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It had been two days since the discovery of what had truly happened at the football match. And both Alex and Kai had come to the conclusion that the whole job of Beckett Circle had gone disastrously wrong. Together, they had developed the hypothesis that Hassan Al-Meera (they discovered the man's full name from a phone call to Agent Rhodes) had paid the Beckett Circle to protect his son when he went to the football match. Since Hassan was about to be ousted as CEO of the flagship company, the boys (along with Rhodes) had figured Hassan wanted a sympathy vote in his favour. So he also paid the Beckett Circle to fire up a riot, all the while keeping his son safe from any actual life-threatening danger. An injury that required a quick trip to the hospital would have been perfect; something for the reporters to follow with a sympathetic tone.

But somewhere along the line, things had gone horrible wrong and Leonid had stabbed Hassan's son. An accident or an act of madness: nobody knew.

But the death of Hassan Al-Meera's son was splashed across every paper and newsroom.

The last few days had been uneventful and staid. The young team of new recruits had been sent on a few pick pocket runs, but otherwise time was theirs. Whilst others struggled with the cooker, Kai would take Alex out to show him the city. He had bought him ukha, a strong authentic fish soup at a street seller who hung out of his houses' back window and cooked in his own kitchen with his mother, wife and sour looking mother-in-law. By mentioning they were part of the Beckett Circle – under orders from Alexei – he gave them a bowl each for a reduced price.

Moscow was still cold, but the snow had stopped falling and the sun shone through weakly.

When they weren't out in the city, the pair spent time either with Luke – talking about the rubbish teenage boys talked about – or holed in their room – getting to know each other a little better.

Alex found he enjoyed Luke's company for long, rambling conversations about BMX bikes, cars, video games and the pros and cons of an Xbox 360 against the PS3. The time he spent alone with Kai was becoming increasingly more intimate and enjoyable in its own right. Still, at the back of his mind he was frustrated.

The mission wasn't going anywhere, and it still irked him that he wasn't find out any of the family bombshells Kai had promised him. What's more, Kai wouldn't talk to him about it.

Once, as the two boys were taking a break from a make out entanglement that had sent them rolling off their mattress, Alex had brought up the topic again. Kai had immediately shot down the conversation and silenced the British blonde by sitting on him until he promised to leave the issue alone. Alex had commented on how mature the Russian was for his age, and had received a poke in the side for his troubles.

Their next big break came in the form of a visit by Lieutenant Alexei.

Alex and Kai were occupied in their room when he arrived, the air heated by the hours the boys had spent locked up in there that morning. Activities had moved up to the stage where Alex no longer yelped with surprise when Kai's hands wondered up his shirt or migrated a little further south of his hips. During this particular instance, Kai's hand was splayed on the blonde's stomach, his thumb stroking gently the deep groove that pointed downwards into Alex's jeans. The sensation was making the younger spy strain against any restrain he had and moan, tilting his hips upwards. His own hands were under Kai's shirt, feeling the smooth line of defined muscles that snaked across his stomach; in fact he was about to do something he hadn't done before and rip the offending item off, when Luke yelled.

"Hey guys, Alexei is here."

Kai's fingers paused where they were, drifting delicately over the material at the crotch of Alex's jeans.

"Shit," he snapped. Alex groaned in frustration and rolled off him, scowling.

"Couldn't we just pretend we didn't hear him? Or that we don't care?" Kai asked, sincerely.

"We've got to think of the mission," Alex said, all the while trying to quash the insane fluttering of excitement still whirling at the base of his stomach and making other areas considerably harder to get under control.

They had been so close. It seemed that every time things between them were about to go up a notch they were interrupted. And Alex was interested to find out what that notch felt like when it wasn't delivered to him personally, courtesy of his own hand and Jack being out of his ear-shot of his room in the morning.

Kai muttered something darkly in Russian. He brushed the hair out of Alex's eyes, planted a last kiss on the boy's bruised lips and exited the room, still grumbling.

Alex followed suit a moment later, when he had reigned in his own feelings of frustration. When he entered the dining room, Alexei and Kai were doing some complicated hand shake as they greeted each other, something that Alex hoped was a Russian thing and not something he was ever going to have to emulate.

Their Lieutenant looked drawn and unhappy, and he didn't bother to hide it.

"Are you Ok?" Alex asked, as they greeted each other with a much less complicated head-nod.

"No," Alexei sighed, rubbing his hands over his close-cropped hair.

"What's wrong?" Luke enquired, lighting a cigarette Alexei had handed him. Alex breathed a sigh of relief when Kai declined one, making him more comfortable about doing the same.

"I'm being promoted to Senior Lieutenant," Alexei explained, miserably.

Alexei had joined the three boys in their conversations and bored pastimes on a regular basis. He appeared to have taken a shine to the trio, and - fortunately for Kai and Alex – that meant his tongue was considerably loosened.

"That's good, isn't it?" Kai questioned. The table was listing heavily on one side when the stack of porno that made up the fourth leg had diminished considerably. Alex tried not to look down at the cover of Busty Asian Beauties (1), the America copy of what looked like a liberal Russian publisher. A scattering of women busting out of their flimsy shirts stared up at him.

"I guess," Alexei shrugged, "But...it's only because of this whole Leonid thing. He was meant to get Senior Lieutenant this time around; I was put on the list to be looked at for the position next year. But now he's...I'd rather have been chosen next year on my own merit rather than as second choice."

"What's the difference between Senior and regular Lieutenant?" Luke asked. A groan of disappointment rose up from the kitchen where the desperate would-be cookers failed to get the oven to work.

"Now I can be in charge of Junior Lieutenants and new recruits. It's my job to make sure you guys didn't mess as around, to make sure the Juniors do their job and I'm available to help out the Seniors. But as a Senior Lieutenant, I get a uniform. I'm in charge of delegated to Lieutenants and organising shifts for the Privates, I got to choose a group of you to be under my wing and become my personal officers. And I attend meetings with Generals and Sergeants."

"Sounds pretty good," Kai lamented.

"It is. It's good, I want to be a Senior...it's just I'd rather not be a last resort. The others who will move up with me will never let it lie. Also: there's the ceremony."

"Ceremony?"

Alexei nodded, suddenly looking even more melancholy.

"It's all pomp and circumstances. It's where you announce who has been promoted to what. You guys will be officially named Privates, I'll be made a Senior, and about ten others will be given new titles all the way up to General."

As Luke groaned at the idea of such a boring idea, the eyes of the two young spies had lit up.

"Who attends it?" Alex asked, just beating Kai to it.

"Everyone. All the way up to the top. Generals, Sergeants, Lieutenants, Colonels, even finance directors."

Alex felt a completely different kind of excitement trip inside his stomach.

"But not the Director. He goes only if he appoints a new deputy, and that hasn't happened even since I've been here."

"Who is the Director?" Alex asked next, taking the knife and thrusting it into the utter darkness.

"No idea," Alexei shrugged, "He's just called the Director. It's said if you've been told his name and summoned to see him, you're getting a brand new pair of cement shoes in the near future."

All three boys swallowed heavily.

"So when is this ceremony thing?"

"At the end of the week, on Saturday. It starts at 8pm, takes about two hours. Then there's the after party."

"An after party?"

"Yeah. There's a gap of about two hours after the ceremony for a break, then there's a big piss-up, basically. You know, everyone gets all those with new ranks drunk. We Lieutenants get you lot pissed and give you your nicknames. I think I'm getting thrown in the pond, that's what we did to the last guy."

Luke sounded thrilled. Kai was laughing, Alex was conflicted; it would be chance to let off steam, but how would he behave when drunk? Particularly with Kai.

The sound of the TV being switched on in the living room, and Alexei looked pleasantly surprised.

"You got the TV aerial working?"

"We only get a Russian 'adult films' channel and a channel for kids TV."

"What a combination," Alexei chuckled, raising his eyebrows.

Alex wasn't a prude, but watching porn with a load of other guys made him feel very uncomfortable. Thankfully, none of them were taking it very seriously. The summary on the TV guide had called it 'an adult interest' film, according to Kai's translation He was now sat on the edge of the sofa, eyebrows lost somewhere at his hairline as the film progressed. Luke was laughing like a drain, the girls looked disgusted and some of the other boys were crying out with despair at the terrible acting.

"She's going to ruin that cucumber," Kai sighed. Alexei was shaking his head, perched on the arm of the sofa with a look of amused entertainment. As the woman on the screen did something very impressive with the cucumber Alexei's phone trilled

He snatched it out of his pocket, had a brief conversation in Russian and snapped it shut.

"I've got to go, need to get my uniform fitted."

He hopped off the sofa.

"I'll come on Saturday to explain more about the ceremony. Until then, I think you guys will be free. Enjoy."

They called goodbye to the Lieutenant, not a single pair of eyes leaving the screen.

"Oh god, what the hell is she going to do with that pear."

There was a pause and then a roaring chorus of:

"Oh, God!"

"That's sick."

"That was well gross."

"Man she should be in the circus."

The morning of the Saturday ceremony, Alex w

oke up to find himself wrapped impossibly close to Kai under the covers. Kai's hand was pressed against his stomach and his forehead rested gently against the mop of blonde hair that each day was becoming more and more tangled.

"Kai?"

"Hm."

"Are you awake?"

Kai opened bleary eyes and pulled back a bit, blinking at Alex, "What?"

"Are you awake?"

Kai groaned and dropped his head into the pillow, smothering his face completely. Alex laughed and detached himself to go to the bathroom.

"Ceremony today," Kai mumbled when Alex walked back in the room.

"Yep."

"What are our plans then?"

Alex sat down on the mattress next to Kai, and the Russian rolled over on his back to squint up at him.

"Well, Alexei said everyone will be there. So this is our best possible opportunity to get some names and faces," Alex said, thoughtfully, "We need to use the secret cameras Smithers gave us and sent them back to MI6 and SVR."

"And then?"

"Take it from there, I suppose," he shrugged.

"Fine by me."

Kai yawned loudly and staggered out of the bed, still drunk from exhaustion.

"Let me guess: bread and cheese for breakfast again? I could do with a coffee."

Alex couldn't help but agree. He missed cereal and toast, and the Saturday morning fry ups Jack would make for them. He only hoped being made Privates had some more benefits. Kai come back from the bathroom and changed his top, wincing at the feel of the cold material against his skin.

"Have you ever heard of a man called Yassen Gregorovich?" Alex asked. It was completely out of all thread of thought had been farming in the back of his mind the past few days, and had found himself musing about it as Kai cursed the cold in his mother tongue.

"Erm...no. He sounds Russian though. Who is he?"

"An assassin."

"Well, that just makes him sound all the more Russian: assassins are one of this country';s main exports," Kai joked, "Why do you ask?"

"It's just...well, he died recently. He was shot."

"Did you know him?"

"I was with him when he died."

"Oh," Kai said, quietly. He sat down closely next to Alex, "What happened?"

"Did you hear about Damian Cray?"

"The insane millionaire. Yes, I did."

"Well, he shot Yassen. And Yassen...he knew me from before. He said something to me before he died and I was wandering whether this is...no, it's nothing."Alex had held onto the courage to talk about Yassen long enough, but now it had faded. The memory sat in his chest, a heavy weight near his heart. He didn't feel he could share what Yassen had said to him with anyone quite yet.

And if Kai had never heard of him, then maybe he was barking up the wrong tree. But how many undiscovered branches of his family's tree of secrecy be? If Kai didn't intend to discover anything to do with what Yassen had told him, maybe it was completely different.

"So you're being secretive with me now?" Kai smirked, "Is that allowed?"

"I'm just returning the favour."

"Sorry, Alex. I've never heard of a Yassen Gregorovich. I wouldn't know."

"No, I thought not. It's Ok, forget about it."

Alex stood up and stretched, mentally shaking away the memories that slowly started to creep back.

"Let's go and have breakfast."

As Alex retreated to the kitchen, Kai watched him go with a worried look. He had had some strange and unpleasant dreams during the last night, something inside him having reawakened old and painful memories. And the conversation he had just had with Alex wasn't helping him keep the darkness at the back of his mind away.

They decided that only one of them would wear the secret camera so as not to endanger suspicion. It was decided that since Alex had used Smithers' gadgets before, Alex would wear it. Alex would wear it.

"Are you sure this will work?" Kai asked, a certain amount of doubt in his voice.

"I trust Smithers. His stuff has saved my life before, this will work."

"Ok."

Kai pushed back Alex's blonde bangs, narrowing his eyes at their handiwork.

"What if anyone asks about it?"

"I decided to dress up for the occasion."

"Ok. And you're going to have to make sure your hair doesn't fall too far forward, or there'll be no point. You got the little receiver?"

"In my pocket."

Alex jangled the tiny black box in his right jeans pocket.

"Right. You're set."

Kai took a step back and gave Alex a full up-and-down inspection.

"It doesn't suit you, Alex."

"Oh thanks," Alex mumbled. He now wanted to pull out the damn ear stud and be rid of it. He had always hated the memory of having to wear them for his mission at Point Blanc.

He had been happy to let the piercings close up, and had been more than annoyed when Stacey Bloom had re-opened them with a stab of a needle and little warning as she had been making him up.

"You should have seen me when I had to be a misbehaving kid for cover. I had proper studs and shaved head."

Kai laughed, "I'm not saying you don't look good, Alex, it just doesn't suit you. It doesn't quite look right, now that I know you."

Once again he ran his hand over the blonde hair, "And I can't imagine you with shorter hair. I had that done once; I looked like I had just landed. It was a Jarhead cut, like the Marines."

Alex couldn't picture Kai with such closely cropped hair either, considering how thick and wild it had been since they had introduced.

"Right, are we ready to go?"

"Ready."

They met the others in the front entrance hall, everyone looking only with slightly smarter than they originally did. With an ice-cold shower, very few change of clothes and little in the way of maintain good image, the all looked basically the same, just a little less grubby.

Alexei promised to take them to the ceremony, but had said he was going drinking with his friends in the two hour gap between the ceremony and the after party, and after the actual party he doubted he would be in any state to direct them home.

"So pay attention to the route," he warned, before they set off.

Alexei was kitted out in a brand new uniform; a crisp white shirt with a navy blue jacket made of stiff material. His trousers were the same blue, with highly polished black boots that had thick, heavy soles. On his head he wore a dark cap, like the policemen Alex had seen on the streets around Moscow.

The jacket could be buttoned to the neck, and as they were walking Alexei started to do them up. The buttons were bulbous and silver, securing the jacket tightly. The stripes on his shoulders were based on the insignia worn by Senior Lieutenant of the Russian Federation. The patch was a creamy white, with three red stars in a triangle straddling a long blue line down the middle. At the end closest to the neck there were two circular symbols; one for the Russian Federation and one which stood for the Beckett Circle.

He looked a little uncomfortable in the get-up, and grew more and more serious as they grew closer.

"Behave," he warned them all, "Don't show me up at this thing; it's taken very seriously. No laughing or mucking around."

They all nodded sincerely, once again reminded of their lowly rank and order. The venue for the ceremony was similar to the office they had been to regularly. It was backed onto by another club, a slightly more high-end affair with signs indicating that for tonight it was closed for a private party.

The building on the back of the club was ivy glad and looked to have been plucked from the top-class residential streets of the city. The night air was sharp but there was no snow and little cloud.

The front door was guarded by a young man in a similar uniform to Alexei's. They exchanged brief nods and he opened up the door to let them in. They were ushered through a dark hallway, empty apart from a sweeping staircase to the right and a small side table with an empty vase on top.

Above the vase, the wall housed a gigantic mirror in a gilded frame. Alex barely recognised himself in the reflection as they walked by; dark hair terribly knotted at the back, dark circles under his eyes from hunger and cold, and a streak of dirt on his neck he couldn't scrub away. It was a wonder Kai kissed him, Alex thought.

They went straight through to the back of the hallway and out into a walled courtyard. The chill in the air was vanquished by open-flame torches in the four corners. At the back stood a thin line of uniformed men and women, outranking the recruits by leagues. They were fussing and organising, and directed the small band to sit in the back corner.

As they settled against the cold stone wall, lit by the flames for all to inspect, Alex couldn't help but feel like he was in some strange school assembly.

Except the people who wondered in for the next half an hour looked nothing like his teachers at Brooklyn Grammar. The guests were ushered to white armchairs directly opposite the new recruits, hugging the wall of the house. Many were in military uniforms of far-off countries: Cuban, Italian, Chinese and Indian. They chatted little, and when they did it was polite and easy.

Lieutenants, Sergeants, Colonels and Generals of the Beckett Circle were scattered against the two free walls, hemming the recruits into their corner as though worried they would be seen.

The ceremony started at a precise moment, although Alex had no concept of what the time was.

As the new ranks were handed out, from their new position as Privates to a new Colonel being given his stars, Alex surveyed the crowd. He deftly switched on the tiny box in his pocket and turned his head slowly, taking in the illustrious guests for the pictures. The tiny camera took hundreds of pictures from the moment it was switched on, a continuous shuttering of the tiny device to take as many pictures as possible.

The flames of the torches were doing little for Alex's confidence. Their faces were cast with shadows that danced and convulsed over faces half-clouded with darkness and half gauntly lit by the orange light.

Alex barely noticed that the ceremony had finished, but it was signalled by the honourable guests rising and applauding. Higher ranking members of the Beckett Circle snapped off a salute and stamped down with their thick soles, rousing Luke from his standing-sleep with a jerk and a, "What the crap?!"

Thankfully he couldn't be heard over the rising chat now that the official business had been adjourned.

"You guys have got two hours, then be back at here; around the front at the club. They'll let you in if you're wearing your new Private stuff in some way. The best thing to do is tie the bandana around your right wrist, then they'll know for definite it is you."

Alexei looked a little less tense now that the formalities were over. Alex and Kai kept their eyes behind Alexei's shoulder, watching the VIPs leave and disappear inside the house.

Alex switched off the tiny box in his pocket and gave Kai a meaningful look. Kai blew out air into his cheeks and shrugged. Both were doubtful that their great opportunity had really been as great as they had thought.

But they had the pictures, and hopefully that would be good enough to at least give them something.

As the new Privates wandered home in a pack - bored and wondering what to do for the next two hours as they had little preparation to go through for the big party – Kai and Alex drifted apart from the rest.

"Agent Rhodes said we leave the two devices in a small envelope jammed behind the telephone box that we call him from."

Alex nodded, immediately starting to pull the stud out of his ear, "I hate this thing."

Kai unfolded a scrappy, well-used envelope and held it open for Alex to drop the ear stud camera and the receiver into.

"I'll go and do that."

Kai leant forward and kissed him briefly on the lips, "You and get ready for the party. We've done our work for the day; time to let off some steam."

Alex had never been drunk before, but he knew without much need for analyses that he was certainly drunk right now.

"My teeth are numb," he told Kai, whose skin was a glaring white and purple under the lights.

"Welcome to the club."

In fact, his whole face was numb. His teeth, his gums, his nose. He prodded at his right cheek. Yep, that was numb too.

Accompanying his slightly numb cheeks, were daubs of fluorescent paint smeared in straight lines from his cheekbones towards the bridge of his nose. They were green, orange, purple and yellow. Some of it was even in his hair and there was a slash of bright green running across the front of his neck like a scar.

His lines were a little smudged, and so were Kai's; the two had found a private moment around the corner from the men's toilets, and the little distraction had caused some mixing of the paint.

Things around him were moving very fast, and Alex's brain wasn't quite able to keep up with it all. The lights would occasionally start to shudder, so that the whole world became disjointed and unreal.

Not that he cared, of course. In fact he had a stupid grin on his face that he couldn't get rid of. His legs were burning hot but that didn't bother him either; they were keeping him upright even as he downed his last apple sours under orders from Alexei, "One, two, three."

Alex knocked it back and felt a vague twinge at the back of his throat. It was certainly less painful than his first shot, which had burnt his throat and made his eyes water.

"Down it Private!" a newly awarded Senior Lieutenant was shouting, as Luke threw his head back and downed a pitcher of an amber, cloudy liquid.

"Alex."

Alex swung around to see Kai at his shoulder, holding two small shot glasses of a liquid so crystal clear the glass may have well have been empty.

"I wanted to give you your first experience of pure, premium Russian vodka," Kai grinned, handing Alex the shot glass.

"They've got some expensive stuff here. Any other club around in this part of Moscow, and you'd be drinking lighter fluid. This is the real thing."

Their eyes caught for a moment, both boys with equally intoxicated and thrilled smiles on their faces. They chinked their glass. One, two, three.

Alex downed the clear liquid in one and felt a burn infinitely worse than the apple sours lance down his oesophagus. His chest, stomach, mouth, all flared for a moment in acid paid before dying to a hot, murmuring heat. He gasped, feeling some of the heat escape like the door opening to a furnace.

"Whoa," he coughed, trying not to splutter too much. Kai didn't seem to affected, although his eyes had taken on a bit of a sheen.

"Good, right?" he asked. Alex was still coughing, and he thumped the Brit on the back with the flat of his hand.

"Thanks."

"You can officially say you've had proper, Russian vodka."

Alex remembered little of how they got home. He vaguely remembered falling back on an icy patch and finding Kai's strong arm catch him at the small of his back. The next minute he found himself pitching head first onto the two mattresses they shared and wishing he could sleep. He rolled and his forehead bumped against Kai's, who had crawled into the bed after him.

"Hmm," Alex moaned, a dull pain thumping where they had knocked skulls.

In as little time as it took for the moan to get out, he found himself locking lips with Kai once again. They were still numb, but tingling now as Kai rolled over on top of him, pinning him to the mattress with his bodyweight in all the right places.

Seconds started to go missing; like a film shown with some of scenes taken out. He had a vague idea they had been kissing for a while, as even his drink-numb lips were starting to burn. The next minute they weren't, and Kai was staring down at him with heavy dark eyes that swallowed Alex whole, sending his mind into a blur and his heart to speed up.

"Do you want to?" Kai asked him. It took a moment for Alex to understand what he was asking. Kai's had was at his belt buckle, fingers slipped under the metal. He was waiting for Alex's response. When he did, it was in a soft and not unhappy whisper.

"No, I don't think so."

"Ok."

And suddenly Kai was sleeping next to him, breathing heavily with his arm crossing Alex's chest protectively. Alex stared up at the ceiling, trying to bring back the last few minutes. Had he really just said no to Kai? And he had been thinking about it for a while now, that particular idea...

Oh well. His eyes were starting to close, and he didn't fight the sleep that was pulling at his conscious and sending him spinning into a heavy darkness.

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