T'ing Leang

Zurich, Switzerland

0815 Hours Local

Alexis and I waited outside the school for Natasha to show up. We had already discussed what we'd do, and now we just had to wait for her to show up. We were going to grab her and let Kassad take her to be interrogated. It gave me a rotten feeling in my gut, but I knew there was no other way. Eventually, after she didn't show up, I got even more worried. After the bell rung, we met up in the hallway.

"She didn't show up," I said. "Do you think she's on to us?"

Alexis shrugged. "Not sure, but we better let Kassad know, just in case. Oh, and before I forget, did you move that blue cube?"

I nodded. "Right to where you said. It's safe."

I had given it to Kassad for safekeeping, and seeing as though he could seemingly disappear of the face of the earth, it'd be safe with him. We both went to our classes, and eventually, it became clear that Natasha wasn't coming. At lunch, I met up with her again outside.

"Alexis, did you even SEE Natasha today? Was she in your hotel room?"

She thought for a few seconds, and then slowly shook her head. "No… now that I think about it, no, she wasn't. I know you said she left that… pool thing, but maybe something must have happened after that."

I nodded, as I ate my sandwich. As I ate, I started to think of the possibilities that could have happened. Natasha was the daughter of Alexander Romanov, and that might have been why she was in Zurich to begin with, but Switzerland was neutral. It couldn't have been the Soviets or any of their allies because they were too far away to do anything. The Allies weren't likely to do this either. They respected the neutrality of Switzerland, and taking one hostage, even with her connections would have no strategic value whatsoever, unless…

My mouth fell open as I realized what must have happened. Alexis saw this, and asked: "What's wrong?"

"I think I know what happened to Natasha. Come on! We need to go, NOW!" I packed my lunch back into my bag and took off running. Alexis had to sprint to keep up with me.

"Wait up!" she yelled. "What's going on? What happened!?"

I stopped long enough to explain. "Remember when the two of you first met?"

She nodded.

"I don't know how it was with you, but when me and her first met, she told me why she was here in the first place. Being here would make her safe as she would be a prime target for any kind of attack or hostage situation anywhere else."

She looked confused. "Yeah? So? She told me that to, I don't see what this has to do with—"

"What if a Special Forces managed to infiltrate Switzerland and steal her out of the country? The Soviets would be obligated to stop fighting and actually try and work something out to get her back."

She shook her head. "Dammit Leang, maybe I'm having a blond moment or something, but I'm not following you."

"I don't know what a 'blond moment' is, but, what I'm saying is that with her seeming to disappear of the face of the Earth, I think she's been taken prisoner. And the only country that I can think of that would do something like that is the United States. Germany's been taken over, France is pre-occupied with trying to slow down the Soviet advance, South Korea is too far away, and Britain is busy with sending reinforcements into France. The way I see it, the United States is the only country that might be able to pull this off."

"But the US is also neutral!" she exclaimed. "hey said they wouldn't get involved!"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "You haven't been watching the news? Japan just attacked and severally damaged the Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii. This has actually forced the US to declare war on both Russia and it's allies."

Alexis looked stunned at what I said. As far as she knew, Japan and the US were allies. I must admit, it was a bit of a shock to me as well, but there it was. I started running again, and Alexis kept pace with me. I didn't care that I'd probably get in trouble for this, and Alexis was usually in trouble for something or other, and her friend was being held somewhere by the US Special Forces.

When we got back to our Hotel, Kassad was waiting there for us. When he saw us, he said: "Why weren't you there to ambush Natasha? I waited for a pretty long time you know."

I bit my lip and told him about what I thought was going on. He didn't seem to show any emotion at all. "I thought I saw some Navy SEALS crawling around… I just thought they were on a break or something…"

"Did you see where they went?" Alexis asked.

He shook his head. "No, but I bet I can find out. Wanna come with me?"

We both nodded, and pretty soon, we were on our way out of the city. If my hunch was right, whoever took Natasha wouldn't stay in the city. They'd leave for probably the front lines of battle in an abandoned building that they would use as a shield. Since we couldn't get to the front lines on foot, and because the Border Patrols would forbid us, we needed to fly over it as birds.

Alexis already had a bird morph, so Kassad and I needed one too, and probably something that didn't make us seem like prey to a Bald Eagle. Alexis led us back to the zoo, and I acquired a hawk of some kind. Kassad acquired an eagle. Now, I wasn't too good with identifying bird types, so at the time, I didn't know what either of us had.

After we morphed, we spent a few minuets learning how to fly until we finally got it right, and a while after that, we spread out so that we wouldn't look like a birdwatcher's dream come true. Eventually, we were over the border, but now, the hard stuff began. Since we didn't know what country Natasha was taken to, that could be a problem. We had the option of France, Germany, and a fair amount of other countries. Making a decision mostly based on a guess, I said that we should all go to France first.

Natasha Romanov

Undisclosed Location

1516 Hours Local

I couldn't get up. The yeerk wasn't awake yet, and being fused with my brain, that made her susceptible to drugs more then I was. When she did wake up, she opened my eyes and looked around. There was nothing really interesting to see: I/we were in a dark room with cold stone floors and plaster walls. The ceiling at one point was probably tiled, but most of them had come loose or were removed exposing the pipe work of the above floor to me.

She sighed aloud and asked: so, human, make yourself useful for once. Where are we?

I don't know. Probably somewhere close to the front lines, but your guess is a good as mine at this point.

That's just peachy! Came the irritated reply. She rose up, but a wave of nausea hit us both and she went back down. She started puking shortly afterwards too. Once that was finished, she got up again, albeit slower this time, and made her way to the bars that were erected to make a cell of some kind. When my/her vision adjusted enough so we could see, there was a Navy SEAL sitting on a chair in a darkened corner of the room. When he saw that I was awake, he walked over and stopped just out of range of my/her arms.

"Well missy, it's good to see you're awake. Now, we're just going to leave you there until we get some payment for your ransom, and in the meantime, nobody'll attack us. Does that seem fair? Yeah, I think so too. Now," he took out something, although I couldn't really see what it was. "Smile for the camera!"

The flash went off, and for a few seconds, we couldn't see. When we could see again, the SEAL had gone and I was left alone with her. She grabbed onto the bars and started to shake, trying to force them open or something. I sighed in the corner of my mind.

You'll never be able to get out of this place. I said to her. Those bars are solid, and even if you do somehow brake out, you'll be shot on-sight. All we con do now is wait, and hope the ransom comes.

What do you mean by that? She snapped.

Chances are, if they don't get the money soon enough, they'll probably kill us anyways. Or move us, but if they do, you'll probably do something stupid and get us killed.

Shut up, human! I'll think of something.

I laughed at that, and went into silence. With her in my head, it was as close to sleeping as I could possibly get. She kept pounding on the bars, and eventually she was shocked by a stun gun. I felt the jolt and yelped in surprise, mostly because I didn't feel the pain, but more by the fact that they'd actually do something like that.

As I/we were recovering from the bolt, two of our captors stepped in, picked me up, and transported me to the back corner of the room. Eventually, some food was brought in by a pair of guards. The one in the front had the food, and the other one stood outside the cell with an M-16 pointed at me/us. I understood the logic in that. If she jumped the first guard, that's be useless. He had no weapons to steal.

She made a dash for the food as soon as the cell door was closed and started eating. There wasn't too much there, just a chaser of water and two stale pieces of bread. She ate both pieces of bread, and gulped down the water.

Who's the prisoner now? I muttered to no one in particular.

What was that? She asked, somewhat confused at my statement.

I was just wondering which one of us is the prisoner now. Me because you're in my brain, or you for being here in this cell.

She sighed. I suppose we're both prisoners, human.

I have a name, you know. It's Natasha Romanov.

She chuckled at that, and curled up on the floor. I assumed she was trying to get some sleep, so I tried to peek into her dreams to see what I could see. She was blind, but she knew where she was. Firing some echolocation, she found her new host's head submerged under the water of the yeerk pool. After she squeezed up into her host's brain, she opened her new eyes. She could see for the first time in her life, and that was just the beginning. Her entire being was alive with touch, taste, smell, hearing, all the senses that her host took for granted.

I pulled out of her dream, and said nothing about it. Maybe we weren't that different after all. All the yeerks wanted was the right to experience all the things that we took for granted. In the corner of my mind, I smiled. Maybe through this new revelation, I could get her to let me go. After all, nearly every creature on the planet had all of the five senses.