A/N: Sorry for the delay; college workload is a btch. Anyway, here you go.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Rainbow Six or Splinter Cell franchises…

December 8, 2007

Fort Meade, Maryland

Just a few hundred feet away from the main entrance to 3E's command center, in the main structure of the NSA head quarters, sat a plain conference room that overlooked a bank of computers. At the metal table in the center sat a delegation of Israeli personnel and a cadre of Americans. Ambassador Schumacher was a man of imposing stature and build, seeming almost out of place in a suit and tie; Lambert noted he looked like he belonged in fatigues with a rifle in his hand. On the left hand side of the Ambassador sat the local Mossad chief, a frail looking man who has probably earned his post after years of service. On Lambert's side sat Deputy Undersecretary Feinlin and an attaché from the CIA. For minutes, there was silence in the room, as if each man knew what the other was thinking.

"Would gentlemen you like some water? Mr. Ambassador?" Lambert decided to break the silence, feeling too much time was being wasted.

"No thank you," responded the Israeli side, in unison.

Catching the hint, the Ambassador began to speak. "Let's not beat around the bush. Since this is an issue that affects both of our nations, well, even the whole world, I've been authorized to disclose the following to you. Micha?"

Responding to the acknowledgement, the Mossad chief stood up and handed out a translated folder to the Americans. "As you are probably aware, the Israeli government has had a strong need to keep eyes and ears trained at our neighbors and the friends of said neighbors. Iosef Yanovalinko, while not a neighbor, has been selling his wares to Palestinian resistance and basically every terrorist organization that has "Death to Israel" in its charter. Three days before the attacks on our cities, we found a check to be mailed Yanovalinko in the apartment of a terror cell in China."

"What business does Israel have with Chinese terrorists?" The CIA attaché asked incredulously.

"They weren't Chinese. They were on the run in Afghanistan, crossed half way across central Asia, through Kazakhstan and into China. Needless to say, it's best if the Chinese don't find out about it… When we got to China, we found a lawyer who did work with our Yanovalinko. A man named Jin Mao. I gave you a dossier on him with details."

"Who hired him?"

"A man named Kenan Ewari. He is a Turkish citizen, doctor of medicine. His connection is his brother, Lieutenant Colonel Tekin Ewari. He runs the terrorist equivalent of networking website. His customers request orders for, say, a nuclear physicist, and he gives them the best offer, for a small finder's fee."

"Jesus," Undersecretary Feinlin muttered under his breath.

The Mossad chief cleared his throat at the name's mention. "Actually, speaking of which, one of his go betweens in your country is a one Jesus Alvarez. Mr. Alvarez is a Mexican-American expatriate living in Montreal. Our intel shows he was contacted to bring an unknown container into your country before the attacks began. From his profile, it looks like he probably thought they were either drugs or a crate of AK 47s."

Lambert glanced at his watch briefly and stood up. "Gentlemen, I hate to leave so abruptly, but I need to get back to my post." The 3E operations director then turned to his aide in the corner. "Franklin. Get the rest of what's said here. Ambassador, it was a pleasure meeting you."

As the Colonel reached the door, he stopped for a moment and stated bluntly "Oh, and your two missing agents are safe, Micha. They were rescued by the same men who got me an agent back."

The surprised diplomat stared at his Mossad chief who responded "Thank you."

December 8, 2007

Hereford, England

There were a few things Sam hated: the killing of civilians, his daughter's need to reorganize his living room when she visited, and April Fools Day. If there had to be a number four on the list, he'd place being in a hospital in its appropriate spot. As one of the attending physicians examined Fisher's chest wounds, Sam's earpiece and OPSAT were brought in on a tray, right next to a complete English breakfast. Sam could hear the buzzing vibration of the OPSAT, indicating that he was being paged. "Excuse me, doctor. I have to take this call," Fisher stated.

As the doctor got up and walked out of the room, the aging splinter cell put the device on his ear and lay the OPSAT next to him. "Lambert, I've got to tell you. This vacation is amazing. Sightseeing historical landmarks. England's nice, too. I'm loving the beans for breakfast."

"This is no time for sarcasm, Sam."

"On the contrary," Fisher interjected, while taking a bite of toast with some beans, tomato, and eggs on it. "I was serious about the beans."

Lambert sighed and finally asked "What did the doctors say?"

"Nothing serious, they say. A few bruises on my face, busted nose, broken rib. I've had worse. Of course, the magen David on my chest will likely be permanent-"

The 3E director confusedly interrupted, repeating "Magen David? What's that?"

"Those two Mossad agents I was with, they said the hexagram that was carved into me looked like a magen David, the shield of David. You know, the star thing on their flag."

"Speaking of Mossad, you have a new mission should you choose to leave your vacation on hold for a few more days. My other assets are all busy."

"Sure Lambert… Where to now?"

"You're going to love this," Lambert prepared his operative. "There's military installation in Malatya, Turkey waiting for you."

"I'll take it… Just curious, Lambert; why did you have RAINBOW come and rescue me? What happened to the 'if you're captured the government will disavow knowledge of your existence, etc'?"

"Two reasons: If we found you and the people who caught you, we would have a better idea of who's behind the attacks. Second, well… Eh, just call it a Hanukkah gift."

"Lambert, I know you know full well neither of us is Jewish; hell, I'm agnostic."

Lambert paused for a moment, and replied "Fine, it's Kwanza. Just be glad you're alive. Rest up and be ready for deployment."

December 10, 2007

Malatya, Turkey

Deep in the southeastern portion of Turkey, lay the destination at hand. Malatya's military roots date back to the times of Rome, when the city was used as a base of operations for the Twelfth legion. At the time, its duty was to defend the Eastern part of the territory and keep order nearby; now, the city was home to the Turkish Second Army. Sam had been to this installation before, though back then he still wore dog tags. The splinter cell noticed, as peeked from under the chassis of a moving transport vehicle, that the place hadn't changed much. Ah, the memories.

The truck stopped near the garrison, giving Fisher a chance to get off. His primary objective was to eavesdrop on a conversation between Ewari and his unknown contact in the Turkish military. The meeting was set to go down in the command building, courtesy of a joint operation by the CIA and Mossad; the usual "secure room" for such meetings was flooded by the sprinkler system during an "unauthorized test." Since no one, not even the operatives in place could get to the conversation; it was Sam's job to take unofficial minutes.

Sam skulked silently next to the guard post and peered inside; the sergeant on duty was on high alert, eyeing everything in front of him with suspicion. Fisher contemplated taking the sentry out, but decided against it. Instead, he used his OCP to take out the electronics in the booth by taking aim at the circuit panel. With the lights and cameras temporarily disabled, Sam made his way to a nearby air vent and climbed up. He barely had his legs in the metal tube when a familiar voice echoed in his head. "You're going to need to find an alternate route to the objective, Sam," Grim bluntly stated into the implant. "We just got word that a section is getting redone."

"Was there any reason why I wasn't told this until after I got in the damn thing?"

"The CIA's asset was late with his weekly update. If you go to the end of the vent, it will take you to a shell of a room. There shouldn't be anyone nearby, so you can make your way in by foot."

The splinter cell did as suggested without a word. The room was like a wooden cell, consisting of only wooden bars in a perfectly square formation, a door, dust and tools. At the other end of the door lay a tall, narrow hallway lined with identical doors with little or no identification on them. After looking around for a moment, the splinter cell performed a split jump to keep him clear over any potential heads. The hallway was lit by one plain 60 watt bulb, or used to be before Sam unscrewed it just enough to disable it. Now, the area was shrouded in near total darkness.

Beyond the hall was a sparsely lit foyer, equally as stark and skeletal as the hall. The objective was beyond the main door of the foyer, but it was guarded by an armed MP at a desk; the desk had a CCTV system of its own, with one of the cameras aimed at the foyer and soon-to-be waiting room. Luckily, the upper window above the door was not installed; a simple shot with the sticky camera solved the sound and visibility problem.

Inside, Fisher could see a nice cedar desk with Ewari sitting behind it. Opposite Ewari were three individuals: one was a European man who wore an expensive, bulletproof suit; the one to his far right was a Chinese man with a brief case on his lap; in between the two men was a seemingly out of place man clad in camouflage, body armor, and a balaclava.

"The gang's all here," Lambert noted in Sam's head. "This is pure gold that they'd all be in one place."

"Who am I dealing with, Lambert?"

"The Chinese man is a lawyer named Jin Mao. He's been one of Yanovalinko's biggest suppliers for years. His work with overseas contracts led him to run across Ewari's broth-"

."They're starting to talk, Lambert," Fisher interrupted when he heard some chatter.

"So my men will be safe here?" the man in camouflage asked.

"Yes," Ewari responded. "I've pulled enough strings to get them all visas. What about your end of the bargain, Mr. Frenaux?"

This time, it was the European man who spoke. "Everything's going to be alright. We have enough 'leads' in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria to keep everyone happy and unaware."

"Beautiful! On that note, I'm afraid I must apologize for my rudeness; I have to get my staff report in by 0400. My guard can show you gentlemen out."

Lambert resumed his semi-delayed briefing. "My God, Fisher. I've got to notify the President about this. We've just opened up a whole new can of worms."

"Lambert, what's going on?"

"That French man happens to be the director of operations for INTERPOL. And I have a suspicion that man in the body armor is the man who orchestrated the attacks."

"What do you want me to do?" Sam asked.

"Try to grab our commando friend; see what he is willing to say."

Before Fisher could think to move, he heard a trio of strangely familiar sound come from his sticky camera feed. He looked into the image and saw the Chinese lawyer bleeding heavily from the neck and chest; it looked like Frenaux had executed one of his co-conspirators. Both he and Ewari were pointing semiautomatic pistols at the masked terrorist, whose own weapon was now being laid on the ground. "Lambert, I think we have a double cross on our hands."

As soon as Sam finished his sentence, he heard a cascade of footsteps underneath him; 8 SWAT-type officers stormed through the hallway and into the foyer and subsequent meeting room. On their backs were emblazoned the letters INTERPOL. In a near perfect movement, they officers breached the door, handcuffed the terrorist, and engaged in a standoff with Ewari. For seconds, the lieutenant colonel refused to put his gun down. It wasn't until one of the officers used a bean-bag round on the Turkish man that the stand-off ended. "Make that a triple cross," Lambert noted.

"Is it safe to assume my mission's changed?"

"Yes; get the hell out of there. Fifth freedom with anyone, unless it can be avoided."

Sam peered down and evaluated his options. He determined his best option would be a CS smoke grenade/flash-bang combination. Right before the flash-bang detonated, Sam covered his ears and closed his eyes; after, he jumped down and grabbed the closest SWAT officer. As his comrades were still reeling from the stun grenade and just feeling the effects of the tear gas, the poor man was being pulled into the darkness by the SIGINT ninja. "How many of your buddies are outside of here?"

"W-what?"

"I didn't stutter. Tell me how many of your buddies are outside this building in three seconds or you're going to have a new breathing hole."

"Two teams of two.. They're making sure no one escapes through the north or south do-"

With no time to spare, Sam knocked out his captive. At this point, Sam ran to the air vent he had arrived in and took it outside. After looking around and noticing no enemies nearby, he jumped out and made his way toward truck bay… only to find a large group of soldiers congregating near them. Moments later, Grim's voice popped into the splinter cell's head. "Sam, it looks like there is a small helicopter in idle on the helipad 34 meters south of your position; it's your only way out of here."

While he could've replied with an appropriate remark, Sam decided against it. Instead he grudgingly made his way toward the helipad. Remarkably, there was almost no one to be seen around the new objective, save for the pilot in the cockpit. Fisher looked around once more and made a run for it; in seconds, he was sitting in the co-pilot seat with his 5.7 in the face of a scared pilot. Pretty soon the small chopper was in the air, on its way south.

December 10, 2007

Fort Meade, Maryland

Lambert finished typing up a small report he'd need to give to the president when he looked at the nearest television; on it was the 24 hour news station WNM with its usual anchor at the desk. "A spokesperson for the International Criminal Police Organization said that it, in conjunction with law enforcement officers of the Turkish Gendarmerie arrested two key figures in the recent December 5th attacks. A third suspect was shot and mortally wounded in the confrontation. Sources have even stated that the director of INTERPOL himself put his life on the line to assist in the apprehension of the suspects, serving a warrant ahead of the officers involved in the raid itself. Turkish military officials refused to comment when asked-"

At that point, the director of operations of Third Echelon decided to turn off the television and print his report, sighing at the upcoming mess he and everyone would face.