2019-12-06 - Prevoshkhodstvo Bunker

Summary:

SHIELD agents Drew and Odame infiltrate a Prevoshkhodstvo bunker in Northern Russia, to implant a surveillance virus.

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Fri Dec 6 00:00:00 2019
Location: RP4 - Diamond Mine - Udachny - Russia

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

None

jessica-drewkwabena-odame

Udachny Diamond Mines - Russia
6:30 AM

The rented car pulls up to the large parking lot of the Udachny Diamond Mine. There is visitor parking, which is a small blessing; it's close to the large building's entryway, which will limit their exposure to the cold at least for a time. It will be a while before the sun comes up.

Dressed in fur-lined tundra gear, Kwabena steps out of the car and heads for the front entryway. He looks toward Jessica, bright eyes concerned for her. He's used to this kind of frigid, subzero temperature, after all.


Jessica climbs out of the car, puffed from head to toe with layers of coat, thermals, clothes, and anything else she could find to out on. The tablecloth from the room service cart is conspicuously missing, after all.

Joining Kwabena's side, she slips her arm through his. "Wow…did a warm front come through?"


"I think so," he tells her. "My nostrils have not frozen yet."

Once inside of the building, they are greeted with the best of Communist-Era Russian design; a barren room made of concrete, and a chain link fence separating them from the mine's large processing center. A grizzled old security guard sits behind a metal gate, smoking a cigarette.

"Who are you?" he asks in Russian.

"I am Dashiell," Kwabena answers, switching easily to the native language. "This is my woman, Mara." Rampant sexism reigns in this neck of the woods; when in Rome certainly applies. There is no apology on Kwabena's poker face. For the time being, Jessica is, essentially, his property. "Pasha told me he would give us a tour."


"I have been so excited to see how a mine works," Jessica adds, without a hint of dismay for Kwabena's insinuation. "This has been an amazing vacation! The people here are so very…REAL!"


The security guard is… nonplussed. "I will check with the foreman," he grunts, and picks up a phone. There follows a brief conversation, after which he slams the phone down and lights another cigarette. "Pasha will be here."

He reaches down and hits a buzzer, unlocking the entry gate. He points to the left and says demandingly, "Go get a hard hat and steel toed boots from supply room!"


Jessica hops to, scuttling to get into the supply room. It isn't easy to find shoes that fit her, but she manages with a pair that is two sizes too big. She laces them tightly and glances up at Kwabena with a sheepish grin as she ties them. Then, she finds a hard hat, twisting her hair up and cramming the hat down over her hair. "I'm so exciiited!" Her enthusiasm is obvious, and it isn't just part of the act.


Kwabena smiles at her, and stands after fixing his boots and comes over to her with the hat in hand. "I am glad you are excited," he tells her, then reaches forward to pull her into an embrace.

His lips come close to her ear, and whispers to her in English. "There is blocked off entrance in mine. Dis is where Prevoshkhodstvo was based. Dis is what we look for."

Stepping back just do, he kisses her warmly, which is precisely when Pasha walks in.

"Dashiell!" He walks forward, smiling. "And his lovely woman, Mara! I see you are ready for the tour. And maybe to find a diamond of your own!"


Jess arches a brow and looks to Pasha with a playful grin. "Diamonds are the world's treasure. And a woman's desire. Besides, of course, the strong arms of a good man, da?"


Pasha laughs boisterously. He steps forward and claps Kwabena hard on the shoulder, still laughing. "She appreciates you, comrade," he says. "You are lucky man."

"The luckiest," Kwabena answers, and looks to Jessica with a grin. Some of this may be an act… that remark was not.

"Come then. I will give you the best tour," Pasha says, "for you have taken me off the line, and my back already thanks you!"

He leads the way, heading into the large processing center.


Jessica smiles genuinely and warmly at Kwabena as he speaks, but as Pasha departs she falls in step along with him. Her enthusiasm is contagious, as she asks questions. Some seem to have obvious answers, but some are more thought provoking. "What is the hardest thing about working in the mine?" she asks. All the while, her eyes are seeking clues to answer Kwabena's unspoken questions.


"The cold," Pasha answers. "Always the cold. Everything we do is a fight against the elements."

The processing facility is large. Pasha shows them how the conveyors and machinery separate the mined earth from diamonds, sending the precious stones to be processed while also sending rock and earth to be ground into fill dirt, so that everything taken from the ground can be sold.

There is no sign yet of what they might be looking for.

In time, Pasha leads them to a small truck. "We will now look at the mine itself," he tells them.


"Do you ship the diamonds to a single buyer, then? You said the diamonds are not for sale. I assume that is because you have a contract with a buyer already?" Jessica is showing signs of the cold. She is shivering despite her best efforts. Isn't it supposed to be warmer underground?!


"Oh yes," says Pasha. "We have a single buyer in America. It is the largest diamond market, because Americans love their diamonds. We are happy, because we can sell to them at a much higher price."

"Who is the American buyer?" Kwabena asks.

"I don't know," Pasha tells them. "But as I understand it, they are the largest diamond importer in America."

Enterting the truck, they are immediately relieved by a blast of hot air. Clearly the truck gets a lot of use, for its engine is already warmed up.


"Oh blessed HEAT!" Jessica gushes, still in Russian. She leans forward into the heat and lets it bake her skin. If only she could find a way of inconspicuously warming her tush in front of that…

"It makes sense, then," she says to Pasha. "If they buy for such high prices, I cannot blame the mine for not wishing to sell me one. No matter how much I could pay!"


"As long as you don't try to steal one," Pasha says, with a wicked grin. "Then I will have problems with both of you."

At this, Kwabena laughs, loudly. Russian humor at its finest! Laugh, or be suspect.

As the truck leaves the refinery, they are greeted with a magnificent view; a massive hole in the ground, delving hundreds of feet into the earth in concentric circles. The view is truly majestic and breathtaking, even in the moonlit sky; lights line the roadways down, giving the visage an eerie view, and as the sun begins creating on the horizon, harsh shadows are cast into the abyss, deepening its frigid wonder.


"A true wonder that sometimes the harshest environments cab often be the most beautiful," Jess muses as she gazes on the vastness of it all. "When the earth is broken, only then can it yield its most splendorous treasures." She seems lost in the sight as she speaks, almost as if she is talking to herself.


The sight of it is truly impressive; Kwabena cannot help but find it wonderful. Pasha continues to tell them about the mine and it's operations; but about two thirds of the way down, something will catch Jessica's eye.

There are places where mine tunnels have been dug into the earth that has not yet been excavated; but one spot in particular stands out. A door that should be a tunnel, sealed shut by a heavy metal door, with a security pad. There are no workers near that particular location.

Kwabena has noticed it as well. He retrieves a cell phone and begins taking pictures, but at one moment, he swings the cell around and sends Jessica a message.

<Thats it. Make a distraction, then knock him out.>


There is a part of Jessica that has been a cold and calculating killer. And there is a part of her that knows as a SHIELD agent that she must do anything that she can to fulfill an objective. The message comes as a shock to her, and she has very little time to make her decision.

If she knocks Pasha out, he can likely return to his family and will be relatively blameless. If they somehow reason with him and persuade him, his family may never know how he died at the hands of a nefarious organization. So it's now or never.

"My butt is so COLD," she says with a laugh, trying to turn around and warm it in front of the truck heater vents. Pasha looks shocked, but laughs at her antics. It would be the last thing he remembers. Laughter. Jessica knows the spot, and with precision and strength, she knocks off his hard hat and delivers a blow that renders him unconscious. "I am sorry, friend'" she says as she extends her leg to step on the brake, and stops the truck. Pasha is taking a nap against the window.


The moment Jessica makes her move, Kwabena is bailing from the truck. He hits the ground in a roll, and goes running for the doorway. He shoves a hand at the security keycard slot, and his hand changes into a thick, black liquid, which seeps into the lock and shorts it out. A grimace comes to his face, for it still hurts to feel an electric shock, regardless of what form he's taken. Yet, as his hand withdraws and reforms, the lock sparks and fails, and the door is unlocked.

With a heavy shove, he pushes the door open and steps in, waiting there for Jessica to join him before closing it.

They find themselves in a long hallway, carved into the rock itself, with nondescript incandescent lights dangling from the ceiling; some of them burnt out, a couple of them flicking. It is a long hallway, with an elevator at the far end.


Jessica puts the truck in Park, and joins Kwabena swiftly, wincing as she watches him short out the lock. She slips inside and stares down the long hallway, flickering lights and all. "The deeper into your world I go," she says quietly, "the more I am convinced you're Smokity from LOST."


A look of confusion is given to Jessica. "I don't know what is, 'LOST'," he tells her, switching easily to English. He closes the door behind them and begins walking down the long hallway at a brisk pace, but there is an expression of confusion on his face. "Is dis a movie?" he asks.


"It's a television show. The best one ever made. We'll watch it when we get home. Wrapped in blankets, by a fire. With cocoa. And a hot water bottle or seven." Jessica smiles at him, then refocused on this Dharma Initiative bunker they have apparently stumbled onto.


"I hope it has good ending," Kwabena tells her, in the most unintentionally ironic statement ever made.

"How long do you think Pasha has?" he asks. "We must be fast." The elevator door grows closer still; it doesn't appear to have any additional security to short out, to which Kwabena is quietly thankful.


"Probably about 15 more minutes, minimum. Maybe as much as twenty." Jessica half-smiles. "I loved the ending. Some hated it. But they were wrong."


The lift button is pressed, and Kwabena gives Jessica a confused look. "Dey would say de same thing," he says, and grins. "It must be one hell of an ending."

The grin then fades, and he looks around with a sense of concern. "I do not know what we will find down dere, but… I expect it to be abandoned. You still have device, yes?"

He's referencing the small thumb drive given to them by SHIELD's tech team. If they can find a USB port on an active computer, plugging it in should give SHIELD remote access to survey whatever network the computer may be attached to. Jessica is only allowed to hold it, given… well, the unique risks posed by putting Kwabena on this mission.


"I have it," Jess replies. She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. "If this goes south…and I mean REALLY south…just remember that we are gonna get through this. I promise." She takes his hand and gives it a squeeze. "I love you."


"I love you."

The lift door opens, and the pair step inside.

Its a long trip down; Russian tech was lopsided during the end of the Cold War. Resources in the 1980's were allocated to essential tech, not to comfort. By estimation, the pair have descended at least 80 meters deeper into the earth in an industrial style elevator, allowing the passing of rock to be seen through gaps in the metal framework.

When the elevator finally stops, and the door slides open, they are greeted by a room carved into the rock itself. The ceiling is in the shape of a half-dome, with cement support structures rising where needed. The room is littered with old CRT monitors, outdated computers, and reel-to-reel tape recording machines that have long since collected dust. The room, however, is at least warmer than outside, resting at a balmy 65 degrees.

The glow of fluorescent lights further enhances the creepy mood of this room, but there is one thing that does not fit in with the decades old tech; a row of sever banks and modernized computers, with cabling that runs up to the ceiling, toward the elevator shaft, and into a conduit that presumably rises with the shaft itself.

Three hatches lead off in different directions, large metal monstrosities with big wheels that resemble submarine pressure doors. The room appears abandoned.


LOG NOTE: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/b/b9/2x01-InsideTheHatch.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090123141332


"Just like LOST," Jessica says under her breath. She wanders into the room for a moment, but touches nothing. Not yet, anyway. "You think they're really gone?" She asks, squatting to look at some of the older tech. "I don't feel like they're really gone…"


Kwabena enters the room behind Jessica, his eyes looking around vigilantly. He doesn't answer, not yet at least; his eyes are lingering on those hatches for a moment or two, before they drift toward what is clearly newer tech.

Walking over, he pulls out a keyboard and touches the space bar. A plasma screen monitor comes online with a login screen, prompting him to turn toward Jessica.

"De computers are still on." There is a particular tone of his voice that every trained SHIELD agent would recognize. Too good to be true, usually means just that.


Jessica nods and rises, unzipping her coat and reaching inside, somewhere hidden in her bra, for the thumb drive, and she pulls it out. "I think something is…is seriously off. Feel like it might be a trap?"


"Without question." Kwabena steps away from the computer, and turns his eyes harshly upon one of those three hatches.

"Plug it in," he says, quietly. "Quickly." With quiet footfalls, he makes for the nearest of those hatches, resting gloved hands upon the metal wheel.


Jessica removes her coat, freeing herself to face whatever might come her way, unburdened. She didn't come unprepared, after all. With trepidation, she extends her hand with the thumb drive and plugs it into the computer. "Here goes nothin'."


The login screen suddenly fills with scrambled numbers and asterisks. The computer comes alive, and begins rapidly cycling through windows as the mole program digs into the attached network. SHIELD got a first glimpse at Prevoshkhodstvo's code when they hacked the nanotech of Kwabena and Bullfist; it's an advantage, and it's working fast.

Kwabena turns back to the door and begins wheeling it open. Once the wheel stops, he pulls the door open and looks at what's inside.

Suddenly, his mind becomes a torrent of horrible memories, flashing through his conscious and before his eyes. He staggers backward and collapses on the ground, frozen in place. His breathing comes rapidly, eyes wide and staring at the room beyond in abject terror.

The room contains a series of cells, each of them filled with dust covered contraptions that look anything but pleasant… but there is no one inside.


Jessica turns to see Kwabena collapse. "No!" She runs to his side, peering inside the room and ready to defend him. The horrible realization sinks in quickly, and she shuts the hatch door. "It can't hurt you anymore. Just breathe, okay? It is going to be fine. They can't touch you…I won't let them." She is kneeling by his side, her hand gentle against his cheek. "We just have to make it through this. Then we can go home. I promise."


PTSD flashbacks can be serious. This one doesn't appear to be leaving any time soon. Kwabena remains frozen, staring at the closed door in shock.

A sound comes from the other side of the room.

It happens fast; alarmingly fast. The metal wheel swivels in the span of half a second, and the door swings open fast enough to knock it right off its hinges. A figure dressed in gunmetal gray, the same nanotech as worn by Kwabena, Silverlock and Bullfist, enshrouds a man wielding a pair of long, dangerously sharp knives, and he's charging at Jessica faster than a human eye could blink.


Jessica doesn't think. She doesn't even register consciously what is happening. She quite simply…jumps. Like a flea: one second she is there, the next she is gone. She is on the ceiling, now, looking down on the knife-wielding attacker. She throws out enough web to make the whole room a webby warzone, as fast as she can fire it off. She's already gathering energy from the ceiling, and from her own cells. Any source at her disposal. And she is prepared to blast this guy to hell.


The attacker moves fast, zipping around and deftly dodging the webs that are thrown. The old lights flicker a bit as energy is drawn from them, and the speedster is briefly captured by one of the webs. He twists about and yanks, pulling it free, but it's enough to slow him down… for just a moment.


And that is the moment that she needed. Jessica holds out both hands toward Stabby, and issues a green venom blast whose very presence makes the lights flicker again. She follows it with a torrent of webbing, hoping that enough can find purchase so that she can keep him still until she can disable him. She has to keep Kwabena safe. She promised.


The blast both shakes Kwabena from his stupor, and catches the attacker by his leg. He cries out in shock, but he's not down for the count; not just yet. His body is spinning as he's tripped up, but one of his blades is sent flying toward the ceiling, on a beeline trajectory for Jessica's chest.


Jessica rolls along the ceiling, evading certain death and suffering only a graze wound to her shoulder as the knife nicks her. She sends a follow-up venom blast at the the man, and she leaps down from the ceiling to approach him, continuing to pelt him with webbing like a kid with a can of sillystring.


"Shit!" Kwabena rolls to his feet and throws the coat heavily from his shoulders, ready to jump into action.

The so-called 'stabbing specialist' flings his hands and legs rapidly, becoming a blur of motion that throws webbing free and dashes venom blasts against the walls around him. It would seem, with his speed, there's no way Jessica can take him down.

What she is doing, though… is keeping him in relatively one spot.

Kwabena charges. "Keep at it!" he tells her, and transforms into black smoke once he's in Jessica's line of fire. The webbing and venom blasts pass right through the cloud, until he's on the attacker.

The attacker goes down when smoke becomes man, the two tumbling end over end with webbing hanging off each of them. It's hard to tell who is who, considering the matching nanotech, until the attacker is slammed against the bunker wall.

Knocked senseless, the attacker finally comes to a stop, with Kwabena straddling him and pinning him down. "My coat," he says between heavy breaths. "Bring it, quick!"


Jessica grabs the coat and dashes to Kwabena, handing it over to him, and trying to help hold down the attacker, if need be. She furrows her brow, looking back at the way they came in. "You think Pasha is all right??"


The attacker is fast, but he lacks enhanced strength. Between the two of them, they're able to hold him down. "Hope so," Kwabena says, before retrieving an object from within his coat that looks almost like a cross between a small wallkie talkie, and the fictional PKE meter from Ghostbusters. Those SHIELD techs really have a way with things.

Activating the device, he aims it at the attacker, changing to Russian. "Talk!"

"I'm not gonna tell you anything," the attacker answers in Russian.

Kwabena shakes the man, his eyes glaring with intimidation as he demands, "Keep talking. Name! What the hell are you doing here!?"

"I'm here to kill you!" He looks at Jessica. "Both of you, apparently." Back to Kwabena. "They knew you'd come."

"NAME!!"

The man laughs, and spits out, "Go to hell, traitor!"


The man gets a swift slap upside the back of the head. "MANNERS!" Jessica demands in Russian. "You do not have to be what you have become. There are others like you who have had the opportunity to escape. We can help you, but you have to reach out from your side, too."


The man looks to Jessica, and for a moment, he hesitates.

In that moment, Kwabena wrenches his hands to either side of the man's face. The telltale *crack* of a snapped neck happens in the blink of an eye.

There was no other choice. The device in his hand was capable of jamming Prevoshodstvo's transmissions to and from the nanotech, even capable of simulating its reporting, but the only way to break him of its grasp would be to bring him back to the Triskelion. There's no way of knowing where else the enemy has eyes and ears; the diamond mine, after all, is a very large operation.

"It had to be done," Kwabena says dispassionately as he rises. His eyes linger upon the man, and while they show no remorse, it is there in the way his shoulders slump. "Only way for dis to be clean."


"Sure," Jessica replies, standing up. Wanting to wash her hands. Needing to wash away what has just happened. Everything that has happened. She turns to look sidelong at Kwabena. "What now?"


It takes a moment, but Kwabena finally turns away and quickly approaches what appears to be an active comm unit, older model. He sets the device down and presses a 'test' button.

The now dead attacker's voice comes from the device, first repeating back one of his sentences in Russian. <I'm here to kill you! Both of you, apparently.>

A computer voice says, "Calibrating."

The man's voice issues from the box again, this time speaking words that were never recorded. <Normal report. No sign of intruders.>

Satisfied, Kwabena rushes over to Jessica. "Now let's get de hell out of here," he says to her, very much wanting to put this behind him.

The ruse won't work for long… all they need is for it to work long enough for SHIELD's virus to get deep enough into Prevoshkhodstvo's systems.


"I'll be right behind you," Jess replies. "Lead the way, and we will get out of here."


They encounter no interference leaving the bunker; no one on the way out of the secret passageway in. When they emerge into the bitter cold, they'll find Pasha behind the wheel of his truck, just starting to come around.

Kwabena's eyes drift around vigilantly, quietly hoping that their way in and out was not seen. Otherwise… this would have all been a waste.


Jessica is rubbing Pasha's shoulder by the time he is lucid enough to open his eyes. "Pasha?? Are you all right?" Jessica looks concerned as he comes around. "You suffered quite a blow, there…can you hear me? Are you all right?"


"Wha… what happened?" Pasha asks, looking between the two, confused.

"Rock," Kwabena explains. "Hit the truck, and your head bounced." He bangs the dashboard indicatively, and the expression of concern on his face is quite convincing. "Come on, let's get you back up, you need to see a doctor."

The Russian nods his head slowly, and looks between the two of them, sighing. "Maybe one of you should drive?"

The quicker they can get out of this wintry hell… the better.


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