Splinter Cell Operation Rogue Mercury
March 06, 2008
1:13 A.M.
Mexico City, Mexico
NSA operative's field house
"You see him?" Agent Lopez asked after shoving another bite of enchiladas in his mouth.
The man leaning on the third story window seal frustratingly exhaled, "Again, no I don't see him. Believe me if I do I'll say something." Agent Rubio wiped the sleep from his eyes before replacing the binoculars back into position, "he should have left his apartment by now though," he examined his watch which read 1:14 in the morning.
Agent Lopez leaned over Rubio sprinkling crumbs on his shoulder, "there! Who's that?!" A man exited the apartment complex that was across the wide traditional cobblestone street.
Rubio cursed as he shoved Lopez off of him to regain his focus on the front door. He refocused the lens that was trained on the man leaving the complex. Hmmm… shit. "Not him, look." He handed Lopez the binoculars who also confirmed that the man wasn't their target who was Lieutenant Colonel Ontiveros.
The Lieutenant Colonel has grabbed the NSA's attention over the years. He's been holding secret meetings with military leaders, however they were not so secret after NSA agents bugged them, and he's been talking of establishing a coup to over throw the government which would further throw the country into chaos.
"Didn't the bastard say he was leaving soon?" Lopez said as he plopped down into a chair next to the phone tapping machine. He placed the headset on and replayed their targets last phone call.
Agent Rubio cursed again under his breath, "Ellos no pagan lo suficiente para esto."
Suddenly a convoy of military vehicles rushed down the sleepy Mexican street then halted right in front of the apartment complex. Men dressed in combat fatigues ran into the apartment foyer and immediately returned with the Lieutenant Colonel and ushered him in a vehicle. The convoy was gone just as quickly as it arrived. Both agents starred at each other in bewilderment.
Suddenly their opsats poked their wrists and buzzed slightly. They simultaneously read the text that read URGENT! They looked at each other with disbelief. Rubio jumped from his seat near the window and Lopez choked down the last bit of enchilada before grabbing their gear and dashing out the door.
Urgent! Proceed to 219th street and Calle de Flores Street immediately. Scrub all current tasks. You are to regroup with and aid the Mexican Special Forces in the raid of Massoud Ibin-Yussif's compound and to assist them in disabling a nuclear warhead. You are now under command of Lieutenant Colonel Ontiveros and his subordinates. Do not allow the terrorist cell to detonate the warhead and do not allow the warhead to fall into the Mexican Army's hands. -Third Echelon.
After a brisk drive to the cross streets the two agents were met by a blockade of Army troopers. They flashed the soldiers their I.D.s and were escorted to a team of Mexican spec ops.
Both agents were now wide awake given their dangerous predicament. Disabling a nuclear bomb while under control of the crazy Lieutenant Colonel Ontiveros that they've been stalking was probably the last scenario they ever imagined.
Lopez leaned in close to Rubio's ear and whispered, "Keep cool man, let's not blow our cover okay?"
"How about we worry about this nuclear fucking bomb amigo." He exclaimed. Lopez nodded agreeing.
The captain of the spec ops squad greeted the agents hastily and proceeded to brief them along with his men. They were to raid the large complex killing all occupants while finding their way to the bomb. Then comes the tricky part, the American agents are to disable the bomb and deliver it to the Lieutenant Colonel immediately.
Lopez and Rubio were intently listening to the Captain when a pair of hands slapped upon their shoulders. They spun around only to be face to face with Ontiveros. "Welcome Americans. I'm sure you were handpicked specifically from your embassy to aid us in quelling this terrorist threat to my homeland. I'm also sure you men have extensive experience in counter-terrorism and EOD. Good luck Americans." He smirked and walked towards an awaiting vehicle probably for his extraction out of the city. "Oh and captain, make sure I get that bomb." The Captain saluted the Lieutenant Colonel and then he was gone. Lopez's heart almost stopped after coming face to face with Ontiveros. Rubio wiped the sweat from his brow thanking his lucky stars that Ontiveros didn't recognize them from close up surveillance work that they've done in the past. Lopez felt panicky and began chewing at his nails.
"Rubio I've never disabled a bomb before, I've actually never killed anybody in my entire life!" Lopez blurted out.
Rubio looked at him with wide eyes, "You lied to me? What happened to you being a badass splinter cell you idiot?"
"I've never actually said that I did all of those things in real life. I scored an A+ rating from Grim herself, during training simulation." Lopez said embarrassed.
"Sims! You bragged about sims training?! I can't believe you Lopez! You do know how to disable a class 3 bomb though don't you?" Rubio began to sweat profusely.
Lopez placed a hand on his shoulder attempting to reassure him, "Of course I know, I just never have done it in the real world." A few commandos' jaws dropped after over hearing their new bomb squads experience.
The Captain intervened before the agents killed each other or before they caused a panic attack amongst the commandoes. "Americans please get ready we're moving out in five minutes."
They suited up and were given a pair of old 1911s with a few magazines. The Captain spoke up, "we'll ride in through the front gate and breach the front door. Alex you're tasked with reading the radiation levels, lead us to the bomb. Americans, stay behind us we're tasked with keeping you alive so please keep our objective from failing okay? Alright let's go!" The men jumped into a pair of SUVS and sped off the Captain called the operation to move forward and not two seconds later explosions rocked the street as assault teams breached the compounds defenses. Several large warehouses and barracks were within the gated complex and all buildings were being assaulted all at once by Army personnel and spec ops. The lead SUV sped up and rammed the main gate open. The team spilled out of the SUVs and began assaulting the main door to the large Mexican mansion that was the main building in the entire complex and the most probable location for the nuclear bomb. Automatic fire ripped up the courtyard. Lopez sprinted for the front door where the Captain was placing breaching charges.
"Hey where's your friend, American?"
Lopez looked over his shoulder seeing only a few commandos but no Rubio.
Fuck. Lopez flinched at every crack of gun fire as he strained to find his partner in the courtyard. "There he is!" Rubio was pinned down underneath one of the SUVs that was in the middle of the courtyard right next to a beautiful fountain that was now peppered with bullet holes. "Rubio get your brown ass over here!" Rubio replied but Lopez couldn't hear him over the deafening gunfire. Suddenly the front door was blown open and the commandos went in firing all over the place. Lopez motioned for Rubio to run for it after he stepped out into the courtyard to lay down suppressive fire at one of the buildings windows. Rubio scrambled out from under the SUV and dove inside the building. Lopez fallowed reloading his 1911. The building looked like an old, but rich, Mexican styled country home with faded paintings lining the foyer and a great chandelier that hung over head. They could hear the other teams assaulting the warehouses and barracks that were disguised as multi storied apartments. The entire complex must have been huge, but even though they've been stationed nearby they would have never guessed the gated community was a terrorist safe haven. Rubio and Lopez scanned their surroundings, bullet holes riddled the walls and once they exited the foyer they saw a few enemy and friendly bodies lying around the social room. The team was nowhere in sight.
"Hey," Lopez whispered, "you ever seen a dead guy before?" He gulped.
Rubio rolled his eyes. "Yes just now," Rubio demanded Lopez's attention, "focus Lopez there's a fucking nuclear bomb here man and we need to disarm it then keep it from falling into the wrong hands which is everyone at the moment. Okay?" Lopez nodded then raised the team on his radio asking what their location was. After receiving instructions Lopez led Rubio down a hallway that led to a stairwell which descended deep in the earth. The sound of automatic fire was thunderous in the confined underground as they reached the bottom level.
The team was fighting it out in the bowels of the city where pipes ran in every which direction and where rooms opened up to large laboratories which looked like medieval chemistry sets.
Lopez grabbed Rubio's attention before they advanced forward to regroup with their team, "Listen man once we disarm the bomb, if we disarm it, we'll need to kill our own team. I mean how else are we supposed to keep it out of Ontiveros hands?"
Rubio chewed on his chapped lip, "Fuck! I've been thinking a way around that for a while but there's just no way we can get that bomb out of here in our hands. Shit this is messed up amigo." But Rubio agreed. They didn't want to betray their 'thrown together' team but at least it would look like the terrorists got them.
The Captain called on their radios asking for them to move up through the maze, they think they found the bomb.
After a few minutes of zigzagging through large damp tunnels they found their team inside a room that was glowing red in light. Rubio entered noticing the many dead scientists on the ground bathed in their own blood but it was hard to distinguish blood from other liquids because of the red heat lamps that surrounded the room. Lopez entered right behind him and fallowed the Captain deeper into the room until they fell upon what looked to be a large pot bellied oven. Only two commandos made it along with the Captain. The commando named Alex spoke up, "This is giving off large radiation waves Americans. So this is your bomb. I disassembled the remote detonation device here, but it is up to you to disarm and remove the bomb from the shell."
Rubio nodded and examined the bomb's shell. Cast iron, sturdy of course. A panel here showing the bombs information, looks like we're in no rush. The top bay is closed, but don't open it until you know what's underneath. Okay here we go.
"Lopez calibrate your opsat to see what's inside. Then I'll see if I can open this thing up." Lopez began running his opsat's x-ray over the bomb creating a digital blueprint. It looked complicated.
"We'll have to hack the bomb just to open the top so we can extract the canister, then we can pull out the bombs contents which I don't want to do since it's radioactive. We get exposed to this and we'll all die." Lopez stated.
The Captain walked over to a dead scientist and took off the dead man's hazmat suit then threw it to Lopez. Gore dripped and oozed out of the opening. Lopez cursed under his breath and instead cut off the gloved hands and put them on. He motioned to Rubio who began hacking the device. Okay 34…96…Oh shit! Fuck that was close…19… and, done! With 2.7 seconds to spare.
Rubio placed his opsat back on his wrist and Lopez did the same with his. The two agents made eye contact and nodded slightly just as Alex and the Captain pulled out their knives behind the two working agents. With a swift draw of the gun and pivot both Agents had their guns down on the astonished commandos. Once Rubio saw the knives in their hands his blood began to boil. He squeezed the trigger sending the .45 caliber round into Alex's forehead. The Captain leapt to his left dodging Lopez's round but before he could fire again the Captain lunged at him and buried his knife deep into Lopez's chest.
"FUCK!" Lopez screamed as he felt warm liquid seep into his clothing. The last man guarding outside burst into the room and released a sporadic burst of gun fire causing Rubio to hit the ground, roll then fire three consecutive rounds into the man's chest dropping him immediately. Rubio got up to a knee seeing the Captain withdraw his knife from Lopez's body. Rubio released three rounds into the Captain until the slide locked back on his pistol. The Captain buckled and screamed as he was getting shot but he looked up into Rubio's eyes with fire burning in his own. He charged Rubio but was easily subdued with a fist to the nose and then a violent twist of his neck. Bones snapped signifying his death. Fuck, fuck, fuck! "Lopez!" Rubio fell down at Lopez's side. He was breathing shallowly. Rubio knew Lopez didn't have much time as the knife pierced his heart and his left lung. Lopez looked into Rubio's eyes with agony as he clenched Rubio's jacket pulling on the fabric in a panic. "Lopez please tell me what to do! I don't- I don't know what to fucking do!" Lopez was wreathing in pain on the floor without making a sound, he couldn't as his lungs couldn't receive any oxygen. Rubio breathed heavily as Lopez's grip seized and relaxed. Rubio felt Lopez's eyes look past him as life left him. "Lopez?" Tears swelled in his eyes as he began to weep. Rubio cursed while clenching his friend's blood soaked hand. He knew he couldn't handle this type of work. He trained for intelligence, strictly observational, but now he was thrown into a situation only meant for a soldier. It's not fair man. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Tears rolled down his face. Suddenly Rubio heard echoes far down into the tunnels. Men yelling orders. Rubio wiped the tears from his eyes and climbed up to the bomb. With a swift pull from the top the entire bombs contents came out in a transparent vile. How can a nuke be this small? The echoing voices neared closer. Rubio reloaded his pistol and wrapped the contents in the disposed hazmat suit then he collected Lopez's opsat and left the room. The voices were coming from the house's stairwell. Rubio decided to go the opposite direction through the maze of tunnels.
After a few minutes of running the tunnels eventually became filled ankle high with water. The voices were still on his heels. Rubio kept up the pace shuffling through the water until he heard a roaring rush of water up ahead. To his dismay the tunnel dropped down into a dark abyss as this tunnel connected with the city's sewer lines. Fuck me. The echoing voices of his pursuers were nearing. They knew exactly where he was going. They're tracking the bomb's radioactivity. Rubio unwrapped the vile and took a good long look at it for the first time. It was red and it looked like a liquid. How can this be a nuclear bomb? He took a look over his shoulder then tossed the vile into the abyss. It floated for a second only to sink into darkness. Rubio silently wadded down another tunnel where no voices could be heard bouncing off the walls. He continued to venture through the maze until he reached a ladder that led to the surface. Popping off the manhole cover Rubio gave his surroundings one good check then he bolted out and ran down the empty street only to stop once, he raised the opsat to his mouth and pressed the talk button. "This is Agent Rubio, mission complete," he heaved in and out before finishing, "Agent Lopez is dead. Get me out of here."
The voice on the other end replied, "An extraction team has been dispatched. Hold current location, you're coming home."
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