‘THE SILENT ASSASSIN’ Harry explained, ‘is after us. To be exact, after you,’ he pointed at Peter. ‘Cormack Cooper created an online bounty on Peter in the DARK WEB. He sent a spam email, but luckily malfunctioned and was only sent to … username: Silent Assassin. Well, our techies managed to hack and extract some info on this so called assassin. He is an assassin. We also met him once-’ ‘What? When?’ Stella interrupted. ‘When Lemon saved the day, by pushing Peter down two weeks before and a sniper bullet missed?’ ‘Oh, I get it,’ Ethan said nodding his head. Harry then quoted Cormack, “Are you back? I would love to see the idiot falling on the floor, dead.” ‘I drew red thread on pictures and it’s the SILENT ASSASSIN!’ It was Week 2 for the spies in the ‘Archipelago’ – the archipelago was called that and it was group of hideouts for spies with cloaking technology in midst of the Pacific viewed only by spies, their secretaries and in 1999, a curious cruise ship which I am sorry to tell you, never lifted the anchor after lowering it at an island in the ‘Archipelago.’ After an hour, Peter received and email from the techies and forensic officers. He read it and told his teammates. ‘Guys! I’ve got an email from the techies and our forensic pals, they researched on fingerprints found near where I was attacked and about Silent Assassin’s personal details. Here are the following: Name: Petrov Hotieca Age: 32 I’ll skip to the important part. Ex – Mafia sniper/assassin. Got caught and lost his arm – has a robotic one now - left Mafia, stayed in the underworld. Currently living in Ryazan, Russia. The agency wants us to go there and finish him off. We will be accommodated in different motels, disguised as tourists. We’ll go on a city tour as tourists made into BUS 3421 group departing on Monday morning, 14th April. We’ll go to Ryazan Kremlin close to our target’s current living location. Stray from the group, target him through different sniper spots with one or two keeping watch outside in the road. Then… go for the kill. Post script: I will stay here and guide you through COMM links. Russia has been informed. We can even go there tomorrow night, taking the 8 ‘o’ clock AEROFLOT from New York International Airport.
‘RYAZAN NATIVE,’ Peter said in their COMM links, ‘Ivan, who agreed to help the agency, will be your guide and tourist bus driver at your time there.’ Ethan, Stella, Tom, Steve, Remus, Lemon and Harry were relocated inside an Agency taxi from their Mercedes Benz Vito 2021 model. Tension was in the air. The team was always scared at the start of a mission but later at their game due to the excitement. Their heart beat faster than usual. Tom and Steve kept sighing. While Remus ignored everything and fidgeted with his phone to ease the tension. They reached the airport. Ethan and Steve picked up the luggage. The solemn-looking team checked in, without VIP passes. They looked like normal tourists. One by one they went for immigration. All of their immigration officers, gaped when they looked at the passports and tried to salute before the spy-in-immigration told them to sit. During the security check up, the spies waved their IDs at the guards and put their luggage inside the scanning mission. They saw guns, bullets and sniper sets, they allowed the spies to pass gulping at the look of weapons. They spies sat at different seats near the gates. Harry started listening to music. Remus was feeding the miserable Lemon in a cage. Soon, a large, Airbus A350-1000 joined the aerobridge. The gates were opened. The started walking towards the aerobridge, chatting with Peter in their phones for using COMM links might raise a few eyebrows. As Harry was about to enter the aluminum wonder, Peter spoke: ‘Good Luck, Team! You’re on your own now! In Skolkovo, Ivan will hand you a new set of COMM links, discard this one!’ Peter switched off the link and sighed, this mission should be successful.
Ryazan was a nice city. The Aeroflot airlines landed smoothly after a go-around. The ATC started talking to the captain. ‘Hello Aeroflot 4700, welcome to Russia! Please taxi left in the nearest turn and head for Gate 7! Hope you have a nice day!’ The disguised spies got to the taxi stand in the airport. Ivan was there. ‘Welcome, I am Ivan and I’ll be your guide here in Ryazan. You will be BUS 3421’s group and all of us will explore Ryazan together! Any questions?’ To make it natural Steve and Remus asked questions like, where will we go and stuff. ‘Please follow me to BUS 3421, I will drive you to your hotel! Would you like to visit a restaurant after you all are refreshed? It’s delicious there!’ Ivan spoke with a Russian accent, he enjoyed helping international spies! The spies nodded and went into their bus – that was provided by the agency and with built-in weapons! Their hotel was called ‘Ryazan Ruckus Resort,’ a weird name I must say! The team refreshed. Peter was back online for Ivan had given them the new COMM links. ‘Ryazan Kremlin, ETA tomorrow,’ the voice said in their ears.
‘RYAZAN KREMLIN,’ Peter said in their COMMS, ‘will be in your left in 2 miles.’ The radio in Ivan’s bus sang foreign words that only Remus and Ivan understood. The oldest structure in all of Ryazan zoomed towards them. They crossed the dry moat and spotted rivers. As the Vito took into a steep climb, nervousness hit the team. Ivan showed them inside the museum. At 1.00, Harry told Ivan the code, ‘We will have lunch at the feet of the hill.’ Ivan nodded and together they went to down the hill. ‘I am sharing you the co-ordinates of target’s current living location.’ Peter spoke. The team advanced on ‘Ulitsa Furmanova’ the street where Petrov lives. Stella, Tom, Ethan and Steve went to their sniper stations and wore their thermal camera goggles. Petrov was nowhere to be seen. Harry and Remus wandered the streets. Talking to each other about sports. Steve’s eyes focused on something emitting heat in Petrov’s house. It had a weird shape. His eyes went wide. The CCTV camera looked at him. Steve gaped. He looked up. Petrov Hotieca appeared as a yellow silhouette. He had a sniper. He fired. Steve hurled backwards and almost fell off the roof he was on. His Kevlar vest made sure he did not die. But the impulse sent him flying. Later, Stella was down. Then Tom. Ethan was not noticed, he hid. Harry and Remus knew they were down and did not die. He knew jumping into action would blow his cover. Remus and Harry entered the next street, then the other. There Ivan was waiting. ‘So fast? Where are the others?’ he asked. Remus replied to him in Russian. Ivan was shocked and surprised how calm these agents were. ‘Harry! I saw what happened! Luckily when Tom fell, his goggles were not disturbed, he took them off. I can see where Petrov is going!’ Peter’s voice shouted in their ears. Harry gestured at Ivan to wait and ran towards Petrov’s house armed with a bulletproof vest and a Desert Eagle with a silencer. Petrov was casually walking towards Stella, to dump her body in the nearby garbage can. It seemed that Steve had already gone in one. As he neared Stella, she quickly got herself up and kicked Petrov. He counter-attacked Stella and she fell down. He brought his Smith and Wesson .500 from his pocket. Two Desert Eagles fired in harmony. They impulse kicked Petrov from the roof in which Stella was stationed. He toppled down from the roof. Hitting the top of a very expensive Aston Martin Vulcan. Luckily, the foolish owner left the door unlocked. Petrov limped into it and brought it back to life. It roared then, soared the road! A car was already placed in a nearby alley for the Spies. Stella, Harry and Remus got in the 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG S. It chased the Vulcan. Petrov got inside a 5-storey car park with parked hatchbacks, sedans and SUVs. The Aston Martin sped up. It went up the stories to the roof. The Mercedes followed. The Sun glared at them. The Vulcan drifted right, then halted. It felt like Western Cowboy duel music was playing in the background. The Mercedes roared. Vulcan roared back. It went in a straight line and jumped of a ramp of planks. The Vulcan made flat spins twice then landed on a mall’s rooftop car park. It landed facing backwards. Petrov swore. He looked at the Spies. A very shocked Hotieca gaped. So did everyone in the Mercedes. A Ferrari flew from the ramp. It’s red colour glinting in the sunlight. The Blood Red beauty landed smoothly after wonderful seconds in the air over a road painted colourfully with cars. The car drifted and faced a jealous Aston Martin. Petrov started in reverse gear then drifted 180 degrees. Harry and Stella had gotten out to see what happens. Remus stayed in the car. He came out and jumped from the roof quickly. He wore some for-safety items. Remus raised his hand revealing a grapple gun. A grapple shot out and attached itself to the roof in which two beauties had landed. He shot upwards and landed. He wore automated roller skates. They started rolling. Remus kept his balance and chased the cars. The Aston Martin drifted round and round in the circular road going downwards to the road. The Ferrari followed. Remus behind it. The Vulcan ran to the exit. It was blocked by a garbage truck! It was too late to hit brake. The explosion sent many screams inside the mall. The Ferrari drifted to halt. It knew about the explosion. Remus almost hit it after going at an alarming rate. He had sent a grapple to the pipeline on the ceiling and he went up, avoiding breaking his bones hitting a red roadrunner.
‘STEVE ROGERS,’ Remus spoke hanging from the ceiling, ‘is that you?’ It was Steve, he was the one who drove the Ferrari. No one else could be driving cars so skillfully and perform dangerous stunts! ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘it’s me. I was dumped in a garbage can. Few waste management staff helped me. I asked them to place their garbage-collection truck there and Ivan was there too. His friend lent me this baby.’ All the Spies except Tom, of course, slowly advanced towards the exploded Vulcan. Peter too, was following with the help of cameras on the others. Petrov Hotieca was not there. He had escaped. ‘Team!’ Peter spoke suddenly, ‘Tom managed to head this way using his GPS. He is in the mall. Connecting you to him.’ ‘Guys?’ came a weary reply, ‘where are you, man!’ ‘Tom look for Petrov in the mall if you can, we will meet you there.’ Remus instructed. The sound of automated roller-skates were heard. It was Ethan. He was watching all this, but couldn’t keep up. ‘What was that explosion? The screams and all?’ ‘Petrov is in the mall, get him! He escaped!’ Harry replied. The Spies got their automated roller skates and rode it in the mall. Even Lemon had one! Tom, Stella and Lemon, searched the interior parts of the mall. Harry, Remus and Ethan scouted the perimeter. Ethan spotted something in the roof and went to investigate it. A bright, yellow helicopter stood there. It was the mall’s. And a man limped towards it, holding a key. Petrov. Ethan had his roller skates. He switched it on. It did not switch on. He realized he used it for a long distance. He ran on foot, calling Remus and Harry on the way. Petrov saw him. He used his full force and broke into a run. His ankle was killing him. Yet he managed get the helicopter on the air. Ethan looked up. Remus was behind him in roller skates. He jumped! Petrov was shocked, why would he jump? Quickly, a cloth came between his arms and legs. It was bird suit! Remus glided a distance. Then he took out his grapple gun and sent a grapple to the helicopter’s landing blades. Remus shot upwards. Speeding up every second. Petrov was terrified. He tried evasive maneuvers, but it did not work. Suddenly, a blue camouflaged helicopter that barely made noise appeared in the sky. It was Harry. Petrov put the helicopter in autopilot. Then, he pulled out Remus’ grapple. Remus dived down. He quickly started gliding, then grappled Harry’s helicopter’s landing blades. Petrov started moving fast. Remus got in Harry’s helicopter. ‘Let’s get him to deserted lands, then fire a missile’ Harry said. Petrov headed north. Towards Moscow! When he was above Moscow, he jumped with a parachute! It was too dangerous to shoot him from there! That would give too many witnesses. Petrov’s helicopter started to dive, nose first! ‘If that thing FALLS, IT WILL KILL SOME PEOPLE AND WE WILL BE INVOLVED! LET’S SHOOT IT MIDAIR, THEN RETREAT!’ Remus shouted. They shot the helicopter then retreated. The explosion had many witnesses.
‘WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?’ General Vladimir was mad, ‘we agreed for you Americans to shoot the Mafia guy, he was bad but…you know what? Let our forces do it for you! Your agency will be told about this!’ Remus wanted to tell the general that he was Russian, but he knew it was not the right time. The agency suspended Harry and Remus until Petrov was dealt with. The others were to deal the case. The miserable two went to a restaurant in Moscow. And they noticed a man laughing loudly, looking at his phone. He wore a jacket. He took out the hood. Petrov Hotieca. Harry and Remus were shocked. They were not allowed to contact any of the Spies. The duo were armed with a Desert Eagle each. For self-defense. Harry looked backwards. Outside the restaurant was a pharmacy. He nodded at Remus and went there. He purchased a soluble sleep pill. He came back and added it to Petrov’s wine when he was not looking. 20 minutes later, Remus and Petrov accidentally brushed past each other. ‘Sorr-,’ Petrov was astonished. He started sprinting, his legs were alright now. Remus and Harry acted normal. As if they were normal people. Many curious customers went to the door to see Petrov. Harry was one of them. He saw that Petrov was dialing someone in his phone. He spoke, to the Mafia! A helicopter suddenly came with a rope ladder. So did a Mercedes carrying the other Spies. Petrov managed to get in the rope ladder. When he was halfway up, he felt dizzy. He was about to fall when, a hand came from the helicopter and shot him. He fell from 10 meters. His heart retired. Mafia’s helicopter escaped.
‘PROJECT BLAST,’ General Vladimir spoke, ‘how is it going?’ ‘All right, General!’ Meier spoke, he had worked for the General for 20 years now. His master was the head honcho of one of the Russian Mafia. He also had a high rank in the Russian military. Meier was the one who shot Petrov, his ex-friend, on his master’s command. Project BLAST has a simple idea. See Russia suffer from a nuclear attack. He was going to blow up Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant. It was the first ever nuclear plant to be built and working. The General’s father worked there and died due to radioactivity. Since then, he hated nuclear plants. He wanted the world, especially Russia and Moscow with it, to know how bad nuclear plants are. He had a feeling that the blast will persuade the Russian government to shut down these plants and if he was lucky enough, probably the whole world. I liked his idea at first, but when I heard about how he was executing it, I was disgusted.
Harry and Remus got their jobs back. The Spies received a message in code from Peter and the agency. Who had encrypted a coded message from Moscow and was from a military General to a man called Meier, who works for the Russian Mafia. The Spies knew about Project BLAST. It was the first time the Spies felt cold and scared. Nuclear. They did not happen to like it at all. Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant was 110km away from Moscow. They went to General Vladimir’s office. He was not there. They searched the room thoroughly for evidence he was part of this Mafia. They left no stone unturned. Later, American Intelligence told them that members of this Mafia wore a ring that was made of silver with five dots inscribed. The head honcho wears a similar ring that is made of gold and the dots are small chunks of diamonds. Knowing that, the Spies checked the high quality CCTV camera planted near the door to Vladimir’s office. They zoomed in on the General’s hand from the footage of him leaving his office the night before. He wore a golden ring with five diamond chunks planted on it.
The General chuckled to himself. His plan was brilliant. With nuclear gone, the planet will use natural, renewable resources. He thought about his future plans on stopping the production of vehicles that harm the environment. Meier grinned to himself. He had plans to push his Master into radioactive air, after the bomb was planted. He would become the head honcho of this environment-friendly (kind of) Mafia. And terrorize the streets of Moscow. The citizens should know that Meier rhymes with fear. He realized what he was currently doing. Checking if their bomb (which is only a dynamite in a different shape) works. The dynamite blasted a boulder in the mountain. Meier and other members of the Mafia tried breaking more boulders. ‘It works, General,’ Meier reported, ‘would you care for a drink?’ The General nodded back.
The Spies managed to track Meier’s phone’s SIM card and found out his location, in a warehouse beside a mountain, just outside Moscow. The team drove there. Two guards were outside. Harry fired two anesthetic darts. The two men dropped down. The team advanced forward. They wore their thermal goggles. If they opened the door, three men will be talking. So Stella went in firing (anesthetic darts). ‘5 down, 24 more to go, we can use stealth and make it 10 more to go,’ Remus whispered. Unfortunately, a rookie of the Mafia heard it. Tom quickly choked him. The rookie managed to say that he will help. He told them that Meier has planted many CCTV cameras surrounding him. Harry nodded. Ethan fired an anesthetic to make sure the rookie does not warn anyone else. ‘TOM! TOM!’ Peter shouted at the microphone. But it was too late. Damage was done. There’s no use crying over spilt milk. Tom was spotted in a CCTV camera while choking the rookie. Meier slow-clapped. 23 men, all armed, were behind him. He himself had a black pistol. The other Spies were not spotted, so they went into hiding, yet speaking to Tom. They made a plan quickly. Ethan and Stella started banging some containers behind the men as a distraction. Remus grappled to the ceiling and dropped a smoke bomb. He dropped down. Harry ran silently and joined Tom and Remus. He subdued Meier, after unarming him. The smoke cleared. Men stopped sneezing. They realized they fell for misdirection. By then, the Spies and an unconscious Meier were in a car speeding towards a base given by the Russian government. Meier woke up startled. He felt the ground. Soft. He looked down. He was in a bed. A smell of French Fries drifted towards him. His salivary glands secreted saliva. He heard soft speech, then footsteps coming closer to him. He played sleep. It was like playing dead, but this time sleeping. It was Ethan. Meier heard a gun loading. His heart went insane. Meier tried to escape the bed and hitting Ethan. When he made his sudden movement, he realized he was handcuffed. It was awkward. Ethan pointed his Desert Eagle. ‘I surrender!’ Meier waved his white bedsheets. ‘Good, you better speak the truth during the interrogation.’ Fear clouded Meier’s chest. He was brought to an isolated room. Harry was there. Before Harry could speak, Meier exposed the secret of Project BLAST. He looked at his watch. 11.00 AM. Meier grinned. ‘The General blows up Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant in 1 hour. Now shoo off, save the world!’ Harry’s eyes went wide. The lie-detecting machine flashed the word ‘TRUTH.’ He quickly locked the interrogation room with a titanium lock. Meier groaned. The Spies, along with Ivan following with the Vito, went to the Power Plant. They stopped the car and went for the control room. One man was trying to break the door. Another was watching him and talking. The Spies’ jaw dropped. ‘Dad?’ Harry asked, ‘is it you?’ ‘Harry?’ The man trying to break the door, looked back. That was Michael Watch. Harry’s father. The world’s best solo spy. Working for the agency for 37 years. He had disappeared on a mission when Harry had just joined the academy. ‘I am after Vladimir, Rufus’ kindergarten friend. You too? And you discovered him in a few weeks?’ ‘Yes, dad. Intel hacked a coded message from him.’ Rufus was Remus’ father, helper and investor of the agency and Michael Watch’s best and only friend. The fathers and sons talked for a few seconds, they knew that there was no time to spare. As the door was broken. Vladimir was waiting for them. Michael gestured at the others. And shot him with a swift movement. Michael looked back. The wounded General, ran and subdued Michael and pointed his pistol at his head. Michael was calm. The Spies did not move. Vladimir led Michael outside to another block in the power plant. Michael saw what was inside the block. He was shocked. He quickly tried a maneuver to make the General let go. Vladimir counter-attacked. The greatest spy in the world, went toppling into a pool of radioactive (liquid). Ivan saw this from a distance, he was devasted. He ran to the Spies. They remained impassive, knowing about the death. They ran. Harry kicked the door open and kept firing bullets at Vladimir. His anger made sure the bullets missed. ‘My men,’ Vladimir spoke, ‘are already inside that zone, and placed the bomb. They wanted to watch it explode. Since they were in a radioactive zone, they were going to die sooner or later. They found out that it had defused. They tried fixing it. But ended up blowing it up somewhere else. In that place, there are green, blue, red buttons. If someone does not click it before this minute, the electrical grid will explode. Causing other Power Plants, except this to blow. The coloured buttons must be pressed at once, or else… One of my men, ran out of the zone and told me this. He died, of course.’ Vladimir dropped dead, Michael’s bullet doing its job. ‘What should we do?’ Remus asked, ‘who will sacrifice themselves? I’ll do it, I will save my country.’ ‘NO REMUS, SIR! I WILL DO IT!’ the voice shook the Spies ear drums. All of them looked at the source of the voice. Ivan Dimitri pressed a green, red and blue button. IT’S HIS MEDALS ‘IT’S HIS MEDALS,’ Mrs. Watch told Harry. Harry was fiddling with his father’s medals. He saw a drawer, he opened it. He saw a case file, with a bookmark. It said: UNFINISHED BUSINESS