FourtyTwoThe dissolution of Lima and the Captain's subsequent imprisonment had not sat well with Zhenya, to say the least. It simply was not right, not after everything Lima had done. True, they were blacker-than-black operatives, with everything done under the radar, but at the very least he had hoped that Lima's commander would have the decency to step in when it became apparent that the Captain was to be arrested for whatever ridiculous reason it was. The Captain deserved a lot of things - a solid right hook to the jaw, for example - but wasting away in a cell was not one of them.
Still, that was only one of Zhenya's concerns. There were still the two snipers that had apparently fallen off the face of the Earth. The Russian did not know either of them personally, but they were still team mates. They had watched his back in combat and that was all the reason he needed to at the very least try to uncover their fate. It had been a task easier said than done; the VDV brigade which had launched the strike into Armenia had no records of any prisoners, and even after their subsequent pull-out, there was still no news of any snipers caught.
His relentless questioning had been what led him to his current position. Reassigned to some backwater unit in the Russian far east, officially to train new Vympel units to be raised in the region. What he actually spent most of his time doing, however, was sorting out the paperwork for the units. The actual training were being carried out by the junior sergeants under him. On paper, it would have been a generous promotion, but to Zhenya, this was as good as torture.
The phone on his desk rang suddenly, and Zhenya picked it up without looking. "Junior Lieutenant Derzhavin, 115th Marine Infantry Brigade." He said in an utterly bored voice. Like with all other Vympel detachments, on paper, he was attached to the 115th.
Much to his surprise, the person who spoke was an American woman. There was a brief cracking of static, then followed by someone in the background saying something about a secure line. "Derzhavin?" The woman asked. "Good. This line is secure. I will make this quick."
"Who is this?" Zhenya asked, his voice hushed.
The voice laughed softly. "An old team mate, Zhenya. We last met in Afghanistan. I was the spook, remember?"
Zhenya nodded to no one in particular, but kept an eye on the door to his office. He was tempted to just end the call, but something compelled him to listen to what she had to say. He had not trusted the CIA operative back when she had been part of Lima, and that was not about to change now. However, she had to have a very, very good reason to contact him. "What do you want?" He asked.
"Look, I know Lima's supposed to be dead, but you guys are needed for one more job. The last job, if everything goes well. Copenhagen is about to become a second Grozny. Worse, even. I'm talking about two or three WMDs. The chemical weapons unleashed in Grozny, plus possibly a dirty bomb." The operative said quickly in one breath. She paused for a moment before continuing, "I know how you feel about Jan, but we need you-"
"Done." Zhenya said plainly.
"Sorry?"
"I said I am in." Zhenya clarified. This could possibly be his ticket out of his desk-bound hell, but first, he wanted to just take a gamble. The way he saw it, if he took the mission, it would either lead to a court-martial or a medal, so he might as well take this chance to get the answers to his questions. He pressed a button on the side of his phone and held it there for a few seconds before letting go. It was used to open a line to the telecomms personnel down below, but right now he wanted them to hear what was going on.
"That simple?" The operative asked.
"Yes. I am not doing this for Jan. I just do not like leaving a job unfinished. Tell him I will meet him in Copenhagen...Or wherever he wants us to assemble." Zhenya said.
"Alright then," The CIA operative said, still sounding slightly surprised. "I can get you out of your-"
"I can handle that myself." Zhenya said with a small grin to himself. "Zhenya out." He placed the phone back into its cradle and leaned back in his seat, waiting for what he knew was coming. Sure enough, the door to his office was soon kicked down by one of the soldiers providing security for the base, flanked on both sides by a military police officer. Zhenya looked at the three of them and merely grinned, more to himself than them.
"I suppose I have been caught."
----
"What the fuck do you think you were doing?" The commanding officer of the naval base yelled at Zhenya from across the table. They were both seated in a plain, grey interrogation room, though now it seemed as if it was less of an interrogation and more of an intense tongue-lashing on the part of the commanding officer. "Bad enough that you are soliciting calls from unknown personnel, but to take one from a known CIA operative trying to rope you into God knows what operation? Have you lost your mind?"
"It is still there, the last I checked." Zhenya deadpanned. "And I know what kind of operation it is-"
"Yes, yes, Copenhagen!" The CO interrupted, then slammed his fist on the table. "I think your time with Lima has rotted your mind, Derzhavin. You are Vympel. You have an obligation to serve the Russian Federation. Not your old team, not this Captain of yours and fucking hell, not a fucking CIA operative."
That was exactly what Zhenya had been waiting for. The CO, for all his skill, was a known hothead who rarely checked his words when he was incensed. "I never said Copenhagen," Zhenya said and arched a brow. "In fact, I never said anything about the operation since we came in here." He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table, looking at his CO right in the eyes. "So unless you know something I do not, I am curious how you came to conclusion that she wanted me to do something in Copenhagen?"
The CO flushed, having realized his slip of the tongue. "Check your tone, Derzhavin. I am still your colonel, though if the court martial comes through, that would not be so in a few weeks." He said, though his voice lacked the anger and venom it had just a few moments ago. He let out a long sigh and sat down opposite Zhenya. "You are right, we do know something about Copenhagen. You remember our assault on the TIAF in Armenia?"
"How could I forget?" Zhenya muttered.
The CO ignored him and continued. "We raided one of their command posts and a production facility. We found details of their next move, and they were going to hit Copenhagen. It was, and still is one of the biggest breaks we have ever had on the TIAF, but we also found something very disturbing. They planned to detonate a dirty bomb in downtown Copenhagen, and that bomb is of Russian origin."
He paused for a moment. "Can you imagine the embarrassment? Bad enough that the West distrusts us - for dubious reasons, if I might add - this would only fuel their impression that Russia is a decrepit nation. The fact is that the dirty bomb is a relic. Soviet-era, modernized in 1993 and sent for disposal in the Caspian via Azerbaijan in the early 2000s, except it never made it all the way. It disappeared somewhere near Baku, but we assumed that it had been dumped into the Caspian as planned."
"We were dumping bombs in the Caspian?" Zhenya asked.
The CO waved his hand dismissively. "Just that one. Instead of going all the way to the Pacific, if we could safely dispose of our WMDs in the Caspian, it would have saved us a lot of trouble. Needless to say, that plan never took off the ground after that bomb went off the map." He paused again and cleared his throat. "From the TIAF documents, we know that the bomb was stolen by the early TIAF in one of their biggest and grandest operations. The only reason they had not used it was simply because they did not have the authorization code."
"And they do now?"
"Well, no, but according to the documents, they found a way to fire it manually. Think of it as a suicide bombing on a larger scale." The CO said. "There are too many documents that we dug out, but you only need to know that we have information that can cover us if it is discovered that the bomb is Russian. We also have prime leverage material. Do you have any idea how many European and American businessmen and corporations had been unwittingly funding the TIAF?"
"No," Zhenya said. "But I imagine there is a lot. They would sell anything to anyone fighting a common enemy."
The CO nodded. "Exactly. If word gets out...There will be hell to pay. The TIAF has more than one name, and they had many loosely-affiliated allies who are on good terms with the West." He stopped suddenly and stood up, the angry expression returning to his face. "But the point still stands! You are not going to Copenhagen! We cannot have a Russian operative in a European capital, not in this political climate. Let the Danes deal with it on their own. Your Lima friends are free to join in, but not you."
Zhenya narrowed his eyes. "I thought we were going to avenge Grozny?" He asked.
"We are hunting down those responsible. If the Danes want to avenge Copenhagen after the attack, they are free to do so." The CO said dismissively. "But if you go, and they find out, do you know what is going to happen? They will talk of Russian covert operations everywhere. Russia will become the new bogeyman and NATO will expand even closer to our borders, then accuse us of encroaching on theirs when we respond. They will tighten a noose around Russia and strangle her to death."
"But then think of the benefits if we succeed in stopping the attack." Zhenya argued. "A Russian bomb stopped by a team with a Russian, working under the radar. The media will forget all about the Russian origin, and if they do, well, they cannot say that Russia did nothing about it."
"What makes you think that you would succeed?"
Zhenya let out a short chuckle. He had one very good reason to be confident in their success. It was not because he thought that highly of himself, or he underestimated the TIAF. It was not even that he was being overly optimistic or overconfident. Looking right at his CO, he gave his answer.
"Lima has never failed."
----
After plenty of back-and-forth with the CO, and a brief conference call with the SVR, it was eventually decided that it would be possible for Zhenya to rejoin Lima for the duration of the Copenhagen mission. Despite the CO's initial objection, he actually insisted that a Vympel squad be sent along as backup, something which Zhenya welcomed. Lima had never failed, but help was always welcome, especially when up against such long odds. The SVR made sure to take care of everything to do with the logistics of the mission, from arms to the diplomatic battlefield.
They made a note to tell Zhenya of the risks, however. In the event of a failure, he would be disowned by the Russian Federation, his citizenship revoked and he would be branded a terrorist. There would be absolutely no way for him to return home, or even enjoy life as a free man. That was a risk that Zhenya was willing to take, but he had one request he wanted the SVR to fulfill before he left for the job.
He wanted Lima's snipers.
To the surprise of no one, the SVR revealed that they had always known where the snipers were. They had been held in a secure MVD prison in Dagestan ever since their capture by the Armenian armed forces. With the dissolution of Lima and no way to prove their purpose in the area, they had been thought to be foreign fighters with the TIAF and thus detained by the Armenians, then passed on to the Russians. Knowing where they were was the easy part, but getting them out proved to be a whole different matter. The SVR could hardly ask the MVD to give up two prisoners for a mission that could not even be mentioned, so an unconventional plan was concocted.
----
"Approaching the prison. Everyone know their roles?" Medved-One asked as he carefully drove the GAZ Tigr down the dirt track leading up to the detention facility. Zhenya had been rather surprised when he heard that Medved had volunteered for the Copenhagen job the moment the CO mentioned that there was a blacker-than-black job that required a team to backup Zhenya and a few 'unknown operatives'. Doubtless, Medved had probably figured out what that meant.
"Yes," Medved-Three confirmed. The entire team, along with Zhenya, were dressed in the uniform of MVD troopers. If anyone asked, they were there to transfer prisoners to another facility closer to the Russian capital for questioning. They had the papers and identification to back up the story and if anyone called the numbers on the documents, they would reach people who would swear that they had always been in the unit.
The Tigr slowed to a halt at the gates of the facility. A security trooper walked up to the driver's side window and rapped his knuckles on it twice. Medved-One winded down the window and presented his card, identifying him as Starshina Danila Harkov of the Moscow district OMON division. "Prisoner pickup. We called earlier." Medved-One said flatly and yawned. "The two snipers we picked up in Armenia, I think."
"Yes, we were told." The trooper said with a nod. "Hey, do not rough them up too much. Orders from the top."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Medved-One said nonchalantly and waited for the gates to open before driving through. They parked close to the entrance to facilitate a quick evacuation if things went south, but if everyone played their parts well - including the snipers - that would not happen.
The team dismounted the vehicle and walked into the detention facility, a depressing, rectangular grey building crawling with MVD troopers armed with AKs. The interior was no better, with a complete lack of furniture and bright, white fluorescent lights embedded into the ceiling."Here for cell 3B, prisoners 100029 and 100030." Medved-One said to one of the guards who approached them. Immediately ahead of them, Zhenya could see rows and rows of cells, and stairs leading up and down to more of the same.
"Down the stairs, straight ahead. Third on your right." The guard said, nodding to a flight of stairs leading down.
"Thanks," Medved-One said and led his team down the stairs. Now they had to be careful. They all had their faces hidden behind scarves, wraps or even half-masks, but all it would take for their plan to fall apart was for the two snipers to recognize them. Until they were safe in the Tigr, the two of them would have to believe that Medved and Zhenya were regular MVD troops and nothing more. "Cell 3B!" Medved-One shouted out once they reached the cells.
The snipers were still in their uniforms, but without all their kit. Despite the warning the security trooper at the gate had given them, they certainly looked as if they had been roughed up somewhat. A loud alarm sounded as the door to their cell slid open. "Take them," Medved-One said curtly. Medved-Two and Three pulled Neil roughly to his feet, and Zhenya and Two did the same to Wendy. "You are being transferred to the Moscow district. If you will not talk here, I guarantee you that you will once the GRU are through with you." He said coldly, then nodded to Medved-Three, who punched Neil in the stomach. It was all a show for the lone guard patrolling up and down the corridor, but Medved-Three had evidently put too much force into the hit.
"Enough," Medved-One said, hiding his concern that Three might have actually injured Neil. "They are to be unharmed. We move."
The team practically dragged the sniper team out of their tells, back up the stairs and to the Tigr. Medved-One opened the back door and simply said, "Throw them in." The two snipers were pushed unceremoniously into the vehicle and the door slammed shut behind them. Medved-One climbed back into the driver's seat, with Zhenya beside him and the rest of the team sat in the back with Neil and Wendy.
The team wasted no time in getting out of the facility, and only once they were clear of the watchtowers did they remove their face masks. Zhenya turned around in his seat and looked at the two snipers. "Sorry for earlier, but we had to make it believable." He said, particularly to Neil. "The Captain needs us, and I was not about to leave you two behind while we enjoyed ourselves. There is a set of MVD uniforms complete with their tactical apparel in the boxes. Throw them on. We will not be stopping until we reach the airfield."
"If anyone asks, your names are Gennedy Andreevich," Medved-Two added, looking at Neil. "and Yekaterina Fydorskaya." He continued, looking at Wendy. "Both from the Astrakhan OMON and due for transfer to the Kaliningrad garrison. Your relevant papers are all in the uniforms. I suggest the two of you not talk unless we give you the green light. One wrong move and we are all going to end up somewhere far worse than where you two were."
"Thanks. Tell your guy he's ruined that last meal I had. Anyway, what the fuck happened to Lima?" Neil said, croaking almost, as he sat up, looking at the box of uniforms that Zhenya had left."That would be me," Medved-Three said sheepishly and raised his hand. "Sorry about that." "Lima has been dissolved," Zhenya replied matter-of-factly. There was no point sugarcoating it; the sooner Neil and Wendy found out about it, the better they would be able to get up to speed with the latest developments. Zhenya carried on from there, filling them in on what they missed, from the VDV intervention in Armenia to the Captain's imprisonment. He did his best to tell them about what Victoria had told him, about the imminent TIAF attack on Copenhagen with several WMDs. However, it was hard for him to truly give them the real picture since he himself had no idea what was actually going on either. Thankfully, Medved-Four continued from where he left off. "Long story short," He said, then glanced out one of the windows behind him to check how far more they had to go. "Your captain is putting Lima back together for one last mission to stop the TIAF in Copenhagen. You will all be considered to be terrorists by the Danish military and law enforcement, so there will be no support other than what the SVR and us can provide. We also have information which suggests that the TIAF is deliberately trying to eliminate Lima. You guys have been one hell of a thorn in their side. That is where we, Medved, come in. The TIAF may be expecting you all, but they will not be expecting us." ---- The trip to Kaliningrad had been done with the utmost urgency and stealth. The team did not even need to exit the Tigr - Medved-One merely drove it into the cargo hold of the IL-76. Once they had come to a complete stop, Zhenya gave a thumbs up to the loadmaster, who then informed the crew via radio that it was time to go. The ramp had not even been raised completely when the cargo plane started rolling down the runway, and soon after, they were airborne. Only then did Medved-One give everyone the okay to exit the vehicle. "If either of you have any questions," Medved-One said and looked to Neil and Wendy. "Now would be the time to ask them. We have plenty of time before we touch down in Kaliningrad, but it will be hectic from then on. We will be immediately transferred to a civilian flight bound for Bremen. The SVR has assured us that they have our equipment on the way." He paused, then sat down on the floor of the cargo hold. "Get comfortable, everyone. It is going to be a long flight."