"Understood, captain." Zhenya said with a nod, even though he doubted their target would head for the second floor. It made no sense, if he was trying to escape, he was only making things harder for himself by getting to higher ground. Still, orders were orders, even if Zhenya disagreed with them. "We will take the stairs at the front of the house. If he runs to the second floor, he will run straight into us." He said as he moved out of the room, tapping Wendy on the shoulder and gesturing for her to follow as he passed. Zhenya swore that Neil and he had seen a flight of stairs close the front door when they entered and felt a certain sense of validation when he rounded a corner and saw the stairs right in front of him.

"I will take point." He said tersely to Wendy and advanced quickly but carefully to the stairs, aiming down the sights of his rifle as he did so. He stopped right at the foot of the stairs and aimed up at the landing on the second floor. Seeing that it was clear, he walked up at a brisk pace, but kept himself mentally prepared for an enemy surprising him once he reached the top. With no knowledge of the building's layout, they could be walking straight into machine gun's killzone. Zhenya stopped a few steps away from the top of the stairs and stood up straight to catch a glimpse of the second floor. From his quick glance, he saw that it was clear, with a single corridor leading to the right. 

"Clear," He said and quickly climbed up the last few steps, turning to the right once he reached the top and advancing down the corridor. There was another right turn up ahead into what he assumed was another corridor. The only sounds of a fight seemed to be coming from downstairs, and that only served to remind Zhenya of the urgency of their task. Hoping that the makers of his ballistic vest knew what they were doing, he rounded the corner without any prior checking, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was clear of all hostiles. Less pleasant, however, was the sight of several doorways to their left. He counted at least three, and another right turn at the end of the corridor.

"Wendy, clear the rooms. I will cover you." Zhenya said, not taking his eyes off the end of the corridor as he switched his rifle to its automatic fire mode. From what little Zhenya could see of the rooms, they appeared to be quite small; not at all a good place to bring the AN-94, especially since their target could be hiding in one of them. A stray bullet would be all it took to bomb the entire mission, and the AN-94 was incredibly adept at filling the air with them.