Chapter 3

I quickly take the piece of paper that I retrieved out of the envelope, and stuff it into one of the pockets of the coat I'm currently wearing. The US embassy is just a stone's throw away from my current location.

I quickly step outside, not only to get a breath of fresh air, but also to decide what my next plan of attack will be. I check the current time on my OPSAT, and I see that it will be dark in about an hour. Perfect.

I slowly start walking my way to the US embassy. I decide that I'm going to walk around the building's perimeter, which seems to be made of electrified barbed wire fence. There are also a few guard towers, but the jarheads that they have inside of them seem pretty relaxed right now. I guess Coen isn't that big of a prisoner, or they just haven't been briefed.

By the time I have finished searching the building's perimeter, the sun has fallen, which has left many dark shadows: perfect places to hide. I slip around the back of the building, where I noticed a lightly guarded gate that's right next to a guardhouse. I walk up to the guardhouse door and try the knob. Locked. Just as I figured. I then pull out my lockpicks, and start working on opening the door when I hear movement inside.

I quickly pull my picks out, and jump over behind the door as it swings open. Good, it looks as if the guard has come out for a bit of fresh air. I get around the door and behind the guard in one deft movement, and put him in a one-arm chokehold while I put my pistol against the side of his head.

"You've got to just love the smell of fresh air, don't you?" I ask.

"What? Huh? Who are you?" He replies. His voice has a slight hint of a southern accent to it. Definitely American.

"I'm the one with the gun. I get to ask the questions. I hear you guys have a special guest tonight. Appearing in the lower basements, I believe."

"I… I don't know… They hardly ever brief us patrolmen on anything."

"Fine, tell me something useful, or I won't hesitate to put my gun to use," I say.

"There's the gate access just inside of the room I was in. It'll open this gate up."

"Thanks. Oh yeah, and just remember: You never saw me," I say as I draw my pistol back, and pistol whip the side of the guard's neck. He'll be out for the better part of the night.

I then drag his body into the control room for the gate, and flip the switch labeled "Gate Open/Close". That was easy enough to find. I quickly step out of the room, and go through the now opened gate. It's pretty dark here, so I take off my jacket, and hide it in the shadows, and retrieve my trident goggles from my pack.

As soon as they are in place, I pull them down, and activate their night vision mode. These goggles also come with a thermal vision mode and gives a direct uplink of whatever I'm seeing to Third Echelon.

"Fisher, nice to see you've made it inside of the perimeter gates," Lambert says through my implants.

I then press the one in my throat and respond, "It was easy enough. The guards here seem to be pretty spineless. And these people are supposed to be protecting our figureheads?"

Lambert chuckles and responds, "Okay, Fisher. Jokes aside, you need to get inside of that embassy as quickly as possible. We've uploaded a map onto your OPSAT. Check it if you need any help in navigating."

I sidle up close to the back wall of the embassy, and start working my way to the left. I soon encounter a door. I'm guessing either to the kitchens, or some kind of parking area. I try the knob, but yet again, it's locked. I pull out my lockpicks, and get to work on this lock. After about thirty seconds of trouble, the lock releases with a satisfying "click", and I'm free to turn the knob and enter the building.

I slip inside, and silently shut the door behind myself. My guess of it being the kitchen area was dead on, but I'm not alone. Luckily enough, most of the people here have headphones on and are paying quite a bit of attention to their work to notice me. This allows me to quietly sneak behind all of the cooks and dish washers and access the door on the far side of the room.

I quickly exit through into a rather dark hallway. I flip my goggles to their thermal vision, and look up and down the hallway and check the floors for heat signatures. I'd rather not have somebody unexpectedly sneak up on me. I then put my goggles back to night vision and quickly reference the map that is now stored on my OPSAT. I figure out that about two doors down to my left is the basement stairway access.

I just hope nobody else wants into or from the basement when I start my way down those stairs. I work my way over to the door, and silently open it. I then listen for any incoming sounds. I hear nothing. Better that way. I then shut the door behind myself and start walking down the flight of stairs.

I make it down to the next door, which I'm assuming leads to Basement F1, when I suddenly hear noise from below. Seems somebody wants to climb the stairs. I quickly open the door in front of me, and slip inside. Unfortunately, I almost run right into a guard that's standing there holding an M16 assault rifle. At least the lighting is low enough here for me to be able to slip away without him ever noticing, so that's just what I do.

The door then opens behind the guard, and a white man wearing a black suit and red tie steps in. He's bald, and seems to be in his late thirties/early forties. When he speaks to the guard standing there, I realize that while his accent is American, the guard's isn't. It's Russian, and he speaks poor English to boot.

I quickly type in a question on my OPSAT: "Check the roster for the guards here. Are there any non-Americans?" I sit there and wait impatiently for an answer that comes but a moment later through my implants.

It's Grimmsdottir. "Sam, there are no Russians working there that the embassy has employed."

Well hell. It seems there is some other faction here, posing as guards. I quickly snap a few shots of the bald man, just before he turns around and walks through the door, and the Russian resumes his guarding post.

I guess it's time to get some answers out of my Russian "pal" here, and figure out why in the hell he's here.