Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 50

~Yelena~

"What are we supposed to do?" Yelena whispered harshly. Anna was trying to move around her in order to get down the stairs, avoiding her grasp to keep her put. "Do we contact Konstantin? Do we just try and get out now?"

The kitchen was dark without the lights on, but Yelena saw Anna's face clearly as she stopped struggling and crossed her arms over her chest. She was trying to come off as unbothered and nonchalant, but the uncertainty was clear in her defensive attitude. For the whole afternoon she had been an emotional wreck as she processed what was happening to Katerina. Yelena had never seen her react that way and had known straight away that it was fake; it had been her fault, regardless of the blame put on Ivan.

"Anna, look at me!"

"Shush! There's nothing we can do right now other than to help Dominik clean this shit up. There is no Konstantin until the captain says so, and there is no leaving without him!"

"But he just killed Ivan! Konstantin must know!"

"I know," Anna whispered as if it were a devastating secret, turning away and pacing the length of the kitchen island. "Konstantin hasn't answered our messages since the morning before we broke into the military base. Nothing since then has been authorised."

"...What?" Yelena scoffed. "There are fucking reasons for that rule, Anna! Are you insane?! We should have been laying low!"

"I know, I know. We just need to think this through."

It now made sense why Dominik had seemed so distant each time he returned from his meetings with Konstantin. When the Lieutenant General had first taken power, he was supported by the people for his promises to take action. But right before they left for this mission, there were rumours circulating that aggression was no longer the answer. A second coup was boiling in the rubble of the battlefields as well as the capital streets, and Konstantin not answering meant that they're mission was in danger. The rule was to stop the mission in case Romanov had been overthrown.

"You were helping him weren't you. I saw you two getting up last night after Dominik fell asleep. Why were you trying to off her like that?" It was bold to bring it up, especially with someone like Anna, but Ivan had died for it.

"It wasn't like that. Do not reprimand me, Yelena. I don't need to explain myself to you," Anna scoffed, dismissing her with a wave of her hand.

Yelena slid her knife from her wrist and slowly held it to Anna's neck, having had caught her subordinate off guard. This is not a Game.

"You may have forgotten, but I am the real second in command here, stupid girl. This is some serious shit! You and Ivan tried to get rid of Katerina for some unknown stupid reason, and now he's dead for it! How does that make you feel, huh?" There were a few moments of silence before tears started to appear in Anna's eyes for the second time that day. "Oh, shut up, psycho."

Yelena brought the knife away, but not before butting the handle into Anna's ribs to knock the breath out of her, along with her stupidness. Her tears blinked away in a heartbeat.

"We were just trying to get Dominik to kill her, I swear! The person that was in charge of her interrogation was paid off, and actually in another division called Unit 362, the same one as Aleksandr. It was just to force Dominik to activate code grey so that we could get out of here."

"Why?" she growled. Yelena wondered if Anna was actually clinically insane. Dominik and Ivan used to talk about it like it was a strength, like it made her a better soldier. "And better yet, why did you stop him from killing her?"