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Given the boy’s obvious distaste for his homeland, Vasilily couldn’t simply ignore the question of precisely which government Nicholae might be working for. Even if it was only for a non-military project, as the boy seemed to be claiming, it would still be an enormous problem if it was one of their many enemy nations.

But surely, Nicholae would not be foolish enough to do such a thing. Especially if he was also being brazen enough to return home like this, seeking aid.

Then again, that might further explain his apparent attempt at secrecy here.

Vasiliy didn’t let any of his thoughts disturb his expression. If the boy really was doing something that stupid, then the best move here was still to cooperate and find a way to make use of his foolishness. If worse came to worst, Vasiliy would be able to spin it so that Nicholae was working as a double agent all along.

Of course, that might well end up with the boy not speaking to him for another decade or more, but this was how the game was played. Maybe that would eventually serve as another lesson for him.

For the moment, though, Vasilily invited his grandson deeper into the facility, hoping that his worries were nothing more than that.

There was something that they had been keeping in storage for a while now, and not only might it prove relevant to Nicholae’s expressed interests here, but it was also about time to check up on it, anyway.

Through a double set of thick doors, past a checkpoint with a stern-faced attendant, they arrived in a dark room with a low, steady hum filling the air. Vasiliy flipped the lights on, revealing scores of shelves and boxes along the walls--and more importantly, a wide metal cylinder that extended from floor to ceiling.

Vasiliy tapped the console in front of the cylinder, and its metal walls began to recede into the bulbous machinery at the top of its tall body.

Behind the metal was a glass chamber filled with bubbling liquid.

Boiling liquid, to be more precise.

Vasiliy could feel heat emanating off of it in waves, which was a good sign, since he hadn’t been able to feel it a moment ago, when the walls were down.

It was what was inside the liquid that really mattered, though.

A thin gray figure, suspended there in a metal harness with a breathing mask.