Feb. 27, 1981
CIA Safehouse
There was a bang on the flimsy steel door behind his desk. Must be Woods and Mason, Adler had said to be expecting them soon. They supposedly had just finished up bussiness in Kiev.
Bell pulled the chain, rolling the door open. Woods and Mason drove their van inside, parking a bit closer to Bell's desk than what he would have chosen. Hudson opened the back door of the vehicle.
"Woods, Mason, Hudson." Adler greeted them with a handshake. He introduced them to the safehouse crew. "And this is Bell." He extended a hand towards his protige.
"Hope you don't mind us parking close to your space Taco Bell." Woods teased, getting small laughs from the others.
"We're going to get along great." Lazar gave Woods a fistbump.
"Bell." Adler called the younger man over to talk one on one.
"Given your current state right now, I hope you won't mind riding the sidelines for this one."
"What? No, I was originally planned for this op, was I not?" He protested.
"Along with Woods, you were. But then Volkov and his men happened." He referred to Bell's beating.
"My body has healed enough. I can perform in the field tonight!" Bell pleaded.
"But your not 100%." Adler said sternly.
"I'm your man for the job! Woods can't go alone."
"So Mason will go with him."
"Adler, I can't just sit around here and do nothing."
The man sighed. "Do you really beleive you can go in there and perform your best when your not at your physical best?"
"I know I can." Adler could see the determination in his eyes and for a moment he felt like he was a 27yr old soldier all over again. "Fine." He gave in. "But your taking Lazar with you."
"Sounds like a solid team." Bell said confidently. "You hear that Lazar?" Bell called out over his shoulder. "You and I are going to go kick some ass with Woods."
"Sweet." Lazar nodded.
Shortly after the group went over the mission details and extraction plans.
"We'll bulldoze our way out." Woods said.
"Well its set in stone then. Any questions?" Adler asled the group.
"Good. Everyone get prepped and ready. We'll leave in the next thirty." Hudson said
Adler called Park over to speak with her.
"Did you get rid of the Redeemer?" He lowered his voice.
"Yes. I sent it off to Hudson before he got here a few days ago. I'm not sure what he did with it, but Bell won't be seeing it again any time soon." She spoke cautiously.
"Good. I don't want anything triggering an episode of some sort."
Bell unwrapped the bandages wrapped around his torso. He looked to see the brusies weren't as dark compared to a few days ago. He hated these wraps. Deciding he had enough of them, he figured nobody would know or really care enough to bug him about it. He slipped on his navy blue uniform, followed by his black boots and grenn gloves and balaclava. He closed the door to his room and went to go stock up on ammo and weapons.
"Bell." Lazar called to him. "I ordered this in for you. Adler told me how you enjoy to run and gun. This a good gun for the job." He handed him a solid black SMG.
"What a beautiful LC-10." He ran his fingers along the barrel. "Thanks."
"Oh and one more. I think your going to like this one." He handed Bell a small black pistol.
"A Walther PPK!" Bell's eyes lit up, and he saw what Bell would have looked like as a child.
"I put some added modifications to it to give it a bit more of a punch. One bullet will send them flying."
"I'll have to test this out in the field later." He tucked it into his holster.
"Bell, did you get your parachute harness yet?" Park asked him, approaching the two.
"Parachute harness?" He asked carefully.
"Yes. You, Lazar and Woods will parachute out of a plane on the drop zone. Were you not paying attention?"
"Of course. But is there not another way to get to the drop zone without falling out of the sky?"
"Don't tell me Adler's Protige is afraid of parachuting out of a plane?" She jabbed.
Bell only responded with a false laugh, trying to brush off the anxiety building up inside of him. He knew he had parachuted only one time before. But the details were all fuzzy and he couldn't recall what happened. It was even more bizarre that for some reason a deep fear resided in him about the matter. His brain told his body to become full of anxiousness and fear at the very thought of parachuting.
Lazar handed him a harness and he slipped it on over his uniform. If there was ever a more uncomfortable peice of equipment, he hadn't come across it yet.
"So you and Hudson will be staying here?" He asked her.
"Me and Sims will be. While you all are busy, Hudson said he has an errand to run. But the three of you and I will be in touch over comms."
"Good. You'll be able to hear Taco Bell here scream like a child when we jump." Lazar chuckled.
"You'll do fine Bell." She patted his shoulder before walking away.
"Agent." Lazar caught her attention. "How about the two of us grab drinks when we get back?" He asked her.
Bell kept his gaze at his gear, pretending to be occupied, trying his best to not listen to his friends talk right next to him.
"I'll think about it." She smiled.
"What do you think Bell?" Lazar asked his friend quietly.
"Think about what?" He mumbled.
"Someone like her a guy like me-" Lazar didn't get the opportunity to finish.
"No." The words shot out from Bell's mouth, coming out soft but quickly, like an instinct. "I mean...it wouldn't work. We're agents, we don't get the luxery of having desires that normal people do."
"Are you sure thats it?" Lazar had a smile grow across his face.
"Positive. Don't even go there." Bell became irritated and walked away, leaving Lazar to laugh by himself.
"What's he angry about?" Woods asked Lazar as they watched Bell storm off to his desk.
Feb. 27, 1981
The Zakarpatska Oblast, Ukraine,
USSR
The three of them sat inside the plane, ready to jump in the next ten minutes.
"Bell, make sure your harness is tight enough. Wouldn't want you falling to your demise." Lazar told his friend, sitting across from him.
"Its starting to feel like its cutting off circulation, I think its tight enough." Bell said.
"You don't want it that tight, you'll regret it once we pull the chutes."
"Bell you'll be parachuting with me." Woods told him. "So if you scream into my ear, I'm cutting you lose and you'll meet the ground."
"Funny." Bell said, followed by a nervous laugh.
Suddenly ten minutes felt like three and the door to the plane opened.
"Ready to deploy, on my go." The pilot said into their ear peices.
Bell stood attatched to Woods, his palms sweaty. "You ready Folton?" He asked Bell.
"Wait I-"
"Greenlight! Greenlight!" The pilot said.
Lazar used his boot to shove Bell and Woods off of the plane before he followed after them.
Bell gasped, shutting his eyes tight as the heavy wind blew past his ears.
"Deploy the chutes!" Woods shouted, pulling the strings. Bell felt the immidiate yank as the parachute sprung open. He regretted tightening his harness as much as he did.
"Hey kid! You can open your eyes now." Woods teased. "You can also stop squeasing the life out of me too."
Bell opened his eyes to see them gently float down to the ground. The view up this high was beautiful. The stars had never looked so mesmerising.
"Feet up Bell." Lazar was floating right next to them as they landed.
"Park, we've made contact on land." Woods notified her. Everyone cut their parachutes lose and grabbed out their gear.
"How are things on your end?" Bell asked her.
"Bell, glad to hear you didn't fall to the ground and die." She said somewhat enthusiatically. "I'm not picking up any extra chatter. Your in the clear."
"Copy that. Keep Mason and Adler on standby." Bell pulled out his silenced Type 63 Tactical Rifle. Adler told him to leave the LC-10 behind being that this was more of a stealth mission.
"The base is just over the ridge. Get in, learn what you can, and get out." She told the three.
"We plan to stay a while, Lazar wants to see the Gulag." Woods quipped sarcastically.
"Do that after we learn what Perseus has planned."
The trio came out of the woods and onto the final ridge.
"Look at that monster..." Lazar whistled.
"Reds could be hiding anything inside." Woods readied his sniper. "Bell snap a picture, Ops will wanna see this."
Bell brought out his camera to snap a picture of the giant temple infront of them. "Time to get our hands dirty." He said, putting his camera away.
The rest of the mission went as you've already read in previous reports. For whatever reason they never added Lazar to the cast for this mission. Perhaps because he's dead now? I doubt that has anything to do with it but I digress. Tensions of course heated up once we broke into the the control tower.
Bell tossed his tactical rifle aside, tired of the silenced weapon. "I've been wanting to test this out ever sine we touched ground." He drew out his new pistol Lazar had given to him.
The three cleared out the fake town full of enemy soldiers. "Oh hell yeah!" He shouted after putting a hard hitting bullet into a soldier's chest, sending him flying back a few inches.
"This way." Woods lead them up a set of stairs and over a gate.
"That elevator leads staright to the control tower." Lazar chimned in.
"Grenade." Woods shouted.
Lazar and Bell became temporarily stunned by the grenade. A big guy in bukly armor rounded one of the crates, aiming at Lazar. Bell leapt, to tackle him out of the way. He landed on his side, wincing in pain underneath his balaclava.
"Thanks." Lazar pulled Bell to cover. "You alright?"
"Yeah. Just still feeling sore. I'm fine though." Bell stood back to his feet. "Tossing semtex!"
The grenade flew through the air, landing on the enemies helmet. A large explosion sounded, setting off two nearby flammable barrels and exploding as well.
"Nice." Lazar said.
Finishing off two remaining soldiers, the three of them boarded the elevator.
"Bell, Lazar, Woods, I'm picking up tons of radio chatter. I thought I heard a massive explosion sound over one of the enemy comms. Whats your status?"
"We got caught up in some kind of live fire drill." Woods explained.
"This place is crawling with reds, we're still looking for intel." Lazar pressed the button for them to ascend upwards.
"Bloody hell. I'm putting Mason and Adler on standby for extract." She said firmly.
"Can't wait to see her face when I tell her it was more than one explosion." Bell chuckled.
"She sounds mad. Does she sound mad?" Woods looked back at the two.
"She'll get over it." Lazar said.
The group tore through the two gaurds by the command center. "Jackpot." Woods lowered his weapon, leading the way in.
"Let's see what these Reds have been up to." Bell sat down at the terminal. He looked at the headings on the screen. "Tactical urban combat stats... KGB updates..." Bell scanned the screen.
"Wait hold on." Lazar said over his shoulder. "Whats that?" Lazar pointed to one that caught all their attention.
"Operation Greenlight." Bell read.
"Operation what?" Woods turned around.
"Bell hack into the system, get us more info." Lazar said.
Once he put in the right password, the terminal granted him access. He clicked the first audio log and was confused when he heard Hudson's voice.
"We confirmed it. The nuke smuggled out of Berlin is a Greenlight asset. Its one of ours.."
"If that gets out.." Black, a man he had heard little about, warned Hudson.
"No one will know. Not even Adler's team. The stakes are too high."
"High is an understatement. We're talking about an American nuke hidden beneath Berlin." The clip ended and Bell played the second audio between the two men.
"I want to make sure your committed Hudson."
"That plays been called."
"Well if the asset learns the truth.."
"Your worried about truth now?"
"I'm concerned about control... of the asset."
"If we can't control the asset, we end the asset. Game over." Hudson spoke coldly.
"We're grabbing a copy." Bell printed off a peice of paper as Woods snatched it into his hands.
"This doesn't make any sense." He handed the paper to Lazar to see. "Perseus infiltrated a CIA nuke program codenamed Operation Greenlight."
"Run by Hudson!" Lazar stomped a foot to the floor. "The nuke, its American! And that fool knew!" He kicked the nearest metal terminal to him.
Sirens began to sound, telling the three it was time to flee.