Ivan’s boots rang on the metal grating that covered the floors as he walked down the hallway down to where Vodko and Doc were waiting. His lips curved into a slight smile.

  “Ah, Doktor! You look exactly as described!” Ivan announced as he recognized the man fitting the description that had been provided for him. He reached out an open hand and gestured towards Doc.

  “Our employer must have briefed you; Money,” Ivan said calmly. Doc took off his glasses, massaged the bridge of his nose before exhaling and putting on the glasses, then placed a bundle of cash in the opened hand.

  Ivan grabbed the bundle, counted it, nodded and stuffed it into a pocket. He began tapping a couple keys on the keypad beneath the sophisticated computer screen. Which was located next to the set of thick metal doors they wanted to enter through. Ivan extended a cable from the side of his mechanical leg to link up with the door's communications suite, and a green check mark appeared. Ivan followed it up by holding out his hand for a DNA sample, followed by a retinal scan. After a third green check mark appeared on the screen. It buzzed with a harsh electronic voice.

  “PLEASE PROVIDE AUTHORIZATION CODE”

  “Blyat. Shut up and do what I tell you to do, debil,” Ivan replied.

  “VERIFICATION COMPLETE. AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED. WELCOME BACK COMMANDER”

  A dull, bone-shaking growl of rumbling akin to the whining of aircraft engines spread out across the base, shaking everything that wasn't properly secured as the whirring machinery screeched and pulled the two heavy metal doors open.

  “Ever thought about using oil to lessen the screech of your metal doors?” Doc asked with his fingers firmly planted in his ears. He only caught a brief bit of it before all sound became replaced by a painful ringing.

  "Njet, no one can open door without letting us know." Ivan’s faint smile grew wider as he spoke and twisted a glowpipe before throwing it into the newly opened room.

  As the room filled with fluorescent light, the light revealed a number of boxes stacked on top of another in the tight space.

  “Well, others wouldn’t-” Doc stopped himself as he was speaking. “Wait, boxes?”

  “Da. Last haul from last hit. Close to northern red zone border. Museums and radiation not mix. Spoils sit for anyone not scared of little radiation sickness,” Ivan said as he turned around, glanced back at a couple of men, pointed at five and signaled for them to come and help him.

  Two men carried out two of the boxes at the top and rested the boxes next to Ivan's feet. With a solid kick with his mechanical leg, the lid of one box flung open and revealed that it contained potatoes.

  "Ah yes, raw vodka," he said as he sniffed one potato before placing it back, "Medical bay needings more anti-radiation measures."

  As the men once more bent their knees and carried away the heavy boxes, a number of other boxes took their place before the dust from the previous ones had even begun to settle. Ivan slapped one hand over his non-robotic eye and scanned the surface of the box for a few seconds before gesturing with his other hand for the men to flip it over to the other side. There was an unknown symbol printed on top of the box.

  “Tchevo blyat? This not on list,” Ivan noted with a confused expression as a red tinted list of the museum inventory scrolled in front him, “Who brought in this box, blyat?”

  Ivan took a few steps backwards and soon scanners rolled over the unidentified box, ensuring it had no unnecessary surprises within as Ivan’s men circled it, checking with geiger counters and hand-held scanners.

  “Slightly elevated radiation levels, but within relatively safe levels still, boss,” one of the men said.

  “Dimitri, get on monitor,” Ivan said with his thumb on a comlink, "Verify if someone was acting suspiciously past few days. We havings surprise gift within inventory. Luckily gift was of not live. Over and out."

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  The comlink crackled for a bit before a confirmation came through. Ivan took a deep breath, and slapped his hands together with an echoing smack.

  “Soo-” Ivan said as he pushed the relatively large unidentified box to the side, revealing a hatch that it had previously been blocking, and climbed down the ladder after opening it.

  “I dealing with box later,” Ivan’s voice echoed from below.

  The interior below was clogged with more boxes, a couple of mobile computers, communications gear and a table. Ivan squatted down next to the table as Vodko and Doc climbed down the ladder.

  "Get me Vasya in here," Ivan spoke into the comlink.

  "Hey, is Dimitri. Vasya can't come to you right now because he's occupied by being dead," crackled through the comms.

  "Really?" Ivan asked into the comlink.

  "Da. Sniper fire," crackled through in response.

  “Pyotr?” Ivan asked after thinking for a while.

  “Sniper fire, shot next to Vasya”

  “What about Mikhail?”

  “Killed by the triads two weeks ago.”

  “Blyat,” Ivan said after thinking for a while, “Dimitri, you’re promoted. Get down here.”

  Ivan patted the table, which lit up.

  “Doktor, if you will,” Ivan said and gestured for him to begin as Doc pressed his USB into a port, feeding new data into the device and showed an aerial map of the area.

  "The job is to the north, the rumored former Russian mining outpost, within the confines of the red zone. This is going to be short and quick, as we don't have the time or intel for a detailed brief," Doc said

  "Garrison strength?" Vodko asked as Doc plotted out some details.

  "Maybe six-seven platoons," Doc replied, "That's the actual armed guard force. Maybe twice that many desk-troopers and civilian contractors."

  “The problem is here,” Doc said as he traced his finger up the Fubar pass and double tapped the digital map, "Along this path, there’s mostly fixed-defense orientation with a lot of gun emplacements and automated guard towers. However, we need a team to disable the previously abandoned towers first since they’ve shifted the majority of monitoring the anomalies of the red zone to relaying information to the yellow zone.”

  “The key to winning this game is not to rush b after all, and it is.. OPA!” Ivan interjected as he popped open a bottle of Kvass, then kept talking, “You need to go sneeki breeki.”

  “Translation?” Doc said, trying to follow Ivan’s train of thought.

  “A direct attack would cause redistribution of spheres of influence, If one of us expands our territory claims to north, we’ll end up with an all out gang war.. which nobody wants. So we’ll secretly capture tower. Is what he says, I think,” Vodko clarified and gestured towards Ivan with a paper cup.

  “Huh. I’m also not sure what Anomalies the reports were referring to though. Is it something we have to worry about?” Doc asked as Dimitri stumbled down the ladder behind him to join in on the mission briefing.

  “Njet. It local legend of locals since second world war. Supposedly old Russian copper mine was taken over and turned into German work camp in past. Equipment was transported regularly into mine and then suddenly one day, the lake surrounding it evaporated overnight. Activity in area died down just as quickly. No records remain though,” Ivan replied as he filled Vodko’s cup with the dark brown alcoholic liquid.

  “There's eyewitnesses who claimed they saw it,” Dimitri said stubbornly with a cup in his hand.

  “Elderly locals with foot in grave,” Ivan interjected and filled a cup for Dimitri as well.

  “People claim to have seen the Loch Ness monster, that doesn't mean it's there,” Doc said while half paying attention to what the man was saying as he went over the map.

  “Not now, obviously, because it died years ago. The Government took body away and covered whole thing up,” Dimitri said and folded his arms.

  Doc breathed out a long sigh with a tired expression as Ivan impatiently took a healthy swig from his bottle and continued talking.

  “Thirty seven years after second world war end, there was impact into dried up riverbed. Flooded area with radiation. Some has claimed was missile, some claimed was meteor. Rumors spreading around something been discovered inside and area around the lake immediately quarantined as Red Zone”

  “There was a name among the files though. Project Tannhauser Gate. I wonder what that’s about,” Doc said and adjusted his glasses.

  As he was studying the digital map, Doc came across question marks and Xs seemingly drawn randomly on the screen, lining up with numerous places across the Red Zone prompting him to question what they were.

  "What is this?" Doc pointed to the large X and question mark on the main highway towards the dried up lake in the middle of the red zone.