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Tokyo June 14, 2008, 1558 hours This wasn't going to be as simple as he first thought. They just stood out too much, something that horrified him. There was nothing worse for an intelligence officer than standing out; the feelings of exposure where enough to make his heart beat faster with paranoia. He forced himself to relax, feeling the weight of the canvas bag he was carrying, full of weapons that would certainly cause a problem were he asked to open it and display its contents. So far they had been left alone, this despite the fact that observations on foreigners had been stepped up. Tarasov and himself were dressed in crisp suits, the better to fit in with the number of business men that seemed to roam the streets like rats, each carrying the disease of money within them. It was troubling for the young man to see how many people seemed to have dedicated their lives to this pursuit. Very few of them had a smile on their face. None of them apologised when they bumped into him, but then he could partly understand that because the sheer number of people made bodily contact impossible to avoid, and there really wasn't any time to excuse yourself after each knock. "So were you instructed where its location is?" he asked his partner, or so it seemed to those around him, had they been paying any attention to the two gaijin in their midst. "We've got a fix on him. Small forest on the outskirts, seems he has taken refuge there," Kovalenko answered. "They said it would be discussed at the next board meeting," Maksim replied, continuing the conversation for the people around them. The new sequins were flesh coloured, denying observers the knowledge that the two men were in contact with others in a different part of the world. This was the first mission they had been used in, and so far they had performed flawlessly. Kovalenko could feed them information and guide them to Volkv whilst staying completely covert. It was the perfect set-up. "When is that?" Nikolai asked. "An hour northeast of your current position," was Kovalenko's reply. The screen in front of him showed the position of the team, along with the item (Volkv); Volkv's position had been established via both conventional and infrared satellites. It was now just a matter of guiding the team to him and recovering him. Maksim responded to Nikolai, "Soon, or so I have been told." He was glad he had kept up to date with his English. They were covered as English businessmen if anyone stopped them, and his language skills were pretty good for someone who had learnt it for only a few missions back in his Spetsnaz days. Tokyo Forestry Commission Forest June 14, 2008, 1711 hours It had taken them slightly longer than an hour, but that was mainly due to an accident on one of the main roads. They had walked the last part of the journey, not wishing to have anyone drop them off at their destination. In the current climate that would have been slightly worse than their current course of action, and this mission was a priority. Well, he thought, they all are. He did have to admit that any network in this country was extremely valuable, and if they could extract Volkv then they would have retrieved an amazing source of information. Don't get ahead of yourself, his mind told him, there is still a mission to be completed. He was not totally alert, his eyes shifting from side to side, identifying, analysing, and evaluating everything in the immediate vicinity. The edge of the forest was not too far away now. He motioned to Maksim. Maksim nodded and headed off towards a small building at the edge of the forest. The approached carefully, not wishing to alert or startle the inhabitants that they hoped weren't there. It was empty. They had searched the small floor space and few rooms and found nothing in the way of evidence of habitation. It was actually a storeroom for the foresters, but that didn't matter to the two men. All they needed was somewhere to change. Nikolai emerged from the building after Maksim had given him the all clear. He thought it wise to let his deputy take point because he had a huge amount of special operations experience, and at the current moment in time the mission was Spec Ops. Volkv was somewhere in this forest, and they had to extract him without anyone ever knowing they were there. It was a task he was familiar with, but he did not let his ego get in the way of the mission. Sometimes he even surprised himself. He knew how good he was, but he also had the intelligence to let the better man handle the situation, even if that man was technically ranked lower than him in the organisation. Nikolai held no illusions as to how important his rank was. Rank meant shit when you got into the field, or at least in this case it did. Maksim was the master, and Nikolai would learn from him just as he had learned from Sergei. They moved quickly but quietly, a skill that Nikolai had picked up early on in his career. Sergei had told him that silence was his friend, and he couldn't have put it better. Maksim's footwork was almost as good as his mentor's, a fact that he would have found surprising had he not heard of his deputy's exploits. It had started as something common amongst the fire-teams that they could talk about, but it had ended up as something far more important. They now knew more about each other, and they could better deduce each others actions, for how one performed in previous missions was a good indiactor of character, and the character of a man (or woman) depicted how they would behave in a given situation. It was a very broad thought, but one that had basis in reality. Fucking hell you sure do think a lot! he told himself in his mind. "Radio," Maksim whispered, and Nikolai dutifully handed it over. It was a standard Japanese radio, the sort that you could find anywhere in the world. Volkv was suspected to be carrying one, as per standard field procedures. Maksim pressed the button down, then spoke. "This is the wrong channel sir, what you need to do is bear with me whilst I contact home." The code phrase seemed strange, but it had the desired effect. "Can't you just get me some real food?" Volkv's voice replied, with more than a little fear in it. Maksim winked. They had found their man. Return |
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