Chapter 7

For the two figures lying on the ruffled bed morning came too fast. Kai and Lien were still exhausted from their last intense copulation when the older one stood up.

"I have an important meeting before noon," Lien said looking down on the young man on his bed who returned the look with an expressionless face.

"Hng."

"Look Kai, it's really important. It's a matter of millions of U.S. dollar, okay?" Lien started to explain. "And the man will only negotiate with me."

"You're more an arms dealer than a gunrunner," Kai stated calmly.

"You're probably right, but money is money. I guess, you won't be here anymore when I come back, right?" Lien suddenly changed the subject.

"Yes," Kai answered.

"Well, take care." And with that Lien went out of the room and closed the door behind him. They were both not good in bidding somebody farewell. One minute later Kai heard the sound of the shower running. He decided to stay in bed a little longer until Lien was gone before he would finally start his mission for real.

Two hours later Kai stood up as well. Lien was long gone, so there was nobody around to bother him. First, he took a long shower, washing his body of the sweat and semen from last night. Then, he started with his hair. He decided to use the grey hair color for the front part of his hair and left the rest black. He had to dye it twice until he was satisfied with the outcome. Fortunately, Kai had bought more than one package of hair color.

The next step was the cut. During the application time of the color, he had drawn some sketches of possible haircuts and eventually decided to cut it off just below his shoulders. A little bit of melancholy spread through him when he saw his beautiful long hair falling to the ground. Some more cuts here and there and Kai was again satisfied with his work.

He tied the black hair back in a low ponytail with an equally black hair band. For his now grey bangs he used the hair styling products that he had bought yesterday to make it spiky.

After that, the Kai reflected in the mirror looked almost like a stranger to himself. He put in the contact lenses and used the blue face paint to paint two triangles on each cheek, a bigger one and a smaller one below it.

Although it would be a pain in the ass to paint them every day Kai had decided to do this. He knew many people from his time as a child soldier who had incurred a scar during that time and whose faces looked very different afterwards. He didn't want to ruin his face with something eternal like a scar instead he used the paint; the effect was the same.

Last but not least: the clothes. Kai knew that it would look suspicious for a street kid to wear brand-name clothes, so he couldn't wear the things the Interior Minister had given him. After some time rummaging in Lien's wardrobe Kai found an old pair of black pants that he probably had forgotten in the apartment sometime in the past. He combined it with one of Lien's old black sweaters which the man highly likely would never miss. The sweater was a bit too big for him, but that suited him just fine.

Kai's outer disguise was completed. Far more difficult would be to change his mannerism and behavior, but it wasn't the first time that he did an undercover mission, although this would probably become the most challenging to him.

Satisfied Kai stowed everything he needed, which wasn't really much, into an old bag of his that he had also found in Lien's wardrobe. Seriously, this man wasn't able to throw anything away.

It was early afternoon when Kai arrived at his destination: Balkov Abbey. Some time ago the abbey was a church of the Russian Orthodox, but when a new church was built in the center of Moscow this one was soon forgotten by most people. It was bought by a private citizen who used the building as an orphanage for some time. Since then, children not only from Moscow, but from all over Russia, lived there. Most of them came from the streets or dysfunctional families. Kids who would never be missed by anybody and so it didn't come as a surprise when the orphanage vanished one day and with it all the children. Still there were signs of people living there and according to the material he got from the Interior Minister a private organization used the place as some kind of research facility. What they were researching, no one knew. Since Kai didn't have any other lead, he decided to snoop around the former orphanage in the hope of finding some clues to what happened to the children.

The walls and roofs of the abbey were all grey and looked almost deserted in this winter weather. A fence encircled the whole property, but it protruded just barely from the snow that was covering Moscow at this time of year. Kai decided to hide in the bushes of the park around the place until it was dark. Days in wintry Moscow were very short so he wouldn't have to wait much longer.

While deciding on how he would go about this mission, he had briefly thought about observing the abbey for some days, but soon dismissed this idea: it was simply too boring to just sit and wait there. And, when they were monitoring the surrounding area, they would probably spot him. So, he determined to enter the building on the first night.

The minutes passed and it got darker and darker. By the time the first stars sparkled on the clear night sky all lights of the abbey were on and somehow it didn't look so unwelcoming anymore.

'The night will be very cold,' Kai thought whilst he walked up to the big front door. With the right equipment he could have climbed the walls, but invading the place would make him look too suspicious. He was an orphan and this place was once known for being a generous protectory, so why not just knock?

He had to wait five minutes in front of the heavy door until somebody opened. During the latency Kai had examined the front unobtrusively and spotted two surveillance cameras that were constantly filming the area in front of the door. He was dead certain that inside the surveillance would be even higher.

The man who opened him was dressed in a dark coat with a strange looking hat on the head. "What do you want?" he barked.

Kai looked at the man straight-faced and after a short moment he just said, "Let me in," not answering the question.

"Why? What do you want?" the man asked again even more irritated.

Before Kai could reply anything, another man showed up behind the first one. "Let him in. Can't you see that he's just a child, who seeks a warm and dry place to spend the night? Am I right, boy?" The voice was deep and friendly, but Kai could tell that behind that there was an alert mind that didn't believe its own words.

"Yes," Kai replied also warily. The men stepped aside to let him in and the man, who had first appeared closed the heavy door behind him. A huge inner courtyard spread before Kai's eyes, but he saw no other human beings. The place looked void of the typical signs other orphanages held. Still the men had let him inside, as if this private organization currently residing in the old abbey was connected to the former protectory. Something else bothered Kai, but he wasn't sure what it was. After a while he realized it; there was no snow on the ground, although it had just stopped snowing like one hour ago.

Before he could think more about this, the second man turned to him. "What's your name, boy?"

For some seconds Kai just stared at the man, examining him from head to toe, before he answered, "Kai." After another moment of silence, where they just sized each other up, he added, "Are you the owner of this place?" Kai spoke in a low but firm voice.

"Yes, my name is Boris. Boris Balkov and I'm something like the abbot here." With a short nod he dismissed the other man who walked away immediately, probably happy to escape the cold.

The friendly tone of Boris was freaking Kai out, but he managed to speak calmly, "Do we have to talk in this damn iciness?" In reality he didn't care about the cold. A fantasy of him smashing the man's face into the ground played vividly in his head. His desire to inflict pain to this self-appointed abbot enervated him more than he liked. 'Why do I dislike this man so much?' Kai wondered.

"Right, right, Kai. This way, please."

Kai followed Boris to the other side of the inner courtyard to a door that the older man opened with a key from a very big keyring. Keyrings like this one reminded Kai of the ones in prison. The room they entered was empty. Only three doors were present; one on the right side, one on the left side and one on the opposite of the one they came through. They walked towards the latter and again Boris opened it with one of the keys.

Silently Kai walked behind the man, down a long staircase. At the bottom there was another door. Same procedure and half a minute later they struck off again. There was a whole labyrinth under the old abbey consisting of wide tunnels with many doors on the left as well as on the right. Kai's sense of direction was exceptional, but even he wasn't sure if he would find the way out right away.

After what felt like an hour, they finally stopped in front of a big door at the end of one of the side tunnels. During the whole walk they didn't meet any other person, but Kai had heard voices when passing some of the doors. Voices of children. And there were lots of surveillance cameras, like he had expected, but somehow he knew that he wasn't able to detect all of them. He had counted 15, but sensed over 20. Some of them must be hidden inside the wall or in the ceiling.

"This is my office," Boris said after unlocking and opening the door, "please, come in, Kai."

Kai felt disgusted by the way Boris pronounced his name at the end of his invitation. It bode ill, but Kai was prepared for the worst.

"Nice," he said after a moment looking around. The furniture was old and simple but seemed solid. The large LCD screen behind and the high-tech computer on the desk contrasted with the rest, but the overall picture was nice. "At least your taste of interior decoration isn't that bad."

The smile, which had been on Boris face all the time, vanished. Kai, who noticed it immediately, added, "Your clothes aren't really fashionable."

"You don't look like a mannequin either," Boris retaliated.

Kai looked down at himself before he answered playfully, "You're probably right. To change this…," now Kai was the one with the smile on his face, "…I need some money. So how about that?"

"You're cheeky," Boris stated, but after a moment he smiled as well. "You have to earn new clothes."

"And how do I do this?" Kai asked still smiling, but his alertness grew with every second he spent alone with Boris in the office. 'For an organization that operates covertly, they accepted me, a stranger albeit still a child, a bit too fast with open arms.'

"Be a good Blader and you'll get everything you need," came the vague reply.

'Blader,' Kai wondered, 'what the hell does he mean?' Before he could ask, Boris continued.

"Show me your Beyblade. When did you start beyblading, Kai? We have very high standards and only the best Bladers can train in our academy. You'll have to undergo some tests before I can tell you what future lies ahead of you, but I have the feeling that you'll get somewhere."

'Beyblade, beyblading? What the fuck is this geezer talking about? Nothing of this was mentioned in the information that he was provided with!' Pretending to know what Boris was talking about was no option since the man would see in no time through his lie, so Kai decided to be honest. "What the fuck is a Beyblade?"

The seconds passed in complete silence. Neither of them spoke nor moved. One minute was over and still no one spoke. After another moment Boris finally regained his voice and asked, "You don't know what a Beyblade is? Really?"

"Never heard of it," Kai said truthfully while he never took his eyes from the man in front of him. Did he fail? Was his mission ending like this now, a complete failure?

"Well, I guess there are still kids out there who have never heard of Beyblades," Boris concluded after a while, but he sounded uncertain. "Beyblades are spinning tops … A little demonstration will be the best, I guess. Follow me, Kai."

They exited the office through the same door they had entered before and Kai recognized that they were walking back the way they came. Soon they stopped in front of a door on the right side of one of the main tunnels. The door wasn't locked like the others and Boris opened it. Behind it was a hall with many hollows in the ground that looked like rice bowls to Kai. Children stood around those bowls and were shouting orders to the tops that were spinning in there. As soon as the children noticed Boris they snapped to attention and greeted the man with a loud 'Gospodin'. Boris nodded briefly and they focused once again on the tops in the dishes.

Kai followed Boris until the man stopped in front of one of these constructs. No one had even glanced at Kai as if they would be afraid of showing any kind of curiosity a normal kid would have.

"Alexander, show Kai your Beyblade," Boris said to one of the young men around the dish.

"Yes, Gospodin!" the boy agreed immediately and as if by magic the top came back to its owner. Alexander handed it to Kai, who examined the little thing curiously. It was heavier than he had anticipated.

"This is a Beyblade. It is made of a Blade Base, the Spin Gear, a Weight Disk, an Attack Ring and a Bit Chip. The Bit Chip can contain a special power we call Bit Beast, but Alexander's blade doesn't have this," Boris explained to Kai. "This is only something the best Bladers in the world have, because controlling one of those beasts isn't easy." Towards Alexander he said, "Give Kai your Launcher."

"Yes, Gospodin!" Alexander replied with an expressionless face and handed Kai a strange looking thing. After he had examined it as well, he put the Beyblade on its designated place and looked at Boris, who nodded approvingly.

"Try it," he said encouragingly. "Aim for the Bey Dish and pull the ripcord at full power."

Kai set his sight on the dish in the ground that was now empty. The other Beyblader had called his Beyblade back as well. 'If this is what it takes to complete my mission I will give it my best,' he thought and pulled the ripcord. The Beyblade struck the dish with incredible speed and power and it split, although it was made of concrete. "Wow," Kai called out when he saw what the little top had done that was still spinning between the ruins. 'This could be more fun than I had thought,' he added in his mind, 'but how do I get him to do what I want? How did the others call the tops back? I hadn't heard them calling any commands, so maybe it was a mental order?'

He tried it and when the Beyblade came back to him, he wasn't surprised. 'So that's how it works. Interesting.' Shielding his thoughts behind an expressionless face he turned to Boris. The astonishment on the man's face was almost tangible and only now Kai noticed that all the other children had stopped what they were doing and looked at him with surprise but also fear. 'Shit, did I do something wrong? I didn't even use all my force to pull the string as Boris had requested.'

"Not bad," Boris managed to say after a while. "Next time, try to leave the Bey Arena in one piece. Understood?"

"So I'm accepted," Kai concluded.

"Yes, you can stay and I will train you, but don't believe it will be easy because you managed to surprise me. Only the best pass the tests and have the opportunity to become the strongest Blader in the world."

"I won't disappoint you," Kai replied grinning inwardly. The first step was done.

A/N: Gospodin (господин): Mister in Russian (at least in the German dub the Demolition Boys often address Boris like that)