The Masterkey

[Afterburner]

Burner and Karc met in front of the door, still sporting their brand new suits.

"Well, shall we go in?"

One of the guards opened the door. There was a man in his fifties or sixties, sitting inside, reading the letter from the envelope they brought in.

"Ah, you must be the ones who brought this. Sit down, please. Help yourself to some cognac-I'm not that partial to vodka."

His eyes fell back on the contents of the letter.

"Hmm, yes. Of course. Now, have you read this letter? Or do you want hear what it says?"

Burner firmly answered:

"No, sir, we have not read the letter."

The old mercenary leader started reading the letter, pausing occasionally to sip some cognac.

"I see. It says here 'entitled to a colonel D. Ikonov'. Do you know who this man is?"

Burner originally wanted to say no, but he remembered Dimitri once saying something about an Ikonov in Agroprom.

"I think the ex-military captain Dimitri mentioned a certain major and colonel in the military base in Agroprom who were, according to him, greedy, corrupt pigs with nothing on their mind but filling in their pockets."

The mercenary leader's face frowned at the mention of Dimitri's name

"That same military captain that decided to sneak away in the middle of the night without saying anything? I see...Well, the letter goes on like this:

Colonel Ikonov
According to the evidence found in the laboratory in the so-called "Dark Valley" southeast of the desolated factory town of Rostok, there are numerous laboratories scattered all around the Zone. Such evidence mentioned the possible locations of several laboratories, and we are already nearing the discovery of one of the laboratories. Although the information we recovered was crucial to our mission, there is no mention of possible entrance to these laboratories. The laboratory in "Dark Valley" was marked as "X-18", and had several, heavy code-locked doors which we found unlocked. The code-locking system itself is devious, and we have not been able to see if it is hackable. We have also found something which might be able to help us. There was a mention of a fail-safe system in the locks, designed only to be used in emergencies. Such a code can be used to override the console and open the access to the lab. Rumors say that a group of stalkers managed to find that code, but they decided to destroy it. Now, we were almost ready to give up our mission, but, as always, there is light at the end of the tunnel. After some investigation, we have found that one captain Dimitri, a militarized stalker, currently stationed at Agroprom, has information about such a code. Your mission is to send the captain to investigate the possible location of another laboratory located near the Yantar lake and , by all means, find that code, or at least what is left of it. If the captain manages to recover any more information about the code, immediately deliver the information to the outpost on the entrance to the Zone, where it should be delivered to me.
General A. Kozlow

"Do you see what this means? That military captain knows something about this code! If we manage to obtain that code, the task given to us by 'The Raven' will be made much easier."

Burner interrupted him:

" What the hell is 'The raven' ? "

The mercenary leader responded, still looking at the piece of paper like it was going to tell him something else.

" It's a foreign organization. Really clandestine. They sent a representative, who demanded to see me. Normally, he would have been shot on sight, but the sum his organization was prepared to transfer to our accounts shall we succeed in a mission they gave us is...most inspiring. They want the access to the old laboratories scattered around the Zone. We get them to enter the labs safely, they give us what we need."

The man finally lowered the letter

"I'll send a word about this to the leaders of Freedom and Duty. Their help could be invaluable, seeing as we are too stretched over Limansk, fending off the Monolith troops."

He flicked the letter over the room.

"In a few words-bring that captain back to me. Dismissed."

[Karcentric]

Karc had been sipping the fine cognac listening to the commander, after hearing the task he nearly chocked. After they had walked outside Karc cleared his throat before saying "I get the idea that finding the captain is going a lot harder then it sounds, I mean it's not like he'll come here on his own accord now is it?" He paused as they walked away from the building to a quieter part of the base. "And the boss won't be happy if we dragged him here knocked out or something?"

"The other problem is where do you think he'd go now that he's dropped his flags with the army I doubt we'll go to Duty or Freedom?" Karc said shrugging his shoulders. "Any suggestions where we start looking or should we start questioning everyone we see who might know something?" Karc asked.

Karc pulled his old suit out of his bag refolding it neatly putting it in the bottom of his bag carefully repacking it so as to make as balanced weight wise as possible. He looked over to Burner who seemed to be deep in thought about the mission ahead.

[Afterburner]

"We're going to Duty first. Figured he'd go south rather than north, considering that there's a fucking warzone up there. I seriously doubt the fact of him going back to Freedom. Figures he'd either try to set things back or give up on it completely. Besides, we've got to warn Duty first. Move."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Drop that shit, I'm not a bandit. We've got a little offer for your leaders, and I'd figure they'd like the deal."

The Duty guard hesitated before letting Karc and Burner inside. As they passed the numerous Duty veterans, one of them in particular stood in front.

Burner remembered him; the behemoth that shot down that military chopper! Hopefully, he wouldn't recognize him.

"You a commanding officer around here or somethin'? Go figures. The mercenaries have a little proposal for you."

He laid the plan in front of him

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

"North, or south? If I go north, I risk my life. If I go south, I risk the lives of thousands... North it is."

Dimitri lowered his VAL. He remembered how the military chopper picked up his teammates and he watched them as they ascended, before disappearing completely. For a moment there, he wished he had come out when his friends were being picked up. But, keeping his existence had to be a secret. He was no longer captain Dimitri. Now, he was truly no one.

[Karcentric]

((Unless Burnzz comes back, this thread should be locked.))

[Διμι]

Maybe a way to split Karc from Burner in this thread somehow, since Burnzz isn't coming back?

Could you possibly have Rurik detain Burner indefinitely by recognizing him from the chopper scene.