Author's Notes:

- Always wanted to try writing something with a Russian setting because the language is awesome and everything's beautiful, so here goes...! (Although we're most likely going to stay in the middle of nowhere without going into the cities much in this fic... TuT)

- Did my best to research everything I could get my hands on about the settings and languages, but feel free to correct me if you spot any mistakes ^^

- All OCs were created for the purposes of the plot.

- Trivia: The fic's title and all the chapter titles are Russian proverbs. Go get cracking if you're interested and have fun! :D

- Thanks to June Ellie for grammar checking!

Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction and has no connection to any military or law enforcement agencies. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any trademarks appearing in this work are the property of their respective owners.

【Chapter 1: Без кота мышам раздолье】

ー Bez kota mysham razdol'ye. ー
ー Without a cat, mice will feel free. ー

Altai Mountains, Russia 16:14

It was a fair weather. VSSE operative agent Evan Bernard would have taken his time to enjoy the beautiful, scenic view of the snowy slopes of northern Altai, which was magnificently spread before himーif it weren't for the fact that a group of armed men hot on his trail wanted him dead.

A USB containing data about a terrorist threat, which he had just successfully procured from a hidden mountain outpost with an incredible amount of hard work, waved in the wind around his neck as he attempted escape on his snowmobile. Tensely, he glanced over his shoulder at the incoming danger.

"Da (Yes)! Run while you can! Hahaha!"

The leader of the men, identified by Evan's intel as mercenary and wanted criminal Sergei Volkov, shouted after him menacingly from his own ride. A sharp-toothed wolfish grin spread across his bold features, the long scar down the left side of his face being a distinguishing mark.

One of his men drove his snowmobile for him as he aimed and continued to shoot at Evan like he was sport. The men on five more snowmobiles behind him followed suit. Evan ducked reflexively as bullets zipped by over him.

According to his superiors, Sergei was an illegal hunter, marksman, and a feared freelance assassin. Evan had no idea how long he would last once the man had his crosshairs pointed at him.

Cursing under his breath, he pressed down on his vehicle's accelerator to its maximum limit. Sergei and his men only reacted by doing the same, like predators with the confidence and excitement to tear down a running prey. Evan pushed on forward desperately, doing his best to maneuver past rocks and trees as he raced down the perilous slopes, not the least bit amused at his situation.

Earlier that month, the VSSE headquarters had received reports that there had been some illegal gold mining in these areas of the Altaiーand not just a small amount.

Despite the fact that the foothills of the 'Golden Mountain' had been known to yield various metals such as copper, silver and lead, gold was first discovered here and reported to the media only in recent years.

But apparently, these not-so-nice people, who were lucky enough to be the ones to discover the jackpot location, had actually found it decades ago. However, seeing that there was profit to be made, they had decided to keep the finding a secret and had started mining it on their own, for years.

It became a much bigger problem when the Russian police caught wind of the activity, along with the fact that all the money that had come from the gold had been laundered and used to fund the production of illegal weapons in large quantitiesーsomething to be worried about.

Sending in policemen to investigate however, had ended up with unexpected, cruel deaths at the hands of Sergei Volkov, a dangerous criminal who seemed to have been hired to safeguard the area.

The police, having had enough of letting these criminals move freely with no one to control them, decided to take action. Immediate aid from the VSSE had been requested, and they had sent in two of their best agents, Giorgio Bruno and his younger partner Evan Bernard. Their job would be to figure out who Sergei's boss was, capture him, and put an end to his actions.

Evan glanced down. Files containing transmissions that would uncover the mastermind's identity lay waiting in the USB. That was step one of his mission hanging around his neck. He hoped that he could make it to regroup again with Giorgio, who had been separated from him during their infiltration of Sergei's outpost.

A loud bang.

Evan barely knew what hit him as a strong force nailed his left arm, throwing him off-balance and off his snowmobile. He went crashing into the snow, smearing red against pure white as he tumbled across a distance. There was no time to thank the heavens that he didn't break his neckーa burning pain shot through him from his wound and he cried out in agony, clutching his arm.

The roar of engines quietened down as Sergei and his men came to a stop nearby.

Evan gritted his teeth in panic. Reaching down to his side, his hand very kindly informed him that his gun had slipped out of its holster during his fall, and must have gotten buried somewhere in the snow. His mind told him that his life was now a lost cause, but clinging onto his survival instincts, he desperately got himself back up, turned and half limped towards his fallen vehicle.

'Get away. Return to Giorgio. It can't end here!' Thoughts ran through his mind.

A snarl and loud barks. Any glint of hope Evan had was extinguished when a wolf jumped out from behind his snowmobile in front of him, followed by two more. They growled at him, hunger in their eyes, drool dripping like poison from merciless fangs. There was a distinct craziness in their angry scowls, sparked by the sight and smell of the fresh blood dripping from his arm.

Evan fell back into the snow, tense. Sergei laughed.

"My friends from these parts," he introduced with a sense of pride. The wolves continued to bark impatiently, their sharp eyes never leaving Evan. One of them tried to make a move.

"Myesto (Stay)!" Sergei commanded fiercely. The beast whimpered and obeyed him. The other two wolves backed off timidly as well, head drooped low and tails between their legs. Evan wondered for a moment what sort of discipline Sergei must have given them to make them so obedient.

His thoughts were cut short when he heard Sergei walking over to him. He turned to face Sergei and could only back off helplessly. He hated to admit that he was being overpowered and backed into a cornerーsomething that he had always done his best to prevent. A hard, violent kick to the side of his head expressed Sergei's fury in its full glory.

Evan crashed roughly against the snow, groaning, his mind falling into an immediate daze. Through the haze, he felt the USB being forcefully pulled off his neck.

"Non..." Evan groaned weakly in protest, trying hard to remain conscious. He twisted his body a little, trying to focus his vision.

"Hah! That should teach you!" Sergei warned, straightening himself and shoving the USB into his pocket.

"Now that my business with you is done, I guess I'll let the wolves have you. Maybe the others will think twice before they try anything funny again," he smirked. "You should make good entertainment. I think I'll stay here for awhile and... watchーjust to be doubly sure that you're done with."

"..."

Evan thought that that would be the end of him. Through his still blurry vision, he watched the wolves snarl and bark as they approached...

The loud bang of gunshots tore through the air. Surprised, the wolves turned tail and ran, whimpering and barking.

"...!?" Sergei and his men turned to look at the cause of the distraction.

A tall man stood on an overhead rock with the sun behind him, gun pointed at them. The cold breeze blew through his dark hair as he scrutinized them with a dauntless, stern expression.

Agent Giorgio Bruno. Sergei, however, was not the least bit shaken.

"Hah! What's one man going to do to us! You're both going down!" He snarled fearlessly, readying his gun for a counterattack. Shouts that followed stopped him.

"SOBR! Zasty'n'te (Freeze)!"

Evan could see the silhouettes of several men dressed in black military uniforms, coming up from behind Giorgio and pointing their guns at Sergei and his men. Some of them came up around Evan to defend him. He ran his unfocussed gaze across the yellow 'С О Б Р' letters printed on their backs.

'The Special Rapid Response Unit, Russia's special forces... So Giorgio got us backup. How nice...' Evan forced a little smirk despite his throbbing head.

"The chase ends here. Give yourself up," Giorgio commanded, the calmness of his voice betraying the boiling anger that bubbled beneath the surface, knowing what Sergei had done to his partner.

Seeing the unexpected and unfavorable turn of events, the irritation was clear in Sergei's expression. He hated it the most when his hunt was disturbed, but he knew when it was wiser to retreat. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, with one swift movement, he flung a smoke bomb towards his adversaries.

Everyone was taken by surprise. A giant roar of engines was heard as Sergei and his men took off with their snowmobiles. Sergei might not have been able to eliminate their threat completely, but he had managed to recover the stolen information. Still, he shot a glare back at Evan. He wasn't known to let his targets survive, so he made it a point to remember Evan's faceーhe'd finish this business some day.

Giorgio's gaze was fixed on Sergei's retreating form as the smoke cleared. Some of the SOBR men immediately jumped onto their vehicles and gave chase to the criminal. Giorgio, however, decided that there were more important things to worry about at hand.

"Evan!"

He rushed down the slope and made his way to his fallen partner. Some medics had already gathered around the young man, doing their best to stop his bleeding. They shouted frantically in Russian to each other, bringing in emergency tools. Giorgio knelt down next to Evan, putting a firm hand on Evan's shoulder to let him know that he was there.

"Told you that splitting up was a bad idea," Giorgio scolded strictly. But with enough attention paid, one would be able to hear the deep worry in his voice, and see the distress in his frown.

"Tonton (uncle)..." Evan called out weakly in almost a whisper, raising a feeble hand. His head hurt, his vision was still swimming, and he was beginning to feel lightheaded. He raised a loosely clasped feeble hand, reaching out for Giorgio.

Giorgio had lost track of how many times Evan had called him a variant of 'old man', but this was no time to worry about that. Maybe the damage Sergei did was worse than he thought. He grabbed and held onto Evan's hand.

"Yes, I'm here, Evan." The worry was apparent in his voice now.

Giorgio's expression then shifted to that of slight surprise when he saw a smile spread across Evan's faceーnot a weak innocent smile, but more of a mischievous, triumphant smirk.

Giorgio felt the weak hand he was holding unfurl its fingers to press a USB firmly into his palm.

"Enemy transmissions... Backup data..." Evan managed to force out through his headache.

Giorgio looked at the USB twice, disbelievingly, as if to make sure that it was actually there. He looked at Evan again.

"You sly fox! Did you let him take the original data back deliberately so they wouldn't know that we have the information?" Giorgio asked.

"Well... Non... But at least, I'm prepared for it," Evan smirked. "We've been working together for like... what, four years! You should... learn to trust me more!"

"..."

Giorgio wondered whether Evan could actually argue that point, considering that he almost got himself killed in the process. Yet again. Like he always did. He had no idea when it would ever be alright to let the younger man out of his sight.

Evan's relaxed expression immediately turned serious again, as if he had suddenly remembered something grave. He grabbed Giorgio's sleeve forcefully, his voice remaining weak but hurried.

"Tonton, listen! I saw things when we were separated... There's... more to this than meets the eye. We have to... move...!" Evan warned.

His sudden movement strained his wounded arm and he cringed from the pain. As a bonus, the throbbing in his head got to its maximum strength.

The medics and Giorgio hastened to calm him down. Through the continuous cacophony of orders being shouted, Evan could feel his sleeve being rolled up and the slight prick of a needle on his arm. His headache and the pain ebbed away slowly afterwards, along with his consciousness.

"Giorgio..." Evan called out in a whisper as his eyelids began to feel heavier and heavier. He felt Giorgio hold onto his hand firmly, to reassure him that he was still there.

"Worry not Evan, we'll strike when the time is right," Giorgio told him.

"Everything will be alright. Rest for now."

Giorgio's last words sounded distant as his vision darkened, but Evan liked the underlying gentleness that he had caught in itーsomething that his partner didn't usually show.

Feeling peaceful and accomplished, he allowed the quiet comfort of sleep to take him. Just before he closed his eyes completely, he thought that he heard the barking of a dog and saw the approaching figure of a woman.