Budapest » [Clintasha]

Chapter Seven: Emulation

He didn't know me. The sheer disgust and affrontedness etched onto his features made my intestines knot and my heart palpitate. The one soul I had come to count as a companion didn't recall me. 

"Natalia!" Karpov's going exploded like a shotgun, his bullet voice ricocheting off the enclosed walls. 

I departed and was quick to correct my stance; I wiped my face of expression and held parade rest. I could feel my heart pounding within my ribcage and my pulse throbbing in my skull. Every breath rasped a little too loud and my unperfected facade was craggy.

The man, the one who had been so kind to me, now had his eyes trained sternly on me; reprimanding me for my disobedience in the form of affection.

“Now we can get down to business...”  Karpov growled and started to prowl like a tiger, eyes ravenously raging and the tap of his shoes on the floor resembling the rapping of claws and paws. “We need you in the field, Natalia. It has come to light that the Americans have crafted a plan to arm nuclear weapons... We need you to steal them. And Natalia, since you're falling behind in your combat, your partner is the most lethal combatant we have. Perhaps Winter here can teach you a thing or two about fighting. See, ordinarily we'd have you killed, but it seems that you're doing that yourself in fights. And your resilience is an admirable quality.” Karpov pivoted and trained his mahogany insincere eyes on my comrade. “Winter, since you seem to be struggling with obedience and linguistics, we've paired you with our most articulate cadet, her aptitude of mind far supersedes that of her age group. It’s a simple retrieval mission, no room for mistakes, do you think you can handle it?”

Karpov cocked his head jauntily and his brazen gaze managed to seep through the tiers of my soul and send a shiver skating across my skin. I could feel my pulse ringing like alarm bells installed into my body, and my mouth went bone dry; in my panic I frivolously nodded. The Winter Soldier was next to receive the silent chastising stare, he was far less paced with his assent.

The Winter Soldier was my guardian angel; entrenched in his shadow, he guided me through the facility with light taps to either hip to indicate the direction wordlessly. His gaze was unflinching, but somehow his vigilant tendencies served to soothe rather than agitate: had it been anyone else, I would’ve felt vulnerable.

We reached what resembled a submarine hatch and a metal hand ghosted over my head. There was a clunk as his mechanical metal digits curled like talons around the pressure seal ring. He untwisted it with one powerful yank of the hand. The wheel whirled, then rattled violently as it unlocked.

The door opened, and I was ushered over the threshold into the recesses of darkness. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, I had tasted fresh air. It was revitalising, refreshing, resurrecting. I was reinvigorated from head to toe; the icy taste heady in my lungs. My body had been deprived, my mind dulled by the lack of exposure to the outside world. For the first time in ages, I felt alive. Life was breathed back into my body, my skin was ventilated, my blood was replenished with oxygen.

We emerged in a forest of alpines, bushy green needles suspended in spiny bunches above. Craggy tree trunks reared from the ground like gravestones and seemed to spear the night sky. A light smattering of snow was blanketing the ground like a wine woven sheet of silk, dulcet white, pure and innocent. The earthy, damp aroma of the landscape was laid thick in my nostrils and sat on my tongue in the most hallucinogenic of scents.

The sky, I’d never before paid such attention to just how far it spanned. It was the great beyond, the arms of the galaxy spread out in pinpricks of light, piercing the night with their rebellious enclaves of light in a realm of darkness. Clouds, they were painted across the jet black satin sky above, thin wisps of gossamer, unleashing an army of balletic snowflakes.