Rainbow Six: November Sun

41: "BACKSTAGE"

"Someone order wall reinforcements from Home Depot?" Castle quipped, and he laughed obnoxiously.

Ela Bosak reached the van first. "Wow." She hoisted a double-layered pack of portable wall reinforcements over her shoulders with a grunt. "You're easily amused."

"I crack myself up. You know what? You need to learn to laugh." Castle grinned. "Then you might not be so grumpy all the damn time."

"Maybe I just have standards, Campbell."

Some of the others chuckled as they gathered around the van.

Bandit hissed a warning. "You have to have finesse when cracking jokes, my friend. Doesn't work when you piss off the audience."

"You're trying to tell a black man from Cali how to be funny?" Castle snorted good-naturedly. "Fuck outta here."

"He's right," snickered Jäger. "You're overrated, Dom."

Bandit faced the man indignantly. "I'm telling Six, Streicher. I'm telling him you're being mean."

The Rainbow operators huddled around the van, pulled their wall reinforcements from the cargo hold and walked them to key edges of the parking garage's concrete walls.

Zofia let her pack of reinforcements slide off her shoulder at the corner near a stairwell. It fell with a heavy thud to the concrete. Ela did the same a few paces away.

Nobody deployed their reinforcements yet, but rather staged them at the bases of key walls in case they were to be used. They were expensive to produce, and Director Six would not like spending budget on walls unnecessarily destroyed by reinforcements.

Warden surveyed the area as he radioed in. "Six Actual, we're prepping for contact and defense at the fallback point."

"Heard. Stand by."

"Ural Two reporting: all clear so far," chimed Kapkan over the radio.

"Roger," came Harry. "Stay frosty."

*               *               *

The Summit Room was crowded - with 213 people, precisely - and President Li was proclaiming into his microphone China's intention to generously divert some of its industrial power to help other nearby nations.

He was speaking in Mandarin, but translators were restating his words in hundreds of other languages.

The stage was slick and modern. The three heads of state sat at a crescent table with a black glass desktop at the head of the large atrium.

The large wall behind them offered screens with close-up views and translated subtitles for those in attendance. "JOINT SUMMIT 2019" banners hung from above. A wide, glossy bronze strip curved across the center of the wall, running the entire stage's length behind the gathered presidents.

This in fact was a one-sided mirror, much like Mira's deployable black mirror - it allowed the security personnel backstage to secretly look out at the crowd with an unhindered field of view.

Behind the wall, Lesion and Ying watched the historic event unfold with guarded gazes.

"— and we pledge to repair our relationship with Hong Kong," President Li stated with a smile, "an action that is long overdue."

Ying scoffed quietly. "I'll believe that when I see it," she whispered.

Lesion chuckled. "Indeed."

Tachanka stood with Kapkan on the opposing side of the backstage area.

Tachanka swept his gaze across the summit conference and sighed. "Could be anyone," he murmured.

"Or nothing," mused Kapkan. "System might have it wrong."

"Guardian's facial scan software is never wrong."

"Da, but what if the registration is wrong? What if there's supposed to be 213 people, and not 212?" Kapkan raised his eyebrows. "Some dickhead probably forgot to add a name to the database. It's probably fine."

Tachanka shrugged. "That's what they all say before shit hits the fan."

"True."

On the other side of the wall, one of the panel hosts leaned forward in his chair. "President Vikhrov, you have been vocal in your intentions to - and I'm using your words from last winter, sir - quote, 'meet the West halfway.' Can you now be more specific about the meaning behind this statement?"

The Russian President nodded. "I can, but some may not like it." The panel hosts chuckled nervously, but others joined them in full laughter when Vikhrov smiled mischievously, signaling he was joking. "I think that for too long, the West - namely, the United States - and us have been at odds. I think all of us here can agree that the Cold War never really ended, yes?"

This statement drew glimmers of knowing in the lights of President Jackson and President Li, but both men were careful to maintain neutral expressions.

"It will not be easy." President Vikhrov shifted in his seat, and he looked out at the audience with purpose in his gaze. "But if we can stop opposing each other at every bump in the road, we can start to ask ourselves what we can all accomplish together. And I'm not alone in this; there are others in the Russian government ready for this kind of change."

Tachanka and Kapkan glanced at each other with wide eyes at the president's words.

"You believe him, Alex?" murmured Maxim.

Tachanka didn't answer for a long moment. "I don't know," he replied quietly. "I don't think he's lying. Does that count?"

"Movement," Ying announced suddenly. "Back row, west side. Suspicious person."

They saw a man with a camera in his hands, and he was steadily making his way down the aisle stairs. His eyes were fixed on President Vikhrov, and their haunting stare was eerily empty.