"Nothing like December in Australia, eh, tovarisch?" asked Napoleon as he and his partner ran along the beach beneath a hot Queensland sun.
"It is like no other place on earth," Illya agreed. The two men had just returned from a daunting high-speed chase through Eastern Europe on the trail of several THRUSH agents who had planned to use a hypnosis-inducing gas to control the minds of prominent world leaders and were now enjoying a well-deserved vacation in the Great Barrier Reef.
"How beautiful!" Napoleon sighed.
"Yes, the bright colors of the coral are very attractive..." Illya began, then noticed with consternation that his partner had been referring, not to their wondrous natural surroundings, but to a couple of young women who were diving and swimming a little way up the shore from them.
"Let's go over and say hello," the American suggested.
"Later, perhaps," Illya replied. "Right now I want to explore the beauties of nature."
"I'm more interested in a different kind of beauty," Napoleon grumbled, but Illya had already dived into the water's depths, and with a sigh, the brunet followed.
The two men had been diving and swimming for about twenty minutes or so when Napoleon noticed that Illya had returned to the shore and appeared to be in extreme discomfort. Concerned, he hurriedly joined the blond.
"Napoleon, something is wrong," Illya gasped. "I...cannot breathe."
The American's eyes widened in alarm as his partner collapsed in the sand and lay motionless. Illya's chest no longer rose and fell, but his eyes were open, and in them Napoleon saw not the blank emptiness of death or unconsciousness, but deep fear.
Napoleon began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on his partner right away, wishing desperately that someone was available to go for help. Within moments, he noticed movement nearby and saw that the two women he'd spotted earlier were standing right there beside him.
"We saw that you were in trouble and came over to see if we could help," one of them said.
"Please call for an ambulance right away!" Napoleon urged them.
The ambulance arrived within minutes, and soon Illya was on his way to the emergency room. Napoleon and the two women, who introduced themselves as Charlotte and Ruby, followed.
Illya was immediately placed on a medical ventilator, and within a few hours, he was feeling much better.
"It's a good thing you were right there with him when it happened," the emergency room physician told Napoleon. "He wouldn't have made it otherwise."
"But what did happen?" Napoleon was completely puzzled. "He seemed fine right up until he collapsed." The physician lifted one of Illya's arms to show him a tiny red spot, which upon closer examination, the American realized was actually a bite wound.
"I suspect that he was bitten by a blue-ringed octopus," the physician said. "Its venom causes total paralysis without loss of consciousness. Your friend was fully aware of his surroundings but couldn't move or breathe. If you hadn't been there to administer artificial respiration to him, he would have suffocated to death."
"I'm so glad I was there!" Napoleon exclaimed. "And thank goodness that Charlotte and Ruby were nearby as well! If not for them, there's no telling how long it would have been before anyone found us and could go for help."
Now that Illya was out of danger, he looked forward to himself and his partner enjoying more of Australia and, hopefully, getting to know Charlotte and Ruby better as well. He just realized that they'd both have to be much more careful of the coral reefs and respectful of the potential dangers they held from now on.