Dramatis Personæ

Too Late

The team follows Andris Milic, Brooks’ contact in Medvedev’s organization, to a place where they can discuss the situation in private. They tell him they are looking for Breznikov (C/S Loki), whom he admits he helped smuggle into the country, and that he knows his current whereabouts. He says he will give up the location for $1M euros. The team dips into the funds seized from C/S Heimdall’s accounts, probably for the last time, and pays the requested amount. Milic then reveals, as promised, that Breznikov is in the custody of a large, probably-Russian team, on a research vessel, the Azov, just offshore at an anchorage in the Gulf of Riga. It is expected to depart around 07:00 tomorrow for parts unknown.

With Milic’s aid, the team kits up for a fight. They include night-vision, plus an inflatable electric motorboat and cold-weather swim gear for their insertion onto the boat. Brooks researches deck plans and specs for the boat, and Mahoney looks them over for the most-likely placement of explosives to sink the ship, while Lynch and Baum brave the winter weather to get eyes-on the objective. They wait until around 02:00 the next morning to make their approach.

Despite (or because of) the rough weather, the team’s motorboat slips up alongside the ship, unseen and unheard. They climb aboard quietly, and split up. Baum garrotes the officer on the bridge, and gets set to cut the power. Brooks and Lynch take down the two roving sentries at opposite ends of the ship. Mahoney immediately heads for the ship’s hold, avoiding being seen by the late-shift, and finds charges set at the location he had previously identified; he immediately starts working to defuse the bomb. Lynch, Baum and Brooks regroup on the main deck and start toward the cabins on the next deck up when they surprise Delacroix (C/S Bragi). He bolts back into the research lab he had emerged from, and triggers an alarm. The ship erupts with activity, and the team fights off several Russian operators, while giving chase. They find Breznikov in the lab, shot in the stomach by Dealcroix and left to die. Baum and Brooks run down and corner Delacroix, who was clearly looking for an escape. They gun him down, about the same time Mahoney successfully disarms the bomb below. None of the team aboard see the incoming anti-ship missile until it’s too late…