“Why would she turn down an offer to join us? Especially if she apparently loved him so damn much!” Maro growled, taking the Mosin in his grasp and working the bolt repetitively out of frustration.
“Because of her people… back at Avtozavodskaya.” Sergio spoke up timidly at first because he hadn’t been involved in the conversation, but he caught sight of the surprised look on the faces of the other two men and was reassured that they were intently listening. “She is the head of Roten Spaten, remember? Her men are not just soldiers, they are like a family, and they also protect the citizens at Avtozavod. She couldn’t just abandon her station and leave it without leadership. No matter how much she and Sacco… no matter how good the opportunity sounds.”
Maro and Vera had been silent, glancing at each other and then back to Sergio, each with a pensive look on their face as if they hadn’t fully understood where Marco had come from and what her motives were, let alone how Sergio himself came to know so well.
“Actually, we were just talking about whether she would stay or not.” Sergio looked over at the Vintorez on the bench, wondering why Marco hadn’t put it back in the wooden case. Maybe she just didn’t want to sift through the memorabilia again.
“And?” Both Vera and Maro pressed him for the answer to the question on everyone’s minds. Sergio was slightly amused that he had been wondering about the same thing, thinking that Vera had already instigated a plan to sign her on and yet it turned out that he had known more than anyone.
“She hasn’t decided anything for certain yet. She seems… regretful, and she knew that Sacco wanted her to join the Order but I think now that she is here it only reminds her that she never listened to him.” Sergio looked off into the distance where her silhouette last loomed by the door, thinking of her more by the sympathetic pain in his heart than the actual memory.
Vera and Maro exchanged glances once more, apparently both realizing the opportunity in front of them. Maro remained silent, talking to Vera with his eyebrows and half a smile, waiting for him to give the order.
“Alright Sergio, this is your new assignment. It’ll remain in effect on top of the mission I’ll be sending you both on tomorrow.” Vera leaned down and put a hand on his shoulder, looking directly into his eyes to make sure he understood fully.
“Both of us?” Sergio asked hopefully but disbelievingly with an eyebrow raised.
“Yes. You are to stay as close to her as possible. It’s obvious that she confides in you, sees some sort of similarities between you and herself. The fact that you were the last person Sacco spoke to means something, to everyone, but to her more than any. Find out as much as you can about her and report any relevant bits to me.” He glanced over at Makarov’s excited expression and frowned. “Only to me. Understand?”
“Yes, sir!” Sergio gave a stoic salute and straightened his posture.
“Good. Off you go then; I assume that tone of voice meant she wanted to talk to you anyway.” Vera gave the same knowing grin that Sergio had been seeing on the faces of most of his comrades in D6. It would have been more unsettling had he not just been given the order to talk to her more.
Taking that as reason enough to depart, Sergio swiftly left the armory and headed straight for the women’s barracks hall. His mind was instantly at work with questions as soon as he crossed the threshold: Where and how would he find her? What would he say to her now? What did she have to say to him? Should he tell her about their vague assignment set for the next day?
He tried to focus on what would come first, that she was going to finally tell him the tale of how she had met Sacco – or how Sacco had met her, as she longingly stated when he’d first asked about it back in the office at Avtozavodskaya. Trying to imagine the circumstances of their first encounter, he set his visions on some far away pristine station where she was dressed in a beautiful gown and the roguish stalker was instantly captivated by her beauty and prowess – walking up slowly and extending a hand to her as she coolly looked at him with calculating eyes. But as Sergio envisioned the introduction, he saw himself stepping towards her and everything stopped.
How strange, he thought, though he believed he understood why he’d placed himself in the scenario he tried to make excuses for it anyway. Of course, he thought, it’s my small fantasy so I would be the one acting in it. But no, he thought, it was not supposed to be me, of course. Did that mean he was also captivated by her beauty and prowess? Had Sacco been the one drawn to her? Or was it the other way around? Was it she who had been captivated by the hulking Hunter, becoming the only one brave enough to approach such a foreboding figure and slip herself under his hardened exterior to greet the real man hiding inside? Did Sacco really have a softer and more compassionate soul than he outwardly portrayed? Sergio never thought of the man to care for romance or women, but then there were a lot of things he was finding that he didn’t know about the mysterious man called Sacco.
No, it had to have been the other way around, how else could he explain it? Marco was captivating. From the moment his eyes absorbed her visage in the office room at Avtozavodskaya. Just as he was now finding that she consumed his thoughts, Sacco too, must have been drawn to her like a moth to the light. Was Sergio only starting to fall for her because of her powerful aura? Or was it simply that her very soul radiated outwards and touched people’s lives? Was it her personality that he loved, or her mysterious power over his mind? Is he simply the next pawn in line for her affections? What if Sacco were to return?
Suddenly, a door in front of him squeaked open and Sergio jumped. He looked around and noticed that he’d come the whole way to the barracks on autopilot. He glanced behind him, looking for signage to indicate that he was actually in the right place.
“I thought it would be you, Sergio.” Marco said softly, peering around the metal opening.
“H-how did you know it was me?” Sergio replied uneasily, stepping back and still trying to regain his place in reality.
“I heard footsteps outside the door, and then it was quiet. You were probably trying to decide whether to knock, or what you should say to me. Well, you don’t have to say anything – you just have to listen.” She wasn’t looking at him, but rather at the floor as she hung on the door frame.
“Alright…” He nodded his head, slowly stepping into the hall as she moved aside and closed the door behind them.
Marco beckoned him onward and he followed her for a short distance to one of the bunk rooms in the hall. He took a seat on the cot as instructed and watched as she sealed the door to the room and then sat in a chair across from him. She had stripped herself of her own armor and boots, and now wore the traditional blue striped Brotherhoodn undershirt and a pair of black cargo pants.
“So, you want to hear the story of how we met. I guess you’ve earned it.” Marco smiled weakly, she looked exhausted and still did not meet his gaze.
“Please, if you don’t mind…” Sergio leaned forward eagerly.
“Everybody wants to know, okay, but don’t tell them everything.” She began in a quiet voice; he assumed she was referring to the gossip being whispered all over D6. “It wasn’t just some childish crush, and I wasn’t some secret wife he never told anybody about. It was real.”
“I know.” Sergio said, but he didn’t really. He just wanted her to know that he was listening and taking her seriously.
“I know that he loved me, in his own way, though we never really went around telling people. I knew he loved me from the moment we first spoke, from how he acted. I guess he had overheard me at the bar in Kitai-Gorod.” Her voice waned as her memories of that time took over her consciousness. The story came alive through her eyes as she recounted the tale that Sergio had been longing to hear. “You would never see him in such an awkward state… trying to come up with the right words to say to me.”