and easily accessible.
Radiators were everywhere, and they reduced the size of the already narrow hallway.
The door to our room was metal, too, with a small glass window on the upper half. A small square of fabric hung in front of it, offering privacy from any passersby. Dr. Novikov opened the door, gesturing for us to walk inside.
“I apologize that we were not able to offer you separate quarters. Space is a luxury we do not have.”
The room was pretty bare bones, just bunks shoved against the wall, and a desk with a mismatched chair. White paneling covered the metal walls, but large areas were cut out of the panels to allow the piping and ductwork through.
“It won’t be a problem,” I said. At least General Montgomery hadn’t mentioned that we were a couple.
“We did intend for you to be as comfortable as possible, Dr. Hayes, but resources are limited here. I hope this does not upset you,” Dr. Novikov said.
“I can sleep anywhere,” Elias said. “The bunks will be just fine.”
“Excellent.” Dr. Novikov smiled, clapping his hands together. The bathroom is down the hall to the right, and I will meet you in the mess hall for lunch. It is a small place, you will find it. We will meet at twelve noon.”
When Dr. Novikov left the room, we spoke at the same time again.
“I need a shower,” we both said.
“We really need to stop that,” Elias said. “It’s freaking me out.”
“I think we’ve lost a lot of brain power from traveling and we’re sharing a single brain cell between us.”
“Well, I hope it’s one of yours,” he mumbled. “If it’s one of mine, we’re fucked.” He wasn’t as dumb as he pretended he was. To be successful in his career, he had to be pretty intelligent.
Elias laid out our suitcases on the floor against the wall. I dug through my luggage for clothes and toiletries as he did the same.
The shower stalls were set up like communal bathrooms in the dorms I’d stayed in in college, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary for me.
It was easy to imagine that Elias had showered in much worse, like showers that lacked stalls, or just a bucket of water in the woods.
While it was freezing in the bathroom, the hot water felt wonderful on my skin, and I was able to scrub away the grime from being in public for so long.
Even the bunk was sublime after a few naps on planes and a stiff couch during the layover.
Neither of us were excited about the twin sized mattress, but we agreed to share it for the night and decide tomorrow how we wanted to sleep moving forward.
I wasn’t going to be able to sleep in a foreign country without him next to me, at least not the first night, even if he was only a few feet away.
I collapsed into the bed, the old sheets rough against my skin, the comforter smelling like it had been in storage for a decade, but Elias kneeled on the floor, ruffling through his equipment.
“Eli,” I grumbled. “What are you doing?”
“Sending a message to Parsons. If we fail to check in every twenty-four hours, they’ll send a rescue team,” he said, the volume of his voice low.
“Is there Wi-Fi?” I asked, my eyes already closed.
“I’m using the satellite phone, sleepy girl. No Wi-Fi required.”