Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

▪︎°°•○●|Chapter 8|●○•°°▪︎

Time passed by and it was now nighttime. Police cars where still roaming the streets, probably in search for the infamous duo. Ethan and Sara were slowly but surely making their way out of the city and into a more isolated part of it. Ethan knew exactly where the extraction point was going to be and so he led them there.

Making a turn to the left the entered some type of tunnel. Over them, there was a train track, on which in that moment was passing a train. Coming out of the 'tunnel' a SUV stopped just in front of the exit of the alley.

The door of the SUV opened from itself. Ethan entered first but haltered as soon as he saw who was sitting in the car but entered nevertheless taking his hood off in the process. Sara entered right after him copying her father and taking her hood off as well. Ethan was now sitting in front of the secretary and Sara in front of (a to her), unknown man. "Mr. Secretary-" Ethan started, closing the door of the car. The Secretary gave both of them a small nod of acknowledgment. "- we weren't aware you were in Russia." His reply was almost instantly.

"I'm not. Not since a bomb blew up the Kremlin-" when those words where said the car started moving again. "-Yesterday I flew in to accept the Order of Friendship from the Russian Pime Minister. Now I'm heading back to Washington to hand the President my resignation."

During his hole speech, Sara kept glancing on the man in front of her. He was twiddling with a pen in his hand the hole time. Seeing her glance at the man in front of her the Secretary decided to introduce him. "My Chief Analyst, William Brandt." Thinking the same thing, the father- daughter duo asked the same thing at the same time. "Do you have a pen?" if this William Brandt was an Analyst, he could surely tell them who the man was that they saw in the Kremlin. "Pardon me?" William asked confused. "A pen." Ethan repeated what he said previously. "Yeah" William replied, still confused as to way they would need a pen.

When he handed the pen to Sara, she immediately started to sketch out the man she recalled from her memory on her hand. While Sara was occupied with sketching, the Secretary decided to ask Ethan some questions. "Ethan, what happened in the Kremlin?" but the question remained unanswered, because Sara was done sketching. Challenging a bit the Chief Analyst Sara asked, "Chief Analyst, you say?" a little offended that a 16-year-old girl was doubting his job he replied "If you're implying that I made a bad call..." he couldn't continue because Ethan interrupted him, turning Sara's hand around, showing him so her quick sketch. "European male. Fifties. About six-foot, 180 pounds. Blue eyes. Who is he?"

"A crude drawing, but by your description, that could be Kurt Hendricks. 190 IQ. Served in Swedish Special Forces. Professor of physics, Stockholm University. Specialist in nuclear endgame theory. Asked to resign...-" he hesitated a little before continuing "- Well, because he's crazy." Coming to the same conclusion as her dad Sara talked directly to the Secretary, while having flashbacks of the moment when they met Cobalt at the Kremlin. "Cobalt. You have to alert the Kremlin that one of their strategists has a nuclear launch device and one of his operatives has the codes to activate it."

Not really believing what Sara said William asked, "What makes you say that?" backing Sara up Ethan replied rather harshly "We saw him leave the executive armory, bag in hand. If Sara hadn't shown me, I wouldn't have noticed in the first place. He sat off that explosion to cover his tracks. It could be weeks before the Russians know it's missing. Unless we tell them" The Secretary decided to speak up with a very serious face "They won't listen to us. As far as the Russians are concerned, we just bombed the Kremlin. The tension between the United States and Russia hasn't been this high since the Cuban Missile Crisis. And the blame, right or wrong, points to the IMF. -" A short but intense silence followed before he continued "-The President has initiated Ghost Protocol. The entire IMF has been disavowed."