Background music suggestion: The Piano Guys, Lindsey Stirling: Mission Impossible
Chapter 12: Attempts
Immediately after the two teams had been captured, which had happened almost simultaneously, Orfeus contacted Cosmo and explained the situation. Having heard what had happened, he felt extremely nauseous for a moment. He could also hear from Orfeus' voice that he wasn't far from losing it. But then he immediately realized that neither of them were actually going to lose it for the sake of their comrades. They probably had a shot at rescuing them still.
In the case the mission should fail, Ian had ordered Orfeus to take whatever they had gathered and contact Hermann Grieg so that he would be retrieved as he could not pilot the chopper himself. This was part of the emergency deal. Apparently there was an agency, MSA, short for the Majestic Security Agency, that could still stop the plans. At least they now had footage of the conversation with Bargala and data from Loke Magnusson's computer.
...
"They have probably been taken to my father...And he will kill Ian as a service for SCEPTRE," Helena said when Cosmo told her.
For a moment Helena had been in some state of shock but luckily it was turning into determination.
"I cannot stop that part...But I think I can interfere with what happens next. He can still be saved...But I need to go to my father. Now."
There was something grave in her expression that made Cosmo uneasy. He looked at her as she took her cell phone from the table.
"I'm sending Einherjar a message. He's in charge of the party. I'll tell him I'm keeping you for another day."
Cosmo nodded. After she finished her message they looked at each other. He couldn't help feeling that at least temporarily all the uneasiness between them had completely dissolved. They were going to do whatever they could to save the captured agents - together.
...
Cosmo was now listening, sitting by the laptop in Helena's apartment. They had bugged her in the case something would go wrong. He could hear Helena breathing quite heavily for a moment. He felt sorry she couldn't have an earpiece so that he could encourage her. There was click, and Cosmo knew she had opened a door.
She was in.
"Far."
"Hella…Jeg trodde du var et annet sted...Var det noe galt med ham?"
Cosmo recognized Loke Magnusson's voice. He was most definitely drunk and clearly surprised to see his daughter. And Cosmo understood he was asking whether there had been something wrong with the prostitute.
"Nei. Det er ingenting galt...Jeg kommer tilbake til ham senere. Jeg hørte at du fikk Smith... Du vet at jeg er interessert i hans hjerte."
She was asking about Ian now, about his heart. This was the believable interest for his body. Cosmo couldn't help noticing Helena's voice...had sounded so controlled. She definitely had her mask on.
"Selvfølgelig... Jeg ville ha levert ham til deg naturlig...Vel...Hella, her er min Lithasblot gave til deg søte."
Silence followed.
"Far, ta ham til laboratoriet. Nå."
"Viss."
Cosmo knew that Ian would be taken to Helena's laboratory now.
She was obviously leaving.
"Hella…"
"Hva?"
"Nyt festen."
He translated the sentence. He had told her to enjoy the party.
Cosmo could hear Helena swallow.
"Jeg vil."
In those two tiny words he felt how she held the pain back.
...
Cosmo was waiting close to the door. Soon it opened and Helena returned. She was shaking. They looked at each other for a second and there was an understanding; he was soon holding her inside his arms. He could feel how she took a deep breath and pulled away from the embrace.
"Ian was on the floor. They're moving him to my lab. I have to go. I'll help him. I guess the others are in the cells. Stay here and try to find a way to help them. Otherwise I'm sure they'll be killed in the morning."
It had been a rush of words.
"I'll go through the security systems. Find out where they are. I'll think of something."
Cosmo had tried to sound most reassuring. Helena nodded.
"I'll be back as soon as I can."
Then, she swiftly changed her high heels to sneakers and left.
...
Twenty minutes later Helena rushed back inside.
"He has a chance now...I could not do more."
She didn't look too happy.
"What do you mean?" Cosmo asked.
"I gave him the antidote but his body still has to fight. He's in the locked part of my private lab. Even if he survives...He will not wake up in a day or so."
Cosmo nodded and then looked at the screen.
"They're held in here."
Helena looked at the video feed from four cells. Jo was on the bed, curled in a fetal position. The rest were sitting on the bed, in different poses, yet all of them looking somehow frozen, defeated.
"I don't know how we can access that place because as you know where it is, very deep inside the mountain. And I checked the other cameras...It's fully guarded, even now during the party. Also, I went through the plans and the ventilation ducts are too small. We can't sneak that way either."
"How big are those ducts?" Helena asked.
"Approximately 30 centimeters in diameter."
She obviously thought of something.
"My assistant Knut has this hobby...Miniature tanks. He keeps many of them in his working space. Could we drive inside the duct with those…?"
"What exactly are you thinking?"
...
They checked up on Ian. He was lying on a gurney, his upper body bare and his skin unnaturally pale. The monitors showed his vital signs were weak but his heart was still beating.
"Is there nothing more we can do...?"
Helena shook his head.
"I'm so sorry..."
The clock was ticking. They had to think of the others now.
...
Cosmo looked at the tanks, examining them one by one.
"Let's find four with the longest range."
Soon they were googling the tanks and got them narrowed down.
The agents glasses were taped on the barrel of the first tank, as well as a small flashlight. The three other tanks had cell phones taped to them, sending a video call, and small flashlights as well. At the end of each tank gun there was a small plastic vial hanging from a metal bracelet, right at the end of the barrel. These vials would be vital for the plan and they would also make moving the tank quite slow. They certainly didn't wish to drop them too soon.
It turned out the cleaning closet was the closest point from Helena's labs to the cells. The space was very small and Helena and Cosmo crammed themselves inside with the four tanks and their remote controllers. Cosmo set the laptop on a shelf between detergent bottles so that they could both see it. Luckily it was quite a straight route with only one turn.
"Can you drive the first one?" Helena asked.
"Sure," Cosmo said although he felt very nervous.
"Just give me the tank," Helena said already climbing the steps of a metal ladder they had also brought inside the closet and made it even more crammed. Cosmo handed her the tank and she knew it was Knut's favourite, the Leopard 2A4. She gently lifted the tank through the hatch they had already opened and placed it in the duct and climbed back down.
They were staring at the screen intensely and Cosmo could feel his heart beat faster as he began to drive. They watching as the tank progressed in the dim ducts. The agent glasses would have the best visual quality, the cell phones would be much worse. The minutes felt endless but finally they arrived by the last of the ventilation grilles, above Erik's cell.
The last tank seemed to Cosmo most like a cheap toy. Even the remote control was a cheap plastic camo design. They had actually added some copper wire to the antenna. The tank was maybe two metres from the ventilation grille above Mitsuko's cell when it refused to go further.
"Fuck. The range is not enough."
They thought how they enhance the signal somehow.
"Try touching the ladder with the antenna."
They sighed as the tank continued its journey.
...
Cosmo put on the headset. He knew the cell phones would be sending his voice now.
"Act as if you don't hear me."
He could see from the video feed that none of the agents visibly reacted.
"I've cut out their audio feed and replaced it with atmosphere sound...So also, don't look like you're making noise. But I can't say if you can hear me...Erik and Mitsuko, you are in the furthermost cells, could you do something to signal you can hear me?"
They could see Mitsuko stretched her arms above her head. Erik stood up and folded his arms.
"Thanks. So...for each, there's a miniature tank very close to ventilation grille above you. We will drop you a plastic vial with a serum Helena has made. Drink it and it will it appear you've committed suicide and Helena will request your bodies for research. You'll wake up at her lab. Also...you should know, Ian is still fighting to stay alive."
They could see how Jo slowly raised herself to sit on the bed.
"But...if you don't want to do this..." Cosmo sounded even more serious.
"I'd ask you to touch your face now."
None of the agents moved.
"Okay. I'm doing this one by one, Erik first. Take a pose, hold it till I say so, and try to remember that pose. Then pick the vial from the floor and return to the same pose as soon as you can. I'm tampering their video feed so they won't notice anything happened."
"Can I say something?" Helena whispered to Cosmo. He gave the headset to her.
"I'm Helena. I want to assure you the serum is tested and I promise it will work."
She handed the headset back to Cosmo.
"Okay. Erik, take the pose in ten seconds…and hold it. Helena will lower the barrel of the tank gun so that the vial should fall through the grille."
One by one the agents received their quite Shakespearean drug of pseudo death.