Dmitri walked forward in his usual rigid fashion, flanked by two other men. The cold air of predawn Moscow caused their breath to egress like billowing smoke. "Nice threads," one of them commented. "But you look like a prison sniper in that get-up."     "I needed some cold weather gear," Dmitri replied, "and the price was… to die for."     They continued walking until they stood in front of a stout, aged, and balding man dressed in a black trench coat that didn't quite fit his proportions. "Glad you could make it, Dmitri," the older man said, extending his hand. "You are now the only man to have ever escaped from Yakutsk Prison in the entire two centuries of its proud existence."     "Well, Anton," Dmitri said as he shook the man's hand, "there had to be a first. I made sure it was me."     "I've been hearing whispers in the dark and rumors only told to me by shadows," Anton said.     Dmitri looked left and right, taking in much of the unheated pier building where they stood. "And what do the shadows tell you?" he asked gamely enough.     "They say that Dmitri Novykh has something very big planned," he replied.     He nearly smiled at that. "Big? Russia is big, my friend. The world is big. My plan-mine-will change them both. But I need supplies, which is why I asked for this meeting."     "Come now. Tell me your plan," Anton said. "I can keep a secret."     "I know you can. That is why I associate with you," Dmitri said. "I will tell you so that you will know the importance of my request. I am about to bring about the revival of Communism and the glorious Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of long ago."     Anton looked at him, baffled. His comrade was not a man given to flights of fancy, but how could anyone do this? "How Dmitri? How?" he asked. "Soviet Communism has been dead for more than three hundred years. You tried to take over the government before, you know. Why do you think you will succeed this time?" Dmitri looked around again. "My previous attempt was wrong-headed. I shall strike again-at exactly the right times."     "What do you mean by that?"     "You have heard of a device that the Belgians invented, which can send things through time?" he questioned.     "Of course, but it doesn't work," Anton protested.     "Ah, but it does! One of my fellow prisoners was a mathematical genius. Allow him a five-second glance at a screen filled with higher calculus equations and he could proceed to solve them all in his head. He was caught and arrested after breaking the variable algorithmic code for the Lunar Monitoring Computer-a feat which he accomplished with no deciphering software whatsoever," Dmitri explained. "One day, I managed to smuggle in copies of the Belgian time travel equations. He told me they worked. They work, Anton! They work!"     "But all of the experiments failed."     Dmitri shrugged. "Maybe they didn't fail; maybe the Belgians only want the world to think they failed. Perhaps they did, but it doesn't matter. I trust my source."     "Even so," Anton said, giving voice to the cynical words of reason and age, "it is inside the Belgian Department of the Interior. What can you do?"     "Break in."     There was a long pause as Anton considered the man he once knew. It had almost been ten years since his friend had been locked away in that colder version of hell, and he certainly seemed to have changed.     "Will you help me?"     There was another pause as Anton mulled it over in his mind. There was no dissuading Dmitri after he had set his mind on a task. And to disappoint him… Anton didn't have the heart-or the backbone. Finally, he nodded and replied, "Y-Yes. Yes, I will help you. For old time's sake."     Dmitri nodded. "For old time's sake, then," he echoed. In his mind, he could only wonder how much longer he could count on his old friend. He felt as though he had just called in his last favor with the aging mobster. *         *         *     Phase one of his new plan was complete. Anton had provided him with a sniper rifle, a military-class storage unit, a palmtop supercomputer and an automatic plasma gun of the variety used only by Special Forces the world over. However, Anton couldn't provide him with everything he needed for his history altering plans. He was now headed to Seattle, Washington to enact phase two of his plan.     Dmitri now looked out the window, mostly bored at the moment, from probably more than a mile of altitude. Of course, looking out the window called for peering beyond the rather obese and slovenly man who was occupying the window seat (as well as much of Dmitri's own aisle seat). In addition, the boisterous child who sat behind him and periodically kicked his seat served to remind him of what he hated about airliners. Dmitri wished he could just take over the plane, but security was far too stringent on United flights for that to happen. Without question at least two of the passengers were actually air marshals-almost as well armed as he, but with the added advantage of surprise. Even if he should take out the marshals-which was probably within his capabilities-the pilot would seal the cockpit at the first sign of disturbance. The shielding would be more than adequate to hold back even his plasma gun. So, he would have to remain content merely flying to his location, smuggling his weapons by encrypting their patterns on his storage device so that they would not be recognizable as weapons when inspected by airport security.     Throughout the entirety of the flight, Dmitri read most of The Communist Manifesto to himself for the forty-third time. As they flew over California Island, he contemplated the irony that the United States of America should beat the Soviet Union in a war that was not a war only to lose its nationhood in wars it fought mostly with itself. He looked again out the window before checking the GPS function on his computer. They were close to their location, but not close enough for Dmitri. He wanted this flight over with immediately.     Eventually they landed in Portland-the capital of Washington's first province, Oregon. Once inside Oregon, he boarded the public transit and made the journey from the pine-forested landscape of Oregon to the high-tech cityscape of Seattle-the home of the famed CIA headquarters. Even when the city was mostly rebuilt almost two centuries ago, the residents did not want to call it New Seattle, fixing their hopes on the potential recovery of their glorious past. Or perhaps they did not want to break the continuity.     Whatever the case, Dmitri was now inside city limits and nothing was going to stop him from breaking into the CIA's R&D building. It was situated less than a mile from Microsoft's campus, which was a very efficient arrangement since all of the CIA equipment ran on Microsoft software. Furthermore, as many people in the intelligence community knew, several underground tunnels led from Microsoft to the CIA. Infiltrating the CIA was impossible (unless he was willing to invest years for the execution of his plan), but infiltrating Microsoft was doable, requiring no more than about a week or two of surveillance. They were the weak link in the chain that bound phase two.     First, Dmitri remotely accessed their employee database and profiled some employees that had keycards for the buildings with the tunnels. On one end of the spectrum were top level executives-on the other, cleaning crew. He chose an executive who was on vacation for a week. After breaking into the man's home and stealing his keycard, Dmitri dressed up in a nice suit and entered the main Microsoft building, carrying a professional-looking leather briefcase. Few people talked with him. A handful engaged him in a bit of office banter, but the security was very impersonal-the keycard was all that mattered.     Dmitri hung around the water cooler and kept a surreptitious eye on his man's office. He waited until the secretary left for a break and then went into the office. He accessed the man's computer and used it to forge a work order for the CIA building. He left the office before the secretary returned and took the elevator to the ground floor. Dmitri felt that things were progressing well as he stepped onto one of the moving sidewalks. It would take him one of the other buildings that had a tunnel in its sub-basement. When he reached the new building, he went into a bathroom and removed his executive disguise. Underneath he wore the blue jumpsuit of a Microsoft technician. He ditched the suit and keycard in the trash. If he were caught with that keycard while dressed as a techie, the consequences would be dire. He then pulled some technical supplies out of his briefcase and left that in the trash, too.     Armed with his work order, Dmitri entered the tunnel with his computer supplies and knocked on the CIA's door at the other end. A man in a suit appeared on a screen outside the door. "Identify yourself," he said.     "Anton Jones," Dmitri answered. "Level 3 Technician."     "Purpose?"     "I have a work order, sir," he said, holding up the paper to the electronic eye.     The man nodded to someone offscreen and the image went blank. The door opened and another person read over the work order. "It looks like you'll need access to the laboratory," he said. "What exactly are you going to be there?"     "I'm going to have to patch the upgrade," Dmitri replied. "You see, we discovered a bug that popped up under some unusual conditions. We need to patch the system before…"     "All right, all right," he said. "You have everything you need?"     "Yes, sir," Dmitri answered.     "Your escort will be here shortly. When your work is done, your order will be stamped and you will be brought back here promptly," he said. "Everything clear?"     "Yes, sir." Phase two was complete.     And so they took him to the laboratory that housed the fabled Covert Combat Uniform-nicknamed the Spook Suit by the rest of the intelligence community. It had flight capability, invisibility and more. Three agents monitored his activity as he worked on the computer system. While he pretended to analyze the computer, he was really analyzing them. They were armed while he had to stash his weaponry in a secure offsite location. They were probably also pretty well trained. He was unsure if he could handle all three of them, so he would just have to divert their attention. Under the guise of the Microsoft upgrade, Dmitri arranged for several alarms to be sounded at various sensitive locations on the other side of the building. It was widespread enough that two of the agents were called away from the laboratory. The area was then locked down as a precaution.     After a short amount of time, Dmitri announced, "I'm done with the upgrade."     "You can't leave yet. We're under a lockdown condition," the agent said.     "Huh," Dmitri grunted. "How long will that last?"     As the agent turned to answer him, Dmitri planted a firm uppercut into the man's jaw. He hit what boxers refer to as "the button," resulting in an almost instant knockout. He then used the agent's laser blaster to shoot off the lock to the Spook Suit's containment unit. After donning the suit, Dmitri used some of its explosives to blow a hole in the ceiling. Then he completed phase three by becoming invisible and flying away before anyone became the wiser. Soon, the world would be free from the harsh reign of those evil Capitalist exploiters. *         *         *