Chapter Twelve

T'ing Leang

Shanghai, China

1945 Hours Local

When Natasha called me with news of the Soviet invasion of the United States, I was first shocked, then confused at why Natasha hadn't done anything about it yet. She told me that she didn't even know about this invasion, but I failed to see how. She was the daughter of the Premier of the entire Soviet Union, how could she NOT know? Well, that wasn't important now one way or another. Right now, we all had to get to Canada, and FAST.

After coming up with nothing as to how I could go to Canada, I went to the window of my small apartment and tried to think of something. Then, it hit me. A while back, I had heard of several people from Hong Kong going to Canada inside a cargo container from Hong Kong Harbour. Maybe I could do the same… of course, that meant that I might be discovered and sent back to China, but at the time, I didn't care. I went outside and managed to avoid the hellish traffic of the city until I got to the harbour. When I did, I asked around for a ship that was leaving for Canada. Most of the people there were telling me very nasty things which I won't repeat, but one of them pointed to one of the ships. He didn't speak Chinese very well (so I guessed he was from Vietnam or Japan) but I got the message. I thanked him, and went to find a safe spot to morph and hopefully catch the ship before it left the harbour. It took a few minutes, but eventually, I was finished, and I took off, flying hard to catch up with the ship, which was now already moving out of the harbour.

I barely made it onto the stern of the ship, and when I was on board, I collapsed from exhaustion. Once I managed to catch my breath, I demorphed and took cover between the larger cargo containers. I stayed there until nightfall, mostly because I didn't want to get caught, but secondly because I was getting hungry and with most of the crew asleep, I could hopefully raid the kitchen or something. Moving quietly, I squeezed out from in-between the containers and strode across the deck. The cold metal beneath my feet making me gasp the first time, but after that, I just moved. Making sure nobody saw me; I crept slowly into the ship, and went down several flights of stairs. I kept reading the signs as I went, hoping to see something like "Kitchen" or "Mess Hall" or something. The cold air was now chilling the thin clothes I wore and I started shivering. I avoided areas that had the few people who were pulling the night shift, and I eventually found a room with coffee, a microwave oven, a few loafs of bread, and various other foods.

I made sure not to turn on the lights while I worked at making my first meal onboard the ship, and by the time I was waiting for my coffee, I couldn't help but wonder if the smell from the beans would attract any curious noses. It didn't and when I gulped the hot beverage down, I revealed in the taste. This HAD to have been Columbian coffee, which is one of the best coffees in the world.

With the beverage down, and my stomach full, I put everything back exactly the way I found it, and I went to the bathroom to do my business. After getting some more water in me to counter the effects of the caffeine, I went back to my hiding place and tried to fall asleep. Daytime had to be coming soon, and I couldn't get caught.

This cycle of waiting and doing nightly raids had apparently attracted some attention by the time Vancouver harbour was in sight, but the sailors just figured that it was rats or something. When the ship was docked, I made my way out from between the containers and off the ship, the hard way. I went to the back of the ship, jumped, and dived into the water. Holding my breath, I swam the rest of the way into Canada. When I made my way ashore fairly close to the harbour, I was even more exhausted, but I wasn't safe yet. After I went into Vancouver itself, I tried to find a place where I could lay low and hopefully regain my energy.

I found it soon after wandering through the city: the Chinese Embassy. I went in to it, got some decent food, clothes, cash (Canadian dollars, naturally), and rest. Once I was well-rested the next day, I got a map of the city from the people there, and I deemed myself ready to leave. I found the train station for the trans-continental railroad, and asked for directions to there. When I did get there, I paid for my ticket on the next train to Nova Scotia and waited until the train came in.

When it did, I took some more much-needed rest. In fact, I'm pretty sure I slept the whole way to Nova Scotia because when I was waking up, a stewardess was saying: "Excuse me miss, but we're here."

Groggily, I woke up, got what little stuff I had with me, and left. I felt much better when I saw Alexis standing on the platform. Without thinking, I ran towards her and hugged her. "It's so good to see you again, Alexis."

I let up on my grip with her, and she smiled. "Same with you, Leang. How'd you get here, anyways?"

"You don't want to know," I said simply.

"Oh, come on! I mean it's not like you swam across the entire Pacific Ocean and crossed this country on foot, did you?"

I laughed despite myself. "Actually, it was something like that," and I told her exactly what happened with me adventure to get here. When I was finished, Alexis chuckled.

"And I thought I had problems getting here, did you see Natasha or Kassad on your way here?"

I shook my head. "I was asleep for the entire train ride. Sorry."

She 'hmm'ed and we went into the city. After looking around for a couple of hours, and finding nobody that either of us recognized, I suggested that we go to one of the theatres. Apparently, a Comedy Festival, as the Canadians called it, was happening now, and I thought it would be a good idea to go there and relax for a bit.

Alexis agreed with me, and we went into downtown. Once we were at the theatre to get tickets for the whole week, I spotted a Soviet Commando. I nudged Alexis' shoulder, and pointed to the Commando. She nodded, and we slipped in for a closer look. There wasn't just the one Commando, but a whole team of them, all centred around one young woman.

It took a few seconds for me to recognize her, having not seen her in years, but when I did, I yelled out: "Natasha! Over here!" waving my arms as I did so. Natasha looked around confused at who was calling her name, especially in English, and when she saw us, she waved and smiled. She said something to her bodyguards, and they went to a farther distance away, but they were still close enough to her to prevent us from trying anything.

I looked at her confused, and she shrugged. "I told my father that this war of his was too stressful for me, and that Halifax was having a comedy festival. He let me go here, but I have to be back in Moscow by the end of the week, and he also sent several guards to cover me so I don't get kidnapped like last time."

I nodded, and Alexis gave her a look. "And your dad just let you go, even though there's a war on right next door?"

Natasha shrugged again. "I guess it's because Canada's neutral in this war, just like every other Allied country. In fact, my father doesn't seem to have any problems with them. He says that it was the Americans that destroyed us in the previous war."

It didn't make sense to me, but I decided not to push it. Eventually, we all got our tickets to the comedy festival and Natasha went back to her hotel. Alexis and I had to find a different hotel and check in there. That'd be tough, but not impossible. Besides, if worse came to worse, we could always break into a room as birds.

While we'd only use that option as a last resort, it was still there. Fortunately, we did manage to find a room and when we had settled down into it, I wound up collapsing on the bed. I still needed some rest.

When I woke up again, it was the middle of the night and I swore softly. My biological clock was thrown out of whack and it would be a while before it was back to normal. Alexis was sleeping on the bed next to me and I tried to go back to sleep. It didn't work, so I wound up staring at the ceiling before sleep finally caught up with me again.

When I woke up again, Alexis was getting out a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Groggily, I got up and went to join her, when I heard a tap coming from the window. I looked over and saw that a hawk of some kind was sitting there. It looked at me for a while, then I heard: Well, Leang? Are you going to let me in, or would you rather I try to force my way in through the front door?

I snapped awake instantly, ran to the window and opened it for Natasha. When she was inside and demorphed, I asked: "Did you have any problems getting away from your security guards?"

"Less then some," she replied. "As far as they know I went to the bathroom, and didn't come out. To them, I simply vanished off the face of the earth. I wonder how the superior guard is taking that."

I laughed, and Alexis came in to see who I was talking to. When she saw Natasha, she broke into a smile. "Goddamn, it's good to see you again 'Tash."

"Same with you, Alexis. So, has anyone found Kassad yet?"

Alexis and I shook our heads. Who knew where that guy was at ANY given time? Anyways, I wondered what we'd do now. It seemed best that we should lay low in Canada until this new war died down, but who knew how long that would be? And besides, the yeerks might already be planning another offensive. It was pretty clear what we needed to do: Find Kassad and see if he heard anything from his underground contacts. In the meantime, we needed to possibly find and recruit anybody new that we could find.

I turned to Natasha. "You DID bring the morphing cube with you, right?"

She nodded. "Da, but there could be a problem with that: I left it with my security guards so somebody else will have to go in and get it. I'll wait here, because if any one of those guards sees me, they'll grab me on-sight."

I nodded. "I'll go get it. Besides, I think I'll have an easier time with it anyways seeing as how I have more morphs then you do."

Alexis and Natasha nodded. I got the directions to the hotel Natasha was staying in, and left. When I got close to the building, I saw almost all of the security guards crawling around the outside; their mirrored sunglasses reflecting in the movements of the other one keeping a sharp eye out for the Premier's daughter.

I managed to slip into the hotel easily enough. The guards attention was focused on the search for Natasha, so they weren't interested in one Chinese girl looking around. I went up to Natasha's room, and tried the door. It was locked, so I went to plan B. I had acquired some various insect morphs when I was back in China, so I could use one of those to slip under the door. After finding a nice utility closet to hide in, I began morphing into a cockroach. (Yes, we have them in China too.) After running along on the ground for a bit of time, I managed to get to the door and slip under it. I demorphed and to my relief, nobody was in the room.

I laughed. "This is almost too easy!" I said aloud.

I found the cube hidden amongst Natasha's luggage and I pulled it out. I bit my lip when I realised my dilemma. So much for the easy part. I thought. How am I going to get this thing out of here?

Seeing no other viable option, I went to the window, and threw the cube down into what looked like a dumpster. My aim was a little off, and I think it hit the edge before bouncing off and landing in a pile of old newspaper. I made a face, and shrugged. Hell, go with what works, I thought. Now it was just a matter of getting down there and getting the cube back to my hotel room…

Well, first things first: I morphed into the eagle I had and flew down to where the cube landed. After digging for it, I perched on top of it, and grabbed hold of it with my talons. After I managed to hook it, I made sure I wasn't going to let go of it, and took off. Of course, that might have looked weird to anybody watching me from below, but then again, I was flying pretty high up. I was doing that because partly A: it was fun, and B: so I could easily dive down and land on the roof of my own hotel. After I did that, I dropped the cube onto the balcony and landed.

After I demorphed, I tossed the cube to Natasha who was sitting on a couch in front of the TV in the room, watching an update on the war. It was obvious why she didn't go out: with all the guards combing the city for her, she couldn't step outside without being morphed. After Natasha caught the cube, she said: "so, what do you want to do now? Go to the comedy festival?"

Alexis and I shrugged and agreed. There wasn't much else to do anyways.