Thomas "Bell" Jackson, CIA Operative
West Berlin, Germany
January 20 1981
A week had passed since Anton Volkov's capture. After being given the rundown by CIA interrogation, he was then handed off to MI6 to question him on non-Perseus matters. Park had been relieved to hear he had reached London intact - not so much for his own safety, but so he could finally provide answers to questions that the British government had for him.
Meanwhile, CIA analysts and Adler's team were at work trying to solve the mystery of the photographs in the briefcase. Even under "extreme pressure," Volkov maintained that he did not know where Perseus was or how to get in contact with him. All Volkov had were dead drops and letters, each time in a new place he'd never been; even payments were made in cash. He'd never even seen Perseus' face nor heard his voice.
He did, however, give up what (little) he knew about the nuclear device, which had been that he'd help smuggle the device through East Berlin. He did not, however, know where it came from, anything about its schematics, or most importantly where it was now. It appeared that Perseus had an exhaustive list of third parties and intermediaries that could not be traced together. After this lengthy process, Hudson had turned over Volkov to the British; maybe they could get something that the CIA couldn't. Adler had given Park permission to return to London to be present for Volkov's interrogation and see if he revealed anything about Perseus to MI6.
As of right now, however, they were at another dead end more or less. Perseus eluded them and now there was a nuclear device in play. This had been just the situation they had tried to avoid thirteen years prior in Vietnam, and now it was happening all over again. The worst part was that all Bell could do was sit around and wait for the analysts at Langley to figure out their next move.
He kept busy around the safehouse, checking the perimeter every now and again, keeping his equipment in good order, and shooting the shit with Sims. In fact, two nights ago while Adler was out getting more supplies, Bell got into a pretty intense game of Texas Hold-'Em with Sims, Lazar, and McKnight (Lazar ended up taking the whole pot). If Adler were there, he'd probably call them out for wasting valuable time, but there were only so many times you could clean your rifle and wait around for the photo analyses to come back. Besides, it was probably one of the few things that kept Bell from freaking out after discovering those photos of the nuke.
Today, in lieu of the photographs, something else occupied their attention. Today was inauguration day, where Jimmy Carter would step down from the office of President of the United States and Ronald Reagan would be sworn in as the 40th President. Bell, Adler, Lazar, Sims, and McKnight all sat down in front of the safehouse's television set and watched the inauguration unfold.
"... this is a solemn and most momentous occasion; and yet, in the history of our Nation, it is a commonplace occurrence..."
"Hudson got in touch earlier," Adler told Bell as he was lighting a cigarette, "They're releasing the hostages from Tehran as we speak."
"Thank God," Bell said before turning his attention back to the television screen. At least that was one crisis out of the way finally. If Bell remembered correctly, those people had been in captivity for... what? 444 days now? Pretty even number all things considered. Maybe after they got Perseus, Reagan would give the go-ahead to bag that cocksucker Khomeini and send him to join Kadivar in Hell.
But on thinking of Kadivar, Bell remembered what happened in Turkey a few weeks ago. They still had no idea why he was selling American weapons to Russian operatives, or how Perseus fit into things. Kadivar had made mention of Perseus' connection to what happened in Iran, but since Adler had killed him there was no way of knowing more. Adding that to his disappearance in East Berlin was starting to concern Bell a great deal. They had to keep their shit together if they wanted to stop Perseus.
"Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price."
Bell wondered how sincere Reagan was being in his address; he was a politician after all, and no amount of speeches or promises or political persuasion would make Bell any less distrustful. It was the same sentiment he carried throughout his CIA career during the Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Johnson administrations. He was a soldier, first and foremost. He took orders and got shit done, and sometimes his orders would force him to cross lines he was damn certain that no Congressional committee would condone.
"Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act. We will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength."
The safehouse garage door suddenly opened, causing everyone to turn their heads and see what was what. Hudson stepped in followed closely by Park.
"... miracle that he could still talk," Hudson spoke irritably to Park before walking over to the door buttons and shutting the garage door behind them.
"We all have our methods, Agent Hudson," Park told him, holding firm, "As I briefed you, MI6 had their own questions for him not of concern to the CIA at this time."
"Except the presence of a nuclear device changes things, Agent Park. It becomes everyone's concern," Hudson lectured her. After the door was shut, Hudson removed his leather jacket, tossed it on a nearby chair, and loosened his tie a bit. To Bell's eyes, it was quite obvious that Hudson was pissed off, but that wasn't anything new. All he wanted to know is why he was so pissed off at Park.
Adler and his team stood up and started to approach Hudson and Park, and the latter two stopped focusing on each other and on the approaching team.
"Adler," Hudson addressed him.
"I take it you have good news for us," Adler deadpanned.
Hudson scoffed, and then said, "Well, after enough time and tinkering, the eggheads at Langley were able to uncover new evidence from those photographs from Volkov."
"And?" Bell asked.
"It confirms our worst fears," Hudson began, "Perseus indeed smuggled a nuclear device through East Berlin."
"Well, shit," McKnight commented.
"We can't be certain of that yet," Adler tried to argue with Hudson.
"He has it. I'm sure of it," Hudson responded coldly. Bell just wanted to shoot something at that moment, preferably Perseus.
"Where does that leave us, then?" Adler asked.
"This is the good news," Hudson said, "Agent Park?"
Park cleared her throat before opening up the dossier she was carrying, showing intense magnification on the photographs and revealing some kind of number sequences. She passed the dossier to Adler, and one by one he handed it off to the rest of the team.
"We found encrypted geocoordinates hidden within Volkov's nuclear intel," Park began, "It points to an unpopulated region in the Zakarpatska Oblast within the Soviet Republic of Ukraine."
"Ukraine?" Lazar asked, "What's over in Ukraine?"
Park and Hudson walked forward to the nearby projection reel and put in some slides of film they had ready. It shone a picture on the wall of an overhead view of a large, concrete structure shaped like a mound.
"This," Park stated.
"Shit," Sims commented, "That place is fucking huge."
"Aerial reconnaissance flew over this region two days ago, revealing this facility," Hudson began, "From here you can see the main gate, guard towers, radar towers, and helipads. What I want to know is what's inside this building and what Perseus wants with it so bad."
"Mason and Woods will join us from Kiev, I expect," Adler spoke up.
"They just about wrapped up their business there, yes," Hudson said.
"Good, we'll need them," Adler told them, "Lazar and I will handle extract. Bell, Park, you'll drop about two klicks south of the facility and link up with Mason and Woods. From there, you'll find a way past the main gate to get into the facility."
Bell and Park exchanged glances. East Berlin was one thing, but now they were being tasked with infiltrating a facility of unknown capabilities inside Ukraine.
"I'll get Mason and Woods on the line. We'll leave tomorrow night," Hudson said, walking away to use the phone outside of Adler's office.
"Alright people, that'll be all," Adler said, taking another drag from his cigarette before walking past Hudson on his way to his office.
McKnight sighed, "Well, I guess sitting on the sidelines for this one shouldn't be too bad."
"Hey man, these are the times you live for. Any excuse to not get shot at by angry communists is a win in my book," Sims commented.
"Thanks for the reassurance, Sims," Bell deadpanned, glancing over at his friend, "I feel loads better about parachuting into a fucking Soviet base."
"Anything I can do to help," Sims grinned, and Bell just wanted to break his teeth.
"Sims, I swear to God-" Bell began.
"Hey, cool it you guys," Lazar interrupted before the thing escalated, "None of us need this shit. Let's just get ourselves ready, okay?"
Bell exhaled sharply through his nose and decided it wasn't worth it. Lazar was right, of course. The mission came first, and Bell would do as he was ordered.
After the conversation between the team had ended, they decided to start getting themselves ready for tomorrow. Bell went over to the weapons' cache and rummaged around a bit for one of the parachutes they had. He brought it back over to his workstation and started checking it over, making sure that it wouldn't become a tangled mess on deployment.
"He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright," Bell started softly singing to himself, "He checked off his equipment and made sure his pack was tight. He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar, you ain't gonna jump no mooooore."
Bell stopped singing when he heard a muffled laugh from behind. He quickly made an about face and saw Park standing behind him, parachute in hand. Her expression had shifted from amusement to slight embarrassment.
"Oh," Park began, "I'm terribly sorry about that. I wasn't trying to..."
Park had trailed off because she couldn't figure out how to proceed, but Bell understood her meaning.
"It's alright," Bell said, before adding, "I know I'm not Dean Martin."
"Hmm," Park said, stepping closer to Bell's workstation, "I've always been more of a Sinatra fan anyway, but that's neither here nor there."
Bell didn't know how to respond to that, and Park didn't know how to proceed, leading to a bit of an awkward silence. This was becoming a regular thing, Bell noticed.
"Anywho," Park broke the silence, "I just wanted to say thanks again for taking Volkov alive. You don't know how much it means... to MI6."
Bell wasn't an idiot, he knew that her business with Volkov went beyond MI6. But he went along with it regardless.
"No problem," Bell said nonchalantly, "I don't think I said thank you for saving my life back in that warehouse. I thought I was dead for sure."
Park looked slightly bashful, but eventually responded with, "Anytime. That's what this team is for, right? Covering each others' arses."
Now it was Bell's turn to laugh, "It sure seems that way."
"Yeah," Park responded, "So what was that you were singing just now, if you pardon my asking?"
"Oh, that?" Bell began, "It's nothing. Just a song my father taught me when I was a kid. Blood on the Risers it's called. He learned it during World War II."
"Your father was a paratrooper?" Park seemed intrigued.
"Yep. 101st Airborne Division, US Army," Bell continued, "He was a Corporal."
"Fascinating," Park commented, "I had an uncle in the airborne during the war. For Britain, that is. He was a Captain in the 6th Airborne. Sadly he was killed in October of '44."
"Oh," Bell began, "I'm sorry to hear that."
"Not your fault," Park said, "I do think it's a funny coincidence, the both of us having paratroopers in our bloodline, now being tasked to do a jump ourselves."
"I don't think that was lost on Adler," Bell commented, taking the chute off of his workstation and holding it in his grasp, "Either he thought we would have the proper know-how or it's his idea of a joke."
"Have you done this before?" Park asked.
"A few times, though none within the past three years," Bell began, "You? Do they cover that at MI6?"
"Well," Park began, "I've received the proper training for jumps but until now have never been called to execute one in the field."
Bell raised an eyebrow, and Park saw it.
"If you're worried about my experience, I've done plenty of infiltrations before," Park said somewhat defensively, "Besides, we'll be dropping at night where visibility will be low. The real challenge will be once we hit the ground."
"We'll have Mason and Woods with us for this one," Bell said, "We'll be fine."
"You sound very confident," Park said.
"Let's just say that they have experience with this sort of thing," Bell told her. He didn't know what exactly he could reveal to a foreign agent about the CIA's past activities without express permission from Adler or Hudson, so he played it safe just in case.
"Hmm. I suppose I should start getting my things in order here," Park said, holding her parachute up for good measure.
"Sounds good," Bell told her, and with that she left for her workstation. Part of him regretted not broaching the subject of Volkov in further depth, specifically what his jibe about her brother meant. He also was curious to know the catalyst behind her argument with Hudson earlier. But Bell held his tongue and told himself to focus on the mission. If Park wanted to give or withhold this information, that was her decision to make. They were all professionals here and they had a job to do.
Bell looked over his parachute once more. Everything seemed to be in good order. He'd check again before they dropped just to be certain.
He went over to the armory and got more equipment together. He grabbed his 1911 and screwed on a suppressor, knowing that if he was going to penetrate a secure Soviet facility that he had a dependable sidearm with him. He then grabbed a Soviet-made Type 63 rifle and outfitted it with a suppressor as well as an ACOG sight. Twenty-five round magazines should do the trick, so he grabbed a few of those and brought it back over to his workstation. He would have brought an AK-47, but even suppressed those things were not dependable for stealth operations. No, precision and accuracy would serve him better than sheer firepower. Of course, he may come to regret it if the whole operation goes tits up, but he was an excellent scavenger during a firefight.
Afterwards, he grabbed a few flashbangs but chose to withhold from bringing grenades. That would draw too much attention from the enemy. He opted instead for a few combat axes he could throw and retrieve, and spent his time sharpening them up.
While sharpening one of the axes, Bell wondered what they would find at the facility. He suspected it had to be some kind of R&D facility for the Soviets, hence its connection to that nuke from the photographs. Whatever it was, Bell was keen on finding out everything they could and using it to track down Perseus.
He felt more confident about his odds of success now that Mason and Woods were along for the ride. He hadn't seen them for a few weeks so it would be something to see them interact with the rest of the team. He was sure that Woods would get along great with Lazar, but then again Lazar seemed to get along with everybody.
Hopefully Mason would say more than two words to people this time. Bell noticed he'd been awfully quiet lately. Maybe it was all this time away from David that prompted his reaction. The sooner they finished the job, the sooner Mason could go back and see his kid.
First, they had to find Perseus and stop him from using that nuke.
Where the fuck had he gotten it from anyway?