"I tell you the man's insane," the commandant told the President of the United Republics of Russia.     "Surely you realize the government cannot be held responsible for the actions of any single citizen," the president began.     "Heaven's sake!" he bellowed. "I don't care about responsibility-Dmitri Novykh must be stopped!"     "You're sure he is responsible for the theft of the… what did you call it?"     The commandant calmed down a bit, drinking some tea from a cup provided him. "It is a Covert Combat Uniform, but we call it a Spook Suit," he answered. "And, yes, he is responsible. Earlier this morning the police brought in one of the Mafia lieutenants on charges of tax evasion. Long story short, he traded some information for a reduced fee and no jail time."     "Information? Elaborate."     "Yes, sir," he said. "The man told us that he had been in contact with Dmitri. He also informed us of some equipment he provided and indicated that Dmitri intends to steal the Belgian time device."     "The Belgian time device… So, what is your current theory?" he asked.     "Given what he was put in prison for, I believe that Dmitri is planning on traveling back in time and altering history so that Communism does not fail in the old USSR," he told the president.     The president's eyes widened. "Do you have any ideas what his next target will be?"     "I have made some discreet inquiries among members of a mob family called the Patricians. They have offered some disturbing rumors that Dmitri will be stealing top military equipment in order to change the outcome of some old battles," he replied. "For this reason, I suggest stepping up security around our T2-A4 combat tanks, our Hind helicopters and our stealth bombers," the commandant said, sipping more tea from his nondescript steel cup.     "Let's see, that would require increased measures at nearly a dozen bases. Anything else?" the president asked, taking a nip of vodka from his much more decorative crystal glass.     "I would like permission to head up the security for the base in the Ural Mountains."     "That's the one with the T2-A4 Dostovei tanks. Do you know something you're not telling me?"     "No, sir," he admitted. "It's just a hunch. I have a strong feeling about this one, and since I can't be at all eleven bases… Sir, I know him better than any other man alive. I can make that base impenetrable-even for Dmitri Novykh."     The president considered the request for a moment. "Granted." *         *         *     Dmitri surveyed the base in front of his eyes. The equipment that he stole from the CIA would enable him to infiltrate this stalwart fortress easily. Dmitri now shifted his gaze from his target to his key. The Spook Suit was truly a thing of beauty. In addition to the cloaking device and jet-assisted maglev apparatus, he enjoyed the bulletproof biomimetic mesh and the helmet, which included such enhancements as telescopic vision as well as infrared, ultraviolet and other special sensor scans based on the old American GL-5 technology. The helmet and suit together could survive nearly any hostile environment from the cold vacuum of space to the crushing pressures of the deep sea to the intense heat of a firestorm.     Activating the cloaking device, Dmitri leapt off the side of the mountain. Using the maglev, he carefully controlled the speed of his descent and landed softly on the other side of the high granite wall. Phase one complete; on to phase two. He wouldn't have to worry about cloak-detecting sensors at this point-only the interior would have those.     Dmitri surveyed his surroundings. Numerous squat buildings unfolded before his eyes. These housed the personnel. Beyond them he would find the holding area for the Dostovei combat tank, but he would have to complete phase two before going there. Using the suit's internal scanning equipment, he located the main generator and its back up. They were both easily accessible (for maintenance reasons) and located within reasonable proximity to each other about a stone's throw from the east wall. They were sheltered underneath an energy shield canopy.     Silently, invisibly, the great assassin approached. Phase two was near to completion. As he drew closer, though, something felt odd to him, a feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. He paused, trying to name his concern; after all, he had plenty of time and he knew better than to continue when feeling this feeling. Suddenly, it dawned on him. Standard military protocol called for three soldiers to guard the generators-here there were eight, with even more soldiers in the general area, hanging around and pretending not to be guarding the site. Not only that, but his sensors could read their higher than normal heartbeats, suggesting that they were nervous about something. That something was he. Somehow, his enemies must have pieced together his plan and now they had taken measures to stop him. He grit his teeth in irritation. Now he was going to have to revise phase two.     Standing perfectly still to eliminate any background warping that might give him away, Dmitri considered his situation. He could easily presume that if they stepped up security just for him, they probably knew he had stolen a Spook Suit; therefore, the guards must have some means of detecting him at hand. Of course, they hadn't found him yet, which implied that their detection devices were battery operated and would be unaffected by the power outage he had planned. They must be ready to hunt him as soon as he gave away his position.     Dmitri began cycling through different vision filters on his helmet, testing the area with infrared, ultraviolet and so on. He finally hit on something when he switched to an enhanced electrical mode. Looking at the generators that lay in front of him, Dmitri saw a laser network crisscrossing in front of both the main and the back-up generators-clever. Even though he was invisible to the naked eye, a laser would not be fooled. He would still have to cut the power, though, or the built-in sensors around the tank pen would stop him.     Dmitri took in a deep breath of the purified air inside the suit in order to calm himself down. He just knew the commandant was somehow behind this. How he had managed to talk the proper authorities into letting him do this… that would remain a mystery probably forever. In order to revise phase two, he decided to run through how it was supposed to work in his mind. He had planned to pick up the back-up generator and throw it into the main one. Not only would it have cut off power to the sensors in the interior that could detect him, but it would have also served as a distraction to all the nearby personnel, who would have been running around trying to put out the inevitable fire and wondering what had happened. Now that path was not an option.     As Dmitri observed the chessboard that was unfolding before him, he noticed one pawn in particular. Unlike all the other soldiers, he was unarmed. The man kept walking back and forth between the two generators, keeping an eye on their read-out panels. He must be some sort of technician or engineer brought out to make sure no ghosts were setting the generators to overload. Being human, though, he could not stay at his post indefinitely-something that could afford Dmitri a window of opportunity. He zoomed in both the suit's sight and hearing on that man and then waited patiently. It was mind numbing, but necessary. The engineer would walk to one panel, look at it, walk to the other, and look at it, making a little bit of conversation along the way with one of the guards.     Finally, the part that Dmitri was waiting for arrived. The engineer discreetly told the guard near him that he was going to use the facilities, and began walking off to the nearest latrine. It was a metal structure, squatting in the shadow of the nearby wall. Dmitri headed for it, but at a walking pace in order to minimize any amount of background warping he might cause. He followed the man inside and, as soon as the door closed behind them, shot the man in the back with one silent ball of plasma. Dmitri then climbed out a window just so no one might notice a door opening for no apparent reason. He had to hurry now-they would miss him soon.     Dmitri sprinted inside the wall's shadow until he reached the generator area. He stepped over the laser network and approached the back-up generator. When he was sure no one was looking in the display's direction, he utilized his knowledge of Russian engineering and put in the proper sequence to generate a power feedback loop, which would cause this generator to eventually explode. He then crept over and did the same thing to the main generator.     Everything was in place. It was going to be quite a bit harder than it was before, but Dmitri felt confident that things would go his way. He made his way past a labyrinthine set of barracks and depots to the building that housed the tanks. He now stood poised in front of the door, waiting for the explosion that would herald the demise of the base's main sensors.     As soon as he heard the distant rumble, Dmitri tore the door from its jambs, tossed it aside, and dashed in. Phase three was beginning now, and before it was over he knew he was going to walk into a trap. He deactivated the cloaking device in order to conserve energy since the soldiers here would have the same detection equipment as the ones outside. He prepared his plasma weapon.     Some soldiers poured into the hallway. The ones in the lead were staring down at the displays for their sensors and so didn't notice the non-invisible Dmitri. He raised his weapon and shot multiple projectiles of superhot plasma down the confined corridor. Brave young men fell left and right as Dmitri continued his onslaught. He took the long way around to his target, hoping that it would throw off anyone expecting him to take a more direct route. He ran into many more soldiers and never left one of them alive.     Finally, he stood in front of the last door. In the room beyond lay the T2-A4 Dostovei-the most powerful, technically advanced combat tank on the face of the planet today. The trap would be set in this room. Dmitri grimaced as he the sensors on his suit were foiled by a dampening field inside the room. He ran through this part of phase three in his mind one last time. He thought of how the commandant would set a trap for him and how he would get out of it.     He forced open the door and stepped to the side. The fact that lasers didn't come blazing through the open doorway meant that they were lying in wait for him, and with that sensor dampening field in place, he wouldn't have any advance notice of their location. He unhooked the military grade storage unit (about the size of a laptop) from his belt and stepped inside the room. Dmitri's eyes darted around the entire darkened area, searching for any hint that something was amiss. He didn't find anything odd, which served to reinforce his theory.     Dmitri continued forward until he was right upon the menacing-looking vehicle. Common civilian storage units worked by breaking down the molecular patterns of objects into energy, then storing the matter configuration in large data files and the energy in a battery-like unit. Their limitation was the limited space. Sure it was fine for replacing heavy suitcases and such, but the larger the object, the larger the data file that needed to be saved and the more energy that needed to be stored. This military storage unit had nothing stored on it yet, but it had the potential to hold nearly a dozen of these tanks.     Dmitri pressed the small gray button near the top to lock the acquisition beam onto the tank before pressing the red button below it to activate the dematerialization process. After a shimmering effect, the tank broke down into an energy signature and was saved. Suddenly, the doors locked down and a pair of floodlights behind him kicked on, pointing down at him. He recognized the voice that called from behind the darkness. "We've caught you red-handed, Dmitri," said the commandant. "I suppose that color is even more significant in your case."     "Very funny, commandant," Dmitri said.     Dmitri looked behind him; his helmet filtered out the brightness, allowing him to see the previously invisible group. Behind the two large lights he could see a group of at least eleven soldiers backing up the commandant. They were standing on a wide catwalk that ran along the far edge of the rectangular room. There was virtually no cover, and he could see that they were in possession of the special cloak sensors as well. Like all of the other soldiers he had seen so far, however, they didn't possess any special optical goggles. Phase three was going well.     Dmitri turned and shot out the two floodlights as he ran forward in an erratic path. Without the lights, the soldiers were no longer able to target him effectively. He could hear the commandant yelling at his men to turn the emergency lights on, but they were slow to react. Using the special abilities on his suit, Dmitri soared up to the catwalk. Homing in on the sound of the commandant's voice, Dmitri plunged into the middle of the group and grabbed him across the throat. He then pushed his way through the group until his back was against the wall at the far end of the catwalk. All the soldiers were now in front of him.     By this time, the soldiers finally activated the hi-powered lights mounted on their riot guns. The beams pierced through the tense darkness until they landed on Dmitri and his human shield. No one had the nerve to take the shot, and he had already moved out of the area where they had set up a containment trap. "Everyone back off now," Dmitri growled. "Leave or I will shoot him."     "Don't leave!" the commandant shouted. "If he shoots me, kill him."     "Don't you fear for your life?" Dmitri asked.     "I will not be your bargaining chip," he retorted. "I know your gambling style."     Dmitri paused. He hadn't counted on this.     "You can kill me or escape."     Dmitri said nothing; he was still trying to figure out how to get away.     "Decide now!"     Dmitri pushed the commandant into the group of soldiers to buy a bit of time and flew up towards the ceiling. He used some more of the suit's explosives to destroy a large section of the roof. Under cover of tumbling blocks of concrete and metal reinforcement rods, he escaped from their grasp. They attempted to bring him down by antiaircraft fire, but the guns were not made to shoot such a small target and he was soon out of their range anyway. The nearby airfield was alerted and sent a Mig and some rocketeers to intercept him. They danced the dance of death in the cold Russian sky, but Dmitri's equipment was top of the line. The opposing dancers couldn't compete with his maneuverability and those that didn't give up the pursuit plummeted to their demise. When immediate chase had been given up, he cloaked for as long as he could so that not even the famed Russian satellite network would be able to follow him. He would have to recharge his suit soon. Phase three was complete, and the final plan would have to be drawn up now.