"Klara?" Galina smiled as her fingertips brushed the old woman's petal soft cheek, until those pale blue eyes finally opened with a smile for her littlest girl. [i][["Shall we get ready for lunch?"]][/i] 

Klara lovingly returned that gentle smile, reaching to squeeze those beloved fingers. She pushed back the blanket over her own legs, taking Galina's hand as she slowly rose from the deck chair. [i][["I never imagined the sea air could make one so sleepy,"]][/i] she murmured, taking the offered arm as the pair began to walk toward the stair that would lead to their luxurious stateroom suite. 

[i][["Or hungry?"]][/i] Galina quipped, and Klara only laughed.

[i][["Oh, one day you'll see Galina. The older you get, the less food a body needs - but then again, the less sleep as well, and just look at me now! Perhaps by the time we reach the other side of the Pacific, I'll be as fat and lazy as your father's old cat! Do you remember him? That fuzzy, mean, unrepentantly indolent creature?"]][/i] The elderly woman shook her head slowly, chuckling warmly at the memory.

[i][["Ah! That awful creature! A rat could dance on his head and he could not be bothered to raise a paw to shoo it out of the room! Bah! But try to take his bowl of food before it was licked perfectly clean? You might have lost a finger -no! A hand!"]][/i] 

Galina laughed and nodded her head, finding not a single fault in her old nursemaid's recollection of that singularly nasty creature. Enormous and vicious in equal measure, hateful to every last man, woman and child - but her Papa. If anything, Klara might be slightly understating the beast's vile disposition.

[i][["Papa always has had a way with the vicious and intractible... "]][/i]The young lady was lost for several long minutes in the old memories, reminiscing with her nursemaid as they strolled leisurely below deck to their rooms to freshen up. But even as they walked, the long-drilled discipline allowed Galina to peruse other matters as she would, appearing as unaffected and light as any guise she had ever worn.

Galina had not yet been contacted concerning her other purpose for being aboard this ocean liner. She had to admit to herself, the circumstances of her voyage were still more than a little strange, no matter the channels through which it came. She still did not know the name of her contact, or even the full extent of her mission. 

A [i]recruitment.[/i] 

That was all she knew and, were the meet not made on the limited environment of an ocean liner like the Empress, Galina doubted her father would have ever allowed such a thing to occur. It was one thing to be brave. To be devoted and loyal. To serve where needed without question - but a whole other matter indeed, to be a fool.

Neither Vasily Demidov nor his daughter were fools.

And so Galina simply let herself be... Available. Unadorned and in plain sight. She would know when the time came who she was meant to coordinate with and, apparently , not a single moment before - 

She gasped, so softly that not even Klara noticed as they walked, side-by-side, arm-in-arm. It was certainly not his clothing that caught her eye. True the expensive suit was beautifully tailored - fit like the proverbial glove actually - but there was little else remarkable about his dress. No, it was the cast of his face, the distinctive Japanese features - 

Of course it was not [i]him.[/i] But that did not mean the sudden knot in her throat hurt any less. Galina blinked, met the man's eyes quickly, smiling just a moment before she swiftly turned away. Even if her heart pounded in her throat, this thing showed not a wit in her dark eyes. She simply nodded respectfully, and then continued on with Klara without a second glance back.

No matter how it killed her.