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As Wendy heard that the carrier had been neutralized, she sighed before hearing the next order to surrender? It was very surprising considering the situation they were in. Surrendering at this point would mean death, imprisonment, or even both. The lobby. Everyone else was at a different location than she was and here the Canuck was, barreling down a street in Copenhagen all by her lonesome with the police on her tail. This wasn't going to end well. The decision for her to turn around was an internal struggle most definitely, but in the end she had to rejoin her comrades. She did not want to be isolated. But before she made the decision to turn around, a car unexpectedly pulled out in front of her and caused her to swerve, turning straight into a closed store and plunging the car into the gate. Wendy was knocked out almost immediately.

By the time she came to, she could see the flashes of red and footsteps coming closer to her vehicle. They were rapidly approaching, and Wendy was too far into the store to escape. The car was a ragged mess. There was no escape. Wendy had to surrender. She couldn't even reach for her pistol for one last stand. Her legs were stuck and she couldn't feel them just yet. The police got to her, weapons pointed at her as she was told in heavily accented English to put her hands up. Mere minutes ago she wouldn't imagine herself in a situation like that but now here she was. She raised her hands as high as she could, knowing that she was in a bad situation and injured from the car crash.
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by FourtyTwo
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The streets of Copenhagen were fading, as Jan made his way around the alley, looking around as he winced a little in pain, putting the rucksack down as he came around to the small carpark. An old Volvo 240...perfect. Taking out a strip of wickable cloth from his thermal bandit, he wrapped it around his hand and smashed in the rear window, reaching his hand inside and grabbing a hold of the release, firmly taking the catch as he let the door swing open. Getting inside, he put his head under the steering wheel and got to work on the electrics, grabbing a pair of wires and pulling them out from the ignition complex. Hotwiring was rusty to him, but it was something that he still knew the core basics of, and it seemed a little less perverse than carjacking someone. He gave the wires a simple brush, and the car's ignition ticked over, slowly, surely, but then eventually went, as he sat up. Opening the door and dragging the rucksack inside, he moaned, looking at his shoulder. He had to deal with this. He had to also deal with his own look. The beard had to go, the glasses had to go on, and he needed a new set of blood-free clothes. He had no radio, nothing at all. Apart from the Glock, he was clear. He didn't like the idea of having the handgun, but he needed it as the last option he had left, the very last one. Putting his seatbelt on, he pulled out of the parking spot, and began the drive, the drive that took him far from here.

---

Two Years Later

30th December, 2015

Somewhere on Holmön, Sweden

The winter was bitter up here, the frozen Gulf of Bothnia allowing for a bridge to be made between the remote island and the Swedish mainland, and in itself, the island felt bleaker than usual. The Holmöarna islands were for a hardy people, mainly fisheries and people who enjoyed the great outdoors more than most Swedes finding this place home, particularly in this time of year. The pines and conifers were covered in snow, and the huts were mostly left behind, the small village on the north of the island ready for another cold winter.

Yet on the south, there was a singular hut, a tiny post that Jan had been living in, for two years straight. It had been dilapidated when he first arrived, but things had changed since then. The Pole looked thinned, though still healthy in his appearance, maintaining some sort of vague physical routine. Inside, the hut was barren, bar for a bed, a stove, and a table, filling with news reports. As he walked back in through the door, everything from the prescription glasses he wore to his clean-shaven appearance and his outdoorsman's appearance drew no relation to the person he had been before. That person was dead, Jan thought to himself.

Exhaling, he threw his stuff down by the front entrance, Jan wearing a down jacket and a pair of rugged outdoors trousers, essentials in cold like this. Lobbing off his coat, he sorted through the things he'd bought back from the mainland, a walk across the ice, rather than a ferry. Nothing too out of the ordinary, it was cold but it was not demanding, not after last winter had adapted him. Jan took his flint steel from the tbale and lit the woodburner, throwing it into the small pile of logs he had made, before sitting down on his bed. He reached over and took out the phone, his fourth in a year, just to cycle through any traces or tracks that could ever arise- not that he expected anything. It had been a long time, but one thing still remained. He didn't know how much it emitted, but he knew it was live. The device was in the corner, the lead casing around the metal cylinder, and Jan knew it couldn't go back. Not a chance.

The phone switched on, as he accessed onto the internet, aware that it could easily compromise his position, yet he had to check up on the state of the world. As much as he enjoyed being isolated, he had been watching the world, and wanted to know what was going on. Just to keep up with the state of affairs. Scrolling through, he went onto BBC News, flicking through. He didn't know how much he had changed. His cold thumb flicked through the main page on the smartphone, as he looked on.

"140 Killed in Suicide Attack in Mosul"

"'Ceasefire Broken' in Eastern Ukraine, OECD Reports"

But there was one headline, one that at least seemed to semi-justify something inside of Jan. It wasn't a smile he cracked, it wasn't a frown either.

"TIAF Forces Surrender to Turkish Government"

That on it's own peaked his interest, as he took a closer look, scrolling through the first body of text on the article.

"The terrorist group, TIAF, has unconditionally surrendered to Turkish forces in the early hours of yesterday morning following heavy fighting, OECD observers report. The group, responsible for the terrorist attack in December 2013 in Copenhagen, was surrounded in it's strongholds in Arafat Province over the last few days by Turkish Special Forces, and reports of dangerous biological material and heavy arms have been reported to have been in their possession.

Since the events of the Christmas Eve attacks in Copenhagen in 2013, NATO and OECD pressure to oust TIAF forces from Turkey's eastern provinces has surged, and Prime Minister David Cameron has called the terrorist group a "dangerous force of radical Islam", with the pledge of British forces along with Italian, German and Danish air strikes in the area securing Turkey's dangerous eastern frontier. The group has long been assumed to be the best trained and most dangerous of Al-Qaeda and IS affiliates, and reports from both US and Russian security services report that the group was intending to create "devastating" terror attacks across Europe prior to last month's offensive. Russian intervention in January in Armenia was said to have uncovered "at least three" sites of chemical weapon development, following a devastating terror attack conducted by TIAF militants in Grozny earlier in December 2013."

Jan looked through, before switching his phone off, throwing it onto the table. He knew it was inevitable, but in some ways, knew that this was all that there was going to be. Sitting up, he looked out across the room, before then getting back up and grabbing his phone. He uttered to himself, trying to remember. It hit him, almost as well as it had a few years ago. Taking his phone back into his cold hands, he dialled. He hoped she was still at the same desk, because Jan had one last thing he wanted to do. He wasn't dying until he gave one last look into Victoria's eyes, and laughed at her. Not till then.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Rhona W
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Two Years Later

30th December, 2015


Who are you, old man?
Scott looked at his reflection in the mirror opposite him. Age and stress had lined his once-handsome face, and white was showing all through his dark hair. The tailored suit added a severe look to him that didn't help.
And the walking cane didn't do him any favours either.
But that was a necessity; after the last firefight and the grevious wounds he'd taken, his fighting days were done. He'd taken his last bullet, and it had left him, not crippled, but unable to do the same things he used to. And in some way, he was glad of that.
He'd spent months in hospitals, under lockdown and guard. But, as promised, it had all been sorted out. Quiet back-channel deals, and, no doubt, any number of blackmail threats and realizations of how close the 'civilized' world had come to having a nuclear detonation in their faces had quietly resulted in a quiet discharge from service.
His still-piercing eyes studied his own face as a clock ticked rhythmically in the background of the wood-panelled hallway, The green-leather upholstered bench wasn't uncomfortable, but the passage of ages had worn it to a shiny lustre, and the tiled floor was slick-smooth with the same passage of ages.
Outside, the traffic and bustle of London in the holiday season was reduced to a distant, far-off burble and the single iron-framed window was blasted with winter rain.

He might not be picking up a rifle or machine-gun any more, and he might not be diving out of perfectly good aeroplanes, or swimming up freezing cold rivers, but Scott Valentine was still fighting for worthwhile causes.
The thick wooden door at the end of the hallway clicked open, and a younger man in an ill-fitting suit spoke in a quiet voice.
"They're ready for you now, Mister Valentine".
Slowly, and with aching joints, Scott stood, leaning on the cane and straightening his tie, brushing off an imaginary fleck of dirt. Despite the injuries he'd received, he was still somewhat of a mountain of a man, barrel-chested and wide-shouldered. He gave a slight smirk at himself. What would they think of you now, old man? He thought ruefully. Picking up the slim document wallet alongside him, he stood before walking toward the door, nodding to the young man as he passed. He stopped as the young man closed the door behind them, and found himself waiting in a sort of hallway between the one he'd left and a larger room where a burble of raised voices could be heard in debate. His heart thumped, and he quietened it, applying the same steel he'd used all those times before in other situations.
Still facing the enemy, he thought to himself with a slightly smile, before turning the folder in his hands, and reading the cover again. He knew it inside and out, of course, but it helped keep his attention focused.
"PEACE IN OUR TIME: CIVIL WAR, TERRORISM AND PEACE-KEEPING IN THE THIRD WORLD"
It was a large issue to discuss, but after what he'd been through with the rest of Lima and the SAS before that, more than anything he wanted to add his experience to debate. To argue and debate with a view towards the experience he'd had in the field, of men and women on both sides and the realities they faced, and the reasons he'd seen why violence broke out, and was hard to quell.
Somehow, that process had ended up with him here, today, the day before New Years Eve, making a special appearance at the House of Commons to make a speech.
The noise in the other room quietened, and he heard a somewhat muffled voice begin to describe his immediate appearance. In a sudden flash, he thought of his team mates; Jan, Zhenya, Wendy, Neil and the rest. Where were they now, he wondered? He hoped they were well, that they too had found or made their own peace.
The young man appeared in the door into the large chamber and nodded.
Scott took a breath and stepped forward.

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Two Years Later

30 December 2015


"Wendy... Wendy... wake up!"

The now retired sniper opened and eye and looked up at her husband, Mark, before looking at the clock. It was December 30th, and it was a rather special day today. However, the poor woman had overslept. Since retiring from the Canadian Armed Forces, she had grown accustomed to living the easy life and being supported by a very handsome pension. However, it wasn't the anniversary of that day in Copenhagen. Wendy wanted nothing to do with it except to forget it and live her life. She didn't want to be involved in military affairs anymore, it just wasn't something her aging and aching body could handle anymore. No, it wasn't something even remotely related to military. Wendy grabbed her robe and wrapped it around herself, cursing to herself quietly as her fifteen year old step daughter ran into her, mostly to wonder where she was. Wendy was still kinda groggy but it was okay, what was going to happen later was going to be a huge delight.

"Oh jeez. How could I have overslept today?" Wendy cursed, before taking a step down their house only to see her fifteen year old stepdaughter again, signaling to the living room. Wendy looked to her husband, "She found her gift already, huh?" Wendy stepped down and into the living room to see a small little girl holding a gift wrapped box with both of her hands. It was Wendy and Mark's child - today was her very first birthday (well technically second) and she was as delighted as ever. As soon as Wendy got home, she married her fiance of many years. She then became pregnant later that year, and as a result she ended up having their daughter, Charlotte Marie Cobb on December 30th. Wendy had specifically told her stepdaughter to not give anything anyway, but here she was holding it.

Wendy sat down and sighed, watching Charlotte hold the box out to her for Wendy to take and pull off the delicately tied bow around it. As she gave it to her daughter to pull off the wrapping paper with the assistance of her father and half-sister, Wendy turned on the TV, immediately switching it to the news as she saw the headline "TIAF Forces Surrender to Turkish Government". Wendy's eyes widened as she watched the reporter elaborate on the story, seeing that the Turkish managed to get such a force to surrender. Wendy sighed a breath of relief if she had to be honest, that force would no longer be a threat to them, and now that they were gone, she couldn't help but to smile at the fact that she was a part of the effort that lead to their takedown. It was that effort that allowed her to be with her family today, and enjoy life as a stay-at-home mom for the rest of the years she would see. It was a life she wouldn't give up for anything. It was perfect.
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by FourtyTwo
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Somewhere in Perth, Australia

The firing range was filled with men at the one end, armed with M14 EBR rifles, and paper targets at the other. Neil could only watch on, as he stood by the side, observing down range, watching the occsaional shots go off. Time had not been kind to him, but perhaps he'd learned something from his experiences. Much like Scott, he had been told to go off operational duty in the theater, and instead, was assigned to instruct SASR recruits, today being a marksmanship test. There had been worse, and it was the second cycle of recruits that Staff Sergeant Neil Morrison was assigned to deal with, on the range. The sound of rifle cracks, the repeated action. He looked over at the soldier in the first booth, watching as he struggled to reload. The boonie-wearing spotter walked over, pointing down at the recruit's rifle.
"You silly cunt, pull the release first!" Neil was almost atypical now, feeling good to be back in Australia, in the baking heat, not the frozen mountains. The recruit did as instructed, and flipped a new magazine in. They weren't entirely new, but the M14 was different to them, some adapting quicker than others from their traditional Austeyr platforms in the ADF. Neil didn't know what to think, following the events of what had happened. He had been in another cell, and seen Scott go away, for some sort of treatment.

He'd been everywhere, interrogated, asked questions. Then, within what he could guess was either a day or a week, something between the two from his recollection of the blackout process that they had undergone in their interrogation, he was sent back to Australia, with a strict mandate. He knew nothing, and was not a loose end anymore, that he was told. He would go into training recruits, and be told that there would never be a need for someone like him to operate. The blame was not on his shoulders, nor his fellow team-mates, bar one, Neil thought to himself. That responsibility lay with Jan. He had run with it, and he couldn't believe it. Jan had told them exactly that, and he wasn't even sure what the hell had gotten into the Pole. Perhaps he was alive, but the Australian didn't want to fully understand . Scott, he was doing something non-military, and in particular, Neil knew that Wendy had retired from the Canadian military altogether. Gone and taken leave to be a full-time mother with two daughters, and leave behind most of her past, though Neil kept in contact whenever he could, just to show that he respected her decision. Himself, he was here, and had a comfortable life, one that he could live with. Watching as the recruits fired down the range, Neil looked on at it all, the dusty facility being what he had now. Somehow, he felt good that the threat was eliminated, but he couldn't help but feel that there was worse still in the world. Problems to resolve, and no doubt, men like him would need a call once again, even if that person was not him.

------

The noise had been clear on Victoria's desk, as she picked up the phone, sipping a little on her coffee as she then suddenly dropped the mug altogether. It was a voice she didn't want to hear, and for almost over two years, had been waiting in fear of. Yet it was one that she had responsible as her loose end, and was the burn card in her operational history. It was only a matter of time, she reminded herself.
"Shit."
"You've got 12 hours to get to my co-ordinate, alone. You know who I am. Bring a team following you, you'll die, and they will too. You full well know why. We will talk, and only then will I give you what you want. 12 hours. You know the game we play." Jan disconnected the phone, and simply sat back in his bed. Victoria put her end down, the operator across the room looking over.

"We've got the trace, is that Wojtkiewicz? What the hell is he doing? We can send a team to clear him out in four hours, what's our call!?" He exclaimed, the room with around four people, under Victoria's command now abuzz. They knew what was going on.
"I'm going alone, Michael. Don't get involved. He isn't bluffing."
"How do you know? Shit, did you authorize..."
"Michael, we use who we have to if we want to remain deniable. Turns out I made the wrong call. Get me a flight, I'll have to meet him. Don't send anyone after me. I can try and talk sense into him, I'm the only person he'd listen to...if we're going to get this back, then I'm going to need to find the device. He isn't stupid. Get a camera on me and a wire."

---

Within eight hours, Jan had seen the distant figure of the female CIA operative on the ice, Jan observing as he kept himself away from windows but peering through. She wore a winter coat, and he could see her face was already more weathered than it had been last time he saw her, that much . The whole world probably knew what was going on, but Victoria had the most to lose. She had a whole deniability to maintain, and that meant nothing overtly suspicious. In her mind, Jan's disappearance had been truly a shock, after all she had done for him. It made no sense, for him to go completely off the grid, and now, this resurgence had changed everything. The Pole's left arm was a little frail, due to the nature of the wound he had suffered, but he could still move it, as he opened the door and then took a seat at the table.

Jan looked on, the door open as he waited inside, the Glock on the table, pointing at the door. Victoria walked in, her own P226 raised, precisely at Jan's forehead. The Pole laughed, shaking his head. She wouldn't dare.
"Now, now. Let's be civilized about this, you know how this will work. You want something, and you're not going to empty my brains over the walls of this place for it. Not yet, Victoria." Jan simply said, as she lowered the gun, looking at Jan coldly, taking a seat across the table from him, putting her gun on the table.
"You piece of shit, you took a fucking nuclear device! Are you fucking insane?"
"Insanity is subjective. I find it fucking insane that you were going to try and use me as a scapegoat, hang me to fucking dry. You think I didn't know what you were trying to do?" Jan added, his English still half-decent, as he had spoken with locals in the town whenever he could, but he still had a distinct accent.
"My words were that you could escape...not with this!"
"And leave a nuclear device behind for the Danish police to pick up? And I simply walk away? We both know what my duty means, that I would never run away from it. I guess I changed my mind." Jan simply said, taking his prescription glasses off, watching Victoria closely, her face, her movements, every little thing. She was clearly looking around for the device, but Jan had it hidden from view. He had placed it inside a cabinet, right by the woodburner, and there was no trace that could seen of it. It felt strange, to finally play the person that had played him. Jan had wanted to believe it at first, but it felt strange, but somehow right. To see through it and do the right thing, the thing that he knew would stop this cycle running on with anyone else, not to the rest of his team that were left.

"So? You know my promise. And this is how you repay us?"
"Us? You mean, you. Come on, you know the reality of this situation. I should be bowing down to you right now, with all your threats. Fact is, I feel like learning a little more about why this is all going to shit. I mean, we might be both dead in the next few minutes, so let's help each other out. Firstly, how you ended up finding my team-mates in Copenhagen, and in what state. I won't recite their names, because you and I both know them too well. And the dead ones, them too."
"Fine. All of them were fine, one had a bad wound, but he was in and out of hospital. We took them all out of Danish hands, and put them through a processing center in Virginia, to see what the hell happened to you."
"And you interviewed them? Let me guess, nothing came of it. Even if something did, you probably found no trace. My flat, family, friends. None of them would know, would they?"

"About you, yes. None of them gave up anything, well, nothing meaningful. I had to hurt Zhenya, you know that? Thought he had some idea on what you were going to do, but it was a joke. That was before they told me that if the interrogator did any more damage, the Russian MVD wouldn't like us very much. So we lost track of a nuclear device, and a Special Forces operator who had been assumed to go with it. Meaning, half the CIA's assets were dedicated into looking into every failed state, every terrorist organization, to see if you'd lost your shit and sold it. What anyone with half a brain cell would do. So you're just going to sit here and chase the ghosts of your past, or are you going to do the bigger thing and end this while you can?"

"You know, that sounds about right. Half the CIA? Wow. But then again...no, you wouldn't have. Perhaps this is saving your own skin? That's why you're here, I would think. You know I'm the last link in the chain, you can silence the others, but you want me gone. The CIA operator who commissioned a Polish Special Forces Captain to prevent a nuclear disaster, and he goes rogue. I'm your deniable asset, meant to vanish when you have your use out of me. They want you off the list, and so, you're chasing every lead, every single line, to make sure you don't end up in some court when this makes light with your higher ups and suddenly your deniable op needs to become public information for an enquiry about why in particular, a Western and Russian special forces operation occured right alongside a large-scale terrorist attack on a western capital city. And it's your proof to the world to say that I was responsible. We aren't in a NATO country, we're in a non-aligned state. Authority isn't going to go far."
"I'm here on the behalf of the American government, you're to give up the device, before we have to do something we really don't like. This isn't my vendetta, it's your terms."
"Don't give me this, kurwa. It's bullshit. You know it." Jan simply retorted, sitting up a little, nodding, knowing what he had to say was clear.
"The world has changed since a couple of years ago then. ISIS, war in Eastern Ukraine. Ground forces deployed in Turkey. And that insurgency that was going to drive our world to hell, gone. I bet you would want that device. Just your little proof, justify a war against the Russians before your time runs out." He added, his words chosen specifically. He felt like it had been months in the making, every single word he put out with a venom and a spark, because he knew most of these answers anyway. He wanted Victoria to merely say them, just as confirmation, and just so he could wrap this up in his head. The Pole may have had his honor, but he had no reason to do this one last time. He knew how this ended.
"It isn't about that, Jan, you're fucking deluded, you're hanging onto a weapon of mass destruction..." She looked deep into his eyes, Jan shrugging.
"And if you happened to find a nuclear weapon, of Russian origin, in a remote cabin in Northern Sweden and bring it home, what would that say? Perhaps I know little of world politics, but it says that you have a just cause to perhaps poke the Russians even more. So that you can justify some sort of moral Crusade, and more violence. You know what? Fuck the Russians, and fuck you. Fuck your doing."
"Like I said, Jan, calm down, think about this."
"There is little to think about. You're desperate for once, the Victoria I knew would have done something far more smarter than direct confrontation. So I think I'm right, you haven't got any support, you're experiencing what it's like to deal with your past. I mean, if you were smart about it you'd want to know if it was here, for a start. You'd want to have backup, and by now, I would bet that you'd have me turned into a canoe. But it seems I was right." Jan adjusted his chair a little, looking back up as Victoria scanned the room, watching, observing for anything inside.
"Is it here, Jan?" She simply barked at him, as Jan nodded, not in a confirming way, but in a mere extension of what he wanted to ask.

"One last question. This time, I don't want a bullshit answer, like you've been feeding me. How you answer this question, decides how I act, and I feel close to giving this to you now. This isn't the point you then make some sly move on your wire and a SEAL team turns up, or else you'll lose the nuke forever. Can't see it, can you? I can see it in your mind, working away, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Where is that nuke? You don't see it. And your SEALs, the ones I bet you brought along, them too. So, tell me. Are my squadmates currently dead?"

"They're dead, they gave us no information so we dealt with them. This doesn't end with you making a reunion with them, if I told you they were alive, you'd simply tell me that was bullshit too. It was fast, if you have to know. So now, you're out of questions to ask. I suggest that while you can, you surrender. I promise, you won't need to know what hell feels like, because there's a dozen SEALs in that forest waiting for the order to put rounds through this wooden fucking cabin. Enough stalling, Jan!" She lied through her teeth and tried to assert herself, and Jan could only guess that it was her last trick. Tell him that it was all screwed, so he could give up the ghost, give up what he was doing, in the case it was going to keep them alive. That wouldn't happen.

"I'll stop stalling then." Jan added, as he snatched the Glock and emptied a round into Victoria's temple before she could even blink and fire back, putting the rest of the magazine into the area around where she sat, a couple of bullets connecting with her chest, as she fell back, unable to respond quick enough, unable to threaten Jan. It had been a bold move on her part, and perhaps she saw the Jan that had existed a few years ago, in her hurried desperation. She had been wrong, as he put the pistol down, one round left.
"I guess we can share hell together." He simply uttered, looking across, exhaling hard, his breath steaming up. She had lied on that front too. So many lies, Jan could no longer tell. His men were alive, and Jan knew that Victoria had been in a vice, perhaps Jan's counterweight of being off grid making that happen for them. Now, it was over. The last link in the chain was him.

Looking over at the dead corpse of Victoria, Jan sighed, sitting up, looking outside onto the ice, through the window. This was done. This plan could only work one way, and one way only. Perhaps they'd find out the specs of this weapon, one day they'd realize what had truly happened. And what Jan had done with one device, in the wrong hands. His hands. His blood stained hands, the Pole taking the canister from inside the cabinet, looking across his own skin. It was not severe, but radiation poisoning kicked in after you spent over two years close by to a nuclear device. It didn't matter. You only could prove a point once, and now, he prayed, he begged that whatever Scott, Wendy, Zhenya, Neil, whatever they had, it was a good life. They had to. Jan had his answers now, and those answers were enough to finish this life. Now it could end. Turning the device over, he flipped the plastic on the side of the case, looking across at the Glock on the table. Exhaling, he took the rudimental device attached to the panel, the handle one that had to be held. He took the case, and taking it in hand, walked outside, pulling on the handle, holding it in, a solid push of his thumb.

It was overriding the mechanism inside, it was arming the device, and when it went critical, it would detonate. And it would tear a hole in half the island, from Jan's knowledge, it was uninhabited here. It was going to only have one victim he knew of, and that would be him. He simply walked outside, and into the snow, taking one good look at the sunrise, the distant sunrise that was the only sun that could exist in this time of year. He didn't count time, time simply seemed to melt away. He sat down, and a single tear ran down his cheek, as he looked into the sun, his weary face no longer wanting anything more. The cold didn't matter. This life, neither. Scott said it best, Jan thought. He was like so many Eastern Europeans, suicidal and depressed, and he was particularly enslaved to righting a wrong, driven beyond any ordinary scale. But perhaps he knew truth from lies now he had seen his experiences, with the team, with everything he had done. When he had nothing to lose, Jan knew he had only one last chance to make things right.

Murdering Victoria had been wrong, but it had been the last thing he felt like doing, before he either shot himself or did this. At least, it fixed so much of his betrayal, and it made for a good exit story, the rogue Captain who was assumed to kill a CIA agent, and detonated a nuclear device on his own accord. Matching Russian statistics, probably stolen. An impossibility to most. It would send the CIA, MVD, anyone in the intelligence community into overdrive. People wouldn't add things up, it simply seemed preposterous. Not even like it was lunacy, but that someone had made some colossal error of judgement somewhere, and now, this was happening. It was exactly what he wanted. It was better than just a random occurrence. It would be confusion, and that was what people in the world reacted to best, when they needed to do something better than just inaction or terror.

The media would pick this up, probably report the nuclear detonation, and the world would go into panic. The world would demand answers, Sweden, a non-NATO member especially so. A Russian mistake, an American mistake? But people would wake up, and Jan knew that this game no longer needed to be played. Not by anyone. A game that had brought so much of the world to hell, and his own one in particular. He didn't shed another tear, as he looked down, still holding the device tight, the cold snow something he could feel vividly in his left hand for a moment. His life didn't flash before his eyes, nor did images in his head. Apart from one, one that he remembered more than anything.

It was in Bagram, the trip to the Pizza Hut. The team, munching on slices, the chilled out vibe that gave some respite from the constant operations that they'd been in. Jan was not a man of comfort, he embraced the hostilities of life. But that one moment, that one point of his life, perhaps he realized it now. It was when he was with people that he was happiest, and that those people he did everything for. And it was the one last memory he could hold, and wanted to. It was like a single suspended moment in time, not voices, just a flicker in his head. He exhaled, feeling his stomach tighten, but the rest of his body come of ease. Death felt strange, it felt weird, it felt like something that Jan could accept now. If there was a hell, he was surely going to it, he told himself. This made no sense, no more. There were too many dead too many that did not deserve to die, too many that did. And now, he had to join that list. Such was the way of a decision, from the very moment he had made it. That memory flicked. Scott. Neil. Wendy. Zhenya. How much he hated Zhenya, and how much he respected him at the same time. How much he trusted Scott, and felt it back from the Brit. The snipers, their eye from afar. All of them, they were in his mind, at that Pizza Hut. They were alive, and somewhere better than this mess. That memory was the only thing that gave Jan a smile, as the tear ran down past his stubble, in such a terrible thought. He let go of life, and the cold didn't matter anymore. Neither did any pain, any emission from the device, or any warm blood anymore, nor did the noise of the birds. It all went quiet, blurred almost, and Jan heard his own breathing, his own heartbeat, his ears then slightly ring.

He stared at the pale blue sky for one last time, taking it's depth and scale in. Jan looked at the sun, and blinked for the last time as everything suddenly turned to white.

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"Breaking news just in, we are receiving reports of a large explosion in the Gulf of Bothnia...."
"....sources suggest that the blast was nuclear, and detonated in a remote area of the Swedish Holmon Islands in the northern Gulf of Bothnia. We will have rolling news reports as we gather more information..."
"We now go live to David Preston in Umea... David, what is happening within the town?"........"We can see from the shore, there's been total devastation of the southern part of the island from our view, so far there are no casualties reported but significant numbers of residents have been evacuated to the mainland. The is a strong fear, and the Swedish military has fully mobilized against any potential threat..."

"An emergency UN summit is to be called for Wednesday in Geneva, following what is widely believed to be a nuclear blast yesterday in Northern Sweden. The cause of the blast is of yet still unclear, but analysts observe that the yield matches that of a Russian PM-21 suitcase nuclear device, no longer in current use by the Russian Federation. No probable cause is currently known, but analysts suggest that this was not conducted as a test by either Russian or NATO forces in the region."

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