Chapter 3 - Hole In The Wall
Minako checked her watch as the train flew forward into the tunnel. It was almost midnight, no word yet as to if they were nearing the ghost station. Adler kept an eye in her direction as Minako gave him a questioning look. Lazar stood by the door before nodding to the two of them. Minako got up first, moving to the next car, which had been cleared out by Park.
"This is your stop." Park informed Adler and Minako before handing them their handguns, a pair of Mark 22 Mod 0 Handguns. Known as the Hushpuppy, it was a handgun that was made for SEALS to be able to perform clandestine operations with a handgun that could quietly eliminate it's targets, perfect for an operation such as this. Minako tucked it into her jacket before stepping onto the platform leading to the rails. Minako took a deep breath, preparing to leap off. The train slowed to take a turn and Minako stepped off with Adler, rolling onto the tracks below. Minako pulled her sidearm out of her jacket before gathering her bearings. Adler wiped his clothes off and took a look at Minako.
"Train coming, get to the other side." Adler stated, drawing his own Hushpuppy. The two climbed a barrier and approached an abandoned train station. Well, it wasn't quite abandoned, there was a member of the Grenztruppen standing guard, carrying an AK clone of some kind, probably an MPi-K. Minako made a motion like grabbing a person by the neck. She would have used the official signal, but she didn't know if there was one and didn't know it if there was. Adler gave her a confused look.
"What?" He whispered.
"I'm going to grab him from behind and use him as a shield." Minako whispered.
"FREEZE!" The guard yelled, facing them, rifle raised. "Don't move!" The man was young, wielding his rifle improperly, and probably naive.
"Congratulations, you passed!" Minako stated, in Russian. "You passed your surprise security inspection."
"Surprise inspection?" The guard asked. "What do you mean?"
"The KGB was worrying about the quality of guards in the sister republics, and organized a surprise inspection to ensure that people do not get exposed to the evils of capitalism." Minako bluffed. "We arranged for agents to pose as western spies and test the security in particularly weak defense points, and it seems you have passed!"
"Wow! I passed! My mother will be so proud!" The guard exclaimed.
"We do need help." Adler added to the lie. "We need you to take us to another weak point in the station."
"Of course! There's a sewer entrance right up there, I'll let the guys know not to stop you." The guard stated, opening the door. The guards let them through.
"If that's the quality of guards the republics have these days, the future of Communism is fucked." Minako chuckled.
"You can certainly testify." Adler laughed. The two climbed up the ladder leading to the city. Two Grenztruppen interrupted them. They were older and clearly more experienced than the guys in the ghost station, the same trick would definitely not work on them.
"You talk this time." Minako whispered.
"Hey! What are you two doing?" one of them spat. "This area is off limits!"
"We're utility workers. If I can just show you our-" Adler began. Before one of them raised his MPi-K.
"HANDS UP!" the other Grenztruppen spat. Minako realized they were preoccupied with Adler and she took her chance. She grabbed the Mk. 22 out of his waistband and aimed it at one of the guards, pulling the trigger. A barely audible shot, more like a light slap than a gunshot, spat out as the guard fell to the ground. Adler took the chance to grab the Grenztruppen's rifle and bashed his head in.
"Let's hurry and hide them before someone finds out one happened. Adler ordered as he removed the magazine from the rifle and pulled back the charging handle. Minako grabbed her mark by the arms and dragged him into a dark alley. The two moved up to a rooftop overlooking Checkpoint Charlie.
"Alright, get the camera out." Adler ordered as Minako took her camera out. Minako looked through the camera and evaluated the checkpoint to locate her target. The dossier she decoded revealed a name, Volkov. He was a Russian weapons dealer, known for selling outdated equipment to terror cells and mitias willing to fight against the west, as well as cartels and mafias destroying the west from the inside. The CIA figured that they could get to Perseus by tracking Volkov through his courier, Franz Kraus. There wasn't much activity at the checkpoint, really just a guy smuggling Doritos and pretzels out of the city and, of course, Franz making his way to a bar. Adler gave the signal to Minako, allowing her to leave the rooftop and make her way to the same bar, where the contact would be waiting. Minako walked through the bar and took a seat in front of a woman with a blue umbrella. After planting her directional microphone, she spoke with the informant, a woman named Greta Keller.
"There seems to be a lot more cops than usual." Minako mused.
"There's a warrant out for you. Volkov has them under his thumb." Greta explained. "They'll be looking for you."
"What? Are you serious?" Volkov's contact spat.
"You were followed. Leave now, stassi will find them." The man speaking to him spat.
"Go, I'll distract them, you go to Volkov's apartment." Greta said before drawing a handgun. "By the way, a contact of mine was captured, he's called Lukas Richter. If you could silence or rescue him, I would greatly appreciate it." Minako nodded before picking up the microphone and rushing to the bathroom. There, she climbed through an open window and made her way to a cityscape, where Stassi were flooding the streets looking for her. Minako drew her Mk. 22 and moved forward, slowly moving to the building where Richter was being held. Silently taking out a guard moving up the stairs, Minako entered the cellar Richter was held in. She would have gone for him right away, but a piece of paper sat on a desk a ways ahead of him. She was rusty on her german, but she knew it meant that Richter was a traitor. She didn't even dignify talking to him, she just shot him. With that out of the way, Minako moved up to her designated meeting point with Lazar.
"How the hell'd you keep a low profile, Bell?" Lazar asked.
"That's my secret." Minako chuckled.
"Well, Park's up ahead, in the electronics store." Lazar continued. "I would have bought her some knackwurst from Der Braunbar, but it's already closed, sadly."
"Hey, maybe next mission." Minako chuckled, hitting the giant of man on the shoulder. Lazar chuckled.
"She's up ahead, doing recon on Franz's apartment." Lazar continued. The two entered the store and spoke with Park.
"Franz is in the office, he should be out soon." Park began. "Whenever he enters, he ends up out of my sight, so we're going to need someone to go in and find the briefcase and plant the tracker."
"Bell volunteers." Lazar stated. Minako, in turn, flipped the bird to Lazar and park before walking across the street to the apartment. Stassi were stopping people, trying to get ID's out of people, likely trying to find her and the others. Minako was easily able to dodge them and make her way up to the apartment, slipping in as she drew her tranquilizer pistol. The shape was familiar, though she had never held a tranquilizer in her life, she could have sworn she recognized the shape of it. She approached the TV room where Franz's wife was on a call with Park. Minako shot her in the neck with a dart and moved her to the couch, staging it so it seemed like she was sleeping.
"Edda, can you find my umbrella? I need to head out in a minute." Franz called. Shit, no response, Franz would get suspicious. Fortunately, he ignored the lack of a response. But as Minako moved up the stairs, a child called from the bathroom.
"Mama, I can't find my blanket." the child called. Minako tossed a blanket sitting folded in the hall into the bathroom.
"Good work Bell, completely forgot about the kid." Park marveled. Minako rushed into the master bedroom, waiting for Franz to leave the office. After a minute, he did, giving Minako a moment to enter the office. A painting sat slightly off center on the wall, and a gap sat between the wall and a panel on it. Minako put two and two together and twisted the painting and pressed down on the wall panel, revealing a hidden room. The wall closed itself as Minako stepped in, leaving only her, the briefcase inside, and the oddly familiar hue of the red photo developing light. Minako opened the briefcase, leaving her to hope she hadn't.
"Park, there's pictures of a nuke in here." Minako gasped. "It's tactical, but it's still a nuke."
"Ignore it for now, just put the tracker in the briefcase." Park audibly sighed. Minako split open the inside seam and slid in the tracker. However, before she could leave, she heard a noise, a muffled screaming. Minko took a look at the closet door to her left. Slowly opening it revealed Greta, the contact from earlier, tied up and gagged. Minako felt the butt of a handgun hit her head and the world turned dark.
Perseus was beyond angry. The only saving grace for Volkov's stupidity was that the CIA happened to arrive in time to keep him from killing the best agent Perseus had. Minako had been missing since the weapons deal Arash arranged went south. Perseus had assumed that Minako was dead, but images secured by a sleeper agent in the CIA revealed that Minako was alive, and being brainwashed by the CIA. It was the nature of this clandestine war for the two groups to act as such, but it was how they did it that made Perseus angry. They took away her memory, her reason to fight. They forced her to remember her life differently than how it happened, differently from the truth. This was unacceptable, it was not reprogramming, it was torture. Perseus had a plan, however. The sleeper agent would send a supply of the drugs the CIA were using to maintain the reprogramming, with the caveat that they were refined with the research Minako brought with that "Persona" thing. This would plant a seed of doubt in her mind, allowing her to act of her own will if they ever add to her programming. The next step? Let her captors find him.
A/N: shorter than normal but ah well. Hope you enjoyed, I could never figure out how to write stealth segments and puzzles lol. So, yeah, not much to say, just have a good one.