"We're striking at Alexander in several weeks. We'll be in Japan then, and as far as we know, Alexander hasn't really been influencing Japan much. He won't expect us there, because our first attack will be in Egypt." I heard the muffled voice of Stephan.
We were on a plane ride to... India, I think. I had just woken up from my deep sleep but decided not to fake sleeping once I heard the conversation.
"Shurik, you'll need to somehow get Jordan out of the way, using..." Stephan said, but Shurik interrupted him. I couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but the rest of the gang seemed to like it.
"What will we tell Maria?"
It was Misha.
"Nothing, aboltus," Eugene commented, calling Misha an idiot.
"We're going to India for a few weeks first. You know you're going to be distracting her the entire time there. While in India, the rest of us will be keeping an extremely close eye on Cairo, New York City, and Tokyo, to make sure all of the cities remain stable. No surprises."
"I hate lying to her. She doesn't deserve it. She's been a good woman, obeying our commands and she hasn't been fighting back. I hate lying to her."
My heart melted a little at his words. I liked how caring Misha had gotten towards me, and I was glad that he wasn't just faking it when he was with me.
But I was very concerned about what exactly he was lying to me about.
I heard a deep sigh from Stephan. "I know, I know. We'll tell her soon. We still have a few more countries to visit; we've got to be on the move all the time. Alexander got very close to finding her in Cairo, and he's been trying very hard to find her. Our men are doing all they can, but it's not long before he starts suspecting something really awful."
"Remember, men. If we pull off this attack at Cairo, we've got one country down, and we're closer to our goal."
They all murmured in agreement.
"It's just I feel a little bad," Misha said, "She needs to know that we actually-"
His voice was cut off by the pilot announcing that we will be landing shortly. The lights turned on and the men silenced themselves and so I pretended to just wake up. I rubbed my eyes and yawned.
"Hey, sleepyhead," Misha smiled. "We're almost there."
I smiled back at him. I trusted him, even though they were hiding something big from me, he wanted to tell me. That made me really trust him.
"We're staying at a friend's house," Misha explained to me as we left the airport.
"Where exactly are we?"
"We're in Agra. India. We're staying here a week or two, for some business matters."
I nodded. "What are we going to do all this time?"
He kept his eyes fixed on me. Sometimes, his gaze would send a rush of goosebumps through me. It was this little characteristic he had; his strong, intimidating stare.
"Well, we get to do whatever we please."
We were silent throughout the car ride, while the other men were bickering. We exchanged glances every once in a while, each of us knowing perfectly well what the other was thinking.
'When did we get so close?' I wondered.
We did spend a lot of time with each other, but surely not enough to get so close. However, I was with the boys for nearly two months now. That was a lot of time for us to get close.
We neared the home of some friends. It was fairly big but obviously old.
A woman of about forty-five greeted us. She had long golden locks, like mine, and large brown eyes with a round nose. Her name was Ksen.
"I've only got four rooms available. But one of them is large and has two beds. Will that be alright for you?"
"Of course, thank you so much for your kindness, Ksen," Stephan replied. "My daughter, Kate, will stay in the larger room with Mikael."
She smiled knowingly. "Of course. Let me show you all to your rooms."
We followed her up the old, squeaky stairs to our rooms. I didn't mind the thought of staying with Misha in one room. But that was only because of the extra bed.
It was a cute little room, but two beds fit perfectly in there. There were draperies around the beds, and then around the windows. The windows were great, and you could see the large palm trees peeking through the forests. The room itself was decorated with many wooden statues, beaded decorations, and rugs. It provided a homey, comfortable feeling, much different than the luxury hotels we had been staying at.
I jumped on the bed and stayed there, reading a book that was sitting on the nightstand. I didn't notice it get dark, only when Misha came up to the room did I realize how long I had been reading.
He laughed. "We missed you at dinner. The rice was to die for."
My stomach grumbled, which sent Misha into another laughing fit.
"Let's go, we can still sneak some food into you."
He took my hand and we made our way carefully down the stairs and into the kitchen. As we passed the other rooms, we noticed that there were lights in the rooms still. Misha sat me down at the table and heated some rice.
I ate an entire two portions. My belly was definitely starting to get big, and it wasn't my imagination this time. After all, I had already been pregnant for four months, soon to be five. The boys said nothing about my growing belly, but I had been eating so much I hoped they just thought I was getting fat.
When we were already falling asleep, I felt a sudden pain in my back, that traveled all the way to my legs. Oh darn, and blast it! All the walking that I had been doing lately was really frustrating my baby, and so it showed its frustration with all this throbbing pain.
I moaned quietly and rubbed my feet. Oh, why now? Couldn't the pregnancy pains just keep off a little while longer?
"Maria? Are you alright?" Misha asked, half-asleep.
I winced in pain but tried to keep my noises to myself. "Yeah, of course, I am."
I laid back in bed, but my feet were still throbbing. I decided to elevate them, to get the circulation better. I got up, and no matter how little noise I wanted to make, I was still a little loud. I found some spare pillows and propped them up, and placed my feet.
"Psst! Maria, what's going on?"
I turned to my side, trying to ignore Misha. I let out a little groan though, and he knew I wasn't asleep.
"Maria. Tell me."
"Just, my feet are hurting. It's because of all the walking I've been doing, really. Nothing else."
Misha quickly jumped from his bed and came to mine. He sat near me.
"Maria, are you sure you're alright?"
I stared up at him. Something about him, just...
'Stop it. Stop thinking about him!' I shook myself out of my thoughts and nodded.
"Do you want some foot massage or something?" He asked, placing his hand over mine.
My breath caught in my throat at the skin contact.
I laughed. "No, thank you, Misha. I just need to rest a little."
He nodded. "Okay, that's what we'll do then. Rest up as much as you need it, and we'll start touring the city after you feel better."
He rubbed my hand gently. "Goodnight, love."
I rolled my eyes. "Goodnight to you too."
And so I did rest as much as I wanted. My feet were constantly hurting still, and I just couldn't stop eating or drinking water. And of course, the discomfort of drinking a lot of water is going to the restroom way too much.
One night, I woke up from pain in my back. I noticed that Misha's bed was empty. I stood up and went to the restroom. On my way there, I saw Misha standing on a balcony, his back faced towards me.
It was dark out, only the moon and the stars shone, but I could clearly make out the scar on his side and on his neck. He was shirtless, and I knew I needed to turn away and just go to the restroom, but something just made me stand there and observe him.
He was smoking, which made me immediately scrunch up my face in disgust. I hated smokers and the smell from the smoke. It was weird that I had never seen him smoke, and he never smelled like cigarettes, so I assumed that he smoked rarely.
'What? What is it in him that makes you...' I didn't want to answer that or finish my thought.
He was a jokester, a smoker, and a dangerous man. All these characteristics I did not like; however, I kept wanting to go out to the city with him.
'Why? Why are you like this, Maria?' I scolded myself and then hurried back to bed.
The other day, we were both just standing on the balcony, looking out at the forests, to see if we could spot those monkeys again, and drinking hot spicy tea. I glanced at Misha and noticed the scar at the back of his neck. I could tell that it had been a deep one.
"Misha, tell me about the scar on your neck," I asked.
He turned to me with a smile, and slowly placed a lock of my hair behind my ear. Once again, that made me shiver, but I hoped it was subtle enough that he didn't notice.
"An old war wound."
I stared at him until he sighed and continued, "I used to be of a very high position. I was practically best friends with our Russian president, and I was making many billions of money each year. I was worth a lot of money, and well, apparently I was also worth a lot dead."
He took a sip of his tea and continued, his eyes never leaving mine, "Somebody paid to get me killed. And so one beautiful night, many men attacked me and one of them shot me in the leg. A very large man came up behind me and stabbed me with an old army knife, you know, like the ones all father's used to own? I dropped to the floor, dead. At least my heart had stopped beating and the rest of my body was quickly paralyzing."
I gasped. No way did this man already experience so much!
"Misha... that's awful. Oh, thank the Lord that he saved you."
He nodded. "Indeed, it was only a miracle from God himself that allowed someone to find me and rush me to the hospital. I had to be resuscitated, but eventually, after surgeries, years of therapy and excruciating pain, I was able to walk normally again."
I couldn't help but give envelop him in a warm, long hug. That was awful, what people had to go through on this planet. He wrapped me as well, placing his head on my shoulder.
"Are you feeling better? All rested up?" Misha came and flopped down next to me on my bed.
I pushed him away. "Yes, I'll admit I am feeling a little better."
I wasn't actually. But I hadn't gone out at all this past week and a half, and so I couldn't lie that my feet hurt because of the heels.
"Perfect. Let's go. I want to show you something."
He threw me an outfit and a wink. "I'm waiting."
I just grinned at him and waited for him to exit the room. I quickly got changed into the outfit; for some reason, I couldn't wait to go out to see what Misha wanted to show me. I wanted to leave this trusty little cabin with him already.
I had to wear wide, flimsy red pants and a very strange top. It was black, with the back cut out, and a little strap around my neck. That was it. It had red flowers on it, with green vines. I had to wear long, dangly earrings made of a black jewel and a red bundle of threads. And, of course, I had to wear black platform heels, with a flower sewn on each heel.
I walked out of the room, and Mikael greeted me.
"You look fabulous, my darling." He said and with a wink, gave me a light kiss on my cheek.
He took my hand, and away we went. Along the way, Misha would make continuous jokes and small pranks. It was quite annoying, but also... it was nice, to be able to laugh all the time.
"Alright, Maria. Here it is, the great Taj Mahal!"
I stared at the beautiful white structure. It was just like I had seen on paintings, but only way cooler. I loved the crystal clear reflection, and the perfectly circular domes... oh, this was definitely so aesthetic for my mathematician soul.
He took my hand and we walked silently along the path of the canal. Once again, I wanted it to be Alexander's hand that I was holding. This was, after all, the great and the one and only Taj Mahal. I wanted to experience this with him.
I felt a little push from Misha.
"Don't think about him. It's just us and this beautiful building."
I nodded. "You're right, I guess. I mean, missing him won't help me right now."
Misha grew silent for a little. I was glad that he was here with me rather than one of the other boys.
"You don't hate me... us, right?" Misha asked, looking up from underneath his lashes at my eyes.
I smiled. "Of course not. I could never hate you guys. Of course, I'm not particularly fond of the situation I am in, but I don't hate you."
He grinned, "Good. I am sorry that you have to go through this, but I can't really do anything about it."
"But that's not true. I've seen the way you fight the others. You're really strong and dangerous and quick. You could take down the guys if you really wanted to."
He cocked his head in thought. "In a way, you are right. I am the strongest, but that doesn't mean that I have the power to do that. Stephan, he is my brother practically. When I decided to leave behind my billionaire lifestyle, he came to offer me help and support. He's been with me ever since. Eugene, oh, Eugene he is like the father of the group. I've had to come to him for questions and advice and many times he has told me exactly what I needed to hear. And Shurik, he is like my son. He's the youngest, sickest member. Did you know he was diagnosed with leukemia, and barely survived? It's why he's so thin and feeble. I would never do anything to hurt him, ever. He's been through enough already."
I stared at Misha as he talked. He loved every single one of his crew members more than himself, and would never leave them behind. The loyalty and friendship that held these men together was truly brilliant. It made me look at him differently, see another side of him.
I had gotten to see how observant and serious Misha could become. He was also extraordinarily kind and gentle and never did anything particularly rude or hurtful. Sure, he could get quite awful with his pranks, but it never hurt anyone.
And now, this loyal and strong side of him... he was so much different than I had first thought.
"Quit staring, Maria. I'll think you actually like my company."
I gave him a little push. "Oh stop it."
He caught my hand and pulled me towards him. My breath glitched in me again.
Oh, why did it always do that?
"You should let me go, Misha, or else I'll start to think you actually like my company," I said with a little laugh, trying to ease the tension between us.
Wait why was there even tension between us in the first place? What has happened?
He kept me in his embrace a moment longer, his lively blue eyes staring into mine.
"You already know I do."