We Have All the Time in The World-Chapter Five
It didn’t take the gondola long to make the trip to the San Lucia station. That was one of the reasons why Li chose that route in the first place. (Also part of him wanted to just take the gondola compared to trying to navigate it by foot.) He immediately handed the gondolier 200 Euros for his troubles and proceeded to bid him farewell followed by checking on Lyric. Who politely brushed him off before taking his hand and continued towards the station. It only took a couple of minutes before they reached the front of the Stazione Ferroviaria Santa Lucia. A large white building that was designed in the 1950’s which looked totally out of place with the aesthetic of the rest of Venice. The building was at the top of a small flight of steps that was littered with groups of tourists sitting about or walking in and out.
Immediately, the two of them brushed past the small groups of people and continued in towards the main entrance. Still on guard for anything out of the unusual, Li scanned the area to see if they were still being followed; it was hard to tell since the station was crowded, not unlike the St Mark’s but it was full of people rushing to different places, which almost made it even more difficult to anticipate. It was a habit he had from his former life that he still could not shake off for one second.
He lightly tugged at his companion and noticed the line for the ticket counter. Li proceeded to get in line which only took no more than two minutes before he finally reached the desk. After a small conversation with the clerk, he immediately asked for two first class tickets to Vienna in a 1st class sleeper berth in 1hr. He gave thanks to the clerk and they continued to walk into the concourse leading towards the trains.
“Everything will be all right from here.” said Li grabbing the tickets and motioning towards the shops, “Now let’s get moving before someone recognizes us.”
It didn’t surprise neither of them to see the many different shops like Nike, Muji and a lot of other local stores neither of them had heard of before. Finally! A smile appeared on Li’s face when he turned towards the right to find a small convenience shop. He went in for a moment just grabbed some bottles of Perrier, some sandwiches and left quickly.
“I know you’re going to need some makeup.” Li motioned towards the Mac Cosmetics Store, knowing that was her makeup of choice, “We don’t have much time. Please get what you need.”
“I’ll be all right.” Lyric answered, “I put some extra makeup in our bags in the locker so we could be quick about it.”
“Good thinking.” smiled Li and turned to find the information he needed on a giant schedule near the Buffet restaurant, “I need you to go to the lockers, while I check something. Do you think you will be all right by yourself?”
“Of course.” Lyric smiled, “We’ve gotten this far, I think I can manage a couple of minutes away from you.”
Li nodded and told her to be careful while he looked up at the listings. He saw the names of all the different cities: Milano, Roma, Piza, Anzio, Paris and the different train lines that traveled throughout Italy and Europe. For a moment he mused back to his younger flights of fancy, back when he watched “From Russia with Love” as a child and the scenes aboard the Orient Express. In the film, James Bond and Tatiana Romanova had to escape from Istanbul with some kind of secret decoder. The only way the couple could do that was to travel by train all the way to Venice. Unfortunately, those days were now a thing of the past. Replaced by the high speed railway and airline travel, but that really didn’t deter him from still wanting to take this form of travel to get across the continent.
Instead of running from someone like Red Grant and the agents of SMERSH or even S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to advance Her Majesty’s efforts in the Cold War, Li was running with a beautiful woman from a world of trouble of its own design. He continued to scan the schedule until he found the listing that he needed:
VIENNA, AUSTRIA PLATFORM 5
“So we’re heading into Austria? Don’t you think it would be easier to head towards Paris?” Lyric asked as she returned with two duffle bags that held some of their belongings
“That’s what Edmund would expect of us.” answered Li looking at the sign for a moment before looking at his companion, “From what one of my friends told me, he has a lot of contacts out there. They would make us out the moment we disembark.”
“What’s in Vienna?” She asked.
“To be honest.” started Li, “Nothing. I told my friend, Nancy to meet us up there so she could take us back to the States. I figured that would be the safest bet.”
“It probably is.” Lyric said before motioning that she was ready to continue.
They continued down through the maze of corridors using only their hearing to get them down towards the gates, until they finally got towards their train on Platform “5”. Li let a small smile show across his face noticing that their ride to freedom was right there before them. It was one of the Austrian ‘Railjet’ trains painted in its blue and red livery sans for the Eurosprinter which was painted in the familiar red livery of the OBB or the Austrian Federal Railway. The hiss of the engines air brakes startled Lyric for a moment before she continued down the platform with Li who looked on at the giant locomotive, wanting to get in and feel a little comfortable before they embarked on their trip.
It only took another minute before they managed to enter one of the business class passenger cars that led towards the sleeper carriages. Designed in the corridor coach system that some of the European trains still operated under. It had one side of the car full of little compartments that had small rooms for two to four people that were travelling on business trips or just wanted to have a little privacy.
Most of the compartments were empty save for one or two, whose occupants have already closed the doors and prepared for the journey. The continued on for at least two more cars until they finally reached the one that they were assigned to. Li looked up at the numbers, trying to find the one that was their assigned room. He was beginning to feel a little exhausted, but he knew that was because he could finally relax a little once they were inside the room.
He looked down at the ticket and saw the number 5 and finally made it to the door. Li looked into the room from the door window and saw that it was one of the more deluxe suites that housed two people together. The room they entered in was very elegant compared to some of the rooms you would see in an Amtrak back in America. Besides the usual bunk bed style that one would find in a sleeper, the room had two leather seats and a table for writing and doing work as well as a lavatory complete with shower. Immediately, he took a quick scan of the cabin, everything looked all right. Shortly after he checked the lavatory, it was immaculate. He moved back out of the cabin and motioned for Lyric to walk into the room. Outside, he heard the PA system stating that the train was ready to depart. He braced himself as he felt the initial lurch before the train began to slowly move out of the station.
“Sit wherever you want.” Li answered before turning around and closing the main door.
Lyric moved towards the left side of the room and relaxed while Li put their bags on a nearby table and went into his gear immediately; while she went into hers and looked for some clothing to change into.
“Are you going to be all right?” asked Lyric as she started to take off her dress. “That cut looks bad.”
“I’ll be okay.” Li answered looking at her coolly and collected almost like he was another person; the person he was when it came to fighting and continued to get some of his first aid equipment and immediately went into the lavatory to clean up. He smiled at her with reassurance before he quickly closed the door.
Li sighed and allowed himself to let his body just collapse from the pressure of trying to stay strong in the middle of the situation they had been in. How long as it been since this all started? A few days at least; for a moment thought back to when he was a hero and the stakes meant the world would be destroyed, he could handle that. Now, however, this whole thing felt like he was teetering on the edge of normalcy. Truthfully, he wondered how people who lived this type of life could do it so easily. Of course he saw the romanticism of it all, traveling place to place always on some kind of mission to take down someone. Women like Lyric always there to satisfy some kind of need and not even giving a second thought on if you would see them again.
He snapped himself out of thinking about those nonsensical thoughts that certainly would lead to distraction and focused back on to cleaning himself up. Unceremoniously, Li placed the first aid kit on top of the toilet and opened up the kit to find the usual accoutrements: iodine, bandages, and if he needed to there were some tools he could use to stitch himself up. He took off his shirt and looked at the bruises he had already received from years of fighting. Some people would have looked at them as a badge of honor, for him they were just painful reminders of what he had lost. What he was trying to get away from. Luckily, there wasn’t anything that was too serious on his torso.
His face however, was another story all together. There was some bruising from the punches that he received and the swelling wasn’t too severe yet as long as he got something cold to help keep it down. He looked at himself in the mirror feeling a little disgusted. This was not what he wanted to be here doing; it was too close to the life that he had left so long ago. Was he doomed to be doing heroics for the rest of his life? He quickly took out the antiseptics and quickly cleaned the wounds on his body before dressing them up and repacking the case. Once more he looked at his reflection with disgust and contempt before shutting off the light and heading back out into the cabin.
