Where In The World Are The Killers?

O Deadly Night

Siberia: Christmas Eve...

"Merry Christmas, Adalet!" Lars beams, the pompom of the Santa hat he was wearing swings as he bounces on the balls of his feet, "I'm so excited the holiday season is finally here!"

"Merry Christmas to you too, Lars!" Adalet replies brightly, "but as much as I'm sure this whole team loves the holidays, we still have one small thing we need to take care of before we can celebrate... SOMBRA."

"With Natasha's help, we learned that someone in COSMORUS has supplied launch codes to SOMBRA. The question is, what do they intend to launch?" Chief Ripley drums her fingers against the table, "we also learned that COSMORUS has an outpost here in Siberia and SOMBRA must be heading for it."

"Something suspicious must be going on for COSMORUS to bury themselves in the snow all the way out here!" Jack pondered.

"Bro, you and Adalet should check out the Northern Lights at Lake Baikal while you're here!" Lars suggested, "you can't be all the way up here and NOT see the lights! Be sure to dress warm. This can be a hostile environment with temperatures sinking below -13F!"

"I won't speak for Jack but I'll be fine," Adalet assured.

"I call dibs on cuddling Adalet for warmth if the need arises!" Jack declared.

Lars snickers, "pretty sure Fili and Ahmet get first dibs, bro!"

He pouts, "you just had to say something... Alright, Adalet, we've got to see what SOMBRA wants with these launch codes. Let's start our search at Lake Baikal!"

After putting on some extra layers (in Jack's case) and finding some snow boots for Hunter to wear with her jacket, the three began driving to Lake Baikal. They needed to park away from the lake and walk the rest of the path, but it gave them more time to admire the shifting lights in the sky. As they approached the lake they noticed that the ice near the edge had begun to break and create small floating pieces of ice in the water.

They walked along the edge of the lake from a safe distance until they stumbled across a broken section of ice with some large hunks of ice sticking out of the water. Stuck into one of the larger pieces of ice was the frozen body of a man poorly dressed in a Santa suit and holding a booze bottle in his left hand. Looking around the ice, Adalet noticed a fake white beard with its tips soaked in blood on another piece of ice and some torn paper on the unbroken ice near the shoreline.

"Adalet, is there someone frozen in that block of ice in the middle of the lake?!" Jack exclaimed, noticing his partner had stopped walking.

"A dead person, alright!" Adalet confirmed, not seeing or hearing any signs of life, "and is it just me or is he dressed like Santa Claus?"

"He is," he agrees, "and is that blood on his coat? Ho ho... oh no! This wasn't an accident! Someone killed Santa Claus?! Adalet, we've got to save Christmas!"

"How The Bureau Saved Christmas... Probably shouldn't make that a children's book!" she winced, "at least not with the murder in it! Give me a second to deal with the body..."

Leaving Jack and Hunter safely on the shore, Adalet flew over the broken ice to where the victim's body was floating. As she passed by she picked up the fake beard and tossed it back to land beside the torn paper. She reached the body and held on to the man's jacket as she used her free hand to melt the block of ice surrounding him.

"Have I ever mentioned how handy you are?" Jack joked, "a fire starter and fire extinguishers all in one!"

"Do not talk to me about fire extinguishers!" Adalet glares.

He snickered, "still wish I could have seen it! And speaking of seeing, I see you found some clues! This fake white beard must belong to our slain Santa and it's soaked in blood. We'd better get a sample of that asap, Adalet!"