alertcommando | Rescue from the Nightmare

Rescue from the Nightmare

The door opens into the streets of a small abandoned village: it is night, a chilly autumn night.

The bright moon in the sky makes the numerous footprints of heavy boots and the even more numerous prints from attack dogs' paws clearly visible. The ground also shows tire marks and the tracks from an Armored Personnel carrier. A keen eye might also notice spent bullet casings here and there.

Unfortunately, none of those seems much recent.

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"I got it." Lucy moves out following the map in her head. She's also got a device like a GPS, that only responds to her fingerprint, but the mental map is good enough for now. She's watchful and swift without appearing to be in a big hurry. Even if that's the hard part. Her guns are handy, but concealed.

Mary Anne follows behind, keeping her head up and her eyes open. Any trace of nervousness gets buried by anticipation and focus.

Her rifle is slung across her back, her handgun out of sight in the small of her back. A small bag rests on one hip, loaded with grenades. Her knives are stashed in various places--up her sleeve, strapped to her ankle--but her hands stay empty for now, loose and ready at her sides.

There is a guard post on the road when they get closer to the city; but it can be easily avoiced by simply going around it.

A half dozen soldiers, two attack dogs, a jeep with a machinegun.

Lucy resettles the straps of her backpack before leading the way around the guardpost. Some of her equipment is disassembled for transport, and rattling just now would be bad.

Dogs can be trouble, but only if their humans heed them. Better to raise no alarm at all. As wide a curve as possible is made around the post, and Lucy's still keeping an eye out for passive alarms and traps. No tripwires or lasers have caught her in years, but it's unfamiliar territory, and outdoors.

Mary Anne is used to country with landmines buried in it, so she treads carefully and keeps one eye on the ground.

She tries to put her footsteps right in Lucy's, the better to keep avoiding any traps.

None in this area. They manage to reach the outskirts of the city without incident.

Now it is just a matter of finding Spot X on the city, giving out Signal Y, and waiting for a contact.

And hoping to not be caught by a patrol; the underground agents are supposed to be watching the contact area 24/7, but... surprises happen.

Making it to the contact point in the alley behind a butcher's shop is easy; getting the light signal is not so much. Lucy's not a smoker, but the only way she could come up with for not looking too conspicuous while flicking a lighter that many times and in that pattern it to light a cigarette.

The choking should make it clear that she's not just jonesing for nicotine, but she'll switch to the flashlight if the message isn't clear enough.

Mary Anne isn't a smoker either, or she'd have offered to help.

As it is, she just tries to look as relaxed as possible, while keeping an eye out for the reply.

[Tap]-[Tap][Tap]-[Tap][Tap][Tap]-[Tap]

The sound resembles water dripping, but the pattern repeats itself three times. Then a door down the alley opens a few inches, revealing light for a moment.

An invite, or a call.

"Thank god." Lucy gratefully stubs out the wretched cigarette trying not to look too happy to be doing so. She nods at Mary Ann and leads the way towards the door, checking around for observers. "If it's a trap, run." Not that she thinks her companion needs to be told that.

"You got it."

She leaves out the fact that the only way she's running is if she's hauling Lucy after her. That detail's not important now; the only thing that is is whatever is on the other side of that door.

A short hallway, then stairs leading down: at the bottom, another door slightly ajar, light filtering out...

Lucy walks down those steps as silently as possible, then when she approaches the open door, she taps on it in a two-one-two pattern before pushing it open far enough to see inside.

Mary Anne hangs back and slightly to the right of Lucy.

She keeps her hands well away from her guns (in the interest of friendliness) but she's ready to get to any of her knives, in case things get less than friendly.

A middle-aged, gray-haired woman is standing in the middle of the basement room. "Come in." She speaks in german. "Hands where I can see, drop your packs by the door."

There are two others, a younger woman and a man, flanking the door, each one holding a submachinegun. "No quick moves. We were expecting one, not two."

Lucy does as she is told, smoothly removing her pack and setting it down. Now it does clink a bit.

She steps out into the open with her hands clear of her weapons. "Small change of plans. Too much for one person." Her German is better than her Russian especially after a quick brushup, but her accent is quite noticeable.

Mary Anne adds her own bag and her rifle to the pile.

She's keeping her mouth shut for now, just taking the measure of the room.

The woman narrows eyes a bit. "And neither of you are who we were expecting. But you know the codes and you did not bring an ambush party tailing you. Care to enlighten us?"

"The one you were expecting got captured." No use evading at this point. "We're here to get her back, and destroy whatever information they may have there."

They may or may not care for an individual soldier, but surely it would be good all around to disrupt or destroy that filthy place in the bargain.

Mary Anne chimes in with, "Any help you could give us--on either front--would be appreciated."

But we're doing this, with or without you hangs unsaid.

"Two people, to Kryvosk Island, to rescue one operative? You know she is five days late in checking in? It means they have her for five days already, in two she will be a good robot spitting soviet propaganda, or dead. If they did not break her already." The older woman frowns. "You know they have a swarm of boats guarding the island, right?"

She grumbles, gensturing to the two guards, who lower their guns. "Shift change will be in the morning of the 7th day. Processed prisoners are sent to recovery center to finish reeducation and reprogramming. Those who are not broken down are executed by the end of the day."

"If you are going to do it, best bet is to sneak in during the previous night and wait for the sending-out of the general personnel going on leave. But then you have to find a way to get out."

Five days already. Hell. It sounds worse and worse.

Lucy relaxes minimally when the guns are lowered. "We have a few tricks between the two of us. If we can get in, we can find a way out, and I thank you for the information."

Mary Anne just smiles her thanks.

If it's a little thin, well, she's got a few other things on mind just now than making sure these people have a favorable impression of her.

"Any of you two have experience with scuba diving?" She does not want for the answer. "More and more submarines have been moved south, preparing for the invasion of greece, to try and keep the british fleet from helping there."

"The other option is to stow away in the ferry."

Lucy shakes her head. "Tunnels yes, water no, not even a snorkel since I was a kid." She looks over at Mary Ann. "Unless you want to try the water route, I'd just as soon take the ferry."

And they will take the ferry if necessary.

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