Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 18

~Ivan~

Ivan's part to play in their mission was to be in charge of all their firearms, a Weapons Sergeant. He knew every single item of destruction in their armoury, and therefore knew every single way of killing someone using those resources. Most of them were by bullet of course, but further thinking led to more creative ideas including grenades, batons, and ropes. He hadn't had to use anything too intricate. Yet.

"No, I wanted to talk to you," came her insufferable voice.

It wasn't that Ivan didn't like Katerina. He hated her. He hated the inconsistency of her role in the mission. He hated the unqualified nature of her abilities. And he hated the way Dominik looked at her. He looked at her like she could solve all his guilt. He looked at her like he looked at Maria. He hated that most of all.

She usually had her brown hair tied back in a braid, but today it was just pushed behind her ears, unkept and messy, reaching just past her shoulders. She had dark brown eyes, and a small nose, objectively pretty, and annoyingly compliant with Dominik's plan to win her over. Today, she was dressed in the clothes she had been given by the train medics. She still wants to be one of them, he scoffed to himself.

He didn't answer her, and she didn't question him about it. Ivan didn't have the slightest clue why she was down here, though he was secretly grateful for the extra pair of hands tackling all this cleaning. Last week, it had taken hours. I hope she doesn't mess this up too.

An hour they sat there, silently cleaning, and loudly ignoring each other. After a while, Katerina even started picking up on when Ivan was nearly finished with an item and was ready for the next. She would start to hand him things so that he didn't have to get up. It annoyed him at first, but then it grew efficient, and became... comfortable. Efficiency was the only thing that could save his sour opinion of her.

The girl was younger than him, but she also had harder lines on her face that took away from the youthful way her face used to look. When she started on the next gun, he observed her closely. There were long scars that were poking out over her clavicle, though her cream shirt made them look more subtle. Her fingers were thin and skilled as she polished, and he noticed with grimace that her fingernails were raw and red, which complimented the faint bruising that purpled and yellowed her body, hiden beneath her thin shirt.

"Ivan, I wanted to ask-"

"Katerina, I don't like you," he interrupted, pushing his gun down. She was silent for a few minutes, though she never took her hands off the set of pocket grenades she had managed to pull off the shelf.

"Why?" she glared. Her voice was assertive, and laced with conviction, instead of its usual quiet and whiney hum.

"You shouldn't be here. Simple as that," he huffed, turning back to his weapon. "You're unqualified for this job, too young and stupid to know what's going on. And come on, you don't know a bloody thing. About anything."

Katerina was surprisingly calm. It egged him on greatly.

"Do you even know how dangerous your arrival was?"

"No, I do not. Tell me," she said, matter-of-factly. "Tell me exactly how it is."

"You were dumped at the crash site of the train before it crashed, so that Dominik would be able to smoothly locate you. He got held up in the end because he endured a fucking train bombing, something that you seem to forget every time he tries to reach out to you. He could have died. That's how important he thinks you are."

Her lips made a full 'O' as if this was the first time she was considering how much their captain put his life on the line in order to make this mission work. He had told Ivan that the new recruit was very important, but never actually said why. Under all the years that Ivan had served under Dominik's command, he had never questioned him. But his doubts grew of her abilities and his decision to vouch for her, seeing as how she still dressed in her civilian clothes. Dressing like Emilia, not Katerina.