The Ultimates (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 8

He paced the ground, looking at all of us, grimacing, glaring at us as we stood in the fields. The look of disgust in his face showed some sense of antipathy. A Russian with a “no nonsense” attitude was never good. Yet, I still got the feeling that this face was not made for us, or at least not them, but for something else.

On a whole, the current aggregate of our actions had finally taken its toll. There was no other reason he would be like this. This “no nonsense” Russian had finally caught up to us. But this was far from nonsense. It could not be called dissent. It was a crime yes, but I can’t find a word to accurately describe what that Russian thought it was. In a way, from the look on his face it was like I could read his mind.

We stood still, trying our hardest to keep a straight face. I knew that any sort of change in our facial expression would be picked up by him. I did not even move my eyes to look at Andrew who stood far away from me. The soldier beside me moved slightly; I wondered if he noticed that.

Once he was finished looking us over the Lieutenant spoke:

“Vse vy, my vyyasnili, chto odin iz nashih byl naĭden mertvym vkazarme. My ne znaem, chto eto mozhet oznachat, no syeĭchas ih budut opredelennye pravila, kotorye vy dolzhny sledovat, takih kakranyee komendant·skiĭ chas i bolyee nablyudeniya. My dolzhny obespechit bezopasnost zdes. Slyshish menya?(All of you, we have found out that one of our own was found dead inside the barracks. We do not know what this might mean, but for now their will be certain rules that you will have to follow such as an earlier curfew and more surveillance. We must ensure safety here. Do you hear me?)

Out of our mouths came a monotonous chorus of “Da(Yes).” And with that utterance the Lieutenant nodded and left us to be trained once again. Now something was very clear to me. We had to get the intel very fast, perhaps even in that very same day. What we had trouble with was finding the free time to do it without the Russians spotting us. And the newly made curfew and the other rules weren’t making it any easier.

The Sergeant slowly stepped forward; the same look was on his face. The wind started to blow gently.

“Prezident posetit segodnya. Ya ozhidayu, chto vy pokazat yemu uvazhenie(The President shall be visiting today. I expect you to show him respect.)

I froze. My eyes widened. Ferschi? Here? In the barracks? We hadn’t planned for an event like that. Those thoughts raced through my mind. I knew Andrew was thinking the same thing. I had to talk to him. When the Sergeant was finished talking we spread out which gave me an opportunity to talk to Andrew. I spoke to him very, very silently in the Russian language just to be safe.

“On zeds(He’s here),” I said to him.

“Ya slyshal(I heard),” Andrew responded.

“Chto my dolzhny delat)(What should we do)?”

“Ya ponyatiya ne imyeyu(I have no idea).”

“Otlichnyĭ(Excellent).”

“Pochemu u menya vsegda yest, chtoby pridumat idyei(Why do I always have to come up with the ideas)?”

“Prekrasno. Daĭ mne nemnogo vremeni(Fine. Give me some time).”

“My nachnem s fizicheskimi uprazhneniyami(We will start with physical exercises)!” the Lieutenant said from behind us. I left Andrew.

I worried about what we would do. It would only be a matter of time before they either caught us or they didn’t and kept putting new restrictions up so that we might be in Russia for a very long time. We might have had to leave without gathering intel.

We trained as usual and I eventually found the exercises to be efficient yet repetitive. However, something surprised me later when we were finished. He did, in fact, give us time to roam around. But instead of the two hours we usually got we got twenty minutes.

I quickly went to Andrew and silently told him to speak in Swahili. The soldiers would not understand us and probably would just ignore us. If we spoke in Russian they would recognise our dialogue and become suspicious. And I feared that some of them might have known English.

“Je, ni sisi wanatakiwa kufanya(What are we supposed to do)?” Andrew asked me.

“Mimi kwa kweli sijui(I really don’t know).”

“Je, unafikiri sisi tuache bila kufanya kitu chochote(Do you think we should leave without doing anything)?”

“No mimi si kurudi nyuma kwa uso aina hiyo ya aibu(No. I will not go back to face that kind of shame).”

“Ubatili wako kujua mipaka, Arckine gani(Your vanity knows no bounds, does it Arkine)?”

“Hii ni hakuna muda wanasema(This is no time to argue).”

I thought about it for a while. Then, something hit me. I was ashamed I of it earlier.

“Kuna kitu Nicolas aliniambia kabla ya kufa. Alisema kuwa mbali na mashamba kidogo kuna mahali ambapo mambo ni agizo hilo, askari hawatakiwi kujua juu(There was something Nicolas told me before he died. He said that a little away from the fields there is a place where things are kept that the soldiers are not supposed to know about).”

Andrew looked at me with a shocked expression.

“Kwa niniwewe uniambiehiimapema(Why didn’t you tell me this earlier)?” Andrew said.

“Naam, mimi tu kutambua kuwa inaweza kuwa habari juu ya wanamapinduzi(Well I just realised that it could be information on the Revolutionaries).”

I reached into my pocket and took out a Spider Mech and a controller.

“Ni wakati wakuweka hiikitukwa matumizi mazuri(It’s time to put this thing to good use).”

I threw the Spider Mech on the ground and pressed the ‘on’ button on the controller. I then began to control the Spider while sitting down. I made it scurry to the building to the North of where we stood. Through the open door it went, going passed the guards unnoticed. I made it look around the room, giving me feedback via the controller. Nothing of interest was there.

I made it go up the stairs. But I stopped. Coming down the stairs was the image of a tall, muscular man. Ferschi. I stopped so he wouldn’t notice the Spider Mech. Fortunately, he didn’t step on it. He was talking with the Lieutenant. When I was sure it was gone, I made it the Spider Mech scurry up the stairs again.

In the first room I went into when I went upstairs the only thing that was in there was a lone filing cabinet. One of the sections remained slightly open. I made it go into that one. In it, a lone folder lay. Controlling its legs, I made it pull out the file that lay in it. It read, when translated into English:

Ivan Ferschi,

We can now begin our plan to invade America. Our naval ships are deployed and ready. Our soldiers are ready. Our aircrafts are ready. We and Portugal are well prepared. We must now have your approval. When can we begin? May I suggest sometime in the next few weeks? I would hate for us to rush this, yet I don’t want to wait too long. I think we could possibly deter them with nuclear and chemical weapons. What do you think? Please respond to us:

-Armando Bianchi.

I began sending what the Spider Mech was seeing to Ashley.

“Maple, are you getting this?” I asked in an extremely low whisper.

“Yeah. Look, tomorrow try to get that file, along with all the other files in that filing cabinet. All information in that filing cabinet is vital,” she responded, her voice as soft as mine.

“Yeah sure.”

“I’ll send a helicopter for you about twenty minutes from this time tomorrow.”