The Red World

Chapter 4: Mission Start

"Friday already, huh?" Andrei said, looking at his calendar after waking up. "Oh yeah, the meeting is today, isn't it? Hopefully nothing goes wrong."

Andrei continues preparing for the day as usual. He dons on a polo with a jacket leather pants, and a plaid scarf, to make a good first impression on his first mission briefing. After his preparations, he begins his usual daily commute to school. After a good 15 minutes, he arrives at school. On the front entrance of his school lies Dmitriy.

"Hey Andrei, what's with the attire? You on a date or something?" Dmitriy chuckles. "H-hey, shush! I'm not dating anyone! Also you made everyone around look at us!" Andrei whispers to Dmitriy, as he couldn't stand everyone looking at him. "Hey, chill man, I was just joking! Anyway, you have your swimming goggles ready?" "Yeah, let's go!"

The rest of the day continued on as usual, until Andrei's last period, where he was called by his ice skating coach. "Hey Andrei, can I talk to ya for a sec?" Andrei realizes whose voice is that, and spontaneously turns around to greet the coach. "Oh, coach, what's up?" "Uh, I may need you to stay at school for a while, we're gonna have an ice skating performance on Monday." Andrei starts realizing he may be a bit late for the All-Russian Movement's mission briefing, which is at 5:30 pm. "Hold on, I may need to call my house so I can notify them." Andrei starts reaching for his phone as he says that. "Sure thing, just meet me at the ice skating rink later. Talk to ya soon!" The coach starts walking away from Andrei. "Same to ya!" Andrei begins to move to a private location to call his two contacts. He begins to dial the house number.

"Hello, you have reached the Nikitin Residence. To whom am I speaking to?" "Hey, it's me again, Andrei Nikitin. Just going to inform you that I may be a bit late to go home again, about 5:30 or 6:00 I'll be there." "Ok, Sir Andrei, thanks for informing us." The phone hangs up, and Andrei begins to dial the phone of Vikentiy, who game Andrei his phone number since their run-in last Monday. He gives a large sigh of preparedness before calling Vikentiy for the first time. "Hey, it's Andrei, you there Vikentiy?" Andrei awaits for his answer.

"Yeah it's me, what's going on, Andrei?" Andrei starts smiling in relief. "Nice, it's really you. Anyway, I might be a little late for the meeting, can you move it to 5:45?" "Why?" Asked Vikentiy. "My school asked me to stay for an ice skating showcase next Monday." Another 5 seconds of silence ensues, until Vikentiy answers. "Eh, sure, why not. Just be sure to attend later. See you later." "See you as well." The phone hangs up, and Andrei pats himself on the back on how smooth his first call with Vikentiy was. Andrei continues to his ice skating practice, until 5:30 rolls in.

"Bye coach, see you tomorrow!" Andrei waves to his coach before leaving the school. "Yeah, see ya!" His coach says as he returns to talking to another student of his. Andrei starts making his move to the base as to not miss his first mission in the movement. By 5:40, he arrives at the base, and enters the base after typing in the password to the door's lockpad.

"Oh, hey Andrei, glad you were able to make it." said the brunette haired Yekaterina, noticing Andrei first. "Yeah, I did. So, what're we doing today?" Vikentiy starts speaking to everyone in the room. "Ok, now that everyone is here, we can start the mission briefing already. Everyone to the meeting room." Everybody starts moving into the meeting room, the same room where Andrei converted out of his pro-Communism phase. "Now, this mission will be a bit small, because it will put Andrei's ability to the test. Just think of this as a 'practice' mission for Andrei." Vikentiy points at Andrei. "Andrei, you walk everyday to your school in Central Moscow right?" Andrei responds with a nod. "And you certainly walked through every street you know, right? Especially in the Dark?" "Yeah." Vikentiy smiles. "That is especially needed for our mission, because this will be a simple recruitment mission." Andrei asks Vikentiy another question. "Wait, but how is my knowledge of streets in Moscow needed?" Vikentiy proceeds to roll out a map on the center table. "Because we don't want the KGB to be alerted of our presence, especially if it's at daytime. It's better if we recruited in night time, and in shady, but popular, alleyways, where there could be some people who look at our adverts. Anyway, Andrei, please show us where are the best alleyways or streets in the night."

Andrei proceeds to discuss and circle tens of streets he knows are great for shady advertising for two minutes. "...and that's all of them." "Good, with this, I can assign people to those same streets. Now, four of us will be a pair, and only one of us will remain single for this mission." Vikentiy thinks about who to pair, until he speaks. "Andrei and Yekaterina will be a pair, and Veleriy and I will be a pair. Gavriil, since you have an assault rifle with you, I believe you can do it without any need of assistance. We will meet at the building right beside Andrei's mansion." Everyone nods in agreement. "Now, I will be giving you these radios so we can keep in touch with each other in case of emergencies. We start at 8:00 pm, meet up at the building beside Andrei's mansion beforehand." "Got it!" Said everyone, as they then prepare to leave the meeting room. Andrei also begins packing his school bag. Soon, everyone has left for home.

Soon, it is 10 minutes before 8:00 pm. Andrei informs his butlers that he'll be going for a night jog, and assures that he will be safe, he leaves the residence and goes to the building right beside it. He meets up with everyone from the movement. Vikentiy begins to talk to everyone again. "Welcome back, everyone. I hope you have everything you need for this mission. Oh, and here." Vikentiy hands to everyone but Gavriil pocket knives and pistols with five rounds. "This is just in case somebody suspicious-looking starts walking up to you.  Here are the posters, and some spray paint. Spread attention and reveal the truth in any way you can." Everybody inspects their newly-given materials. "It is 8:01 pm. Good luck everyone!" Vikentiy says, before everybody moves to place their hands in the middle. "For the freedom of Russia and the world!" Everybody says before going to their designated spots. "Let's go, Andrei!" said Yekaterina to Andrei. "Ok, but i'll lead the way."

The pair begin their objective, putting up posters advertising the movement, which are disguised as pro-Soviet posters but encoded with secret messages that expose the tyranny of the regime. They also spray paint the brick walls with graffiti with either the words "FREEDOM", "LIBERTY", "FREE RUSSIA", or similar. In the middle of the mission, Andrei decides to initiate conversation with Yekaterina to lighten the mood and to form a better connection with her.

"Hey, Yekaterina, how'd you know about this movement?" Andrei begins to make his move. "Oh, I actually joined this movement last year, but I've been doing great since the first day that I'm part of this elite division now." "Oh, how'd you rise up the ranks quickly?" Yekaterina grabs her pocket knife from her pocket. "I'm a professional at melee fighting. Been like that since my parents taught me to protect myself." Yekaterina says as she demonstrates simple knife-wielding moves. "Anyway, I knew about the movement because of posters, like what we're posting right now, I was smart enough to decode the secret message." "Oh, cool!"

The duo continue their mission as usual, and after 30 minutes without any interruptions, the posters and spray cans were almost empty. Andrei and Yekaterina continue their casual conversations as this was happening.

Suddenly, they receive a transmission from their radio.

"Guys, we have a problem. I repeat, we have a problem."