Cold War: Before The Bell

Chapter 1:

1959
August

"I thought you said we were going to go fishing Papa?" Anthony asked his father from the backseat.

"We are, I promise." The man chuckled at the child's eagerness to learn how to fish.

"Well then where are we going?" Elena asked, peaking from behind the seat as they rode.

"Elena, sit back down dear. I'm just making a quick stop is all." He turned the steering wheel to the right as they pulled into the parking lot of a large park "Come on loves" their father said as he got out of the car.

The two followed behind him. "Why don't you two go play over there." Alistair pointed over towards some play equipment which was already being occupied by two other boys and one girl.

"Come on Anthony!" Elena grasped her brother's hand and rushed them over there.

"Those are yours?" The now so called Perseus asked his old friend as he approached him.

"Yes... the best things to ever happen to me." The man smiled as they both watched the children at play.

"The boy..."

"Anthony." Alistair said.

"Yes, how old is he?"

"Eight."

"And the girl?"

"Elena. Shes our youngest, just turned five a few weeks ago."

"Very beautiful family you have Petrov." The older man smiled and patted Alistair on the shoulder.

"What is it that you wanted to speak me about?" Alistair asked, curious about why this couldn't be spoken about over the phone. He turned to look his friend in the eye.

"Comrade you know that I am leading quite a powerful organization."

"Of course."

"Let me jump to the point. I'm offering you a spot by my side. If there was ever the perfect soldier it certainly would be you. I am urging, fighting for a better Russia. Right now as we speak I have a small group of men sent to investigate American science projects.

Alistair sighed. "Assuming I accept your offer.... I.. I don't know. I have two priorities now. It's not like it was back in the war, where I was fighting for my country. I still am yes, but now I would be fighting for them. I want them to be happy, happier than we ever were as children. And I think that not seeing their father for so long would do anything but."

"I beleive they will nuke us if we don't prepare ourselves sooner." Perseus lowered his voice. "Just the other day I debreifed a few men who were sent to retrieve files about a potential American nuke. Theres not much we know yet but enough to know we very well could be standing on ash if something isn't done soon. Tell me comrade." His tone became somewhat manipilative, but Alistair's thoughts were heavily weighed on the saftey of his two bundles of joy.

"Do you really want your children to never see the age of fourteen? Or perhaps even ten? Remember what our job as soldiers are. We protect others, do the dirty work so that way they can live the lives we never can."

Alistair held a firm stare to the ground, thinking hard. "Look, I work one mission for you, after that... we'll deal with that once we get there." He said making his feelings known in his tone.

"Good, come by 8am tommorrow morning." Perseus handed his friend an adress. "Oh, and what was your boy's name again?" Perseus asked as he looked towards the children.

"Anthony!" Alistair yelled when he looked over to see his son hold a choking position on one of the boys.

"Interesting..." Perseus mumbled to himself, giving a last glance at the boy before walking off.

"I wasn't going to kill him Papa!" Anthony said releasing his grip.

"Well don't choke the boy!" His father scolded.

He looked over to see Elena, sticky tears on her face as she sat holding the back of her calf. "He pushed her and made her cut her leg on the rock!" Anthony yelled angrily as he pointed towards the boy that nearly got choked to death.

"All right you all run along before I put you all in a chokehold." Alistair intimidated the four children as they scattered quickly. He picked Elena up and carried her back to the car while Anthony follwed by his side.

"I'm sorry Papa..." Anthony said while his father bandaged Elena's leg.

"You need to learn to control that temper of yours Anthony. One day it just might get you killed, or worse.." he scolded his son.

"I'm sorry Papa, Elena." He began to tear up. He realised that acting on his anger in front of his sister might have scared her. Doing it infront of his father only made him angry at him.

"I'm not going to punish you Anthony, just for everyone's sake, next time remember to control your anger. Next time grab your sister's hand and just walk away."

"Yes sir." The boy replied, feeling ashamed.

"All better!" Alistair said cheerfully as he finished with Elena's bandage. "Well children, are we ready for a day at the pond now?" He tried to get them excited seeing both of their sad faces.

"Come on, lets go!" Elena immidiatly cheered up and grabbed her brother and dragged him into the car.

Their fishing poles stuck out of the window as they drove. Anthony sat and looked out of the window, pushing aside what happened and focused on the fun they were about to go have. He felt the summer breeze on his face by the open window, his eyes relaxed.

"If you lay down, and look outside, it feels like we are driving in circles around a tiny island." Elena giggled as she was on her back.

"Does it now?" Her father looked in the rearview mirror and smiled.

"Who was that strange man Papa?" Anthony saw the odd and curious glance the other brown headed man gave him.

"An old friend of mine. He and I used to fight in the war together."

"Ooh, tell us one of your war stories!" The boy perked up with excitment. His sister did the same as she sat up.

"If we had a longer car ride I would but we're already here." They pulled into the grass by a large pond. The water hole was one very few people knew about but luckily it seemed they were the only ones there today.

"Like this?" Anthony held the knife as he skinned the fish.

"Yes, just be sure not to cut yourself." Alistair said looking over to his right. He crouched behind Elena and helped her hold the fishing rod.

"Do you think we'll catch another one?" The girl looked up at her father.

"Maybe-" he stopped when they both felt a large tug on the pole.

"We got another one!" The girl shouted, quickly reeling it in.

"Awesome job!" Alistair cheered as he helped her reel in the decent size fish.

"Two in one day?" Anthony asked, suprised.

"Amazing right?" Elena was happy with her accomplishment.

"Yea.. your doing great." He gave her a hug. He tried his best in his voice to not give away his hurt feelings. They had been there for nearly three hours and he hadn't caught a thing.

Not much longer they left with having caught one more fish. This time Alistair had caught one while Elena watched her brother show how to skin a fish. Even though he hadn't caught anything that day he buried his jelousy deep down and was satisfied that he at least knew how to skin the fish. That was something his sister didn't know. Plus they would be able to have many more fishing trips together. He thought about their mother joining them next time and how much more fun it would be. Maybe then he would actually catch something.