Sophia: The Return

We were four days into the mission and I was already beginning to lose my shit.

I still hadn't found out what Stiff intended to use the documents Lynx stole from the Director’s office for.

All over the news, it was buzzing that the North Korean embassy had been taken hostage.

No one really cared that it was their Foreign Consulate and only just a de facto embassy.

In this situation, information accuracy was a technicality.

As was planned, Lynx did a video, demanding for the U.S to let go of all their captured Kriegbrand terrorists, else we were going to start killing hostages, we have them a week to decide.

It was all just a smoke screen, of course. I quickly found out the secondary purpose for this mission through M’s thorough digging.

It was a diversion.

Yes, the objective was to start a war between the Norks and the U.S, but in the meantime, Lynx was supposed to buy time.

Buy enough time for Stiff to start moving the nuclear submarines.

With all eyes on New York and his moles in the government, he'd have succeeded…that is if M and I weren't unto him.

We still didn't know where the nukes were, but our in into the organization's digital systems revealed to us that they were soon going to be moved.

M couldn't dig deeper else we face the risk of running into Cerberus so we were skirting around for now.

I was, at the moment, in Park's office. It became my room in this building these past four days.

Hopefully we weren't going to spend more than the two weeks the mission demanded here. If that should happen then we'd quickly run out of food.

Already the building was under siege by the army, police, Delta Force, and a host of agencies constituting the alphabet soup.

The U.S were doing their best to stop the Norks from getting involved. It was in the news, how they had denied them from sending in their special force team and State Security Department.

Things were hot.

But if M’s plans went well then everything was going to be fine. I'd be out of here in less than two weeks.

I faced the monitor on Park's desk, making sure the screen was faced away from the CCTV. M made sure to obscure things so that incase Cyborg checked the monitor from the control room, he'd see that I was playing Fortnite instead of seeing what I was doing and what I was doing was monitoring the Pentagon through M.

I hadn't had time to watch this since Lynx gave her ultimatum to the authorities. The recording was a few days old, but I needed to start here and work my way up to keep abreast of how the Pentagon was reacting to the hostage situation.

M started the video and settled down to watch.

The Pentagon’s Situation Room buzzed with frenetic energy, a stark contrast to the cold, sterile decor of the space.

From what I could see rows of monitors displayed live feeds, maps, and real-time data. Uniformed officers, intelligence analysts, and civilian officials darted between desks, their voices low but urgent.

At the head of the table sat General Harold Khan, his battle-hardened presence commanding attention. His piercing blue eyes scanned the digital map of the embassy grounds projected on the main screen. Red dots marked the positions of Steel’s team when they infiltrated the building, identified from satellite thermal imaging.

“What do we know?” Khan barked, breaking the tense silence.

A young intelligence officer, her voice steady despite the chaos around her, responded. “The embassy in question is in Tier-One lockdown. Six hostiles infiltrated the compound at 08:27 local time, but a staff inside alerted the New York police to armed men seizing control of the building at 08:20.”

“That’s suspicious,” General Jenny Chaplin said.

“Did that mean they already had people inside the embassy?” General Reed from the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked.

“Then why would they need to infiltrate the building again if they already had people inside it?” General Chaplain questioned.

“Maybe they were not enough or we are facing a more complex plan,” Khan said, then waved at the intelligence officer to continue with her report which she did promptly.

“They’ve neutralized on-site security and taken at least twenty hostages, including the ambassador and key staff and guests who were there for a diplomatic meeting,” she reported. “All communications from within have been severed.”

“Affiliation?” Khan asked.

“Kriegbrand, sir, but that’s suspect,” the officer replied. “Their tactics suggest a highly trained unit—likely ex-military. Kriegbrand claimed responsibility yet but these guys seem more professional than anything Kriegbrand produces.”

“Damn it,” muttered Defense Secretary Evelyn Gordon, seated across from Khan. She leaned forward, her brow furrowed. “What about demands? Have they contacted us?”

“No, ma'am,” another analyst chimed in. “But we have intercepted encrypted signals from within the embassy. They could be coordinating with an external party.”

I smiled. Good. They noticed. Park's wife was going to be my golden goose in bringing down this operation.

Khan slammed his fist on the table. “We’re not sitting on our hands while they dictate the terms. Options?”

A man in civilian attire, representing the CIA, cleared his throat. “We have Delta Force units stationed within a two-hour radius. They can be deployed for an extraction operation. However, any direct assault risks the hostages.”

“Diplomatic channels?” Gordon asked, turning to the State Department liaison.

“We’re working on it,” the liaison replied. “But without demands or a clear political motive, we’re in the dark. Local authorities are standing by, but their resources are limited.”

Khan paced the room, his boots echoing against the tiled floor. “We need actionable intelligence—now. If this group is working with external agents, we need to know who’s pulling the strings. NSA?”

“Already on it, sir,” the intelligence officer replied. “We’re tracing the intercepted signals and cross-referencing known insurgent activity in the region.”

The room fell silent for a moment as a new image appeared on the main screen—a live feed of the hostages in the embassy’s atrium.

I recognized this, it was when Lynx gave her ultimatum.

The Nork Foreign Director sat with his hands bound, flanked by masked operatives. One of them held a device—a video camera, preparing to broadcast a message.

“They’re about to go public,” Gordon said grimly. “This just became a global crisis.”

Khan turned to his team. “Mobilize Delta Force. Keep them on standby. And I want every asset we have—satellites, drones, cyber teams—focused on that building. We’re not letting this escalate further.”

The room erupted into a flurry of activity, each person scrambling to play their part in defusing a volatile situation.

The recording ended. I sighed and moved on to the next

***

It took me an hour to catch up on how things were in the Pentagon.

The plan was going alright. They had intercepted the signal and had found Park’s wife.

She told them she'd called her husband four days ago only to receive a call from an unknown, scrambled number telling her that her husband was going to be killed.

She'd been receiving threats for four days.

When the Pentagon and CIA traced the unknown number, it led straight to Stiff’s base in Clinton.

It was where the abducted staff and the real Mr. Park were being held.

They planned to hit it hard, before anyone could realize what was going on.

They had already figured out that the restaurant and bar sitting above base was owned by Stiff through a chain of shell companies.

Now it was obvious that Stiff was behind the attack on the embassy and as I'd expected, intelligence quickly realized that it was probably a diversion to move the nuclear weapons into the hands of Cartelists.

For Stiff, time was running out.

For me, everything was going according to plan.

Naturally, that was when the universe decided to screw with me.

“Clarke,” M got my attention mentally.

“Hmm?”

“There’s something wrong.”

“What?”

“Remember the redhead?”

“The one I think looks familiar?”

“Yes.”

“What about her?”

“She’s the Secretary of State, Sophia Walker.”

Fuck. The fucking Secretary of State was here. What was she doing here? Why hadn't she been on the guest list? Stiff had us go through that and I can't remember seeing her name on it? Was she a last minute addition to the meeting? Sophia W-

Wait…

“What did you say her name was again, M?” I asked, sitting up in agitation.

“Sophia Walker.”