I won't be their stool pigeon.

Luka's logic is bizarre — nonexistent, really — but after hearing that beautiful melody, and seeing it silenced, I know that I cannot serve the guards.

I can still serve Mecha Stalin. I can still love Mecha Stalin, no matter what I might have temporarily felt in my recent frenzy. I just know that these particular guards are corrupted. These particular guards are capitalists and fascists. I will fight these guards for the sake of Mecha Stalin's glory.

My tools, though... there are more zeks than guards, but the guards are well-fed, and the guards have the PPD-40 submachine guns. It's like eight pawns versus three rooks.

I have Luka. Would he be willing to use his Persuade to help take down the guards?

Persuade works best if it's close to the truth, and if the target wants to believe it. Ideological alignment helps, but it's relatively easy to persuade an enemy that you're weak. I've done it many times in close chess matches, given my opponent the impression that I was ignoring an important part of the game when it was really a strategic deception meant to lure them in. It worked because my play style was close to what it would be if I really did have that weakness, and they wanted to believe they would win. If they were more objective it wouldn't work. If I had tried something that wasn't even close to the truth, like convincing them that my Knight was in a different square than it really was, then it wouldn't have worked at all.

If I want to use Luka, I have to prepare a deception that the guards will want to believe, and that Luka will want to perform.

This could prove difficult.

At the very least, once we reach the coms he can help persuade Mecha Stalin that we were doing this for all the right reasons. Can I get him to do that without mentioning his tortured God?

I can't rely just on Luka.

The other work crews won't trust me. Word will get around about what I did here today, but they saw me punch for Stalin, and will have only heard about me getting punched for Luka. Besides, I can't Inspect them for fear of messing up my investigation into who's hiding their stats.

That leaves me, Luka, the guy who's hiding his stats, and sixteen half-starved pawns.

That night three EXP notifications pop up for Inspect. One gives me a huge amount of EXP. Our man with secret stats is one of the three.

The next day I decide carefully which of the three to Inspect. If I get it right, then I know who my guy is tonight. If I get it wrong, I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

I pull the records from my log and compare to what I have observe.

Sergéy's muscles are bigger than his 24 Strength would imply, and his 33 Constitution seems a bit off as well. You can only fake how the stats display when Inspected, so anyone faking lower Strength or Constitution attributes wouldn't be able to hide much — and indeed, it's not much that he's displaying. His Strength looks to be low 30s, and his Constitution in the high 30s.

Dmitry has an especially low displayed intelligence, 17, but he seems to be able to follow all that goes on in the camp. It's possible that he does this on instinct, but it's also possible that he's hiding his stats. Then again, if he had a high intelligence then he would know not to fake one of his core attributes that far from its natural place.

Pyotr's stats check out with what I've observed, with no obvious anomalies.

I decide to Inspect Dmitry.

I'll have to wait until the end of the day to find out, and the fourteen-hour ordeal drags. However, it's much better than previous days. I've somehow managed to curry favor with both the zeks and the guards, since they are both convinced I'm on their side. Not all the zeks, granted, and not all the guards either, but I am temporarily the second-most-like person on the crew. The first, of course, is Luka.

Luka hums merrily, something less offensive to the guards than yesterday's tune, but it still evokes a sense of wonder. With his voice we'll all survive half rations.

"Hey kid, what are you thinking about?" he asks. "Those birds up there are real pretty if you ask me."

"Is that what you think about when you're up here? The birds?"

"They sing, they're made by God... in a way, they're exactly like me."

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When we're far away from the guards, I broach the topic of deception.

"You don't use your Persuade stat when talking about God. What do you use it for?"

"I've been here many years, I believe something that is strictly forbidden, and yet I am not Underfed. Why do you think that is?"

"So you'll lie to the guards?

The other option is that he is secretly a stool pigeon. That is not something I want to believe. If I believe that, my whole plan will collapse.

"I let the guards believe things that are not strictly true. I let them like me a little more than they objectively should. So I don't get mistreated as much as you might otherwise think." He grins mischievously. "I also lie to them, for practice. Don't tell anyone, but I once got it into the camp director's head that American diplomats were coming to see what camp life was like. We all got warm showers and double rations for a week, not to mention new clean bed linens without lice. To this day he thinks that it was all his own idea."

"So, if I came up with a plan that could help the zeks here, and it involved Persuading some guards..."

"See?" Luka smiles widely. "What did I tell ya? God has a plan, little chess-master."

Wait. Of course he knows I'm a chess master. Of course he sees my strategy skill level, my Intelligence. It hadn't even occurred to me before now how weird it was that the most popular man in the work crew would spend nearly all his time with me, a new prisoner who still loved Mecha Stalin and had even punched a man for daring to insult the leader.

Now I'm laughing. "You bastard! When you say God's plan, you mean your plan!"

"Oh no," he insists. "The plan, this specific plan, will be completely yours. God's plan is for you to come up with a plan. God's plan for me was to convince you to make one."

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"Only that there's someone in the crew who's hiding their stats."

"I know. I've got it narrowed down to three. I should know by tonight or tomorrow night."

"Then it's a good thing that you turned the corner yesterday before finding out his identity. On the way back, we walk next to Pyotr."

Pyotr? He was the one of the three I least expected, the only one who didn’t seem a bit off. Was he really that good?

The rest of the day I am excited, thinking of plans. However, it's difficult when I don't even know Pyotr's true capabilities.

Instead of forming concrete plans I go over the facts of the situation.

In the entire camp, there are approximately a thousand zeks and two hundred or so guards. We have them outnumbered greatly, but they have all the guns. They are also better fed. We could fix both of these problems, given time and access — food and weapons have to be stashed somewhere — but getting there could be difficult.

Next issue is that they're far more organized than us. They have a command structure. Meanwhile, our ranks are riddled with stool pigeons, and so any grand plan that involves masses of zeks will be discovered before we can execute it. Their only use, en masse, is as a distraction.

Finally, we don't know their capabilities. The guards that walk us to the work site and watch over us are fairly unremarkable, and I've already determined that they aren't hiding their stats. Sacha is dangerous and persuasive, and I still don't know his true stats. Is he better than Luka? There could very well be other guards that we'll have to watch out for.

I think over the facts for hours, my head going in circles. I need to get a better look at the layout of the camp. I also need to start Inspecting the guards in command, if I can get a line of sight on them. Most importantly, I need to know what Pyotr is hiding.

Finally the time comes. We walk back, and Luka and I find our place in the shuffling line close to Pyotr.

"He's ready," says Luka.

Pyotr nods. "Make it quick. Don't want anyone else to get a look at what you'll be seeing."

I Inspect Pyotr and gasp.

Name: Pyotr Usatov

Age: 34

Level: 51

Occupation: NKVD operative

Status Effects: Underfed, Determined

Stats

Strength: 51

Constitution: 55

Dexterity: 56

Intelligence: 35

Wisdom: 39

Charisma: 60

Top Skills

Hide Stats: 81

Pistols: 75

Grappling: 70

Imitate Accents: 68

Punching: 68

A former NVKD operative. And based on his stats, as well as the fact they they've recruited me to be the brains of the operation, he's one that worked in the field instead of in the office.

I compare with his previous sheet. His Strength and Constitution are twice what he displayed previously, but they hadn't looked off because he had also hidden his Underfed status as well. Smart. 35 Intelligence wasn't stunning, but it was above average, and as a former NKVD agent he would likely have a bunch of tricks like that from his training.

I can't believe my luck. Suddenly the assortment of facts I've been mulling over all day start fitting into place. We might just be able to do it, the most daring operation ever undertaken at a Soviet Gulag. It's going to be hard, but with the unlikely collection of talent in this work crew it just might be possible.

We'll take care of these corrupt, capitalistic, fascists who run the camp now and free it so that it can work correctly again, just like Mecha Stalin intended.

I ask him one simple question. "Are you willing to kill guards?"

"Quite frankly," says Pytor, "I'll be disappointed if you don't let me murder them all."