by Jeff Uribe & Sydnie MacElroy
[NRPG : Well, here's the latest installment of the Sydnie/Jeff collaborative effort. Leo and Zenya's first date... no NC-17 stuff in here... yet!]
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[JEH, Zulu office. 10:15 am]
Zenya sat down on the corner of Leo's desk and waited while he finished reading the message on his computer screen. "How's your recovery progressing," she asked when he looked up. She kept her voice low, although it was an innocent enough question. Only Leo would catch what she was really asking about and everyone else in the office seemed to be busy anyway.
"Without a hitch," he replied, then smiled at Zenya's raised eyebrow. "I had the CAT scan. They didn't find anything."
"Qu'elle suprise," Zenya muttered. "No more episodes?"
"Haven't noticed any. Maybe it was just an after effect." He patted her hand. "You worry too much. Do you want to have dinner tonight?"
The way he dropped his voice to ask the question brought a smile to Zenya's face. She instinctively glanced back at the others in the room, not that she would have really cared if they'd overheard, or that any of them would have been surprised if they had. "Are you asking me for a date," she asked.
Leo's face colored slightly and he looked away uncomfortably. "Uh, that was the general idea."
Zenya had intended to tease him a bit more, but the phone on her desk started to ring. "Pick me up at seven," she said and went to answer it. "Gorky."
[Aleksandr Gorky was your father, correct?] a strange voice asked in Russian. He had a heavy Ukrainian accent and spoke in a low whisper.
"Da."
[Yes, I thought so. We have much to discuss.]
"Who is this," Zenya asked, not quite sure whether to be curious or alarmed.
There was a pause on the line while the caller apparently thought over the question. [Call me Peshkov,] he said at last. [That's good enough.]
Zenya recognized the reference to Maksim Gorky and laughed, but she was instantly on guard. "Aleksei Maksimovich, I presume. I thought you died in 1936."
[I have no time for humor,] the stranger replied, although it sounded as if he might be fighting back a laugh of his own. [I have information. Meet me in one hour at the bar on Sycamore Street. I think you know the one I mean. Come alone.]
The line went dead and Zenya hung up the phone, feeling a little sick. The only bar he could have meant was the one in the little mall that stood where her family's home had been.
*****
45 minutes had passed since Zenya had her mysterious phone call, but whoever it was had said something that troubled her greatly, or so Leo thought as he saw her concentrating on her paperwork. She hadn't said a word or looked up from her paperwork since that phone call. Leo was going to ask if she wanted some lunch when he saw her look at her watch, then get up and walk out of the office for parts unknown without a word or a glance.
Leo thought about getting up and following her, but then thought the better of it. If she wanted him along, she would've asked. Turning back to his paper-work, Leo had a strange feeling that he was being watched. Slowly looking to his left, he saw Jim, Vanessa, and Martin had come to his desk.
"So Leo, where are you gonna take her?" Jim asked, with a smile on his face.
Leo spun towards them in his chair and leaned back with his arms folded across his chest and a smile on his face. "Oh, I don't know. I was thinking maybe McDonalds and a movie...." he said, "whaddya think?"
Martin looked up thoughtfully and said, "I think that's where I took Emily on our first date. I forgot what we watched, thought."
Jim shook his head. "You can't take her to a burger joint for your first date, Leo." he said, seeing a slight look of relief cross Vanessa's face as he said it. "Now, Taco Bell, on the other hand...."
Vanessa stood there, shaking her head as Jim, Martin, and Leo chuckled at their attempts to shock her. "I'm surrounded by Neanderthals." she said, as she looked at each of them in turn.
"Actually, I have no idea where to take her." Leo said, "I'm open to any suggestions."
After a half hour's worth of debate and discussion, which was joined by Jordan who was taking a break from trying to explain how they had managed to destroy three rentals and a jet, Vanessa made reservations for them at a trendy restaurant that she and Richard went to once. After that major group decision had been made, Jordan gave a sigh and looked at the papers on his desk.
"Next case, I'm leaving all of you here." he said with a smile. "You guys give me way too much paperwork after each case."
Everyone laughed as they all went back to their desks. After a moment of looking at the papers in front of him, Leo swung around towards Vanessa's desk once again.
"Hey Vanessa, do I have to dress up to eat at this restaurant?"
As the others laughed, Leo got his answer when a crumpled wad of paper hit him between the eyes.
*****
[Triangle Bar, 11:15 am]
Sitting in a corner booth waiting for something to happen, Zenya couldn't help remembering sitting in a caf� across from Rebecca Cross, or all that had come after. This time, though, her gun was out and ready, already aimed at the seat across the table.
She had been there ten minutes when the door opened. Zenya hadn't known exactly what to expect, but the man who appeared certainly wasn't it. He was maybe five-one or -two, sickly thin and looked like a cross between Albert Einstein and Ross Perot. He glanced around nervously, but the few people in the bar in at this time of the morning paid him no attention. When he spotted Zenya, he seemed for a moment as if he was going to change his mind and turn to leave, but then he moved forward, finally glancing around a final time before sitting.
"Zenevieva Aleksandrovna," he said, very respectfully. "I'm sorry to bring you to this place, but it seemed somehow.." He looked around pensively. "..appropriate."
"What do you want?"
"The question is, what do you want? I have information. I can help you, but... In 1917, it was dangerous to be connected to the tsar, even if you were only a scullery maid or an assistant cook, even if you weren't a particularly loyal servant. Strange how that assistant cook could become a powerful general just a few years later," he said.
"So you know my family history," Zenya said, more calmly than she would have thought possible. "What of it?"
"Your father, too, changed political alliances to suit the climate of the moment."
"And you're wondering if it's a genetic flaw?" They fell silent as a waitress approached and 'Peshkov' waved her away. "I'm not interested in politics, Aleksei Maksimovich."
He squirmed a little at hearing that name. The joke wasn't funny anymore. "I have something for you," he said. He started to reach for something, but stopped before Zenya could react. "I'm going to reach into my pocket. I am unarmed, so please don't shoot."
Zenya had never been in danger of underestimating him, but at that, she was even more on guard. "Slowly," she said.
'Peshkov' nodded as if there weren't any question about it. He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small vial with a tiny amount of clear liquid in it. Zenya let it sit on the table. "It's barely enough for a sample," the man said, "but it was all I could risk taking."
"What is it?"
"It was originally developed in the sixties by a team of scientists working at one of the camps in Siberia. Later, a few of those scientists escaped and came to America. They needed secrets to sell, and so this came with them," he said. His tone suggested that he might have been one of those scientists. "It has been improved upon since then. The drug has a most unusual effect."
'Peshkov' stopped speaking suddenly, and Zenya had the sudden impulse to choke the rest of the story out of him. But that wouldn't really accomplish much, so she said, "Would you care to enlighten me?"
"In time. We are all many people, when you look closely enough. Yourself, for example. Can you say that you are the same person when faced with mortal danger as you are when you are reading the morning paper over a cup of coffee? If the soldier in each of us could be isolated, separated from the rest and brought to the fore, so that the other side wasn't even aware of it's existence"
Zenya suddenly, and maybe irrationally, thought of Leo. Nothing 'Peshkov' had said gave her good reason, but still.
"I see you catch on quickly, Zenevieva Aleksandrovna. That's good, but we move ahead of ourselves. The early trials conducted by the Soviet scientists were a dismal failure. The result was *too* unpredictable. The test subjects quickly turned on each other. It was sheer madness. But as I said" He touched the vial almost lovingly. "it has been improved upon. The new formula has never been tested before."
"Why now," Zenya asked.
"There is only one person who can answer that question, and that person is not me. Your next question will be, is there an antidote? I believe that there is. Do I have it? No. And you have one more question, so go ahead and ask it."
"Why him?"
"I suggest you ask yourself that question. And think long and hard about the answer. And now, I must bid you good day." 'Peshkov' stood suddenly and was almost out the door before Zenya could react. She let him go and slowly reached out for the vial.
*****
[Zulu office, 12:30PM]
Their first date was supposed to be... Well, Zenya wasn't exactly sure just what it was *supposed* to be, but there certainly shouldn't have been this cloud hanging over it. The vial of whatever-it-was was tucked safely away in her purse, out of sight but not out of mind. She'd spent the better part of an hour wandering around the city trying to figure out what to do about it when the thought struck her that it really wasn't her place to decide anything unless and until Leo told her that it was. One problem solved, but somewhere, the God of Lousy Timing was having a good laugh at their expense.
Thus occupied, she didn't really notice the change in atmosphere when she got back to the office and returned to the stack of papers on her desk without a word to anyone. The feeling that someone was looking at her stole over her as soon as she sat down, but when she looked up everyone was going about their own business. Except that Martin was grinning and Vanessa was barely holding back a laugh. Zenya turned back to her work and barely got a sentence read before Leo appeared next to her desk.
"Something's wrong," he said.
Zenya nodded. When she looked up at him, all the others were just turning back to their own work, not quite quickly enough this time. Zenya couldn't help smiling. "How much do they know?" A small chuckle drifted over to them from Vanessa's vicinity. Damn the acoustics in this room, Zenya thought.
"Well, pretty much... everything," Leo said, slightly apologetically.
Zenya just shook her head. It was going to be a very long afternoon.
*****
[Zenya's apartment, 6:50PM]
Leo had kept the evening's plans top secret. Zenya had finally gotten Vanessa to at least give her a hint of how to dress. Formal. Great. As if every government employee keeps a large wardrobe of formal wear hidden in the back of a closet. Especially one who's social life for the last too many years had consisted of gallery openings where purple hair and extensive body piercings were considered the height of fashion. Add to that the fact that she hadn't managed to find two minutes to speak to Leo alone all afternoon and therefore hadn't been able to tell him about the meeting with 'Peshkov' and the sum total was that she was a nervous wreck.
With ten minutes to go, she found a dress that would do just fine. It had been hanging in the closet a long time, one of those purchases that makes no sense at the time, but that you're thankful for later. At least it still fit. That was a good sign.
The doorbell rang just as Zenya finished transferring the basic necessities from her purse into something that would pass for an evening bag. Just before turning to answer the door, she slipped the vial into the bag. She would have to talk to him about this sometime tonight.
*****
[The Glass Slipper, 8:00 pm]
"Hmmm... The Glass Slipper." Zenya said, as she and Leo entered the upscale restaurant. "I'm impressed. Can you afford a place like this on your FBI salary?"
Leo laughed, "Well, I had to scrounge in my hidden cash stash in my underwear drawer, but I think I can swing it."
Zenya gave off a little laugh at that. She looked around after they were seated and found the ambience to be quite romantic. Leo reminded himself to thank Vanessa after tonight for making the reservations. While they waited for their orders to come, they listened to the live music that was playing and watched as several couples danced closely on the dimly lit dance floor. Leo glanced over at Zenya several times, noticing just how beautiful she looked in that evening gown of hers, and just how much he was falling for her.
After they had eaten, exchanging small talk and seeing who they knew that were in the restaurant, Leo got up from the table and asked if Zenya wanted to dance. The number that the band was playing was an old favorite of Leo's, and as they swayed on the floor, Leo could only think of how things couldn't get any better than this. Holding Zenya close to him, Leo smelled the light fragrance of her perfume. It was almost similar to the one that Jenn used to wear, all those years ago. Leo closed his eyes for a fraction of a second....
*****
[Leo's Apartment, 5:00 am - the next morning]
... only to open them to turn off his alarm. All of a sudden, his nerves were on high alert. His eyes opened wide as he took in his surroundings. He was at his apartment... in his bed... nude. Confusion flooded his mind since he never slept nude, at least.... not alone. That fact was confirmed as he saw a female arm draped over his neck and saw the telltale tattoo that ringed its left ring finger.
Leo's stomach and heart switched places as he heard Zenya's voice say from behind him, "Hey sailor, are you up yet?" The only thought that flew through Leo's mind was, "Oh god... what have I done?"