VANGUARD(3)

As the new market economy had grown, so too had regional stability. Greater emphasis on food production had meant the USSR was no longer reliant on imports. With the immediate crisis of financial collapse defused, the superpower had turned its focus back to the three nations – now one – that had escaped its rule.

Comprising the three breakaway states on the Baltic Sea, the new republic of Orlisia had lasted longer than international affairs pundits had predicted. Although linked by ethnic ties of the past, the people of Orlisia had united for one reason – to maintain their independence. The USSR had immediately put the young country’s resolve to the test.

The superpower had invaded Orlisia in 1992, crushing the nation’s military force and taking control of the ports on the western coast. But where the Soviets had had might, Orlisia had had endurance. Global outcry against the invasion had been furious, something the USSR did not need as it reinvented itself as a peaceful nation on the world stage. After four years of international pressure, intense cold, and supply-chain disruption, the Soviet military had withdrawn.

In the years that followed, the USSR had eased its totalitarian policies and become the Soviet Republic. It had embarked on a period of peaceful expansion, absorbing the Warsaw Pact nations and a few countries from Asia and North Africa. Dwarfing the US in size and power, the massive republic had brought peace and stability to parts of the globe that had known little of either.

It never forgot Orlisia, though. And seventeen years later, it would return to repossess what had been lost.





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Sophie sat aboard the New York-bound train, looking at Michael’s passport picture.

Even in a black and white photocopy, Michael was beautiful. Throughout their most bitter battles of the last decade, during their long separations and furious arguments, he’d always been beautiful to her. She didn’t think she’d ever told him that, and now might never get the chance.

For a moment, pain and panic overwhelmed her. She leaned her forehead against the window, forcing herself to breathe evenly, then turned back to the dossier.

Sophie examined the picture, but there was nothing she didn’t already know. Michael’s face was etched on her heart. He wasn’t smiling in the picture – he rarely smiled in photos – which made him look more foreign. His mother’s Orlisian blood dominated in his heavy brow, generous mouth, and stern expression. He looked more American when he smiled, showing boyish dimples beneath the black hair he’d inherited from his father. A perfect blend of his parents, and the two cultures that shared him.

Determined not to cry, Sophie turned her attention back to the workup. She flipped to the next page, noting a mention of her own name. She showed up in any decent profile of Michael Nariovsky-Trent.

She appeared under “Closest Known Associates/Friends” along with Carter DeVries. No one else; Michael had always been solitary. Sophie spotted Mirielle Desmarais’ name under “Sexual/Romantic Relations.” Other names appeared there as well, relationships Michael had had over the years. But a brief entry at the bottom of the category startled her.

“Sophie Ann Swenda: Likely ongoing romantic relations since 2002, exact nature of relationship never confirmed.”

“‘Ongoing romantic relations’?” she murmured. “Someone should tell Michael that.” But she couldn’t tell him because he was missing. Missing and almost certainly presumed dead by the world’s bureaucratic machinery. And the fear rose in her all over again.

Terror had been her companion since Michael had left for his besieged homeland of Orlisia in the summer. Panic had arrived in September when he’d vanished after a Soviet incursion into the region where he’d been. Two months, three days and….she checked her watch…nineteen hours ago.





-





Four months earlier





Sophie met Michael on the steps of his parents’ house in midtown Manhattan. He smiled broadly at her approach, his dimples popping out.

Michael had returned from his mission to Uganda with Médecins Sans Frontières several weeks earlier. Sophie was running Refugee Crisis International headquarters while her colleagues worked in Sichuan province in China following the massive earthquake that had struck in May. It was the first time they’d been in New York at the same time for an extended period of time since she’d moved there four years previously.

Not that they’d had a moment to themselves since the Soviet Republic had invaded Orlisia a few weeks prior. Certainly there hadn’t been the time or inclination for romance. Michael seemed happier, more relaxed, as Sophie greeted him. Maybe tonight.