Later in the day found Alexei alone in the lunch room. Peter had dropped him off, and had rushed to his next class. Peter had the last lunch hour on Monday's. Alexei turned looking for a table, realizing that he wasn't exactly alone. Yassen had been his faithful shadow all day. Alexei found an empty table and sat. Yassen plunked his red lunch tray down next to Alexei's.

Alexei could not contain his mirth at seeing the world's number 1 assassin sitting in a high school cafeteria struggling to open a milk carton. Yassen glared but that only made Alexei laugh harder.

"you know it feels good to be back in school" Alexei started after calmly his laughter.

Yassen responded quietly "I never went to high school" Alexei perked up perhaps he would hear more of the assassin's mysterious past. "Your father taught me everything… his training was my high school and I guess you could say our missions were college." Yassen seemed lost deep in thought.

"Did you enjoy your missions" Alexei choked out, not wanting to hear the answer but needing to know. He especially wanted to know if his father enjoyed them.

"Oh yes Alex: our missions were exhilarating. John enjoyed them just as much if not more" Twirling a carrot stick in his fingers, Yassen continued "double agent or not your father was the most gifted killer I have ever seen."

"Better than you?" Alex asked in a breath.

"Yes, killing for him was an art form and he was a master: a Picasso, Rembrant, Di Vinci all roled into one."

Alex's face paled. He sat there silently pushing the food around with his fork. He felt sick. The boy he thought he had buried was trying to rise to the surface. It shouldn't matter to Alexei Sarov that John Rider enjoyed killing it shouldn't, but it did. His father had really killed people and he had enjoyed it. Alex had pushed the idea of his father the assassin away when he had learned John Rider had really been doing it for MI6. He didn't think that his father really killed people. Alex should have connected the dots sooner, even his own hands were not clean of bloodshed and he had yet to pull a trigger with the intent to kill.

Maybe his father did what he had to in order to maintain his cover, maybe Alex mused his father was pretending he enjoyed the killing or maybe Yassen was lying. Alexei gazed back at the impassive assassin. No Alex realized the assassin would not lie and Alex did not believe that anyone not even his father could fool Yassen 24/7. Besides you didn't get as good as John was at something without enjoying it just a bit. Even Alex had enjoyed aspects of spying. In some ways he had revealed in the intense fear the pounding of his heart and the racing of adrenalin. It had started to become an addiction getting to the point where those gut-wrenching terrifying moments were the only moments Alex had felt truly alive.

No his father was a killer, a killer for hire, and Alex had to ask himself was Sarov any worse, he after all killed ruthlessly but never with savage enjoyment and never without it being necessary to the achievement of his goal—a better Russia.

Alex was deep in thought still when Peter picked him up from lunch. Peter was being so friendly Alex longed to tell him he spoke English but he was hesitant. Their next class settled it. Peter and Alexei had maths together. Peter had told him that the teacher would pick on students who he didn't think had the answer in order to humiliate them. Alexei had taken a seat in the back and was still mulling over his conversation with the assassin. He didn't notice the teacher zeroing in on him.

"You!" the man pointed "New boy, what is the answer?" Alexei looked at the complex problem scrawled over the board, trying to do the complex problem in his head. "Don't know hm… that's a shame maybe you should…" Alexei didn't wait to hear the punishment he knew that if he was reprimanded Sarov would be upset.

"The answer is zero, Sir." Alexei answered his crisp British accent cutting off the end of the teacher's sentence.

The teacher paused, stunned… "was that a lucky guess or can you explain how you did it?" the teacher sneered, sure he had outed the boy.

"I can explain, Sir…" Alexei went into great detail enumerating each step. Secretly he was figuring it out as he went, the teacher had been right zero had been a lucky guess, but he wasn't about to let the teacher know that.

After class, Peter grabbed Alexei's shoulder causing Yassen to tense. Not noticing Yassen's reaction Peter, shoved Alexei not hard but frustratedly. "Why didn't you tell me you spoke English? Why you sound like a Brit."

Alexei ran his hands through his hair. Fear of punishment by Sarov had caused him to forget his ruse with Peter. "I am sorry mate." Smiling slightly he continued "and I am British."

"But you have a Russian name" Peter said trying to excuse his assumption "In fact your name is the same as that famous Russian General—the one that's been all over the news" "ohh…" Peter paused looking for the first time at Yassen.

Alexei had the good grace to look sheepish. "I am half-Brit half-Russian. I lived in England till my mother died in a crash after that I went to live with my father—the General."

Peter nodded… "that explains the B.G. and V.I.P , my father says he's surprised no one's taken the General out, he so popular… did you know that the Tsarist faction has been claiming that since General Sarov is a descendent of the Royal family he should revive the Tsarist Russia…" Peter trailed off realizing that his eagerness to share gossip and move on past his first misjudgment might have put him in hot water.

"It's all right" Alexei clapped Peter's back. "I sometimes forget who my father is too"