Dec 5-8, Year 1
We arrived in Petrovadosk per the pre-arranged HALO drop without incident on Saturday night. Our gear was recovered and we performed the obligatory inventory before heading into town.
According to the latest intelligence, General Vasiliev would be arriving 36 hours after our landing. This afforded us the rest of Saturday to stake out the MVD sub-station where agent Thunder was being held. We spotted a lookout on a building across the street, but observed that he was only present after dark. Our plan would not be affected by him. We also noted the location of the sub-station's telephone connection. Fortunately we could make our tap at any point down the connected lines and we found access on a utility pole in a lightly traveled accessway along the railroad tracks.
We took enough time to collect the data from Yojimbo's contact and then found a hotel room where we could catch some sleep and clean up before we put the plan in motion. At midnight Sunday night, we tapped into the sub-station's phone line and ran the connection down to a laptop in one of our two cars. Agent Cardinal monitored the communications in and out of the substation and was able to listen in on a conversation between Gen Vasiliev and the sub-station commander, Commander Ivan Petrovsky.
Shortly after Gen Vasliev boarded his plane in Moscow, Agents Hagar and Hudson, dressed as a Russian military Major and Corporal respectively, drove up to the MVD sub-station in a second vehicle. They declared that they were there to meet Gen Vasiliev and to collect the prisoner's personal effects and files. The Cdr Petrovsky made them welcome while they waited for the general's arrival.
Agent Cardinal, in the guise of Gen Vasliev's attache, placed a call to the sub-station commander and informed him that there had been a change of plan, that Gen Vasiliev would not be making the trip after all, and that he should turn the prisoner over to Agents Hagar and Hudson. The Cdr Petrovsky complied, but insisted that proper protocol be followed. We would have to wait while the paperwork was processed and the prisoner underwent a medical exam. Because we had sufficient time before Gen Vasiliev's plane landed, we complied.
While we were waiting for Thunder's exam to be completed, the telephone intercept we had established failed, and a call from Gen Vasiliev to the Cdr Petrovsky got through. We attempted to bluff our way through the situation but it turned out that Gen Vasliev is courting the Petrovsky's sister, and so the two men are well acquainted. We were not able to convince the commander that Vasiliev had been attempting to mislead an enemy agent, and so we had to take Thunder by force. Holding the commander at gun point, we secured the other guards in the building. We freed Thunder and locked the MVD personal in his cell.
Agent Cardinal, knowing that the phone tap had failed, disconnected and drove to the rendezvous point. En route he was pulled over by an unmarked Russian car. The driver knew Cardinal by name, and knew of his affiliation with Omega Sector and Yojimbo. The man introduced himself as Pavel, an agent for the Russian security ministry. He said that he is investigating AutoRobotica and suggested that we might be of assistance to one another. As an act of good faith, he disclosed the name of AutoRobotica's reclusive CEO, Viktor Grigoriev, and then let Cardinal go.
Cardinal rendezvoused with Hudson, Hagar and Thunder and we all drove across the Finnish border as planned.