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COOLIO HOVERED OVER Tuna’s shoulder as he set up the laptop for the secure video teleconference. Next to him, Sierra Carter was set up with her own laptop as they waited for CIA Director Chapman and U.K. Secretary of State for Defence Nigel Williams to connect.
As an unacknowledged, compartmentalized top secret joint U.S.-U.K. organization, Williams and Chapman were the only leaders of their respective governments with knowledge and oversight of Project Archangel. It provided their leaders plausible deniability, while making them solely responsible for the fallout if things went south.
“Okay, they should be dialing in shortly,” Coolio said, returning to his screen so he could also participate.
“Okay, we’re all here. Let’s begin,” Chapman said. “You all know my assistant Daniel Ellison. He will be briefing us on the information we have on our end so far.”
Chapman’s screen flipped to a tall, lanky assistant who stood and adjusted his tie. “We have confirmed with our assets on the ground that the operative Cowboy is under the care of an agency asset, codenamed BLACK ICE. Black Ice made contact with us and confirmed that Cowboy’s condition was stable and improving.”
“Director, we received a satellite phone call from Cowboy about an hour ago reporting the same,” Tuna interjected. “He used an Odin number that patched to Coolio directly and confirmed that he was in good condition and ready for extraction.”
Ellison looked confused as he leaned over to read his notes. “You said one hour ago?”
“That’s correct, sir,” Tuna replied.
“That can’t be right,” Ellison said as he flipped through the pages of his yellow legal pad.
“Why can’t that be right, Daniel?” Chapman asked.
“Sir, I was just about to get to that, but we recently learned that North Korean soldiers raided Black Ice’s home and took him to an interrogation facility approximately two hours ago. Are you sure it was only an hour?”
“I am sure,” Tuna replied, turning to look at Coolio who nodded and gave a thumbs up in return.
“Well, then are you sure it was Cowboy?”
“He passed all authentications through the answering service and I recognized his voice,” Coolio added. “That was him on the phone.”
“Is it possible your asset turned?” Sierra asked.
“Black Ice has been with the agency for nearly three decades,” Ellison replied. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Coolio, can you trace the sat phone that Cowboy used?” Tuna asked, looking back to Coolio.
“I had a location while we were talking, but it has since been turned off. It will take some time to remotely power it on and pull a location,” Coolio replied.
“Do it,” Tuna ordered and then returned to his screen.
“Sir, I will have Black Ice’s case officer attempt to reestablish communications as soon as we adjourn,” Ellison said.
Secretary of State for Defence Williams cleared his throat. “Miss Carter will have every intelligence asset available to our government at her disposal to ensure Cowboy’s safe return.”
“Thank you, sir,” Sierra said, as she looked away to hold back tears over the potential loss of her brother.
“Okay, what do we know about Woody?” Chapman asked.
Ellison cleared his throat and put down his notes. “We have confirmed his status as a prisoner being held by the North Korean state. He is currently in a hospital in Kaesong under heavy guard. Our local assets believe he is in critical condition, which is better than we could have hoped for, considering...”
“Do they know who he is?” Sierra asked.
“That is not clear at this time,” Ellison replied. “Our assets only know of a ‘Russian pilot that attempted to defect’ with no further data.”
Sierra steeled herself and turned to Tuna. “If he’s in critical condition, he is in grave danger. The North Koreans will attempt highly experimental treatments to revive him and get him to talk. They will try to move him to their secret prisons regardless of his condition. We must intercept him.”
“We need confirmation that he’s there, first,” Tuna said. “Daniel, can any of the CIA’s assets in country get eyes on?”
“I will work on it, sir,” Ellison answered as he scribbled notes on his tablet.
“Tuna, have you heard from Kruger?” Chapman asked.
“Yes, sir, he just linked up with the SEAL team and should be on his way to the USS John Warner where a helicopter will bring him back here,” Tuna reported.
“And we’re sure the mission was a success?” Chapman asked.
“One confirmed KIA,” Coolio answered. “Facial recognition confirmed it was the target.”
The stoic Secretary of State for Defence chimed broke his silence once more. “Do we know what happened in Sunchon? How did he survive?”
“It’s unclear at this time, sir,” Sierra answered. “The North Koreans may have created a vaccine to counter the effects of the toxin.”
“How is that possible?” Chapman asked. “This was specially created.”
“We don’t know for sure at this point. It could have been a failure of the toxin itself,” Sierra said. “The formula could have degraded due to the delivery method.”
“The lab was confident,” Chapman said. “I can’t see how it failed.”
“The other option is that Il-Sung used a body double, either at Sunchon or the Kosong facility. But the latter, is not very likely,” Sierra said.
“Why is that?” Minister Williams asked.
“Because our FSB operative Natasha was brought there to meet him and summarily executed. We were able to confirm her death with the drone footage,” Sierra answered. “We attempted to confirm using the same facial recognition software, but were only able to obtain a partial match due to her condition and the distance. She appeared to have been tortured prior to her execution by an artillery piece.”
“Jesus Christ,” Chapman said, hearing the news of Natasha’s death for the first time. “Does Kruger know?”
“He watched it live, sir,” Coolio said softly. “We all did.”
Chapman shook his head and closed his eyes. “And what of the others? Anatoly and Viktor?”
“Their aircraft is currently en route to Moscow,” Sierra said. “We do not know who is on board and will not be able to verify it until they land.”
“So, she was possibly double-crossed,” Chapman said. “And that means the entire mission may have been compromised.”
“Compromised how, sir?” Tuna asked. “We got the son of a bitch.”
“I still find it difficult to believe that the target was immune to our toxin. If only Natasha was executed and their aircraft flew to Moscow, it’s very possible our team was double-crossed at some point and he was expecting it.”
“Then why allow the mission to go as far as it did? Why were our people allowed to fly out?” Tuna asked.
Chapman seemed to consider the question for a moment and then said, “That is something we will have to find out once we have our boys back. Focus on rescuing Woody and Cowboy for now. We can sort out the rest later. Keep me updated.”