Chapter 3: When brothers meet

Conference Room, October 2nt 2010

They never were in one place together, in the end creating an shadow organisation of this size put them all in danger. The Conference Room was an convenient solution, thanks to invention of the internet they were now able to coordinate all theirs movements without risking exposure off all assets. With the use of old abandoned network infrastructure and loosely connecting it to unregistered parts of a newer ones, Hand of Reclamation was almost intractable. No one from outside was able to track them via low and medium rank members, government agencies and all sort of contractors they use. However, that doesn't mean they are became reckless. A meeting like this was held only in crucial moments. They never showed theirs faces from belief that even the most unbreakable security measures can fail given enough time and resourses.

"What is the status of phase 1?" One asked. "All units on designated positons, awaiting for signal to start operation." Second answered. "I believe we will be ready to secure target in 3 days from now." "Why no sooner?" Started Third. "If everything in phase 1 is set, we could start the operation." "We can't, you and me know why we have to wait." Told Fourth. "With all our strength we still can't and never won't control everything. Especially the nature." "So it is decided, we will start within 72 hours. I propose we should meet again to decide what to do with the afterthought and possible fallout. Any objections?" Asked First and after a moment of silence all connections were lost.

State nature reserve of federal significance "Visherskiy", Russian Federation, 3 days later.

Aleksey Vasilievich Krasny was ending his 5 minute brake for quick smoke and maybe some small talk with his co-workers. He joined FSB eight years ago, from the start of his carrier he was a some sort of golden boy for his agency. In six years from simple 'everyday' tasks he was promoted to a head interrogator of antiterrorist division- center. Maybe Lubianka was a face of Russian art and tradition but here, in this place was a future of Russian personal information extraction. He was transferred here two years ago, a direct order from Central. In the deep underground complex created in Ural mountain range, he was extracting and experimenting with classic and modern solutions of mental and physical braking. His working space was located in old Soviet wing and he couldn't be more pleased about it. So much history has been made here, of course there was some black marks on this facility. Few civilians were in wrong place and a wrong time during construction of emergency exit, one of two suicides before criminals admitted theirs crimes to the public.

Walking into small, barely lighted room Aleksey meet one of the biggest failures in his and his organisation history. A man with broken body but unbroken mind, he was in FSB custody before Aleksey even joined FSB. His body all covered in scars and burns, he was transferred to multiple specialists and facilities. Even after they put a rat mask on his face, his fingernails were torn in every finger, his legs were lifeless pieces of bitten meat, all tarnished and blooded they still know little to no information who he is. When they found him in all this rubble decade ago, first thing FSB did was a full check of this sole survivor, or at least they wanted to.

They started with checking his dog tag, but when it turned out it belonged to soldier who was killed two days prior in an ambush Central went furious. Counterespionage operatives in region tried to take his fingerprints, to see fingers with tips cleaned off from any marks due to chemical removal. Dental was also out of question, jaw sustained heavy damage, with most of teeth fallen out, after they checked his DNA and all results turned negative. After that they learned with who they all dealing with, a true Ivan Ivanovich in flesh. Only thing that was calming for Aleksey was fact that soon he will not have to deal with him. When higher ups were tired of someone that was resisted too long, that someone was sent here with a strict timeline. If you wasn't able to brake this… object of irritation, or at least bring some kind of result (except of giving a captive one more transfusion) prisoner would have a meeting with crematory oven. It wouldn't be a problem for interrogator except of the worst thing in this final solution, this kind of ending will be always written in your carrier with the use of bold and italic. What was reassuring for Aleksey was his strong position in FSB and his skills, as long as situation like that one won't happen too often, he won't be considered as an issue.

Location 4 km south of Dyatlov Pass, at the same time.

"Team Bravo on position." "Team Charlie on position." "Team Delta we are Oskar Mike, ETA 40 seconds." "Delta this is Alpha Actual, we copy. Tell us when you will be on position, after that all teams are to kept radio silence. You know why we are here and what to do, Alfa out." With this lieutenant Wojciech Zima ended his transmission. When a massage came to his team hideout he felt excitement. An task of such importance that he would take command of Combined Task Force with full support of any contact he deemed necessary to achieve victory. Maybe he wasn't serving in any official army but the same if not bigger level of discipline was a basic. He started this journey six months ago, meeting with other teams in the way, mixing theirs and his ranks and number of people traveling with each other in irregular intervals. He did this to get at least a little fell of his new 'family' and to lose any potential tail that FSB might gave them, if anyone from his CTF was deemed 'worthly' of theirs deeper inspection.

"Delta team to Alfa actual. We are on position." Hearing this Wojciech took a harder grip on his AK-74M. For now they have to wait until sunset. They have only few hours to travel another 2 km, take the package and vanish with help of Khanty smuggler.

Location 6 km south of Dyatlov Pass, 3 hours later.

Wojciech was once again, checking area with his infrared camera. Every member of this operation had one of these and pair of night vision for fight inside of Russian complex. For now every member of the operation was scanning marked area with chosen equipment, changing it every five minutes. "Lieutenant, I think Delta is signalling" "Ok Jawny , what they are saying?" "All teams switch to infrared, 600 meters west to our position, near the treeline, small temperature change, no animals sighted." "That's it. Signal them: Delta, overwatch location with Bravo, when they start to rig this place up, guard entrance until we come out or we run of time." "Yes, sir. Should I take a shovel?" "More like excavator. Blizzard is coming and I don't wanna be buried alive." "Acknowledge, permission to hit the crap out of our weatherman?" "Permission granted, team we are Oscar Mike."

Interrogation room, 56 minutes later

Aleksey heard loud scream. Nothing new, in the end they he and few of his colleagues were working with issues in nearby rooms when he is working with The Issue. "Ivan, ooo Ivan wake up. We have a lot to do and what we don't have is time." With that Aleksey took another five inch nail and aimed it to Ivan's meniscus, waiting for the perfect moment when Ivan will regain consciousness and his senses were as strong as possible. When he saw this moment he didn't hesitate, the sound of hammer and almost immediately scream of pain was heard in room and perhaps, in whole wing section. Then Aleksey felt something was wrong, the screams were no more, by that he didn't meant Ivan's, he meant whole section. He checked his watch. "Strange were supposed to work for at least next fifteen minutes. Was there any reschedule I wasn't informed? It happened once, maybe they forgotten again." Aleksey wanted to open his door but someone did it for him. Last thing Aleksey Vasilievich Krasny saw, was a figure wearing white winter suit with grey irregular marks with matching mask and rife aimed in his face.

"Is that him?" "We will see privet. Hey you, stay with me. Jawny give him something, we are losing him." "Give me more space Lieutenant, I have to give him epinephrine. Jesus, have mercy on his legs, just look at them. Lieutenant, give me extra dressing, I don't want to take him from here just to bury him in next forty minutes because of knee infection." "Wait a second Jawny." Before Wojciech ended his sentence he already were near prisoner's head. "We need to make sure he is what we think he is. Can he speak?" "Yes sir, but I don't know how long he will be cons" "I will be quick here. Hey, listen me carefully 'Lengyel, magyar – két jó barát.'" Wojciech saw how prisoner was trying to speak, he leant forward to hear it more clearly."Együtt harcol, s issza borát." With that prisoner lost his consciousness. "That's him. Jawny do your magic, for rest we will cover them, meet with Charlie and Bravo near exit, then we are going the hell out of here."

So, there it is chapter three, I hope you enjoyed it. I must be honest, I thought I would be able to share it two days ago. For that, I'm sharing with you all what I have for now, maybe I will be able to do something for the next day but I don't promise anything. In terms of publishing, I will try to share the story twice a week but I will have less and less free time for few months so it may drop to once a week. I also hope you caught all the details so far, I have spent few hours of searching for them.