Chapter 1:
Transport
The Osprey banked sharply as it changed course to Melbourne, Southeast Victoria. Sam Fisher had never been to Australia, the island continent, but had sailed past the east coast of Queensland, best known for its sunny beaches.
It had been some time since Sam had last taken a yachting trip with his daughter Sarah. That was back in the year 2004, when Sam had unexpectedly been called up by a recently formed sub-agency Third Echelon, the third initiative under the NSA. The reason for Fisher to have been chosen for Third Echelon's maiden voyage was due to his impressive military record as a Navy S.E.A.L in Kuwait.
His mission back then was to locate and extract missing field operatives who had disappeared without a trace immediately after an interesting find in the Georgian political cabinet. Allison Madison had found something, but then Echelon lost contact. William Robert Blaustein, after being sent in to find her, disappeared too. It was only Sam Fisher who returned alive, informing Echelon that the CIA had lost two operatives.
At the time, his field runner had been a 37 year old red-head man named Vernon Wilkes Junior; he had been shot down after Fisher had retrieved a 'key' from Kalinatek scientist Ivan.
After a set of difficult missions, the president of Georgia – Kombayn Nikoladze – had been working with Chinese General Kong Feirong to locate a coveted nuclear suitcase bomb, a SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) called The Ark. Kombayn confessed to having hidden The Ark on American soil. To be precise, it was in Hopes Gate, Washington D.C.
After a thick fire fight with Varlam Kristavi's soldiers (the CIA had placed him as the Georgian president for the time being), Fisher assassinated Nikoladze and escaped flying bullets as he leapt into the awaiting Osprey and was flown safely back to the States.
He was informed that The Ark itself had been safely recovered and 'disposed' of. The trigger was found in the safe where The Ark was originally kept, and most likely it would have been disposed of as well. If not, its existence and that fact it was maintained was kept secret for the sake of the general public's feeling of security. Sam Fisher – despite being the field operative responsible for the successful execution of his missions which brought about the safety of American citizens and its president – was not informed either. He supposed he was merely the tip of the spear, and did not entirely need to know the purposes or outcomes of which he was used. It could get irritating, though; not entirely knowing the fruits of your labours and having to be satisfied with the fact you have ensured the safety of those who deserve it.
Two years and a number of minor assignments later, he was sent onto the field for a second time in the year 2006, the current year. This time, it was Indonesia…a recently constructed American Embassy – a temporary military base in East Timor, was struck by a devastating terrorist attack carried out by the Darah Dan Doa (blood and prayer), headed by guerrilla Suhadi Sadono who was unofficially supported by corrupt Jakarta government factions.
The building almost collapsed from the explosion, but it held firm. Survivors were held hostage without option of ransom and interrogations were made by the guerrilla force. Sam infiltrated the Embassy in Dili and, to his great surprise and joy – as far as that was capable with the practically wooden Sam Fisher – found himself rescuing his former SEAL ally and co-soldier Douglas Shetland.
The same height as Sam at 6 foot, heavier by 6 pounds at 201 lbs, and four years older than Fisher at 47; Shetland met Fisher back in the Kuwait operations when they were both Navy SEALS and have been friends since. Shetland is now the CEO of Displace International; a mercenary company with connections to western militaries including the U.S. Sam was forced to speak briefly to him before continuing his mission and locating deadly information which must not fall into enemy hands.
After obtaining the information by hacking Shetland's computer and deleting the file, Sam had been forced to seek out a person who could translate the dialect Timorese Mombae; that person was Ingrid Karlthson.
Following trails which lead to a Cryogenics Lab in Saulnier, Paris, on a train heading for Nice, infiltrating the jungles of Jakarta, and finally capturing the Darah Dan Doa leader, Sadono, Sam learned of his ploy – to unleash a deadly virus on the world. Sam Fisher put a stop to this smallpox disease, capturing Suhadi at a TV Station where a threatening broadcast was being filmed, and after handing the prize to Karlthson, Fisher set off to L.A, infiltrating an airport and killing mercenary Norman Soth before he activated the last remaining ND133, a vacuum powered storage device.
The police found the storage device and secluded it in a reinforced steel container for disposal while Sam walked out; his second major assignment finished without a hitch. Coen could be a mean driver, however; he still remembered the vehicle flying between traffic at phenomenal speed and screeching to a halt. Some of the worse memories of his missions; like Mouke Tso Bo in China, too. Abattoir had felt like suicide; a spotlight-covered minefield, a freezer in which meat was stored (he could still remember the frozen stench filling the room alongside the icy smoke), automated turrets everywhere…completing the mission objective was hell in its own right, too:
Hacking the right turrets to make sure they killed passing terrorists, deactivating the right turrets, waiting for the right moment to throw the fragmentation grenade, listening for the sound of footsteps and agitated voices screaming orders, waiting for the opportune moment to leap out from behind a wall and unleash a spray of Five-Seven bullets, making sure the Chinese officials nor the American Army soldiers were injured or killed…and all the while, trying to conserve enough Five-Seven and F-2000 bullets to take down Vyacheslav Grinko when he emerged from his seat of power as lieutenant under Nikoladze to kill this armed ninja from the U.S who was wreaking havoc on their plans to broadcast the brutal slaughtering of captured American soldiers, as a threatening sign of firm persistence that their wishes will be met or else others will suffer…
That was the worst of all. Making others die just to prove that they will not hesitate to kill another hostage. It was the nastiest way to go to the afterlife – nothing more than proof of a terrorist's vicious determination. Few things could really make Fisher sick – that was one of those few things. It was inhumane cruelty and inconsideration, nothing more.
Sam's thoughts drifted back to his SEAL days. The last time he saw Shetland was back there, in Kuwait. And now he appears without warning as CEO of a private military organization…typical of Douglas, Fisher thought. Always hanging on to the excitement of military life; seeking out action, not waiting for it. Shetland had always been most comfortable on the frontlines of battle.
Sam was indifferent on the matter, but due to his impressive skill he usually finds himself there nonetheless. Sam was often indifferent on most things, and prefers to stay removed; not much of a socialite, either, but he was keenly observant of everything. He preferred solitude rather than being in an active society, but still enjoyed the company of old friends, like Shetland and Arthur Partridge.
Partridge was an old and great friend, a Naval Captain and a good one at that…one of the Navy's top, on his way to Admiral. He was Fisher's commanding officer for a short time while he was a SEAL. He's captain of the USS Clarence E Walsh and is still an old friend to Fisher, keeping contact via telephone and electronic mail.
Sam's thoughts drifted once again to Douglas. A reliable companion, he had proved himself in the field of combat more than once. He had also saved Fisher's life innumerable times, and vice versa. They were brothers in arms; using skill, speed, and each other to survive. They used co-operation to help survive the Gulf War. The team had always excelled in combat.
Sam Fisher rose and ambled over to a weapons rack suspended on the wall. His assault rifle had been a confusing state of affairs. Starting out as an FN F2000 SD, equipped with a 40mm grenade-turned-multipurpose launcher, it had been modified by Saul Berkovitz near the Guerla Street Market. He had altered the barrel to make firing less noisy by reducing the sonic placement.
Nonetheless, it was an excellent modular assault weapons system (M.A.W.S). The assault rifle calibre was 5.56 x 45 mm and uses the NATO operating principle; gas operated, rotating bolt, with a bullpup system and a muzzle velocity of 900 metres a second. The gun was 694 mm long with a 400 mm barrel, but with the grenade launcher, the barrel length was 230 mm and the gun itself, 727 mm. But the gun was only 3.6 kg without the M-16 type magazine which could contain 30 cartridges, a comfortable weight and enough ammunition to last a brief fire-fight with one cartridge. The gun had a rate of fire of 850 rounds a minute; cutting down enemies in seconds. That was a good thing in Sam's business; the longer they stand when they are aware of your presence, the more of a hazard they become to you. The multipurpose launcher also allowed him to fire Ring Airfoil Projectiles, a CS Gas Canister (0-chlorobenzalmalononitrile), an adhesive 'Sticky Shocker'; all three were made to incapacitate, a Sticky Camera; an adhesive device for scouting areas which had pan and vision mode capabilities, and a Distraction Camera, an adaptation of the Sticky Camera which replaced panning and vision modes with a noisemaker and a CO2 gas canister. The device was made to attract enemies with the whistling noisemaker and dispense a cloud of incapacitating gas when the enemy is within range.
Combined with the fact that the modified optical sight sports a range of up to 8x – which is convenient for dealing with long-range tangos – and the gun is accurate enough to penetrate the skull of a terrorist at, say, 50 metres or so, plus it's high amount of modifiability (the weapon could be equipped with various firing attachments e.g. shotgun, less-than-lethal launcher, etc), makes the FN F2000 a 'black operative's best friend'.
But it wasn't the black operative's only friend, however. Alongside its larger component was the FN Five-Seven Tactical pistol. Packing high firepower, high hit probability, high stopping power yet lightweight and ease of use in one weapon the Five-Seven was an extremely reliable pistol, with a calibre of 5.72mm and a 20 round magazine. For field missions, it is equipped with a flash suppressor and accuracy laser. It was also equipped with a Laser Microphone Tactical Audio Kit, for eavesdropping on crucial conversations. Recently, Echelon had supplied Fisher with an Optically Channelled Potentiator, which disabled electronic devices like light bulbs and television monitors. Also, Sam Fisher had just been issued with a tactical knife for disposing of difficult opponents. Sam wasn't too keen of the idea of gutting enemies, but he supposed it had had to be done. His eyes also drifted to his night vision goggles, which allowed him to see in the dark by amplifying light on the lower end of the infrared spectrum. It also packed a thermal vision to pick up signals on the upper end of the spectrum, emitted as heat. Dermot P. Brunton has implemented a new addition: the Electronically Enhanced Vision, also known as EEV, which allows Sam to scan electronic devices and display that object's properties. It can also be used to access computers and hack them remotely. The wonders of technology, he thought, more or less indifferently.
Another technological wonder was Sam Fisher's Optical Satellite Uplink, commonly called OPSAT. Manufactured by Palm, it was a compact wrist-mounted military design similar to standard PDAs constructed for civilian use, but enhanced for the field of op. Third Echelon transmits mission details, objectives, personnel and blueprints for the mission. It also displayed direct feed from Sticky Cameras, Diversion Cameras and the Optic Cable, a flexible cable camera that Sam uses to slip under doors and view the room beyond. It was very useful for reconnaissance. Sam was also equipped with a standard lock pick, a camera jammer for disrupting surveillance devices, occasionally motion-sensitive wall mines, a Flash Bang, and a M67 fragmentation grenade with a 2.5 inch shell protecting 6.5 ounces of high explosive.
A voice called from the front of the Osprey, and Coen, his field runner, emerged. "Get ready," she said, "We've almost reached the objective."
