Ghost Protocol: Meet the Civilian

Chapter 4: Hendricks

"How will the world finally end?"

Kat sat in the corner of the car, hugging her knees carefully and trying to stay out of Ethan and his team's way as she watched the video playing on the screen. Agent Carter had been right in assuming they would be slightly big, but the warm and dry sweater and jeans were a gift from heaven as far as Kat was concerned. Benji Dunn was sitting across from one of the screens, his finger pressed to his lip thoughtfully while Jane Carter stood against the side of the wall, both watching a recording of a younger Hendricks giving a speech.

The translator spoke at intervals through Hendricks' Russian speech, providing the English translation as Hendrick said: "It is my job to predict the unthinkable. To treat the death of billions as a game. After twenty years of this, I was none. Until a new question crossed my mind. What happens after the end of the world."

Kat tried to ignore the video, watching Ethan, as he sat in the corner of the room, muttering on the phone, and Brandt, as he paced about the car thoughtfully. The analyst had also changed, switching into combat pants and a thick sweater, both of which fit him better than Kat's clothes fit her, and he kept playing with the zip of his closed sweater as he paced.

"Every two or three million years, some natural catastrophe devastates all life on Earth. But life goes on, and what little remains is made stronger. Put simply, world destruction is an unpleasant but necessary part of evolution."

Kat flinched as there was a loud whooshing noise from nearby and she, along with Carter and Dunn, glanced over to see Brandt had accidentally leant against a wall panel to reveal an entire wall of firearms. Brandt glanced at them all sheepishly, moving away from the wall and choosing to pace once more as the recording went on:

"When mankind faces the next end of the world. I look to Hiroshima, Nagasaki," Kat glanced over as Ethan's voice became harsher though his words were still muffled in a low murmur, "thriving cities, rebuilt from the ashes. Monuments to unimaginable, dedicated to the concept of peace."

Kat watched as Ethan hung up and he turned slightly, meeting her eyes briefly. Kat quickly looked away, looking down at her hands as the recording continued: "It's occurred to me here, that nuclear war might have a place in the natural order."

The air in the car had thickened, everyone tensing.

"But only if it could be controlled. Only if touched every living soul," Kat looked up just in time for Hendricks' last word: "equally."

Her hands curled as she understood the Russian word, echoed by the English translation just seconds later. The video paused as Hendricks stared at the camera, his blue eyes cold and emotionless. It honestly terrified Kat how dead his eyes could look, even throughout his powerful and almost equally terrifying speech.

The rest of the agents turned to Ethan, who had stopped the video, but Kat continued to stare with wide eyes at the image on the screen as Ethan explained to his team: "IMF now believes that this man, Kurt Hendricks," he clicked a remote to switch all the screens from the video to an image of the man himself as he left a building, "is a nuclear extremist, codename: Cobalt."

The rest of the team studied the photo as Ethan continued: "Today he was seen leaving the Kremlin, with what was most likely a nuclear launch device."

Dunn and Carter glanced at him thoughtfully, weighing the news while Brandt sank to squat against the wall in one corner of the car, sitting back on his hunches as Ethan pulled up a different photo.

A beautiful, perhaps French, woman appeared on the screens and Kat examined the new face as Ethan went on: "A few days ago, Sabine Moreau killed one of our agents in Budapest."