Part 2 – New Mission
From Venice, Italy to NYC, New York, circa 2021, cramped seats, babies screaming their heads off, kids who don't care if the person in front of them minds them kicking their seats, and no complimentary service. Venice, Italy to NYC, New York, circa 1973, spacious leather seats, a designated smoking area, and complimentary drinks.
Eren was sharing his row with a young man who was traveling with his family, he was sitting on the window seat next to him, while Eren was using the aisle seat.
After the plane took off, Eren sat back to enjoy his time away from all the distractions of work.
He reached into his jacket to pull out something he had been dying for since boarding the plane: a Lucky Strike cigarette, but as he reached for his lighter, he remembered he had left it in his travel bag which was stored in his suitcase.
"Excuse me," Eren said as he got the attention of one of the stewardesses, "You have a lighter I can use?"
"It'll be on the cart which is coming up the aisle now," she said, "Just sit back and relax."
As the cart came up the aisle, Eren just sat back as he felt the man next to him tap his shoulder, "You have an extra one of those," he asked.
Eren reached into the pack, and pulled out one to hand to the individual, "Here," he said.
"Thanks," the man said as the cart wheeled up to them.
"Anything, gentlemen," the stewardess asked.
"You have a light," the man asked.
"And a drink, please," Eren said.
As the stewardess lit their cigarettes, she looked at Eren and asked, "What'll you have?"
"Rum, please," Eren said.
The stewardess pulled out a bottle of Bacardi, "Spiced or white," she asked.
"Spiced," Eren said.
"Of course," the stewardess said as she poured him his drink.
As Eren relaxed in his seat, he slowly began to doze off…
When he was dozing off, all he remembered was the sound of automatic fire, explosions, the sound of screaming all around him.
"SERGEANT," was the last thing before Eren was awoken someone shaking him.
"Sir," the stewardess said as she knelt next to him, "Are you ok?"
"Yea," Eren said as he rubbed his forehead, "Bad dream."
"We'll be landing at JFK in thirty minutes," the stewardess said, "Would you like anything?"
"Yes, another drink would be nice," Eren said.
"Vietnam," the man next to Eren asked.
"What," Eren asked as the stewardess brought him his second drink.
"Your nightmare, you serve in Vietnam," the man asked.
"Yes," Eren said, "You gonna make a big deal of it?"
"Never," the man said as he undid the button on his sleeve, and pulled it up to reveal the Navy and Maine Corps Parachutist insignia tattooed on his forearm, "Two tours myself."
"I did a few tours," Eren said, "How'd you know?"
"Lucky Strike," the man said, "Most common amongst us that came home, and I've had similar episodes."
"Kinda obvious," Eren said, "When'd you get out?"
"Got out in '71," the man said.
"I got out the year before," Eren said.
"You serve during Tet," the man asked.
"Who didn't," Eren asked.
"They won't understand," the man said, "They never will."
"Had some trouble adjusting when you got back," Eren asked.
"A little," the man said, "I had my family and friends behind me."
"Same," Eren said as the plane started banking to begin its landing procedure.
As they got off the plane, the man waved goodbye to Eren as he walked up to the Dodge Charger, he would recognize anywhere waiting for him.
"About time," Division Head Levi Ackermann said as began driving.
"Good to see you too," Eren said as he pulled out a cigarette, and rolled down the window, "I half expected you to be waiting at the entrance to the department for me."
"I'd rather come in person," Levi said as Eren lit his cigarette, "Your report?"
Eren opened his briefcase, and held out a manilla envelope to his superior, "Here you go."
"You wrote this on the plane," Levi asked as he took it, and placed it next to him in-between the door and his seat.
"I typed it out in the hotel room before leaving," Eren said, "You know I'm careful."
"Clearly," Levi said as they merged onto the highway towards Queens.
"We going back to the office," Eren asked.
"I figured you'd want to go back to your apartment," Levi said, "You got another one of those?"
Eren reached into his pack, and handed it to his superior, before speaking, "I thought you were trying to quit."
"Emphasis on trying," Levi said as he lit the cigarette.
"Why are we going to my apartment," Eren asked.
"We have a situation brewing, and you're gonna need some fresh clothes," Levi said, "You are going to pack yourself a fresh bag."
"I just got back, and you need me to go back out," Eren said.
"Just like old times," Levi said, "You should be used to it."
"You remember how many times you had to throw water on my face," Eren asked, "Or fire a gun into the ceiling?"
"Touché," Levi said.
Eren's apartment was located in a multi-story in Long Island City that overlooked Manhattan Island.
As he walked into the apartment, the first thing he did was remove the clothes he was carrying in his case.
Looking around his apartment, you could tell he was a soldier because everything in his apartment was beyond spotless, and his bed was beyond neat: clean folds, nicely tucked, and the pillows were perfectly fluffed.
After he packed up his clothes, he removed what he was wearing, and after folding them, he chose his new attire: a pair of black leather shoes, gray suit pants, jacket, and tie, and a cobalt blue shirt.
Leaving his apartment, he could tell that his neighbors were home because the newspaper had been delivered, but they hadn't brought it in.
As he walked outside, Levi looked over to Eren, and smiled, "Nice suit," he said as Eren climbed in, placing his bag on the seat behind him.
"Thanks," Eren said.
The Art Deco style of the Chrysler Building isn't exactly the place you'd expect an international intelligence organization to be based, but that's what makes it so perfect, in the words of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, "It's so overt, it's covert."
As they pulled up, they saw their boss, Erwin Smith was waiting for them, "About time you showed up," he said, "I've been waiting here forever."
"I know, you're just dying to see me again," Eren said as the three of them walked over to the elevator.
"Your nature continues to amaze me," Erwin said as they walked up to the elevator, and he inserted the key that would take them to their office, "You did a fantastic job in Venice. Though I wish we could have captured one of them. It would have helped us give an idea about the ringleaders."
"Pretty soon we'll find them," Eren said, "They can't hide forever."
"Indeed," Erwin said as the elevator opened on their agency's floor.
P.A.T.R.I.O.T., the Program for Anti-Terrorism and Risk Assessment for International Organization Tactics, and if Eren were a new agent, I'd have Erwin explain the origins of the agency, and all that, but since he's not, I'll leave that for later.
What I will say is that the offices were very much set up as you'd expect for 1973, gray carpets, glass walls, chrome office desks with wooden surfaces with typewriters, black metal desk trays, and people in suit pants and dress shirts.
The only different thing was the seal of P.A.T.R.I.O.T. on the entrance by the elevators which had the words that each letter of the agency's acronym imprinted on the perimeter of the agency's nine-pointed star.
Erwin's office was a large, square office with bamboo cabinets, desks, and chairs. The bookshelf behind his desk was fully stocked, "Must be important if the two of you are sitting in on the briefing," Eren said.
"Very," Erwin said as he sat down, "We're doing a favor to our brothers at Langley."
"The C.I.A. needs our help," Eren said, "Let me pinch myself."
"Shocking, I know," Erwin said, "Right now that doesn't matter," he pulled out a file, and handed it to Eren, "Levi, if you would."
"What do you know about Marcel Galliard," Levi asked.
"Multimillionaire," Eren said as he opened the file, and the first thing he saw was a picture of the man himself, "Born to one of the men that would go on to form the Ahnenerbe during Hitler's rise to power. About '54, he went on to graduate from ENS in Paris, and become the Head of Liberio Pharmaceuticals. Currently supplies 36% of the world's anti-depressants and 15% of the world's blood pressure medication."
"That's pretty much his entire bio," Levi said, "What you probably don't know is that his father was also the one that proposed to Nazi High-Command that the party should confiscate any and all gold from those they would send off to the camps, sometime before '37. Records captured by allied troops at the end of the war show that during those eight years he siphoned ten percent off every gold stash the Nazis confiscated."
"Good fuck," Eren said as he looked at Levi, "That's millions."
"31.6 million to be exact, give or take," Levi said, "Intelligence believes that he hid it sometime after the war, and gave the location to his son before his death."
"And that he used that gold to start his business," Eren said.
"I'd bet a year's salary on it," Levi said, "After he graduated, he went to work for a small-time pharmacy in Lyon until he was fired six months later, then overnight he goes from being unemployed to opening his own pharmaceutical laboratory, hiring a full staff, and going public? You don't make that kind of leap unless you have serious backing."
"And 31 million can go a long way in that regard," Eren said.
"Exactly," Erwin said, "Keep going with the briefing."
"Right," Levi said as he pointed at the file, "Anyway, because of the gold he's been under an international investigation by the UN Security Council. The C.I.A. thinks it goes deeper than that. They believe he's using the gold to fund some of his father's old research."
"That's a bit of a stretch isn't it," Eren asked.
"Big stretch," Levi said, "We believe they're using the gold as a way to justify their investigation. But as it seems, they might have been onto something, whether it was the gold or not. They've had an agent working undercover for the past six months," Eren flipped the page to see a picture of their agent, a beautiful Caucasian/Japanese woman with a bob-cut hairstyle, and a face that Eren would recognize anywhere.
"Mikasa," Eren said.
"I was about to say, you worked with her back in Vietnam didn't you," Erwin asked.
"And went to school with," Eren said as he looked up at Levi, "Along with Armin."
"That's why we chose you for this assignment," Levi said, "You know she doesn't trust me, even though we're family. But you're a friend, and you worked very closely with her during our time in Vietnam, we thought maybe a familiar face will help.
"Of course," Eren said, "And with her experience working the Golden Triangle, her degree from UCLA, she was naturally the most obvious choice for this mission."
"Exactly," Levi said, "And she must have stumbled onto something because she sent out an S.O.S. not 24 hours ago. Her handler confirms that she's being held by Liberio Pharmaceuticals security."
"And the C.I.A. doesn't have anyone that could get her out of there," Eren asked.
"Not from her current location," Levi said.
Eren turned the page to reveal a picture of a strange building: a raised geodesic dome connected to a crystalline tower that was made of five sharp wedges sticking out of the back of the dome, like a traditional Japanese fan, "What is this," Eren asked.
"Marcell opened it two years ago," Levi said, "Opening it used to require a code that members of the company are given when they joined, but after Agent Ackerman's capture, those were deleted, and senior members of Liberio were given new codes."
"And being as the C.I.A. doesn't have those kinds of resources," Eren said.
"They asked us for help," Levi said.
"So where am I heading," Eren asked.
"Singapore," Erwin said, "You'll be met by Agent Arlelt at Sultan Abdul in Malaysia who'll take you to the island via a boat. From there, it's up to you to save Agent Ackerman, and get out."
"Any other objective," Eren asked.
"That'll come later," Erwin said, "For now, saving the C.I.A.'s agent is your only job. Do it well."
"Yes, sir," Eren said.
"Good," Erwin said, before looking at Levi, "Agent Ackerman, why don't you take Agent Yaeger down to the Toybox, and get him equipped."
"Yes, sir," Levi said.
The two of them stood up, and left Erwin's office who sat back in his chair, and exhaled strongly, "This is going to be an interesting one," and let me tell you, Erwin had no idea just how right he was.
How's that…