Somewhere in Perth, Australia
The firing range was filled with men at the one end, armed with M14 EBR rifles, and paper targets at the other. Neil could only watch on, as he stood by the side, observing down range, watching the occsaional shots go off. Time had not been kind to him, but perhaps he'd learned something from his experiences. Much like Scott, he had been told to go off operational duty in the theater, and instead, was assigned to instruct SASR recruits, today being a marksmanship test. There had been worse, and it was the second cycle of recruits that Staff Sergeant Neil Morrison was assigned to deal with, on the range. The sound of rifle cracks, the repeated action. He looked over at the soldier in the first booth, watching as he struggled to reload. The boonie-wearing spotter walked over, pointing down at the recruit's rifle.
"You silly cunt, pull the release first!" Neil was almost atypical now, feeling good to be back in Australia, in the baking heat, not the frozen mountains. The recruit did as instructed, and flipped a new magazine in. They weren't entirely new, but the M14 was different to them, some adapting quicker than others from their traditional Austeyr platforms in the ADF. Neil didn't know what to think, following the events of what had happened. He had been in another cell, and seen Scott go away, for some sort of treatment.
He'd been everywhere, interrogated, asked questions. Then, within what he could guess was either a day or a week, something between the two from his recollection of the blackout process that they had undergone in their interrogation, he was sent back to Australia, with a strict mandate. He knew nothing, and was not a loose end anymore, that he was told. He would go into training recruits, and be told that there would never be a need for someone like him to operate. The blame was not on his shoulders, nor his fellow team-mates, bar one, Neil thought to himself. That responsibility lay with Jan. He had run with it, and he couldn't believe it. Jan had told them exactly that, and he wasn't even sure what the hell had gotten into the Pole. Perhaps he was alive, but the Australian didn't want to fully understand . Scott, he was doing something non-military, and in particular, Neil knew that Wendy had retired from the Canadian military altogether. Gone and taken leave to be a full-time mother with two daughters, and leave behind most of her past, though Neil kept in contact whenever he could, just to show that he respected her decision. Himself, he was here, and had a comfortable life, one that he could live with. Watching as the recruits fired down the range, Neil looked on at it all, the dusty facility being what he had now. Somehow, he felt good that the threat was eliminated, but he couldn't help but feel that there was worse still in the world. Problems to resolve, and no doubt, men like him would need a call once again, even if that person was not him.
------
The noise had been clear on Victoria's desk, as she picked up the phone, sipping a little on her coffee as she then suddenly dropped the mug altogether. It was a voice she didn't want to hear, and for almost over two years, had been waiting in fear of. Yet it was one that she had responsible as her loose end, and was the burn card in her operational history. It was only a matter of time, she reminded herself.
"Shit."
"You've got 12 hours to get to my co-ordinate, alone. You know who I am. Bring a team following you, you'll die, and they will too. You full well know why. We will talk, and only then will I give you what you want. 12 hours. You know the game we play." Jan disconnected the phone, and simply sat back in his bed. Victoria put her end down, the operator across the room looking over.
"We've got the trace, is that Wojtkiewicz? What the hell is he doing? We can send a team to clear him out in four hours, what's our call!?" He exclaimed, the room with around four people, under Victoria's command now abuzz. They knew what was going on.
"I'm going alone, Michael. Don't get involved. He isn't bluffing."
"How do you know? Shit, did you authorize..."
"Michael, we use who we have to if we want to remain deniable. Turns out I made the wrong call. Get me a flight, I'll have to meet him. Don't send anyone after me. I can try and talk sense into him, I'm the only person he'd listen to...if we're going to get this back, then I'm going to need to find the device. He isn't stupid. Get a camera on me and a wire."
---
Within eight hours, Jan had seen the distant figure of the female CIA operative on the ice, Jan observing as he kept himself away from windows but peering through. She wore a winter coat, and he could see her face was already more weathered than it had been last time he saw her, that much . The whole world probably knew what was going on, but Victoria had the most to lose. She had a whole deniability to maintain, and that meant nothing overtly suspicious. In her mind, Jan's disappearance had been truly a shock, after all she had done for him. It made no sense, for him to go completely off the grid, and now, this resurgence had changed everything. The Pole's left arm was a little frail, due to the nature of the wound he had suffered, but he could still move it, as he opened the door and then took a seat at the table.
Jan looked on, the door open as he waited inside, the Glock on the table, pointing at the door. Victoria walked in, her own P226 raised, precisely at Jan's forehead. The Pole laughed, shaking his head. She wouldn't dare.
"Now, now. Let's be civilized about this, you know how this will work. You want something, and you're not going to empty my brains over the walls of this place for it. Not yet, Victoria." Jan simply said, as she lowered the gun, looking at Jan coldly, taking a seat across the table from him, putting her gun on the table.
"You piece of shit, you took a fucking nuclear device! Are you fucking insane?"
"Insanity is subjective. I find it fucking insane that you were going to try and use me as a scapegoat, hang me to fucking dry. You think I didn't know what you were trying to do?" Jan added, his English still half-decent, as he had spoken with locals in the town whenever he could, but he still had a distinct accent.
"My words were that you could escape...not with this!"
"And leave a nuclear device behind for the Danish police to pick up? And I simply walk away? We both know what my duty means, that I would never run away from it. I guess I changed my mind." Jan simply said, taking his prescription glasses off, watching Victoria closely, her face, her movements, every little thing. She was clearly looking around for the device, but Jan had it hidden from view. He had placed it inside a cabinet, right by the woodburner, and there was no trace that could seen of it. It felt strange, to finally play the person that had played him. Jan had wanted to believe it at first, but it felt strange, but somehow right. To see through it and do the right thing, the thing that he knew would stop this cycle running on with anyone else, not to the rest of his team that were left.
"So? You know my promise. And this is how you repay us?"
"Us? You mean, you. Come on, you know the reality of this situation. I should be bowing down to you right now, with all your threats. Fact is, I feel like learning a little more about why this is all going to shit. I mean, we might be both dead in the next few minutes, so let's help each other out. Firstly, how you ended up finding my team-mates in Copenhagen, and in what state. I won't recite their names, because you and I both know them too well. And the dead ones, them too."
"Fine. All of them were fine, one had a bad wound, but he was in and out of hospital. We took them all out of Danish hands, and put them through a processing center in Virginia, to see what the hell happened to you."
"And you interviewed them? Let me guess, nothing came of it. Even if something did, you probably found no trace. My flat, family, friends. None of them would know, would they?"
"About you, yes. None of them gave up anything, well, nothing meaningful. I had to hurt Zhenya, you know that? Thought he had some idea on what you were going to do, but it was a joke. That was before they told me that if the interrogator did any more damage, the Russian MVD wouldn't like us very much. So we lost track of a nuclear device, and a Special Forces operator who had been assumed to go with it. Meaning, half the CIA's assets were dedicated into looking into every failed state, every terrorist organization, to see if you'd lost your shit and sold it. What anyone with half a brain cell would do. So you're just going to sit here and chase the ghosts of your past, or are you going to do the bigger thing and end this while you can?"
"You know, that sounds about right. Half the CIA? Wow. But then again...no, you wouldn't have. Perhaps this is saving your own skin? That's why you're here, I would think. You know I'm the last link in the chain, you can silence the others, but you want me gone. The CIA operator who commissioned a Polish Special Forces Captain to prevent a nuclear disaster, and he goes rogue. I'm your deniable asset, meant to vanish when you have your use out of me. They want you off the list, and so, you're chasing every lead, every single line, to make sure you don't end up in some court when this makes light with your higher ups and suddenly your deniable op needs to become public information for an enquiry about why in particular, a Western and Russian special forces operation occured right alongside a large-scale terrorist attack on a western capital city. And it's your proof to the world to say that I was responsible. We aren't in a NATO country, we're in a non-aligned state. Authority isn't going to go far."
"I'm here on the behalf of the American government, you're to give up the device, before we have to do something we really don't like. This isn't my vendetta, it's your terms."
"Don't give me this, kurwa. It's bullshit. You know it." Jan simply retorted, sitting up a little, nodding, knowing what he had to say was clear.
"The world has changed since a couple of years ago then. ISIS, war in Eastern Ukraine. Ground forces deployed in Turkey. And that insurgency that was going to drive our world to hell, gone. I bet you would want that device. Just your little proof, justify a war against the Russians before your time runs out." He added, his words chosen specifically. He felt like it had been months in the making, every single word he put out with a venom and a spark, because he knew most of these answers anyway. He wanted Victoria to merely say them, just as confirmation, and just so he could wrap this up in his head. The Pole may have had his honor, but he had no reason to do this one last time. He knew how this ended.
"It isn't about that, Jan, you're fucking deluded, you're hanging onto a weapon of mass destruction..." She looked deep into his eyes, Jan shrugging.
"And if you happened to find a nuclear weapon, of Russian origin, in a remote cabin in Northern Sweden and bring it home, what would that say? Perhaps I know little of world politics, but it says that you have a just cause to perhaps poke the Russians even more. So that you can justify some sort of moral Crusade, and more violence. You know what? Fuck the Russians, and fuck you. Fuck your doing."
"Like I said, Jan, calm down, think about this."
"There is little to think about. You're desperate for once, the Victoria I knew would have done something far more smarter than direct confrontation. So I think I'm right, you haven't got any support, you're experiencing what it's like to deal with your past. I mean, if you were smart about it you'd want to know if it was here, for a start. You'd want to have backup, and by now, I would bet that you'd have me turned into a canoe. But it seems I was right." Jan adjusted his chair a little, looking back up as Victoria scanned the room, watching, observing for anything inside.
"Is it here, Jan?" She simply barked at him, as Jan nodded, not in a confirming way, but in a mere extension of what he wanted to ask.
"One last question. This time, I don't want a bullshit answer, like you've been feeding me. How you answer this question, decides how I act, and I feel close to giving this to you now. This isn't the point you then make some sly move on your wire and a SEAL team turns up, or else you'll lose the nuke forever. Can't see it, can you? I can see it in your mind, working away, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Where is that nuke? You don't see it. And your SEALs, the ones I bet you brought along, them too. So, tell me. Are my squadmates currently dead?"
"They're dead, they gave us no information so we dealt with them. This doesn't end with you making a reunion with them, if I told you they were alive, you'd simply tell me that was bullshit too. It was fast, if you have to know. So now, you're out of questions to ask. I suggest that while you can, you surrender. I promise, you won't need to know what hell feels like, because there's a dozen SEALs in that forest waiting for the order to put rounds through this wooden fucking cabin. Enough stalling, Jan!" She lied through her teeth and tried to assert herself, and Jan could only guess that it was her last trick. Tell him that it was all screwed, so he could give up the ghost, give up what he was doing, in the case it was going to keep them alive. That wouldn't happen.
"I'll stop stalling then." Jan added, as he snatched the Glock and emptied a round into Victoria's temple before she could even blink and fire back, putting the rest of the magazine into the area around where she sat, a couple of bullets connecting with her chest, as she fell back, unable to respond quick enough, unable to threaten Jan. It had been a bold move on her part, and perhaps she saw the Jan that had existed a few years ago, in her hurried desperation. She had been wrong, as he put the pistol down, one round left.
"I guess we can share hell together." He simply uttered, looking across, exhaling hard, his breath steaming up. She had lied on that front too. So many lies, Jan could no longer tell. His men were alive, and Jan knew that Victoria had been in a vice, perhaps Jan's counterweight of being off grid making that happen for them. Now, it was over. The last link in the chain was him.
Looking over at the dead corpse of Victoria, Jan sighed, sitting up, looking outside onto the ice, through the window. This was done. This plan could only work one way, and one way only. Perhaps they'd find out the specs of this weapon, one day they'd realize what had truly happened. And what Jan had done with one device, in the wrong hands. His hands. His blood stained hands, the Pole taking the canister from inside the cabinet, looking across his own skin. It was not severe, but radiation poisoning kicked in after you spent over two years close by to a nuclear device. It didn't matter. You only could prove a point once, and now, he prayed, he begged that whatever Scott, Wendy, Zhenya, Neil, whatever they had, it was a good life. They had to. Jan had his answers now, and those answers were enough to finish this life. Now it could end. Turning the device over, he flipped the plastic on the side of the case, looking across at the Glock on the table. Exhaling, he took the rudimental device attached to the panel, the handle one that had to be held. He took the case, and taking it in hand, walked outside, pulling on the handle, holding it in, a solid push of his thumb.
It was overriding the mechanism inside, it was arming the device, and when it went critical, it would detonate. And it would tear a hole in half the island, from Jan's knowledge, it was uninhabited here. It was going to only have one victim he knew of, and that would be him. He simply walked outside, and into the snow, taking one good look at the sunrise, the distant sunrise that was the only sun that could exist in this time of year. He didn't count time, time simply seemed to melt away. He sat down, and a single tear ran down his cheek, as he looked into the sun, his weary face no longer wanting anything more. The cold didn't matter. This life, neither. Scott said it best, Jan thought. He was like so many Eastern Europeans, suicidal and depressed, and he was particularly enslaved to righting a wrong, driven beyond any ordinary scale. But perhaps he knew truth from lies now he had seen his experiences, with the team, with everything he had done. When he had nothing to lose, Jan knew he had only one last chance to make things right.
Murdering Victoria had been wrong, but it had been the last thing he felt like doing, before he either shot himself or did this. At least, it fixed so much of his betrayal, and it made for a good exit story, the rogue Captain who was assumed to kill a CIA agent, and detonated a nuclear device on his own accord. Matching Russian statistics, probably stolen. An impossibility to most. It would send the CIA, MVD, anyone in the intelligence community into overdrive. People wouldn't add things up, it simply seemed preposterous. Not even like it was lunacy, but that someone had made some colossal error of judgement somewhere, and now, this was happening. It was exactly what he wanted. It was better than just a random occurrence. It would be confusion, and that was what people in the world reacted to best, when they needed to do something better than just inaction or terror.
The media would pick this up, probably report the nuclear detonation, and the world would go into panic. The world would demand answers, Sweden, a non-NATO member especially so. A Russian mistake, an American mistake? But people would wake up, and Jan knew that this game no longer needed to be played. Not by anyone. A game that had brought so much of the world to hell, and his own one in particular. He didn't shed another tear, as he looked down, still holding the device tight, the cold snow something he could feel vividly in his left hand for a moment. His life didn't flash before his eyes, nor did images in his head. Apart from one, one that he remembered more than anything.
It was in Bagram, the trip to the Pizza Hut. The team, munching on slices, the chilled out vibe that gave some respite from the constant operations that they'd been in. Jan was not a man of comfort, he embraced the hostilities of life. But that one moment, that one point of his life, perhaps he realized it now. It was when he was with people that he was happiest, and that those people he did everything for. And it was the one last memory he could hold, and wanted to. It was like a single suspended moment in time, not voices, just a flicker in his head. He exhaled, feeling his stomach tighten, but the rest of his body come of ease. Death felt strange, it felt weird, it felt like something that Jan could accept now. If there was a hell, he was surely going to it, he told himself. This made no sense, no more. There were too many dead too many that did not deserve to die, too many that did. And now, he had to join that list. Such was the way of a decision, from the very moment he had made it. That memory flicked. Scott. Neil. Wendy. Zhenya. How much he hated Zhenya, and how much he respected him at the same time. How much he trusted Scott, and felt it back from the Brit. The snipers, their eye from afar. All of them, they were in his mind, at that Pizza Hut. They were alive, and somewhere better than this mess. That memory was the only thing that gave Jan a smile, as the tear ran down past his stubble, in such a terrible thought. He let go of life, and the cold didn't matter anymore. Neither did any pain, any emission from the device, or any warm blood anymore, nor did the noise of the birds. It all went quiet, blurred almost, and Jan heard his own breathing, his own heartbeat, his ears then slightly ring.
He stared at the pale blue sky for one last time, taking it's depth and scale in. Jan looked at the sun, and blinked for the last time as everything suddenly turned to white.
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"Breaking news just in, we are receiving reports of a large explosion in the Gulf of Bothnia...."
"....sources suggest that the blast was nuclear, and detonated in a remote area of the Swedish Holmon Islands in the northern Gulf of Bothnia. We will have rolling news reports as we gather more information..."
"We now go live to David Preston in Umea... David, what is happening within the town?"........"We can see from the shore, there's been total devastation of the southern part of the island from our view, so far there are no casualties reported but significant numbers of residents have been evacuated to the mainland. The is a strong fear, and the Swedish military has fully mobilized against any potential threat..."
"An emergency UN summit is to be called for Wednesday in Geneva, following what is widely believed to be a nuclear blast yesterday in Northern Sweden. The cause of the blast is of yet still unclear, but analysts observe that the yield matches that of a Russian PM-21 suitcase nuclear device, no longer in current use by the Russian Federation. No probable cause is currently known, but analysts suggest that this was not conducted as a test by either Russian or NATO forces in the region."
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