A Game of Chess

Chapter 1: Tensions

Alfred quickly grabbed it, rage emitting off of him like dry ice. He flipped it over, his thoughts racing through his mind. 'What did he write?' The letter he held read as followed:

'I can't wait to see you next month. -Ivan'

"We figured that we had a soviet mole in the congress. Currently as we speak, everyone is undergoing an investigation." He said, flicking ash off onto the ground and then placing the cigarette back into his mouth.

"Why the hell wasn't I informed about this?" He seethed.

"Shut your trap Alfred!" He whispered, yanking down on Alfred's suit. "I brought you to somewhere secluded for a reason. For god's sake, if you're going to make a scene, make it a quiet one, do you understand me?"

The American stared at the General as they met eye to eye. He took a deep breath, and mumbled out softly, "Yes general."

Letting out a huff, he released his jacket and continued, "The reason we didn't tell you this is because we didn't want you to get paranoid of him." Alfred opened his mouth to protest, but the sharp glare of the general made him think otherwise. "Ever since your trip to England you've been on your toes, I know you have been because you've been questioning everyone around the office, and scaring the newest recruiters. And frankly? It's starting to piss me off." He grumbled, stomping on the cigarette butt.

He turned towards the American and said, "Don't think I haven't been noticing how you've been acting cautious around me. I respect those Russians purely because of their strength. But I do not side with them."

"But I still don't understand why we have to announce to the rest of the meeting participants! What is the use of doing that if he already knows?" Alfred asked, his tone getting louder.

The general sighed once more as he stopped in his tracks. He had the same questions as Alfred did, but it was what President Truman wanted. "The reason we were keeping it a secret was to keep it from ever reaching the Russians' ears. But now that they know, it's useless to hide it anymore. We can't show that we're still on the edge, so we might as well take advantage of this situation to tell everybody before they do it first." He grumbled, looking back at the American who was still standing there, infuriated.

"Once you get your act together, you can join us back in the break room." He glanced momentarily at his watch then stared back at Alfred. "You've got twelve minutes. Take this time to decide what you're going to say and how you're going to say it."

Alfred stood there alone, shaking in anger. Slowly, he walked towards one of the benches and let his back slump forwards as soon as he hit the seat. Leaning his sweating forehead on his hands, he tried his best to take deep breaths. 'He found out. That bastard went out of his way to mock me like this.' His intrusive thoughts did nothing to help him, only making him breathe more rapidly. 'He snuck a mole into the country. Into the White House. He sent me a greeting card and made me look like an absolute fool in front of my citizens.' Those breaths turned into pants, his mind racing to find the deflector. 'But they pledged they were loyal to the country. To me. They all said it, every single one of them, I'm sure of it. Someone was lying though.'

*Thu-thump

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.

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*Thu-thump

His breath hitched. Though his head was down, he knew exactly who it was. He could tell by the rhythm of his march, the heavy sound of his thick furred boots hitting the ground. The jingles of his dozens of medals pinned proudly on his right chest made as they clashed together with every proceeding step. And he knew that the person was smiling, the prick always was.

"Privyet *Fedya." a voice whispered. It was quiet but the voice knew that whatever it said would ring through the American's ears for hours. The deafening sound of silence buzzed around them, as if the bright sparkling room they currently were in had turned pitch black, and all they could see were each other.

He heaved out a sigh. It was going to take everything within him to not strangle the man in front of him.

"The hell do you want Braginski?"

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* Red Scare- Kinda exactly what it sounds like. It's name based off the flag of the soviet regime, it was a fear of the rising power of Communism taking over the world and possibly the USA.

*General Marshall- A very important figure in the US, having large roles in both WW1 and WW2. He was known as a strict person, but a real people's man. I did a lot of research on this dude, trust me.

*The Marshall Plan- A 4 year plan that took place in 1948 named after General Marshall who introduced the plan in the first place. It cost the USA around 17 billion dollars then, and wiring that through 1948 money, it would now be around 135 billion dollars now. Although it's main focus was on bringing Western Europe back to it's formal glory, it did include the bonus of having some control over all the other Western European countries. This is exactly the reason why Eastern Europe didn't join. If the Americans help, then that means that they'll have control over parts of the USSR. Stalin wasn't to keen on that.

*The Recovery Plan- The Marshall Plan but the name makes more sense.

*Fedya- Replacement for Fredka. It's more accurate, and makes sense, given that this is during the 1950s.

This is the author speaking here! Thank you for reading my first chapter of 'A Game of Chess'. Hoo boy this was really god damn long, the next chapter will be shorter, promise. There will be more coming out soon, do not fret. This actually is my first Fanfic ever, sorry if it was cringey or sumthin. But if you want to read more, add this to your library and you'll be able to get notifications as soon as I publish the second chapter. Much love, stay classy.