Rainbow Six: November Sun

04: "PACE YOURSELF, LERA"

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019 - EARLY MORNING
RAINBOW HEADQUARTERS
HEREFORD, ENGLAND

Finka stood in the shower and eased both palms to the wall before leaning against it. She bowed her head and buried her face in her arms, trying to savor the warm water that ran through her hair and over her skin.

Mild spasms of pain pricked her knuckles every few seconds, a sensation that Lera likened to her foot falling asleep if she sat on it for too long. She gritted her teeth as a seemingly random numbness crawled across her back, making the skin around her left shoulder blade tingle uncomfortably.

The woman tried to reach behind her to scratch at it, but the tingling fled her grasp into the middle of her back, where she could not reach.

She sighed and turned to press her back to the wall, and she moved up and down against the wet tiles to relieve the itch she could not scratch - but just as she began to find relief, the numbness disappeared.

It was beginning.

Lera clenched her teeth and turned to lean into the wall beneath the shower head again, willing herself to focus on the soothing hot water and vapor that enveloped her body.

Peripheral neuropathy was the bane of Finka's existence, yet also the source of her accomplishments. It had affected her muscles and nerves since she was a teenager, and her particular condition was not reversible.

Her work and research had staved it off for much longer than she had ever anticipated, yet here she was, forced to face it again as it walked out of her nightmares and back into her life.

Lera suddenly began coughing, her body spasming as the coughs rolled into an uncontrollable cadence. A doctor of hers had once compared these fits to those of asthmatics.

The coughs kept coming. Her airway felt tight, and Lera doubled over beneath the running water, resting her hands on her knees and trying to catch her breath. The hot vapor filling the shower made it difficult to do so.

Finka growled and stood straight. She steeled herself, shut her eyes, and began breathing. In, out. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Three seconds in. Three seconds out. Four seconds in. Four seconds out.

This was not her neuropathy. This was a panic attack, and the fact that she was so familiar with it irked Lera to no end.

Weakness was unacceptable.

Deep breath in through the nose. Out through the mouth. In. Out.

A sudden spasm of pain shot down her lower back all the way to her calves. The shock made Lera gasp in surprise, and she knelt to one knee in the shower, grimacing against the pain.

She had not expected such strong symptoms so soon.

She took a deep breath, let out a mighty whoosh of air and watched the water trickle off her body and run to the drain, swirling around it like a whirlpool before vanishing into the pipes hidden from view.

Lera thought momentarily that life itself was, perhaps, much like water: circling the drain until the day the last drop disappeared.

She then shook her head to snap herself out of it. Her legs burned from the cardio session she had just finished with IQ and Valkyrie, and perhaps it had taken a greater toll on her body than she had anticipated.

The sound of the women's locker room door opening from beyond the shower curtain jarred Lera from her thoughts. She could hear Monika "IQ" Weiss shouting something to someone in passing before shutting the door behind her.

Finka sighed before shakily getting to her feet, still trying to catch her breath. She heard Monika let her duffle bag fall to one of the benches with a thud, and the metallic clank of her locker swinging open.

"Lera?" Monika called over the running water. "You good?"

Lera pretended not to hear her, and tried her best to ignore the twitching muscles in her legs.

"Harry said that's our best time yet for the five-mile," Monika continued, slamming her locker shut. "Meghan was two seconds off her personal best. She's pretty pissed."

Lera clenched her jaw. "I bet."

A wordless minute went by. IQ started the water in a nearby shower, and when Finka heard her step in and draw the curtain shut, she sank carefully back down to the shower floor and sat cross-legged under the hot water.

The woman closed her eyes and took comfort in the mist around her, as if it were a blanket shielding her from further pain.

If only.

"You going to the range after this?" Monika called.

Lera didn't open her eyes. "Negative. Heading to the lab to run some diagnostics."

"Nanobots?"

"Yes." She liked IQ, but Finka was not in the talking mood.

"Let me or Pichon know if you need any help."

"Will do."

Another wordless minute passed before Lera got to her feet again and shut off her shower. She quickly shoved the curtain aside, dried off, got dressed, and left the locker room.

She soon reached her dorm, and she let her bag fall to the floor as she shut the door behind her, grateful for privacy.

Lera didn't even bother taking off her shoes. She sank into bed and pulled out her phone to quickly text Doc about her worsening symptoms.

Going to lab to run some tests, she wrote.

Doc replied seconds later.

No. Rest up first. I'll help when ur ready.

Finka sighed and swept her blanket over her, even covering her face to block out the world. "Pace yourself, Lera," she breathed. "One step at a time."

*          *          *

Rainbow Director Harishva "Harry" Pandey was in his office going over performance reviews for the recruits when his secretary paged his desk.

"Harry, I have Doug on the line. It's urgent."

The man set his glasses down on the folder in front of him. "Thank you Anya. Patch me through."

"Harry," came a man's voice a moment later. "We have a situation." Douglas Lilly was the on-site CIA liaison to Rainbow, and Harry could tell from his tone that there was no time for formalities.

"What do we have, Doug?"

"Explosion at the Russian Embassy in Brussels. Hostage situation, potential bomb threat. CIA is negotiating with Belgium for a response by Rainbow."

"One moment, please." Harry buzzed Anya. "Situation imminent. Have Ash and Sledge gather Teams 1 and 2 for emergency response. Please ping Harvell and the others and let them know I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, sir. Teams 1 and 2 will be on standby for immediate departure."

"Thank you." Harry clicked back onto the call with Doug. "Prepping for a response, Doug. Hopefully your friends at the Agency can convince them to let us in. What do we know so far?"