Fallout and Consequences

Seven months later

Karetnikov stormed down the corridors of the executive floor of the SVR headquarters and headed towards the offices of the directorate heads. Normally, seeing these men would have required an appointment and a really damned good reason, but time and his patience were short and he also hoped the bluntness of the delivery would underscore its urgency.

The head of Directorate S motioned Karetnikov into his office after dismissing his aide. Truth be told, he half expected this meeting, though he didn't think it to be so soon, nor so outside of proper protocol. Up until these past few months, Karetnikov had been a model director, skilled at both operations and managing his people, and was on the fast-track of being groomed for a more senior position. A pity he couldn't see the bigger picture when it came to this "Princess" matter , the head director thought. "Director Karetnikov, this is an unexpected pleasure, to what do I owe this visit?" he began with practiced faux cordiality.

"You asked to be kept up to date on the Princess Nanoha sightings and situation on any chance of reacquiring her," Karetnikov coldly replied. Unlike his boss, there was no pretense of civility; for him, it was a matter of life and death. "I'm here to inform you that whoever you have assigned to go over my head is on the verge of sending our country down the path of irreversible calamity, unless this interference is stopped immediately!"

The head director bristled, as he was unaccustomed to being addressed in such a manner, but forced himself to keep cool. "In what manner are you referring to?"

Karetnikov pulled out a folder and coldly smiled. He then placed a pair of photos on the director's desk, showing Mitsuha in a dark dress, sitting on a wheelchair. He could have simply dumped the photos out all at once, but he knew presentation was important.

"What is this? When were these taken?"

"One week ago, from a hidden remote camera, during a recent visit," Karetnikov explained, before pulling out another set, and spread them out on the desk. The next set showed Mitsuha wearing the same clothing, but this time surrounded by several men wearing formal military uniforms, which immediately got the head director's attention, as Karetnikov knew it would.

"Who are these people around her?"

Karetnikov smiled thinly, knowing the reaction that was coming next. "The man she's talking to on the first photo is Colonel Paul Davidson; he's the Commander of the 35th Fighter Wing of the USAF, and the Misawa Air Base Commander. They were both attending the services to honor fallen pilots... pilots who in all likelihood flew off his air base and died to rescue her... from our people ," he emphasized the last part forcefully.

The head director almost seemed to cringe at that last statement, but Karetnikov wasn't done. He then pulled out his coup de grâce, spreading another set of photos, this time showing Mitsuha being wheeled in an aircraft hangar. This photo had her surrounded by several other men, also wearing formal military uniforms, but significantly older than the first photo. He paused for a moment, allowing the head director a moment for the obvious silent question to form in his mind... "and who were these people" , though part of him could already see where this was going.

"In the first photo, the man to her left is the PACAF* Commander General Kevin Schneider. These next two... the one shaking her hand is the Yokota Air Base and 374th Airlift Wing Commander Colonel Andrew Roddan and the person bowing to her is the JASDF Chief Liaison Officer Colonel Hiroaki Uchikura, as she and her mercenary escorts were preparing to depart after the service."

* Pacific Air Forces, Air Command under USINDOPACOM (United States Indo-Pacific Cmd)

"Wh-what were they talking about?" the head director asked nervously.

"Well, it certainly wasn't the weather..." Karetnikov retorted sardonically. "Perhaps she was expressing how grateful she was for the men who sacrificed their lives on her behalf, or the gracious hospitality they've extended to her and their party." He paused, then leaned forward for emphasis. "If we're lucky, that's all they were talking about. But whether it was your idea, or one of your subordinates... whatever foolishness you've ordered in the Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan to bypass my man Ivanov needs to stop immediately! My job of restoring status quo ante bel was going to be hard enough after that fiasco in the Sea of Japan. It's going to be impossible if you make any attempt to do harm to the men and women who saved her life!"

The head director huffed and straightened up, in an attempt to regain control of the conversation. "That would be only as a last resort! The plan would be to offer their safe return for..."

Karetnikov slapped the folder and remaining photos onto the man's desk, abruptly interrupting his explanation. "Have you taken leave of your senses!? The princess had been, for the most part, neutral to the world, aside from our agents' poor diplomatic handling during their initial meeting. This kidnapping operation, along with the United States' and Japan's opportunistic military actions to rescue her have all but pushed her right into their welcoming arms. If you do this... bring harm to those who have aided her when she needed it most, all you will have done is confirm everything our enemies say about us! You may as well sign their alliance treaty yourself, and that's assuming she doesn't declare personal war on our nation!"

"W-war...?!" the head director paled in response. "How could she do that? We would defend ourselves, of course!"

"Oh really...?" Karetnikov replied archly as he crossed his arms contemptuously. "And how would we do that...? Is there a Russian magic program in our military that I have not been made aware of? Or perhaps Baga Yaga has decided to sign up in service of our country?" he added mockingly, before continuing. "You are talking about an opponent who can appear and disappear seemingly at will, taking whatever persons or objects she desires. She claims doing so on a large scale would cost her lifeforce, but we have no idea if this is actually true. Conventional barriers and security measures would be meaningless to such an individual. Yes, obviously we could simply try shooting her, assuming she doesn't have some kind of defensive magic, which again, we don't know, but we would have no idea where or when she would strike at any given time, and in a country our size, attempting to secure every vital target would be all but impossible. If you don't have the imagination or foresight to see what kind of threat that represents..."

"Enough! I will hear no more of this nonsense! Do you really think I can go back to the rest of the directorates and all the way up to the Politburo trying to steer our country's policies with stories of magic and how our nation should be ruled by fear of the unknown?" He waved dismissively, "Fine, I'll bring your objections to the other directorate members. We will base our decisions on what is decided there."

With that, Karetnikov found himself dismissed and headed towards the elevators. In his mind, he had failed his country. How could they not see the situation staring them right in the face? He looked at the pictures once again, to remind himself, reading between the lines. It always starts with a handshake... a few pleasant words and smiles... aided of course by the obvious fact that they had saved her from our country's monumental miscalculation. The fact that she was making such gestures with the highest military officials of our adversaries was terrifying. If this trajectory wasn't reversed or at least halted, these simple friendly social gestures would soon lead to actual political and meaningful strategic favors, and that would be intolerable from his nation's point of view. Unfortunately, he didn't see any peaceful way out of it, if it reached that point. Would they go to war over a simple trade treaty? And even if the Politburo were so truly desperate, would they even win, especially if magic got involved?

No, he had to put a stop to their actions before things spiraled out of control. He picked up the secure line and sent out a message to his direct reports to relay to the field. He knew he might be ending his own career by disobeying his superiors with his insubordination, but there were times when country had to come before career. He just hoped it wasn't too late.

____________________________________________

Mitsuha finished her latest rounds of physical therapy and rehabilitations with Ishii and decided she wanted a break and some fresh air outside of the infirmary. Enough of being cooped up in there, she thought. Of course, she knew everyone was doing their best for her, but there was only so much painful pulling and stretching she could take in a single session, and she wanted a change in the routine.

Mitsuha watched with interest as one of the Wolf Fang soldiers assigned as an orderly wheeled her around the compound. It had expanded considerably since the last time she had visited, a testament to their ongoing financial success, which allowed them the ability to purchase additional equipment and facilities they were beyond their means in the past. Down on the landing field, she saw Paladin personnel unloading heavy equipment from a C-17 Globemaster. That's a really big plane; it'd sure be a sight to see if I world-shifted that into the other world, she thought idly. Of course, the plane wasn't the real issue, it was all the necessary infrastructure needed to keep it flying. Even as a civilian, she knew those big beasts didn't stay flight-worthy for free; they had to be constantly fueled and maintained for parts and wear, and repairs would be inevitably needed. Then of course, she had no clue how to fly such a monstrous beast, so such thoughts were entirely academic, which were soon interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey there lil' lady, had enough of the kid beat'en you up?" The Wolf Fang Captain asked with a hint of amusement.

"Oh Captain," Mitsuha acknowledged wryly. She sighed as the Captain came up behind her, dismissing the man that had been previously assigned to her. "Deciding to spend some of the money that's come into the coffers?"

"Think of it as an investment into the future," the Captain grunted. "A mercenary unit that doesn't actively train or invest in the future won't be much of a unit for very long. That applies both in personnel and equipment."

"So, are you thinking about some kind of partnership with this Paladin group?" she asked.

"Maybe... we worked well together this past month, and there's a lot to be gained between sharing resources. I checked into their company culture and personnel; overall, they're a pretty good bunch of guys, cut pretty much from the same cloth we are. Mostly ex-military guys, looking to make a living using their skills privately. They conduct the same kind of background checks we do to weed out the really bad apples as best they can. The main difference is, they've got sponsors in the western alliance governments, so admittedly, they do have people watching over them that we don't. So, what that boils down to is, they have access to equipment we don't, but we can go places they can't, and respond faster than they can, because they sometimes need approvals before they can act in certain circumstances. And like I said before, we couldn't have pulled off your rescue without their help. Anyway, on that topic, I wanted to show you some of the cool stuff they're sending us, maybe take your mind off your troubles."

He wheeled Mitsuha down towards the equipment hangar where several M939 trucks were being unloaded with forklifts. A few particularly formidable looking systems caught her eye, "What kind of weapon is that?" she asked.

"You remember God*, right?" the Captain asked, as Mitsuha nodded. "This is God's big brother; an M61A1 Vulcan. I won't bore with the technical details, but suffice to say, if those dragons ever threaten your Kingdom again, they won't last very long against this weapon. The only real drawback is keeping this thing fed; it eats around 6000 rounds a minute, so logistics can be a bit of a challenge."

* Hispano-Suiza HS.404 20mm Dual Autocannon, used during the Aldar Empire siege, Manga Chp32-33 /LN Chp14 / Anime Epi11-12

Eep... Mitsuha thought, wouldn't want to be on the other end of that thing. She then noticed several curious looking objects that resembled toy model planes. "Are those...?"

The Captain nodded, "Yup, drones, the wave of the future. No modern military operates today without them, including ours. They were key to our operation to rescue you, both for keeping track of their position before we went in, and identifying threats throughout the engagement," before motioning towards the younger man who was supervising the unpacking. "Meet Captain Max Daniels, former USAF, callsign Sparrow. He's an RPA* Pilot and was our eyes and ears during your op. He's going to be helping us set up and train some pilots for our group."

* Remote Piloted Aircraft

"Oh, your Highness," Daniels greeted Mitsuha with a brief bow.

"Not again..." Mitusha waved with embarrassment. "It's just Mitsuha, and this is some really impressive stuff. My brother and I fiddled with model planes once when we were kids but I had no idea drones had come so far."

"Oh sure, I grew up building model planes too and yeah, what we can do with these is a game changer on the battlefield. It gives our guys complete real-time surveillance from the company level all the way to the division level, and these are only the beginning. They're already deploying drones that can carry ordinance. As for range, nowadays they can pretty much fly around the entire world, it's like having your own GPS on-demand."

Mitsuha's ears perked up on hearing this; "Oh really...?" One of the main limitations of her world jumping abilities was that she needed to either see or be mentally familiar with her location. On Earth she had been using GPS and computer networks to supplement her powers, allowing her near-complete access to the entire world. On the other world, which obviously had no such technology, she was stuck only going to places where she had been. Her mind started plotting... but with these things... if they were as capable as he says... "So, you're saying, those bigger ones," she pointed at the larger drones, "could completely circle the Earth and make it back?"

"Um... the Reaper?" Daniels considered. "Probably not. It could go up and down the coastline of a continent if it had to, but then it'd have to come back to refuel after that. For something like that, you'd want a Global Hawk. Those could cross an ocean, other than the Pacific, but then would have to get back pretty quick; max endurance a little over twenty-two thousand klicks, so enough for a round trip. That'd be a hell of a sit though," he added light-heartedly, knowing that the autopilot would obviously be doing most of the work.

Mitsuha started to get a gleam in her eye that the Wolf Fang Captain, having known her longer couldn't help but notice. "Uh huh... don't get any smart ideas... " He turned to Daniels, "Captain, how many flight hours have you logged?"

Daniels shrugged, "Hm... maybe a little under 4000, give or take?"

Mitsuha cringed slightly, while the Wolf Fang Captain looked at her with a smug expression, "And that's how he makes it look so easy. You try flying one, and you'll end up losing $100 million and just hope it doesn't crash into some poor farm or village. If you want to play around some, maybe try starting with one of the Ravens or Pumas. They can't cross an ocean, but they can scout terrain for miles around and are easier to fly and take care of, and a hell of a lot cheaper, in case you break it. I'll leave you and your crew to it. I've got a couple more places to take the lil' lady," before pushing Mitsuha away.

____________________________________________

Ivanov read the message from the wires the next day coming from Moscow, with feelings of dread. So, it seems Karetnikov was unable to talk some sense into the directorate heads. The actual instructions were ominous: Do what you have to do, and I'll do my best. Small comfort, he thought. His best... you mean we'll get to hang together...? But despite his fears, he knew his boss and mentor was right. Sometimes the correct path had to be done by men with the courage to do the right thing.

He considered what his next steps had to be. As the Station Chief of the Embassy, it was normally his job to coordinate activities of the SVR officers as they conducted their operations to recruit agents, citizens who could be persuaded through various to become sources of information. Under normal circumstances, he would be in a position to pull these agents off whatever assignments his officers may have tasked them, but someone higher up had changed that, probably claiming their rightful authority along with sending extra resources for bribery or possibly even manpower for extra-legal actions.

Ivanov and a driver from the Embassy pulled up into Fujikawa. It would have to be here, he thought. Almost everyone on the HVT list lived and worked here. One of the persons on the list was one of our agents, Aozuka. He needed to contact him to check if he had received any orders that didn't come from him, but there hadn't been time to arrange the usual methods of covert communications, so he was going to have to be much more overt and have a "random encounter" with him during his lunch break, then steer him to a quiet place so they could have a conversation. The risk to himself was minimal; he had diplomatic immunity, should the worst come to the worst, but he was risking blowing Aozuka's cover as an agent, not to mention his life as a free man if the full truth came out. But he really needed that information, and now wasn't the time to play it safe, per Karetnikov's last orders.

____________________________________________

"So, we still don't know if this was their own idea or an official mission from Russia?" Mitsuha demanded. They were sitting in one of the Wolf Fang meeting rooms where the team would often conduct class room sessions or plan missions.

"Someone had to give it official approval," McKnight noted. "We don't need their confirmation to know that for certain. No way a couple of field officers could authorize an Akula-class to be waiting for a rendezvous at sea, let alone call up a platoon strength force of GRU Spetsnaz for an overseas deployment on a moment's notice."

The Captain grunted, "Guess maybe I thought it might have been their idea, because of how the lil' lady took'em to task last time they were here. They were pretty ticked the last time we saw them. Just assumed they'd want payback."

"They might have..." McKnight elaborated. "It may have been their idea, but at least one of them would have then had to kick it up to someone pretty high up in the food chain to get the rest. If it's just one rogue chief director's idea of a power play, then there's a possibility we could nip this in the bud by offering Russia a chance to wave the white flag, make some kind of peace offering and clean up its own mess, without needing to go to war with the whole country. I understand you're angry at them for what they did to you and we'll give you whatever assistance we can, but going scorched Earth against a nation of 140 million rarely ends well for either side. If you're wanting justice without a butcher's bill, a clean capitulation is always the preferred way."

"I agree with the Colonel, lil' lady," the Wolf Fang Captain added. "Letting them surrender with an apology and appropriate restitution would be the best way out of this."

Mitsuha huffed for a moment before finally relenting. "Fine... then what's our next step?"

"First we got to find out who actually made the approval for the operation," McKnight replied. "If you want some kind of proper closure, then make sure the right guy gets punished, and not some fall guy, and for that though, one of these guys has gotta flip and give us a name."

"I told you, they ain't talking," the Captain reminded him. "Don't forget, we're talking about trained intelligence officers. They've almost certainly been through their equivalent to our SERE* class to resist interrogation. They'll know all the usual methods. I suspect the only way you'll get anything out of them is to try something they aren't expecting so they can't fall back onto their training."

* Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape

Mitsuha took a moment to think, then looked at both men. "So, what if they were confronted with something they weren't expecting? Something so shocking and outside their training, maybe we could shock them into giving up who's really calling the shots?"

"If you're thinking about physically abusing them, we don't do that," the Wolf Fang Captain sternly reminded her. "And even if we did, historically that almost never yields reliable results."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Mitsuha reassured the men. "Just give me five minutes."

____________________________________________

Boris was still laying on the cot in his cell when the buzzer rang and a pair of the Wolf Fang guards came to retrieve him to bring him to the interrogation room. The three agents had been here in separate cells for a couple of months ever since they had been world-shifted along with the rest of the assault team off the ship. A mixed blessing... the alternative would have been to go down with the ship... he had heard what happened through various conversations. A part of him wondered why someone would have ordered the ship sunk; perhaps someone from command thought their mission was a failure and wanted all evidence destroyed?

Since then, they had been brought to this base, strip-searched and interrogated for weeks, demanding who had sent them on the mission and what intelligence they could provide. Naturally, they gave up nothing; even though he was frustrated with how close they had come to success, only to fail at the last moment, he wasn't going to allow that to compromise his loyalties. Yes, of course, every man had their limits, but luckily, these Wolf Fang mercenaries were soft. They hadn't resorted to the harsher measures of interrogation such as waterboarding or sleep deprivation or the like. For the most part, their biggest challenge was the boredom, and he would tolerate that. Fall back on your training, he told himself. They couldn't hold you indefinitely. Eventually, they'll have to release you. He considered himself a skilled judge of character, and in his mind, he highly doubted these soldiers would just outright murder him and his comrades, so long as they didn't do anything foolish, so it was just a matter of time.

The door opened and his eyes lit up when he saw who was waiting for him. "Well, well," he smiled. "You quite literally were the last person I was expecting to see from this camp. I supposed this is where you've come to gloat over your victory and see your vanquished foe."

Mitsuha looked Boris over. She had first met him over a year ago just outside the pastry and parfait shop when his trio of agents had tried to accost her into an exclusive deal between their two countries, which eventually led to the confab of agents from around the world at Wolf Fang's base*. That meeting led to her first big score of tribute; jewelry, dresses, and other valuables. These three had brought along some obsolete, but still useful weapons; AK-47s, RPGs and Makarov pistols. When they had attempted to exploit their supposed advantage of a "hero of the motherland" to her people, she reversed their opening, humiliating them in front of the rest of the world's intelligence agents. Judging from his face, it was a slight he never forgot, despite his claim of professionalism.

* see Manga Chp50 / LN Chp20

"Actually, I'm here to offer you one last chance to come clean," Mitsuha began ominously. "I want to know if the plan to come after me was your personal plan, or did you get your orders from someone higher up, and if so, who authorized it?"

Boris smirked and shook his head. "Even if I knew such a shady figure, I have resisted the interrogations of experts for these past few months. Surely, you don't expect me to simply give up what I know because your Highness proclaims it?"

Mitsuha coldly smiled, almost hoping he would be defiant when she made this demand. "I see... OK, that makes my choice much easier," she said as she closed her fist, and flickered for just a split second.

A moment later Boris doubled-over in pain and clutched his abdomen and he looked up at Mitsuha, who regarded him with satisfaction. He gasped in shock as he shook his head. "Wh-what was that...?!"

"I just removed your appendix with my magic," Mitsuha declared as she held up a piece of bloodied tissue in her hand, looking at the tissue in her hand with cold regard. "As far as I know, it's not actually serving any useful function. Many people have it removed when it gets infected. I just saved you the trouble."

Boris looked shocked as he continued to clutch in pain at the abdomen. Did she actually...

"Now, let's try this again," Mitsuha continued with a sinister look in her eyes that made Boris began to tremble with fear. "I'm hardly a doctor, but from what I remember in school, you have 206 bones in your body, not to mention a whole bunch of organs that are a lot more vital than this one," as she tossed the bloody piece of tissue aside nonchalantly, much to Boris' shock. "So, we can do this one of two ways; either you can tell me what I want to know, or I can start removing more parts inside you, and we'll see which ones are truly necessary for your continued good health."

Boris regarded Mitsuha with absolute shock and recoiled, shaking his head. He began clutching his own torso as his mind imagined all the possible scenarios that were coming next, each one worse than the last, as the words struggled to come out of his mouth.

Mitsuha exhaled with a bored expression, "So... what do you think? How much does a kidney go for on the Russian black market? I'm going to guess your liver won't be worth very much, with all that vodka I hear you Russians like to drink..."

"S-stop...! I'll talk...!" Boris proclaimed in a panic. "Yes, it was my idea! I-I wanted to get back at you, yes... but I needed support from the X and S Directorates! The X Directorate wanted exclusive access to your dragon materials and the S Directorate wanted to discover the secret to your magic!"

"So, you went to your bosses?" Mitsuha pressed. "They approved your mission?"

"Karetnikov refused... said it wasn't a practical mission, so I bypassed him and went over him to the head of the directorates!"

"Give me names," Mitsuha commanded sternly.

____________________________________________

"Mikhail Fradkov and Yevgeni Primakov," Mitsuha quoted, as she wheeled herself back into the conference room. She had finished her interrogation of the other two agents and had gotten substantially the same information to corroborate their story to ensure its accuracy. She paused as she noticed McKnight and the Wolf Fang Captain staring at her with stunned expressions. "What...?"

"You... didn't actually...?" The Wolf Fang Captain began uncomfortably.

"Huh...?" Mitsuha began, before explaining. "Oh, no... of course not. I first confirmed none of them ever had an appendectomy before from the examination report your detention personnel wrote when they were first brought in. As for what I was holding, that was just a piece of pig intestine I got from your mess hall. I jumped a laxative into each one of their stomachs, which is going to cause them to cramp up for about another half-hour, but they'll be fine after that." She paused. "You didn't think I'd actually..."

Both the Captain and McKnight looked at each other, with slightly fearful looks on their faces, neither one entirely sure they bought Mitsuha's denial, but for the sake of the present concern, set it aside.

"So, who are those guys," Mitsuha asked. "What is this S and X he's talking about?"

"The SVR is subdivided into directorates," McKnight explained. "S is their subdivision for illegal operations. That's the group that recruits foreign citizens and plants agents around the world to conduct intel gathering operations. X is their Scientific and Technical branch, they're the ones who develop spy gear, hidden surveillance, assassination weapons, stuff like that. The names you gave are the two current heads of those departments; they basically report directly to the head of the SVR. Both are known to be pretty hard-core, Iron-curtain type guys who yearn for the days of old."

"Who's this Karetnikov, he's talking about?" Mitsuha continued.

"Alexey Karetnikov, deputy director of the S directorate," McKnight explained. "According to CIA sources, a known moderate and reformer. Climbed the ladder pretty quick and sources say he's been pushing for more cooperation with the West, but is getting blocked by his bosses up top."

"Well, if you're suggesting to make peace with them, it sounds like he'd be the guy I'd be willing to talk to," Mitsuha concluded. "But first thing's first... the people who helped me... the ones you said they were putting on some list? They get protection and a guarantee of safety. If even a hair on their heads gets touched, then the deal's off," she declared, before adding, "other than that Inspector. If they want him, then fine. You said he betrayed everyone, then they can have him, as far as I'm concerned."

McKnight nodded. "I'll get some balls rolling and reach out to our contacts with CIA. They'll send a secure communication to Karetnikov, letting them know we're willing to meet, but only with him and not his bosses."

"Think about what kind of terms you'll be willing to accept," the Wolf Fang Captain suggested, "in addition to the safety of the people they've targeted. They'll probably disavow those three guys we have in holding... at least that's what I'd do, if I were in their shoes."

____________________________________________

Ivanov and Aozuka sat opposite from one another at the same Italian eatery they had met a few months ago as the former had managed to get a hint to the latter to meet during their walk-through town that morning. As before, they kept their conversation in English, as only a limited number of people in the area were fluent in the language, and it suited Ivanov to maintain his secrets.

"... and that's all I know about my orders," Aozuka concluded. "I had received them through the agreed code words via phone calls, along with payments through the same set of networks as before. To be honest, I had thought they came from you."

Ivanov nodded; so, the bosses had called him at his home, but with the same kind of false messages, such as ordering menu items or neighborly acquaintances, which were plausible, but concealed secret meaning. These had all been worked out in advance, but what concerned Ivanov was these were a closely held secret. He hadn't shared these with Moscow, which meant someone from his own headquarters was also leaking and coordinating with whoever was calling the shots. "I need you to tell me the exact orders you were given."

Aozuka looked flustered. "You mean, you didn't give those orders?"

Ivanov stared at him sternly. "I'm going to be as clear as I can, for your sake. There's a great deal going on that I am no longer in charge of. Whoever gave you those orders has tasked you to locate the people on that list of names did so without orders from me. What they didn't tell you... your name is also on that list."

Aozuka looked stunned. Everything he had worked for all his life had finally come crashing down. "Wh-what should I do...?"

Ivanov poured a sake for Aozuka and shrugged. "If it were me, I would make plans to leave the country, but I understand if you don't think you can do that, given your family and career. However, we are talking about your life, so that's a choice you'll have to make."

With that, Aozuka sighed and proceeded to detail the instructions he had received in the past few weeks, which had originally believed had come from Ivanov. Fortunately, none of them had actually involved taking any actions yet, they were mostly building a surveillance list, recording schedules and addresses, along with potential number of people at each location; information that would be then passed on to others, presumably to take much more direct action once the word was given.

Once completed, Ivanov paid the bill, stood, and paused. As a professional, he had no illusions about any personal feelings about his agents but a good intelligence officer still took care of his assets nonetheless. It was good for business; if word got out that treachery was the norm, it would make recruiting future sources all that much more difficult. What he had to say wasn't ideal, but it was the best he could offer. "I am heading back to the Embassy to relay my information back to my superiors. I suspect at some point; we will be meeting with our adversaries in some manner to diffuse the situation before it spirals out of control. As for you... the best I can offer is asylum for you and your family with the possibly of safe passage out of the country. I understand you might not find that desirable, however, that might be better than the alternative, given your situation."