You've read the reports. You think you know everything that happened. I thought I did too. I beleived I had friends and people I could trust. A name that was mine. A life that I had lived, and memories that followed. I'm not sure what lies were written in those reports, how polluted with them they may or may not be. I'm not the one who filed them. Sims was responsible for that, who might I mention, answered and collaborated with Adler to get the greenlight to write down and file. The actual report never even had mention of an Alexi or Alistair. Why would it, with the man soon to be dead and his son practically a ghost on paper. Quite an intelligent move. So forget about what you read because in the actual report our teams turned out to be a bit different.
CIA Safehouse
Bell shut the door to the safehouse behind him. He walked back to his desk and decided to continue working until they got ready to leave. Looking to his right he saw his two teammates watching a football game on the new couch Sims ordered in recently, sodas in hand. Shifting glances, he noticed Adler working on something at his own table in the middle.
Bell was about to listen to his music when the telephone rang and Sims called for Adler.
"Hey Doc, I think you want this one." Sims held the phone to his chest.
"Collections?" He spoke as if it meant something more.
"You bouncin checks again?" He joked.
"I'll take it back here." Adler walked towards the room behind Sims' desk.
Bell watched intently through the glass window as Adler picked up the phone. He couldn't help but grow curious.
"Adler." He said. There was a silent pause, the other person must have been talking. "Well thats one perspective, I thought it went pretty damn well." Adler said proudly.
"What? You think everythings about you now?" Sims caught him snooping around in Adler's bussiness.
"What? An oddball like that won't answer a phone call in a room full of allied agents and you don't wana know?" Bell defended himself, a rather compelling point.
Sims only shrugged and returned his attention back to the papers infront of him.
"What did you think would happen with him?" Adler shot back, holding some sort of tube with liquid in it? Bell couldn't make out the object from the angle at his desk. "You always did have the most remarkable sense of humor." He said sarcastically, pacing around the room.
A drug perhaps? Or could it be a bag full of ammo to some sort of prototype weapon Sims wanted to suprise everyone with? What was in that brown leather bag? It was itching at his mind.
"Right." Adler agreed. "Don't worry we're stocked. I've got enough to last at least a couple of months." Enough rations? Weapons? Ammo? What was it that Adler didn't think needed to be discussed around everyone else?
"Did you just call me an optomist?" He sounded offended
If there was ever a time where Adler left to run an errand, it could be his perfect opportunity to look inside that bag.
"Bye." He hung up on the mystery contact, seeming a little frustrated but shaking it off as he walked out of the room. He placed the bag underneath table before shutting the door to the office behind him.
Bell was quick to divert his eyes back to his own workspace as he walked out. He let things sit for a moment before he got up from his seat and approached the older man.
"Nice work producing that name Bell." Adler complimented him.
"Thanks. The intel from DaNang, it was archived?"
"Of course, like my ex wife, won't throw a damn thing away. Thats how the CIA likes to work."
He had a wife?! To think Adler happily married to anyone except his aviators and a lit cigarette, just didn't register with him. "What happened to her?" Bell decided to ask, somehow he felt he already knew.
"Uhm. The stress of my job wasn't something she could handle." He stated bluntly with a shrug. "But if we were still married then I wouldn't be here, catching Perseus; a job nobody else was willing to take up."
Bell turned around towards the board, placing his fingers around Perseus' picture. "How old is this photo?"
"More than twenty years. Handsome man, I hope the years weren't kind to him. That photo there is all we have, none of us have ever seen his face."
"That'll change the day we kill him." Bell said plainly, releasing the photo. There was a silent pause before he finally decided to ask. "So uhm, what was that call about?"
"Bell your a spy, but lets keep it outside the building, not inside. Understand?"
"Understood.. sir." Bell replied before walking away, a slight feeling of embarassment or guilt even that filled him temporarily before fading.
He should have just stayed at his desk.
Feb. 24, 1981
East Berlin, German Democratic Republic
Bell took his place on the subway. He preferred to stand rather than sit. He was the first of the group to be in position. The others came aboard on seperate individual stops.
It took a bit more effort than expected to dress right for the job. Most of the clothes they had hanging in the safehouse didn't fit him correctly. They were either too snug or much to large. Thankfully Adler tossed him spare peices of clothing from his own wardrobe. The one peice of clothing he owned that fit, was his dark brown leather jacket.
He saw Adler sitting in the corner of his eye. 'Does he just have tons of the same pair of glasses, or does he always just dawn the same single pair?' Bell wondered to himself. 'He doesn't seem like the Ray Band type.'
"Get ready. We just passed under the wall." Park spoke into comms.
Bell checked his watch. He saw Adler taking a last drag from his cigarette before putting it out underneath his shoe.
Bell felt something touch him. He quickly turned his glance to his hip. A small child holding her mother's hand had reached to feel for Bell's loaded pistol. 'Curiosity killed the cat' he remembered Adler telling him back in 'Nam. The girl had pulled back Bell's jacket just enough for her to see the loaded weapon. Her mother thankfully was totally oblivious.
"Ein Spion!" She mouthed, no sound came from her lips. He saw her estatic smile. " A spy!"
Bell gently pulled back his jacket to conceal his weapon better. He put a hushed finger to his own lips and gave a kind smile. It was their own little secret, one he had no choice but to trust her with.
"How's the back car?" Bell asked, looking down at his wrist to fiddle with his watch, pretending that nothing just happened.
"Clear. We're good to go." She responded.
Adler stood up, making his way to the back, indicating for Bell to take a slow follow behind.
Before he left, he felt a tug at the end of his sleeve. It was the child again. He looked down to see her hand reached out to give him something. He opened his palm as plastic army soldier fell into his palm. She looked at him with a warm sympathetic smile. He returned it before putting the green man in a zipper pocket on his jacket. 'Children are so clever and yet so strange..'
"Bell what the hell was that about?" Adler asked, seeming a bit peived. Lazar held the door open for them all to pass into the darkened car.
"Just making new friends boss. You never know when you might need them." Bell explained.
"A kid has no benefits when it comes to contacts. Let's get to work. As soon as the train slows down, you and I will jump off."
"Got it."
"Park, Lazar wait till the next station. Bell and I will track down Kraus." He told the others.
As the train slowed down, Adler slid the back door open. "Here we go." He said before hopping off and rolling onto his shoulder.
"Oh boy." Bell mumbled to himself before he landed much less gracefully than Adler did, letting out a grunt. He picked up his fedora and looked behind them to see Lazar give Bell a thumbs up for his landing.
The readied their silenced pistols and began their way through the underground station.
"Careful, East German gaurds still patrol these stations." Adler wiped dirt from his clothes.
"Patrol ahead." Bell warned.
"Use the train to slip past."
He followed with a crouch as the train traveled by. Shadows of the passengers were casted onto the concrete walls, bringing attention to the station's graffiti.
"Movement on the platform." Adler said, moving to hide behind a wall.
"I take right." Bell said, storing his pistol in exchange for his knife.
"I got left."
Bell crept towards the gaurd, knife in hand. He placed his palm over the man's mouth and peirced the german gaurd's side repeatedly. The body fell limp. And somehow he managed to not get a speck of blood on him.
As Adler finished off his gaurd with his own blade they advanced towards a pair of double doors. Bell burst them open, the two dropping the three gaurds instantly with their silenced pistols.
They followed the room into a hall, leading into a sewer.
"I didn't think there was a place on earth that smelled worse than the safehouse toilet." Bell plugged his nose.
"You can blame Lazar for that one." Adler quipped.
Bell climbed the ladder leading to the surface. He shoved the lid aside pulling himself up, followed by Adler. "Your heavy." He said, pulling the older man up.
"Your either calling me fat or your just weak. I'd like to think your just weak." Adler joked.
"What, should I hit the bench a bit harder when we get back to the safehouse?" Bell asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Hey!" A voice called out, interrupting their conversation. "Whats going on here?" Two german soldiers appraoched them with flashlights and weapons of their own.
"Follow my lead." Adler mumbled. They both raised their hands, indicating a somewhat surrendered motion. Bell slowly moved towards Adler's back.
"... I'm sure we can figure something out." Adler tried to reason with the gaurds in german, stalling so Bell could reach for Adler's pistol. When he felt hik grab the weapon he charged one of the soldiers. "Now!" He shouted in English. Bell shot one of the gaurds, tossing Adler his weapon back once they hid the bodies.
Meanwhile..
Alistair prepped his Redeemer pistol, now back in his possession. Orginally it was meant to be in his son's hands but things didn't go according to plan. And that was years before the Americans took him. Thats at least what Perseus had told him happened.
"Petrov." Volkov burst into the break room.
"Comrade, what is it?" Alistair asked, confused.
"The Americans, I beleive they're here tonight. Kraus was being followed to a bar just a few moments ago. The men are searching for them as we speak."
"They're oblivious to the nuke?"
"They should be. Perseus demands it stay that way."
There was silence and Alistaor was wondering why Volkov was just standing there.
"Anything else Anton?" He asked, setting his pistol beside his crossword puzzle.
"And intel suggests that the Americans have your son. He's-"
"Don't say another word Volkov!" Alistair rose from his seat, looking the man in the eye. "My son is dead, has been for years now! They showed me the proof. So if this is some kind of joke to you, Anton-"
"Sir" , one of the soldiers came into the room. "Its Kraus, he said he's found something you might want to see."
"Well let's go see and beleive comrade." Anton patted Alistair on the shoulder before he stormed out of the room, leaving his Redeemer behind, giving Volkov the perfect opportunity to carry out Perseus' request.