Olga started to come around as Hazel was driving through Combles. Hazel offered her a glass bottle of water, she’d purchased several figuring her friend would be thirsty. Olga was rubbing her eyes and looking around like she had no idea where she was. She absently took the bottle and drank deeply. Then jumped when saw Hazel.

“Greta, where are we?”

“About halfway to Calais. Give or take a few dozen miles.”

Olga rubbed her face again and looked out at the now green countryside.

“What…I was captured.”

“My mom and I rescued you. Alina sent us to kill you.”

Olga rubbed her eyes again and jumped when she saw Enid passed out in the back seat.

“What is Ms. Roth doing here?”

“There are some things I need to explain.”

Olga looked back at Enid again her eyes focusing on the black armor and fading blue veins on her hands. Olga rubbed her head groggily.

“I have such a headache.”

Hazel nodded and signaled her intent to pull off the road. Once she did that she reached into her mother’s pack and pulled out two extra strength acetaminophen pills and offered them to Olga. She looked at them cautiously.

“Just painkillers.”

Olga glanced back at Enid then back to Hazel. She swore in Russian under her breath and took both. She took another big drink of water. She looked at Hazel.

“Why didn’t you just kill me?”

“You’re my friend and your parents helped me when I needed it, so I asked my mom to rescue you. She wanted to let you rot at first and just get out of here because she’s been waiting to get out of the Soviet Union for a while, but I begged her to save you.”

“Your mother…but she’s dead…”

“Not quite. She almost died saving us from an explosion.”

Olga looked back at Enid who suddenly jolted in her sleep but then settled down.

“Is she going to be alright?”

“She will be once we get to London. My grandfather is there and can help.”

“Wait I thought… You’re a western spy!”

“Not a spy. Just a girl helping her mother deal with some situations that have nothing to do with governments.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Then don’t. You can get out of the car right now, I’ll give you a fresh passport, cash, but consider Alina sent someone else before us to kill you, we were her back up plan. I’m glad you didn’t use the cyanide capsule but she’s not. I have money and ID’s for us to get to Britain. My family can help you vanish. My mom would say you’re already dead, you just don’t realize it yet. The only reason you’re alive right now is that Alina misjudged me. I would never kill a friend.”

“I…I can’t betray Russia.”

“It already betrayed you Olga. You can never go home. Your parents would be in just as much trouble as you. Right now, you died a hero of the Soviet Union, your parents will receive benefits. Go back they’ll either end up dead or in the Gulag right beside you. So, trust me as your friend, we can get you somewhere safe.”

“But she killed dozens of soldiers.”

“And she had a very good reason for it. She killed just as many CIA agents and American forces yesterday to rescue you. We don’t take any sides but our own.”

Olga put her hand on the door handle to pull it open. She stared at it for several moments.

“Olga, are you staying or are you going? We are very much wanted by the French government. We attacked two American compounds on French soil, and killed a lot of Americans and probably two police officers. I do not want risk a Police officer checking on why we’re stopped with a very sick looking girl in the back of our car.”

Olga started to pull the latch then looked at Hazel she seemed caught between her loyalty to her country and her friendship to this person who had secret she never imagined.

“Olga, I can tell you this, if you come with us, I can show you a world you never imagined. If my family likes you, which they will once you get over the Soviet propaganda you’ve been fed your whole life, they will, you could even find yourself more powerful then you’ve ever dreamed.”

“Who are you really?”

“My name is Hazel. Anything else is hard to explain. My mother, is, had to explain as well. We have secrets and honestly, if I told you them they might put your life at risk until you’ve been invited into the inner circle. I can show you one thing.”

Hazel tapped her wrist and opened the holo-tablet’s display Olga jumped and swatted her hand through it. The display showed the video her contacts took of them rescuing her and her mother forming the energy barrier to save them from the fire. She ended it before she shifted into her half wolf form. She tapped her wrist to turn it off. Olga stared where the hologram had been.

“Wha… What was that?”

“My holo-tablet. Olga, I can show you so much more. You just have to take your hand off that door handle and relax.”

Olga tensed her hand one last time but released it and nodded. Hazel turned around and pulled back onto the highway and started driving towards Calais again. Olga rode silently for the next thirty minutes or so. She was sipping from a second water bottle. She had been severely dehydrated from whatever the CIA had given her.

“Thank you, Hazel.”

Hazel smiled keeping her eyes on the road.

“Anything for my friends. I don’t have many.”

“So where are you from if not from Russia?”

“Germany.”

“And your mother is German as well?”

“No, she was born in Scotland.”

“How is she so young?”

“That’s complicated.”

“I knew she was older than she looked. She knows several styles of martial arts, can fly planes. But not old enough to have an eighteen-year-old daughter.”

“Well… that will become clear in time.”

“How did she make that…bubble?”

Hazel shrugged.

“I honestly have no idea. She’s never done it before. When she does weird stuff like that its always bad for her health.”

“Her eyes were glowing.”

“Like I said, I have no idea. I’ve seen them glow before and it was plants growing, or her sealing a cave. Or…doing something else.”

“You seem evasive.”

“Well, half the stuff we’ve done would sound…like I was lying so I’ll just leave it vague for now.”

“If you could take out an entire CIA black site, why did you stay in Russia for so long?”

Hazel blushed.

“I wanted to learn how to fly jets and drive cars.”

“And your mother agreed?”

“Well, I left some information out that would have… made her leave Russia sooner.”

“You lied to her?”

“Omitted facts.”

“Lied.”

Hazel sighed and nodded.

“So, is she really as mean as she seems to be? She was pretty…unforgiving in training.”

“Honestly she was like that when I was a kid, and she was training me. She learned from a woman who was like that. Also… she wanted her students to be able to take care of themselves. She’s very much a believer in if you’re going to do it, do it right. I cannot count on my fingers how many broken bones I had as a kid.”

“Sounds abusive.”

“It was a different time and I’m different. I don’t stay hurt… like you do.”

“What’s that supposed mean?”

“I got burned pretty badly pulling you and her out of the black site. Was better by morning.”

Olga looked at Hazel eyes wide.

“Mom’s the same. But…using the power… it sometimes takes her days to heal.”

Olga fell into silence. They were about a half an hour out from Calais and Enid woke up. She was still extremely pale. And her hands still had veins. Hazel almost slammed her foot on the brakes when she saw her mother’s eyes, they were a luminescent blue. Enid was still looking a bit out of it. She didn’t say much and just leaned back in her seat and rubbed her face. She looked down at her hands that still had fading blue veins in them. She shook her head and finally pulled out the passports for everyone and passed them out.

Olga looked at hers and started to repeat her ID’s name trying to get her British accent right, her name on the ID was Eleanor Harrison. Hazel started doing the same with her name. As they had been trained at the Retreat. They carried on a conversation using their best posh British accent. It was quite easy for Hazel because she’d learned English from her mother and her sister, so she had this weird Scottish-British hybrid accent to her English. They eventually reached the ferry and Hazel managed to get them there in time for the last ferry of the day. A British Official was checking passports as they cars were boarding. He looked at the three women in the car and looked at the passports. His eyes focused on Olga because she seemed to be the oldest.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“Why were you in France?”

Olga’s British accented English was impeccable.

“My friend Lucy wanted to buy a car, her sister Mia came along, their mum asked me to come so I could keep an eye out. This car?”

Hazel nodded.

“Wow she’s a beauty.”

Hazel nodded.

“Well congratulations.”

He stepped back and waved them on board. Once the car was park in its spot the Trio got out and went to the passenger deck. Enid didn’t say a word. She just plopped down on a bench on the interior. Hazel and Olga bought coffees and went to the upper deck. The stuck with their British English and chatted while they leaned on the railing watching the dark waters of early evening English Channel pass. Olga sipped her coffee.

“To think twenty-five years ago this was the center of a war.”

“Oh?”

“World War Two?”

“Oh yea. I guess it was.”

Olga shook her head.

“Sometimes you are so smart, but then other times it’s like you’ve been living under a rock.”

Hazel rubbed the back of her neck the redness on her cheeks concealed by the falling night.

“If you only knew the truth.”

“I’ve always felt like you were holding stuff back, then you show me a TV screen on your wrist floating in mid-air. Your mother has some sort of mental powers. You two are good I really thought you hated her.”

Hazel shrugged.

“You know what it’s like sometimes I do. But I really do love her. I just wish… I wish she… I wish was normal and could focus on me.”

“Where are you from really?”

“Really?”

“Yes, we’ve had enough secrets in our lives to last a lifetime.”

Hazel lowered her voice.

“I was born in Germany around seventeen hundred years ago.”

Olga spit out her coffee when the Hazel’s words hit her.

“You don’t have to make up stories Lucy.”

Hazel shrugged.

“It’s the truth. My mother was born in Scotland grew up in Rome. As in Rome Rome.”

“How do you both look so young then hmm?”

“I am young, well compared to my mother… I’m like thirty something now. I think. I don’t know. I can’t age. I’m always a teenager, physically and mentally. Always still a kid. Drives me nuts I have experienced so much but still… Mom…mom is, somewhere in the order of two thousand years old. But I think she might older and doesn’t remember… like Garden of Eden old. Like… there is a temple that is older than humans with her on the walls.”

“You are really good at making up things my friend.”

“I wish I was making all of this up. It is such a long story. But you’ll see soon. If you can keep up.”

“I can keep up. I’m just not sure what lunatic asylum you’re taking me to meet your family.”

Hazel laughed.

“Look, my grandfather you can talk about… stuff, but my sister, she’s a different story, she’s not supposed to know I’m her sister… yet.”

Olga finished off her coffee she pondered Hazel’s words for a few moments.

“What is that supposed to mean? Yet?”

“It is really complicated. But uh, yea. Complicated.”

Olga shook her head. Hazel ran her hand through her hair.

“My holo-tablet is from a thousand years from now.”

Olga stared out at the water where the low hanging full moon was reflected.

“But you said you were from the past…”

“We kind of skipped ahead… a lot. Spoiler alert, Russia still exists in the 29th century.”

Olga folded her hands and closed her eyes.

“You’re not teasing me, are you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Then you are changing your past… like I should still be in that CIA building or dead?”

Hazel shrugged her ice blue eyes looking Olga up and down, then glancing back at her mother.

“You’re officially dead now, so I don’t see as it is different. I think…I think mom has a plan so you can come with us. Sounds like she thinks we can get back to the 29th century. Once she found out her father was around… she seemed to start making plans.”

“Like what?”

Hazel shrugged.

“You think she tells me anything? I’m just her teenage daughter in her eyes. I guess its hard to look at someone who’s thousands of years younger than you as an adult… She’s always three steps ahead of everyone else. Its infuriating. She acts like she makes it up as she goes along.”

“Well in that video she seemed surprised by the explosion.”

“She wasn’t as surprised as I was.”

“What do you mean?”

Hazel shook her head.

“You ever notice how she always seems to know what someone is going to do before they do it?”

“I kind of caught that. She was impossibly fast.”

“She’s not fast, she just sees her immediate future. Well, I mean at full strength she is so fast you can’t see her but…she’s not that right now.”

“What is she like this American Superman we had to read about?”

“Faster than a speeding bullet…”

“Yes, like that.”

“Yes, she can even fly. I’ve seen her rip a battleship in half.”

“And she just let Alina use her?”

“Like I said, she’s not herself lately. Right now, all she has over you and I is the fact she can see what is coming.”

“Is that how she killed twenty-five Russian soldiers?”

“No that’s just because she used to be in the US Navy. She used fly fighter jets off of aircraft carriers. She won a medal of honor, then went into their special forces, I think?”

“I thought they didn’t allow women.”

“Uh, this was in 2020 or something. After…before I was born it is really complicated.”

Olga nodded and looked back out at the water.

“So, you’re saying she’s planning on taking me with you?”

“I’m not sure, she was talking and was like, we can’t save her, how are we going to make her vanish from the surface of the Earth. Then she got this look in her eyes. Like she’d just come up with a master plan. Didn’t tell me what it was.”

“I’m not sure I want to…”

“Olga, you’re officially dead. I called the confirmation myself. Said I took you out and my mom. If you show up somewhere else your parents are in danger, I know it’s a lot to give up but you’ll be alive and that is what they would want for you. Your dad never wanted you in the KGB anyway.”

“He said that?”

Hazel nodded.

“He knew you and the family didn’t have a choice, but he didn’t want that life for you. So now, you can have a completely new one. Look my family… my stepmom, my sister, my aunt. They run the most powerful empire that humanity has ever known. Your skill set once you learn how to use stuff… you could make a fortune if you want to be a troubleshooter. If my mom can get us home… you cannot imagine what you will see. We have ships that can go faster then light. We have colonies on other worlds. The entire solar system is inhabited. And you can meet my boyfriend, Miles.”

“You have a boyfriend?”

“Haven’t seen him in a long time, but I can’t wait to see him again.”

“Will he still be waiting for you?”

“Umm well, time travel is funky. Kind of expecting to end up there a few minutes after we left. Last time we were gone for a few years, and it had only been a few minutes when we got back. This time it’s only been like, maybe six months? I lost track of time. Easy to do in the past. Which ah…crap I’m in so much trouble when we get back.”

“Why?”

“Well, my mother was supposed to come back alone this time, I skipped school, snuck on a military ship, got arrested, broke out of my cell and snuck through the gateway. My Aunt was so pissed to even see me on the station.”

“You’re a regular criminal.”

“I guess I am. My aunt will forgive me and make it go away.”

Hazel looked back at her mother who was drinking a coffee now and eating some form of pastry. She turned back to the water. Olga suddenly looked at Hazel.

“You said step-mother, is your father in the 29th century?”

Hazel shook her head.

“No, my mom’s married to a woman. Dad died before I was born.”

“That’s odd.”

“Not really, future isn’t stuck up on…well old beliefs. I mean, she was married to my father and another woman at the same time… I was named after her.”

Olga glanced at Hazel. Her blonde hair whipping in the breeze through the English Channel. She pushed some of it out of her eyes.

“Do you share her… likes?”

Hazel shook her head.

“Nah.”

Olga nodded and leaned back over the railing. They leaned there in silence for a long while. Finally Hazel pushed off the railing.

“Need to check on mom.”

Olga nodded.

“I’m going to enjoy the ocean air for a while longer.”

Hazel gave a small wave and walked inside and sat beside her mother. She put her arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. Enid didn’t put up any resistance. She looked so weak Hazel was fairly sure she couldn’t have if she wanted too.

“Mom you have the look you had in Egypt.”

“I had another vision.”

“You mean dream.”

Enid shook her head.

“I was in the temple of Seraph. There was another bible reading.”

“What did it say?”

Enid rubbed her eyes. They were still blue.

“And the rebels escaped from the prison to make war on the Heavens. The greatest of the father’s host did impose herself between the forces of darkness and the light of her father. Each strike against the Heavens struck her. She carried this burden of pain as her brother bore his cross. Into darkness she wondered as her brother had before her. In the darkness truth found her.”

Enid frowned suddenly. She stood up.

“What is it?”

“Get Olga down.”

“What?”

“Do as I say.”

Hazel rushed out to Olga and yanked her behind a lifeboat. Enid stood by the top of the stairs. The first man to come up found himself grasping his throat and choaking as she punched him in the throat. She kicked him in the chest, and he fell backwards knocking four others down. Enid pulled a pistol from her pack and fired four shots down the stairs. She sensed someone coming at her from the other side. She got one shot off and the woman who was carrying an assault rifle fell to the ground. Enid tried to shoot the next person coming up, he had a knife. But her gun jammed. She tossed it aside. And let her gift take control of her body. She was so weak she would have been too slow otherwise. She parried every attempt to stab her with the knife. She grabbed one of the forks from the silverware tray in the dining area she had been sitting in. He came in with the knife again and she deflected the attack by hitting his arm then stabbed him in the eye with the fork. He screamed and stumbled backwards. The last attacker finally managed to get up a clear shot at Enid, but she evaded the bullet knowing it was coming several seconds before it was fired. She was in no condition for a long fight so she kicked him in the crotch as hard as she could. She picked up a butter knife and jammed it between his collarbones. Then kneed him in the face. She picked up another butter knife and held the back of his head and jammed it up his nostril. He collapsed on the ground. Blood starting to pool under him. As he collapsed, she followed her back leaning against the food counter.

The other inhabitants of the dining area and the ferry’s deck were a staring shell shocked. Finally, a man with greying hair rushed to check on Enid. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was shallow. Hazel and Olga rushed in shortly afterwards. The dining area was a mess. Blood was everywhere. The man looked at Hazel he spoke with a British accent.

“You should stay back ladies she might be dangerous.”

Hazel blinked at him she paused before speaking because she almost said mother.

“She is my sister.”

One of the people Enid had attacked was still alive. The gentleman who had been kneeling beside Enid moved to him. The fork was still protruding from the man’s eye. He was screaming. The older gentleman held him down.

“There, lad. You’ll be alright. Just stop moving.”

He looked down at the injury and wasn’t quite sure how to handle the first aid for this one. The man’s hand wrapped around his knife and he was about to stab him. Olga noticed and flung a sandwich at the assailant’s face. He screamed as it jossled the fork and one of the other men in the dining area grabbed his wrist and held him down. Forcing the knife out of his hand. The older gentleman rolled up his sleeve and saw a tattoo.

“IRA.”

He looked at Enid again. Another couple of men came and went about restraining the last living IRA member. Hazel was holding her mother. She had her head on her lap. Hazel looked up at Olga.

“A sandwich?”

“It was what was in reach. Is she going to be okay?”

Hazel nodded.

“She’ll be fine. She’s just exhausted.”

The older gentleman walked to the trio of girls he rolled up his sleeves and stood over them. He had a tattoo on his forearm showing the crest of one of the British World War 2 commando units. He crouched down.

“I’m Colonel Bradley. Let’s move her somewhere with some privacy. My wife’s a doctor, she can take a look.”

Hazel shook her head.

“She’ll be fine. You should take care of the one with the…fork.”

“Nothing she can do for him. He needs a hospital.”

Hazel picked up her mother and followed the Colonel into a room marked crew only. No one seemed to want to get in the large man’s way. He had a way about him that you just did what he said. An older woman came in and looked over Enid. She paid particular attention to the blue veins in her hands.

“She’s a bit young to have these. And they are usually on legs. Has she always had them?”

Hazel bit her lip. She wasn’t sure how to explain her mother’s current state.

“Yes, just like our mother. I think she’s just exhausted. She was barely awake when the attack happened.”

The woman checked Enid’s pulse. Listened to her breathing. She also checked her over for any apparent injuries, she only found some bruising on her arms where she had blocked some attacks. The doctor looked up at Hazel.

“I think you may be right young lady. Dehydrated and exhausted. Keep her here, once we get to shore, we should get her to the hospital.”

Hazel shook her head.

“Our grandfather is a doctor. We can take her to his house.”

The colonel crossed his arms. Hazel shook her head.

“We just can’t draw attention to ourselves, we’re not as young as we look.”

She looked at the colonel’s wife. He motioned for her to leave. She gave him a look but gathered her things and left. He looked back to Hazel.

“You have one chance or I’m sending her to hospital.”

Hazel glanced at Olga who nodded.

“We were picked because we look young. We’re SIS MI6. We were tasked with dealing with Soviet spies in France. She was dosed with something. We’re trying to get her back so HQ can figure out what it was. I’m surprised she could even move. She’s the senior agent. Best of the best.”

“I could tell.”

“We can’t draw attention to ourselves, but Mia has never been one to let people die. If we get outed a lot of lives will be in danger.”

He nodded.

“I’ll take responsibility. Backway down is that way. When you hear the docking announcement go down to your car and get ready to leave.”

Hazel nodded.

“Thank you so much.”

“I’m only doing this because your colleague saved a lot of lives including my wife and I.”