From Russia With Love

Dominika’s heart raced so fast she felt dizzy as the truck pulled away from the curb and into the traffic-less street. Wedged between two foreign soldiers on the backseat, cheek pressed against the faded upholstery, she could feel the vibrations of the engine through the seat as it increased in speed, whisking her further and further away from Gerard.

The man who spoke English sat in the seat in front of her in the middle row, but she had already forgotten his face in the moment. All she could see was the outline of his head and short, black hair shaved close to his scalp, mostly covered by a dark grey cap that matched his uniform. He was chattering in a low tone to the other men in the cabin in his language when he spoke in English suddenly, addressing her without turning around.

“How did you get away from the soldiers at your house?” he demanded. She was too frightened to reply, and instead buried her face in her arms.

“Hey! I’m talking to you! You’re the princess yes? Printsessa?”

The soldier sitting next to her shoved her lightly with a gloved hand. She wanted to crawl under the backseat and hide where she couldn’t be touched or spoken to, shut her eyes and pretend she was somewhere else, anywhere else. She mustered the courage to speak, deciding to feign limited knowledge of the English language so they’d stop asking her questions.

“Sorry” she spoke in a tiny voice, hiding half her face behind her hair “My English is poor, don’t understand…”

His head whipped around and he glared at her, eyes narrowed. The cold flatness of his eyes chilled her to the core. The front of his cap was emblazoned with his nation’s flag, bright red.

“Don’t bullshit, Princess, we know everything about you, and we know you speak perfect English”

“Answer the question” he repeated, emphasizing each word. Her heart thumped in her throat as her mind scrambled to formulate a plausible response without bringing attention to Gerard.

“I heard gun shots and escaped out the window” she said. He turned to face the windscreen again, chuckling to himself softly as he made another comment she couldn't understand to the other men in the car.

“And you thought the servant was going to save you?” he asked, clearly amused.

She said nothing but the other men in the car clearly understood his question and her silence as low rumbles of laughter resonated through the cabin. She buried her head in her arms again, desperately wanting to ask them where they were taking her and what they wanted with her, but something told her she probably didn't want to hear their answer. For now she just wanted to pretend it was a nightmare she would wake up from soon instead of the terrible reality that faced her.

She concentrated on composing herself, seeking comfort in her royal training. She needed to be able to think clearly in order to act rationally. Survival mode time.

The truck pulled into the driveway of an industrial complex and Dominika realized they were at the edge of the city again, bordering the woods she had spent the last few days of her life trying to get away from. As they approached a large graying, windowless building at the furthest end, a large roller door opened suddenly and they entered what seemed to be the garage of the building. A dark shadow lowered over her face as the roller door shut behind them with a metallic clunk. The atmosphere inside the cabin changed from subdued to all stations go instantly.

Without a single word being uttered between them, the two men in the middle row jumped out of the vehicle and opened the back doors. The soldiers next to her grabbed her firmly by the arms and shuffled her out of the backseat with alarmingly synchronized order. The English speaker mumbled to the men restraining her and they nodded, snapping a salute with their free hands before they continued through the garage. Dominika’s feet dragged underneath her like a ragdoll’s and she kept her eyes cast downwards, seeing nothing but an expanse of grey concrete below her.

As they pulled her through the doorway, she looked up and saw the warehouse was eerily empty except for a few personal items scattered about in one of the corners. Windows were absent, and the only light was provided by bare electric bulbs suspended from the rafters of the ceiling. It looked like a scene from a horror movie she’d seen on TV, all that was missing was the blood spatter. She hadn't realized the English speaker was following them until he appeared in front of her, a stern look on his face.

“Put your hands behind your back” he ordered. She complied, crossing her wrists with the other soldiers still holding her arms firmly. She wondered why they were being so forceful when they outnumbered her in strength and numbers so greatly. There was no way she could ever fight the three of them off, let alone however many others there were lurking around the building.

Helplessness and dread pooled in her stomach as she felt cable ties being zipped onto her wrists, forcing them together to the point that it was almost uncomfortable.

“Too tight?” he asked. She nodded her head, eyes cast downwards again.

“Too bad”

He pulled a key from his breast pocket and approached a closed, heavy-looking metal door she hadn’t noticed until now. She recoiled in horror as the realization dawned on her.

“You’re going to put me in a freezer?” she choked, voice breaking. He looked amused again, locking eyes with hers for a moment before he placed the key in the lock and turned it, pulling the door open with an obvious degree of effort.

“It’s disconnected, you’ll be fine”

She was relieved for a moment but the feeling was short-lived. Maybe she wasn't going to die a slow, painful death right now, but what were they going to do with her?

The two men lifted her by her limbs again so that her feet dangled beneath her without touching the floor and moved her inside the room. They left her hands tied behind her back as they closed the door behind them. It clattered shut and she heard the key in the lock again, imprisoning her.

Half of her wanted to lie on the floor and scream and cry and the other half wanted to thrash around the room, banging and clawing on the walls but she composed herself and instead took a deep breath and forced herself to think. The room was large enough to avoid making her claustrophobic, and she was grateful at least for the fluorescent light tube above her that kept her from being plunged into blackness. It was white-washed and sterile inside with rusty metal shelving lining each wall, leaving a space in the center that was large enough to walk around in.

They had shot her entire family dead without a thought, so why were they keeping her alive now? What use could she possibly be to them? Her being alive meant the royal family was still technically in control of Russia. She wondered why they hadn't just shot her dead there in the street and been done with it.

Ransom.

Of course!

They would probably use her to try and get the Americans to back off. The Americans would do anything to prevent China from taking control of Russia and they knew it. She guessed she was to be used as a pawn in their strategy of removing America’s involvement in Russia.

She wondered if this had been their plan all along. Perhaps they had planned to take her hostage from the very beginning, rather than killing her along with the rest of her family. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought.

Why such interest in her personally? Why hadn't they taken her Mother or her Father? Was it possible they’d known about her public “courtship” with Private Way and chosen her as they’d known it would personally evoke a reaction from Gerard’s Father, someone high up in the official ranks in the States? Surely their intelligence wasn't that good. She pondered that thought carefully, turning it over and over again.

She was so lost in thought she barely registered the sound of the key in the lock and the mechanism turning. The door clunked open and the English speaker’s head appeared in the doorway.

“You. Come now” he barked. Her heart leaped to her throat and she stared at him, unmoving.

“Want me to say it in Russian? I said now!”

She scrambled to her feet with difficulty, her arms pinned behind her back. He clasped her arm and led her out of her makeshift prison cell to the eastern wall of the warehouse, where a huge flag the same design as the one on her captor’s hats had been pinned to the wall. Either she hadn't noticed it on the way in or it was a very recent addition to the décor.

As they neared it she noticed there was a chair set up in front of it, and beyond that a very advanced looking camera was trained on the scene, resting on a tripod. The hairs on her arms stood on end in the chill of the room and in the realization of what she was sure they were about to make her do.

“Sit” he ordered, nudging her to the chair. She sat down obediently, feeling like she was having an out-of-body experience. It was like watching a movie, these things weren't supposed to happen in real life.

“You’re going to read this, out loud, on camera” he said, cutting the cable ties from her wrists and pressing a crumpled piece of paper into her hands. She stared down at the black scribble on the page, deciphering the words. English was harder to read than speak but she had always passed her exams.

“W-why?” she stuttered, although she was sure she had his motive worked out. A broad smile broke out on his face that was unsettling rather than comforting, although probably his intention.

“I think you know why, Princess” he replied “we’re going to take control of this country, it’s already begun, and getting rid of the yanks is the first step”

“They’re not going to leave just because you threaten to kill me”

He chuckled darkly.

“We know of your personal involvement with one of the Vice President’s sons, all about it actually. We know he’ll convince his Father to submit to the ransom demands or at the very least come over here with others we can also hold hostage and use for our demands”

“He’s stumbling around somewhere in the woods!” she protested “he’s not going to be convincing anyone to do anything!”

The English speaker’s features clouded with confusion and he looked at her strangely.

“How do you know? You've had contact with the Americans in the last few days?”

She didn't understand his question at first until it occurred to her that for all they said they apparently knew about her, they hadn't recognized Gerard when they’d found them on the street and she put two and two together.

They thought she was involved with Micheal, Gerard’s younger brother who was currently far away in the United States, completing his own military training. Probably because she and Mikey were closer in age. So their intelligence wasn't that great after all. She decided to play dumb and go along with it rather than implicating Gerard who was still in the country.

“He’s in military training at the moment, completing a survival exercise. He’s been out in the woods for a week now the last I heard” she said quickly, thinking on her feet.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll see this”

He started to fiddle with the camera, adjusting and rotating the lens and pushing buttons. He looked through the rectangular viewfinder screen and gestured his hand towards her.

“Read it now, loud and clear” he ordered. She stared down at the words on the page in her hands again, squinting.

“I am Princess Dominika Luhzkov, last survivor of the Russian Royal family and I am in the custody of the People’s Liberation Army of China. My survival can only be ensured by an exchange of the following demands”

She faltered, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a moment before looking back to the page again.

Notes