Michael dropped some info after overtaking a few cars.
"I was able to figure out one of their names, and it's not a pretty one, since we dealt with them before and they're somewhat an associate of our old friend, the 'Arbiter'," Michael said, keeping his hands on the wheel.
"Who are they?" Rafael asked, knowing it would be good news, but he'd just get used to it.
"They live in Siberia, Russia, but we don't know the exact location of their house. We do know their name, though: the Dragunova. Their roots in Russia existed before the Rus principalities, and they're well-known throughout the country for selling weapons, information, extorting drugs, and running a lot of shell companies. They're nicknamed the High Kings of Russia," Michael explained. Rafael remembered back then when they saved a girl who was now the heir of the family.
It was a large kidnapping incident that mobilized their vassals and all their manpower. But after knowing the location of their heir, they opted to hire Rafael's group, which was already known for its high success rate.
After a brutal battle where Rafael's team rescued her, the remnants of the enemy were dealt with brutally by Rafael, which left a mark on the girl's mind. In the post-mission, Rafael's team sent their handler to negotiate, but soon they heard he was killed, and the family ordered a kill order on Rafael's team.
But after a long firefight and a lot of CQB, they exterminated the army of combined assassins and elite soldiers of the Dragunova family. Along the way to find that group's hideout, they soon found it and met the Arbiter. They exterminated their high command and placed the Arbiter, who soon formed the High Table Services and the Continental Hotel.
After that, Atlas was founded, and the High Table swore loyalty, which brought the entire European underworld to fear the growing power of Atlas and its stream of assassins, which became a recruiting ground for future Atlas operatives. Since Europe has a good police force, they've been recruiting them for a riot unit that Atlas formed, concentrated on places of high unrest.
"Yes, bloody hell, she's quite a cruel one, for God's sake. But from what I gathered, she's not one of those transferring to the Philippines, so we can say that she's waiting for you in Russia," Michael said, not liking it since Atlas's influence in Russia is only covered on the European side, but to the rest, it's little to none.
"Well, start filling their ranks with agents to control some parts, or in case I go there, I need some contingency to escape," Rafael said, since he planned to review all previous missions he did.
A few hours later, at Rafael's estate, Rafael was doing a bench press with over 250 kg on each side. Luckily, the metal didn't break, and he continued his mundane workout. After finishing five sets, he worked on the treadmill, running over 55 km/h.
Later, he entered a room called the simulation room. It was filled with androids that wielded weapons and some traps, or it could simulate a room. This kind of room is located across Atlas's military facilities and trains special operators to regular soldiers, but Rafael upgraded it a bit to test himself and to make sure his skills didn't get rusty.
Swisshhh.
After pressing a few buttons, a separate room inside the simulation room activated. It was the armory where he wore combat kevlar armor that could track any hit and press the veins in his nervous system to slow down. After choosing a balaclava and a combat helmet with 4-lens night vision goggles, he chose an M4 carbine with a silencer, foregrip, and red dot scope. Next was a Glock 45 with a red dot sight and a flashlight attachment and a silencer, while getting a pair of good shoes with eight mags for the M4 and six mags for the Glock, with two smoke grenades, three flashbangs, and two M67 grenades.
"Set Simulation order: search, rescue, and destroy," Rafael said, and soon a mechanical voice responded while he grabbed two combat knives.
"[Orders received. Simulation starting in 3...2...1]," the voice responded, and as the last number was spoken, he felt that he was inside a van, just sitting there. Soon, he grabbed the file next to him and began reading the information, its objective, and the interval of the guards.
"[Time limit: 3 hours]," he heard the final objective from the simulation, and when he got out, he went towards the back door and soon had a good view of the target. He saw men armed with small arms and body vests roaming the property using ATVs.
A few minutes later, a guard who was looking at the open dark horizon was just minding his own business while using a flashlight to flash the surroundings. Unknown to him, Rafael was moving slowly in the grass.
"What a night, just the job here is done—" Before he could continue, Rafael immediately grabbed his mouth while his knife went through the man's throat.
Gurgle, gurgle.
A few seconds later, the guard went limp, and Rafael stabbed him again in the heart to make sure he was really dead.
Rustle.
Rafael turned and saw two guards who were patrolling as a group. Before they turned in Rafael's direction, Rafael aimed his M4 and fired two shots, aiming for their heads.
BANG! BANG! THUD! THUD!
As the two bodies dropped, Rafael stacked them while disarming their weapons and soon began sneaking to the mansion. He saw the guards patrolling the two only floors of the house.
Ten minutes later, Rafael entered through a window. Looking around, he began sneakily walking through the hallway and found the staircase. He activated his night vision and walked through the second-floor hallway, eliminating a few guards. Upon seeing the target room, he pulled out a flashbang, and when he opened the door slightly, he threw it inside.
BANG!
After hearing the bang, he pushed the door open and saw some guards coming out from behind the table. He fired controlled burst shots, and the guards also exchanged fire before being killed.
"What the hell was that!" Rafael heard a distant shout, and after looking at the desk, he saw it was empty, so he decided to look for the hostage he needed to save. When he found a nearby room where he might be infested with enemies, he pulled out a grenade and kicked the door down, throwing it inside.
BOOM!
Hearing the screams and shouts, he found the target to be killed was not inside, and a last bodyguard whose leg was missing. So he aimed his rifle and killed him.
"Now for the hard part," Rafael muttered and soon inspected the room again. From his experience, he was looking for a switch to a room, and soon something clicked, and he saw the target shivering in fear.
"You won't be remembering anyway," Rafael coldly said and fired into the man's skull.
"He's in here!" one of the guards who was not far from the door shouted, and a second later, ten guards were rushing to the room but were stopped in their tracks as Rafael fired back and was holding the end of the curtain.
Woosh!
Rafael jumped down and landed in the room below.
Crash!
As he landed inside the room, he saw a tear-stricken girl with duct tape over her mouth.
"Raaah!" a bodyguard who was guarding the girl instantly punched him, and Rafael saw a punch aiming for his face, but he blocked it and pulled his Glock and aimed it at his chest and fired a few shots. Soon, he grabbed his head and slammed it against the wall.
A few bashings against the wall later, "Okay, we're getting out of here. Don't ask questions until we get out of here," Rafael said and untied her. He checked his magazine and changed it and walked out of the broken window, followed by her, and saw the mansion sprawling with guards.
"Come on, let's go," Rafael said as he threw smoke grenades and began firing. The guards who were not far fired at the source of the gunfight, and soon they reached the back door entrance, and soon the girl smiled and dematerialized. But before he could complete it, he saw a guard chokehold him.
He pulled out his combat knife and stabbed it into the man's head. It might be hard at first, but since he is a superhuman, his strength allowed him to penetrate further.
Thud!
He sighed and wiped the blood off his face and walked towards the van.
"[Mission complete. Ending simulation]," the voice spoke, and soon he appeared in the plain white room and sighed as he placed the weapons back and cleaned them. While placing his sweated gear, the blood also dematerialized, so after placing it in the laundry, he went to the shower and changed his clothes and finally landed in the comforts of his bed.
Next day, at the classroom, Rafael was completing a bunch of schoolwork that was due today at a speed no one could comprehend, while Michael was scrolling through Facebook. That was the outside view of the people, but it was posts about reports of Atlas agents who hid it in different words.
"What are you guys doing?" Ruby asked as she appeared out of nowhere with her hands clasped behind her. This time, her bodyguards were guarding the building instead since they somewhat trusted Rafael for protecting her.
"Doing schoolwork," Rafael muttered, not breaking away from the papers.
"Just scrolling," Michael said at the same time after Rafael said his part, and Ruby sat down and set up her stuff.
For the next few hours, class went on, and other students submitted the needed homework while Rafael did his, while other homeworks were submitted early. Before the class was dismissed, the homeroom teacher announced, "Alright, before we end the day, I would like to announce a few things. We have a new student transferring to us next week, and the only detail I can tell you is that she's from Europe. Nothing more, nothing less." He said in a serious tone and gave a knowing look at Rafael, who nodded.
'Good thing I'm already prepared,' Rafael thought as field agents sprawled in the Van Hossen Manor along with their vehicles that are tracked 24/7, and their guards are close to being a different department entirely.
And as class was dismissed, Ruby was the first to leave, and at first, Michael wanted to know, but Rafael didn't care and headed towards his dorms and received news from the phone.
"[Breaking news: Princess of the Triesenberg Kingdom has landed in Manila, and her purpose of the visit was to improve diplomatic relations]." Rafael read, and he raised his eyebrow.
Ring! Ring!
To be continued.