The Last Romanov (Under Editing)

Ambassador Virtanen of Finland

Sasha was pissed.

He got to the palace much later than he was supposed to get there. He'd walked all the way from that spot in the alleyway to Peter and Paul Fortress, only to find out that he'd just missed Anastasia and Commander Zelenko, and that they were on their way to the palace to meet with the Finnish ambassador. And then, he had to walk from the fortress to the Winter Palace. That whole excursion left him a half hour late for his shift. So, he was going to be very lucky to not get shot the second he got to the palace.

However, that's not what happened. Instead, the second he walked into the palace, he saw one of the other guards waiting for him. It was Kovac, the annoying tobacco chewer.

Sasha sighed. How much worse could this damned day get? How much?

"You're late," Kovac said. As usual, he was chewing tobacco. He had a feeling that the leaves he was chewing at the moment were about done: Sasha could see some of the juices starting to dribble out from the corner of his mouth.

"And you're the most disgusting bastard I've ever met," Sasha said. "You want to stop stating the obvious and tell me where I'm supposed to go."

Kovac rolled his eyes and spat out the wad of tobacco he was chewing into a spit can. So, so disgusting!

Why? Why would he do that? Why would anybody want to chew on those disgusting leaves?

"Green dining room," Kovac said. "Ambassador Virtanen and the Czarina are having some sort of lunch. Only God knows why, but they want you there."

He didn't quite get it, either. What was with that damned girl's obsession with him?

"Alright, I'm going," Sasha muttered under his breath. He began to walk down one of the corridors, heading for the green dining room. "And get rid of that awful tobacco before I get back. Seriously, man: it's disgusting."

Kovac spat out more of his stupid tobacco juice. Sasha swore, if that jerk spat any more tobacco around him, he was going to knock his damned lights out!

"Says you," Kovac said through his chewing tobacco. "At least the ladies know that I'm a man. They get a little confused between your baby-smooth chin and the girl's name."

I'm going to kill him, Sasha thought to himself as he dismissed Kovac with a flick of his wrist. I swear, if I ever go on a rampage in this stupid place, he's the first one I'm taking out.

It took him a little while to get to the green dining room (he still didn't exactly know his way around that monstrosity of a building) but eventually, he made it to the green dining room. There was a guard posted outside of it, his gun slung over his shoulder, a cigarette in his mouth.

Sasha had to be honest: he was pretty surprised the Czarina was okay with that. She didn't strike him as the type to enjoy the smell of burning tobacco.

"Are they in there, already?" Sasha asked as he approached.

The guard raised an eyebrow. "Why? Do you have permission to be in there?"

Sasha nodded. "I'm Sasha Kozlov. I was told that I'm supposed to report here."

The guard frowned. Sasha knew exactly what he was thinking, and he really, really didn't want to hear.

"So help me, if you're about to remind me that my name's a girl's name, I'm going to kill you." And it wasn't a joke: he might literally kill the next person that mentioned it.

"I wasn't going to," the guard said. Smart man. Very smart man.

He opened the door. "Go inside, though I'd suggest that you be quiet: things seem to be rather intense in there."