Warning: I do not own GUP. I only own my OCs.

New Faces

Pravda Military Academy

Saint Petersburg, Russia

2200 Hours

Nonna Petrov calmly strode down the large corridor of the main building heading towards Katyusha's office. The building's architecture was reminiscent of Imperial Russia, looking more like a palace rather than a place of education. The sound reverberated off of the large granite walls with every step Nonna took, and the only light available came from the moon and poured in through the large floor to ceiling windows. The hour was late, and the lights on the ornate sconces had already been shut off, giving the entire building a sort of ambiance, one might expect in a horror film. All that was missing was a thunderstorm raging outside, and a ghost roaming the halls. But there were no spirits this night. The only soul roaming these halls was Nonna's.

Nonna soon came to a set of large oak doors. The name "Katyusha" engraved in a small metal nameplate at about eye level on the door. She rapped harshly on the heavy doors; the sound echoing through the empty hall.

"Come in," Katyusha's voice came from the other side. But it didn't have its usual upbeat, and arrogant tone. Almost as if…

Nonna knew instantly what to expect. There was somebody of great importance in there with Katyusha. And there were only so many people in this school that would require the pint-sized commander to reign herself in. Nonna straightened her uniform and took a quick moment to steel herself before pushing the heavy wooden door open.

Once she crossed the threshold, she quickly snapped to attention, her back becoming as straight as a ramrod, and her hand raising to a firm salute.

"At ease." A man's voice said. Nonna instantly recognized the voice and visibly relaxed.

"Good evening, Colonel Leonidovich," Nonna said. The man was standing next to a window, just behind Katyusha's mahogany desk, where she sat, a pensive look on her face. He was about six feet tall and had a boxer's build. He kept his salt and pepper hair in a military-style haircut and had a well-trimmed, yet slightly bushy, mustache. He wore an old Soviet dress uniform and had a chest full of medals. A long scar that ran from just below his eye, down his face and neck and disappearing beneath the collar of his uniform. He also leaned slightly on a cane on his left side to compensate for an old hip wound.

Colonel Alexi Leonidovich was the Headmaster at Pravda Military Academy and was undoubtedly one of the most menacing people Nonna had ever met, and the only person she was actually afraid of. Not that she let anyone know that. The man may have been in his sixties, but he was still in surprisingly good health, and he possessed a soul-piercing gaze that would make Stalin himself uncomfortable. He had been a Major in the Russian Spetsnaz during the Soviet-Afghan war and had been highly decorated during the conflict. Though he never told anybody what he'd been decorated for.

"Good evening, Comrade Petrov," The colonel said. "Please, have a seat."

Nonna didn't hesitate. She calmly strode across the room and took a seat in the chair opposite Katyusha. She could tell by the pensive look in Katyusha's eye that something important had just been discussed.

"It is fortuitous that you should happen by at this hour. Saves me the trouble of having to track you down tomorrow." The man said coolly.

"Not at all. I was just coming to take Katyusha back to the dorms."

"Good. I have a matter I wish to discuss with you," The colonel said, taking a few slow steps around the desk. His face darkening as he came to a stop. "I have a concern. As you know, we have a significant influx of new students coming in the next month. Four of them caught my attention."

"Are they dangerous?" Nonna asked.

The man sighed and said, "I'm not sure. And I don't like being unsure. Their files are completely normal. The only reason I suspect them of anything is that one of my sources noticed a slight, shall we say, discrepancy."

"Do you believe this source?" Nonna said.

"I didn't at first. He said he had a 'bad feeling'. I told him to dig further if he trusted this 'feeling'. We later discovered that none of their files even existed up until a six months ago," The colonel said.

"What do you mean?" Nonna responded.

"They have all the correct papers, all the correct documents establishing their identity for years. But they seem to have just appeared in the system as if by magic. Up until exactly one six months ago, these files didn't exist in any database."

"That's impossible," Nonna said.

"For any normal person, yes. And yet, here it is. They just appeared out of thin air."

"Like ghosts," Katyusha said.

"Well, Russia is a big country. Is it possible that they just came from an out of the way village?" Nonna said. She was grasping at straws, and she knew it. But there was a reasonable explanation for this. She just needed to figure out what.

"I suppose that's possible. But I've checked with all my sources and checked with all the schools they've supposedly transferred from. They've spent their lives going from one foster home to another, and most of those records are sealed. So, it's no surprise that they frequently jump from school to school. Each school reports the same thing. What's interesting is they never stayed longer than six months, they never showed up in any of the schools' yearbooks, or class photos and, like everything else, up until six months ago, the files never existed in their database," The colonel said.

"It could be poor bookkeeping," Nonna responded.

"That wouldn't explain why none of the staff remembers seeing them, or even hearing their names."

"Still, that doesn't prove they're dangerous," Nonna said.

"It doesn't prove the contrary either. But nobody just conjures up an identity, just so they can go to school. They're hiding something. And if they've gone through this much trouble, it can't be good," The colonel said.

"So, what exactly do you want us to do then?" Nonna asked. Though, she felt she already knew the answer to that question.

"I want you to keep an eye on them. These boys are hiding something, and they went through a lot of trouble to go unnoticed. If you find anything that suggests they might be a danger, you are to let me know immediately. Is that clear?" The colonel said sternly.

"Yes, sir, but-"

"Good. All we know about them are in these files," he said, gesturing to a stack of manila envelopes on the desk that Nonna had not seen before. "They are for your eyes only." He said as he headed for the door.

"Sir, surely this is more of a job for the Student Morales Committee," Nonna said. She winced at the thought of including the SMC in this. The Studencheskiy Komitet Moralesa was a student organization that acted as the school's internal security force. Where the Student Security Committee was in charge of protecting the school from external threats, acting as security at the gate, and guarding the school's armory, the SMC basically acted as the on-campus police. Glorified hall monitors really, tasked with keeping order on campus. However, in recent years they'd become somewhat extreme in executing their duties, going so far as to create an impressive intelligence apparatus, supposedly with the goal of preventing on-campus crime before it happened.

The SMC was technically its own entity and had very little oversight. The only person who controlled the SMC was Katya Kirilenko, the head of the committee. While she was a member of the Club Management Party, which was basically the student government, the Party had no control over how the SMC operated. It was made up of the leaders of all the clubs on campus and basically controlled all club activity in some capacity. But, since both the SMC and the SSC weren't clubs, the Party didn't really have power over them. It also meant that this power could be abused, and there was a long list of accusations against the SMC ranging from censorship to blackmail. There were even worse offenses supposedly committed by the SMC, who've earned themselves the nickname "Young Stasi".

"They have been alerted, but I have ordered them to stand down for now," The colonel said darkly. Nonna got the message. He may be the school's headmaster, but even his power had limits. The truth was the SMC was becoming out of control. The committee was obviously corrupt, but they had an impressive way of erasing any evidence that could be used against them.

"Then, sir, why us?" Nonna said firmly. The man began to turn around slowly, but she held firm.

"Are you questioning my orders, Captain?" The man said darkly, his voice as cold as ice.

"I am questioning the necessity of using high school girls to commit espionage against their fellow classmates," Nonna said unwaveringly.

The man softened a bit. "Because I trust no one with this more than you two."

Nonna was taken aback slightly by the head master's words. She struggled to come up with a reply, but her words failed her.

"Thank you, sir," She said finally. The man saluted her, and she saluted back as he turned to leave.

"Send your love to your mother for me." The man said as he left.

"I will," Nonna called back. "Uncle." She said softly. With that Nonna turned to face the little commander. Katyusha gave her an expectant grin and Nonna quickly let the young woman climb on her shoulders.

"Do you think the threat is real?" Nonna asked.

"You know your uncle as well as I do. He would not be this nervous if he did not believe the threat to be real. Besides, these boys were able to evade detection by him. That is a rare gift in and of itself," Katyusha said.

"Do you think we stand a chance at uncovering whatever it is they're hiding?" Nonna asked. She knew the small commander's answer, but she decided to stroke the young girls' ego a bit.

"Of course! Don't forget, the great Katyusha is as cunning as a fox and as observant as a hawk!"

"Come. Let's go home." The raven-haired woman smiled, quickly taking the stack of files left on the desk, then walked out.

"We'll need to include a few more people in this, to form a network," Nonna said.

"I know! Katyusha is always one step ahead of the enemy!"

"Of course, little mouse." Nonna teased.

"Katyusha is not little! Katyusha is as big as Siberia!"

"Does that mean she's cold and barren as well?"

"Nonna!" The little girl shouted. Nonna chuckled softly and continued to the car, which quickly took them back to their quarters.

Three Hours Later

It had taken a while for Nonna to sing the pint-sized commander to sleep as she was rambling on about how they would expose these spies for what they were. Even though neither knew what that meant. While she slept Nonna found herself pouring over the files of their suspects, a cup of tea in hand. There were four of them in total, and all of them were boys. She carefully read through each file and analyzed the picture that came with them.

The first was Vitali Petrenko. He had just turned 17 years old, and stood about 4'10", and had dark brown hair, green eyes, white skin, and he had a swimmer's build, with extremely well-toned muscles. His record was extremely mediocre. He'd never done anything unsavory, but never did anything really impressive either. His grades were just barely good enough to get into Pravda in the first place.

The second was Mikhail Stepanov. He had just turned 18 but was the largest member of the group. He was a towering 6'6" and was built like a mountain. Easily more than two hundred pounds of bone, muscle, and sinew, with arms were thicker than most people's thighs. He had black hair, which he kept shaved, dark tanned skin, and green eyes. Much like Vitali, his record was spotless but gave no indication of being special.

"Weird," Nonna thought.

The third was named Nikola Orlov. He had Dirty blonde hair, and blue eyes, and stood about 6'0". He had a wrestler's build and pale skin. He was 18 years old and had very lean and well-defined muscles. His file was basically identical to the other two, as Nonna had expected.

The fourth was Alexander Nikolayev. Apparently, he went by "Alex" for short. He was 18 years old, 6'2", had Brunette hair, deep grey eyes, and lightly tanned skin. He had a Boxer's build and was just as lean and toned as Nikola, if not more so. Their records were just as unassuming as the others. Not only had their identities been fabricated, but it had been done so in a way to attract as little attention as possible. Which, in and of itself, was slightly suspicious. However, had it not been for the colonel's source, they probably would have gone completely unnoticed. According to their files, they were complete strangers to each other. This told Nonna that whoever these guys were, they'd went through a lot of trouble to fit in.

Another thing struck Nonna as peculiar. The four of them were military-aged males and in peak physical condition. Yet there was no record of them being involved in Combat Sports. No sports of any kind, for that matter. On its own, it was completely normal. But, at the moment, Nonna's paranoia was throwing up red flags. Something didn't add up. Not just their mysterious appearance, but it was something about the way they looked.

Nonna picked up Alex's picture and looked at it carefully. It was a normal ID photograph, so the boy did not smile. She was sure she had never seen him before, but there was something vaguely familiar about him. Perhaps about the way he carried himself.

"What are you looking at?" said a familiar voice from behind her.

"Nothing," Nonna said as her other roommate, Klara Baralov, walked into the kitchen.

"Really?" Clara said looking at the pictures. "Feeling lonely, are we?"

"Klara!" Nonna said, shooting her friend a dirty look.

"Seriously, though, what's all this for?" Klara asked.

"The colonel asked us to look over these files," Nonna said.

"The colonel? What, are you spying on these guys?"

"No! Not yet at least."

"Seriously?"

"It's complicated," Nonna said. She spent the next twenty minutes explaining what had happened in Katyusha's office, the colonel's orders, and what she had deduced from their files.

"Wow," Klara said. "It's not much to go on-"

"It's nothing to go on. For all we know, they could be terrorists. And my Uncle wants us to spy on them!" Nonna said, taking another sip of tea.

"Your Uncle is not a fool. If he didn't think you could handle it, he would not have given you the case," Klara said.

"You're right," Nonna said with a heavy sigh. "So, what do you think?"

"These files can't be trusted. If they have been faked, there's no telling what's fact or fiction until we meet them." Klara said. Nonna simply nodded in agreement.

"Luckily, we'll be in the same classes as them, so we'll be able to keep an eye on them."

"Trust me, I don't think that will be a problem," Klara said, ogling Nikola's photo. Nonna rolled her eyes and sighed, glancing at Alex's photograph. She had to admit, she did find him mildly attractive. If she didn't suspect him of being a terrorist, she might be interested in him.

"All we have to do is make sure they're not up to anything dangerous."

"About that..." Klara said. "What do we do if they are dangerous?"

"We tell my uncle. He'll take care of it from there," she said. Klara nodded slowly.

"Okay," Klara said, drinking the rest of her tea, and heading off to bed. She advised Nonna to do the same.

Nonna nodded then sighed. She picked up the picture of Alexander Nikolayev again and stared hard at it. There was something eerily familiar about him, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Who are you? And where have I seen you before." Nonna said quietly. She breathed heavily before returning the picture to its file and tidying up her desk. After a final cup of tea, she headed back to her room. She lay in her bead for a moment staring blankly at the ceiling, exhausted. But sleep would not come. Her mind raced through every possible scenario, trying to figure out what reason they would have for infiltrating a school. They could be part of a terrorist plot to strike at the school from within. Or they could be sleeper agents, here to train under the Government's noses.

But that wouldn't make sense. There had to be better ways to train insurgents than to send them, under deep cover, to a military school. And while a terrorist strike against a Russian school was highly likely, after all, it happened in the Beslan school siege, it would be a huge mistake for four insurgents to attack a military school with an elite I-Com team, and a champion tankery team. And, if she knew her Uncle, he would have done his research on every new student, and double checked every person on campus for any sign of irregularities in their files. If they were part of an attack on the school from within, and there were more of them, he would have found out. Of course, they could be the advance party to disable the school's outer defenses and let their compatriots in, but still. Between the campus police, and the Combat Sports teams and the reinforcements from a nearby military base, any attack on the school would quickly turn into a losing battle. No, an attack would be a foolish endeavor. Just looking at their photos, Nonna could see that these boys were definitely smart enough to know that. It took another hour before she was able to convince her conscience that all these terrifying scenarios were just fabrications of a sleep-deprived mind. Soon after, Nonna's eyelids began to grow heavy, and she could feel sleep taking hold of her. She let herself relax, quickly succumbing to the darkness.

Outside Saint Petersburg

One Month Later

Alexander Nikolayev awoke with a startle. Sweat beaded down his body as if he had just run a marathon, and his heart was pounding in his ears like a drum. He rose wearily from his cot, his head throbbing like somebody had hit him in the head with a baseball bat. The early morning light poured in through the train's windows, and the gentle clatter of the steel tracks filled the air. He massaged his temple, trying to relieve the pain. He heard the door to his cabin slide open, and quickly pulled a knife from a hidden sheath tied around his ankle and prepared to hurl it at the intruder. He quickly stopped as Nikola's face came into view.

"Look who's awake!" Nikola said light-heartedly.

"Where's everybody else?" Alex asked, looking at the three other empty cots in the cabin.

"They're in the food car, getting something to eat. Though, I think Krysa is swiping a few of those muffins." Nikola said.

"Is that tea?" Alex asked, gesturing to the two cups in his friend's hands.

"Yep. All they had was chamomile." Nikola said. Alex grimaced as he drank down the contents. He hated chamomile. It always gave him the jitters. He pulled a small metal flask from his pocket and poured some of its contents into the cup of tea.

"I thought you were going to quit?" Nikola said.

"I could say the same for you," Alex said, gesturing to an open pack of cigarettes on his cot. Nikola just nodded.

"Still tastes better than that swill we had back home."

The boys stared at each other in silence before breaking out in a bout of laughter. The laughing lasted a couple of minutes as the two reminisced about memories both bitter and sweet.

"Good times," Nikola said sullenly.

"Good times," Alex replied.

"You think we can do this? Start a new life?" Nikola said.

Alex sighed. "I'll let you know when I find out."

The door slid open again, and two men entered the room. They were carrying plates of food covered in tinfoil, and one of them had bulging pockets.

"Hey, you're finally up." The largest man of the group said, handing Alex a plate.

"Is that for me, Mikhail?" Alex said.

"Yes, sir," Mikhail replied.

"I swiped you some blueberry muffins for you." The shortest man, Vitali, said.

"Thanks," Alex replied taking the food.

"This one's for you, Nikola." Said Vitali, handing Nikola his plate.

The men unwrapped their plates and found a hot meal of eggs, sausage, and pancakes, which they greedily devoured.

"Where are we?" Alex asked.

"About an hour outside of Saint Petersburg," Vitali said.

"What time is it?"

"Six O'clock," Mikhail said, glancing at his watch.

"Are we all clear on the plan?" Nikola chimed in. The group nodded silently.

"This is it, boys. After this, we're free," Alex said.

The train rattled on for another hour until the city finally came into sight, soon pulling into Moscow Station and jerked to a halt. The group separated, and walked off the train from different cars, taking different routes through the station, and entering different cabs to take them to the school, an hour or so outside of the city limits. They flashed their IDs to the gate centuries and headed to the administration building. After signing in, and collecting their room keys, they headed to their dorms to unpack. They had all been assigned to two rooms on the same floor with Vitali, and Mikhail in one room and Alex and Nikola in a room just three doors away.

The building they had been assigned to was called the Romanov building. Contrary to its namesake, the building was actually quite humble. Built of white painted concrete, and of a simple design, much like the majority of the buildings, with the exception of the Administration building and the Main building, both of which looked more like Royal Palaces decorated with all sorts of statues and gargoyles and were fairly imposing figures, standing in stark contrast to the humble Stalinist architecture of the rest of the school.

Alex entered the building and climbed the stairs, quickly finding his room number, and entered. There were four bedrooms, one living room, one small kitchen, and one bathroom. The room was absolutely Spartan, and it was evident that nobody had moved in yet. The boys gave each other a quick nod and quickly set about searching the room. They moved swiftly, checking under chairs, pillows, mattresses, and cushions looking for electronic surveillance devices. They were extremely thorough, checking every conceivable place for a bug. They even swept the entire area with a multi-frequency bug detector.

"There's nothing wrong with a little paranoia." Alex thought to himself. After all, it had saved him well in the past.

"There," Nikola breathed a heavy sigh of relief, placing the last of the throw cushions back in its place. "We're clean."

"Finally," Nikola said, collapsing on the couch and pulling his flask from his pocket and taking a swig from its contents.

"You could say that again," Nikola said sitting next to him. Alex handed him the flask, which he promptly took and sipped from.

"After all these years, I'd never thought we'd finally be here," Alex said, screwing the cap back onto the flask and placing it back in his pocket.

"In a military academy?" Nikola said.

"No…well, yes, but I mean here. At peace," Alex said, gesturing with his hand at the scene around them.

"Yeah. It'll be interesting to see what a full night's sleep will be like."

"When was the last time any of us had one of those?"

"In the womb," Nikola said, taking a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one up. He offered the pack to his friend, but he politely declined.

"You know those are going to kill you, right?" Alex commented. The words hung in the air as his friend stared intensely at him as if he'd just broken his favorite toy. Alex returned the stare, and the two of them held the gaze for a long, uncomfortable minute. Nikola was the first to break the silence as he began to laugh, and Alex soon followed suit, soon the two were laughing uncontrollably at some unspoken joke.

"I'm going to pick up some groceries," Nikola said, rising to his feet.

"Okay," Alex said, grabbing the remote for the television and powering it on. "Check in with Mikhail, see if they need anything."

"Will do," Nikola said as the door closed. Alex began flipping through channels. After finding nothing of interest he got up and headed over to the cupboard, grabbing a mug and filling it with water from the sink. As he turned and headed back towards the couch, something caught his eye. There was a faint spot of red light hitting the window.

"That's strange." He thought. He looked at the building directly across the courtyard from his. It appeared mostly vacant at the moment, and almost all of the windows had their curtains closed. All of them except for one. The room was directly across from his. Not only were the curtains drawn, but he could see that the window itself had been opened a small bit. The gears in Alex's head began to turn. A grim thought forming in his mind. He suddenly felt as if he was being watched, causing the hairs on his neck to stand up. He knew at the back of his mind what this meant, but he refused to let himself think it. He wanted to believe this was just his paranoia getting the better of him.

"Everything's fine," he thought. "Nobody's out to get you. No more looking over your shoulder. You have nothing to worry about. This is Russia, after all."

He winced as the final thought crossed his mind. It wasn't a huge comfort to be in the former Soviet Union. He banished the thoughts from his mind, refusing to give in to his paranoia. He plopped back on the couch and sipped at his water. He glanced over at the window once more and noticed something odd about the red dot. It lined up perfectly with the gap in the window of the suspicious looking room.

"So, they're shining a laser pointer at my window. No big deal, it's not as if it's a-" He cut himself off, mid-thought. The final piece falling into place. "A laser listening device."

He had heard of these types of surveillance devices before. The user could point the laser at a window, or some other surface that would vibrate when somebody spoke. Then it would measure the change in the laser's intensity and convert that into sound, allowing the user to listen in on conversations from far away. They weren't difficult to make, there were plenty of tutorials on the internet. If a person knew what they were doing they could build one that could listen in on a subject from a thousand meters away if the conditions were right. And he was well within those limits. He looked closer, and his heart began to beat faster, and a massive icy ball formed in his stomach. He looked closer and could just barely make out the barrel of some sort of lens. There was no doubt that he was being watched. Alex felt a surge of adrenaline rush through his veins as a million questions filled his mind.

"How did they find out who we are?" He thought. Granted, there weren't a lot of people who specialized in discretely infiltrating high schools. There were plenty who could fake school transcripts and even transfer papers. If you knew where to look, that is.

He stopped himself, reigning in his thoughts and forcing himself to calm down. There was no guarantee that their cover had been completely blown. All he knew is that they were under surveillance. They may suspect him of something, but that didn't mean they were completely exposed. If they were lucky, they may be able to figure out a way out of this. Before they could do any of that, they had to assess the full extent of their exposure.

He took a deep breath and calmly turned up the volume on the TV till he was sure it would drown out his voice. He calmly walked to his bags and grabbed his phone. He found a blind spot where his observers wouldn't be able to see him through the windows. He quickly found the group chat and sent everyone a one worded text before grabbing his jacket and exiting the room.

It didn't take long for him to notice the other figure exit the other building. He acted oblivious to their presence but kept his eye on them. As he exited the school, he quickly looked for a way into the city and saw one the buses. A sign on its roof revealed its destination to be St. Petersburg Square. He quickly ran to it, flashed his ID to the driver, who nodded and told him to take a seat. As the shuttle left the parking lot, Alex looked back towards the gate in time to see the figure that had been tailing him standing at there, watching as the bus pulled away. He got his first good look at the would-be stalker. She was around five feet tall, with blonde short blonde hair. She was wearing a red hat and a thick black scarf that hid her face from view. He suppressed the urge to wave at the woman as the bus drove off but allowed himself a small smirk.

"This'll be easy," He thought.

St. Petersburg Russia

Nikola stepped off the bus and quickly flagged down a taxi. It had been about forty-five minutes since he received Alex's coded message. It was one of several code words that were to be used in the event that something was to happen to their cover identities. This one, which read goldfish, called for an emergency meeting, and to use extra precaution.

He paid the driver and told him to take him across the city. Once he had been dropped off he headed west, sticking to the alleys and side streets, keeping an eye out for anybody tailing him. A half hour later he arrived at a small café. He made a final check to make sure he wasn't followed, then found a table near the back by the bathroom where he could see the all the exits before flagging down a waitress and ordering a cup of tea.

As Nikola waited for his comrades to arrive he scanned the room, looking for anything suspicious, or out of place. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small chain. The chain was threaded through a bullet. The bullet had been removed from its casing, and a hole had been drilled through the bottom of it where the chain was looped through. He rolled the bullet in his hand and felt the engraving he had placed there.

His thoughts were interrupted when somebody walked through the café's door, ringing a small bell mounted on it. His eyes darted to the newcomer, and a slight bit of relief flooded through his system as he saw Alex's face. The two exchanged glances, and Nikola signaled him that the coast was clear, and he quickly made his way over to his friend's table.

"Have you seen the others?" Alex asked.

"Not yet," Nikola responded.

"You're sure you weren't followed?"

"Positive. What's this about?" Nikola said anxiously.

"We may be compromised," Alex said grimly. Nikola's face went pale and he felt the room begin to spin.

"What do you mean maybe?"

"Somebody's spying on us from the building across the courtyard from ours."

"That's the girl's dorm isn't it?"

"Yes."

"And you're sure they're spying on us?"

"I'm positive we're being watched, but I can't speak to their motives. Which is why I've called this meeting."

"Wait a minute, how do you know we're being watched?" Nikola said firmly. Alex explained the possibility of a laser listening device, and how he spotted a scope of some kind in the window, and how somebody had followed him from the dorms to the front gate. Nikola nodded, his nausea wearing off.

"So, we need to find out who our stalker is, and what they want," Nikola said calmly.

"Yes. They obviously have some training in espionage, but they're far from professional, so we can rule out law enforcement," Alex said.

"So that leaves us with crazy stalker girl, and the SMC," Nikola sighed. They'd heard about Pravda's Student Morales Committee, and were familiar with their tactics. "Okay, so what's the plan?" Nikola asked.

"First, we need to find out if it's a crazy girl or the SMC," Alex said.

"Right, so we need to break into the room and see who we're dealing with."

"Exactly."

"Great. A bunch of guys breaking into a girls' dorm room? What could go wrong?" Nikola said with a heavy sigh.

"If she's not SMC, then we'll be fine."

"And if she is?"

"We're fucked."

A minute later Mikhail and Vitali arrived. They gave the all clear signal and soon joined their friends at the table.

"So, what's the Sit Rep?" Mikhail asked. Alex quickly explained the situation and their plan, receiving a look of shock from both boys.

"Shit," Vitali finally said.

"Yeah," Nikola replied.

"So, who's doing the break in?" Vitali asked. The group turned to look at him in unison.

"No. No. No. I'm not breaking into a girls' dorm into a room that may or may not belong to the god damned Stasi!" Vitali said, anger rising in his voice.

"They're not the actual Stasi," Alex said.

"That doesn't make me feel better!" Vitali said, his voice nearly a shout. Mikhail placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down," Mikhail whispered. The commotion had attracted strange looks from the other patrons.

"Look, you're the best infiltrator out of all of us. Which means you have the best chance of success." Alex said. Vitali went silent for a moment, his mind racing.

"…Fine!" He said harshly. "But on one condition."

"Go on," Alex said.

"Mikhail comes with me."

"We can't do that."

"And why the hell not?" Vitali said dryly.

"He's way too conspicuous. We need absolute stealth on this."

"He's got a point," Mikhail replied.

"Fine, but I'm not going in there alone," Vitali said.

"I'll go with you," Nikola replied.

"You sure?" Alex asked.

"Yeah."

"Alright. I'll see what I can dig up on floor plans and security. Mikhail, you're on equipment acquisition," Alex said.

"Okay, but I can tell you right now, it's going to be almost impossible," Mikhail replied.

"What? Why?" Alex asked nervously.

"We don't have enough money to buy any of the stuff we're gonna need. We used it all getting our identities set up."

"All of it?"

"We have a few hundred rubles of pocket cash, but nowhere near enough to get what we need. Assuming their security is anything like our building's, we might be looking at a closed-circuit security system with multiple cameras, heat and motion sensors, and magnetic locks on all the service entrances that require key card access to open."

"So, what are our options?"

"Well, we could try to brute force it, but that won't end well. Either we get caught, or we just draw more heat on to us."

"That won't work," Nikola said.

"I may be good, but I can't get past all that," Vitali added.

"What's our second option?" Alex asked. Mikhail winced slightly, giving him a pained look.

"No!" Alex said flatly.

"It's by far the best option," Mikhail countered.

"We made a promise. We said we're done with all that!" Alex said, keeping his voice level, but his anger was unmistakable. His eyes staring hard at his friend.

"I think she would understand," Mikhail said, meeting Alex's gaze.

"You don't mean…" Vitali interrupted.

"The I-Com team has all the equipment we'll be likely to need. Only team members have access to the lockup, and security is too tight to break in. So…" Mikhail trailed off.

"We'd have to join the club to gain access." Nikola finished.

"But won't they notice something's missing?" Vitali said.

"No. Apparently guys check stuff out all the time. Plus, if I can get into the Quartermaster club, I'll be able to cover our tracks." Mikhail said.

"And there's no other way?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, we could join the SMC, and try to get some answers that way. But, if we do that, we'll definitely get exposed. Or we could do nothing and hope we don't get caught." Mikhail replied.

Alex let out a heavy sigh before replying, "So, our options are do nothing and pray, break into their room and pray we don't get caught, or join the organization that's hunting us, and get caught."

"Pretty much," Nikola nodded.

"Alright. Well, I know which I'd prefer. But we're free men now. So, I can't force you to follow me. You all have to choose to do this. Nobody will hold it against you if you choose to walk away now." Alex said.

"Not much of a choice is it, sir." Nikola chuckled.

"We'll follow you into hell, sir," Vitali said.

"All the way," Mikhail added.

"Alright then. We have work to do." Alex said, a slight smile crossing his face.

Greetings friends. I apologize for my long absence, in case anybody noticed, and few of you were kind enough to check in to make sure I was still breathing. The answer is yes, though I do have some grave news. As you probably know from my several years of silence, most of the stories I've been working on will be left un-concluded. The reason for this is not only due to writers' block, but also because I had several computers die on me while trying to finish "International War Games", resulting in a loss of most of the chapters. Plus, it's been so long, I can't even remember where I was headed with that fic. However, considering it was my first fic, and more of a spur of the moment thing more than anything, I'm surprised it did as well as it did. While I apologize I can't give it the conclusion I promised, I'm happy to say that it received well over 10000 views. So I thank everyone who set aside the time to read my work.

Anyways, this fic is a result of looking at the fanfic page for GUP and deciding I wanted to add to it again. I may post another story on here, maybe not. Things are kind of crazy for me right now, so I can't promise I'll be able to continue either of these stories. To be honest, my biggest hope is that this story gets the ball rolling with some of you writers. While a lot of the stories on here have potential, I will say they need improvement. Hopefully, this will show some of you new writers what your Fanfic can become.