Berlin, Germany - Oct 30 2013
The team had been quickly extracted from London – MI5 and other British security agencies were on the lookout for them and Councilwoman Hawley had a better chance of subduing them if the team had left the country. Now the pressure was on. 'Find Quinn or else', had come the order, straight from the World Security Council themselves.
For the team, it was back to France to hide out, where they received word that Quinn's speedboat had been tracked to London City Airport where he had boarded a plane bound for an unknown destination. Quinn had disappeared this time – no careless trail to follow, no diversion plane, just a good old disappearing trick. Morse knew a thing or two about disappearing, she'd pulled a similar stunt immediately after her divorce. She hadn't wanted anyone to see how broken up she was, least of all Lance. With her training and personal experience, Morse knew she might be able to track Quinn. From the S.H.I.E.L.D. base in France, she had worked with Trip and Monroe chasing leads while Garrett was held up, defending his team over the damage they caused in London and their other failures during the mission.
Two days after the London fiasco, Morse had an idea, she suggested they not only check Quinn and known associates but his girlfriend, or girlfriends, too. That's when S.H.I.E.L.D. uncovered text messages from Quinn's girlfriend to an unknown number. These texts, while seeming normal at first, were encoded messages from Quinn to an infamous South African arms dealer, smuggler, and gangster – Ulysses Klaue. After the two exchanged a few more texts, Monroe had enough to crack the code. They discovered that Klaue and Quinn were due to meet that evening in a Berlin bar.
If Klaue was meeting Quinn then both had become persons of interest to S.H.I.E.L.D. and required stealthy capture. Plus, the capture of a notorious black-market dealer would certainly help to take the pressure off the team. The foursome boarded a quinjet and set off for Berlin.
They sat quietly, strapped in aboard the quinjet. Morse was thinking about the pressure on her and this team, this mission could ruin her career if the misfortune continued. Garrett was thinking about how to get a warning message to Quinn, he was too useful a contact to be locked up in The Fridge. Triplett was thinking about his fallen colleagues – he may have been new to the team but he had bonded with Debs and even cold Kelly. Dan was thinking about his home, his family – he stared deeply at the family picture he always kept on him. It was against S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol to carry personal items but he never parted with the reminder of what he was going home to and what he was fighting to protect.
"You'll be back with them soon Dan" Triplett comforted him.
They all missed home when on missions but it was worst for Monroe as he had a family. They had been away for three weeks but Trip could tell that this was the last step in their hunt for Quinn and that Monroe would be back with his family soon. Well, he was right about one of those things.
The plan was in place and it was airtight. Morse and Garrett would be inside the bar while Monroe took the front entrance and Triplett took the back. Trip would be lined up with his sniper rifle on a nearby fire escape during his stakeout because Monroe had won the coin toss and got the black sedan. After a long wait, Trip reported that he could see Klaue sneaking in through the back entrance, five minutes after Quinn had gone in through the front door. It was starting.
Morse watched from a distance, serving drinks at the bar while Garrett, whose face Quinn didn't know, kept a closer eye as a member of the bar's security team. Quinn and Klaue sat at a high table in the darkest corner, the former drinking a neat bourbon while the latter stuck with simple, bitter beer. Garrett wasn't quite close enough to hear what they were discussing but from the few words he did hear he could piece together that Quinn was on the hunt for a rare metal that Klaue might have access to. Vibranium. Klaue rubbed his neck.
That word set off alarm bells – any agent worth their salt knew that Vibranium, one of the rarest and strongest metals on the planet, was what Howard Stark had used to create Captain America's iconic shield. It was an unspoken belief among S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that the organisation had been named after that shield as a homage to Cap.
It then looked like the two had begun arguing a little. Probably over money, everything surrounding Quinn was money related. To avoid a full-blown argument and ruining his deal, Quinn beckoned over to Garrett and ordered another round for them. Garrett approached Morse at the bar.
"Two more drinks for those gentlemen" Garrett grinned deviously.
"Coming right up" Morse nodded knowingly.
Whilst pouring the drinks, she sneakily dropped a small tablet into the drinks, it dissolved almost instantly. It was time to bring them in, they would have enough evidence against the two by now. Garrett cheerfully carried the drinks from the bar over to the two gentlemen.
Outside the bar all was quiet until a redheaded young woman ran sobbing along the street, her hair was a mess and the strap of her blue dress was damaged at her right shoulder. She ran towards Monroe's black sedan, stopping at the passenger side door, and staring desperately in at him. She hit against the window with her small clutch bag.
"Please, please let me in" he heard her say, muffled through the glass of the window.
He lowered the window slightly.
"What's wrong?" he asked, her flowing red hair reminded him of his wife when the first met.
"My boyfriend, he… he got mad and he started pulling at my dress. Please, he's coming" she gasped in between deep breaths.
"What's going on Dan?" Trip asked, able to hear the woman's voice through the comms.
How could he deny her? He was a gentleman after all and had to help protect her from the abusive boyfriend. He unlocked the door. She scratched anxiously at the handle, yanking the door open and jumping into the car. She slammed the car door shut. She was still crying and Monroe reached over to comfort her. She flinched, terrified of his hand.
"I'm sorry" he apologised as he quickly retracted it.
"No, I'm sorry" she sighed behind her hands.
She pulled a small gun from her bag and shot him in the abdomen without hesitation. The others heard the shot ringing in their ears. The young woman dashed back out of the car. Her work was done and she had no time to fix her make up.
"Dan!?" Trip yelled, he jumped up, dropping his weapon, and running down the fire escape stairs.
Triplett felt his stomach twist and the world became slow motion, he felt himself running as fast as he could round the building. Emerging onto the street, he saw Monroe in the car. He reached out shakily as if trying to grab Triplett even though he was across the street. Trip dashed to the car as Morse and Garrett came rushing out through the front door of the bar, guns drawn.
Triplett jumped into the front seat of the car as Garrett pulled the driver's door open. Morse called an ambulance but it wouldn't arrive in time. Monroe groaned, trying to reach for his pocket, his other hand keeping pressure on the wound. Triplett knew what Monroe wanted, he thrust his hand into his best friend's pocket and retrieved the family picture he was desperate for. Dan died with his best friend at his side and staring at a picture of his beautiful family.
Triplett broke down. Morse stormed back inside the building, she searched for Quinn and Klaue but they were gone – they must've dashed out the back in all the commotion. They'd lost Quinn again, so close but he'd slipped through their fingers. Garrett called for an immediate evac, fortunately there had been an extraction team standing by to receive the four of them with Quinn and Klaue. They would instead, be removing three sullen agents and a body.
The hunt for Ian Quinn was called off after the loss of Agent Dan Monroe's life. The mission was deemed too dangerous to continue by Fury, Pierce and the WSC in light of the incidents in Mellieha, Rabat, London, and Berlin. Ian Quinn was still at large, the lives of three agents had been lost and countless innocent lives had been risked.
One day S.H.I.E.L.D. would get their hands on Quinn but for now… MISSION TERMINATED.
