Chapter 19 : Interlude

One month later, on a certain train moving through Siberia.

Even though some parts of Siberia could be extremely beautiful and exciting to look at, other parts, especially the one through which this train was currently traveling, tended to be boring, very boring.

At this very moment, a certain man wearing a hood whilst covering his eyes with sunglasses was staring out of the window.

As he looked at the never ending land stretching out towards infinity, which all looked the same, the man couldn't help but shake his head in frustration.

"As expected, my vacation can be said to over by now," mumbled the man, 'Serghei' as he lightly yawned.

'Serghei' was a man from Ukraine, who, for the past one month, had been visiting his extended family, which lived all the way in Vladivostok.

After this side of his family was deported to Siberia from Ukraine back in the 1950s, the two sides were never able to reconnect with one another, at least until the fall of the Soviet Union.

But even so, 'Serghei' still had to go back to his life in Ukraine, and could no longer stay in Vladivostok.

Even though the land the train was going over was quite ugly, it seemed to slightly entrance 'Serghei', who let out another tired yawn.

A few moments later, 'Serghei', who was quite tired, fell asleep inside the train.

...

Thirty minutes later,

For over thirty minutes, 'Serghei' slept extremely peacefully, in fact, this was probably the best sleep 'Serghei' had in his entire life.

But without any warning, 'Serghei's' sweet dreams suddenly came to an end, as he suddenly opened his eyes, without any discernible reason.

No, there was a reason why 'Serghei' had woken up, a very good reason in fact.

"I've finally found you," mumbled 'Serghei', no, Josuke as he felt that very faint, yet familiar feeling he had felt many times before.

And only a few moments after waking up, Josuke immediately saw the source of that feeling.

As he looked to the left, and stared at the military base which was perched up on a hill, Josuke's mouth couldn't help but become wide open.

"Since complicates things quite a bit," mumbled Josuke, knowing that a near worst case scenario had happened.

The best case scenario that Josuke could find was that his nephew's killer was hidden somewhere in Russia, like a rat, hoping that they wouldn't find her.

But based on the fact that she could take actions outside the country using her subordinates, Josuke doubted that this was possible, rather, a much more realistic option was that this monster was thriving in Russia.

Although Josuke had considered this possibility, the fact that she could have made contact with the Russian military did not even pop into Josuke's mind whilst he thought of the possible options.

'She most likely sensed me as well, I need to get out of this train as soon as possible, otherwise things might become even more troublesome,' thought Josuke as he suddenly got up from his seat.

...

Thirty minutes later,

Like Josuke, several other people inside his cabin had been sleeping though the journey, but unlike Josuke, none of these people had woken up, well until thirty minutes later.

Over a dozen soldiers walked through the cabin, checking the documents of every single person inside, from back to front, whilst three soldiers stood at the door to the next cabin, blocking anyone's escape.

Seeing this, a certain man, Grigoriy, who had been sleeping up until now, couldn't help but become rather confused, causing him to turn to the passenger sitting in the row next to him.

"Comrade, do you have any idea what these soldiers are searching for?" asked Grigoriy as he looked at the man, subconsciously using the word 'Comrade' when addressing him.

Even though they were no longer in the times of the Soviet Union, as he looked at the expressionless soldiers who were now approaching, Grigoriy couldn't help but subconsciously return to that era.

Hearing this, the other man slightly nodded.

"I'm not from Russia, I'm here on vacation, but I heard that they are searching for a wanted fugitive, as long as your documents are fine, everything should be alright," said the man in a rather twisted Russian.

Hearing these words, Grigoriy couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but this relief was then broken as he watched the soldiers suddenly rip out a man from his seat and dragon him out of the train.

Although Grigoriy wasn't sure what the man had done wrong, he was pretty sure he had heard something about wrong documents.

Even though Grigoriy couldn't know what those soldiers would do to that man, if they would hand him to the police, or do something else with him, he couldn't help but feel a familiar atmosphere envelop the train, one which he hadn't felt since the fall of the Soviet Union.

...

At this very moment, inside the train station the train had stopped at.

As he stared at the closed door in front of him, Andropov couldn't help but shake his head before knocking.

"Comrade Yuri, may I come in?" asked Andropov as he knocked on the door three times.

Sadly, though, this 'Comrade Yuri' did not respond.

"Comrade Yuri?" asked Andropov as he once again knocked twice on the door.

A moment after this, Andropov suddenly opened the door to the room, revealing the scene inside.

Looking at the six soldiers, as well as at 'Comrade Yuri', who were all unconscious on the floor, alongside their weapons, which were now dismantled, Andropov couldn't help but shake his head.

"It looks like he didn't take the bait," mumbled Andropov as he approached the men and checked their pulse.

But even though the target did not take the bait, Andropov was not sad in the slightest, as he knew that keeping the latter in Russia could lead to quite dire circumstances.

A moment later, Andropov then began waking up the seven, who hopefully didn't remember anything