Chapter 8 The Embassy

March 2nd, 2014

7:02 PM

Brasilia, Brazil

Palacio do Planalto

My first official field assignment with Chrysalis and Agent Cayce Foley was officially underway. The first assignment I was taking on was a rather slippery but subtle task. Cayce and I had to travel from Portland all the way to Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil just to complete the assignment. Never did I imagine having to travel down to the south end of the world to accomplish it. At least we would be flying straight back to Portland as soon as the task was finished.

Once we got off our plane to Brasilia and booked our hotel room to stay for a couple days, we made arrangements for our assignment in our room we rented to ensure our success. It was only a day ago when our flight arrived here in the Brazilian capital city and tonight was the night we crashed the Brazilian President's political embassy party to do what we came here for. At least we were far away from the civil war between the loyalist and insurgents down in Bolivia. That was our grain of salt.

These were the phases of our field mission. Phase one: walk inside dressed as formal patrons and be greeted to President Dilma Rousseff in embassy. Phase two: meet with out undercover contact in Peace Corps Kristine Prescott for advisory. Our contact was indeed related to the Prescotts from Arcadia Bay and was the older sibling of the late Nathan Prescott. Phase three: find a hiding place to hack into surveillance and guide Cayce upstairs in the capitol building without detection. Above all, the main objective was to find the secret intel on the El Eterno propaganda and leave the building with out drawing attention.

And so our mission began waltzing right into the Palcio do Planalto holding arms where the embassy party was taking festivity all dressed in our formal fashion. I wore a red velvet dress that was supposed to be my dress for senior prom and Cayce wore a black tux for the occasion. Pretending to be casual patrons attending a political event. The festivities were occupying the main hall as the party's ball room. Where guest had their dresses and tuxes on as well. I could see a nice fountain centered in the ball room where a few patrons stood and socialized. There was also drinks and food on tables for people to eat and drink at this important event. Now it begins for the two of us.

"I feel like everyone's looking at us," I said.

"That's not just a feeling," said Cayce. "Everyone 'is' looking at us."

"Who are these people?"

"Diplomats, politicians, businessmen, spies. It's the usual embassy crowd. But the most important thing: act natural. If anyone speaks to you, just smile."

"So do you want me to act natural or do you want me to smile?"

"I didn't know you had a sense of humor."

"Chloe and I always had our sense of humor."

"Cayce, I'm delighted you could attend," said a woman with a Brazilian accent and dressed in a jacket and Brazilian shoulder belt. Approaching the two of us with her body guards. Had to be the president.

"Always a pleasure, Madam President," said Cayce, shaking her hand. "I would like you to meet my assistant, Rochelle. Rochelle, this is President Dilma Rousseff."

Chrysalis had given me an alias name of Rochelle Allison to keep my true identity undercover from any exposing media that might leak my appearance signifying that I'm alive. Had to call myself Rochelle from now on whenever I'm on a mission.

"I was unaware that American diplomacy was undertaken with such...disarming charm," said President Rousseff. "The pleasure is mine, Rochelle."

"Gentlemen, I give you back our host," said Cayce, referring to the guards. "We'll talk later, Rousseff."

"Until then, Cayce," said Rousseff.

Cayce escorts me away from the President and her guards to another area in the embassy. The look on the woman's eyes were somewhat indecisive. Did her and Cayce really know each other or just pretending to?

"She hates me," admits Cayce. "The whole time she's imagining my head on a stick. I think she found you charming."

"I should be flattered," I say. "Everyone I come across finds me charming."

"Okay, I'm gonna shake some hands. You go find our contact in this room we were told she'd be. Then you go blend in, find somewhere quiet. You know what you have to do."

Cayce turned his head somewhere else to find where he should start mingling. A stranger caught his eye and called for him.

"Ambassador!" He called out. "Your a sight for sore eyes!"

Then I was on my own. Left to find our contact myself before finding my hidey hole to hack into surveillance. I felt nervous walking through a crowd of Brazilian diplomats at a political reception, but kept the insecurity to myself by acting natural and smiling. Just like Cayce told me to. Now to find that contact.

Eventually, I see a young woman in a dress standing behind a food and refreshment table holding a glass of champagne in her hand. She was only a few years younger than me. And fiver years older than her dead brother, Nathan. It was definitely, Kristine. As much as I'd like to walk up to her and offer my condolences for the loss of her late sibling, I couldn't tell her who I really was. I had to refer to myself as my alias. Don't know why Nathan had to die or why my ex-mentor would kill him, but I had to stay concentrated on the mission. I approach Kristine and stand next to her to talk.

"You came," she said. "You must be Rochelle, I presume?"

"That' me," I reply. "I was told you'd be here. It's Kristine, right? You know what we have to do."

"Yes I do. Pay close attention. The intel your looking for is in the President's office upstairs hidden inside a vault hidden behind a portrait. It's off limits, but if you can hack into security and guide your partner Cayce through without detection, you'll get what your looking for."

"Is there a way for Cayce to get past those guards by the stairs? Can't just waltz up there with them standing guard."

"No you can't. But you can access the top floor with an ID card I forged for Cayce. Make sure he gets this."

Kristine lends me an ID card for Cayce to use to get past security. I take it from her so he could get it from me.

"Thanks," I say. "Didn't know we'd use this."

"How else do you think we'd do it?" She asks. "Off you go now. Before anyone suspects us."

I find Cayce mingling with the Ambassador he saw as soon as I left the Prescott lady undercover in Peace Corps. He sees me approaching him and excuses the Ambassador to talk with me. I directly hand him over the key card face to face.

"I think you'll be needing this," I say.

"I'll take it," he says. "Now go find a place to patch yourself in. Radio me in when you do."

The only place seemingly necessary for me to hack security systems was in the woman's restroom. I walk in there without drawing suspicion from the bouncers. When I'm in the john, there are three women in dresses preoccupied with themselves. One of them stares at the mirror putting on her mascara. Two of them are socializing speaking Portuguese.

I step inside one of the stalls hidden from the female patrons and lock the door. Then I sit on the toilet seat and reach for my laptop I carried inside my dress to access surveillance. Once I'm patched into the cams on my computer screen, I radio Cayce in for his cue.

"Okay, Cayce," I say on my ear comm. "I'm in. Are you ready?"

"What do we got?" he asks.

"There's large painting in one of the rooms upstairs. Behind it is a safe. The documents we're looking for are inside. But there will be guards and cameras. So you have to be careful. I'll be watching you through the cameras. You got it?"

"Affirmative, I'll try getting past those bouncers by the stairs right now. Wish me luck."

When scanning through the cams on my computer screen, I search for Cayce on the ball room cam and see him attempting access upstairs. He holds up his ID card to the guards and they let him up. Then walks up the stairs easy as pie. I scan through the other cams to make sure what Cayce is in for up top.

"Okay, Rachel. I'm upstairs."

"I can see the President's office on cams. One with a portrait of Rousseff. This is the place. But there's a security room to your left up the steps. Where you'll likely need to deal with a guard watching the cameras. He'll need to be dealt with first."

"Will do. Cayce out."

I see Cayce walking up the steps on my screen with the cameras I hack. When he up on the floor above, he walks into the security room and talks to the guard monitoring the cameras speaking Portuguese. The guard is confused as to why he walked in at first tries to tell him he's not allowed in and then instantly knocks him out with a mug of hot coffee. There was no one to watch the monitor screens now.

"Okay, nobody will be able to monitor the main office now. We should be safe."

"The office should be just ahead of you. Look for two big doors down on the other side of the floor and you should be inside."

"Got it."

I see Cayce on my screen entering the office. Then he radios me back for more advisory.

"Alright, Rachel. I'm inside the office. Now how do I find those documents?"

"There's gotta be a switch somewhere to move the painting. That's where you'll find the intel. It should be behind the portrait of Rousseff, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. But how am I supposed to know where a switch would be?"

"Try looking for one under the desk or something."

Cayce attempts to search the desk as I recommended. He searches under the desk and there's no switch. Then searches the drawers and there's no switch. Then he searches the other drawers and there a switch in front of his eyes.

"Found it."

My partner pressed the red button assuming it's the switch to the safe and it opens the Presidential portrait upward revealing a safe behind it.

"There it is, Cayce. You got it."

"Yeah, but there's a retinal scanner that looks like it scans finger prints to right user. I doubt my hand will work on the safe."

Then Cayce turns his head to the doors of the office hearing a voice approaching. Someone else was coming inside.

"Shit, someone's coming. Hold on."

Cayce quickly hides behind the corner of the door and hold onto a vase. He was likely to use it against whoever was coming inside. A guard walks inside and then Cayce gives him the element of surprise by smashing the vase on the head of the body guard immediately rendering him out cold. The guard dropped to the floor and Cayce found a solution to opening the safe.

"I think I just found my ticket to accessing that safe. One moment please."

"Now let's see if you can open the safe."

Cayce drags the unconscious body by the arms over to the safe so he could scan the guard's hand with it. He does just that and the safe is open.

"Open sesame."

"Good job. Now we have to read the documents. Make it quick. Sooner or later someone's gonna come up there to discover something's up."

Cayce digs into the files to read them. He reads them out loud on comms. I grab my pen and notepad out of my purse to write down what the documents say.

"Okay, make sure your writing this down as I read. It says here that El Eterno was been fighting loyalist across the country of Bolivia for months. These insurgents have been buying weapons and resources from another known quantum terrorist organization, Neo-Chrysalis."

"Neo-Chrysalis? Who are they?"

"It's also saying they're building some kind of super weapon to wipe out La Paz, the capitol city. Their leader, Hugo Alvarez, appears to be involved with some mysterious plan related to weapons of mass destruction. Something their referring to as bring about the end of time itself. Whatever this is, we need to inform Chrysalis intelligence ASAP."

"Whatever gets us to complete my first task in the field, we'll do so."

"I'm coming back to the ball room. I'll meet you down there pronto. Cayce out."

As soon as I finish writing down what Cayce had read on the documents, a loud knock was heard on the door to my staff. I gasp in fear and panic for a moment. It was a guard knocking on my stall. He yelled through the door speaking Portuguese demanding to know what I'm up to. Luckily, our Prescott contact was there to come to the rescue.

Kristine walked into the restroom speaking Portuguese to the guard and argued with him for a few seconds until she talked him out of the room. When the guard had left, she stepped inside my stall to grab the notes I took of the intel Cayce had read through the comms. She picked them off the floor where I tore them out and tossed them so she and deliver them to my partner herself.

"Sorry," said Kristine. "I can't do anything else to help you. Good luck."

Kristine walked out of the stall and I wait for her to leave the restroom before leaving my stall. As soon as I hear the door open and shut from outside, I know our secret contact has left the room and that's when I leave the stall. Also when I leave the restroom to find Cayce in the ball room where he told me to meet him.

I hide my laptop back in my dress when I step out of my stall and leave the woman's restroom. I search for Cayce back in the ballroom who's sitting on a leather chair reading the notes I took of the documents. That's when our eyes meet each other's.

"There you are, Rachel," he says. "I read the notes you took Kristine just gave me. They're enough to debrief Chrysalis from this mission."

"Good, I wanna go now," I say.

"Right, yeah, we're leaving now."

Cayce escorts me back to the exit out of the capitol building ending this mission. Once we start walking out, President Rousseff sees us hustling out to the door with a chary frown. She definitely had an idea what we were up to at this party. At least we won't be dealing with her bite worse than her bark. Not anymore.