A/N: Good grief I had trouble uploading this chapter. Anyway, this is the second half of Chapter 2, which, again, was originally written as one whole chapter. So consider this like a second part to the last one. This will conclude what took place in Chapter 2, and will do a bit to set the stage for the next few chapters which will come in due process. I hope you all enjoy it now that it's up. And who knows, maybe if I'm in good spirits I'll upload Chapter 4 today or tomorrow, just as a little gift for anyone who's enjoyed the story thus far. Hope everyone had a good new year. Welcome to 2010!

-Chapter Three-

Broken Arrow

Two hours later, Mokashev explained to his own boss that RAINBOW was willing to take action against the trespassers. By now the Blackwater mercenaries guarding the perimeter were being relieved by their comrades, but Charleston's office was to short-handed to competently maintain an effective perimeter around the entire exclusion zone.

A half an hour into this briefing, a Russian satellite passed over the site. The television camera feed was linked directly to a conference room in Lubyanka Square. Mokashev was among the several men who watched the recording. The feed showed nothing for the majority of the time they spent viewing it, until two moving blotches of color on the screen struck them as odd. Right nearby was a solid black rectangle.

"That looks like a truck." Muttered one of the older men in the group. It was, in fact, the covered flatbed that had plowed through the gate at Demidenko's outpost. "That man is holding a rifle. My God, it's them. These are the bastards we're looking for."

Mokashev nodded. "It is them. They look like they're trying to dig something up. No doubt a stockpile of nuclear materials." He let that sink in. "We need to do something. Contact the men in Britain, tell we need RAINBOW's assistance."

"To hell with them all!" Another one of the older heads around the table barked. "Just one of our finest Spetsnaz could handle this pathetic disturbance. This is hardly a threat worthy of our concern. The FSB could handle this on their own."

Most men in the room cast their gaze towards the head of the table, where President Aleksei Iltchenko sat thinking silently.

"I do not know. We are looking at a nuclear threat. What if they already have a device put together? They could get the materials they need and detonate it when we try to intercept them." The Russian President frowned. "This is too risky. Perhaps Lyov is correct. Maybe we should contact RAINBOW."

President Iltchenko was a man of much combat experience, but conflict was not something he enjoyed. Least of all on the political stage, where conflict meant an unhappy populace who would be all too happy to call for his removal from office. That wasn't something he wanted to happen, and to this end his political advisors constantly told him that taking the safe option was always a good idea. Unfortunately, political advisors are often not qualified to advise on matters of national security, and so their solutions to national security problems were not always good ones. This was one of those times. Iltchenko didn't want to do something stupid like sending a Spetsnaz team to Chernobyl, and have them blown up by a possible nuclear device. In addition, he remembered, to the people who still live in that damned exclusion zone. That had been a complicated matter involving the 1986 disaster. Officially, no one was permitted to reside in the seventeen mile exclusion zone around Chernobyl. (This was why Blackwater mercenaries were paid to stand guard outside its perimeter; those seeking to get inside the exclusion zone from the outside world were often those who wished to visit "resettler" family in the forsaken areas, or shady types with no legal business who wanted to benefit from the stock of nuclear material that still remained untouched.) If the Russian government provoked the detonation of a nuclear device, then the old fools who still chose to live in the exclusion zone would be killed. Which was why calling RAINBOW was a good idea: if an international military organization got the people killed which, regardless, was still not a good thing it would mean less political ramifications for Iltchenko.

His more senior officials did not agree with this ruling. Many of them still lived in a world where the old ways of the USSR were still law.

"I would have to agree." Mokashev nodded, leaning back in his chair. "I propose we call RAINBOW."

* * *

RAINBOW SIX answered the phone less than a second after it had began to ring. The red secure telephone on Palmer's desk was encrypted using the best algorithms known to the American National Security Agency. It was because of this that if anyone should call on that phone, it usually meant something very important was happening and very important people where calling to inform him. Or ask for his organization's he was indeed already thinking of it as his organization assistance.

"SIX here." Palmer answered. He put the phone to his ear and waited for his response.

"Lieutenant General Palmer, my name is Aleksei Iltchenko, you know me as the President of the Russian Federation." An awkward silence. "We have a situation you might have heard about. Two and a half hours ago, two men killed a mercenary hired to guard the perimeter of the Chernobyl exclusion zone and disappeared inside. We located them via satellite uplink just a little while ago. I am hesitant to act on them with our own military power, so I was wondering if your organization could handle the matter for us."

The commander of RAINBOW could hear Eddie Price's pleading in his ear again, though RAINBOW FIVE was in the next room working on training exercise reports. He composed himself within a second and cleared his throat. "I'm very sorry Mr. President, but RAINBOW's jurisdiction only extends to direct, confirmed acts of terrorism. What you believe is happening in Chernobyl is merely supposition, and without further evidence I'm not willing to risk RAINBOW's assets on a wild goose chase."

Iltchenko's mind did a double-take, and the Russian President sat dumbfounded in his chair several hundred miles away in Moscow. "General, I don't understand. RAINBOW has operated without such confirmation before, why can't you launch an intelligence gathering operation? Please, just send us a couple of operatives, just to find out what they're doing."

"I'm sorry Mr. President." In Palmer's eyes there was nothing more to discuss. The conversation was ended with a swift replacing of the phone on the machine, and Vincent Palmer returned to reading over the intelligence documents from Tawney's office. There were, in his opinion, much more important things to worry about than a couple of bandits in no man's land.

* * *

Eddie Price had listened to the conversation, his ear right next to the scant opening between the doorframe and the door. He'd been on his way to restate his argument to SIX when he'd heard Palmer answer the secure line, and so he'd stopped to listen. A minute later he couldn't believe what he'd heard. It was complete bullshit, he felt. Palmer was claiming this was a minimal threat, but why couldn't he realize that missing nuclear material could make for an even bigger threat in the long run?

Was it possible that he was saying these things on purpose?

Was it possible he was denying the threat on purpose?

No, Price turned and sat back down. The thoughts were out of his head just as quickly as they'd come to him. How could he suspect something like that. Without evidence. He corrected himself. It was always possible that people weren't who they said they were, but suspecting something like that without reason was dangerous. Palmer had no reason to do something like that, to hinder their operational capabilities. If anything he was to suffer from it; his reputation was on the line with his direction of the organization.

Still, it was quite a curious thing, wasn't it? Why was Palmer so adamant on making sure they didn't go to Chernobyl? Was he perhaps doing so for the same reasons as Iltchenko? That was certainly more likely than the idea that Palmer was purposely keeping them from going on. He just didn't want to risk the lives of his fellow RAINBOW personnel. But he's a military commander. Price's mind retorted, playing the devil's advocate, as usual. He has to know that here are always risks. He can't just keep us inside like an over-protective father.

Price leaned back in his office chair. There were too many questions for any supposition like that. All he could do was sit back and watch things unfold. He tried to get back to his paperwork, but an overactive mind usually prevents things from getting done, and it held true here. RAINBOW FIVE was simply left to speculate, something he didn't like doing.

* * *

Aleksei Gennady Iltchenko hung up and stared at the conference table, his eyes scanning over the paper before him with an empty gaze. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Hadn't Mokashev just guaranteed him that RAINBOW would "play ball," as the Americans said? Why in the world was this fool denying him assistance? Wasn't that RAINBOW's role in the world? Wasn't it their policy to render help to those who didn't have the means or circumstances to help themselves? He was genuinely angry now. What the hell kind of political game was this?

"Sir!" One of the other men in the room bellowed. "Aleksei, the screen! Look!"

It took a moment, but Iltchenko came back to reality and quickly turned his attention to the satellite feed. The truck, the flatbed that had taken armed men into the exclusion zone was now mobile, on its way down the road that lead back to the outpost that Boris Demidenko had been murdered at. The President of the Russian Federation swore blindly at the sight and looked around the room for anyone that could give him an answer. What the hell were they supposed to do now?

"Give the word! We can still send the Spetsnaz in, they can be at Demidenko's post in minutes!" The senior man screamed. He pounded his fist against the table with authority that Lenin would have been proud of and demanded his president's cooperation. "Do it!"

Iltchenko simply sat there, staring around in a catatonic state. The political burden was still too heavy, but what choice did they have? Men, possible terrorists in any case, were about to leave Chernobyl likely with a stockpile of radioactive materials, something they could use to construct a nuclear device with. That wasn't good for anybody. But neither are dead commandos.

* * *

"What is that?" Ahmed asked from the driver's seat. Al-Jaali narrowed his eyes and peered through the windshield. About a mile up ahead he saw it, at the gate they'd broken through. It was a vehicle, with something on top.

A jeep, with a machine gunner. But is that Spetsnaz… or the mercenaries? Perhaps they responded to our shooting of their friend. He snorted at the sight of it and checked his AKS-74. Moving the selector off "safe," he opened the passenger's side door and moved himself closer to the cold air rushing by. "Drive through. Don't slow down, just go. I'll handle this."

* * *

Miller saw the dot on the horizon and did the same, peering as far as he could and cursing when he realized what that speck was. "They're coming back. Damn fools." He readied his machine gun and got ready. If the morons wanted to play chicken, they'd play.

Neither him nor Barnes were ready for what came when the flatbed approached. Just before it passed through the busted gate, Hosaam Al-Jaali emerged from the front seat, aiming his Kalashnikov over the top of the cabin and the door, hosing down the humvee in automatic fire while he screamed something in furious Arabic.

"Shit!" Miller cursed and ducked back inside the vehicle, hearing bullets ricochet of the armor plating and not daring to com back up until the truck passed.

Barnes reacted differently. Having seen the danger coming he'd taken cover near the humvee's rear bumper and brought his MP5/10 off "safe." As soon as Al-Jaali started opening up on them, he was returning fire. Barnes aimed carefully, firing short, controlled bursts at the windshield. He could have sworn he'd hit the driver.

Several seconds later Al-Jaali withdrew into the truck's cabin and pulled the door shut behind him. He reached under the dash and removed a second magazine for the rifle, trading it out for the empty one. As soon as he looked over, he cringed. Ahmed was now dead, having taken three ten millimeter rounds to the face and neck. There was glass all over the dashboard, and Ahmed's foot was still on the gas pedal. Moving quickly, Al-Jaali wrenched open the driver's side door and pushed the young man's corpse out of the truck as he moved to take over. He brought the vehicle to a turn just before it swerved offroad.

* * *

Russian FSB recovered the body of Ahmed a half an hour later after the Blackwater mercenaries reported their conflict to Charleston. Mokashev saw it himself after it came in. An autopsy was not necessary, and would not have been performed regardless. The only thing on their list of things to do was to identify the bastard and find out if any nuclear materials had been taken. They had the proper authorities combing through the exclusion zone for that.

"Yes William." He told his cell phone after leaving the room that young Ahmed's body had been dropped off in. "I'll relay all the information we gather to you as soon as we get it. Of course. Goodbye."

* * *

Tawney hung up the phone and sighed. He didn't know why they were doing this, whatever it was they were doing. He looked over at Price and nodded. "Okay. Anything FSB finds out about the incident, they'll send it to us."

RAINBOW FIVE nodded approvingly. It was nice to execute some of his political power every now and then. As an international group, RAINBOW had authority wherever it was that people liked them. It also didn't hurt that the Russians owed them some after the several incidents that RAINBOW had offered assistance in.

It was times like this that Price wondered just how dangerous the world was. They had terrorists out there there was no doubt in his mind that they were terrorists and they had radioactive material. They could make a bomb with that, and if there were terrorists with a bomb, then there was no telling how many people were in danger. And, Price reminded himself, when there's people in danger, it's our job to help them.

A/N: Things are getting a little crazy huh? The next chapter will be even more riveting, or at least I'll try to make it so. I hope everyone liked it, and reviews are welcome. I'm not going to beg, since it's already obvious that I'm desperate for criticism. Have a good day!