Stuart
Brockman
Ivan
The forest
stood quiet, birds making the occasional chirp, insects flying around. the warm sun melting the snow on the ground. The scene was
tranquil.
Quite
unexpectedly, a humming noise started to penetrate the stillness. Animals ran
for shelter, the trees started to shake as the noise increased. Up above the
tranquillity of the forest flew the source of the noise, a large, unnatural
object. It was painted with a camouflage
pattern and sported
a large red five pointed star on it's
side.
"We're five minutes out,
General," the pilot of the helicopter said into his headset.
"Good," a man replied. There
were three passengers on the helicopter. A man in his forties or fifties and
wearing the uniform of a general in the Russian army had answered the pilot, a
girl in her mid teens, who bore a resemblance to the general. She was wearing a
long trenchcoat, from her neck to her ankles. Sitting
next to her was a boy. He looked maybe a year or two older than the girl, and
was wearing a pair of black combat trousers, a black jumper and a black
waistcoat, which was covered with pockets of all sizes, most of which appeared
to be filled with rectangular boxes. He was holding an MP5 machine gun.
The pilot was looking out of the front
of the helicopter scanning the horizon. He spotted what he was looking for.
"There it is," he said.
All the passengers of the helicopter
looked towards where the pilot was pointing. There was a large flat roofed
building standing out clearly as a dark silhouette on the distant horizon, with
scaffolding covering most of the side to the helicopter's right.
The helicopter landed on top of the
building. The three passengers stepped out. A man wearing the uniform of a
Russian army Colonel ran to meet the General.
"General Malacov,
welcome to
"Thank you Colonel," replied
the General, "Do you have the quarters ready?"
"Yes we have a room for you and
another for your daughter and her bodyguard."
"Good,
and what about tomorrow?"
"We have the goods here and the
plane arrives tomorrow."
"Excellent."
The General turned to a sergeant nearby
and gave him a few instructions.
During the conversation the boy was
listening intently.
"Ivan!" the general turned
towards the boy.
"Yes sir," he replied.
"Go with the sergeant and take my
daughter to her room."
"Yes sir."
Ivan called to the girl, "
"OK", she replied.
The clock on the wall struck
"Time to get started," he
whispered to himself. He walked towards the door. He opened it tentatively,
giving a last glance towards the sleeping girl. He glanced outside the room,
scanning the brightly lit corridor. There was nobody in sight. He stepped
outside and started walking carefully down the corridor. He turned a corner, glancing round to ensure there was nobody there. He
walked slowly on, up a flight of stairs and then out into another corridor.
Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him.
"You there!"
"Yes."
He turned to face a man in a Russian army
uniform.
"Who are you?" the man barked
out threateningly.
"Ivan,
"What are you doing here, aren't
you supposed to be in her room?"
"I - I was just - er - g going for a cigarette." he replied, patting his
pockets as if looking for his cigarettes and smiling nervously.
"Down the hall," the guard
ordered.
Ivan walked off, relieved that he had
got through the encounter.
As soon as he was out of sight, he
turned off the main corridor, into a smaller corridor. He came to a door.
Quickly checking that he was alone, with expert precision he pulled a device
from one of his pockets and attached it to the keyhole of the door. He again
checked that nobody was looking and pressed a button on the device. It started
to make beeping and clicking noises, a light on top of the device flashed. The
boy was constantly looking around to make sure nobody would interrupt him. The
device on the door gave a quiet click and the door opened. Ivan moved into the
room, taking the device and closing the door behind him.
Inside the room he was faced with an
array of computers and electronic equipment, all fixed into racks. They were
all emitting a low humming noise, as well as beeping and clicking
intermittently. The only light in the room was provided by the lights
of the computers, which flashed and flickered seemingly at random, and a large
computer monitor at a console in the corner. The boy reached into one of his
pockets and produced a small darkly coloured object, similar to a tape
cassette. He placed the tape into a slot on the front of one of the computers.
It beeped and drew the tape into the slot with a mechanical hum. Ivan moved
towards the computer console and started to type commands on the keyboard.
After a few minutes, he moved back to the computer pressed a button to eject
the tape.
Next, after replacing the tape in his
pocket, he moved the side of one of the computer racks. Now he reached into
another pocket and produced a small, round device. He pressed a button to
activate the device and reached behind the computer rack and attached the
device to the wall. He walked over to the door and left the room.
Unbeknownst to Ivan, he had not quite
left the room exactly as it had been when he entered. While in the room he had
failed to notice the control panel for the room's security devices and had
inadvertently broken a light beam with his foot.
The roar of the truck was deafening as
it screeched to a halt in front of the building. It was a bright summers day in
"All personnel assigned to the
transport convoy, to the main gates," a voice commanded through the
address system.
"That's our call
"I'm just drying my hair,"
she replied.
"Come on we're going to be
late," Ivan replied with a sense of urgency in his voice.
"Well you don't want me to go
around naked do you?"
Ivan gulped as he considered his
response,
"I think your father would have
something to say about that!" He replied equally playfully.
They arrived at the main gate. General Malacov was already there.
"Where have you been young
lady?" He enquired of his daughter.
"Getting dressed," she
replied.
"Well get in the bus, we're
leaving straight away." he instructed her.
Ivan attempted to follow, but the
General put his arm out to stop him.
"Not you Ivan," He stood in
Ivan's way blocking his progress.
"If this is about your daughter
being late ....." He started.
"No, this is a bit more
serious." The General motioned to the Colonel who had greeted them the
previous day.
"Colonel, you deal with this. I
have to go."
He boarded the bus, motioned to the
driver who started the engine and drove out of the complex.
"Disarm this!" The Colonel
handed Ivan the round device he had attached to the wall of the computer room.
He quickly pressed a button on the device and removed the central section. He
gave it to one of the guards.
"Search him," the Colonel
ordered, a guard responded by stepping towards Ivan.
Quickly Ivan hit one of his pockets.
The device's central section exploded in the guard's hand, sending him to the
ground. Before anyone realised what was happening Ivan had drawn his pistol and
fired two shots at the guard who was moving towards him. Ivan ran off, towards
the main building. Two guards gave chase. He opened the door and quickly
climbed two flights of stairs. He shot another guard at the top of the stairs
and ran through another door.
He was now in a part of the building
which was still under construction. There were various building materials lying
about. Planks of wood, piles of bricks, metal bars and several tools littering
the floor.
Ivan dived behind a stack of bricks.
The first of the pursuing guards entered the room. He was a tall man, muscle
bound and carrying a large grenade launcher. He was wearing a different uniform
from the other man. The man fired the weapon shattering the bricks behind which
Ivan was hiding. Ivan dashed to another pile of bricks but they were soon
shattered by another blast from this awesome weapon. He dived behind a pile of
metal sheets. This time however, there was not a blast from the weapon, so Ivan
quickly realised that the guard did not know where he was. He used this
immediately to his advantage. Next to him was a gas cylinder used to fuel an
arc welder and some other tools. He picked up the cylinder and a screwdriver.
He rammed the screwdriver into the cylinder's gas valve, immediately producing
a loud hissing sound of escaping gas. Ivan jumped to his feet and ran towards
the window. The man with grenade launcher fired, but the gas in the room
ignited before it hit it's target causing a large
explosion. The force of the explosion threw Ivan into the air, through the window
and on to the scaffolding outside.
The force of the explosion together
with the violence of Ivan's landing caused the scaffolding to collapse. Ivan
soon found himself on the ground. Next to where he landed was a strange looking
vehicle. It was a standard Russian jeep but had a machine gun mounted on the
front and a motor cycle strapped horizontally and the back. He did not take
long to admire the vehicle before jumping into the driving cab. He quickly
started the engine and sped off out of the complex.
He accelerated along the winding lanes,
trying to catch up with the convoy. He pulled a small, lightweight headset out
of his pocket.
"Agent 25471 reporting in,"
he said into the headset, "My cover's blown, resorting to plan B, tell
26995 to stand by, may need S and R services, will stay in touch."
"Message received and understood.
S and R services standing by" a woman at a console replied. She was in a
room, with computer consoles in rows and a large screen mounted on the front
wall. The room looked very similar to mission control at NASA, but darker. This
made the screens and indicator lights the only visible lighting in the room.
The woman typed some commands on her computer. A man next to her stared talking
into his headset,
"Agent 26995, please respond,"
he said, "Agent 25471 tells you to stand by, may need assistance as his
cover is blown."
"Message received and
understood," a girl responded. She was waiting at the edge of a forest
bordering an airfield, not far from Ivan's current position. She looked quite
young, maybe in her early teens, definitely younger than
"What has Simon got himself into
this time," she mumbled to herself.
Simon was still in his jeep. He had
caught up with the convoy. The convoy was made up of a jeep, similar to
Simon's, leading, with a bus vehicle following it, itself followed by two
military trucks, followed finally by two jeeps.
Ivan bashed his jeep into the last one
of the convoy, he knocked it with such force that it
in turn hit the jeep in front of it, which hit the truck. Simon positioned
himself so that he could drive the jeep with his right hand, and operate the
machine gun with his left. He fired, hitting the jeep in front of him, and
sending it careering into the hedge at the side of the road. He passed it and
looked behind him as he saw it explode. He accelerated, hitting the next jeep.
He tried to fire his machine gun at it, but all he heard was a laud click. The
gun was either out of ammunition, or jammed. Either way, he was not going to be
able to use it now.
He positioned his jeep so that it was
level with the other one. He turned his steering wheel, bashing the jeep into
the other one. The driver of the other jeep had anticipated this and had turned
his steering wheel to counter Simon's move. The two jeeps were now locked
together. The driver of the other jeep started to lift his gun, an AK47 assault
rife, but before he could fire, Simon had jumped across from his jeep onto the
driver of the other one. The driver fired, causing him to hit the fuel tank in
his own jeep. It caught fire. Simon wrestled the gun from the driver's hand and
knocked him unconscious with it's butt. With no-one to
control them, the two jeeps now spun out of control. Simon's jeep hit the side
of the lane, causing Simon to fall back into it. The two jeeps now detached
from each other as the other jeep hit a tree and Simon's careered off of the
road and down an embankment into a ditch. He looked up to see the other jeep
explode and the convoy speed off down the road before falling unconscious.
"25471, you appear to have stopped
moving, please respond," the woman in the control room said for the third time
into her headset. The screen at the front of the room was now displaying a
satellite image of the area. The plumes of smoke from the two exploded jeeps
were clearly visible and the positions of 25471 and 26995's locator beacons had
been overlaid onto the image.
"25471 responding," Simon
said in a weak, just-woken-up sort of voice.
"Please report your status,"
the woman in control stated.
"My jeep's
crashed, but I'm OK," Ivan replied.
"Can you still complete the
objective?" the woman asked, with concern in her voice.
"I think so." Ivan replied.
26995 was
watching intently through her rifle scope as the convoy arrived at the airfield
and stared to load up an aeroplane.
"Where is he," she mumbled to
herself.
She continued watching as they
continued to load the plane. She saw Lena board the plane, but did not notice
the General.
"What's their status?"
Simon's voice came through her headset.
"They're just finishing up,"
she replied, "If you don't get here soon, I'm gonna
have to switch to my back-up plan"
"Don't worry, I'm almost
there," Simon replied.
"You better be," 26995
mumbled, half to Simon, half to herself.
As Simon arrived at the airfield on a
motorbike, the plane was taxiing to the runway for take off. He jumped off of
the bike, pulled a gun-shaped device from his pocket. He pulled a cord from the
handle of the device and clipped it to his jacket.
He ran to the near end of the runway
which the plane was preparing to take off from. He jumped into the air and
pushed his shoes together. Small wheels popped out from the soles of the shoes.
He aimed the gun-like device at the back of the plane, which was accelerating.
He fired. A small, metal object fired from the device, followed by a thin
cable. The metal object attached itself to the back of the plane, just above
the cargo loading door. As soon as it did, the device was jerked out of Simon's
hand and because it was attached to his jacket, Simon started to be pulled
along at great speed. Simon pressed a button on the device. It stared to emit a
high-pitched whining noise and Simon accelerated even faster. The plane took
off. Simon was pulled with it, up into the air. The device continued to wind
the cable in, until Simon was right up next to the plane. Simon pulled a large
lever on the side of the plane. The cargo loading door spring
open, immediately subjecting the entire inside of the plane to strong air
currents. Two large crates were sucked out of the back of the plane.
Simon hit another button on the device, it slowly
lowered him onto the cargo loading door. He grabbed hold of a net, used for
securing crates, which was trailing out of the back of the plane. He unclipped
the device from his jacket and climbed into the plane.
Two guards came to investigate why the
cargo door had opened. Simon jumped at the first guard, and grabbed his gun. He
was knocked off balance and fell out of the plane. Simon shot the second guard,
who also fell out of the plane. Simon ran up to the door which the guard had
opened to get into the passenger section of the plane. To his surprise, he
found it more or less abandoned. There were only two more guards and Lena on
the seats. Simon shot the guards. He walked up to Lena.
"Where's your father?" he
yelled above the deafening noise of the wind.
"He's not on the plane," Lena
replied.
Simon ran over to a cabinet at the side
of the compartment. He pulled out two parachutes.
"What are you doing?" Lena
yelled.
"Stand up," Simon commanded.
Lena stood up.
"Turn around," Simon
commanded again. This time he put one of the parachutes on her. He put the
other on himself.
Simon walked over to a
door which lead outside the plane. He pulled the door's emergency
release handle. The door flew off, increasing the wind in the compartment.
Simon directed
"Pull this in three seconds,"
Simon indicated the rip-cord on
"What?",
Simon pulled his rip-cord. The plane
exploded above him.
Simon,
"I guess you won the bet,
Luanne"
"Huh?",
Luanne replied
"We didn't get Malacov," Simon reminded her, "that means I get to buy you lunch."