A/N: Since I'll be throwing around some unfamiliar names, I've decided to mark them with asterisks and have their identities revealed at the bottom of the chapter. Cheers and R&R! GR
Carter Mason and Rosie Fiore* had just survived through another terrorist attack in Chechnya, and they had to endure two grown men shout at each other like two brats fighting over the newest toy. But when a Krakozhian computer engineer told them to come to his superiors' office immediately without explaining the reason why, they couldn't help but wonder what was in store for them right now.
"Faster, comrades!" shouted Private Rostislav Abramov as he ran. "They don't like to wait."
"I haven't run this fast since Botswana!" said Carter through gasps of air.
Although Abramov was an obvious nerd, he was still faster than both women, and he beat them to the lieutenants' office. "Private Abramov with Agents Mason and Fiore, Comrade Lieutenant," he said as he entered.
"Good," replied Senior Lieutenant Lev Arigov. "Get suited up with the rest of the gang. We have a rebel to take down."
Carter and Rosie arrived at the lieutenants' office just a few moments later. "What is it?" asked Carter. "What are you calling us for?"
"What do you think?" asked Arigov in reply. "Didn't you discover this plot to overthrow the Chechen government?"
"Actually, we have not discovered any plot against the Chechen government," replied Rosie, "but we did learn the identity of the man who is leading these rebels against you and the Chechens."
"Congratulations, you've finally learned that Shamil Basayev* is the leader of the Chechen rebels," Vyacheslav Klimov said sarcastically.
"Uh, Vyacheslav, Basayev retired back in 2009," Arigov whispered to him in Russian.
"Oops."
"Forgive Vyacheslav, he doesn't take kindly to foreigners," Lev apologized. "Is the name of your supposed rebel leader Timothy James Laurent Cotton?"
Although he pronounced the name in a funny way, Carter could still understand the gist of what he said. "Yes," she replied. "That's the guy."
"I knew it. We've had this guy under surveillance ever since we got here. And we keep hearing all kinds of anti-government crap from him. 'We must band together to bring down these Western puppets!', 'That Zionist infidel in the Capitol must die!', 'This is all a plot for the Americans to control the world!', and other things that would get you thrown into prison just for thinking it. We've been trying to nab this guy ever since we got here, but General Yevin wants more than just anti-government spewing before he gives us the go signal. But what you found with Private Abramov was more than good enough. Now, all we need to do is bust him." He picked up two bulletproof vests and threw them to the women. "Get suited up. We want to show you how to do a takedown our way."
Carter and Rosie slipped on the vests and followed Arigov and Klimov as they boarded a black truck with no markings. They noticed that all of them were wearing black coveralls underneath their armor, making their civilian clothes stand out. They also saw that they were the only ones who had no weapons.
"It's for your safety," Arigov told them when Rosie asked him why. "We wouldn't want our foreign guests to hurt themselves, do we?" He then laughed a little and returned to his ready state.
The truck suddenly stopped, and the driver knocked on the divider to let them know that they were at their destination. They got off quietly, and they moved into the apartment building where Tim Cotton was staying. As they climbed up to the third floor, Arigov opened his radio and asked softly, "How are you doing over there, Rostislav?"
"We have four men in the apartment beside his," replied Abramov. "We're listening in on their conversation."
"What are they talking about right now?"
"Sorky has just introduced Ballall to Cotton. They're currently on good terms, but I think Ballall has just asked for an increase in his pay."
"Good." Arigov, Klimov, Carter, and Rosie lined up on the left side of Cotton's apartment's door. "Anything else?"
"Wait; this is interesting. They're talking about the attack on the Capitol this morning. Sorky says that the rebels were fools for trying to shoot through the Capitol's thick walls. Ballall agrees with him, and he says that the rebels should have used a rifle with a telescopic sight to kill Tarenin."
"So our Liberian train engineer is experienced with snipers and their rifles. Keep me posted."
"Yes, Lieutenant."
To the sergeant opposite him, Arigov said, "Do it." The sergeant placed a block of explosive below the doorknob, attached a detonating cord, and ran it out into the hallway before connecting it to a detonator. He flashed a thumbs-up, and Arigov said, "Now!"
Arigov's command had barely begun to register in Carter's mind when a loud explosion shook the third floor, and splinters of wood flew in all directions. Someone—a man or a woman, she couldn't tell—screamed, and through the smoke, she could see Arigov and Klimov throw a flashbang grenade each into the doorway. If the explosion that blew the door away didn't confuse those inside, then the flashbangs would. The Krakozhians entered the apartment in pairs, just as they were trained to do and just as they had done on so many occasions across the Chechen Republic. That left Carter and Rosie standing there alone, until a hand waved them into the room.
The carnage that had once been Tim Cotton's apartment was not as surprising as when Carter and Rosie had done their first room breach. The door looked more like toothpicks and firewood by now, and the wall that it had smashed into had cracked and was showing its innards in a dozen or so places. The coffee table was cut in half by one flashbang, while the other made its mark on the television—literally. It had cracked the screen and scorched the silver finish.
Sorky, Ballall, and Cotton were seated in the kitchen—the center of every Russian home—which had protected them from the initial blast and the consequent flashbangs, but the noise of both events had put them all in a panic, and before they could fight or flee, they were rudely shoved out of their chairs, dropped to the floor, handcuffed, and had guns pointed to the back of their heads.
"Zdravstvulte, gospodin Cotton," said Arigov. "We've had our eyes on you for a very long time."
"What is this?" asked Cotton. "You cannot do this to me! I am a recognized foreign dignitary sent by the Republic of Liberia to our consulate here in the Chechen Republic!"
"Yes, you are that, Mr. Cotton, but you are also guilty of conspiracy to commit theft, attempted theft of state property, and of course state treason and rebellion against the Chechen Republic and the Russian Federation. Take them away!"
"No!" Cotton continued to shout. "This is oppression! You will hear from President Sirleaf* about this!" Sorky and Ballall, both having experienced being arrested before, didn't say and do much, knowing that it could only worsen their situation. Just before he went out, Sorky stared at Carter and Rosie, and then he was pushed away by the Krakozhian troopers.
"So, what do you think?" Lev asked them once they had cleaned up the apartment.
"Nicely done," was all that Carter could say.
"What she said," replied Rosie, "although you could have used those new door-busting explosives that is so popular with the American Marines today."
"True, but that was all that we had right now. Obama's* not yet willing to sell us some units yet."
Unknown to Carter, Rosie, Sorky, Ballall, Cotton, and the Krakozhians, a man inside an old Zaporozhets car was watching them all carefully. As they stepped out of the apartment building, he quickly took photographs of those involved, which were uploaded to the laptop on the passenger seat. He selected some pictures and then took his cell phone and placed a call.
"Yes?" the man at the other end asked.
"Sir," the man replied, "our man has been burned."
Miles away, Lavrenty Timofeyenko sat up on his bed. Beside him, the woman that he had picked up in the local whorehouse groaned and turned away from him. "Which one?" he asked. "We have lots of those."
"It's the Liberian in Chechnya," the man replied. "The Krakozhians have picked him up, along with our train driver and rebel."
"Do you have photos?"
"I am sending them over now."
Timofeyenko walked over to his computer and opened his inbox. "I have them," he told the man. "I will present them to our employer first thing in the morning."
"Yes, sir. I believe it is an inconvenient time for you, sir."
"It is, my friend."
"Do you want me to do anything for our men here? Break them out, bail them out, what?"
"No, my friend. Do nothing. Maintain your cover there, but return here as fast as you can."
"As you say, sir."
"Good. So long for now."
After the call was ended, the man carefully packed his laptop and camera away before speeding off into the night.
*I prefer Rosie's real surname to her other one (Gonzalez)
*Shamil Basayev is the leader of the Chechen separatists
*Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the President of Liberia
*Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America (for those of you who live in a cave)