2

Sam Fisher: Hero Or Terrorist

Sam Fisher disappeared from the screen in the NSA conference room and the entire room was silent for a few moments. In the conference room were the people Sam Fisher had requested to see the video, President David Bowers, Secretary of Defense Frank Mason, Director of Operations Lawrence Williams, and Colonel Irving Lambert. The President sat at the far end of the conference table. He had a few reports in front of him with the NSA insignia on it. The President was in his late fifties having grey hair and no facial hair. He wore a black suit and a red tie.

Frank Mason sat to the left of him. Frank Mason was a tad taller than the President and had brown hair that was graying slowly. He also wore a black suit but had on a blue tie instead.

Lawrence Williams sat to the right of the President. He had been promoted to Director of Operations when Lambert disappeared helping Sam with his mission. It was too soon after the incident for Williams to know if he would keep that position even though Lambert was in the same room with him. Williams was against the double agent position Fisher was put into and was waiting for any opportunity to pull the plug on the operation. He came dangerously close when Lambert stepped down and disappeared to be somewhat of a field runner for Fisher. Williams was younger than both the President and Mason.

Irving Lambert and Hisham stood on either side of the screen waiting for the President or Mason's response. Lambert had a few cuts on his face and his arm was in a sling. Those injuries were from his capture by the JBA. He would have died if Sam hadn't blown his cover that night. Hisham was the youngest one there and wasn't technically suppose to be in this conference due to his age and his CIA status. But due to the circumstances that Fisher put him in, Lambert requested he stayed and sat in on the conference.

"Mr. President?" Lambert finally said breaking the silence. The President looked up at Lambert. He sighed and shook his head.

"This clears a lot of questions but from the report I've gotten from both you and Director Williams I can not say that this man is an innocent man. That's overlooking the fact that his supposed NOC status is nowhere to be seen on his file. Up against a court, there is not enough evidence to prove that Sam Fisher was working undercover."

Lambert silently growled. He was enraged that the NOC status was unexplainably erased. It made Sam look like he was actually an associate of the JBA. Lambert thought he could use the information Fisher collected during his time undercover but it wouldn't clear Sam of treason.

"Mr. President, there was an NOC status on Sam Fisher's file but it was erased some how." The Secretary of Defense almost laughed.

"Was some how erased?" He mocked. " How does that happen Colonel? NOC statuses don't just disappear." Lambert hesitated before the next words came from his mouth but he finally said it,

"I'm bringing forth a possibility that there might be someone in the NSA who wanted Sam Fisher convicted."

"You're saying there's a mole in the NSA?" The President said taking it very seriously unlike Williams and the Secretary of Defense.

"Colonel, the NSA are the people who find moles, if you had one on your team we would have known by now. I doubt if Agent Fisher was even granted a NOC status at all. If that were the case we should think of him as a terrorist and a threat to this country."

"How can you say that?" Hisham exclaimed out of his silence. Lambert had advised him not to say anything but this was too much for him. "Sam Fisher has served his country his entire life. The SEALS, CIA, Third Echelon, these are all the ways Sam Fisher has sacrificed everything for this country and you're just gonna let him loose as a terrorist?" The President was still undecided unlike Mason and Williams. He remained silent for a while until he looked up and said,

"I'm sorry but yes. Due to the lack of evidence supporting Sam's duty to his country and his resistance of arrest I have no choice but to convict him of treason against this country. If he's still in the country we need to find him and bring him to justice." Lambert's heart sank. His friend was now deemed a terrorist. "We need to use every asset we have to track down Sam Fisher and do whatever is necessary to make sure he doesn't threaten National Security." The President finished. He closed the file in front of him and stood up.

"Is that all?" Lambert didn't answer so Williams did for him. With a grin on his face he shook the President's hand and said,

"Yes Mr. President. Thank you for your time. The NSA will do everything in its power to find Sam Fisher."

"I hope so." The President mumbled. He exited the conference room with Mason right behind him. Once they had left and the door was closed Lambert looked at Williams with disgust.

"You wanted this to happen?" Williams acted like had no idea what Lambert was talking about.

"Excuse me?" he remarked.

"You never agreed with Sam's methods or the operation itself and just because it continued against your will you wanna bring down Sam." Lambert accused. Williams kept a straight face and shook his head.

"True I didn't agree with the methods but since I never saw Sam's NOC status I can only assume he never had one." Lambert was about to say Williams had seen the NOC status but now that he thought about it, only Lambert had seen that file before the NOC status was erased. He couldn't prove anything. Williams shook his head once again.

"I didn't want to say this yet Colonel but you've been relieved of your position as Director of Operations, permanently. The NSA thinks you've done your job well and its time for new management. You don't need to worry about this anymore. You can go home, you're done." Lambert was shocked for a few moments but Hisham wasn't.

"You can't do this! The Colonel has been doing a damn good job!"

"He has but the Joint Chiefs believe his injuries and connection with Fisher are too much for him to handle. They think with his record this might be a good opportunity for the Colonel to be relieved." Williams explained. "Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to work." He didn't let Hisham protest. He retreated from the room casually leaving Lambert shocked in a chair and Hisham exploding with anger.

Anna Grimsdóttír pulled up to the train yard a few miles away from NSA headquarters. It was out in the middle of nowhere and the closest person was on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Anna was in her mid-thirties but looked younger. She had brown hair just above her shoulders and had green eyes. She wore a brown skirt and a white dress shirt. Over the shirt was a brown jacket matching her skirt. She sat in her Subaru Forester just outside the abandoned train yard. There were several overturned train cars and dead end tracks leading nowhere. Anna got an encrypted email from a Mortified Penguin .0. She usually would have deleted the email thinking it was spam but the address name caught her eye. Mortified Penguin was the alias of a mercenary by the name of Norman Soth. He was a mercenary of a terrorist organization that Third Echelon took down back in 2006.

Anna

There are a few questions I need to ask.

Train yard a few miles out of Fort Meade.

Come alone or not at all. I'll know if you're alone.

Mortified Penguin .0

Anna wasn't sure why she came. Curiosity probably. Usually when a terrorists using a silly alias like Mortified Penguin is taken out that's the last you hear of that name. Suddenly her cell phone that was attached just above the stereo started to vibrate. The ID read,

Unknown Caller

Anna considered not answering but she picked it up and said,

"Grimsdóttír." She barely finished the name when a scrambled voice came on.

"Get out of the car slowly and open all the doors of the car." Anna had heard this demand before. It was to make sure nobody was in the car with her. She slowly opened the door and got out of the car. She then quickly but carefully opened all the doors of the car including the trunk. She had the cell phone tightly pressed against her ear the entire time. When all the doors were opened the voice said,

"No walk ten feet from the car and place the keys on the ground. Slowly." Anna complied and put her keys on the ground. There was silence from the other line for a few moments then it went dead.

"Hello?" She called. She looked all around the train yard for any other person around. Suddenly an overturned train car's door opened and there was only darkness in the car. Anna wasn't armed with any weapon and now she wished she was. She didn't know what was coming from the car. She slowly started to walk toward it, very cautiously. Suddenly from the car came a long narrow suppressed Five-seveN pistol pointed straight at Anna. Anna froze when she saw it thinking she was going to be shot. But from the train car came a man Anna knew wasn't going to kill her.

"Sam?" she almost yelled. Sam put his finger up to his lips to make her quiet down. He scanned the area once again and slowly advanced toward Anna, his pistol still raised. Sam was dressed in black pants, a black shirt, a grey hoodie over that and a black leather jacket over that. His hair was very short and he had the sprouts of a beard growing on his face. Anna slowly stepped closer to Sam and said,

"Sam, it's okay nobody else came." She reassured but Sam wasn't satisfied yet. He grabbed Anna and pulled her into the train car and closed the door. It was dark for a few moments then there was a click and a hanging light bulb turned on. Inside the train car was a black mat, a laptop on a crate and a black messenger bag next to it.

"It should be safe to talk in here." Sam said sitting down on another crate. "Sorry for the extra precautions…" Anna interrupted him and said,

"No I understand why. When I saw Mortified Penguin I wasn't sure it was you." Anna smiled. Sam didn't. He walked over to his laptop and accessed the Internet. He went onto the FBI homepage then went to the top ten most wanted.

"Number four." He said solemnly. Anna walked over to the laptop and looked at the screen. She had see the FBI most wanted many times but this time there was a familiar face on the fourth spot. There on number four was Sam's picture looking back at her. It was the mug shot Sam had taken when he was thrown in Ellsworth State Penitentiary.

"They're saying I'm a terrorist now." Sam commented, "I don't understand it. I saw the NOC status put on my file. That should clear my name of any acts I did while undercover." Anna was speechless for a while but then said,

"Well we can fix this. With your testimony…"

"My testimony isn't worth shit." Sam cursed. "Without the NOC status it looks like I joined the JBA and abandoned the NSA. It doesn't matter if I helped take the JBA down. They still see me as a terrorist." He finished then turned to Anna. "I need some help Anna."

She gave him a sad look and said,

"Sam. You know how much I want to help you but if I do anything beyond Williams authority I could be called a terrorist as well."

"Williams? Then I take it Lambert's dead then." Sam said sadly. Anna quickly shook her head and said,

"No, no, no, Lambert's fine. He's got some cuts and bruises but he should be fine. Williams had him relieved and he took his position. Williams runs Third Echelon now." Though it was good news that Lambert was alive, Sam cursed that Williams had taken over Third Echelon.

"So Lambert can't help us." He said sadly. Anna sighed. She knew Lambert would want to help but without his Director status he had no way of helping. If Sam involved him he would only get Lambert into trouble. Anna wasn't sure if she could help Sam at all either.

"I need you to keep me updated on everything that's going on in Third Echelon. Only someone within the agency could have erased my NOC status, you don't need to figure out who I'll do that." Anna was hesitant.

"Sam, we work in the NSA. There's no guarantee that wherever I'm sending this information they won't be able to track it. You could be risking your hiding." Not to mention my job, Anna thought to herself.

"That's why I made Mortified Penguin .0. If your message is encrypted the NSA won't be able to read it no matter how hard they try. I know that doesn't really make sense but believe me it'll work." Anna thought for a moment. If she did this she could very well go to jail for treason if she was caught. But Sam was her friend. How could she turn her back on him?

"Okay, I'll do it. What will you do?"

"Last week I got an email from a man named Dane Cooney. Cooney was supposedly working with Alejandro Takfir, one of Emile Defraisne's associates."

"But the FBI arrested Alejandro and Massoud wouldn't their terrorists organizations crumble?" Anna asked. Sam shrugged.

"Maybe but I don't wanna take the chance that they didn't. If it were under different circumstances I'd let NSA deal with this but I think Williams is too focused on catching me to do clean up on the other aspects of his operation. Cooney obviously doesn't know I was a double agent and I could possibly use that to my advantage. Now you better go." Anna nodded and embraced Sam. Sam barely embraced back. Anna then walked to the door of the car and opened it. She was about to walk out but Sam called,

"Anna!" She turned and looked at him.

"I need you to do one more thing for me." Anna was a little hesitant to accept. What she was already doing would be counted as treason already. But she answered,

"Yeah."

"There was a terrorist in the JBA that helped me defuse the bomb that night. Her name was Enrica Villablanca. Next time you email Mortified Penguin could you give me a status on her?" Anna smiled and said,

"Sure Sam."

President Bowers walked into the oval office with Frank Mason behind him. They had been driven from Fort Meade to DC in a couple hours. When the doors were closed and it was only the President, Mason and a Secret Service Officer, the President finally said,

"Do you think I made the right decision Frank?"

"I can truly say yes sir. Sam Fisher was working with the JBA and committed several acts of terror."

"But there is no doubt that Fisher was responsible for the downfall of the JBA. Lambert can testify that he shot a terrorist instead of shooting him and we have video proof from the JBA headquarters that Sam killed every terrorist in the compound and defused a bomb the leader of the organization was gonna set off."

"True but the fact that he wasn't working under a NOC status could possibly say he just didn't want to kill a friend so the only option is to kill the terrorist in the room. When he does that the rest of the organization turns on him. Fisher takes them out in order to survive. Fisher admitted to setting a bomb on a cruise ship, murdering a crew of a Russian supertanker and much more. That's all we need." The President understood what Mason was saying he just didn't want to believe it. Something didn't seem right about this.

Mason looked out the window and saw that it was already very dark.

"I suggest you get some rest Mr. President. You have the meeting with the British Prime Minister tomorrow in London. The President remembered suddenly. The British Prime Minister and him were to discuss a security agreement tomorrow. The President nodded and retired to his room.

"Yeah?" The voice on the other end of the headset said. Sam waited a few moments before he responded and then said,

"Is this Cooney?" Sam sat in car he "burrowed" from a nearby parking lot. He got extremely lucky with this one. The keys were still in the car. It was a Volvo S80 which Sam thought was a little strange that a nice car like that was left with keys in it. Sam knew where he could change the plates of the car with fake ones so after this phone call he would do that.

"Yeah, who's this?"

"Sam Fisher." He replied simply. There was a silence and then Cooney said,

"You shouldn't have called me."

"Why?" Sam said. Cooney had a low voice and he breathed hard when he was on the phone.

"All the cells were suppose to go to sleep after the attack of one of the other cells."

"I was new with the JBA, I wasn't very clear with all the regulations. Now are you gonna help me or not?" There was another silence followed by Cooney sighing and saying,

"Yeah that's what my email was about wasn't it?"

"Where do you wanna meet?" Sam said clearly.

"Whoa! we can't meet. That'll just draw attention to us." Cooney exclaimed. Sam was just getting annoyed with this guy now.

"Listen Cooney. After the attack the Feds are breaking down doors to find us JBA. I need some place to hide before they find me. Now if you want my help you're gonna have to set a meeting spot." That was the gamble Fisher was putting on. Cooney could easily hang up right there and Fisher would be back to step one. But luckily Cooney's voice came back on.

"Where are you?" he answered. Sam smiled, he had their attention.

"Maryland, I'm getting out of the country unless you guys are already here." Cooney didn't say anything but he hummed in concentration for a second but then he said,

"Ratsford airstrip, just a few miles out of Fort Meade. There will be a private jet waiting for you as well as a guy named Crow who directs our airlines out of Ratsford." Sam had to contain himself from laughing at the nickname.

"I'm on my way now."

Ratsford airstrip was barely an airstrip, more like a long stretch of concrete with vegetation growing on it, a small warehouse with a plane without a wing and a few biffs that had fallen on their sides. Sam stopped the car and pulled his messenger bag out with him. He left everything else in the car thinking he would come back to get it. Inside his bag was his SC-20K without any ammo in it, a pair of goggles, both things he grabbed from the JBA headquarters the night he broke cover, and his knife. Sam examined the airfield and put his bag on the ground. He crouched down and pulled out his knife and put it in the sheath on the back of his waist. He also put his pistol in his shoulder holster at his side. He pulled the bag over his shoulder and walked toward the strip. Suddenly he heard a slight bussing sound in the air. He looked up and saw a Cessna Citation Mustang VLJ Private Jet. It started to descend onto the tarmac and finally landed and stopped a few feet away from Sam. Sam started to walk toward the jet as the passenger door lowered. Out of the door came a man wearing a Fedora and had a big Remington Shotgun strapped to his back with a black strap. He wore clothes similar to Sam's with the black pants, black t-shirt and black leather jacket. The man himself wasn't intimidating, it was the Remington that intimidated Sam. Sam didn't have time to think if he should hide from this guy. He quickly saw Sam and his car and called out a few words in an Irish mumble. Then from the warehouse came a squad of men in masks. Most of them had Uzis pointed toward Sam.

"Get on the fucking ground!" They shouted from across the strip. Sam drew his pistol in a petty attempt to defend himself.

"What's going on? I talked with Dane Cooney, he said a jet would be waiting for me."

"Drop the gun!" shouted one of the men in the mask. All the men who were rushing him had slight Irish accents to them. Sam knew he was out manned and out gunned so he clicked the safety on the Five-seveN and then tossed it to the floor. He then got down on his knees and put his hands on his head.

"I surrender just chill out." Sam called but the men continued to rush him. One man picked up Sam's pistol with one hand and had his Uzi still pointed at Sam.

"Give us the bag!" another man in a mask shouted. Sam put the bag on the ground next to him. It barely touched the ground when it was swiped by one of the men. Sam didn't see where it went. The last thing he remembered was the sharp pain of something hard hitting the back of his head and the taste of concrete.