Splinter Cell: Traitor

Chapter 5 SCT

Nathan

SERBIA

            I could hear Ames in my SVT as he talked to a man about an arms deal.  I just shook my head and went back to what I was actually looking for.  I was looking for a location for Abigail’s safe house.  She would need to have a safe house location to fall back on if shit hit the fan.  There were only a few places in the city that would give her the space needed for a good safe house.  I was checking out the last one now.

            I walked up a set of wooden stairs that creaked with every single step I took.  The walls here were thin and the paint was chipping.  There was no central heating in this place and I wouldn’t lit a fire in this tinderbox if my life depended on it.  I saw what I think was the Serbian equivalent of a hooker strutting down the hallway.  She flashed me a naughty smile and I avoided eye contact with her.  I didn’t have the time to do that.

            The last two locations I had checked out were both empty.  The first being a hotel room on the other side of the city, it was a nice hotel room and I damn near got shot checking that one out.  The second was a small foreclosed shack on the edge of the city in the north.  Easily defendable from all sides and almost impossible to attack considering it was located directly across from a high security facility.

            I examined the door and ran my fingers over the top of the frame.  There might have been a key stored up there.  It had happened before.  When I didn’t find one, I sighed.  Why couldn’t this have been easy?  I pulled a flexi-cam out and threaded it underneath the door.  I had to switch it to night vision imaging so I could see the dark room.  Looking at the readout on my OPSAT, there was a bed against the far wall, a computer and printer on a desk.  A closed door leading to another room and the window blinds were closed.

            I couldn’t see much else, there was a few things on the desk but I couldn’t tell what they were.  I pulled the camera back and pocketed it.  I pulled my lock pick set out and began picking the lock.

            “Checking out the last location, if this isn’t it.  I can scout the city again, looking for more obvious locations,” I whispered as the lock opened.  I pulled a flashlight out and opened the door.  I slipped inside and closed the door behind me.  Turning the flashlight on, I walked across the room to the desk.  Shining the flashlight on it, I saw the contents on the desk.  A handgun, a knife, an OPSAT, a mess of medical supplies, a bottle of water, a watch, and a pair of dog tags were scattered over the top of the desk.  I looked at the computer and considered booting it up, when I remembered the bed.  Switching the flashlight to a red glow, if made the light duller and wouldn’t wake an occupant up, if there was one.

            I crossed the room quietly and pointed the light at the head of the bed.  The left side was empty, but as I checked the right side, my beam came to rest on a womans face.  Her head was partially covered by a white wrap and her right eye was swollen as well as the left side of her jaw.

            Her hair was slightly longer than Abigail’s had been during her file photo had been taken, but it was definitely Abigail.  File photos were updated with every cosmetic change a Splinter Cell or other employee of Third Echelon made.  Which meant this long hair was a result of her time in Serbia.  Her eyes were closed, she was asleep.  I panned my light down her body.  Her right arm was wrapped at the shoulder and stiff, her left arm was splinted and immobilized.  She was wearing a sports bra and a pair of spandex.  Her right leg was splinted and wrapped in duct tape.  Her torso was covered in bandages and tape.  She was immobile from the neck down and she was going nowhere.

            She must have been freezing.  I couldn’t cut her free in a short amount of time, so I walked out, leaving no sign of myself in the safe house.  I taped my SVT.