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The KGB was an entirely independent organization, operated under strict military laws and adhering to strict military discipline. The main tasks of its operatives included gathering foreign intelligence; which was its primary job, counter-intelligence operations, investigative activities, ensuring the safety of important government and military officials and combating anti-national factors. The organization was divided into two major components, the operatives and a separate military wing, completely separate from the Red Army’s control.

The operatives were divided into several directorates, each specializing in a particular task, espionage, counter intelligence operations etc. while the military wing would provide support to all these directorates as and when necessary. The committee as a whole was led by the Director of the KGB and the several directorates were led by an Officer by the rank of a Deputy Director. The military wing was lead by Colonel ranked officers, answerable only to the Director himself. They took their orders directly from the head of state, and had wide reaching powers.

Currently the KGB only consisted of a hundred personnel in total, but they would expand their numbers in time. Most of the members were orphans, and every member was hand selected by Add himself, and only after thorough examination, both physical and mental, were they allowed into the organization. They were first passed though gruelling physical training which was designed to break their spirits, then trained extensively in the learning chambers, and indoctrinated to be absolutely loyal to the state. They had to be, as it was their job to locate and deal with all kinds of threats to the state, both from the outside and from within. Each member was injected with Grade E gene enhancer, making them slightly superior than Rank 1 warriors in terms of physical abilities.

“Our agents caught a spy. He was trying to sneak into the city last night, but fortunately one of the patrol teams spotted. Although the man gave us some trouble, we managed to catch him.”

David cleared his throat and said. The organization had been established a little over a year ago, but its operatives were already working in full capacity.

“Spies…”

This was something within Add’s expectations, given the massive leaps in productivity the republic had made in the past years, greedy eyes were sure to look at the SRR with passion. Perhaps the only reason no one had made any active actions against the republic yet was because of its location. The SRR was separated from the rest of the kingdom by a large stretch of wilderness, and even the closest territories was not much greater, in terms of population and importance when compared to the SRR and the kingdom had never focused on investing its resources in the north.

The entire territory had been largely ignored even before it was given to the Weismann family. But now things were changing, the increase in trade had demonstrated just how much of a potential treasure trove the previously neglected territory actually was. And while the guards had occasionally chassed off overly curious people, this was the first time that a spy was caught.

“According to our estimates, the man is a Rank 1 warrior and a well trained one at that. He almost managed to escape, but the news reached us in time, and two agents managed to capture him.”

David explained the process in details, the spy was a hard one to catch, he seemed quite adept in the ways of spying. He had evaded all the outer patrols and guards and managed to enter the residential district, when he was finally spotted and subsequently captured.

“We are currently questioning him… but he is adamant that he just got curious and sneaked inside the city to take a look. We were planning to use other methods, but I thought I should inform you first.”

“There is a small chance that what he is saying is true, but most likely he is lying. Anyway we will find out in a while. Where is he now?”

“We currently are holding him in the city prison.”

“Alright, let’s get going. I would like to meet him myself.”

Looking at Sylvia who had been silent till now, he introduced her to David.

“Oh right. David, the lady there is called Sylvia. She will be working for us so try to get along.”

“I Understand.”

David bowed lightly towards her, and Sylvia nodded in response. But the stern expression had never left his face, it seemed that he had just placed Sylvia in the neutral category for now. He was a person who took his job very seriously, and in his book every stranger was a potential threat. As for her being an Elf, it did not matter. He had also been trained in the Learning chamber and ideas like hating or liking a race, were long since erased from his mind. The only thing he cared about was whether, a person was a threat to the state or not, no matter if it was a human, an Elf, a Dwarf or any other race.

The group left the Secretariat House and made their way towards the city prison which was located on the outskirts of the city. Add brought out the jeep from his inventory, with David taking the role of the driver. The virtual training he went through also included driving all sorts of vehicles, making him a seasoned driver within days. The roads were mostly empty, as there were almost no people in the district yet, only a few guards could be seen every now and then. There was still time before the administration of the state would be shifted to Leningrad from Rigel.

They soon exited the city, and after crossing the lucent river over a wooden bridge, reached the prison house. The state prison system was governed by the Directorate of Prisons and Labour Camps, which was part of the judicial system. The prisons which served as labour camps were called Gulags as expected, but they differed slightly from the ones operated under Stalin. While the principle of the system was the same, the Gulags in the SSR were comparatively more humane than their Earth counterparts. While the prisoners had to do hard labour, they had comparatively better living conditions, close to modern day prisons than those cramped, unsanitary and rat infested hell holes. They were also given basic meals and minimal accommodation in their cells. After all, while pointing a gun on a starving person’s head was enough to make him work to death, unsurprisingly, said person would work much better under gun point if he or she was not starving or dying of cold and disease.

The Leningrad city Gulag was located some distance away from the other bank of the river, surrounded by forest on all sides, the threat of monsters, made any potential escape attempts that much harder. The compound itself was a fairly large one, already housing hundreds of criminals, with the ability to house two thousand at maximum. It was surrounded by five metre tall walls on all sides, made with brick and mortar. The walls themselves were almost a metre thick and their foundation was two metres deep. Their tops were covered with lines of barbed wire to prevent anyone from climbing and escaping over them. The entire compound was guarded by a dedicated troop of prison guards. Escaping this place was very had, unless one was a warrior or a mage. There were facilities to house such prisoners as well however, built underground, and very heavily guarded.

When Add had suddenly introduced a strict system of laws and punishments in his territory, many were quite slow on the uptake of said laws, since throughout their lives, they had barely known of laws other than obeying the words of the lord. Unsurprisingly, a lot of criminals and law breakers quickly emerged and were captured and sent to this prison. These criminals ranged all the way from petty thieves to murderers and bandits, all of whom were made to work in the most harsh places such as clearing forests, under constant threat from monster attacks.

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The prison warden hurriedly arrived to greet Add and his group, and led them to the underground prison where the spy was being held by operatives of the KGB. The prison was was a bunker made of concrete, located a dozen metres below the ground level it was heavily guarded and under surveillance at all times. The warden led the Marshall and his followers through a series of long corridors, and heavy iron doors which made this place no less than a maze. It had been designed in such a manner especially to hold warriors and mages, who were too strong for normal prison cells. Only someone who had spent a long time in the bunker would know of all the turns and passages, and be able to navigate through it.

“Here we are Lord Marshall, the spy was placed in this room upon arrival and is currently under constant watch by two KGB officers.”

The room had a thick iron door which was guarded on the outside by four guards. The door itself was heavy enough that a normal person would not be able to move it. It was locked by multiple metal bolts which dug deep into the thick concrete walls of the bunker. David signalled the guards, and they quickly began unlocking the bolts. Once that was done, he pushed the door open with some effort , Add and Sylvia followed him in while the Warden and the guards remained outside.

Once inside, they could see that the room was square shaped with a size of a hundred square metres, with no exits or entrances, other than the one door. There were some narrow ventilation pipes but they were wide enough that only a chicken could fit through them. The room itself was largely empty, containing a small interrogation table, a few chairs and a small toilet in one of the corner. The room was illuminated by a number of oil lamps, giving it dim lighting but it enough for people to see things with reasonable clarity. The room was devoid of any sound except the faint rhythmic ticking of a clock hung on a wall.

The two KGB officers on guard were standing on both sides of the room. They were dressed in prim and proper black uniforms with greatcoats and officer hats, while a narrow sabre and pistol hung from each of their waist belts. One by one, they turned and saluted Add and David while the other kept his watch on the prisoner, never allowing him a moment’s chance to try anything funny. The two of them were young men barely in their twenties, yet they were already calm and devoted operatives, who showed no expression and were perfectly capable of their jobs, thanks to the virtual learning chambers, and certain drugs they had been injected with in the course of their training.

“At ease gentlemen.”

Add raised his hand and greeted them. His eyes focusing directly on the prisoner. In the centre of the room, a man was kneeling on the floor, his arms and legs, locked in heavy shackles which were tied through thick chains to the floor and ceiling. Although the man was a Rank 1 warrior, the chains and shackles were durable enough to hold him down. He was a lean man dressed in a tunic and trousers like many other common folk of the region. Motioning the two operatives to step away, David moved in and took off the cloth bag that was covering the man’s face. The man had an average appearance and would not stand out among the general populace, having his blindfold removed, he looked at his visitors, but was unable to speak as his mouth was gagged with another piece of cloth. His expression was one of distress and confusion, as one would expect from a person in his place.

“He identifies himself by the name of John. He says he is a traveller, who recently arrived at Rigel and was very curious about the ‘new city’. So he sneaked inside, and was caught by us. However, given his strength and the stealth with which he was able to evade the city patrols for quite long, says otherwise. We also investigated around the town and found that recently there have been many who have been trying to gather information about the territory. We have a strong suspicion to believe that he is here for a similar purpose.”

David stood behind the man and explained.

“I see…” Add looked at the man who had a stressed appearance on his face and asked David, “did you interrogate him before reporting to me ?”

“My apologies, although we have questioned him thoroughly, we have not used other means yet. But we can start right now if you want.”

John had been captured last night, just a few hours before dawn and as was the standard procedure he was transported to the prison and briefly interrogated before Add arrived here. As for the ‘other means’ which David spoke of, they were the next phase of interrogation which the subject would most likely not find enjoyable to say the least.

“Might as well”

Add allowed the Director to proceed, while he and Sylvia sat down on the chairs, watching as the interrogation proceeded. David took the task upon himself and the two operatives provided him with a range of instruments, starting from slender surgical knives, long thin needles, and many more items. For the next hour or so, wretched but muffled screams echoed in the room without pause. The physique of a rank 1 warrior was quite tough, and things only got tougher with high ranked warriors. To tackle with this, Add had trained the KGB to use every means at their disposal, to extract information from their prisoners, and David was doing just that. John maddened by the pain, was desperately trying to break free from his restraints, but they proved too sturdy for him to break free.

Even Sylvia who was normally aloof, frowned as she watched the ‘interrogation’ proceed. Unable to stay silent, she spoke out.

“I am in no place to say this, but I did not think that you would be so harsh on a fellow human who is only suspicious…”

To her words the Marshall replied calmly.

“You are not human and you have lived all your life in that forest, so you won’t understand humans at all Sylvia. Most of us are insidious and treacherous at our cores, some less, some more. People like him, I have seen many. It does not matter if he is just a curious man or a spy, that we will know after it is all done. Either way, I cannot afford to take any chances.”

Sylvia didn’t speak anymore, she had not interacted with any humans before meeting Add, so she had no idea of what humans actually were like. She had only seen a handful of them when they visited the Great forest of Waldestein. Still, she shuddered when she wondered what would have happened to her if Add had decided to employ these means on her instead of making her his servant back then. After a few minutes, when David was almost done, Add got up from his chair and went before John who was now limply kneeling on the floor, his body being held by the very chains which imprisoned him.

Signalling David to stop, whose hands were covered in bloodspots Add looked into the eyes of the man before him. The man had finally broken down, he was crying like a child, tears and snot running down his face and mixing with the blood seeping from the numerous lacerations on his body. None of them were fatal, they were made with almost medical precision, ensuring maximum pain while keeping the man alive. John was desperately whimpering, begging for the pain to stop.

“p….please..st…stop…plea….I-I- I beg….stop—”

Add pulled his head up by the hair, his cold eyes gazing into the terrified and despairing hollow eyes of the man,

“I want to hear the truth. If I feel that you are lying, I will have you healed and then we will have a go at it again. We will repeat this until you can no longer feel pain, until all that is you is gone and only a bag of mangled flesh that groans is left. So for your sake, tell the truth…”

The man barely moved his skull to show compliance, the only thing on his mind currently was to survive. His life was hanging at the balance, and he understood that should he test his luck now, death would not come swiftly to him. After another hour of questioning, Add and Sylvia finally left the room, leaving David to deal with the rest of the work. John had kept his life, for now. As the Marshall left the bunker prison, a new problem came out with him. A single name defined this problem.

“Count Hubert Denholm”

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