Arkangel || A Winter / Karina / WinRina Adventure

Mission II: Primer

Winter flew back to CIA headquarters for her debrief with Parker. She waited 10 minutes before she was led into his spacious, modern office with floor to ceiling glass windows as well as a polished aluminum desk.

"Arkangel! It's good to see you. Thanks for coming to Washington."

"Nice to see you too. If you don't mind, I'd like to get out of DC as fast as possible. This place scares me more than Mogadishu did."

"That's a good tactical read, and wise advice. Here, the people smile at you while they stab you in the back."

"Well, sir," she cleared her throat. "I'm grateful to have you in our corner."

"What is she doing to you, Arkangel?" he smiled. "You just showed compassion and gratitude. I barely recognize you! But good for you. For growing. It's not always easy."

Winter frowned. All this growing was starting to get irritating. Suddenly everyone had life lessons for her.

Parker continued. "First, Mogadishu. Excellent job ridding the world of Adan and his fellow monsters. Putting the bodies of those four foot soldiers in the tree was inspired, and very disturbing, which is exactly why we recruited you. Aid is moving again and the people's lives are a little better, if only temporarily. It's always temporary in Mogadishu. You're the sixth operative we've sent in the last five years, and the only one to survive. And survive a plane crash."

"Thanks, Parker. But a lot of it was luck. I'm barely in control, which means that I'm barely able to think clearly. Not every mission is going to need me to fight so violently and so chaotically."

"Actually, every mission is going to rely on you fighting like that, Arkangel. That's what makes your job so unique and so difficult. The way your mind works is not wrong. It might be if you worked for a dentist. But in our world, where the bad guys are real, the way you are makes you perfect. Only 0.3% of our field personnel are close-in operators like you are. In fact, if we got together every elite operator like you from every country around the world, you'd all fit in a hotel shuttle van."

Winter sighed. "Maybe that's too many."

"No, that's the world, Arkangel. In any event, let's talk about your next mission. You'll be going to the US base at the South Pole." Winter raised an eyebrow. "The base cut off contact with the world a week ago. Not even internet traffic. Our first thought was a contagion, but none of their reports in the months before we lost touch indicated anything unusual with the crew. Another theory is that one of the crew murdered the rest. I'm skeptical of that because the base had 73 residents, and some of them were ex-military, pretty tough in their own right. It would be hard for you to kill that many, let alone some unhinged microbiologist. My theory is that the base has been taken over. We're not the only country down there. Russia and China also have bases."

Winter sat up. "What would they gain from it?"

"There are a couple of possibilities. First, it's a simple act of aggression with no goal, just showing that they can dominate who they want. Second, they were expecting to find something secret, like technology. We don't keep any there for that exact reason.

He continued. "My theory is that they are attempting to use the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory as a spy tool."

"Whoa... what is that?"

"The science people have explained it to me like this. There are these extremely tiny particles called neutrinos. They have incredible powers, like being able to pass through hundreds of thousands of miles of lead without ever getting stopped. They're extremely important to physicists, who built a gigantic sensor array beneath the ice in the hope that they can detect one and learn more about them. It's an incredible project, but we quickly discovered something about the detector. Without knowing it, the scientists developed the greatest spy tool known to humanity."