Oscar- Hutt River
Jemima- Nyo Australia
William- Nyo Wy
Niran- Thailand
...
"You're late," Andrei barked as Peter tried to inch past him in the corridor. The man grinned back apologetically, as his boss just sighed.
"I must've switched my alarm off by accident or something," he explained, "it didn't go off."
"Very well. Now follow me."
Having no energy to scold him further, Andrei led Peter in the direction of his office, and Peter absent-mindedly looked around as he followed, peering in the various rooms. Most were empty, but he spied Tsvetan hunched over a computer in his office and the cleaner vacuuming in the mess room. But in the cloakroom, there was someone rather unexpected.
"Oscar?" he scoffed, coming to a halt.
Agent Victoria, or Oscar Cook, turned to face him with a scowl. Peter was somewhat in awe of the haughty, glamorous young man who always seemed perfectly dressed, not a hair or button out of place.
"Please, Agent Seagull," he began, sighing as if this was the thousandth time he'd had to repeat those words to Agent Seagull, which it probably was, "what have I told you about sticking to agent names?"
"Oh come on, Agent Vic, we're all friends here! Besides, you're my cousin! I think I'm allowed to call you by your name."
Peter and Oscar had only found out they were related by accident, when Peter had first joined and took it upon himself to read the files of every agent in the North and South Berlin Divisions. Further DNA tests confirmed that they were cousins, and Peter finally got in touch with at least some of his biological relatives.
Although he was perfectly happy as an Oxenstjärna, and generally didn't want to find his biological parents, Peter was somewhat curious about the family that had given him up for adoption.
Oscar had an older sister and younger brother: Jemima and William. William turned out to be one of Björn and Eemeli's friends from school, and Jemima was a cheerful, friendly young woman who had raised her little brothers since she was a teenager.
None of his cousins, however, would tell him anything about his birth parents, or any possible siblings he had. They never visited Jemima, and all he'd found out in the years of knowing them was that his mother lived in Britain, and that Peter himself was actually English, not Swedish. Whenever he asked about his mother, his cousins would clam up and avoid the subject. It was all rather irritating.
"Regardless, you never know who could be listening in," Oscar turned back to the locker he was rummaging through and now it was Peter's turn to frown.
"Hang on, your locker isn't here. It's in your own office, mate," he leaned against the door frame, "in fact, what are you even doing here?"
"I work here now," was all that Oscar cared to say.
"Agent Magyar's team have moved in with us," Andrei said. "We will be working more closely together over the next year."
"What?"
"I'll explain everything in my office," Andrei hissed, grabbing Peter's sleeve, "hurry up, will you?"
"Oh, okay. Right."
…
Stelios wondered if it was too early in the day for a drink.
Everything about this trip so far had been a disaster. He didn't want a bloody job! It was his holiday for God's sake! He already had a nice job at home, selling fruit in a market. Nice and simple, and kept him busy until something better came along. It also gave him a chance to talk to different people. He liked people.
But this was a whole new level of weird, and even dodgier than his internet history. A tall man with a ponytail full of dreadlocks had spent a good hour or so barking orders at him and his siblings. What needed being done. Where the boxes had to be driven to. That they must never open the boxes, lest they cared to face the consequences. By the end of it all, Stelios' head was swimming.
This was the last thing he needed, some dodgy job mixed up in things that best be left alone. It was bad enough living with his Dad again.
Most of the Adnan siblings had very little memory of Sadik, especially Temel. All they knew was a sense of loss, cheated out of actually getting to know their father. And Kuzey even had fond memories of the guy before they moved.
But Stelios? No, he remembered his parents' divorce well. The fights, the screaming, hiding in his room and cuddling his little siblings so that they at least felt safe. They'd even had a fight on his fifteenth birthday; he remembered crying whilst working through his entire birthday cake. He'll admit Sadik might have turned into some terrifying, ogre-like caricature festering in his mind for ten years now, but that didn't mean he'd forgotten what happened.
Still, his father hadn't shown an aggressive side since they'd arrived here. Sadik was subdued, quiet- timid even- and that itself unnerved him. Where was the loud, boisterous man he'd known as a child? Sadik Adnan simply didn't do quiet, but here he was.
The way he looked at them was odd, as if they were wild creatures he was scared they would suddenly attack him. He was gentle around them too, though, like they would break with the slightest touch. It put Stelios on edge. He knew his father didn't mean any harm, and was probably trying to determine their level of hatred for him, and base his next plan of action on his findings, but it was rather irritating.
If Sadik had something to say, he should just sit them down and apologise… err, say what he had to say. Stelios meant say what he had to say.
And on top of that, he'd been moping around all weekend acting sorry for himself and apologising to his children over and over again for getting them into trouble. From what Stelios could make out, it wasn't actually his fault his terrifying, dodgy boss had forced him to allow his children to be used as cheap labour, but he was still going to blame Sadik for the time being. It was too ridiculous to not be his fault in some way.
Dragging boxes around an office block and courtyard gave him plenty of time to ponder all this, now that he'd managed to drown out Temel's whining and Cora and Kuzey's squabbling. Even now, they were still hissing at each other. The normally mild-tempered Cora was in a rather foul mood at having to work during her holidays, and she and Kuzey were the most extreme in their views towards their father. Kuzey adored him, and Cora despised him.
All four of the Karpusi-Adnan children were in one 'camp' on the subject, but Stelios was mostly uneasy around the guy. He still didn't trust Sadik, and generally disliked the man. Temel, on the other hand, just wanted to get to know his dad. But Cora was terrified of him, and didn't want Sadik anywhere near her. No one was too sure why, even Cora, though it seemed to simply be that her last memories of her dad were when she was five, and he was a huge, terrifying man who shouted at mummy, never mind that mummy was shouting back just as fiercely. Then there was Kuzey, who had spent a decade pining for his dad, and was perfectly happy to ignore Sadik's faults when defending him.
That drink was starting to look more appealing to Stelios.
He finished loading the truck and the four of them finally allowed themselves to relax. Their father was nowhere to be seen, and the quartet fell into a state of mild, internal panic. Sadik was out delivering another load, to a pharmacy company, apparently. This one was to follow, but none of them were too sure on the direction.
And for once, they were hit with a spell of good luck.
"You must be the new kids," a young man called, jogging across the courtyard to greet them. Stelios looked at him closely, taking in his spiky mess of hair and wide grin. The man pushed his glasses further up his nose as he reached them.
"I'm Niran and I work here too," he continued, "it's nice to meet you all! Sadik's told us so much about you!"
"Nice to meet you too," Kuzey gave a polite smile, "erm, we're a bit stuck, if I'm honest."
"Don't know where we're supposed to be going," Stelios explained, "no address, and even if there was one, we don't know our way around the city."
Niran thought for a moment, rubbing his chin, "well, where ya headed?"
"Some pharmacy place to deliver this crap," Kuzey jerked his thumb in the direction of the van. Niran's smile fell.
"Oh, you're making deliveries," he paused, "yeah, I know where to go. I guess I could show you…"
"Thanks," Stelios smiled, which was apparently enough for Niran's own grin to return. He bounded over to the van, climbing into the passenger seat whilst Stelios tried to get into the driver's seat, only to be pulled back by Kuzey.
"Oh no you don't," he growled, "get in the passenger seat too."
"Oh come on!" But Stelios obeyed, shuffling over so he was sitting next to Niran.
"Why can't he drive?" Niran asked.
"Trust me, it's something you don't want to see. Ever."
…
Peter looked down at the desk in Andrei's office, slouched in his seat and playing nervously with his hands. His boss just stared at him patiently, silently. Peter exhaled. He knew Andrei wanted him to say something, and he knew the man was right, but he was just so frustrated…
Andrei had just briefed him on the Commonwealth case: a mysterious, secret organisation causing trouble across Europe. Their tactics were to establish themselves in a city, threaten both gangs and businesses into loyalty, stir up trouble, destabilize the authorities and leave.
They had done this in several places now: Napoli, Ljubljana, Sofia, Marseilles, Bucharest, Bratislava, Athens. All in the EU. Most on the very edges of it. Now it seemed they were trying their luck in somewhere as large as Berlin, and had been for several years now.
The problem was: nobody knew anything about them. Every time they had a suspect or a witness, they would end up dead. Even the ones put under police protection. The member of the police force that had betrayed them usually turned up dead a few days later too. They had only heard snippets of how the organisation funded itself: drugs, weapons, and something more sinister that remained a mystery to them. There were fears Commonwealth had gotten into the government and police forces here; who else would be giving them the identities of DSA agents so they could kill off their family members as a threat? Maybe one of the agents themselves was a traitor…
Their job was to somehow get a foot in the door of Commonwealth: arrest members without them dying, possibly get a spy in there without the potential traitor knowing, and bring them down within a year.
How they would manage that, neither Peter nor Andrei had any idea.
Of course, this meant Peter couldn't start to investigate the Oxenstjärna cases just yet, and he tried to subdue his anger. It wasn't Andrei's fault. He was told what to investigate by the government. But Peter was desperate to know why two of his siblings had died so suddenly on the same night…
"So, where should we start?" he eventually asked.
"Well, to be completely honest, your guess is as good as mine."
The pair fell silent, thinking hard about where they could possibly begin with something as enormous as this. Then they exchanged grins as they came to the same conclusion.
"Feliks!"