Arkangel || A Winter / Karina / WinRina Adventure

Mission IX: Chrome

[A/N. Graphic violence ahead. Please don't play with any of the chemical products mentioned.]

Karina was at work, so Parker came to Winter's home for the briefing. Winter peeked through the curtains and saw four black armored SUVs out front. Parker didn't take any chances. The neighbors would have questions.

She had no idea what it meant to "entertain" guests, unless "entertain" was a synonym for "murder." So Karina had made some coffee and gotten croissants before she left for work, complaining about why she had to make coffee before she went to work at a coffee shop.

Winter handed Parker a mug and they sat down on the couch. "Good work as usual, Arkangel. Landing the plane was a wonderful touch. How did you learn to fly?"

"Karina got me Microsoft Flight Simulator for exactly those situations."

Parker smiled. "Smart! Maybe there's a job for her at the Agency."

Winter smiled back. "Stay away from her, although nothing about her surprises me anymore. She can do anything. But I want to grow old with her."

"Damn, Arkangel, it sounds like you've grown a heart."

"I'm working on it. Karina has made it possible."

"She's an incredible person. You can tell by how dignified she carries herself. I wish I had her poise."

Winter punched him in the arm. "Enough about my wife. Let's talk about the mission."

"Of course. You're going back to Russia, but this time you'll be far from St Petersburg. We've been contacted by a cryptographer named Sergei Gogol. He's a genius, and he's developed an encryption algorithm that is unbreakable. As you know, all current forms of encryption are technically breakable. Given enough time and computer power, they can be brute-force cracked. Another approach is to find errors in the math and try to exploit them. It's believed that quantum computers can break any encryption instantaneously. But Gogol has created something that defeats all attempts to break it. If it runs in conjunction with a simple maintenance program, it will also evolve itself millions of times per second."

He continued. "Gogol is a loyal Russian, but he's convinced the FSB is going to take it over, not for Russian government purposes, but to increase their surveillance of tens of thousands of Russian and foreign nationals, and the data would be unreadable. Right now we have a gentleman's agreement with Russia. We know they steal low-level secrets from us, and they know we're stealing from them. This is a delicate but necessary diplomatic balance, and if the FSB becomes a black box, that give-and-take will end, and we'll all start making dangerous guesses about what each side is planning."

"We can't let that happen," Parker explained. "Your job is to get Gogol across the border and into Belarus by any means necessary. You'll be dropped off from a stealth Blackhawk, and then you'll rendezvous at the most unique facility we have on Russian soil."

Winter frowned. "So I get Gogol out. I'm assuming that he'll be disappeared and we steal the algorithm?"

"No. Don't be so cynical all the time, Arkangel. He'll get a new identity, get a job teaching math at a top-tier university like MIT, but yes, we'll have the algorithm. Just remember that we can't go dark either. We'll save it for a rainy day."

"When do I leave?"

"You have three days off with Karina. Happy hunting, Arkangel. You've done some difficult missions, but this could be a civilization killer if we fail."

"So, no pressure," Winter said.

Parker nodded and sipped his coffee.

. . . . .