Story #3412

Story #3412

“I have a lock on the target”

“Excellent. Take him out.”

The man fires as the bullet travels a good distance away until it pierced the window, breaking it before finding its way into it’s targets temple. The man slumps forward in his seat as his head hits the table.

“Target eliminated.”

“Excellent, Agent Smirnoff. Check back into your room, and you will be rewarded.”, the man on the other end of his earpiece says.

“Copied. Thank you, sir.”

“No, Agent Smirnoff, thank you.” The call ends.

Smirnoff gets up from the ground and puts his sniper rifle back into its case. He then walks down the long stretch of hill he was on top of. He does his best not to lose his footing, or else he’s a dead man. Once he’s down from the hill, Agent Smirnoff walks across the street into a vacant lot with only one car in the parking lot, his. He gets into his Lexus and drives back to his hotel. He goes inside and doesn’t look over at the desk clerk, who sees him and smiles as he just walks by her with a cold expression, sunglasses on his face despite it being dark outside. He gets out his key card and swipes it and checks into his room. He turns on the light and sits at the edge of the bed and takes off his sunglasses, followed by his shoes. Agent Smirnoff then goes into his large duffle bag and pulls out his tablet. He puts his thumbprint on the screen.

“First security barrier verified”

“Please state your name.”

“Sergei”, he says.

“Verifying...”

“Second security barrier verified. Good evening, Mr. Smirnoff.”

“Hello, Lucy”, he says to the computerized voice.

Sergei taps the screen where it says secure funds and watches his screen as his escrow account gets new money.

$1.5 million had been secured. Thank You

Sergei smiles and puts away his tablet and puts his bag back down before going into the bathroom to shower and change into his lounge wear for the night. When he returns, he looks at the nightstand and sees his phone has two missed calls. He picks it up and calls the number back.

“Ah, Sergei, there you are.”

“Sorry, I just got in; I was showering.”

“No worries. I trust you got the money wired to you?”

“Yes, I did. Thank you.”

“No, thank you. Because of you, Vladimir Kodosky is no longer a threat to any major level of security.”

“Glad I could help.”

“You always do. You’re one of the agency's most skilled assassins. We’ll be in touch with your next assignment.”

“Thank you. Goodnight.”

Sergei ends the call and puts his phone down. He thinks about turning on the television but decides against it. Probably some boring news anyway. He rubs his eyes and decides to get into bed to sleep. Sergei gets about six hours of sleep before his alarm on his phone awakens him.

6 a.m

He thinks for a moment and then remembers he has to be on a plane at 8 for St. Petersburg. He gets dressed and puts on some deodorant and cologne and gets his things as he makes his way down to the desk to check out.

“Thank you for staying with us, Mr. Kaperian. We hope you enjoyed your stay.”

“Yes, I did, thanks. Good day.”

Sergei walks out of the hotel and catches a taxi to take him to the airport. He gets out his I.D which has his fake alias Andre Kasperian on it. The I.D lists him as 32 when he’s really 36. It lists his hometown as a country in Turkey when he’s really from Moscow, Russia. This was the life of an assassin. To take on different personas so that no one knew who he really was. He was really Sergei Smirnoff, a former orphan who grew up without a home until he was old enough to enlist in the Russian Forces. This eventually led to him being recruited by an agency that specializes in top-secret operations in taking out high-priority individuals in exchange for a handsome reward. Smirnoff had been so cold, calm, and collected when he first started that the agency knew he would excel. 12 years later, and he now found himself as one of the top hitmen and assassins in all of Russia.

Having reached the airport, Smirnoff got out of the taxi and walked to his checkpoint. When he touched down in St. Petersburg, he called his handler at the agency.

“It’s Sergei. I’ve arrived in St. Petersburg.”

“Excellent. I’ll see you in about two hours.”

“In person? Isn’t that highly irregular?”

“Yes, but I forgot to mention, this next case we have for you needs to be handed to you in person.”

Sergei was confused for the first time since taking the job. He had always received his job over the phone or by video call but never in person. He wondered about the high priority of the case.

“Very well, where shall I meet you?”

“I’ll text you the coordinates.”

He ended the call and held his phone in his hand, still baffled at what this could be about. Two hours had passed, and Sergei found himself at a bar at the lower end of St. Petersburg. As he walked in, he looked around until he saw his handler, Yuri Volkoff. Sergei had never met Volkoff in person and had only seen him on video calls. He sat down across from him.

“Nice to finally meet you, Sergei.”

“You too, I think...”, Sergei says with slight hesitation in his voice.

“Relax. I know this is a bit irregular, but once you hear what it's about, you’ll understand why.”

Sergei looks around at the bar and then back to Yuri as the man at the bar asks him what he wants to drink. Sergei orders a beer. He turns his attention back to Yuri and asks him what this is about.

“Do you remember when we had you run reconnaissance and research a few months back?” Volkoff asks.

“Yes, on Dmitri Sandrovski, I believe.”

“Oh, right. Yes, we did have you run a search on him, but I’m referring to the other thing.”

Sergei looks at him with a puzzled look as he tries to remember the other thing. He thinks for a few moments until he gives him a strange look.

“The yeti?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what about it? I thought that was just for less unserious matters.”

“Sergei, every matter we look into is serious. You know this better than anyone, which is why you’re here now. We’ve tracked one down.”, Volkoff says.

“You’re not serious.”, he says, trying not to laugh.

“Quite serious. We have pinpointed the region to which it’s located.”

Sergei can’t help but laugh, not fully understanding the severity of the situation.

“Sergei! I understand your skepticism over this, but remember when you were asked to look into this, we told you there was a chance it existed. Well now, we have found out that it does.”

“I am sorry. I just wasn’t expecting this to become a possible job; forgive my laughing. If I remember correctly, I was to look into whether or not there was legitimate evidence as to the existence of this being. That I did could neither confirm nor deny at the time. I was also told that in the event one was to exist that-

“It was to be taken out and brought back to the facility so we could run tests on it and look into the possibility of making a super soldier, yes.”, Volkoff says.

“And you found one?”

“We did. Near where you had your possible area confirmed, Siberia.”

“So, we just bring it in then, yes?”

“No, it is not that easy. The agency wants us to treat this like a normal hit, and they want you to do it.”

Sergei looks shocked.

“You want to send me to Siberia to kill an Arctic cryptid?”

“I know it sounds a bit far-fetched, but yes. You were the one who looked into it, and therefore you have the most intel and insight on it, so you’re the perfect man for this job.”

“So it’s just going to be me and this thing out in the cold wilderness up in the mountains?”

“Yes, but you will be on constant watch from us with your coordinates, and you will have the proper attire to keep you warm. Also, you will maintain a safe distance, and in the event you do find your target, you attack from afar. If you somehow find yourself close to it and in danger or at any point serious danger, you will hit the blue button on an app on your phone. This will trigger a call to us, and we will send immediate helicopters your way. The only time you are to his this button is if you are in danger or when you find the creature.”

Sergei took in everything Yuri Volkoff said to him. He was right. He was skeptical, but now was absolutely fascinated by the idea of assassinating an abominable snowman in the Siberian mountains.

“When do they want me to do this?”

“Friday.”

“And what's the pay?” Sergei asks.

This time it’s Yuri who smiles for the first time.

“10 million.”

Sergei’s eyes grow as wide as saucers.

“Yes, the agency is quite serious about this. So serious in fact, that Commander Rasmussen will be getting in touch with you.”

“I look forward to hearing from him.”

“Good. If this all goes well, not only will you be an even richer man, but your legend in the agency will exceed far beyond your expectations.” Yuri smiles, putting out his hand.

Sergei puts out his hand in return and shakes Yuri’s. He nods as Yuri leaves the table and walks out of the bar. Sergei downs the rest of his beer and leaves money on the table before slowly walking out of the bar a few minutes after Yuri Volkoff.

*

Friday

The day had arrived for Sergei and his next mission. He was so excited the last few days he couldn’t believe what he was about to do. He arrived at headquarters early and checked in. He walked down the long hallway to Commander Henrik Rasmussen’s office. When he got to the end of the hall, he turned to his left and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Sergei opened the door and stepped in.

“Ah, Sergei. Welcome. Have a seat.”

Sergei nodded and had a seat as he looked at the commander.

“So I know we talked the other day and I briefed you, but now the day is here. Are you looking forward to this?”

“Yes sir, I am. It's not every day that someone is assigned such a task and mission, but I plan on taking it very seriously and doing my absolute best to make sure I find the target and take it out.”

“Excellent, Sergei, that’s what I like to hear. We knew you were the right man for the job, and if that thing had any clue what was in store for it, well, maybe he’d be less scared when he meets his maker.”, the Commander says, smirking.

Sergei laughs.

“There is one more thing I should mention.”

“What’s that?” Sergei asks.

“You aren’t the first person we’ve sent to assassinate a Yeti, you know. There was one other mission back in 1970. We sent a highly skilled assassin such as yourself to take one out.”

“Really? I had no idea. I was not informed of such an event.”, Sergei says.

“Nor would you have been, nor would anyone in the last thirty-plus years. The mission was a total disaster.”

Sergei’s eyes grow wide before he speaks.

“A disaster? What happened?”

“Well, the conditions the day we sent him up there were perfectly normal, but at some point over the course of a day, the temperature had dropped significantly, and the isolation of being out there alone in the wilderness must’ve gotten to him.”

“What happened to him?”

“At first we didn’t know. He went AWOL, and we lost touch with him after the third day. We sent out a search team to look for him, and well, we found him frozen solid and stuck at the bottom of the mountain.”

Sergei looks stunned at hearing the ending of the story.

“So, when the mission failed, you just never tried to search for another yeti until now?”

“Technically, yes. While any missions afterwards were scrapped and the project was forgotten about for a long time, we recently came across it and decided to look into it once more. Hence, you being asked to look into it and your research and your findings far exceeded those of the agent back in 1970.”

“I thank you for having the trust in me to complete this mission, sir.”, Sergei says with pride in his voice.

“On the contrary, Sergei, you do not give yourself enough credit. You are just the man for this job. One could say you really put yourself into such a situation that only you can be the one to do it.”

The commander and Sergei shake hands as Sergei gets his time for takeoff and his coordinates. He is told to go change into his proper gear for the mission. An hour later, Sergei is ready, dressed to a T in all white, looking like a snowman himself. He is briefed one final time by the Lt. Commander, and then he and two other men get into the helicopter. He gives them a final thumbs up as the helicopter takes off and heads over to the Siberian Mountains. Sergei sits in the back of the helicopter alone with his thoughts as the other two pilot it. Almost an hour later, the helicopter hovers as the co-pilot looks back at Sergei, signifying that it's time. He nods and gets his backpack with his gear on and puts on his goggles and then his hood and nods once more as he opens the side door to the helicopter. The helicopter flies as low as it can without landing so that Sergei can safely jump to the surface. He does so. He gives a thumbs up and gets back on as the helicopter takes off, leaving Sergei all alone in the Siberian wilderness.

Before he begins his descent toward the mountain, he takes a deep breath. Sergei was used to walking long distances and over weather-tested terrain, but this was something new altogether. He walked further and further toward the mountain and stopped and took out his binoculars to see if he could just randomly spot anything. All he saw was the endless pure white untouched layers of snow that went on and on. Way off into the distance, he noticed what he thought was a peak. He put his binoculars back into his backpack and continued on his journey. Sergei was about halfway to the mountain when he decided to stop to rest. He got out his thermos from his backpack. He loved the technology the agency provided at times. He could get luxuries ordinary people couldn’t, such as his thermos, which was still strikingly hot although Sergei had been outside for a good amount of time. He carefully sipped his hot chocolate from the thermos and looked out into the world of white.

“I will find you, my friend.”, he said to himself.

He took a few more sips and put his thermos back into his bag. As he went to zip his bag, he heard something for the first time. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it sounded like a low-pitched buzzing sound or hum. He heard it for about fifteen seconds, and then he felt it. It was a strange sensation, and for a moment Sergei thought maybe it was some type of magnetic field. He was no scientist but had read somewhere that even underneath a mound of snow, sometimes rock can give off magnetic frequencies. He shook his head after the strange sensation went away. He continued straight ahead, and after about forty five minutes he got to the mountain.

He scanned the entire bottom of the mountain, remembering the story the commander had told him about the last man’s fate that was met here. Sergei knew he didn’t have to climb the entire mountain, only up just enough so that he could have a clear view of the other side and to see if he could find his abominable foe. Sergei got out his climbing equipment and began up the mountain. He climbed and climbed until he got to the first strip of surface. Sergei then looked around and wondered if he should go up one more level just to be sure. He took a swig from his thermos, put it back into his back and made another climb up the second surface of the mountain. When he reached it and pulled himself up, he shook his head and thought this would be a perfect height. He then walked around until he got to the other side of the mountain and looked out ahead and saw a large forest of powder-covered trees. Sergei smiled and took off his backpack and decided this spot would be his camping spot for the rest of the mission unless something forced him to move. He knelt and took out his binoculars and looked out into the forest.

He looked all around, hoping to see any signs of wildlife out there. He slowly panned over second by second until he spotted a snowy white owl in one of the trees.

“Ah, hello, my friend. Are you alone over there? I wonder.”

Sergei kept looking out for a good amount of time before he decided to sit down with his back to the mountain and close his eyes for a few.

“Hopefully it will not get any colder out here.”, he says to himself.

He closes his eyes, and in that moment Sergei experiences a surreal, tranquil, and peaceful feeling of silence. He takes a breath as his nostrils take in the brisk winter air and he breathes out through his mouth. Lost in his silence, Sergei is caught off guard when he hears a sound that startles him. He opens his eyes and looks around, then grabs the binoculars and looks over at the forest. He sees snow falling off trees and branches swaying as if something had touched them. He focuses more clearly and pans the binoculars slowly, trying to see what caused the disturbance. He does this for about seven minutes until he decides to give up. Sergei goes to drink from his thermos and drinks the final swig of his hot chocolate.

“If I want more, I’ll have to make it, and that won’t exactly be easy out here.”

As he talks to himself, he notices movement from across the way. He immediately grabs his binoculars and looks into them. He sees that the owl is gone from the tree. He wonders if it moved away on its own or something scared it off. He pans his view down the tree slowly but doesn’t see anything until he sees more branches moving. As he focuses on one of the trees, that’s when he notices something strange. He sees movement. It was so quick he was almost certain his eyes were playing tricks on him until he saw it again peering from behind the tree. Sergei focused his view, dead set on where the movement was and focused it in more. Suddenly, a giant white-furred being, which Sergei thought could be the back of its head, was seen peering out from behind the tree. He couldn’t see any facial features, so he just assumed it was the back of its head. He didn’t flinch and didn’t move an inch as he kept his binoculars on the figure the entire time. If it moved, he would know. If it touched a branch, he would know. If it did anything, he would see it, and then he would make his move.

As Sergei looked, he noticed it slowly peer out further just an inch or two from the tree. Then he saw it. It took its long white arm and clawed the tree. Sergei was fascinated by its movement. It remained behind the tree. As the minutes went by, Sergei noticed when it would make slight movements, peering out from behind the tree. He saw its head, arm, and maybe a torso; he wasn’t sure. Sergei knew the moment was approaching. He took out his case that he had also been carrying and took out his sniper rifle. He got it ready and set it down and peered into the scope. He now had an even better view than he had with the binoculars. As he looked through the scope of his rifle, Sergei retracted and thought to himself out loud.

“Wait a minute. It hasn’t moved from its spot in ten minutes. It’s almost as if it knows I’m watching it. Can that be?”

He looks through the scope again and sees its arm sticking out but nothing more. He waits patiently for the right moment to strike.

“Just stick your head out ever so slightly, my friend.”, he says to himself.

Seconds turn to minutes and minutes turn to what feels like a never-ending standoff between Sergei and this creature. Finally, the creature peers its head out slowly from the tree. Sergei himself moves a bit so he can get in the perfect position to shoot. As he sets the scope just right and sets his rifle with his finger on the trigger, he looks out at his yeti friend. The creature's head stays where it's from a side angle. Sergei knows he can’t shoot it from an angle; he needs to shoot it directly in the head.

“Turn, turn.”, he says.

Sergei can feel himself getting more and more eager as he waits for the creature to turn its head or come completely out from the tree. After five minutes, the creature suddenly turns its head, and it looks straight ahead at Sergei as their eyes meet. Before Sergei can react and get a shot off, a soft piercing sound is heard as it comes right at him. Sergei is struck by a bullet as it goes right through his head and out the other side into the wilderness. His head stays straight up for a second until it falls face first into the snow on the mountain. Commotion can be heard in the forest as the creature appears from behind the tree, only it's not a creature at all but a man.

“The target has been eliminated. Operation Snowman complete.”, the man says, talking into a walkie-talkie as he takes out his phone, goes into an app, and hits a blue button.

Helicopters suddenly appear from several areas, including the one that dropped Sergei off. The man dressed in white who was thought to be the creature, gets into one of the helicopters. Sitting across from him is Commander Rasmussen. The helicopters hover as the man takes off his headgear. The commander smiles.

“Good job, Agent Volkoff”

Yuri Volkoff smiles back at the commander.

“Thank you, sir.”

“The mission was a success, and thanks to you, we took out that traitor. We had it on good authority that he was going to defect and turn on us within the month. We’ve known for over a year. He had been giving out secret covert intel to another agency and even the government. I guess all those compliments really went to Agent Smirnoff’s head.”

“I still can’t believe he thought he was going to assassinate a yeti!” Volkoff laughs.

“Little did he know that all the time he was hunting you, you were hunting him. Also, Operation Snowman was completed in 1970, and I should know because I was the one who took out my partner. Left him to die up in these mountains. You know he was a traitor just like Agent Smirnoff? Something had to be done about him.”

“Are we going to retrieve his body?”

“No, leave him there. That was the whole point of this mission. To eliminate the target out here in the middle of nowhere so that there will be no trace of him after the Siberian wilderness and nature get to him. That’s what happens to you when you’re a traitor to the agency.”, the commander says.

The helicopters fly away and back to base as the lifeless body of Sergei Smirnoff lies on the second level of the Siberian mountains.

*In 2022, this story was thought to be lost in a fire...yet here you are reading it...

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