3
The ERU
The door of the Las Vegas apartment flung open quickly and SWAT members and FBI ran through the door.
"FBI!" one of the agents yelled as he came into the room. But there was only silence in the apartment. SWAT quickly started to clear each room making sure there was no one in the apartment. Finally someone yelled,
"Clear!" and the FBI agents holstered their weapons.
"Let's start working on this place." One of the agents said. They immediately got an inspection team up into the apartment and the two agents went straight for the computer that was in the living room.
"This is Jonathan Bate's computer. This might be exactly what we are looking for." One of the agents said. Luckily the computer was already logged into. The agent sitting at the computer started looking through the computer until he found what he was looking for.
"This should be it." He said when he found the file. He opened it and there were several files with codenames like: Vegas, John Brown and Operation GB. The agent quickly transferred the file names to the agency like protocol demanded then he clicked on the file. Bu there was something in the way. The access into the file was encrypted.
"Damn!" the agent said loudly. "The files are encrypted." The other agent walked up behind the first agent and started typing.
"This is easy stuff. It shouldn't take that long to crack." He continued to type and nothing seemed to be happening. Suddenly the file started to become unencrypted. All the words that seemed to be nonsense started making absolute sense. The agent started reading one of the files and gasped at what he was seeing.
"We've got to report this. It could mean…" he was interrupted by a sudden beeping noise coming from the computer and a notice that popped up on the screen.
"What the hell is that?" one of the agents said. The notification was encrypted at first but then started to unencrypt like the files had before. The words slowly started to make sense.
"By the time you read this entire thing..." one of the agents started reading but stopped when he read the last words.
…You will be dead.
Suddenly the computer exploded right in the agent's faces blowing them across the room. The explosion was big and the explosion incinerated the entire room.
"Bates! This is over!" Captain Logan Keller shouted through the wooden door of the hotel suite in Las Vegas.
Inside the suite was a man named Jonathan Bates. Bates had come into the hotel with a pack of C4 strapped to his chest and two automatic pistols. Luckily he only had minimal security with him and Keller and Rainbow 6 easily killed the rest of his "Freedom Fighters". Bates instead of blowing himself up, he panicked and ran up to the suites. He took the occupants of the suite hostage saying if any police or Rainbow came into the room he would blow the C4. This was the part of Logan's job that he needed to be calm.
"I read you and your groups file Jonathan. You call yourself freedom fighters, people who wanna change this government, thinking it's too corrupt! But you're not the type to come into a building intending to blow it up. That's why you didn't blow in the lobby and that's why you're not gonna blow in there!" Logan shouted. Though he shouted, his mind was in slow motion thinking of the negotiation strategies he was taught such a long time ago.
"Logan, probably three minutes." A voice said from Logan's earpiece. Logan barely acknowledged. He kept his eyes on the door possibly thinking that if he stared at it for a while it might magically open.
But magic wasn't an option here.
"Now you've got police everywhere, you are surrounded."
"Logan, you're making him feeling trapped. The more trapped he feels the more likely he's gonna blow that C4 planted on his chest" The voice of the Hostage Negotiation Specialist, Nancy Housen, that was down below in the streets. Bates had destroyed the phone lines and there wasn't enough time to get her up to talk to her so she was coaching Logan on how he would do this.
But Logan knew exactly what he was doing.
"This isn't what your Freedom Fighters group is about. You believe in altering this government, not blowing it up. So I'm thinking this isn't you. Someone is putting you up to this. Who is it, we can help you."
"Ready to take the shot Logan." The voice in his earpiece said.
"No negative, we need him alive!" Logan yelled. But he knew the rookie was gonna take the shot anyway. He quickly kicked the door open.
The room was large with large windows looking out onto the strip of Las Vegas. Hostages stood up against the window in Bate's fear of snipers but the rookie Isaac Owens was at a higher elevation so he had a perfect shot on Bates. Bates stood in the middle of the room with an automatic pistol pointed at the door and in the other shaking hand was a trigger for the C4 packed on his chest.
Logan rushed into the room firing his USP pistol down lower toward Bate's legs. His first shot his Bates in the legs and he collapsed to the ground while firing in the air. There was a deafening shot that came from outside the building. Logan quickly jumped to his left and the bullet from the sniper clinked against the ground. Bates got up and pointed his pistol at Logan. The dive left Logan disoriented for a few moments. Had Bate's pistol not been empty, Logan would have died right there. But the empty pistol clicked indicating it was empty. Bates groaned in frustration, tossed the pistol at Logan then raised the trigger so everyone could see it. Luckily the rookie saw it and fired once again. Another deafening shot rang out and Bates cried out in pain.
"Rookie did you kill him?" Logan yelled panicking when Bates fell to the floor.
"Negative sir, just his arm." Isaac's voice said through his earpiece. Logan stood up and walked to the fallen Bates. He walked up to his body then saw his arm was decapitated from the elbow. Logan saw a few feet away was the rest of his arm with his hand still clutching the trigger. Logan diverted his look to Bates again.
"I need a medical unit up here now!" Logan holstered his USP and crouched next to Bates. He pulled a roll of bandages from his belt and started wrapping the bloody end of his arm. Bates had slipped into shock the moment he saw his arm and fell unconscious.
"Where is that damn Medical unit?" Logan yelled again. He finished wrapping the stub as the medical unit came it. They quickly pushed Logan away and started working on Bates.
"I need him alive!" Logan commanded. The unit ignored him and continued to work on him. Logan waited for a while but then turned to face the hostages. Most of them were still pressed up against the window and others had ducked for cover.
"Can I have everyone's attention please?" Logan said so all the hostages could hear him.
"My name is Captain Keller, I'm with Rainbow 6, I'm here to get you out of here. Everyone move toward the door in an orderly fashion and move to the base of the building, use the staircase, not the elevator. My partner will be waiting for you at the bottom."
"Logan we need you at the bottom as well, I'm making a quick pickup." Another voice said in Logan's ear. The voice belonged to the Rainbow 6 intelligence officer, Nathan Cornel. The familiar British voice was a voice Logan commonly heard in his ear even before he was appointed Team Leader. Logan started his way out toward the staircase. He clicked his ear and said,
"Nathan, what's going on?"
"There's a situation that we've been called into, it has to do with Jonathan Bates. Secretary of Defense Mason called us onto this one himself. In fact he'll be briefing you when you get to the chopper. Hurry, the rookie and Michael are already here."
"I'll get right to it Keller." Frank Mason said on the screen of the Rainbow 6 helicopter. The helicopter lifted into the air and started moving very quickly over the strip. "This morning the FBI was sifting through Jonathan Bate's apartment. When they looked on his computer they found several encrypted emails. When they unencrypted them, the computer exploded and all the information and our agents were gone. The agents were dead from the explosion. The only thing they sent us was the names of the files. The files were entitled, Vegas, John Brown and Operation GB."
"Do you know what any of those mean?" Michael Walters, the demolitions specialist of the Rainbow teams asked.
"Well we have a hunch the Vegas file was referring to today's deal at the hotel, the only other file name we recognize is John Brown. We have no guarantees but it might be connected to the recent terrorist group that FBI raided a few days ago, but that's unlikely because the JBA was not on Jonathan Bate's known associates and the same for the JBA's known associates. The only lead we have is demolitions used on the computer. They were custom made and luckily…" the secretary was about to finish his sentence when Logan interrupted.
"They are easily tracked if identified right."
"Exactly Captain Keller. And we hit this one right on the head. They were made in a Mexican border town called Nuevo Laredo. The explosives were made by a man by the name of Philippe Ortega at his appliance store in Nuevo Laredo. Unfortunately The Mexican government is being stingy about the whole ordeal and is not allowing American forces into the country without going through the paper work we don't have the time to fill out." The secretary informed them. Keller already knew what the Secretary was gonna say.
"So you want us to go in there as civilians and bring him across the border without notifying Mexican authorities." He took the words out of Secretary Mason's mouth.
"Exactly. Now I know this is a risky mission. If you're caught…" Logan interrupted the Secretary once again and said,
"No Mr. Secretary. We wanna bring down this organization and make sure none of those files are pulled out if they threaten National Security.
"Thank you Captain Keller and good luck. Your Mexican contact is a woman by the name of Ingrid. She'll find you once you're across the border and give you your necessary weapons." Then the secretary disappeared from the screen and Logan looked at Nathan. Nathan had a concerned look on his face that Logan had come to recognize in the small time they had worked together.
"Put us down in Laredo Texas. We'll go across the border and then we'll go from there."
Sam woke on a carpet floor. His coat and sweatshirt had been removed. His shoes and socks were in front of him in front of a fireplace.
"Sam Fisher." A voice said from behind him. Sam quickly was alert and jumped to his feet. But his efforts were quickly diminished when he felt a hard rod hit him in the back of the head. He collapsed to the floor once again but this time in front of somebody's feet. Sam looked up and saw a man that was older than Sam probably in his mid-sixties. He had grey hair that was neatly cut unlike most of the men that surrounded Sam. They all had dirty long hair and with some, Sam couldn't know if that was their actual hair color or just dirt.
"My name is Desmond. That's all you'll know me by, that's all you'll know about me." The man said crouching down to near to Sam. He spoke with an Irish accent and with indication from mumbles that Sam heard from the rest of the men, he guess they did too.
"Where am I?" Sam asked grabbing his head. Desmond smiled and stood back up.
"Ireland Mr. Fisher. And now I ask the questions. Not you. Cooney tells me you worked with Emile Dufraisne, very closely actually. And yet when the FBI raids the JBA, Emile ended up dead and you survive free as a fucking bird. How does that happen?"
"I escaped how hard is that for you to comprehend?" Sam said basically telling the truth. Only leaving out the part where he killed Emile himself. "Emile was too stupid to not only set off the nuke in the base but wait for the cops to come and take him out."
Desmond stood and walked across the room to a window.
"Well Sam even though your story is far fetched I must believe you so my objectives may be carried out."
"What do you mean?"
Without looking Desmond said, "My organization wasn't directly business partners with Emile but we were partners with Alejandro and just before Alejandro was arrested he sent Cooney to my organization with the location of a weapon that my organization could use any target we wanted. We've already set the target but we need the weapon."
"What kind of weapon is this?" Sam asked. He was reaching for some kind of lead.
"Not your concern at this moment. While you were with Emile he set you up with an retinal account with the JBA right?" Cooney asked.
"Yes. But it was only for the complex."
"And one last more thing. Alejandro intended to use this weapon for another strike with Emile. They called it, Operation Aftershock." Desmond explained. "The weapon is kept in a vault that can only be opened by a JBA member's retinal scan. Now that Alejandro's organization is in crumbles the weapon belongs to me. That's why I need you Mr. Fisher."
"You need my retinal ID. What do I get out of this?" A larger terrorist pulled out a switch blade and said,
"Would you rather we take the ID by force?" Sam wasn't shaken by the threat.
"I'll give you the scan if you get me a ride out of the US to a foreign country of my choice and never contact me again." Sam said. There was a silence. Sam kept his eyes on Desmond waiting to see if he would give a nod that would give the bigger terrorist the go ahead to cut out Sam's eye. Sam wasn't looking forward to that.
But Desmond didn't nod. He had seen something outside. Cooney came up to him and whispered something in his ear. Desmond listened then whispered something in his ear.
Suddenly Desmond was alert. He turned to Sam and said,
"Very well Mr. Fisher. Gear up, you'll help us out of here." Sam didn't know what was going on but he saw his bag tossed to him so he quickly opened it and armed himself. He pulled on a shoulder holster over his black shirt and then holstered his Five-seveN. He then pulled his SC-20K out and started to load it. Once loaded he clipped it to his back then pulled his knife out.
"Forget the rest Sam." Desmond's voice said from behind him. He had gone into the next room and grabbed a Desert Eagle.
"What's going on?"
"The ERU is here. We've been compromised. Get ready to shoot your way out Fisher. Follow Me." Desmond ran to the door and opened it to a staircase where Cooney and some other terrorists were in ski masks. Sam followed Desmond toward Cooney and the rest where he was handed a Ski mask. Sam quickly put it on and so did Desmond.
"Alright, let's go." Desmond whispered leading the group down the stairs. Sam pulled out his Five-seveN and stood behind Cooney. The group of terrorists moved like a Special Forces unit which surprised Sam. The moved down the stairs quickly. They entered a large room with a table in the middle, a fireplace to the right and a door at each corner. At the opposite side of the room was a set of large doors.
Suddenly those doors burst open and men in armor and silenced weapons appeared at the end of it. Desmond was the first to fire. With one quick shot, one of the ERU members was hit. One ERU member tossed a small grenade into the room.
"Shield your eyes!" Desmond called but it was too late. The flash bang grenade went off and Sam's eyes were blinded for a moment. There was also a ringing that blotted out all sound but some how he heard a voice out of the ringing.
"Create a smoke shield!" Cooney commanded. Sam felt something hard hit him and knock him to the floor. By the time his sight came back there was only one plume of smoke and he tasted carpet again. He looked around and saw Cooney, Desmond and the other terrorists that weren't shot dead were on the ground in handcuffs.
There was a lot of yelling and swearing but finally Sam was cuffed and pulled and against the wall by an ERU officer.