Rainbow Six: November Sun

33: "A BAD FEELING"

MOSCOW, RUSSIA
KHAMOVNIKI DISTRICT
THE PASHKOV HOUSE

Matvei Federov had grown to love the quiet library in the Pashkov House. It housed enough rare books to keep one reading for an entire lifetime, and he enjoyed the peace that the quiet, dimly-lit atmosphere brought.

Indeed, he had frequented the library often in the months leading up to his daring coup against Mr. Krishkin and his comrades. Matvei and Yegor had spent many quiet nights planning, building, and preparing November Sun and its endeavors.

However, Matvei was not there that evening to read.

Truth be told, Federov was not having a good day. It had been rather turbulent, since he had made some last minute changes to the strike mission at the summit in the U.S.

These changes were spontaneous, and his men on the ground in D.C. were about to find out that Matvei would not be there for the op; that he in fact hadn't left Russia.

Matvei sighed and leaned back in his seat. He tipped a glass of cold vodka, neat, to his lips and savored the initial chill that was followed by the burn as he swallowed.

His men were ready to die for the cause. They were fanatics in every sense of the word, and Matvei was banking on their sheer dedication to the mission in order to make this work.

He took another sip. As he did, his lieutenant, Boris, emerged from the shadows with phone in-hand.

"Have you informed the Deputy Prime Minister of the changes?" Matvei asked quietly.

Boris's slight hesitation before answering was telling. "She wants to speak with you."

"I'm sure. I'll contact her soon."

"No, Matvei." Boris extended his phone in an open palm. "She's on the line."

Matvei raised his eyebrows. He took Boris's phone and straightened in his chair. "It's me."

Deputy Prime Minister Valeriya Shumeyko was curious, and her words cut like knives despite being brief. "You're still in Moscow. Why?"

Matvei cleared his throat. "That's better explained in person."

"You have half an hour to meet me at Location B." The woman paused. "If I don't like what you have to say, you're a dead man."

The line clicked dead. Matvei's jaw clenched, and he slowly lowered the phone and handed it back to Boris.

"Matvei, you know I'm with you until the end," murmured Boris. "But what's happening? Why didn't we join the others in D.C.? Why are they continuing without us?"

Matvei sighed and stood up. He pulled his jacket on and glanced about the shadows in the quiet library. "You want the truth?"

Boris nodded.

"Honestly? I have a bad feeling about it." Matvei folded his arms and shifted on his feet. "I think they'll see it coming."

"Who is 'they'? The Americans?"

"Americans, Russians, Chinese. Could be any or all of them."

"I... don't understand, Matvei. Why the sudden caution? Why abandon our comrades?"

Federov shot an icy glare at his lieutenant. "We're not abandoning anyone. Don't you fucking say that again."

Boris shrugged and offered a solemn nod.

"Let's go. We have half an hour to meet Shumeyko at Kutafya Tower. I'll explain on the way."

"What? The Kremlin? We're meeting her in the lion's den! I don't think it's wise to—"

"Boris: stop. You don't think I know that? You think I want to go meet a treasonous Deputy Prime Minister at the fucking Kremlin?" Matvei stepped close to the man and squared himself. He lowered his voice to a menacing whisper. "We have no choice. Do you trust me, or not?"

Boris did not look away from Matvei's stare. "Of course, comrade," he whispered. "I just want to know what's going on. That's all."

Matvei clapped the man on the shoulder and led the way out of the dimly-lit library. "Follow me. Now, I'll tell you what I'm going to tell DPM Shumeyko. They killed my brother in Belgium, and who knows who else they got. That means they'll have his identity by now. Going through his phone, all that shit. Maybe they took some of us prisoner. Maybe not. There's no way to know."

"And if they ID'd Yegor, they'd be able to ID you."

"Precisely. If they ID me, November Sun never sees completion. Our New Delhi contact, Khatri, will only complete the transaction if I'm present at the site."

The pair exited Pashkov House and snaked through the side courtyards to the front facade. They passed beneath the large frontal porticoes and jogged to their car in the nearby parking lot.

Soon they were off, cruising beneath the afternoon Moscow sky. As he drove, Boris chanced a look over at Matvei. "I never said it; I'm sorry about Yegor, my friend. Truly."

Matvei smiled ruefully, but dared not dwell on his brother's death. "Let me do the talking when we get there. She doesn't know about the bomb."

Boris's eyes widened. He glanced over at his comrade discreetly before accelerating to pass a slow-moving bus. "What?"

"The Deputy Prime Minister doesn't know about the bomb."

Matvei suddenly remembered to put on his seatbelt. As he clicked it into place, he looked over at his colleague with confidence. "We were supposed to have the nuke already," he informed. "That's what was going to go off in D.C. Our contacts in India fucked something up, so it's delayed. Our comrades in America think I'm there with them, ready to put a mushroom cloud above the White House."

"You haven't contacted them?"

"I'm about to." Matvei produced his phone and triggered an encryption sequence. "They will attempt to eradicate all three leaders there... without the bomb. I have to decide whether to come clean with Valeriya Shumeyko about the bomb, or risk more lies. When it comes to our mission, I'm not sure where she draws the line."