Mission 5: Chap 5a - “I will do whatever it takes to get him back. Whatever. Doesn’t matter."

Murdock wiped more of the grease paint from under Face’s eyes and tutted for probably the fifth time in as many minutes. Face sighed, “Murdock, buddy, you’re starting to sound like a clock. What’s the problem?”

 

Dabbing at the bullet wound on Face’s head a little more forcefully than was strictly necessary, Murdock frowned at him as he answered. “You know what the problem is Face, I don't see why you have to go wandering about the city on your own! It’s not safe!”

 

 

Face sighed and his eyes wandered over to BA who had managed to get a fire going in the dank and dismal shelter they had made under the arches of a dilapidated railway bridge. It was late afternoon, and they had hitched a ride on the next freight train that had rumbled past after phoning Bunter from the forest. Face hadn’t been too worried about where it was going, had only been interested in getting into a built up area, finding some supplies and moving out after Hannibal, but was quite pleased to find himself in Omsk. Omsk was a reasonably big city, on a major train line as well. Russia was fucking huge so it made life so much easier if they were somewhere with major transport links.

 

 

“HM, you know we need some gear, and you know it makes sense for me to go on my own. You and BA don't speak the language, you’d stand out. The last thing we need to do is draw attention to ourselves!”

 

 

“The las’ thing we need is to be here at all!” BA grouched as he poked at the fledgling fire, “Shoulda called an extraction and got the hell outta here!”

 

 

Biting his lip, Face swallowed his retort. They’d been over this again and again and again in the last four hours. He obviously wasn’t going to change BA’s mind on that front.

 

 

Murdock shot a nervous glance between the two of them and decided a swift change of subject was in order, “So, Facey, how come you speak the lingo anyway? You been livin’ out here and not tellin’ us?”

 

 

Face shook his head, “Nah. Too fucking cold for me. There was this nun in one of the orphanages I was in, she taught me.” It was still awkward, discussing this type of thing with anyone other than Hannibal. He knew it was only a matter of time until he started getting the long, pitying stares from Murdock if he talked about being an orphan for too long. He hated the long pitying stares.

 

 

To his surprise, Murdock just laughed, “What, Sister Helga? Bet she was a barrel full of laughs!”

 

 

“No!” Face couldn’t hold back the smile, “She was American. Sister Mary-Catherine if you must know. But she had lived for years in some Russian convent in Paris.” He’d liked Sister Mary-Catherine, she’d had a sense of humour, something a lot of priests and nuns seemed to be missing.

 

 

“Right. So just Russian then, you don’t speak anything else?”

 

 

Face shrugged, suddenly a little self conscious. The truth was, he spoke a lot of languages, it was just something his brain seemed hard wired to do. Sister Maria had taught him Spanish, useful when you lived in California. And since he’d joined up he tended to collect a little bit of the language of whatever place they went to. If he had enough time before they went out he would even buy one of those CDs and listen to it while he ran, on the plane over, even while he slept. Either way, his brain just seemed to soak it all up.

 

 

“A few different ones,” he answered vaguely, “Comes in handy, you know?”

 

 

Tilting his head sideways, Murdock just looked at him with a thoughtful, “Hmmm,” sensing the deliberate vagueness.

 

 

“Right!” Face got to his feet, “I’d better get going, stuff to get, you know?”

 

 

Murdock tried one more time, “You sure one of us shouldn’t come with you Face?”

 

 

Face gripped his arm, “Buddy, this is what I do, okay? Requisitions officer? I can do it in my sleep. Two hours, three max, and I’ll be back with everything we need.” His expression darkened just a little, “And if I’m not back in six, you use the Sat phone and call in an extraction. Don’t waste time looking for me, the boss is the one running out of time. When you get back to base, find the General and tell him everything. Okay?”

 

 

“Face...”

 

 

“I can look after myself, bud. You go get the boss. Promise me now?”

 

 

Murdock nodded miserably but Face just beamed at him, “Okay! See you later then guys!” and he ducked out of the shelter and strolled confidently along in the rain, singing softly in Russian to himself.

 

 

Watching him with an anxious writhing snake in his belly, Murdock didn’t notice BA until the big guy was standing right behind him, one hand resting lightly on his hip.

 

 

“Don’ worry about that fool,” the deep reassuring voice in his ear told him, “He so jazzed up at the minute he thinks he’s indestructible.”

 

 

Murdock sighed loudly. That was exactly what he was worried about.       

 

 

_________________________

 

 

“BA,” Murdock wound his fingers together in worry, “it’s been five hours, he said he’d be back in three!”

 

 

“I know what he said! He also said to wait six hours before calling an extraction!” BA paced to the front of the shelter again and looked out into the dark night and the driving sleety rain. “We give him another hour like he said and then we make the call.”

 

 

“We can’t just leave him!” Murdock felt like he was being torn ten different ways. “What if he’s in real trouble?”

 

 

BA rubbed at the deep frown lines on his forehead as he tried to come up with an answer that would calm Murdock down. Truth of the matter was, though, they were caught between the frying pan and the fire, and BA couldn’t see how they could get out of this without third degree burns.

 

 

“Look, fool-” he turned to look at Murdock, but spun back, hand on his gun, as a movement to his left caught his eye.

 

 

Suddenly Face appeared out of the darkness; two refuse sacks slung over his shoulder and a nasty purpling bruise rising up around his eye.

 

 

“Problems?” BA asked blandly as Face pushed past him and into the shelter.

 

 

“No,” Face shot back, “but we need to get a move on, we have a train to catch.”

 

 

“Do it in your sleep, huh?” BA smirked as the leant against the bricks of the arch, “What happened Faceguy, you sleep walk into a wall?”

 

 

Face whirled around and BA was more than a little taken aback by the wild edges to his eyes, “Someone tried to rob me, okay?” Face ground out, “And right about now I bet he’s wishing he hadn’t! So drop it and get changed ‘cause we need to go!”

 

 

Face had already changed out of his black out gear and was wearing a black donkey jacket which he stripped off to reveal a perfectly cut black three piece suit and dark blue tie. Murdock froze in the act of unlacing his boots and stared at his friend, who, even with the black eye, looked like he was ready for an expensive night out. Face took off the black beanie, dusted with silver rain drops and shook out his hair. Murdock swallowed. It wasn’t hard to see what the boss saw in him...

 

 

“C’mon!” Face chivvied them, “We’re getting picked up real soon!”

 

 

“Picked up?” Murdock queried as he yanked his own suit from one of the sacks, “Thought we were getting a train?”

 

 

“We are,” Face smiled at him and for once it wasn’t that cold, empty smile, “And what’s that above us?” He pointed at the roof of the arches, “The tracks, boys!”

 

 

“So why we have to wear these fancy togs?” BA moaned, lifting his own dark grey suit from its bag, “If we just hitching another ride on a dirt train?”

 

 

Face turned to bestow his most gracious smile on him, “Ah, but Bosco, that’s the beauty of it all! It’s not just any train. I’ve scammed us a First Class compartment on the Trans-Siberian Express and it will be swinging by to collect us in...” he glanced at his watch, “ten minutes! So let’s hustle!”

 

 

______________________________

 

 

“You’ve got the compartment I asked for Uri? Right at the end? Out of the way?” Face asked in perfect Russian.

 

 

“Of course!” Uri, the Head Provodnik looked offended as he led the team down the corridor, “That was the deal, right?”

 

 

Face nodded and hurried the other two into the cabin as soon as Uri opened the door for them.

 

 

“This First Class Faceman? Hell, I’d hate to see Economy...” BA grumbled as he squeezed into the tiny cabin with its four bunks.

 

 

Face ignored him and he pulled the door closed behind Uri, glancing along the corridor as he did so, and reached into his pocket pulling out a roll of tightly furled Rubles. He held them out to the Provodnik who frowned suspiciously at them and then looked up at Face’s set expression. “This is not the amount we agreed,” his frown suddenly lifted and he leaned in a little closer, uncomfortably close in such a confined area, “Have you changed your mind about further... exchange of favours?”

 

 

Recoiling so fast he bumped into BA, Face glared at the man. “No. You’ve got all you are getting from me on that front. Think of this as insurance. You get half the money now, half when we disembark safely in Irkutsk.”

 

 

Uri frowned again, although Face wasn’t sure which part of his answer had upset the man, “How can I be sure that you will pay up in Irkutsk? You could just disappear into the crowds.”

 

 

“We could.” Face agreed, “But then you would call in the authorities, and as I explained earlier on, we are very keen to keep a low profile.”

 

 

Glancing quickly at BA, Uri could see why.

 

 

“Alright,” he relented, “But don’t think I won’t report you, if you try anything.”

 

 

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Face smiled his shark’s smile, and Uri stepped back to the door.

 

 

“I will be on duty all the way to Irkutsk,” there was an uncomfortable leer on Uri’s face, “If you change your mind about the method of payment.”

 

 

Face stepped forward and firmly pushed Uri out through the door, “I won’t,” he replied and slid the door shut, locking it at the same time. He stood for just a second, head bowed, breathing deeply before he turned back, and found himself looking straight into Murdock’s eyes.      

 

 

___________________________________

 

 

Murdock kicked back in his bunk and watched Face as the lieutenant stared listlessly out of the window at the black night passing them by. BA was softly snoring above them, but so far Face had resisted falling asleep, even though Murdock had offered to take first watch.

 

 

It had been an interesting couple of hours, starting with the mad dash along the tracks to the start of the bridge, and then a twenty minute wait in driving sleet wondering when the damn train was going to arrive; it seemed that timetables in Russia were more voluntary than anything else. He had been cold and miserable, glad of the donkey jacket Face had got for him, but still chilled to the bones by the wind and the sleet. Face, crouched in the bushes beside him, hadn’t moved or made a sound the whole time they were waiting. His eyes were fixed constantly on the distant track and he didn't even move to wipe the melting sleet off his face.

 

 

Eventually, just as Murdock was beginning to wonder if frost bite was setting in to his toes, a pin prick of light in the distance announced the arrival of their train.

 

 

“It’s here,” Face murmured. “Now we just need to wait for it to slow right down before it crosses the bridge and we are on.”

 

 

Just as promised, the train slowed down before crossing the ancient and crumbling bridge, and the three scrambled aboard, met at the rear door of the guard’s van by the huge, leering Uri who looked a little too like Lurch from the Addam’s Family for Murdock’s sense of comfort. He hadn’t liked the guy at all. Hadn’t like the way he had sneered at BA as if the big guy was something he would like to scrape off his shoe, didn’t like the look he gave him, running his eyes up and down the suit that Murdock could never wear like Face in a million years, but most of all, he didn't like the leer he gave Face and the way he stared at his XO’s arse as he walked ahead of them down the guard’s van.

 

 

Then came the very interesting conversation in the cabin. The place was warm and dry and comfortable, if not huge. But it also had a kettle and some tea and coffee, a mini fridge and a sink which Murdock was looking hopefully at, having not seen hot water for a week now. BA’s comment to Face had been uncalled for and deliberately cutting and he had received a sharp kick in the shins for his words from Murdock, but Face hadn’t seemed to notice. Of course Murdock couldn’t understand the hushed conversation between Face and the Provodnik, but he could understand expression and body language, and it seemed to him that Face was most uncomfortable in Uri’s presence, while Uri himself seemed very comfortable indeed in Face’s. Too comfortable. It made Murdock wonder what the price of this cabin had been...

 

And now Face was staring out of the window in silence, and had been for the best part of an hour, rejecting every attempt Murdock made at conversation. It was making Murdock nervous, and when he got nervous he got jittery. And when he got jittery he couldn’t sleep and he couldn’t keep still, and he either ate too much or not at all, and sometimes he started seeing things out of the corner of his eye and sometimes he heard those voices again and sometimes he could even feel those fingers on the back of his neck, the ones that-

 

“Murdock, buddy...”

 

Face’s voice snatched him out of his thoughts and Murdock glanced at his XO is surprise and then down at the back of his hand which was stinging and he noticed the scratches and the way his finger nails were still worrying at the skin there, and he smiled apologetically, folding his hands up under his arms to keep them still.

 

“You okay?” Face asked him gently.

 

“Sure!” Murdock smiled at him. “You?”

 

He had expected a false platitude from Face, the full, shit eating grin and a smooth lie to slip out, but instead Face just stared at him, his blue eyes wide but expressionless and whispered, “I can’t lose him, HM...”

 

Murdock felt his heart clench just a little and he shifted from his bunk to sit up alongside Face, their legs pressed together, thigh to thigh, and slipped his arm around his friend’s shoulder, pulling him tight. “You know we aint gonna let that happen now don’t you?” Face leant into him a little and Murdock warmed at the trust he felt in that one, tiny movement; sometimes Face was like smoke, impossible to grasp when you really needed to...

 

“I don’t think you get me, Murdock,” Face’s voice was slow and clear, as if he were talking to a particularly stupid child and he shifted his head around so that he could look Murdock right in the eye. “I can’t lose him. I will do whatever it takes to get him back. Whatever. Doesn’t matter.”

 

Murdock felt a chill settle in his stomach and he suddenly knew without a doubt that he’d been right in his suspicions over the price of their safe passage to Irkutsk. He tried to keep his face neutral, but it was hard and Face must have picked up on something in his expression as he frowned, pulling out of Murdock’s embrace and muttering, “Don’t judge ‘til you’ve tried it, HM. What would you do if it was the big guy?”

 

Now it was Murdock’s turn to frown, “What?” he muttered distractedly.

 

Face stared at him, weighing him up, “You can tell me you aren’t shagging and I’d believe you, ‘cause I’ve never seen any real evidence that says you are, but don't try to tell me you don’t love him, ‘cause that’s written all over your face. His too.”

 

Returning the stare for a moment, Murdock nodded sharply. “Still tryin’ to work it all out,” he muttered, “All new, you know?”

 

Face nodded and reached out to rub his friend’s shoulder, looking more like himself then he had since Hannibal had been taken, “You’ll get there, buddy,” he whispered, finally lying back and closing his eyesoth get there soon enough.”

 

Murdock sat back against the wall and watched as Face drifted off into much needed sleep.   

 

 

______________________________

 

 Next Chapter