Prologue: Through CEDIT's border checkpoint

The Siberian tundra wasn't exactly the most glamorous location that a CEDIT agent could be assigned to. Well aware of that- and preparing to face all sorts of Deliverer hostiles at your target destination- you suspected your movement through the high security airport on Russia's border might be the nicest part of your trip. That was saying a lot, given the way the CEDIT Russia agents watched both you and your companions with suspicious glares. The foreign agents stationed all over the airport stood stone-faced, wearing full agent gear including body armor and small arms... their lack of comradery made you wonder if they even realized you were all fighting on the same team. It struck you that you'd barely heard a word of English since you got into the eerily quiet and inhospitable airport...

You looked between your accompanying agents. Amusingly, even though all of the Russian agents here were dressed in their field agent gear, you all had worn your dress suits, in preparation of making a good impression on CEDIT's high ranking Russian officials who were here to finish your joint briefing. What Goodbye had given you was just part of the picture... It seemed this foreign arm of CEDIT's forces might have other interests at play here. That couldn't be more obvious, as the troops stationed all around continued to view you as just a step up from some sort of hostile intruders.

Your suit was already pretty appropriate for such a meeting, with your tailored black outer-wear and crisp, tucked tie. The others looked a bit stranger in theirs. They'd each been **** to match your way of dress, meaning that Despedida and Tschau both wore black suit tops with skirts and long hose. The hacker of the group could have looked much more professional than her usual self, given that her hair had been tied up into a neat ponytail and held away from where it usually covered one eye, but the fact that she still had her face buried in some handheld gaming system destroyed that impression. Tschau, for her part, had her own eyes rooted on her phone. Her body looked so thin in that suit and skirt, she could have been mistaken for some random child, were it not for the ninjoto sheathed at the sash across her back. She'd insisted on keeping it, even here. Beyond that, she also still wore her ninja hood, which made her look like someone out of a comic book.

You cursed your luck. If Vaarvel was here, she'd know Russian for sure and could tell you what your handlers were going on about behind your backs. As if sensing your distress, Tschau turned her eyes at you sidelong, tilting her head up from her phone for once. "Don't lose your cool, Ciao. None of us trust the Russian agents. But they aren't going to make a move against us here. Just focus on the mission... Besides... I can understand everything they're saying."

You were surprised. You weren't aware that Tschau's training included any multilingual skills.

The ninja lowered her eyebrows. "I've spent enough time with CEDIT Russia to pick up a thing or two..." {if Tschau's Hidden Past = 1}That's right... It couldn't be comfortable for Tschau to be back here. Russia probably held a lot of traumatic memories for her. Looking at how the various soldiers were watching her, you wondered if the old wounds between CEDIT at large and its rogue Russian arm had ever really gone away.{endif} She turned her eyes back down to her phone and continued speaking quickly. "They're saying they're going to split our group up ahead. Despedida and I will be detained for a body search before we can board the Gambit that will take us to the mission location. You'll be speaking to the base commander here. Don't do anything stupid... Even for our sakes."

Despedida chuckled; for once, she'd been listening to your conversation rather than her headphones. "It's no big deal, guys. I've been watching their cameras since we came in here. This is some Siren sight-jacking stuff I've got going on! I've already seen everything that's waiting for us and it's no biggie. So just relax." The hacker didn't look up from her video game as she spoke, but you did find that her confidence raised your own. "I mean, there's some kinda big robot in a hangar, but, like, if it comes to that, I'll blow it up. Deus Ex style. It's no biggie. I mean, it's big, but it's no biggie."

A robot?! That sounded like a huge biggie!

The time that Tschau had foretold came next. Each of the girls was taken off for some sort of body search, while you were led into a room with two armed guards and a woman in formal military dress. Finally, somebody here had gotten the memo regarding appropriate attire for meeting foreign agents and guests of honor...

That's when you noticed the woman's nameplate: Bortnik. Things were about to get much more complicated... You wondered if Despedida had been able to see this through the cameras and didn't find it important enough to warn you about.

The general waved you to your seat across from hers with a smirk. You thought to yourself that the smirk seemed very in line with that of the rest of your agents. For that matter, the rest of her did too... The dark brown suit she wore fit to her body well enough to show that she had Despedida matched in the realm of curves. Another part of her was more reminiscent of Tschau: one of her hands was completely prosthetic, a metallic imitation with armored knuckles and fingers. Between two of said knuckles, she held a long cigar, which she had yet to start; a box of similar ones was still sitting upon the heavy, metallic desk. Her hair was long and black, with an odd streak of white running from the forehead back past her cranium and disappearing somewhere within its waves. Her lips weren't painted and she wore no make-up... you got the sense of her advanced age from the lines that had begun to form at the corners of her eyes. Other than that, her trip past her forties and into her fifties had treated her quite well.

"The new handler! Welcome! I've been watching and I've seen that our men have been less than hospitable to you so far. Let me make that up to you right now. Cigar?" The woman's voice was mirthful and her speech was in English... and yet, these factors only made you more suspicious of her. When you refused her cigar, the woman shrugged, then stuck her own between her teeth. Her grayish eyes stayed rooted on your own as she clicked her fingers and somehow lit her tobacco using the spark from between the thumb and her forefinger. "Such a shame. Are you a man with no vices? We all deserve a few in these brief lives of ours."

You impatiently asked for her name, making it clear that you didn't appreciate having been left in the dark about the fact that your mission's target had a relative here in the CEDIT Russia base.

"Milaslava Bortnik." The woman answered with a cool grin around her cigar, puffed it a few times, then set it atop her ashtray. She folded one feminine hand into the over-sized prosthetic one, then leaned her elbows onto the table, shifting her chair slightly closer. "And yes: Doctor Ivan Bortnik is my brother. His research is invaluable to the Russian people. To think that he would be swayed by the Deliverers and would betray his homeland... It is unthinkable. Trust me, I want the exact same thing as you do: to recapture him and return him to CEDIT. We are fully prepared to detain him here."

You shook your head slowly, but didn't blink. At least her treachery hadn't taken long to figure out. The situation had cleared itself up: the Bortniks had both been working with CEDIT Russia, but Russia had withheld any knowledge of Ivan up to this point. Now that the genius roboticist had gone off the ranch, Milaslava wanted to get him back... and he had to be taken back to Russia, not Washington, to suit her needs. You wondered what sort of dirt Ivan had on CEDIT Russia's operation. Probably quite a lot... You'd imagine he had roots tying all the way back to the original Russian incident that had alienated this branch from the rest of CEDIT.

"No?" The woman continued to smile, but she didn't pick back up her cigar. "Ha! You from Washington never can hang up a grudge against Russia, can you? Perhaps once you see the careful touch with which we treat your fellow agents, you will change your mind." The lady kicked both of her booted feet up onto the table, drawing your attention to her shapely legs in her military slacks, then picked up a remote. "We'll see how your agents are doing. What were their names again? Hmmmm..."

You actually hoped she'd finish that sentence. You had no idea what their real names were.

Rather than answering her own question, she brought a view of Despedida up on the monitor behind her. You could see your fellow agent raising her hands above her head while being patted down by Russian agents... the giant robot she'd mentioned had been deployed and stood in the backdrop, looking like something out of Robocop. It stood, bipedal, with two arms, each outfitted with cannons of some sort, both of them pointed in her direction. "Oh! You wanted this one, right? Or this one?"

The Russian pressed a button on the remote, then flipped over to the other channel. You saw Tschau in a similar position... in the place of a robot, she simply had far more agents surrounding her. You noticed several of them carrying stun batons and others carrying some sort of launchers, loading them with heavy metal nets. You didn't think you were going to get a chance at Ivan Bortnik... The mission had changed entirely. It seemed like Milaslava intended to capture both of your agents here.

Despedida had said no biggie, right?! What part of this was no biggie?!

The grin returned to the other woman's face, as she replaced her cigar and blew smoke across the table at you. "Weeeell, Ciao? Which would you like to watch? Once our search is conducted, if we find anything untrustworthy about the two or out of place, mmm... We'll be **** to detain them. Then we will proceed with the rest of the mission in our own way."

Ironically, you and Milaslava were united in a mutual distrust towards your allies, but you weren't bringing robots and stun prods to bear in pursuit of the answers. Still, as confident as you were in the bad intentions of the Russian forces and the righteousness of your original mission to subdue Doctor Bortnik and take him to Washington, you were seriously outnumbered. If it was just Milaslava, you might take your chances in attacking and subduing her, but she had two armed guards with her... unlike you, they didn't have a bunch of fancy gadgets, just the latest in CEDIT Russia's **** weapons, including automatic rifles. The ones outside carrying handguns had been threatening enough without factoring these bodyguards in. For now, you had to trust in your agents... and answer the Russian bigwig's question.