Cold War: Aftermath

Chapter 1: The Final Hours

"Prepare to leave out within the hour." Adler announced to the team after their Cuba debriefing. Bell walked over to his desk which wasn't far from Adler's main office. He sat at his desk gathering clothes and other supplies before they left for Cuba. As he continued placing some munitions in his duffle bag he overheard Sims and Lazar talking about the LW3 Tundra Sniper they were going to be taking with them. Lazar was still holding the rifle in his hands when he said to Bell over his shoulder, "Bell come check out the new toy." "In a second, let me pack a few more things." Bell replied, placing spare tacticals in the duffle bag. He had finished going over everything he had needed when he overheard Park and Adler speaking.
"May I have a word?"
"Whats up." Adler stepped away from the evidence board and put down his cigarette to give Park his attention.
"I need a few moments of your time to discuss something... In Private."
Bell noticed she put an emphasis on the phrase "in private"
Adler quickly examined the file she handed him. "Lets talk."
Park lit a cigarette as she and Adler walked to his office, right past Bell's desk. Neither made eye contact with him, something told him whatever it was, it was something she didn't trust the rest of the team to know.
"How's the rust on your spanish"
"I can pass easily in Spain"
"In Havana they'll identify me as a gringa as soon as I open my mouth" Park admitted as Adler closed the door behind them.
Bell tried to watch them through the windows of the office when Park made eye contact with him and shut the blinds. "Fortunately, I don't plan to talk much"
He couldn't resist the temptation and went to the side of the office closest to his desk where he couldn't be seen. What are you two hiding, Bell wondered as he placed his ear up against the metal wall. He heard Adler speaking now.
"Seen a large increase in coded messages."
"Mhm." Park replied as if it was something she and everyone else knew. "A massive military base. Presumably. How do we get in?"
Adler leaned against the desk as Park paced back and forth. We're going in blind, so get ready for anything", he spoke.
"Of course"
"Bell?" Adler said his name in question.
"He knows I'm listening," Bell wondered to himself, still with his ear leaned against the wall.
"Let's hope it was worth it." Adler muttered, sounding stressed.
Was he talking about hoping that recruiting me was worth it?
"We've definitely rattled Perseus." Adler spoke in a confident tone.
The room became silent, something told him that they might be catching on to his spying he had been doing the past few minutes. While the mention of his name surely piqued his interest, he decided to leave whatever Park and Adler were discussing to themselves. He began to walk over to Lazar and Sims when he found a piece of notebook paper on the ground, he assumed it must have fallen from that document Park handed Adler a few moments ago. He picked it up and read to himself quietly: March 11. Unusually long submersion period this morning. Perhaps exhaustion. Sticking with the usual routine despite A's insistence. Framework seems reasonably intact considering the circumstances.
March 12. Lower dosage today. A doesn't need to know. Health, mental and physical, is an ongoing priority whether he agrees or not.
Bell noticed there was no name that could suggest who wrote this.
"Bell look at this beauty." Sims snapped Bell out of his thoughts. He tucked the note into a pocket of his blue and green uniform.
"You better have my flamethrower I asked for, Sims" Bell said with a smile.
"Nah, I got something even better."
"An LW3 Tundra, one of the most elegant and accurate snipers" Lazar said, still eyeing the weapon.
"May I" Bell asked as Lazar handed the weapon over.
"Its quite light weight considering it's a sniper. But I have to admit, I'd kill to be the one to take out the enemy with this. The bladed marksman trigger, nice touch."
"Well I'm glad you like it, because that's what you'll be using when we leave out." Lazar said.
"Sounds good. I'm gonna go and get it sighted in while I can." Bell spoke as he walked away.
"Hey, remember to turn the safety on, we don't want another outburst like back in 'nam." Sims spoke aloud to Bell.
"You really are never gonna let me live that down are you Sims?" Bell replied over his shoulder.
"Nope." They both laughed.

The night sky was peaceful. On the outskirts of a city in Berlin, Bell could see the city lights. He walked over to the two wooden containers that were stacked up on each other and steadied his new weapon, aiming it towards the driveway of the safehouse.
Such a nice clean scope. Even the turn of the dial was so clean and smooth. Bell thought to himself. While he had had much experience with weapons in his military career almost nothing compared to this new weapon of war. He had almost finished up sighting in the Tundra when he heard the door to the safehouse open. Not knowing who it was yet he spoke, "A true masterpiece right" he said referring to the Tundra.
"Iv never been much for snipers, but I have to admit it looks intimidating" Park spoke as she approached Bell.
"What are you doing out here? Aren't you and Adler supposed to be discussing how terrible your Spanish is?"
"It sounds better than you think."
"I didn't even know you could speak Spanish. Although I guess the Crown is full of surprises." He spoke still with his eye looking through the scope. "Here wanna hold it." He handed the sniper over to his friend. As she was testing the scope out Bell figured he would let his curiosity get the best of him. "So what were you two talking about, if you don't mind me asking."
"Discussing matters about Mason. You know he's been through MKUltra and while he has been to therapy for it, we were weary about how stable he may or may not be. "
Bell could hear the lie in her voice but he decided to go with it anyways. "So why couldn't you discuss this with the rest of us."
"We didn't want to trigger anything by mentioning it infront of him and asking him about it directly didn't seem like a wise decision."
"Oh" was all he could respond with.
She laid the weapon back down on the crates."Anyways, I came to ask a favour of you."
"Yeah."
"This mission is all or nothing, you know that right." Her tone began to get more serious than usual.
"Mhm"
"If this thing goes south, promise me that you will complete the mission at all costs, and that if it comes down to it, leave who you must behind."
He began to suspect she was referring to herself. Telling the truth would only aggravate them both. "You know I'd surrender you to Perseus right now if that's what it took to get my flamethrower." This made them both laugh. "Consider it a deal."