Hell on Earth

Chapter Forty Two - Slight Problem... No One Speaks Russian

Cynthia walked into the back. She was grabbing more ice-cream for the front freezer. She had tried helping translate the Russian message that her brother had oh-so-helpfully recorded, but Cynthia then got hit with the true monster of the task set before them. Translating the Russian. It would have been no big deal except for one small detail: none of them spoke any fucking Russian. So, Cynthia dedicated her time to going back and forth helping Robin and helping the boys. She looked at the boys and saw that they were in deep concentration. She heard some fast chattering in Russian then a nice, little musical tune at the very end.

"Steve!" Dustin got his attention. "So what do you think?"

Steve looked at the radio, "It sounded familiar." He seemed to be in a trance.

"What?" Dustin asked.

"The music," Steve said. "The music right there at the end."

"Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" Dustin asked. "Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!"

"Maybe he's listening to the music because trying to translate a language you don't understand is enough to drive anyone insane," Cynthia offered.

"I'm trying to listen to the Russian," Steve argued with Dustin. "But there's music..."

"All right, babysitting time is over," Robin burst into the back. "You need to get in there." She looked over and saw that the boys had commandeered her board for translation. Cynthia couldn't help but note that the board was painfully blank. "Hey, my board." Robin was getting irritated with the boys. "That was important data, shit birds."

"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data," Dustin told her.

"Yeah?" Robin asked. "And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?"

"Because their Russians, obviously," Cynthia told her. She put the tub of ice-cream on the counter. "And Robin is right, you need to get out there Steve. We've been busting our asses."

"How does she know about the Russians?" Dustin looked at Steve.

"I don't know," Steve shrugged.

Dustin glared at Steve, "You told her about..."

"It wasn't me," Steve argued.

"Hello," Robin got their attention. "I can hear you. Actually, I can hear everything. You are both extremely loud."

"I agree with Robin," Cynthia said. "That's all I've been able to hear all day."

"You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word," Robin was smiling at them. Cynthia couldn't but smile at her. It was clear that something was going on in Robin's mind. "Because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet. Sound about right?"

Robin went to the recording and tried to turn on the recording.

"Whoa!" Steve stopped her. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I wanna hear it," Robin said like it was obvious.

"Why?" Steve asked.

"Cause maybe I can help," Robin said. "I'm fluent in four languages, you know."

"Russian?" Steve asked.

"Ou-yay are-yay umb-day," she told them.

Cynthia bit back a laugh at the boy's excitement. She didn't know much about foreign languages, but Robin did teach her some things on their slow days.