Dinastiya Tested // 3rd Book of the Takaryev Trilogy

Chapter 80

Currently pissy because I can't find any good guides on how to partition an OS to a USB, I tried partitioning Tails, tried for 9 hours total and it never worked, so

Wait. Think I found a decent tutorial. Gonna try it.

Here's a 10 page chapter because I enjoy suffering and sitting in front of a computer wearing a binder that's getting ridiculously uncomfortable 

While Hilarion was busy sitting on a plane, Ravil and Artem were gathering intel on Emelyan Alexandrov.

It was going to be pretty difficult for Emelyan to raise an army against the Kremlin. Even if Emelyan decided to go down a slightly different route and try to use sleeper agents, Ravil was confident that it wouldn't work. He'd survived the other sleeper agents before, and he could damn well do it again. Besides, Artem had read Ravil's file, and probably knew how to stop the sleepers in their tracks. And if they wouldn't take orders from Artem, surely they would take orders from a bullet to their lousy little heads?

"Hey, who were those guys who brought you back to the Kremlin, by the way?" Artem queried. 

Ravil glanced over at him from his spot at his desk, recollection flickering in his gaze as he tried to summon up names. "One of them was named Dimitri, I think. Dimitri Bocharov. Don't think I ever got the other one's name." 

"We should track them back down, say thanks or something." Artem suggested before going back to the topic of Leopold's son. "Found anything else about Emelyan?" 

"He's a military general," Ravil began to explain. "He's got ties to the FSB to some extent, so he can hire sleeper agents for all I know. Honestly, my main concern right now is getting him to shut the hell up and calm the hell down. I'll probably have to negotiate with him. What do you think we should offer him?" He glanced up from the computer screen to peer at his husband. "What entices normal people, anyways?" 

"Ravil, you're talking about the death of a parent here. If you're gonna bribe him with money, it's going to take a lot of money." Artem answered, not unkindly. "And I mean, seriously- a lot of money. And it'll probably take more than money anyways." 

Ravil furrowed his brow and made his hands into a tent shape, pondering as he stared into the distance just next to Artem. He seemed to peer past the door of his office out into the hall, and... "Hmm." 

After a brief silence, Ravil asked, "Can't we just shoot him?" 

"Hell no!" Artem replied, laughing out of terror and slight surprise. "That's...not really how things work, my love." 

"I'll just call him," Ravil resolved. "See what he wants." 

Artem glanced down at the floor for a fleeting moment, briefly feeling as if the ground beneath him was on the verge of shattering into pieces. 

Ravil noticed. "Something wrong?" 

"Moy solnyshka," Artem asked, "you aren't insane, are you?" 

Ravil flinched at his desk. "W-why? I'm...I'm not insane, I-" His voice trailed off, and he shut his eyes as if to collect his thoughts. When he opened them again, they were swimming with doubt. "I...I don't know. Am I?" 

"I would call a psychiatrist, but-" Artem began. 

"Don't." Ravil retorted nearly instantly. "I don't trust psychiatrists. Remember the last one I had? Marco Belford? He was with the FSB."

"Why did you get sent to him in the first place?" Artem queried further.

"Because I drove my car into the lake," Ravil scratched his head.

"Oh. Right." Artem replied.

"I'm not insane," Ravil decided suddenly. "I'm not. I can't be. It's just, what they did to me..." 

"Okay, stop," Artem interjected. "I need an explanation. What happened while you were gone?"

"Leopold forced me to fake my own death so he could take the presidency. I took a pill- I think it was pufferfish toxin- and they thought I was dead, so they took me to the morgue, and from there, Leopold had me sent to a bunker and they tortured me. They were right about to wipe my memory before Dimitri broke me out. Did they have a funeral for me?" Ravil asked. 

Artem nodded.

"Did you see a body?" Ravil queried. 

"I didn't look," Artem replied honestly. "But I know they buried someone, and it would've had to be convincing, because people from the Duma were there." 

Ravil's face went pale. "Oh, God. No..." 

"What?" Artem asked. 

"Do you know what this means, Tëma?" Ravil's voice shook violently with feverish emotion. 

"They had a double for you." Artem answered. "It's nothing new. FSB's had that in their bag of tricks for-" 

"Artem, they have doubles." Ravil shuddered. "They. Have. Doubles. And they want to kill me. The FSB wants me dead. I'm a loose cannon. They want me dead." 

"None of this is news, my love," Artem said. 

Ravil was trembling so much that he had to stand in order to steady himself. "They're gonna kill us. We have to leave the Kremlin." 

"Calm down!" Artem was beginning to feel terrified. Not of the FSB, but of Ravil. 

"No!" Ravil snapped, slamming a fist onto his desk. "They're going to kill you and then they're going to kill me, we have to get out of here-"

"Ravil. Listen to me. You have to listen to me," Artem attempted to get his attention. 

Meanwhile, Ravil was still trembling and had fallen into Artem's arms, burying his face in his husband's chest. "You've gotta get out of here, Tëma. They're gonna kill us." 

Artem shook his head. "I'm not leaving without you. I'll call the FSO and tell them to ramp up security, alright? And then we'll go to the dining room so you can get some water and calm down. Okay?"

"Khorosho," Ravil said, drawing in a deep breath.