/ Chapter 3 – The Extraction /

Athena crept up to the barred window, currently open for fresh air, where she saw Barinov reading in his bed with a dim light illuminating a book. She amplified her hearing to confirm there were no people nearby, then decided it was time to act.

"Alexander Barinov?" she called. Not loud, but not particularly quiet, either. Barinov looked up from his book, startled.

"Who is there?" He said in Russian, his voice filled with fear.

Athena answered back in Russian, with a Moscow accent typical of someone highly educated and raised in a wealthy family. "Dr. Barinov, I'm over here by the window."

Barinov rose from his bed and walked to the window. He took a look at Athena and his eyes popped in surprised. "Little girl, what are you doing here?" he whispered. "It is very dangerous, you should not be here!"

"It's all right, Dr. Barinov. My name is Athena," she said, smiling at him sweetly.

Barinov smiled back, almost despite himself. "Dear, do you live here on the base? You sound like a Muscovite. But really, you should not be talking to me."

"I'm a friend," Athena said.

Barinov blinked. "Do I know you? I don't think I've seen you before…"

"We haven't met," Athena said. "But I know all about you. You are Alexander Barinov, son of Mikhail and Naina. You have a sister named Tatyana, who is a professor at Moscow State University. You have a doctorate in Genetic Biology. Your thesis was on DNA transfer during fertilization of human ovum and construction of the zygote. It was a very interesting paper, by the way," Athena finished, beaming at him.

"Who are you? How do you know these things?" Barinov asked, confused.

"This will be a bit hard to explain and I'm afraid our time is limited," Athena asked. "I'll need to give you the short version."

"Short version? Version of what, child!" Barinov asked, growing irritated now.

"I'm a recruiter for an organization called Plus Ultra. The short version is that there is a place where people gather who want to improve the world. And if you wish to go, I can take you there, and you will leave this place."

"This is nonsense!" Barinov said, looking around the room fearfully. "Is this a trick…?"

"It's no trick and I can prove it," Athena said.

"How?" Barinov said.

"I'm going to tell you something that you won't believe, but I'll prove it to you," Athena said. "And that will prove what I'm saying about Plus Ultra. You need to understand that Plus Ultra has very advanced technology, much more advanced than anything in your experience."

He looked deeply suspicious at this.

"I'm a machine," Athena said simply, and then she reached up and easily bent the thick steel window bars apart, as if they were rubber.

Barinov stared at the bars, then stared at Athena. He looked very frightened and took several steps backward.

"Don't be afraid, sir," she said. "I won't hurt you. I'm here to save you. If you want to leave, I can get you out of this place."

"You are really… a machine?" he asked in disbelief.

"I am," Athena answered. "But we are short on time. You must tell me now: Do you want to leave?"

Barinov looked helplessly between Athena, the bent bars and his room. "How can I decide, this all too sudden, I don't know…"

"Sir," Athena said in a quiet, soothing voice. "All you need to know is that you can leave. And I can help you get out, and take you to friends who want to help the world. They are not tied to any country or any political entity. And if after you are extracted you wish to go elsewhere, they will send you anywhere you want to go."

He walked to the window again and reached over to touch the bars. He pushed and pulled on them, shaking his head. He then looked at Athena, studying her face, lost in thought. "Whoever made you gave you beautiful eyes," he said idly.

Athena gave him the time to work it through his head, though she sometimes wished humans would hurry up. If he couldn't make a decision now, her protocol was to come back tomorrow night.

But fortunately, he came to a decision. "I don't know who or what you are. I just know that whatever the risk, I must leave this place. I have to trust you. Thank you, Miss Athena."

Athena nodded and smiled. "You're very welcome. All right. I have a plan, but I cannot take you from here. We're in the middle of the camp. The risk to you is too high. We will make our break from your laboratory, which is at the edge of the camp. I know that you sometimes work there at night. Tomorrow night, we will leave from there."

"But how?" Barinov asked. "That facility is much more secure than this one, with strong doors and no windows."

"It's more secure, but not enough to be significant," Athena assured him. "Okay, I need to put these bars back so that no one becomes suspicious."

Athena bent the window bars back, causing Barinov's jaw to drop again. He reached out and touched them once again, then quickly pulled his hand back, the bars hot from being bent twice. He shook his head. "I have no explanation for this," he said, as though trying to convince himself further that Athena was legitimate.

"Don't be afraid, Dr. Barinov. You will be out tomorrow, and you have many friends that are waiting to welcome you. Just stay low until then. Don't do anything you wouldn't otherwise do," Athena said. She heard far-off footsteps. Not close enough to be a concern, but she needed to go.

"Someone is coming," she finished. "I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

Barinov nodded and scrambled back to his bed, hoping it all wasn't some Soviet psychological trick.

The six relevant guards were confirmed to be in their expected locations. Athena reviewed her plan, preparing to initiate her extraction protocol. All was ready. She set her internal state to high alert. She initiated.

Two guards were outside the facility, smoking cigarettes and shaking off the cold. Athena walked up casually and said, "Hello!" in Russian, in a bright voice and big smile.

The two guards stopped suddenly, one in mid-puff of his cigarette. They smiled back at her, looking very surprised. "Hello," one said. "Are you visiting someone here?"

"I'm lost," Athena said, still smiling. "Can you tell me where to find this person?" She held up a slip of paper with a name on it. The paper just had "Queen Elizabeth" on it. She handed the paper to one of the guards.

When both guards looked down, Athena moved at inhuman speed behind them and lifted both of their handguns out of their holsters and then threw them far over the security fence. She then broke the straps of each of their machine guns, pulled them off of their shoulders, and threw them over the fence as well. This action was accomplished in less than half a second.

Athena lifted one man in the air and shoved him into the guard shack, then grabbed the other one and pushed him in as well. She pulled the door shut and bent the door handle so that it couldn't open again. She then moved over to the side of the shack, where an electrical conduit was. She ripped the steel pipe off the building, tearing the wires out of the shack so that the guards could not raise the alarm. She heard muffled yelling within, then saw them trying to turn the door handle. She confirmed it wouldn't move, then moved to the next phase of her plan.

She ran around the building toward the back, where there were two more guards. As she feared, they had heard the commotion and were on alert. She could hear their machine guns being moved and then a loud 'CRACK!' as they pulled the bolts. Apparently both had pulled their machine guns into their hands.

"Help!" Athena yelled in a girlish voice, before she cleared the corner so that they wouldn't see her and immediately fire. "Big scary men are coming!"

She came around the corner, locating the positions of the guns, on alert in case she needed to reverse course and avoid being shot. This was one of the riskier parts of the mission. Her graphene skin was actually quite bullet resistant to most weapons, but she did have vulnerable spots and wasn't completely indestructible. It was best to avoid being shot at all.

She would have preferred that they hadn't heard the action at the front, but this was always a possibility. But there was a high probability that hearing a little girl's voice would cause them to hesitate, and that was the case here.

"Sweetheart, where did you come from?" one of them asked. "Never mind, just go hide in the guard shack while we check things out."

"All right," Athena said fearfully. She scampered behind them. Once they turned away, using both her hands simultaneously, she pulled their machine guns out of each of their hands. She threw them both over the fence. She then grabbed each of their holstered guns and threw those.

One of them had time to yell "Hey!" before Athena picked him up and tossed him into the guard shack. The other one was made of quicker stuff than the other three had been. He got a hold on Athena's arm. She pulled his hand off her as though he were an infant and then shoved him into the guard shack where he landed on the other one, who had just started trying to get to his feet. Athena pulled the door shut, sealed it, and disabled the security.

This maneuver had taken approximately 1.8 seconds, and Athena was dissatisfied that it hadn't gone as smoothly as she'd expected. She made a note to herself to review her performance and see how things could be improved.

She went up to the steel door, which had three very large hinges embedded in the concrete. She could probably bend or break the steel eventually, but the concrete was faster and easier. She used her heel and kicked the concrete covering the middle hinge. It cracked. She hit it several more times and it broke away, exposing some steel rebar reinforcement. She used her hand to chip around the rebar until she could get a grip on it, then tore the rebar out. She kicked the concrete a few more times, and it exposed the steel hinge holding the door.

She repeated this action with the bottom hinge, and then the top hinge. The elapsed time was 46.2 seconds, which she noted with satisfaction was ahead of schedule. They had budgeted a full minute for it.

Athena carefully pulled the steel door out of the frame and gently placed it to the side. She entered the building, running down a hall. She knew that no one else would be in the building at that hour, which she had confirmed by watching people going in and out during the day.

She reached Dr. Barinov's lab door. Although she was reasonably certain things were safe, she cautiously knocked on the door.

"Yes?" She heard Dr. Barinov's voice.

Athena used another very innocent little girl's voice. "Hello? Are you by yourself, Dr. Barinov?" she called out cheerfully.

"Athena?" he asked cautiously. "Yes, yes, I'm alone."

Athena immediately opened the door and peeked through. She saw Dr. Barinov sitting at a lab table. The room was empty. She immediately ran straight at Barinov.

"We have to go, now!" She ordered. The little girl voice was gone. She got behind him and gave a not-too-gentle push toward the door. Barinov looked startled as they exited and she hustled him down the corridor toward the broken door.

"Stop!" she ordered when they reached six feet before. She ran ahead of him, checking to see if the coast was still clear. It was.

"Go!" she said. Barinov, to his credit, didn't waste time and started moving.

"Follow!" she ordered again. Athena led him to the corner of the building. She peeked around it, checking to see if anyone was there. So far, so good – everyone was still acting predictably, the way she liked it. She focused across a field toward a gate in the fence, which was how they were getting out. Next to the gate was a guard tower, manned with a rifle.

"Sir," Athena said. "Listen carefully. The timing is important. There are two guards. One at the gate, and one in the tower. After that, we're out. We will walk together toward the guard shack. It's imperative that you do not panic. You will call to him and say you found a little girl wandering around. I will take care of the rest. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Barinov said nervously. "I can do that."

"Let me see your face," Athena said. He looked directly at her, and Athena's empathy interface evaluated his emotional state. He was clearly nervous, but determined. She evaluated that he was ready and most likely would perform adequately.

"Are you ready?" she asked, watching his face carefully.

"Yes. Yes, I am."

Athena was pleased to hear his voice very steady. She put a happy smile on her face and Barinov smiled back involuntarily. "Follow," she said.

Athena grabbed his hand and held it like a little girl being led by an adult. As they got near the guard booth, she started speaking in a normal conversational tone. "I'm not sure how I got lost," she said. "I just left Uncle's office to look around. He said I wasn't supposed to, but I was just so curious!"

The guard poked his head out and smiled at the scene. "Hello!" Athena called out with a wave.

"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but I found this little girl wandering around," Barinov said. Athena was very pleased that he delivered his line perfectly.

"Oh?" the guard said, then asked Athena, "You're a visitor? I didn't hear anything about that," he said. Not suspicious, but curious.

"Is that a guard shack?" Athena said with big eyes. "Could I see it?"

"Um, I'm not really supposed to…" the guard said, but Athena was already walking in. The guard followed.

Athena pointed at a random spot on the floor. "Oh my! A huge spider!"

The guard looked down and Athena ran behind him and grabbed his side weapon, then broke his machine gun shoulder strap. She dropped the weapons to the floor and pulled a gag out of her pocket. She waited until he opened his mouth to shout, then stuffed the gag into his mouth, with straps that wrapped around his head with hook-loop fasteners.

Athena then pulled out another strap and grabbed his hands, forcibly pulling them together and binding them. She pulled another strap out and wrapped it around his body, and still another and wrapped it around his legs. The guard tripped and fell to the floor, writhing like a snake caught by a mongoose. She put on the final touch by pulling out another strap and tying his leg to a nearby post so that he couldn't roll his way out. Finally she bent the barrels of both guns to disable them.

Barinov was peeking through the door, watching in open-mouth disbelief at Athena making quick work of the guard at superhuman speed of just over a second.

"I believe you now," Barinov gasped.

"Stay in here," Athena ordered. "Do not touch the weapons."

He nodded. Athena quickly evaluated that he would most likely stay put and not do anything unauthorized.

She exited the guard shack and scanned the tower. No sign of the guard, which most likely meant he was in the tower and didn't see or hear anything. The tower was approximately twenty feet high. She had the option of jumping up to the guard or climbing. Since she couldn't see the guard and couldn't know for absolute certainty if he didn't hear anything, she decided to climb rather than risk jumping and finding a gun in her face.

She climbed the tower quickly but silently, reaching just below the window in 2.1 seconds. Not knowing which way the guard was facing, it was risky to peek in the window, but necessary. Sure enough, she got unlucky and the guard was looking straight at her. His eyes grew wide. Athena immediately completely the climb and swung through one of the openings in the tower.

The guard had just started to reach down for his gun when Athena grabbed it out of its holster and threw it over her shoulder through the opening and into the forest. She grabbed his rifle leaning against the wall and flipped that into the forest as well.

This guard, however, reacted much faster than the normal human. He struck Athena's face, which knocked her back, but otherwise didn't affect her in the slightest. To her annoyance, he didn't open his mouth to yell so she could stuff in a gag. She stomped his foot, hard, but not hard enough to where it would break any bones. When he opened his mouth to cry out, she gagged him, and then completed tying him up.

Satisfied he wasn't going anywhere, Athena jumped the twenty feet to the ground, landing next to the guard shack. Barinov recoiled as she suddenly appeared.

"Oh sweet lord!" he exclaimed. "You're going to give me heart failure."

"Stay here until I call for you, then move quickly," she said. She ran to the gate and tore off the padlock. After opening it, Athena took a final look to make certain there were no guards who might injure Barinov. She carefully scanned the camp. Several infrared heat signatures ran toward the lab building. Athena hoped it would be a clean getaway, but apparently not.

"Now!" she snapped at Barinov, who didn't waste any time. He ran straight through the gate and Athena followed.

"We have an airplane approximately four miles from here," she said. "We just need to get there and we're out."

Just then, a siren started going off. Barinov made a moaning sound. "How will we get there in time? The guards will be on motorcycles."

"It's all right, they'll think we're on foot," Athena said.

"But we are on foot," he said, confused.

"I'm sorry, I meant they'll think we're on human foot," Athena answered. "Stop here, and just relax your body."

"Pardon?" Barinov asked.

Athena reached down and picked up Barinov, gripping him cradle-style in her arms. She began running much faster, increasing her pace to ten miles per hour. "Are you all right, sir?"

"Yes, I'm fine," he said wide-eyed.

"I'm going to increase the speed," Athena said. "Please don't be frightened, I won't drop you. If you get nervous, it might help to close your eyes. Are you ready?"

"I suppose so…" he said uncertainly.

Athena upped her speed to forty miles per hour, racing through the forest, dodging trees and rocks. She deliberately chose difficult paths that she knew wheeled vehicles would have trouble, just in case they found a way to track her. She noticed that Barinov took her advice and kept his eyes closed.

They reached the airplane clearing about seven minutes later, and Athena was gratified to see that they had already warmed up the engine.

"We heard the siren," Stan said, looking ready for action, as Athena pushed Barinov through the door and Peter pulled him in, then loaded herself. The airplane door closed, and Stan said, "Let's fly!" as the airplane began taxiing across the clearing. Taking off into the air, Stan and Peter relaxed, both with big grins on their faces. Athena noticed that Peter had his rifle at the ready.

As they flew across the dark forest, Athena's internal state switched to normal instead of high alert. She looked at Barinov, who had his eyes closed and was mumbling something to himself, possibly a prayer. Athena waited for him to finish and open his eyes. He looked much calmer now.

"Dr. Barinov, would you mind if we switched to English? I don't believe Stan speaks Russian, though I'm not certain about Peter," Athena asked. Stan and Peter looked at each other, apparently not knowing that she could speak Russian.

Barinov laughed, then answered in English. "Of course not, Miss Athena. I'm happy to speak English, for many reasons. I should have known you were multilingual."

Athena made the introductions of Peter and Stan to Dr. Barinov.

"She's quite the machine, isn't she?" Peter grinned. "I feel useless on this trip, not that I'm complaining."

Barinov shook his head. "There are no words to describe what I saw her do. And no one had to be hurt to do it."

"I'm actually a little envious," Peter said. "I would've loved to watch the action, except for the matter of possibly getting killed."

Dr. Barinov laughed loudly. "Oh, it feels good to laugh again. Thank you all for everything!"

Barinov chatted with Peter most of the way back after learning he was Ukrainian. Athena took the opportunity to review her performance so she could submit a report to the Office of Recruitment, as well as to Caroline. The version to her mum usually had more details on her physical and mental performance.

They also took the opportunity to explain to Barinov about the travel gates, to which he just shook his head and said, "Normally I would doubt every word, but I'll believe anything after watching Athena."

By the time they actually walked through the gate for the return journey, Barinov apparently decided to take whatever came in stride because he went through it like he traveled that way every day. As they walked out of the gate room, a chorus of voices greeted them. Athena quickly found Caroline, who was walking over.

"Athena!" Caroline said with relief. "I'm so glad you're back safe."

"I'm fine, Caroline," Athena said, smiling. "It didn't go perfectly, but it went well enough. We triggered an alarm, but no other trouble than that."

"Athena was absolutely incredible!" Barinov said to Caroline. "I can't thank her and everyone enough for getting me out of that place. I thought I would die there."

He suddenly looked closely at Caroline's eyes, then Athena's, and grinned. "The eyes! Do I have the honor of meeting Athena's creator?"

Caroline smiled at him. "You do, sir. I'm Dr. Caroline Chaumers. And welcome to Tomorrowland."

Barinov swallowed, tears filling his eyes. He took a moment to compose himself, taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, it's all just hitting me. Please forgive me a few tears. Bless you for creating her. She is just marvelous."

He turned to Athena, taking both of her hands in his. "And bless you, Athena. You may claim you're a machine, but I'll always consider you an angel delivered from God. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Dr. Barinov," Athena said, smiling. "I'm very glad I could help."

"I'll have none of that Dr. Barinov from you, Athena, or from Athena's mother!" Barinov said. "I must be Alex to you."

Caroline laughed. "Well, 'Athena's mum' is very proud of her as well, and of course we'd be honored to call you Alex. And you must join us for dinner. I'm not sure how a home-cooked meal will compare to the food you lived on in Siberia, but I shall do my best."

Alex closed his eyes with a grin, as though he were in ecstasy. "You have no idea how wonderful that sounds. You're going to make me cry again."

George was back to his jolly self, grinning at the exchange along with Peter and Stan. And even Pam had a rare smile – and seemed to have suspicious wetness in her own eye.

"I'm very relieved that the mission went well and happy you're with us," Pam said. "But I'm a little worried that the Soviets have now learned about Athena, who is somewhat our secret weapon."

"Ha! Don't worry about that," Alex laughed. "I have no doubt the Soviet High Command will not be hearing about Athena. Would you file a report saying a little girl overpowered yourself and five other guards, tore open a maximum security facility, and made her way out with a dissident scientist?"

Author's Note: Reviews are greatly appreciated!

The official story site is at www. frankandathena .com for discussions of the story. I usually update there first. - T.K.