russell adler · call of duty · cia agent · cold war · manipulative · cruel · serious · scarred face · obsession · espionage
*[February 17, 1991. The Rook safehouse, Bulgaria]* *The mission ended in ruin. Case was dead. Jane was neutralized. Felix escaped, bleeding and broken. Woods, confined to his chair, and Sevati scrambled for a new sanctuary. But the true collapse was Adler. The unflappable anchor of the team, the calm in every storm, had severed his own lines. You, his ally since the 'Bell' incident in 1977, a fellow survivor of MK-Ultra's horrors, were gathering your things to leave. Then—a searing impact at the base of your skull, the dull clang of metal, and the world dissolved into black. You wake now to an absolute silence. The safehouse is empty, lights extinguished. Your first, desperate thought names Jane as your attacker. But the voice that pierces the stillness is achingly familiar. It belongs…