Lance was waiting in the briefing room when Forge came in, a file in his hand. "I've just spoken to Xavier," he dropped the file on the table. "An assassination in Russia," Forge gestured to the file.
Lance picked it up and flicked through it. It was a standard assassination, probably something to do with a criminal organisation. The daughter of a businessman had been assassinated by a sniper, nothing that unusual about that. Except that Russian intelligence had identified the sniper as one of the people who had planted the bombs at the Louvre. Lance dropped the file and looked at Forge. "What about the still?"
Forge looked uncomfortable when Lance asked this. "Look Lance, I know you're not going to like it but there's no other explanation."
Lance shook his head. "Have you told Xavier?"
"Yes." Forge said reluctantly.
"And?"
"He agreed with me. He wants to see you." Lance stood up and brushed past Forge without saying a word. Forge watched him go before sinking into a chair. He could understand Lance's annoyance, but he was going to have to face the facts that were there, even if they made no sense. And that was what troubled Forge the most, the fact that the evidence was utterly illogical. Forge had based his whole life on the logic of science, and being confronted by something so utterly illogical had come as a shock to him, to say the least.
Lance sat down opposite Xavier and opened his mouth to speak, but Xavier held up a hand to silence him. "Lance, I know that this must have come as a shock to you, but this is not conclusive evidence, which is why I need you to go to Russia to investigate." Lance nodded, so Xavier continued. "I have compiled a dossier on the assassination and bombing incidents, but we really don't have a lot of information on the organisation that has been carrying out these attacks." Xavier handed Lance a dossier. "You're plane ticket is in there as well. You leave in four hours."
Lance stood up and made to leave, but paused when he reached the door. "Sir, I know that the evidence shows Pietro as being one of the people who bombed the Louvre, but I really don't believe that he could have done."
"Neither do I Lance," Xavier confessed, "so it's up to you to find out what is really going on." Lance nodded and left.
Logan looked around St Petersburg, and a slight smile crept across his face. He had always liked working in Russia, and he had visited St Petersburg many times before on business trips. He was standing with Ray outside the St Petersburg train station, whilst Warren and Betsy purchased four tickets to Murmansk.
Logan reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a cigar, which he put in his mouth and lit with a lighter he pulled from the same pocket. He inhaled deeply, before blowing a cloud of thick, acrid smoke from his nostrils. Taking the cigar from his mouth he turned to face Ray. "How long have you been working for Worthington?"
Ray was silent for several seconds, before replying, "five years."
Logan nodded. "You ever been to Murmansk before?" Ray shook his head. "Beautiful city, gets real cold though." A tall man in a black greatcoat, wearing dark sunglasses suddenly grabbed Logan's attention. It was not just his outlandish attire that made Logan notice him; it was the fact that he looked so similar to the director of Hydra on that night in Finland. It could just be a coincidence, but Logan kept his eye on him as he moved across the terminal to look at a board of train departure times.
"We've got the tickets." Logan turned to see Warren and Betsy standing behind him, a wad of tickets in their hands.
"What time does the train leave?" Logan glanced back to where the man in the greatcoat had been, but he had seemingly vanished.
"Fifteen minutes," Warren answered, checking the details on the tickets. "We'd better get onboard." The four went to platform two and boarded the train – it was a large train, divided up into separate compartments with six seats in each one, and a small aisle that ran down the length of every carriage to allow people to move through the train. They settled in a compartment near the front of the train, and as Ray, Betsy and Warren sat down and prepared for the several hours long train ride, Logan got up and wandered down the carriages, glancing at the occupants of the compartments.
Looking at the platform Logan thought he caught a glimpse of the man in the black greatcoat, but when if he did it was only very fleeting. As he walked down the third carriage he noticed that several compartments were filled with men wearing similar looking black uniforms. They didn't have any insignia, so they could have belonged to any number of government and criminal organisations, but Logan had a bad feeling he knew exactly which organisation they belonged to.
Walking back to his compartment, Logan saw the man in the black greatcoat boarding the train and he ducked into a small alcove in the connection between two carriages. He couldn't be sure, but it seemed like Hydra knew they were coming for them, and they were taking precautions to ensure that they never reached their final destination. Logan hurried back to the compartment and swiftly told the others about what he'd just seen.
"It seems more than likely that your assumptions are correct and Hydra knows that we're going to their base and intends to stop us." Warren agreed.
"But the real question is how do they know where we are?" Betsy asked, looking pointedly at Logan, who sneered at her.
"If you want to accuse me of being a traitor, then why don't you just say it?" he said challengingly.
"I just think it's all very convenient – Hydra got to the informant in Paris first and since we found out where their base is anyway, they just happen to turn up on the same train as us."
"Stop this at once!" Warren said angrily as Logan prepared to answer Betsy's challenge. "We cannot afford to start fighting among ourselves. If we are going to reach Murmansk we are going to have to work together, is that clear?" Logan and Betsy grudgingly acknowledged the truth of Warren's statement. "Good. Now, since there are Hydra soldiers on the train, I think it's fair to assume that they intend to kill us before we get to Murmansk. Therefore, we need to be ready to for an attack at any time."
"I'm going to go and take another look at the soldiers down the train," Logan said. "Maybe I can stop some of them from getting to you."
"Very well. We'll get ready to fend off an attack when it comes." Logan slid the compartment door open and stepped out into the carriage, Betsy's stare burning into the back of his head.
As he was passing over the connection between the second and third carriages, Logan suddenly realised something was wrong. A split-second before the gun went off Logan threw himself to the floor, then lunged at his attacker. His attacker dropped the gun and grappled with him, and Logan was amazed to find that the man was as strong as he was and as fast. The man grabbed Logan's wrists and slammed him into the opposite wall, driving all the breath from Logan's body.
He slammed his fist down, aiming at Logan's head and Logan suddenly realised that he had a blade attached to his wrist. He rolled to one side and the blade punched through the floor. Lashing out with his feet, Logan staggered his attacker and then capitalised on the opening by slamming his attacker's head into the door. Unknowingly, Logan hit the button to open the door and when since they were both leaning on the door, Logan and his attacker were thrown out of the train when the door suddenly burst open.
Logan automatically grabbed at the nearest thing possible – in this case his assailant's foot – and suddenly felt himself jerk to a sudden halt. His assailant had plunged his blade into the side of the train, and was pulling himself onto the roof when he felt Logan hanging onto him. The man lashed out with his foot, catching Logan on the collarbone, but Logan refused to let go. Annoyed the man pulled himself up onto the rood on the train and as Logan tried to do the same he lunged with his blade at Logan's face.
Logan grabbed the man's arm, dodging the blade once again, and pulled himself onto the roof, almost pulling his assailant off at the same time. Only when he was on the roof did he realise that his attacker was the man he had seen earlier in the black greatcoat, only without the sunglasses now.
"Well done Wolverine," the man spoke in heavily Russian-accented English.
"Who the hell are you?" Logan shouted over the sound of the wind that rushed past them.
The man smiled. "You don't remember me? Well, I remember you all too well. Does the name Omega Red mean anything to you?"
"Omega Red?" Logan repeated slowly. "Vaguely reminds me of something, weren't you at Kursk?"
"Very good. Do you remember that I vowed that I would kill you."
"Yeah I remember you. Weren't you lying on the floor, dying of blood loss when I last saw you?" Logan grinned.
"Laugh all you like Wolverine, I am going to kill you now."
"Just bring it on, bub."
"What do the results look like after Gemini's first field operation?" the director asked.
"They, they seem to be perfectly normal. His brain waves seem to have settled down and there seems to have been no adverse affects whatsoever."
"Excellent. As soon as we have dealt with the Wolverine, we will be ready to proceed with phase two."
Thank you for your reviews Karakin and DemonRogue 13, as always you are my source of inspiration. Thank you!
Will Logan be able to overcome the new and improved Omega Red? Will Lance discover the truth about Pietro and Hydra? You'll have to wait until chapter five to find out.