[Note: This contains some graphic violence.]
"Wow, Vector. Just... wow," Radius said, shaking her head. "I had hoped that Calliope and Jumper might tame you, but now... well, I'm glad they didn't. I think." She pursed her lips. "I'm wondering if you need a spooning session with Archangel to relax."
"Wait... was that humor?" Yeji smiled.
"Vector, I am a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."
"Ok, so let's say we did spoon. How would you know?"
"Archangel put it in her report. In detail. Come to think of it, maybe more detail than we were actually looking for."
"Of course she did," Yeji sighed. Winter.
Yeji and Radius were sitting in an ultra-modern, glass-walled conference room, at opposite ends of a ten-foot-long mahogany conference table. Outside the room was a giant office space filled with dozens of blue-walled cubicles.
But the entire office was empty, save the two of them. Strangely, she heard a copier wheezing along somewhere.
Yeji pointed her finger towards the cubicles. "I have to ask, what's the deal?"
"This is going to be a completely fake import-export office staffed entirely by our agents. A senior foreign diplomat is coming here for a meeting, and we're hoping we can get her to confess her part in a gigantic money-laundering operation."
"What happens to her if she does confess?" Yeji asked.
Radius simply raised an eyebrow.
"Got it."
"I'm glad you do. This isn't a game for children. You know that better than anyone. That's why we're sending you to the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. We've received a report about a prison camp being operated by a fanatical, fringe militia group. This camp, however, isn't housing criminals. It's full of human-rights activists and opposition politicians. Three of our people are being held there as well, and we expect that they are being brutally interrogated, and probably tortured. Based on satellite photos and electronic intercepts, we think there are about 100 prisoners in total."
Yeji's jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed. "When do I go?"
"You'll be traveling tonight. The Yanks have a forward operating base in the area. You'll set off from there. I hope you like camels, because that's what you'll be working with. Once you infiltrate the camp, neutralize everyone who isn't an inmate. Once that's done, you'll radio the American Delta Force operators, who will lead a helicopter-based task force to evacuate the camp."
"Why doesn't the task force handle this on their own?"
"Discretion, Vector. You'll be close to the Chinese border, so there is an enormous risk of a diplomatic disaster. If Delta goes in, they'll go in hard, with a lot of lead flying, and someone innocent will get killed. And I don't want that. We did a lot of negotiating with the CIA so we can take point on this - our people rescuing our people. Plus, the US doesn't need to get its hands on any of our agents. I know we're allies, but in this game, there are none. But if our people are at risk, I'm sending my best asset: you."
Yeji gulped. "Thanks."
"Thank me once you get back. The Gobi is simply the worst place on Earth. It's often called Satan's Anvil."
. . . . .
The dust storm was terrifying. It was a sand hurricane. She could only see a few feet in any direction.
Yeji was wearing a traditional full-length robe and had her head and face tightly wrapped in a long checkered scarf. She also wore goggles to protect her eyes.
In one hand she held a long leather chord that curved up and disappeared into the darkness. Every few minutes she gently tugged on it, and she could feel movement at the other end. But not this time. She followed the cord back until she was face-to-face with the most fearsome enemy she'd ever met: Babaloo the Camel.
When she set off from the Delta base, all had gone well. It wasn't comfortable riding a camel, but it seemed preferable to walking. But then the sandstorm hit, and Babaloo didn't want any riders, so he'd spit and kick violently. After tumbling off a few times, Yeji gave up, and they walked side by side. One of the things that kept Yeji sane was being able to laugh at the absurdities that came with the job.
She realized why Babaloo had stopped. He had delicate eyelashes that were designed to provide protection from the sun and from blowing sand. Yeji looked closely and saw that his eyes were almost completely scaled over with a crust of sand. You must be scared, she thought.
Yeji took out her flask and realized how low her water supply was. The storm had slowed them down, and she was constantly washing sand out of her mouth. "It's me or the camel," she thought. "The camel isn't here to do what I am going to do. I'm a killer. It's just helping me and trusting me. He's one of us." Carefully she rinsed out each eye. She was putting the cap back on the canteen when Babaloo spit in her face. She wiped it away and smiled. Now she had no water.
That night the temperature dropped to 40F. She knew that deserts can get cold, but she wasn't expecting this. Pain, she could handle. But cold was a different beast. Around midnight, she stopped. Her camp consisted of nothing more than her lying on the sand in the same clothes. Slowly Babaloo dropped to his knees and curled his neck until his head pressed against his abdomen.
For three hours, Yeji lay on the ground, freezing and growing thirstier. She tried everything she could to fend off the discomfort: she meditated, she hummed, she told herself jokes, and even imagined entire Itzy concerts in her head. But it didn't work. Her teeth chattered more and more violently. She had once heard of an Antarctic explorer named Apsley Cherry-Garrard who had become lost and his teeth chattered so hard he broke all 32 of them. What worried her the most was that she could feel herself getting groggier, a sign of hypothermia. She kept thinking about the MI6 agents being tortured. She couldn't, wouldn't let them down.
Painfully she got to her feet. "BABALOO," she shouted, "KPOP PRINCESS APPROACHING FROM STARBOARD."
The wind was still ferocious, and she staggered blindly until she reached the camel. She got on her hands and knees, forced her back against his side, and pushed with all her strength. A chunk of Babaloo's fat oozed upwards, and very quickly Yeji climbed underneath, and let it fall.
It was a little hard to breathe, and her legs were still sticking out, but otherwise she was in the tight embrace of a chubby, mean-spirited, but warm animal. But Babaloo didn't seem to care. She quickly realized that she could feel his heartbeat, and as she listened, she fell asleep.
"Winter, Winter! I can't do this again, I'm supposed to be getting married," Yeji mumbled as she gradually woke up. "Girl, you smell awful, and I think... I think I got a tick from you." Then her eyes snapped open, and she was momentarily blinded by the deep red sunlight coming from the east as dawn arrived.
She wiggled out from under Babaloo, who climbed back to his feet, hissing, spitting, and kicking. "What is the deal with this job and spooning?" she said out loud to Babaloo, who glared back at her.
. . . . .
She patted Babaloo on the nose, removed his halter and saddle, and set him free. Then Yeji crawled along on her stomach until she reached the top of the hill. About 200 yards away was the camp. Everything about it looked an ugly gray: the barbed-wire fence, the guard post at the entrance, the trucks parked beside the fence, and the three crumbling buildings in which the inmates were kept.
She scanned the camp with her binoculars, careful not to let the sun reflect against the lenses. She counted ten guards, and assumed that there were another ten onsite for the next shift. The inmates weren't working, they were just wandering around. But there was something different. They were stumbling randomly as if drunk. Drugging them: it's horrible, but also a brilliant way to keep them subservient. She could work with that. The inmates wouldn't panic once the action started.
A plan formed in her mind. Twenty armed men was more than she could handle, even if she had weapons. But what if she could get them to kill each other?
At dusk, it began.
She got to her feet and crept toward the barbed wire at a poorly-lit spot a hundred or so feet from the main entrance. Throwing her scarf over the barbs, she climbed up one side and dropped to the ground on the other. The camp wasn't well lit, so she could move pretty fast, occasionally dropping to the ground if she heard a nearby voice.
It was quickly becoming chilly again. She scouted the perimeter of the entire camp, waiting in the shadows until she knew she was clear. Twice she had to creep around the dazed inmates, some of whom were pressed up hard against the fence, their feet still moving as if they were walking. But she didn't see anyone who looked like they might be an operative, but in any event, what did that even mean?
Finally she had a plan. She'd identified the small building that was the office and living space of the camp commandant. Carefully peering in through a side window, she saw the group's leader sleeping peacefully on a cot in his sparsely-furnished bedroom.
She moved to the front door, checking the perimeter around her for any threats. Two guards had been smoking and laughing nearby, and Yeji waited until they wandered back to their posts. The doorknob to the office squeaked loudly when she started to turn it, so she had to open it agonizingly slowly, completely visible to anyone nearby. Finally she entered, closing the door behind her.
The first thing she did was check the small desk in the corner for any usable intelligence. It was too dark to read anything, so she just stuffed all the documents she could find into her backpack. Also resting on the desk was a pair of scissors. They were from an earlier time - very big, very rusty, and very heavy. She picked them up and tiptoed into the bedroom.
The commandant almost looked like a child sleeping, with a boyish grin and his hands wrapped around a pillow. Given the circumstances, Yeji had to keep from laughing. Here was the leader of a vicious militia curled up like a two year old dreaming about unicorns.
She put the tip of the scissors against his Adam's apple, took a deep breath, and pushed them through his throat. His limbs jerked violently. Yeji put her knee on his chest to hold him down and covered his mouth with her hand. Then his eyes snapped open in terror, he made a gurgling sound, and died in less than a minute. She sighed. It isn't personal. It's just business.
She dropped an empty bag of M&Ms on the floor.
On the back of one of the inmate's huts was the main power junction for the camp lights. Yeji sneaked silently over to it and took off her backpack. She opened the junction box and took out one of her tactical knives, then looked over the circuitry. Satisfied that she knew what to do, she pounded it in between two breakers. Suddenly the floodlights in the camp exploded, creating a shower of sparks that looked like fireworks.
Things turned crazy. The guards, used to the safety and peace of their remote outpost, completely panicked, pointing their assault rifles randomly into the darkness. The off-duty guards came running out in their underwear, carrying their rifles. It took about five minutes before one of the guards ran to the commandant's hut to get orders. In a moment he came running back out, terrified, waving the M&M wrapper, and screaming in Mongolian.
Yeji's plan seemed to be working - so far. She hoped that leaving the wrapper of a candy that could only be bought in the west or from a westerner would get the guards wondering how committed to the cause their leader really was. Maybe he was a mole? CIA? That fact, along with his death, and the destruction of the lights, caused utter confusion among them, and started everyone on the road of deciding who they could trust. One thing you can always rely on with fanatics is that they are extremely paranoid.
The guards gathered in a circle, shouting at each other wildly. The M&M wrapper was being passed around, and soon they were yelling and pushing each other. The tranquilized inmates continued wandering around, but fortunately, the yelling had made them drift off into the darkness. It was a remarkable stroke of luck, and luck was something Yeji didn't believe in.
It was only a few minutes before the first shot was fired. One man collapsed to the ground as the guards split into what looked like three factions. One man was stabbed, and then automatic machine gun fire began.
Three men ran towards one of the huts. That's where my people are. They're going to execute them. She sprinted through the darkness and ran into the room before they arrived. She pulled the door shut and pressed her back against the wall.
She cocked her arm back and elbowed the first guard right across the bridge of his nose, and Yeji felt warm blood spatter across her face. Then she spun him around and pushed him out of the door, knocking the other two guards to the ground. The closest guard looked at her quizzically. Yeji dropped and rammed her knee into his sternum, cracking his ribs. By the wet gasp he made, she knew she had driven one of the ribs into his lung.
The last guard was trying to get to his feet but Yeji grabbed his head in her arms, and jerked it around so hard that she turned it almost 180 degrees. For a moment she was stunned by what she had just done.
The guards were at war with one another, and Yeji heard a crackle as a bullet went past her ear. She took out the small radio she had for communicating: alpha, alpha, india, foxtrot. Condition oscar. It was the code phrase for the task force to take off.
She rushed back into the darkened hut. At the other end she saw three thin figures chained to a pole.
Yeji gasped. "Minnie! Sulli! Jessica! What are you doing here!?!"
"We're with MI6. They didn't tell you? Wait, why are you here?!?" Sulli asked.
When Yeji got closer she could see that the three women had been beaten. Their faces were bruised and swollen and they were bleeding from their lips and noses. Fury - pure, crystalline rage - welled up in Yeji and flooded every cell in her body with adrenaline. She picked the locks on the chains and the three women struggled stiffly to their feet.
"I'm with MI6, too. I'm a close-in combat specialist, infiltrator, and assassin. What about you?"
"We've worked together for years," Jessica said. "We're an advanced forward recon and target designator team."
"I have a quick question, just to settle a bet. Do you guys make out a lot?"
"Hell yes," Minnie laughed. "It gets cold and lonely out here. Don't you guys in Itzy make out?"
"You just helped settle the bet. Be careful if you ever work with an agent called Archangel. Do you guys feel good enough to help me? We've gotta get these inmates away from the firefight. It's starting to spread."
"We're in," Sulli said, and the other girls nodded.
"Great. They seem to be drifting to the south end of the compound. We need to get them gathered there and hold out. We should be hearing helicopters soon."
"Then let's go," Minnie said.
"One request, Yeji," Jessica said. "We might need a big favor from you. If something goes wrong, could you save us?"
"Of course. That's what they've trained me for."
The four operators left the hut and sprinted around the perimeter of the camp. Gently they herded the inmates into the corner, and took positions guarding them. Then they heard the whoomp-whoomp-whoomp of helicopters approaching.
"Yeji," Sulli hissed. "There's a guard coming this way!"
"It's your time," Jessica whispered to Yeji. "Go."
Yeji smiled and ran towards him.