Snake sat on a bench in the park. He was waiting for news where his first love might be found.

Svetlana had been taken from the orphanage seven years ago, a long seven years.

He could still close his eyes and see her face, smell her hair and feel the touch of her hand on his. Every time he closed his eyes she was there to torment and comfort his heart.

In all of these years there was not one other that reached his heart. To all the world his heart was a stone unseen by the warmth of sunlight. It was a heart cold as the Siberian winter.

But to him his heart was a fortress that held only one flame, Svetlana.

Seven years he has tried to discover where she had been taken. Today he might have the news he had hoped for.

He did not dare dwell on what had likely happened to her. He did not want to think of her abused as a slave to be bought and sold for pleasure of some capitalist pig, a traitor to the people.

He had often enough seen these exploiters of the people. He had removed some from life but the state tolerated many because it had to be on guard against those who would destroy the Worker's paradise. It was because of these traitors that the state had to be ever alert for those that would subvert the Communist Revolution and make the people again slaves to the capitalist exploiters.

To get Svetlana back he would even deal with booshwazee. He would even deal with this bureaucrat that he saved.

Sitting there in the park he remembered the pain he felt waiting at the fence for her. He had worried that she had come down ill or she got in trouble for some small offense. He refused to imagine they had taken her away. Everyone at the orphanage knew that the pretty children being taken away. Sometimes they were taken to the big house of the administrator first for a few days or weeks.

Svetlana was not a pretty child, but she was to Snake. She was the only one at the orphanage that ever showed him kindness. She was the only one that ever showed him kindness. But when she started to flower into womanhood she turned from ugly to beautiful. That is when they took her away.

Vladimir walked up quickly. He owed his life to Snake but his payment of this debt was not so much for gratitude as fear of what Snake could/would do if he did not provide the information. He saw how Snake killed the assassin that was tasked to kill him.

Without pleasantries Vlad reached out a slip of paper. "I hope this pays my debt to you."

Snake took it. He slowly unfolded and examined it. "If this does not lead me to her it is worthless." He raised his eyes to Vlad's eyes. Vlad understood Snake's meaning.

"I assure you, the information is good. She was taken to that town. It is impossible to know exactly where she is. What can I do?"

"Hope I find her," he said as he got up and walked away.

This information led him to a town near the border with China. Svetlana had been sold as a slave by the orphanage. She certainly had been traded several times since. In reality it was only a hope that she was still in the town. But typically a slave was only traded locally after initial purchase.

He spent days searching in sweathouses and brothels. He was able to track her from being a slave of one capitalist pig to the next until he traced her to a brothel for miners outside of town. Some of his sources of information needed encouragement to answer his questions. He even had a run-in with the local authorities. It took no effort to convince them he was an inspector with orders directly from the politburo. Naturally they were too fearful to question such.

When he got to the mine he convinced the director that Svetlana was wanted returned to Moscow by someone in the Politburo. If she was returned quickly her abduction might be forgotten. Otherwise, those involved could be found in a very cold Gulag.

The only problem was that as a slave she did not have a name. They had to bring several women to him so he could identify her.

She was very thin. Her eyes were sunken into her face. She looked like someone from some picture of people that survived the German death camps. Her clothes were well worn and she needed a bath. She kept her face to the floor.

"Leave me" he directed.

When everyone had left the room he asked "Svetlana?"

She would not look up.

With his finger he gently lifted her face.

"Can you speak?"

Still she would not speak. Nor would she meet his eyes with hers.

He stepped away from her. For a moment he did not know if it would not have been better had he never found her. The pain of seeing her like this cut him as no pain ever felt.

Anger began to intermix with the pain in his heart. After a long time he stormed out of the room right up to the director.

"You are to get her cleaned up immediately. Then take her to see a doctor." He turned to walk away.

"We do not have a doctor."

Snake spun back, shoved the director against the wall with his forearm against his throat.

"I do not care if you do not have a doctor here. You find one. And it had better be a good doctor not of the jokes that treat your miners. Get the party's doctor. He will give her a complete exam then report directly to me. She shall be put up in the finest hotel, the party hotel. DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?"

The director could only nod his head.

"Be sure you have guards to make sure she does not run away and that nobody disturbs her."

He wanted to rip the heart out of that director. But now was not the time.

That afternoon the doctor reported to Snake at his hotel.

The doctor was clearly nervous. "She is suffering from some malnutrition. She is addicted to heroin. She has syphilis." With a pause he added, "she should be in a hospital."

"What about her mind?"

"I am not a psychologist. I cannot evaluate that."

Snake stood up. "I do not care if you are not a doctor. I told you to tell me if she is competent. And I want you to use the same standards as if she is a party member."

He shifted from foot to foot. "I have never been her doctor before. I only had a few minutes to examine her."

Snake stepped closer to the doctor without saying a word.

"She needs more evaluation." The doctor pleaded.

"I require an answer now."

"She is not competent."

Looking into Snake's eyes the doctor because extremely pale.

Snake’s eyes narrowed and had the appearance of fire.

He turned and said, "you may leave now."

He called the mine's director to order him to bring Svetlana to him.

Her guards brought her to his room.

She looked a lot better being cleaned up. Still she would not look up.

"How have you been treated?"

She did not give a response.

"Were you treated well?"

She nodded her head.

"Do you remember your name?"

There was no response.

"Is your name Svetlana?"

Still no response.

"Have you eaten?"

She nodded the affirmative.

"Do you remember me?" he asked as he lifted her head so she would see his face. He forced her to look at him.

There was a distance in her eyes. He knew her mind was far distant. She would need a lot of time and help to ever regain her mind. Even then she would never likely be able to have a normal life with him.

He arranged for the doctor to take care of her until she arrived at a hospital in Moscow for treatment.

He realized that if he ever found her and she was alive she would be a drug addict at the least. The slaves were often kept in line with drugs and rarely lived more than five years.

But he hoped to find the girl he fell in love with on the other side of the fence. He had never been able to forget her. He had not been able to love anyone else. He could not find feelings for anyone else. He doubted he ever could care for someone else.

He had found the body of Svetlana. Now he could only hope that one day doctor’s may find her mind.

When he was alone again in his room he sat down in a chair. With his face in his hands he wept for the first and last time. Now he truly was alone.