Author's Notes:
This scene was fun to write and develop as I had speculated for a long time how Hunter might have described Aleks to Melnik, knowing that he would still want to remain somewhat cryptic but also remembering that above all Melnik and Hunter were also close friends who had known each other for a long time. Short of maybe Ulman, (and nobody should trust him with big secrets!), no other Rangers are mentioned as being friendly to Hunter as he constantly travels alone. Therefore, I wanted to delve not only into the issue at hand of reporting to Melnik about his involvement with Aleks, but also he was coming to talk to him as a friend and for advice. My guess is that Hunter had very little time or interest in love, though he may have had other girlfriends earlier on in his life, and so his relationship development with Aleks would have been the first real time he was truly falling in love – and he didn't have a single clue about how to feel about it, haha!
Anyway, here are some reminder hints from Liberation about what Melnik said about what he knew of Aleks and Hunter's relationship:
"I wish she had come to us sooner." Melnik sighed, a regretful frown on his lips. "I didn't even think that Hunter had so much spare time to spend with her – or anyone, really. But perhaps his requests for extra assignments gave him the opportunity to visit her more often. Now, I'm sure of it."
"You would have welcomed her? Even back at Polis?" Ulman inserted, coming back around the corner with three sets of hearing protection.
"He did mention her before, about a year or so ago. He'd been spending more and more time out on patrols, though he always checked in on time. I could tell something was on his mind, so I asked him outright." Melnik shifted his stance, rubbing the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "At first he told me he'd been visiting an old friend, but I didn't believe him. Finally he came clean and told me he had been meeting a girl at Novokuznetskaya. He was pretty enamored with her."
"So you knew about it all along and never did anything?" Ulman challenged the Colonel with a harsh tone, but Artyom couldn't be sure what he had to be angry about.
"We can't just adopt every man's mistress into our fold! Smolensk was already overcrowded… you have to think about these things when you're in command." Melnik sighed harshly as if letting off steam, knowing that no reason was good enough to atone for the loss of their best soldier.
"Mistress?!" Ulman yelled, amused by the sentiment but still sounding irritated. "Hunter wasn't married! Well, I guess they basically could have been. But Aleks is clearly a different breed of woman; we could use a soldier like her."
"I know that now!" Melnik roared and then hushed his voice as perhaps Aleks was still nearby. "I know it's my fault – that I didn't listen to him when he came to me about the Dark Ones. You're thinking that she could have joined the Order and been his partner and gone with him to the Gardens, that they could have been a team and protected each other. Perhaps it was all possible at one point… only it didn't happen that way. Hunter never asked me about immigration. In fact, I asked him what he intended to do about her, and as much as I believe that he wanted her here – she refused him."
...
"I wondered why you had not come to us sooner, not even for a meeting? He expressed to me his fondness of you, you know, how important you were to him. And I kept his secret, I suppose you and I both did." – Melnik to Aleks at their first meeting.
Directly Following 'The Blindfold Game':
Colonel Melnik stood in the middle of the room, listening to the Captain brief his men about their imminent mission, nodding his head periodically in agreement to the plans and interjecting with additional advice when asked for clarification on the route they should take. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of the impressively large form of Hunter sauntering towards them unhurriedly.
"So you finally return to grace us with your presence," he said indignantly, but then immediately softened and crossed his arms in amusement, shaking his head but invidiously. Hunter was one of the few people he could trust to be completely autonomous, and Melnik indeed envied the Ranger's freedom to roam about the Metro like some kind of stealthy ambassador. What he wouldn't give for just a few days to roam the tunnels and stations alongside his closest friend, just like old times before faction governments had formed and begun arguing with each other about territory and resources. No wonder Hunter had turned down his promotion; he already had his dream job.
"Yeah, well, I figured you'd be missing me after two weeks. Time to trade in anyway," Hunter laughed, with only half the enthusiasm of a normal person, looking about himself and gesturing to his filthy shirt and the tunic that he carried in hand. Then his expression hardened and he stared directly back at his commander. "There's something I want to tell you about. I'll meet you after I get squared away."
"I'll be in the office, don't hurry yourself." Melnik confirmed with no hint of emotion, simply staring back and wondering what interesting news would be revealed to him this time.
Occasionally a random tip from Hunter's extended patrols to the ends of the underground lines would turn out to be a key piece of information in a later situation or conflict, though most of it sounded like crazy rumors to the casual listener. In two decades the renowned commander of the Spartan Order had learned to discern with high accuracy what was fact or fiction and which aspects of Hunter's tales warranted his attention. Part of this was due just to having known him for a long time, building up a kind of trust that couldn't be artificially manufactured. Hunter never bothered the Colonel with anything that was not relevant in some capacity, and even if something was happening twelve stations away - it informed or involved something which always came their way in the end.
Most of the reports Hunter gave were just the retelling of an issue that he had already dealt with; becoming the detective, judge, jury, and executioner all in one trip. The Colonel had complete confidence in his best Ranger, who denied even having an official rank within the structure of the Order though he was paid in benefits befitting a Lieutenant Colonel, just one rank below himself. Hunter never operated openly and never brought negative attention back with him, in fact there was usually an influx of appreciative radio calls and thank you letters that signaled when he was about to return.
This time, however, there was a different air to the sternness with which Hunter had requested an audience. It wasn't the normal intonation he used even when he had bad news to report. There had been a wavering hesitancy in his voice, and the Colonel had focused in on it, trying to dissect it for possible meaning. Upon wrapping up discussions with the Captain and his men, he wished them luck and headed for his office in the rear of Smolenskaya.
Before the hour fully passed, there was a knock at the door, and he knew who it was just by the pattern.
"Enter." Melnik said loudly, as he had his nose buried in a folder of yet more reports from the front lines.
Hunter entered the room without speaking, hardly making a sound at all and remaining with his back turned after he had closed the door. He was wearing a fresh uniform and clean boots but no armor; he had obviously taken his time showering and combing his hair, looking like the poster child for the Order.
"So, where have you been this time? After your last contact about the amicable updates to the Petchatniki-Hanza accord, I thought you'd be back sooner." Melnik looked up from the file and sat back in his chair. "Come, have a seat, you've got my ear."
"I had some other business to see to." Hunter said in a low voice, still not turning around. "You know, Slavik…" He began in a different tone of voice, turning his head but then retracting everything and facing away again.
Melnik perked up, suddenly on edge, his best soldier was acting very unlike himself and the use of his diminutive first name signaled that there was something of a more personal nature on the Stalker's mind. Had the work load finally caught up with him and worn him down to madness? Had he picked up a common infection that was clouding his thoughts? Perhaps he had encountered some form of misfortune on his journey home and was having trouble coming to terms with his failure, it wouldn't be the first time but it would be the first time in a while.
"You've been spending too much time working, my friend." Melnik stood up and softened his voice; Hunter was not the kind of person to admit when he needed a break or a solid night's rest. If the Colonel expressed his support now, perhaps he could avoid pushing the man closer to a serious breakdown.
"It's not that." Hunter said in an airy voice, finally turning around to reveal a lopsided grin but with an ominous shadow in his eyes. "Well, maybe a little."
"What then? I think all these extra patrols are going to your head; you look like you've gone mad. You can't keep up at this pace forever." Melnik spoke with genuine concern, unsure if he should attempt to dash to the phone and summon the medical team.
"I've been seeing someone." Hunter said nervously, keeping his gaze on the floor and wrestling with his facial expressions.
"What do you mean? Who?" Melnik dared to take a step closer, craning his neck in a futile attempt to read the Stalker's eyes. What could that possibly mean? An informant? A psychiatrist?
"An old friend… or at least, someone I've known for a while now." Was the Colonel going crazy himself, or did Hunter just let out a laugh?
"What are you going on about?" His concern had unfortunately shifted to the side of anger, as in his confusion he simply wanted to cut right to the part where he was given the answers.
"I've come all the way here and still, I can't even tell you," Hunter said with a strange twisted smile, turning away and then back again, pacing across the floor with an air of anxiety that the Colonel had never seen in his most trusted friend before. He seemed to be talking to himself. "But who else could I tell… about this kind of thing?"
"Look at you, what in the world—Are you drunk? Sick?" Melnik said with annoyance, not liking to be toyed with or kept waiting.
"No, Svyatoslav, goddamnit, I'm trying to tell you that I—" Hunter's expression turned angry, but that stupid grin soon reappeared on his face as he struggled for the words. Leaning both hands on the back of the chair he had never sat in, he straightened out his arms and hung his head between them, heaving for a solid breath.
"Oh my merciful… it's finally happened." The impossible reality finally washed over Melnik like a cold shower, and now he was also grinning. "You've fallen in love! I can't believe it! I had given up hope that was even possible for you. Well, who is she?"
"You asshole… well, go ahead and laugh. I've finally decided to trust you and…" The initial arrogance gave way to the joy again and Hunter struggled not to laugh between the words as he tried to describe it. "She's not like anyone else I've ever— I never thought… that it's gotten like this. I just let her walk right in and consume me. Is this what… it's supposed to be like?"
"Wow, you really are head over heels, I never thought I'd see the day!" Melnik chuckled heartily, giving his friend a heavy pat on the back hoping it would force him to recalibrate. "Let's have a drink to celebrate, Ivan, calm your nerves."
"Fine, good, yes." The Ranger still struggled for words and air as if a circuit was disconnected in his brain.
Melnik set about procuring two cups and a frosted glass bottle from a small cabinet in the back of the room, this time offering for them to sit on the ragged sagging couch. Hunter flung himself down heavily and let his body go limp, simply not having the fortitude to keep wrestling with his own internal monologue, that ridiculous grin still plastered on his face like a mask.
"So, where is she from?" Melnik said warmly, pouring them each a cup of the sharp-smelling brew. The aroma of it seemed to help Hunter begin to contain himself and his expression turned more serious as he thought his response through.
"She from… well I left her at Novokuznetskaya, but she escaped from Reich a few years ago with one of its guards. I met her in Kitai-Gorod but it wasn't a good place for her to stay. I was hoping to get a hold of the partisans that started the revolution, or the militia group at Pavelets, do you remember? The Children of the Underground. They could protect her; it would be safer away from those criminals next door in Venice." Hunter took the serving he was given and downed it in one gulp after laying out the story.
"So, you don't intend her to move here with us?" Melnik screwed up his face, finding himself truly disappointed that he may not get the opportunity to meet whatever mystical creature had managed to ensnare the great Hunter. 'So the Hunter became the Hunted,' he chuckled to himself.
"Why bother? I'm hardly here for long anyway." He laughed, though in a slightly different way than before, more somber. "She's got comrades, like her own little bandit clan, I don't think she'll want to—"
The conclusion and possibilities hung in the air uncertainly, and Hunter did not dare to continue his thought process aloud. Taking his own serving in a slow sip, Melnik furrowed his brow and handed Hunter the bottle.
"So what is it you intend to do about her?"
"Nothing. What is there to do?" Hunter replied as if he didn't understand the question, staring at the far wall with detached interest.
"Nothing?" Melnik couldn't believe the answer. "You're just going to keep visiting her in secret like the princess in a castle?"
"She's no damsel in distress, Slavik. I've been teaching her, but she was already more than capable…" Hunter droned, considering pouring himself another glass but then putting down the bottle on the table. "She would make a good addition to the force."
"You think that, but you won't bring her here?" The Colonel said gruffly, now burdened with a new confusion. This mysterious girl sounded too good to be real. "Not even for a visit?"
"I'd like nothing more than to—but she's got her own will." Hunter lowered his head and Melnik suddenly came to another conclusion.
"Do you mean to tell me that she doesn't feel the same way about you?" Melnik pried, still misunderstanding the context of the unbelievable issue at hand.
"Oh no, she made her feelings quite clear today." There was that airy laugh again. Melnik let out a breath, at least his friend was consolable, he shuddered to think of the state Hunter would be in if his affections went unrequited.
"Then why would she not—?" The Colonel began, trying to decipher on his own why anyone so supposedly skilled and acquainted with his best Ranger would turn down the possible opportunity of enlistment.
"I haven't asked her yet." Hunter cut him off, setting his cup down hard on the table. "Write it all up as the one time I never had a plan, alright? You've got that one on me."
"You aren't usually the sort of man who trusts everything to fate and destiny." Melnik laughed under his breath.
"It was sort of nice, for once." Hunter said quietly, and then steeled himself and sat back again. "She's strong, Slavik, she knows what she wants."
"Well, she chose well my friend." Melnik nudged at Hunter's arm with his own.
"Listen, I need you to keep this quiet." Hunter sat up and looked straight at him. "Not for my sake at all - but for hers. If anyone found out where she was, you know how refugees are treated… those fascists are after her and if anything happened—" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence, but his eyes still pierced into the Colonel's, pleading and commanding at the same time.
"I understand." Melnik said quietly, though he didn't fully comprehend the request.
"Swear it to me, Slavik. Even if something happens to me, you must protect her at all costs." Hunter held out a hand to shake on the agreement with no trace of the giddy emotions from before, he was entirely serious and maybe even a little bit fearful.
"I swear to you, Ivan, she will be looked after like one of our own. Your secret is safe in my hands." He accepted the gesture and locked his arm in with the Stalker's.
"Thank you, Svyatoslav. It's very important to me… she is, she is everything to me. Maybe someday she'll come around; you'll meet her at some point." He said slowly, but seemed sure about the last part because he had gazed off and smiled again.
"I hope so, otherwise I wouldn't believe it." Melnik shook his head doubtfully.
"Believe it." Hunter confirmed, sprawling backwards limply again and smiling up at the ceiling. "I mean, for fuck's sake look at me. I'm losing myself."
"Have another drink, then." Melnik chuckled, pouring the rations out and sitting back in a similar fashion. "It sure crept up on you, huh?"
"Yes, and no. She was always… from the minute I first saw her, I knew there was something different, but I never thought it would turn into—" and his words gave way to the quiet laughter again before he let out a long breath and said ominously, "Oh god, I can't go on like this."
"You'll be just fine, Ivan. Let it all out now and you'll be able to focus later." Melnik swayed his cup in a lazy form of toast, the alcohol already swirling in his head because he hadn't eaten in several hours.
"I'm worried, that I'll slip up somehow. She makes me doubt myself, in the way that I worry about her even when she isn't there. How can I keep risking my neck going all these places? What if I'm losing my edge?" Hunter covered his face with his hands, and then rubbed his temples and blinked slowly.
"No way, this is more edge than you've ever had." Melnik pushed at the Stalker's arm jokingly, then gave a sigh and sat back as his most bittersweet memories surfaced. "Yes, I know what you mean, but in a good way it helps us as men. I remember it well, in my Spetsnaz days with my wife waiting at home. You don't second-guess yourself for no reason; she isn't questioning your strength or your choices; you just learn to handle yourself more carefully to ensure that you return to her. You don't have to let it weaken you, let it change you for the better."
"I suppose that makes sense." Hunter confirmed with a scowl, finally accepting the second glass and gulping down half of it.
"Maybe she'll also help remind you to eat, and sleep, and fucking shower regularly." Melnik slapped at him again.
"Asshole." Hunter growled playfully, clinking his glass with the Colonel and finishing it off, admitting to the joke all too readily.
"To your mysterious woman." Melnik toasted with a grin and he downed his own serving.
"To Aleks." Hunter said softly, speaking her name with reverence and gazing off at the wall again as if she existed inside of it.
"To Aleks." Melnik nodded.