Dispatching of Shadow

04th January 2032

00:49

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport

Artemis lands in one of the empty parking spaces in the airport. All the bravo squad members wore their normal uniforms and Aiden wore a black suit and white shirt. Sohel instructs Annabelle to remain in Artemis and everyone else to follow him. They get out of Artemis and enter the terminal. Flynn guides them to the Airport security area where all of the flight crew and passengers were kept along with the dead body of Ms. Milanova. As they enter the room they hear many people's voices, all complaining about them being kept there for extended periods. One of the security officers comes forward and greets them. They start their work after Flynn introduces the bravo squad to the officer. Sohel turns back to his squad and orders, "Mitali, Check the corpse. See if you can find anything. Medusa and Blast, I need every crew member's statement. Agent Flynn, please help Medusa and Blast." Mitali, Jacob, and Naomi say in sync, "Yes, sir." They get to their work. Sohel then turns towards the security officer and says, "I hope you haven't touched the aircraft yet." The officer replies, "No, sir. Everything has been kept the way it was on flight."

"That's good. Please show me the way."

The officer guides Sohel to the aircraft and they get on board. Sohel starts looking around. He stops by the seat Ms. Mitalev was sitting in and asks, "This was the seat, right?"

"Yes."

He crouches down and inspects the seat, looking for anything suspicious. He notices the coffee cup on the seat's front table. It was still half full of coffee. He takes the cup and sniffs it. After inspecting the cup he gets up and goes to the kitchen. The officer follows. Sohel asks the officer to show him where the ingredients to make coffee are kept. The officer says, "I'm sorry. I don't know that. But most probably the hostesses know. Do I call them?"

"Hmm. Call the one who made coffee for Ms. Mitalev."

The officer nods and orders someone to bring the hostess who made coffee for Ms. Mitalev. A few minutes later an officer brings an air hostess. Sohel asks the hostess, "Can you show me all the ingredients you used while making Ms. Mitalev's coffee? And please don't touch them. Just point at them and I'll confirm it." The hostess nods and points at the ingredients individually, and Sohel puts them on one side. After they're done Sohel thanks the hostess and tells the officer to get her back with the other crewmates. Sohel then asks the officer to bring some forensic bags and puts all of the things in the bags. He then gets off the plane and meets up with Medusa.

"You done?"

"Almost. But there's a problem. We're missing two passengers."

Sohel exclaims. He asks the officer in charge, "Why do we have two fewer passengers?"

"Sir, it was a small orphan kid and her guardian. The kid looked tired. So I let them go."

Sohel sighs. He murmurs, "idiot."

"Sir, did you say something?"

"No, I didn't. Please tell me you have their home address."

"Yes, sir. It's not a home but an orphanage. The guardian was an orphanage worker. He was coming back after collecting that kid from another orphanage."

"Ok...….." Sohel was going to do something but Annabelle's sudden call stopped him, "Captain, You've been asked to contact New Eden ASAP."

"Why? What happened?"

"No idea. I just got this message."

"Ok, I'm coming." Sohel ordered Jacob to collect the orphanage's address before hurrying to the Artemis.

01:15

Artemis Briefing Room

Sohel asks ARIA to contact New Eden and after a while, the face of a 55-60-year-old Russian man wearing a general's outfit shows on the monitor in front. Upon seeing the man's face, Sohel instantly salutes the man. The man says, "At ease soldier." After Sohel takes his hand down the man continues, "What's going on there? It's been 48 hours since you've taken on this op. Then why instead of getting the culprit I'm getting a dead body?"

"We're on it, sir. We're going as fast as possible."

"It doesn't matter how fast you're working if the death count still rises. They've already killed 18 people, 13 of whom were our spies."

Sohel was shocked to learn that many of the deceased were SNA spies but he hid his reactions and said, "I'm sorry, sir. I promise we'll find the culprit before they can kill anyone else."

"You better. I've also dispatched Shadow for this mission. He'll be working on his own with his main mission being keeping our people alive. He won't interfere unless any of our men is in danger. Good luck, Ghost. Stay frosty."

The call disconnects. After Sohel gets sure that the call has disconnected he yells, "Fucking old man." He mocks the general, "'I've dispatched Shadow.' The fuck is he going to do?" He gets out after he calms down and sees All members of the Bravo squad are back. He asks, "Where's Flynn?" as he doesn't see Aiden. Jacob replies that Aiden has gone to send a report to CIA HQ. Sohel nods. Medusa asks, "Who was it?"

"Snow Leopard. He's pissed. He has also dispatched Shadow."

"HUH? Why him?", exclaims Annabelle.

"Apparently to stop any other murders. That F'ing old man doesn't have faith in us."

Naomi says, "Working with him is a real pain."

Jacob agrees. Mitali asks, "Wait a minute. Who's Shadow? Why's working with him a pain?"

Sohel answers, "The four of us and the specialists of Delta squad make nine of us, right?"

"Yeah. But there's supposed to be 10 specialists."

"Correct. Shadow is the last specialist. Apparently, that man is the best spy New Eden has ever produced. Not even we know his real name, let alone his face."

"How does that make him a pain to work with?"

"We've worked with him a few times before but he never even talked to us face to face. He sent any intel he intended to share with us by mail."

Jacob interrupts Sohel, "He's the definition of an antisocial lone wolf."

Sohel says, "Anyways, Blast, you got the address?"

"I do."

"Good. You guys take some rest."

As Sohel was heading to the aircraft's garage Naomi asked, "Where are you going?"

"To the orphanage."