Just like old times...
The EIS team have launched their mission to liberate Albert Einstein from a Russian facility within the walled city of Kurchatov, Eastern Kazakhstan. The EIS team consists of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mimi Dubois, maîtresse of skills; Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter.
Kurchatov, Eastern Kazakhstan, USSR, January 1950
By one thirty Sunday morning the team within the institute manage to get Einstein outside, once Madeline has pick yet another locked door. This final door proves to be a tricky customer and it was with some relief that Madeline heard the tell tale click of the mechanism opening. It was still snowing very heavily, which the team were thankful for as they knew that it would cover the tracks of Einstein and the Mimi leading him. Two of the Mimi’s had pushed out in front as shadows and had managed to find a car for the team to steal in order to get Einstein to the air strip as quickly as possible, as well as get out of the freezing cold night air.
Madeline quickly picks the lock of the vehicle and remains in solid form as she climbs into the backseat with Einstein, while Mimi slides into the drivers seat and starts to hot wire the car. In the moment of quiet, Madeline looks Einstein up and down and can tell that while he has lost some weight, he is actually looking healthier than he did the last time she saw him in America. As Mimi touches the two wires that she has stripped together the engine splutters into life, but it is protesting against the cold and Mimi has to nurse it to life before she can crunch it into gear and start to drive towards the air strip. As she does so she informs all of her duplicates that they are inbound.
The Mimi with Alfie and Sven turns to the pair and tells them that the others have escaped the institute and are on their way. Sven looks at her and says:
It is time to cause a distraction!
Aboard the aeroplane the two Mimi’s who were effected badly by the cold huddle down in some blankets and attempt to get some rest, while the other two Mimi’s start to carry out the pre-flight checks and get the aeroplane ready for take off.
Within the control tower, Alfie decides upon a strategic course of action and starts to rip all of the wires out of the backs of the radio sets. After no more than a couple of minutes the electronics within the tower resemble nothing more than a rats nest of sparking wires and Alfie looks on with a smile on his face, but it could just be wind. He then runs down the stairs and out into the snow storm heading for the aeroplane.
On the snow covered road from the institute to the air strip the Mimi at the steering wheel struggles to keep the car under control and it fishtails with the engine still fighting against the freezing weather, but using the driving skill borrowed from Baldrick she manages to get it back under control. She then decides that it might be useful to have the car with them when they land at their destination, wherever that might be, and so she mentally communicates this to the Mimi’s on the aeroplane.
Alfie rushes up to the aeroplane and climbs in through the cabin door only to be met by one of the Mimi’s and asked to lower the rear ramp of the cargo bay, when he gazes at it with a blank look of confusion Mimi instructs him on what to do. Realising that two sets of hands would make lighter work of it, Alfie duplicates and in a few seconds both he and Billy are cranking down the cargo ramp ready to receive the car into the cargo bay.
The Mimi with Sven slides off of the back of the sea eagle and inspects the communications tower on the roof of the building, she believes that with Sven’s two grenades she might be able to bring down the tower and cripple the bases ability to get a message out. Sven nods his agreement and so Mimi attaches a grenade to two of the towers supporting struts and runs a thin wire from each of the grenade pins. Sven positions himself at the edge of the buildings roof and, still holding onto the trigger wires, Mimi slips onto his back. In shadow form Mimi pulls the wires and shouts:
Go!
Sven leaps off of the buildings edge and swoops downwards towards the bases fuel dump that he had scouted out previously. Just as he stops below the lip of the buildings edge there is a double explosion as both of the grenades detonate. The loud booming noise is followed by several seconds of silence, and then the night air is torn by the screeching sound of metal parting and bending as the communication tower’s struts give way under their damage and the whole tower collapses and topples from the roof.
Sven lands at the fuel dump and transforms into the image of a Russian soldier before walking over to one of the huge fuel tanks and opening the valve. Fuel starts to gush forth and spread across the snowy ground quickly lapping up against the full fuel barrels stored not far from the fuel tank. Mimi slides up onto top of the fuel tank and keeps watch, she can see lights going on all across the military compound, especially in the area of the communications tower but, if anything, that seems to be drawing attention away from Sven’s current activities. Sven grabs the fuel hose and starts to spray fuel all of the storage barrels making sure that they are drenched in fuel. After what can only have been a couple of minutes he hears shouts of alarm and so he drops the hose and starts to walk off into the night slowly transforming into the image of a dwarf clown.
Mimi follows on as a shadow as the dwarf clown produces a lighter from his pocket. He sparks the cigarette lighter and drops it at the edge of the spreading fuel. As the dwarf clown transforms into the shape of a sea eagle the fuel catches alight and flames rush back towards the fuel tank. Mimi slides onto the back of the eagle and Sven uses the sudden thermals caused by the fire to lift quickly into the air in the direction of the air strip. The flames rush back along the trail of fuel and up into the gushing pipe before:
BOOM!
As Mimi drives onto the edge of the air strip she switches off the lights of the car and uses her borrowed enhanced dark vision to guide the car towards the rear of the cargo plane. As she is doing so the two Mimi’s at the aeroplane uncover the engines, letting the tarpaulins drop to the floor before they remove the chocks and then slide into the cockpit and become solid. One of the Mimi’s takes the pilots seat while the other sits down in the copilots seat. Mimi drives the car straight into the back of the cargo plane and the Baldricks start to winch up the ramp again.
Madeline helps Einstein out of the car and gets him strapped into one of the passenger seats, she then takes the seat next to him and straps herself in. The Mimi who was driving walks past the Baldricks heading for her position in the navigators chair in the cockpit when Alfie shouts out:
Should we secure the car Ma'am?
Mimi turns and nods at Baldrick before continuing onward. The other four Mimi shadows all absorb into back into one Mimi and then that one joins the two sleeping Mimi's so that there is a full second refreshed crew if needed. Alfie looks at Billy and they both shrug, before one leans over and pulls on the cars handbrake and the other places chocks under the car wheels. A large sea eagle swoops down towards the plane, tucks it's wings and shoots through the opening before spreading it's wings and alighting on the floor and transforming into Sven. As he starts to transform the final Mimi slides off of him and is absorbed back into one of the sleeping Mimi's.
Navigator Mimi shouts:
Where are the maps?
Baldrick replies that Sven is holding onto it and all the Mimi's laugh, before one says:
Making sure that we can't leave without him!
She smiles disarmingly at Sven as he hands her the maps and then the big Norwegian slams the crew door of the aeroplane shut before sealing it and strapping himself into a passenger seat. Pilot Mimi coaxes the aeroplane's engines into a sputtering life and starts to taxi out onto the snow covered runway, before she pushes the throttles open and the aeroplane starts to lurch forwards. Gunfire pings off of the outside of the aeroplane as soldiers appear in the doorways of buildings along the edge of the air strip and start shooting at the escaping vehicle. One of the bullets pierces the outer skin of the cargo hold and strikes Billy Baldrick in the thigh, it bounces off of his enhanced armour and he merely scratches at the spot before wandering to one of the passenger seats and strapping himself in.
The Mimi's in the piloting seats pull back on the yokes and the aeroplane starts to very slowly climb away from the snow covered runway, as it does so snow and ice fall from the wings and the cargo plane lurches upwards out of control. In the cargo hold the car shifts free from the chocks and starts to slide backwards towards the rear cargo ramp. As the car breaks free the balance of the aeroplane is effected and the Mimi's struggle to control it. Alfie and Billy leap from their seats and by the time that they reach the car there are ten Baldricks, they grab hold of the car and manhandle it away from the cargo ramp. But as they go Alfie slips as he is trying to change his grip and he falls kicking Billy as he goes down. Billy tumbles and knocks into Charlie who also falls and slams into Davy, but the stoic Davy maintains his stance and more importantly his grip on the car.
The piloting Mimi's finally succeed in getting the aeroplane under control and levelled off before navigator Mimi heads back to the cargo hold and instructs the Baldricks on how to properly secure the vehicle. She then heads back to the cockpit with Madeline and Sven and they agree to head for Aeroport Rostov-na-Donu in the south west of Russia near the boarder of Ukraine. Madeline returns to her seat and begins the debrief of Albert Einstein, she begins by asking him how Doctor Jackal made contact with him inside Kurchatov City. Einstein tells him that he arrived in the disguise of General Chernyysobaka, Madeline smiles as she translates it a 'black dog', to inspect the work of the institute. When Madeline asks when this was, Einstein tells her that it was no more than two weeks before.
Einstein goes on to say that Doctor Jackal was only able to say a few words to him, but that he had been able to let him know that the EIS team were on their way to rescue him. He then informed Einstein that he was heading for Moscow. As Sven takes his seat once more he asks Einstein where he wishes to go, the professor responds:
I have work to finish in America.
The Mimi's in the cockpit identify a spot to ditch the aeroplane near the outskirts of Rostov-na-Donu and by Monday morning, Mimi is attempting to land the aeroplane in a field outside of the town. But as she comes in she clips a hedge and the aeroplane spins on its belly across the snow covered landscape and ends up nose down in a ditch, but it is a landing that everyone walks away from and so she is pleased. It also allows them to lower the cargo ramp and drive the car out, which they manage to get onto the road. Both Alfie and Mimi absorb all of their duplicates and the four members of the EIS team, along with Einstein, climb into the car and Alfie drives them in the direction of the airport.
Alfie parks up four miles beyond the airport and Sven transforms into his sea eagle form and flies over the airport to scout it out, he takes Madeline with him in shadow form. The pair of them can see that the airport seems largely shutdown, but there are a couple of aeroplanes on the runway and evidence of a scattered military presence. The aeroplanes themselves, however, look civilian. Sven and Madeline return to the others and inform them of their initial scans before they get the maps out and agree that if they can steal another aeroplane they will aim for Lviv on the western edge of Ukraine.
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