England
MI6
March 1, 1981
The first thing his eyes locked on was the TV screen. It was static, the movie had been over for quite some time now. He threw his feet over the bed and faced the wall. He observed his reflection, realising he didn't even change out of his uniform, nor did he actually sleep underneath the covers.
He slipped off the now wrinkled, navy blue uniform. He was about to toss on another outfit when he heard a knock at his door.
"Throw this on. We're not going to be sticking around here today." Park handed him a set of clothes.
"Where are we going?" Bell peaked his head out of the door, caught off gaurd that they were about to have this conversation.
"I'll tell you shortly. Just get dressed." She seemed very focused today. He didn't know if that was a good thing, or bad.
He shut the door and threw on a pair of kahkis, a crimson turtle neck, and a brown leather jacket, very similar to his jacket Adler gave him when they went to Berlin not long ago. He grabbed the fedora from his bed and placed the brown hat upon his head. He opened his door.
"Here put these on too, it'll add to the look." Park handed him a pair of glasses, made to look as if they had real perscription lenses in them. Bell shut the door behind him as he followed her down the hall.
"Whats going on?" He asked her, propping the glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"I'll explain when we get into the car. Your driving, by the way." She tossed him the keys before they exited the building through the front doors.
"Driving?!" Bell protested. "I don't even know where we're going? Or where our vehicle is?" He stood on the sidewalk by the building entrance.
"We're right here love." She hopped into the passenger side of the DB-5 Aston Martin.
"I get to drive this..." he mumbled in awe, not knowing if he said it as a question or statement.
"Dan!" She shouted, already strapped inside, her cigarette lit.
"Sorry." He apalogized, hurridly getting into the driver's seat.
"Take a right and keep going straight." She directed him casually.
"Till when?"
"Till I tell you otherwise."
"Yes... sensai.." he mumbled. "Care to tell me where we're going?"
"To the scene itself."
"Which is where? The airport, correct?" He recalled her telling him.
"Yes."
As they turned he accidentally maneuvered the car towards the right side of the street, forgetting to keep to the right.
"Bell!" Park shouted placing a hand on the steering wheel.
"I wasn't going to let us crash!" He protested.
"Well of course not, because I saved us!" She let out a heavy sigh. "Some day your going to be the death of me."
"I was about to say the same about you." He scoffed.
"Here, stop." She placed a hand on the dash board.
"What is it we're looking for?"
"In the report it was written that Thomas was shot with a bullet from a standard M1911 pistol. But when I studied the bullet wounds and the pictures of the bullets themselves there was a slight difference between the two. Whatever gun was used in combat, was used with what I believe to be custom bullets." She walked along the sidewalk, following the pavement until she came to a stop. "It rained not too long after, heavily I might add." She crouched focusing her gaze on the street gutter. She slipped on a pair of gloves, and began searching with her hands along the metal edges of the grail.
"There." Bell crouched and pointed.
She reached for the farthest corner of the grail, finding an aged bullet. "Good eye, Bell." She held it up, observing the bullet before placing it in a small bag.
"Here. I'll look at it when we get back to base." He took the bag from her hand and placed it in his jacket.
"No."
"What?"
"We're not taking this back to base."
"Where-"
"I know a place we can take this to. Get back to the car."
"Why am I driving? This is your mission you know. Who are we going to see?" He asked, slightly annoyed as he pressed his foot on the gas.
"An old co-worker of mine. MI6 can't know what we're looking into here. No government agency can."
"And why is that?"
"It's just best that they don't."
There was something she wasn't telling him about this "adventure" of theirs. While this wasn't his brother's murder case, if he was going to help it would seem customary to know all the details, even those not so vital. He decided to let it go for now, it wasn't worth the arguing. Not yet.
"This is the place?" He stopped the car on the side of a main road, in front of a bar.
"Yes." She replied as they both stepped out of the car.
He kept quiet as she led them through the front doors and to the front counter, taking a quick seat.
The man working the bar took a casual glance at them and looked away before taking a double take. His eyes beamed with slight surprise and confusion. "Here, your welcome." He handed a customer their drink before walking over towards their direction.
"Was the secret agent life to difficult for you?" He lowered his voice with a slight smile. Bell studied the man. He had a slightly bigger build than himself as well small brown scruffed beard. He looked at his hand to see no ring. He took note that he had no wife, which made it possible for no family, or at least no stable family. But that was his observation, not a fact to be proven, yet.
"Your the one who works here Tobias, not me." She shot back.
"Ouch. Anyways, I'm sure you didn't come all this way to make amends, what do you need?"
"There is no amends Tobias, there is no... never mind. I need you to look at something for us."
"Us... hm." He turned his attention towards Bell. "And what about you?"
"This is Daniel Folten he's been assigned under my supervision. He's still a trainee." She added.
"I think the kid can speak for himself, don't you think Park?" Tobias raised an eyebrow.
"Nice to meet you." Bell extended a hand.
"Tobias Fleming." He shook Bell's hand.
"We recovered this earlier, all we need is some help figuring out what type this might belong to." Bell revealed the inside pocket of his jacket, exposing a part of the ziplock bag with the bullet before closing his jacket. "I don't think Park would have brought us all this way if you couldn't do something about it."
"This way." He waved for them to follow. He lead them through the back doors of the establishment and outside by the dumpsters. He pushed aside an old tire and smaller trash can. "Go ahead." He opened the trap door underneath. "It looks much more impressive than it smells down there, I promise." He assured his guests. "Now, let's see what you've brought me." He hopper off the ladder.
Bell drew the small baggie from his pocket and handed it to the brown haired man. He walked over to his set up where he powered on a lamp. "Hand me those, will you?" He pointed to a small box of rubber gloves. Bell handed him and pair and put one on his own hands.
"Primary or secondary fire?" Tobias asked, eyeing the bullet under a small scope. He picked at it with tweezers.
"Secondary, pistol."
"What type?"
"Thats why we came, we don't know. When I looked at it, the bullet didn't seem to associate with any common pistols. My theory is that somehow it's a custom made bullet." Park leaned against the desk.
"And you seem to be correct." He said, pulling a piece from the bullet. "Take a look at this." He stepped aside for her to look through the scope as he held the tweezers.
"What am I looking at?"
"There was a piece of grime on it but do you see these two sharp points in the bullet?" He used the metal tool to point to it. "Manufacturers don't put these kinds of indentions on their ammo because most don't contain a small dose of... well something." He took a small shard and placed it into a machine.
"So aside from this chemical, do we have any leads as to who manufactured the weapon?"
"It's from the USSR, it has to be."
"How?"
"Have you heard of the Redeemer?"
"Faintly."
"Back in the second world war, Russia had began production on these weapons. They were made to be small and convenient for a run and gun situation but had the deadliest results of any weapon produced on the battlefield. For whatever reason they stopped all production and got rid of all of the pistols. There weren't many to begin with but for years people have rumored that there are still some floating around. And I think you may have encountered one. There would be many incidents where people have reported these bullets left behind from a killing but nobody has been able to confirm this is where they came from. I didn't believe there were any left, not until you brought me this." He smiled, excited about the discovery.
"Speaking of which... how did you come across a Redeemer? It doesn't look to be recent." He asked.
"Someone murdered my brother, and the agencies have closed it, calling it a terrorist attack. But I refuse to believe it." She kept her gaze at the ground.
"I- I'm sorry to hear about that." He gave his sympathy.
"Its ready." Bell said, a light appearing on the machine.
Tobias pulled out the sample along with a printed piece of paper. "I don't understand..."
"What?" Bell asked.
"The chemical make up of this substance, it doesn't classify as any of the known elements."
Bell grabbed the paper. "Its because its not supposed to exist on the periodic table. The bullet was laced with an extremely small trace of Nova 6."
"How do you know?"
"Adler and I ran an op a long time ago. Some one eyed bald pirate released some in a room. Adler and I found it covered in chemicals and found it to be Nova 6. So it has to be Russian. There never was any other known soldiers to use it."
"So it wasn't the IRA." She said.
"But why would the Russians use the IRA as a scapegoat?" Tobias asked.
"To create conspiracy to cover up their actual motives." Bell thought aloud.
"Smart man, Mr. Folten." Tobias complimented. Bell nodded.
"I've got to contact Adler, tell him we'll need a little more time." Park said, racing back towards the bar, leaving Bell and Tobias alone.
Bell sat on a nearby bucket, letting his body rest for a moment. "How did you meet her?" Tobias asked out of curiosity.
"We were assigned to the same team. They pulled me from the CIA and her from MI6."
"Ah, American." He chuckled. "You tend to speak with a hint of both accents, strange."
"What about yourself?" Bell asked in return.
"We've known each other for quite some time now. Met in college. Somehow I managed to make the most stubborn, and "lame" as they called her, my best friend in university."
"Lame? How?"
"She was always studying, rarely ever took brakes to do normal things, like party or hang out with friends. Not until we crossed paths.." he had a sorrowful smile on his face, faint.
"You loved her." Bell stated.
"I never did tell her that." He sat on a bucket next to him. "I was going to. After university we were both recruited into the academy. Excelled together. After the first handful of missions... I- I backed out. Before that mission I had never killed a man before. That night I killed more than just men, families perished. I couldn't take it. Thats when I knew I wasn't made for it. But she was. She thrived in it. Everything we did from drills to live combat, she was always competitive and seemed to exceed everyones expectations. Even my own."
Bell only chuckled in agreement.
"But then the day came where she was to be stationed elsewhere. Said something about protection services."
"Did you break it off?"
"Of course not." Tobias scoffed. "I only delayed the inevitable in my own mind. So when she said we needed to talk I already knew the what she was about to say to me. Things ended peacefully, I just tease and say she broke my heart." He smiled.
"Quite an adventure." Bell said.
"That, it was. But if I can offer you any advice, don't try it. And don't even try to fool me, I could tell by the slightest expressions on your face as I spoke a minute ago. Find someone else Folten, when it comes to the duty at hand your number 2. It goes both ways."
"B- Dan." Park rushed down the ladder nearly calling him by his other name. "Adler needs us back." She sounded frustrated.
"When?" He asked.
"Now."
"What? No, we can't go, we've come so far and found more than I thought we would have. We can't just walk back home, what if this has some tie to Perseus?" He protested.
"I want nothing more than to stay, but it'll be like starting another world war if we don't go back now. I appreciate your concern but Perseus is our priority, unfortunately not this case. People are counting on us Dan, we have to go." She said as they packed their evidence. "Thank you Tobias, truly." She gave him a look of remorse.
"Of course." She took him by surprise when she hugged him.
He accompanied them back outside. "Take care you two." He waved. "Folten, remember what I said."
Bell nodded his head, giving him a wave goodbye. A heavy burden weighed on his heart.
