Petrova strode confidently into their arranged meeting point. From the looks of it, it was some military structure, albeit one standing relatively alone, its razor wire tipped walls standing out from the mostly civilian buildings around it. Likely just an office, then. One firmly under the control of the Third Cell.
The grey walls certainly looked imposing, though a few areas where the paint was worn away showed a red brick surface. Petrova frowned; a good blast of Arts or explosives and they would fall pretty quickly.
Their strange outfits drew nothing more than a passing glance from the guards, and he let them in after Fredrich handed over his emblem. How he had hid that massive thing before, Petrova had no idea. It did remind him to be a bit more focused in his observations, though. Had that been an explosive, they could've all been dead.
The Yetis had opted to stay back for this one; as such, their current group consisted of him, Frostnova, Levina and Fredrich. And Andrey, though he could effectively be considered part of Frostnova.
Another guard opened the door for them, before escorting them to meeting room. Kalva and Razor were already present and began once they were seated.
"No drinks this time, I'm afraid. Just water." Razor pointed towards the glasses of water beside their seats. "I'd prefer we be sober for this."
Drawing down a map on the wall, he nodded to the group. "I trust you all know how to read maps?"
Petrova quickly scanned the map. The Mausoleum was two kilometers north from their current location. That meant they could prepare whatever equipment needed here. Besides that, nothing else was of particular significance, at least not at first glance; just the usual city layout.
"I regret to inform you that the First Cell will be of little direct use in this engagement, Spymaster." Razor bowed his head. "However, we can provide a distraction. Originally, we had considered faking Kalva's death, but he is not in direct control of Mausoleum forces, and thus it would prove irrelevant."
"Instead, we propose attacking the Mausoleum's Director when he goes on the annual parade, beside the Mausoleum. This will be in three days, and will cross beside the Mausoleum, where he will give a speech on the "nightmare" that was the Witch King's era." Razor picked up a pointer and traced a short path, before marking a position on the map with a pen.
"We kill him there, or at least make an attempt. The assassins are as good as dead, but they do not have to be of any particular skill. Any expendable maniac will do, and we have plenty of those." Only Levina flinched, though she hid it well. To Petrova, it wasn't so different from Patriot's very public executions of the occasional mayor. Frostnova probably thought the same. "The panic of the crowds should provide a sufficient distraction and will force some of the enemy's forces to stay with the civilians, rather than investigate an explosion beside the Mausoleum. That's Kalva's responsibility, however, and he will explain that segment."
Kalva nodded. "Okay, my plan is simpler. We smash through their gates, kill their guards. Everybody else holds the line while Frostnova enters with Andrey. The Spymaster has told me about your wand's thing about freezing anything that moves, so you're probably better going in alone. We get the Spymaster and leave." Kalva nodded and sat down.
Huh. This didn't seem to make sense for Kalva. Petrova cleared his throat. "May I ask a question?"
"Yeah, shoot." Kalva casually replied.
"Won't your cover be blown?"
Kalva laughed. "The higher-ups were suspecting me already anyway. There are replacements lined up for me already. I was planning to go with the Spymaster to Ursus, if I survive."
Petrova nodded. They could use someone like him, even if his loyalties were questionable… though Andrey might have words about that.
Eh, that was a problem for later.
"I approve." Andrey simply said.
"We're good, then?" Kalva asked after a moment of silence. "Okay. We'll stock up on explosives here. We will meet in three days at 8 AM, in an abandoned building beside the Mausoleum. Some construction project that never took up, was meant to be a stadium. Then, we meet back at the office here. If you don't get back in three days, I'm going to guess you're dead."
He pointed at a point on the map. Petrova took a good look at it, memorizing it for future use. They soon exchanged their goodbyes and left. Petrova smiled. It had been a quick meeting, and an efficient one. He liked it.
Almost the moment they stepped out of the door, Andrey spoke. "Their plan has a flaw. An obvious one."
"The rendezvous?" Frostnova asked.
"Yep. The entire local area will be crawling with military and police after this, especially the headquarters of a revealed traitor to the Leithanien military. Razor definitely noticed; I saw his eyes narrow. But it isn't his business." Andrey replied.
"Why didn't you point it out, then?"
"It benefits us. It's a perfect excuse to escape and never have to deal with my past life again; they will understand that the rendezvous was inaccessible, and that we subsequently lost contact."
"But this is an amateur mistake." Frostnova sighed. "Your – well, your past self – spies should be better than this."
"Eh, they probably just made a mistake. They only had the morning and afternoon to prepare this, after all, and this seems to just have been a reckless mistake by Kalva."
"If you say so…" Frostnova trailed off. She wasn't so convinced; someone like Kalva didn't make it to his position just by virtue of strength. Something else was afoot.
She'd have to trust Andrey for now, however. She couldn't make any obvious deductions yet, and Andrey had far superior investigative abilities thanks to his Arts.
Well, whatever. She had a break-in to prepare for. Though perhaps it wouldn't hurt to stock up some more on escape tools…
Ben was feeling useless. He had been sitting around "camp" for a day or two now, with nothing to do but twiddle his thumbs and play chess with Anne. Despite his marked improvement, he still lost. Every single time.
Just the thought of it made his face twitch.
Perhaps being useless was a good thing, though. Being "useful" would mean either killing people or preparing equipment that would kill them. Not exactly the best of career choices, and they still wanted to get out of this in one piece. Who knew why Levina chose to continue with this mess. He'd follow her, sure, but her excuse of "connections" was growing increasingly flimsy with what he was hearing of their plans.
Attacking the incumbent government wasn't exactly most people's idea of "growing connections," after all. And any connections made with insurrectionist forces would be as good as worthless when the inevitable purge arrived.
Anne leaned over and bopped him on the nose. "Thinking about something serious again?"
"Yes." He nodded. "Just about the stuff around us. How'd you notice?"
"You had that expression again. Plus, you haven't made a move for –" She glanced at the clock – "three minutes."
Right. Halfheartedly looking down at the board, he made his move – one he'd thought out already, before going on his tangent there. Anne grinned victoriously, moving her piece in response. "Checkmate! You really need to get better at spotting those."
He groaned, letting his face fall into his hands. "That's your tenth win today…"
"Out of ten!" Anne happily reminded him.
He sighed. "Yeah, rub it in…"
"I will!"
He groaned again. Unfortunately, he couldn't drop his head into his hands again, given it was already there. "I'm done for today, I guess."
Anne was already up, bouncing on her feet. Where she got that enthusiasm from, Ben had no idea. Not that he was complaining. He stood up alongside her, and she took his hand – leading him away, in the direction of a group of gathered Yetis.
"I heard some of the Yetis were playing a card game. We should join." She suggested, stopping him beside the group.
"I really hope it isn't a drinking game." He chuckled, noticing the questioning gazes of a few Yetis pointed at him. "Ah, well. We're here, may as well join in."
He turned to the Yetis. "Can we?"
One of them gave a nod, and soon hands were dealt, and soon another game began in earnest. Ben smiled. Anne certainly looked happy, and he supposed that was enough.
He'd figure out the future later.
"These are some weird requirements…" Petrova idly thought, strolling through one of the Third Cell's depots, clipboard in hand. "Thirty smoke canisters? That's three for each of us. Who needs that many?"
Well, she probably knew better than he did. Turning to the grunt beside him, he gestured to the rows of crates. "Know where the smoke canisters are?"
The soldier sneered at him. "Better than you do, sir. Row three, go find it yourself."
Petrova walked off, not giving the soldier the satisfaction of a response. It wasn't worth it to correct him; the soldier obviously thought himself above worthless Infected, and he didn't have the chance to change that. Walking through the rows of equipment, he found a crate labeled "smoke canisters" and dropped thirty into his cart, before moving on.
His eyes dropped down to the next item on the list. Ten flashbangs.
"Oh, those fancy things." Why'd she need those? It wasn't as if they were going to take anyone alive.
Whatever, she knew better. The list totaled more than a dozen items; he'd better get moving. After flashbangs was… conventional Originium explosives. Well, those he could get behind at least.
Humming a tune despite the Third Cell soldier still glaring at him, Petrova continued his impromptu shopping trip.
Time passed quickly, Frostnova too absorbed in their preparations to think of much else. Andrey was reminding her of various things regularly, and she was realizing that she had actually forgotten a worrying amount.
She was growing dependent on him. When asked, he'd simply said that he was "doing his job," but of course he would say that. It really shouldn't have been his job.
Whatever. He was helpful, and Frostnova liked him for it. Any additional feelings she could deal with later. And there were definitely feelings; the unexplained flutterings of the heart whenever he laughed with her, those smiles that existed only for him…
"You're thinking about me." Andrey said, breaking her out of her stupor.
"Wh-how?"Frostnova replied, blushing.
Petrova gave her a knowing wink. Oh, she'd said that out loud, hadn't she…
"Alright, that just about confirms it. I was thinking maybe Patriot, given he's the other target of your wistful expressions. Maybe even Petrova." Andrey paused, chuckling. "You've been thinking about me a lot lately."
"Have I?" Frostnova asked. "And how did you see my expression?"
"Yes, you have. And someone's usually looking at you; you're the leader of this camp, after all. Then I just have to jump to their view."
Frostnova nodded. "I see. Will you miss that once you get your body?"
"If I get my body."
"You will." She replied immediately.
"…Okay. Yes, I probably will. I still will be able to, but I can't just leave my body for this long; it still needs maintenance."
He was speaking of his body as if it was a machine… she supposed to him it was. "Treat your body well, please."
"I can try, but I'll probably need your help." Andrey replied. "Then again, I should be able to take care of myself for the most part."
"I'm not the best person to take care of you, Andrey." Frostnova sighed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Petrova watching again.
"Why?" Andrey paused for a moment. "Nevermind, your Arts. Do you have any idea why they act up like that?"
Acting up? As in, killing everyone in her immediate proximity? "No, though it's definitely linked to my emotions. The happier I feel, the less potent they are."
"Well, that's certainly good. So, they aren't just a "kill everything" aura?"
"They usually are."
"Usually is better than always." Andrey seemed genuinely happy. Why? Was sometimes not killing everything she touched that much of a good thing?
"While I'd hate to disrupt your private moment –" Petrova laughed as Frostnova blushed – "I've got something to report. The Yetis are ready, Sister."
"You could've told me later." Frostnova idly said, standing up.
"Yeah, he probably could've, given he's been watching us for a good five minutes now." Andrey laughed. "Let's go then, Yelena."
His words sent her heart fluttering again.
AN: Plenty of things to say, not sure why.
1: The thing on Frostnova's Arts is a headcanon (at least, I think). It certainly does feel like her Arts vary, though, as she's sometimes depicted as freezing everything in her immediate proximity, while other times she's more harmless (e.g. being carried by Yetis on a stretcher). This is just a convenient explanation.
Been reading too much of Coeur Al' Aran's works again, so I'm probably unconsciously writing Anne based off his depiction of Ruby Rose. Oh well.
I'm certainly worse than him at writing, however. Take character interactions, for instance; I tend to stick to certain conversations I'm used to writing. Anne never talks to Frostnova, etc etc.
Character development, you say? What character development?
Also, just realized I wrote "soldier" as "solider" seven times. I blame Microsoft Word autocorrect. Oof. Still mostly my fault, though. Never really remembered how the word was spelled.
And I also keep forgetting certain characters address Frostnova differently. Aaaaa… I'll fix it all when I revise this work, once I'm done.
Alright, I'm off to write the next chapter. I have plenty of time now and I plan to use it.