Agent Chetiri

Prologue

While each child is born with his or her own distinct genetic potential for physical, social, emotional and cognitive development, the possibilities for reaching that potential remain tied to early life experiences and it is difficult to determine if a child from a troubled past can change.

-Bernice Weissbourd

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It is the never ending debate of nature versus nurture. Many parents and sociologists alike struggle to find the answer, if our character was caused by nurturing or our human nature. Is a person good or bad because they just are or is it more complex than that? Are we, as human beings, naturally villainous or does the answer lay in how we were raised?

And more importantly, can we change for good?

For one young woman, the answer to this age old question was not as simple as it seemed. She had faced many complications in her life and for a while, it was hard for her to determine whether or not she could change.

Her name was Alexandra Zarya Nikolova. She was a bright and rather pleasant young girl, with dark brown hair and grey eyes. Alexa was born on November 10, 1985 in the humble town of Kodino, which was a few hours northeast of glittering lights of St. Petersburg. She had been born to a pair of hard-working upper middle class parents, Dmitri and Natalia.

Her mother had long dark hair and crisp blue-green eyes that were full of life. She was a willowy lady who, at Alexa's birth, retired her job as a typist. Her mother carried a certain grace to her movements and demeanor and would always wear a small necklace of pearls around her neck, even when they were just at home. As a child, Alexa always rushed up to her mother to give her a hug and to simultaneously smell her fragrant rose perfume. Together, they would sing or dance to a song on the radio or cook together in the kitchen.

Her father, in contrast, was a taller, more muscular man who sported fair blonde hair and sharp grey eyes. He had a booming laugh that Alexa loved and was a kind father who doted on his family. He was the doctor at the local hospital, but that did not stop him from being with Alexa and his wife. Alexa was a frequent figure at his office and would play with the stethoscope that she always saw in his bag. Much to her mother's dismay, they would go hunting together occasionally in the forest behind their home.

Their home was located on the outskirts of Kodino, which overlooked a large green pasture. It was a large and lovely home and their only neighbors were a mile away. She had a relatively normal childhood, playing tag with her mother as they went into the field. Alexa also made regular trips to see her grandmother, Tatiana, with a family dinner each Sunday.She was happy in this life and in her naïveté, thought that life would always be like this. In that sense, the problem itself had not stemmed from her home life, but rather at school.

In 1989, education in Russia still followed a system set by the Soviet Union, with preschool education for ages three to five being monitored by local authorities. The system went through radical changes frequently and when Alexa entered preschool at the tender age of three, she was put under examinations for the track system. A track system education was a system based on giving the child a test and further examining their abilities to determine which job would be best for them. Once put on such a track, they would not be allowed to learn any other subjects that would make them stray from their educational path.

With the deteriorating state of the Soviet Union in 1989, however, the government took more of an interest in these young children in the hopes that they could be moulded and fashioned to their will, to breed the ultimate killer who could infiltrate foreign governments in order to bring more power to a collapsing government.