xp_logs | Operation: Mad Men

Kevin climbed the stairs quickly in the assisted living centre, having skipped going through the lobby to avoid the paper trail. It had taken more than a few hours to track down Dottie Underwood. It shouldn't have been that surprising, considering the woman's background. The former Red Room graduate was now in her 90s, but the habits of a lifetime had kept her footprint marginal after her defection to the US in the early 80s. Fortunately for him, he'd been involved in her debriefing and had been able to dig up her bland false identity from his memory.

HELIOS. It wasn't like it was the most original codename. Russians, French, Brits, Italians and Germans all had a tendency to mine myth for codenames, so the idea that it was connected to his old case from the 60s was minimal at best. But still, the Manhattan setting, the discussion about the 'old man' providing the key to it. He was probably wrong and Nina would have a whole evening of making fun at him when it turned out to be nothing. But he was an intelligence officer to his bones; you ran down every lead, just in case.

Speaking of. Kevin pulled out his phone.

"Nina, have you got me a room number for- Smith yet?" Officially, Dottie Underwood had become Mrs. Dorothy Smith, a widower who lost her husband to cancer the same year she'd defected.

"Mmhmm, looks like she's in 443 - no penthouse suites in this place." Honestly, what was the point of being a spy if you didn't get to retire into swankery when it was all over? Dom cracked her gum loudly, knowing it would set Kevin's teeth on edge. "You gonna be okay with all those stairs, old man?"

"I somehow haven't keeled over from a stroke yet, but thanks for thinking about me." Kevin dryly replied. "At least this isn't a nursing home. Getting in and out of those quietly is a damn nightmare."

"All the old ladies flinging themselves at you? Yeah, I can imagine that'd cause a racket."

"So long as I'm in here, I'm not going to score a win in this conversation." Kevin pushed open the door to the fourth floor. "Let's just hope 'Dorothy' has enough wits left to rule out-"

Kevin stopped as the two men at the door of 443 turned to look at him. Both had pistols drawn and they looked set to bash in the door. Kevin ducked back through the door as the first bullet whined off the door frame. He jumped the side rail, concentrating on lengthening his calves and ankles with cartilage, which absorbed the impact as he landed and reversed down the other side of the stairs.

"I've got Sapien Leaguers in here! Throw up an alert on the system in here and lock the place down!" Three more shots went past him as Kevin continued to bounce his way down the stairwell, easily outpacing them. "Jesus, HELIOS is connected to the old case! It has to be!"

"Shit, your hunch was right? I guess I owe you a drink." Dom couldn't help the spike of adrenaline that flared up as her fingers danced over the keyboard; she could just make out the sound of footsteps and gunshots in the background. "Okay, I've got the main door locked down - emergency exit's still okay but I can hit that too once you're through. Just past the reception desk, takes you out into the back parking lot."

"Set something up for Underwood short term - she won a vacation or something far out of town!" Kevin hit the final set of stairs at a dead run. The exit was just ahead. "HELIOS was a Soviet asset in the 60s. We thought we had it nailed in '65 but we never figured out what we were after. Disappeared after that. We- shit." Kevin went through the door and pulled up as two men were waiting, one with a phone to his ear and both carrying shotguns. Kevin recognized one from the safehouse they'd bugged earlier. He didn't have a second to try and shift his body for protection as the first blast hit him in the chest, just above his heart. He crashed down, phone pinwheeling away. One of them stepped on his chest and the second blast was to the left side of his face, blowing out the eye socket and shattering the skull behind it.

Dom winced at the sound of the gunshot, too close to be a miss this time. That was going to sting.

"Syd?" There was no response. "<i>Syd</i>??"

"--'mon, get out of here," came a distant voice, and then the receding sound of footsteps. Still no Kevin.

Dom went cold, her fingers going numb and her mouth dry as a two-day hangover. There was a ringing in one of her ears - the gunshot? Maybe.

"Okay," she murmured to herself, setting the cell phone down carefully on her desk, "better let the others know shit just got a whole lot more serious."

<i>Attn all team - need an extraction at following address. KS down and unresponsive. Sapiens League at large.</i>

It would've been easier to send the text on her own phone, but she couldn't quite bring herself to hang up the line.cut contents here.