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An Alex Krycek backstory for the Sanctuary universe |
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So, two things out of the way and it was back to focusing on the problems at hand. Our first batch of vaccine was still cooking away, a good two months off from being ready, but ever since the Pavlodar abductions, Tolya had been pulling strings behind the scenes in Moscow to get someone appointed to investigate any subsequent incidents. Russia had no jurisdiction over Kazakhstan at that point, but the Kazakhs didn't have the funds to set up a team of their own, so the idea Petrovich was pitching--of a Russian team that would investigate, shoulder the expenses, provide valuable intel to Mother Russia and share pertinent bits of it with the locals--went over well with everybody. Of course, no self-respecting military officer on a career track wanted to be the one in charge of a unit tracking down imaginary aliens, but Petrovich had a solution for that, too: me. I had to interview for the position, but Petrovich coached me and I was accepted. It placed me where I was going to need to be in order to safeguard my and Marita's work, but I had to laugh at the irony of it: I'd become the Russian Mulder. I went back to Pavlodar to do an official investigation of the incidents there, though even with six people we didn't dig up a whole lot more information than I'd gathered the first time. The trip did bring me into contact with someone I both was and wasn't looking forward to seeing again, a woman named Nika Forisova whose twin sister was one of the abductees. Until I met Nika I'd kept myself focused on my projects, but getting to know her reminded me that my desire to be something to a woman was anything but dead. And I was pretty sure the attraction wasn't just one-way. Granted, it wouldn't have been convenient for either of us and anyway, it was never going to happen: there was no way I was about to get close enough to any woman to have her find out about the piece of plastic that had become a placeholder for my left arm. Still, when the time came to return to Pavlodar for the official investigation, I knew I was going to have to interview her again. And I did, with one of my men present. Everything was pleasant and cooperative. Official, business-like and artificial as hell. But I had work to do. I went on, led my team through the rest of the interviews, the site investigations, the scouring of outlying areas in search of any evidence I might have missed the first time. But when it was over, I knew I had to see Nika one last time. For her sake, at least. Originally she'd offered me information on the condition that I wouldn't mention her to her brother-in-law, who'd had a history of beating his wife. Nika was afraid if he knew she'd talked, he'd come after her, worried his nasty little secret had been exposed. But I'd had to interview the guy this time around and I needed to let her know I hadn't mentioned her to him. She'd already lost her sister. The last thing she needed was having to worry about this Neanderthal going after her. Our little visit turned out to be the farthest thing from what
I was expecting.
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