Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 7

~Dominik~

When they had first arrived, it just been Anna, Yelena, Ivan, and Dominik. Romanov had taken extra care in personally commanding the mission, insisting that it was the most important active missions. Every one of Romanov's leads in his investigation of the disease somehow pointed towards Fimiston, so they were provided with extra measures of accommodation to reduce the chances of unacceptable mistakes. Therefore, the house and pharmacy were already secured, awaiting their arrival. All they had to do for those first three days was to set up the pharmacy and plan for a second group to arrive.

The second group arrived safely with fresh orders and a complete detailed report for the specifics of their finicky purpose. It was simple; acquire intel of the locations of the other camps, assassinate the council leaders, and find concrete evidence that the disease was in fact of Australian creation. Maria lasted six days before she had to be put down. She was starting to poke holes in her memories, and then started poking holes in their plans... But three days after that, Katerina appeared, the perfect soldier with a complete memory reset. All of them had memory issues for security reasons, but Katerina had been made differently.

Before Katerina's arrival, they had managed to get to three of the seven council elders, and managed to make their deaths resemble natural causes with Anna's synthetic poisons. They had also managed to find the coordinates of the majority of the smaller camps that existed in Western Australia, including the next biggest temporary city in Mount Whaleback Mine. This information had been found at the council halls and was easy to obtain as Fimiston's leftover resources went to these smaller camps that lacked the facilities to support its population. The rest of the coordinates would need to be found within a high-level security building that was built deep underground and into the rock that surrounded the pit. This was their next major target, that they embarrassingly knew worryingly little about.

The bacteria were almost all grown, thanks to Anna who took part in almost none of their other tasks in order to perfect the maximal growth of the bacteria. Anna had boasted that it hadn't been too hard, as the hot climate of this desert seemed to be of the optimal temperature for their survival and reproduction. Dominik was relieved that she soon would have a lot of free time to take part in their other activities and help to make things smoothly again. Everyone had been uneasy after Maria's death.

The only thing they were waiting for was to finish off the rest of the elders... this detail of their objectives had initially taken him by surprise, but it made sense considering that the blame put on Russia caused all of their allies to turn on them and assassinate Russia's leaders. Then there was the final task, new and daunting; to nurture Katerina into assimilating smoothly into who Maria should have been.

Next to Dominik slept Klaus, snoring softly as he curled up with his blanket and mumbled nothings into the cool night air. His file had read that he was 178cm of skinny muscle with surprising strength. It also detailed his deep insecurity about his own abilities, specifically concerning him continuously trying to prove himself to others, despite already being one of the best from his old unit. Stealthy, dutiful, and loyal above all. This was what he proved when he told on Maria and her little night-time activities.

Dominik turned away from sleeping Klaus and reshuffled his position against the headboard with his arms crossed. The sleeping arrangements were perhaps the only downside to the mission; they all had to share double beds. Since most of the city's inhabitants were small children and single parents or elderly, all of the single beds in the town above had been snatched already. The rest of them, large and perfectly clean, had been rounded up and put for sale by a greedy salesman trying to make a bit of money in his new living arrangements.

It was only less than optimal considering how much Klaus twitched in his sleep, as if he was in a constant silent nightmare crossed with a mild seizure. Most of them were like that.