"The investigative results turned out as expected. So peculiar" Rurik speaks up

"Yeah, so similar, too similar to be just coincidence." The deep male voice speaks

This voice strangely sounded familiar to Mari, but Maria didn't know who was speaking. But it's not important for now. Eavesdropping is disrespectful. While Maria going to step out, The conversation captured her attention making Maria step back.

"The Zhar-Ptitsha experimental human data now is leaking. There must be a traitor among us" The deep voice of that man called for Maria's attention to continue eavesdropping.

'leaking data? What does it mean? This must be a really big deal isn't it?'Maria murmured while leaning against the wall.

"Maybe, and who do you think did that?" Rurik giggling. There's no sound from another man answering back. There's only a sound of awkward silence between them.

"Hahaha...ha, do you think it's me? I'm sorry, it's really funny. I'm in a closed city, I can't go out alone, I can't carry documents from here. Before I leave, people check my bags. Even when I go to the bathroom, I can't go for long, I get knocked, and I barely have time to wipe my ass. All I can bring back are stationery, clothes, my body and my unwiped ass to my room, and my room gets searched every week. Where do you think I'll find time to do something while being watched all the time? Huh? Or do I have to take off my shirt and be searched all over?" Rurik teased and annoyed like it was a child's joke, along with the sound of pulling his clothes back and forth. Even though Maria only hears it, it's already making her make a disgusting mixed with a tedious face.

"No, Stop pulling your shirt off. Can't you just limit your madness? Goddammit." the other man interrupted, annoyed by Rurik's actions. But it's making Rurik chuhkle.

"I just thought you might know something. *sigh* you're close to a lot of people, at least more than me." the other man said in a cold voice at one's wit's end.

"I don't know. There's no evidence to accuse anyone. Give me some time." Even though he returned to the serious content, Rurik still spoke in a cheerful voice.

"We must find him as quickly as possible. If we get out, it'll cause a massive problem. And I still need research funds. If the budget is cut, it'll be all over." The other man complains.

"Hey, I have a fun assumption. What if there was no traitor?" Rurik added arousing curiosity. Maria frowned and perked up her ears immediately. Even though she thought it was a bit unfounded, what came out of her father wasn't an empty statement.

"What exactly are you going to speak?" The other man curiously asked, but from the tone of his voice, he didn't seem to believe what Rurik was going to say.

"Do you remember that we didn't work here in the first place? before we came here, Is it possible that you didn't destroy all of the evidence, or your old colleague that you used to work with, who is now working for Germany?" Rurik speaks in a serious tone unlike before.

"Impossible, I have already taken care of everything" The other man starts to raise his voice.

"And what about her? She always hunger for money. Maybe she sold our data to the Nazi exchange with money already" Rurik upset to say it out with tiredness.

"I already shut her up with the money. She thinks of us as a friend. She may shut up about it. She is still useful and smart enough to know that doing business with us will always gain money" The other man confidently insists.

"Well, If you are confident then good. Maybe I was just mad as I am" Rurik said before throwing the cigarette on the ground and stepping on it.

"Since you're addicted to wine and cigarettes, you become more mad than you used to be. if it makes you work badly, I will take away all of it." The other man threatens.

"Try me, I can't even imagine how am I going to live without it" Rurik pathetically laughs at himself.

"Well, I am also involved in the things that make you like this, the good thing is no matter how mad you are, your brain is still a genius one, unparalleled genius. it's the talent that I can't find in anyone else, How envious."The other man sighs

"I didn't think so" Rurik's laughing.

"And you mustn't tell anyone about this matter, investigate quietly. If this leaks out, you will be in trouble, tell your daughter that the corpse is contaminated by the chemical factory, he walked past it and got contaminated by the chemical there. And about seeing a walking corpse, it was probably delusional. She definitely doesn't doubt anything. She's just a soldier; A soldier is brainless. She probably believes it easily" The other man says in a cold tone. Maria's upset that she just got insulted that she is stupid but decides to keep it aside.

"I need my mouth to smoke and drink. I can't live without it" Rurik mumbles.

"Good." The other man said before starting to walk away from there. When Maria heard the walking sound. She immediately left rushed into the research institute, And sat down waiting there. She tries to act like nothing happened.

'What the fuck just happened? Destroy the evidence? A colleague working with German? And now lying to me? Why do they have to lie? This needs to be informed to high authorities. Does this mean that my assumption that Germany can create experimental humans and now is using them on the battlefield is true? We definitely can't take it with the soldier we have now. More than that we have less area to fight from retreating to the Volga river. This is terrible. I need to do something. I need to...' Maria is still shocked by what she heard but trying to calm her mind that full of assumptions.

"Maria, My lovely daughter~ Have you been waiting long?" Rurik opens the door, and walks straight to Maria, opening his arm to hug his daughter. Bring Maria out of her trance. Maria glances at the man in a white gown, who was talking with her father before, entering the lab.

"No, not at all. I just... arrived" Maria hus her father back. The cigarette smell kicked in Maria's nose. It's a really strong one. But she still forced herself to continue hugging her father.

"I'm sorry. I've been quite busy lately. The test result is out. I need to go do some documents and I will be back. Just wait here, I will call you in" Rurik have a nervous look rushing inside the lab. Maria felt odd that he kept switching his behaviour until it became unpredictable. From the surface, he might look mad. It's too weird madness. Not too long, before her father comes back to call her in.

Normally, she isn't allowed to get inside except for necessary reasons or her father takes her in. Inside there was a long white open hallway. But looks cramped with only a door and lights along the way. There's only a walking sound echoing in the hallway, making a strange uncomfortable feeling. Maria didn't understand the feeling of lightness in her heart. Is her bag heavier even if she didn't add anything more to it? Before she could get an answer, her father opened the door for her to go before him. he welcomed her with a smile.

Maria walks into the room. It's the small office of her father. There's a table full of documents that had been swept to make a space. The frosted glass storage cabinet is filled with tightly packed documents inside. There's a reflecting light from behind the tree pot at the corner of the room. There are a ton of bottles and wine glasses. Maria sighs before sitting down on the chair in front of her father's office table. There's a faint smell of wine and cigarettes permeated the room. Rurik walks to sit before searching for some paper in the mountain of documents and place the paper in fort of Maria.

"The investigative result turns out not as you think. There's a Chemical factory over there. He may passed there and had an accident and then his body was contaminated by the chemistry there. And when he was dead his blood bled out mixed the chemicals on his body turned out like that. It's just misunderstood" Rurik lying with a straight face. If she didn't know about it. She might believe it.

"Are you sure, Dad? Isn't it too coincidence? A lot of appearances are really similar to me" Maria asks back. Even it sounds paradoxical to her purpose that she doesn't want her father to know that she is eavesdropped. But if she doesn't ask more, it will look contrary to her personality which she likes to question.

"It's already happened, You knew that your blood is full of a lot of chemicals from the experiment but it's just a coincidence that The chemical factory there has some similar chemicals to yours. But when I investigated more deeply it is not actually the same blood as you. look at the paper." Rurik points at the paper which is full of deception. Maria picks it up, Acting like she's reading it. And then place it down. Acting like She is thinking of something.

"Alright, I didn't have this kind of knowledge maybe I was too worried about it. I'm quite stressed lately." Maria lies with a straight face back. Maria placed the paper down, looking around the table, trying to look for anything that might be useful.

"Along the way I walked here... I was thinking about what if  Germany happened to develop the experimental human, What would happen? Do you think it's possible?" Maria asks a trick question to her father, thinking that he might accidentally leak something out.

"Hm~ My thought isn't important. What am I thinking about this thing, doesn't affect anything in this country. This question must ask you more. What if it really happened what would you do?" Rurik put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his joined hands while sending a sweet smile to her; The smile doesn't give any good feeling to Maria. It's impossible to guess what he's thinking. Is this a test? A teasing? Or an avoiding? Maria was stunned for a moment, staring into her father's eyes to find the answer that was impossible to find.

"I think I will get rid of the normal soldiers first and then I will use my division to resist them" Maria quickly responds.

"Why? It makes you waste a lot of time. Deal with the problematic ones at the end, the remaining damage is huge. The longer it is left, the fewer the troops and weapons will be, and the more difficult it will be to deal with in the end." Rurik is just a scientist but can provide surprisingly decisive strategic opinions.

"Because it would waste more time if we have to deal with all of the experimental humans at once. Every pawn is important. If we focus too much on the more powerful pieces and forget about the countless smaller pawns, it leads to suicide slowly. If we compare the damage. It's not worth it. If we eliminate the pawns that are in greater quantity, we can counter back in larger quantity. Although the powerful piece looks frightening, we can counter back using more quantity to fight can give us an advantage in both strategy and plan to compensate for the power of that piece." Maria reasonably answers with intelligence distilled through interesting principles. While Maria was thinking, She observed the corner of the table. There's a name list paper. But the surname there looks so familiar.

'Doris? The surname looks so familiar. The names are on the list of the kid selection for experiment?' Maria tried to think where she heard or knew that name from.

"Interesting. It's a break time now. Let's have lunch in Dad's room and play some chess together" Rurik grins with satisfaction and starts to pack his things into his bag.

Maria stands up, waiting for her father to gather his things including the name list paper into his bag. Maria walks to open the door for her father with his bag. Her father and she gave their bags to the GRU officer checks before leaving this place. They walk across the bridge in silence. A lot of soldiers staring at them. Rurik sends everyone a smile and freets everyone along the way, looks like he is close to everyone around here. They continuously walk to the high building with simple decorations that look new and clean. Rurik and Maria get into the elevator and click to go to the 10th floor. Both of them watch the elevator slowly move up floor by floor.

"What do you want to eat? There's bread, fish, vegetables, meat and butter. There's nothing much but in the evening I will take you to the restaurant if I don't have urgent work." Rurik give Maria a simper.

"Bread with butter, My favourite." Maria answers without thinking.

"Ah yeah, Your favourite." Rurik repeats Maria's answer.

They arrive on the 10th floor and walk to the 1012 room. Rurik takes the key out to unlock the door to get into the room. Maria looks around with a bit of a surprised look like she used to. Even though some parts of the room are messy; some of it is tidy but full of dust. The important thing is there's no smell and a glimpse of wine or cigarettes. Rurik puts his bag down and starts to search for ingredients in the freeze, but still no sign of a wine bottle. He preparing lunch. Maria steps inside and closes the door. She takes off her coat and puts her bag down.

'Eh I remember that I remember I had already buttoned it and I didn't open the bag. In the morning, I must be too hurry and hit at something. Never mind.' Maria buttoned her bag and then put it on the table.