Murmansk

Chapters 14, 15, & 16

Chapter 14

November 25, 2000

 

The woman with the icy eyes felt the trickle of sweat running down her nose before it dropped to the quickly-moving belt of the treadmill. Reaching up, she punched at the buttons on the console to raise the speed even more...driving herself...always driving herself.

As she ran her eyes stared ahead toward the large window. The window revealed the barren wasteland that she now found herself in, the frozen prison that the world had taken upon itself to relegate her to.

All because of one man!

Anger rolled in her trim belly before working its way up, welling threateningly in her chest. Her head now ached, her vision focused down to a pinpoint on the man now standing before her.

"Argh!" She shrieked, frustratingly punching again at the buttons for more speed, the fury threatening to boil over her being at any moment.

With the realization that she was already at the maximum speed of the machine, genetics took over.

A warrior yell escaped her lips as she reached for her weapon. Clasping the hilt of the blade in her fingers, she deftly wound her arm back and flung the blade without missing a step.

Even as she continued to run at full speed, her mind focused on the spinning knife as it left her hand. As if in slow motion, she watched in fascination as it tuned end over end toward the head of the man responsible for her plight.

When it finally hit the target however there was only a strange, muffled crackling sound.

Emotionally spent the woman slowed her step slightly, allowing the machine to eject her onto the floor behind.

Deftly landing on the carpeted area, Noon Byrk brought her hands to her hips and leaned forward slightly, working at capturing her breath before moving again.

Her eyes never left the target through all of this; her icy eyes focused forward, her long, dark hair now plastered to the pale alabaster skin of her face.

After a few seconds, she moved forward toward the window, staring at the hilt of the knife now protruding through it.

The man had only been in her mind.

Pulling at the knife, the laminated Plexiglas bent in with it before releasing the blade, the shattered window now a spider web caught between the UV-blocking laminate sheets.

Shit.

She would have to get that fixed, the icy wind of the prison landscape already piercing the room.

Sheaving her blade, she turned and moved back into the room, shutting down the treadmill as she passed. Stopping in front of the mirror, she ran her fingers along the side of her face to brush back the nearly-white hair. Pulling it tight and tying it into a pony tail, she then stared at her reflection in the mirror.

The slant of her exotic Asian eyes always drew everyone's attention first...even hers. They were her mother's eyes, at least on the outside. The icy blue irises she could blame on her father and his Viking ancestors.

She smiled, knowing the combination usually elicited caution to those that didn't know her.

And fear in most of those that did!

The scar entering her hairline got her attention next. Glowing white even against her pale skin, it was a constant memento of what the man had done to her...and now a reminder of the retribution now close at hand.