Seth grabbed his handgun, and said "Hell yeah I'm coming." After checking how much ammo he had in it, he nodded. The three of them moved from the main room and into the hallway.

The smell hit them first.

It smelled like something had been dead for days, and left out in the sun, rotting. He covered his nose, and that's when they heard a scream. It came from the room two rooms over. They ran to the window for a nightmare.

It was like the pictures had come to life. A man had the woman pinned, and was slowly sinking his teeth into her stomach. Bile and blood ran out onto the floor, and Seth had to hold back vomit.

He pulled the trigger twice, both rounds slapping into the torso of the man with a wet, sickening sound. The man moved forward a bit, and released the woman. Then he stood up, and slowly turned on spot, staring at them with blank eyes.

Seth felt pity for him. "What a way to go," he whispered. He busted out the glass and stepped in, thinking maybe a close range shot to the head would work better. The man kept slowly advancing. Seth put his gun level with the mans head, and he lunged. Grabbing Seth by the shoulders, he pulled his neck towards his mouth with ridiculous strength. Seth tried to fight back, but futilely. He surrendered the fight, and instead shoved his handgun in the things mouth. A muffled gunshot echoed in the room, and blood appeared on the back wall. The thing then fell forward, dead weight, with a large chunk of his skull missing in the back.

Seth Dancer then vomited everything he currently had in his stomach.

Colton had ducked outside the window when Dancer had jumped in. His Desert Eagle outstreched in his arms. He heard a terrible gunshot, and then a puking noise. He vaulted the broken window to see Dancer wiping vomit from his mouth.

He pushed his way forward to the body of the creature while Jackson moved over the woman. The creature had peeling flesh, it was missing in some places entirley. The stench wafting from its corspe was a pungent odor that induced the gag reflex. Colton moved his hand into his bottomless suit and removed a facemask. He slip it over his face and rotated the body of the creature so he could better examine it.

Seth stood up and stepped over the creature, and started examining the woman.

"Jackson, do a sweep of the room. Make sure there aren't any more of these things in here."

He noticed several marks on her arm. Needle marks. She was a heroin addict. A thought formulated in his mind...

He rifled through the drawer next to the bed, until he found what he was looking for. Needles.

"Colton, take a sample of the blood with this. We can give it to Agnes for the lab to process it. Once we're done here, move out. Staying here isn't safe anymore. We'll head to the facility, and try to catch an early flight. Anyone with me?" He checked the second drawer down and found a 9 mm pistol with an extra magazine. "Also, Colton, you might want this as a back up gun. 9 mm rounds are the most common, it might do you some good in the long run."

Colton smiled at his reamrk and stood up

"I beilive I have plenty of firearms."

He pulled open the jacket of his tuxedo and a plethora of weapons revealed itself. A Luger, a 9mm, an MP-5, A shotgun and a large space where a massive weapon could be placed were all attached on the inside of his jacket.

"So you like big guns. Just try not to bog yourself down. I have a feeling we're going to be doing a lot of movement." Seth kept a hold on the gun. They might meet someone later on who could use it. After looking at the creature he'd killed again, he decided he wanted to leave. Immediately. "Colton, Jackson, finish up here. We need to move on."

Luke swept the apartment, but to no avail, it was empty. Just more and more weird stuff happening, same old, same old. Man, they didn't PAY him enough for this...

He went ahead and checked the closets, finding more used syringes, rubber tubing, plastic baggies...hello...he picked up a double-barreled shotgun that was tucked away in one of the closets. He flipped the barrels open. Loaded. Oh well, you never know, he thought, deciding to take it with him. She certainly wouldn't be needing it anymore.

"Well boys, the place is clean. Though "clean" is stretching it a little. Nasty place." He looked at the body, "You know, strange, but that kinda fits with the decor." He chuckled at his own tasteless joke. More of the dark humor he'd developed over the years.

"Let's get going, guys. Nothing else here. We might want to call base and have them clean it, though. The last thing we need is the cops poking around and finding the armory we call home."

He looked at Colton, who was showing off his firearm collection, "You too, James Bond."

In any other circumstance, Seth would've laughed at Luke's joke. But he felt pity for the woman. Addict or not, nobody deserved to go like this. And he almost had the same fate...his mind trailed off. just out of curiousity, he lifted the arms of the creature. There, on the right arm, was the mark he'd been dreading.

They know what we're doing.

"Alright boys, change of plans. These people know our plans. They know where we were staying, so you can be damn sure they know about the Finland base. Colton, Jackson, I hate to say it, but we might have to leave the guns. We're getting a ride to Moscow. I'll let Agnes know. This isn't just our lives at stake. It's people like her. And people like who that...thing...used to be. I'm not letting an entire organzation fall under that kind of epidemic."

He pulled out his cell phone, and traced the call that told him to come to New York for a short breifing. And he called it.

It rang twice before he heard Agnes say a hesitant hello.

"Agnes, it's Dancer. The virus is in the states. Some kind of experiment killed a woman here. We have a blood sample. We're leaving it in the safe in the room. Send a squad to retrieve it and all our weapons. Each of us will leave them in a secure location somewhere in the room. And if your organization wants this done, you're on our terms now. We're taking a flight to Moscow. Meet us there. We're not risking Helsinki exposure. We have transportation secured. Just make sure we get the guns."

He hung up before she could object. This was their game now. After covering up the woman with a sheet, he nodded to Jackson and Colton.

"Let's do this."

Colton shoved the Desert Eagle back into his bottemless tuxedo and shook the rest of the weapons out. He was about to leave before he turned around and picked up the 9mm he had in his pocket. Always good to have at least two weapons.

Agnes was still trying to pull the strings to an enigmatic organzation. If the job didn't get done, These people would lose 2.5 million dollars each. But what would Agnes lose? Her career? He saw it as a bluff. This time, he left a note for Agnes in the safe, also.

"Agnes, you lose. You can't pull the strings anymore. You have one option to get this job done, and if you don't take that, then it won't get done. And if you let us walk away, the contamination will likely spread throughout the US, and then possibly globalize. We may lose 2.5 million, but you would probably lose your job and your credibility. We're in this. Not much of a choice for us. I would probably do this job without the money, if need be. So don't think threats of money are gonna bother me."

He placed his handgun, the glock that was given, and the gun he found in the other room in the corner. He also placed his bowie knife there. He dumped all the ammo in front of them.

"Jackson, I need your advice. Are we doing the right thing?"

Jackson put down the shotgun and his standard issue Beretta. He checked the chambers in his revolver. Yep, still loaded, and I'm damn sure not leaving it here, he thought. He tucked it into his waistband and the three started walking out of the building. Once outside, he flipped up the collar of his jacket against the cold. He lit a cigarette and thought long and hard about the "right thing."

"The right thing, buddy? Have we ever done the right thing? I mean, is it worth all this, just some paycheck?"

He paused, staring out into the night as if waiting for something.

"We all asked ourselves that a long time ago, and it's worth it for us, but this mess with Agnes...This is all new to me. Base hasn't ever cut it this close before, so there's obviously something wrong. Maybe a mole, maybe just dumb luck, but I tell you one thing, it's not safe here anymore. And if there is a mole...well, I say our best bet is getting to the Moscow safehouse and go from there. Maybe at least we can learn something about this whole mess. I just know there's something the powers-that-be aren't telling us, and it could probably get us real dead, real fast."

He took another long drag and flipped the cigarette away, the last light shining into the shadows.

"That's just my take. What do you guys think?"

Colton had remained quiet this entire time. He was beginning to think this was too much for even him to handle. "Mr. Black"...he had assassinated world leaders, stoped wars, started wars..to think that a few pictures and a dead woman was enough to drive him into thinking he wasn't cut out for the job. His phone shook.

He drew it from it his pocket and eyed the screen.

Rebecca.

He nodded to the others and stepped away.

"What?"

"Just wanted to check on you dad, you know how I worry when you go out on these prolonged business trips. Where is the office sending you know?"

"Moscow, I've got a client waiting there for me. He was supposed to be in Finland, but his account got transfered."

"Oh...", there was a moment of intense silence, "I love you dad.."

Colton smiled, "I love you too Becca...so much...now I've got to go, getting ready to ship out. I'll call you when I get there."

Colton hung up with an immense frown streaking his face. Now he really wasn't sure if this was worth it.

Seth thought back to the Army days, when everything was cut and dry. Maybe he was harsh on Agnes. He just wanted to keep these men alive.

"Alright guys. here's the deal. I'm going. Whether I get paid or not, those guys have my phone number, they have my information, and I'm not going to be able to get out. So make a choice. I'll call Agnes and let her know."

He dialed the number. No answer.

"Well, that's weird. She doesn't seem like someone that would ignore a call from her clients."

Colton respected Dancer, if only for his decisive actions, still, some things might be better left alone.

"I'll go with you to Moscow...but the jurys still out on wther or not I'm in. We'll have to see if this gets any creepier then it already is."

"Buddy, you know where I stand. I'm with you 100%."

Jackson thought for a moment back to their Army days. Nothing like this...nothing like this...

He shook it off, though, shouldn't let everything hinge on creepy feelings. He'd seen too much. Done too much to let something like this bother him. Still, he did have a bad case of the creeps about this one. Maybe it was the pictures, maybe it was the scene in the apartment, but something...oh well, might as well go into it guns blazing like always.

"She's not answering? That is weird. Too weird. I'm telling you guys, something about this just doesn't seem kosher. We might as well just head to Moscow, though, try to get ahold of her along the way. And if we don't..."

He stopped. He didn't want to think of the alternative.

"Alright guys, I'm worried about Agnes. She still isn't picking up. She's probably waiting for us in Moscow. I just hope all of Russia isn't covered with these things."

Seth picked up the glock that was issued to him and all his 9mm clips. "Maybe these vouchers will let us slip through customs with our weapons."