Safehouse, Berlin
6:30 a.m

Muffed voices and street lamps' light wake me up. The quite sway of the car lulls me through the roads, strangely clear at this time of the night. All I want to do is sleep; I'm so tired and all my mussels are in pain.
But the voices start to be indulgent on some kind of discussion that I don't wanna hear.
My head is so heavy, it's like I haven't been sleeping for days.
My senses come slowly to me and I can feel I'm lying down on someone's shoulder.
I'm safe, but where am I?
A strong smell of cigarette hits my nose.
I open my eyes and the first thing I see is the car window through which there are only yellow lights on the road.
Someone is driving the car. I push my eyes to see through the dark.
The man behind the wheel is Woods! But without his bandana and his uniform.
Now I remember: the Greenlight, Redlight project, the Russian base, Hudson...
Geez, I must be so tired to forgot all this.
But, if Wood is driving, the next sit is occupied by Mason...Who is sitting next to me?
"Bell, I see you're awake." - says the man.
This voice.
"Adler? Why are you here?" - I ask with a spark in my eyes, which he clearly notices.
"Don't you remember? I came here to complete your exfil from the base in Ukraine." - he replies satisfied.
I try to get up, even if Adler's shoulder is so comfortable, but a terrible pain spreads in my left clavicle.
"Damn it!" - I turn back laying on his shoulder.
"Easy. I think a bullet hit you there while you were shooting with the tank, Woods told me. You will have a proper medication in the safehouse." - he looks at me.
"Hey there. Good saving by the way." - Woods waves an hand while driving with the other.
"Where's Hudson?!" - I exclaim.
"After everything I risked there.." - I say with anger.
"Shh, I know." - he whispers in my ear. "He's not getting away with it."
I still get chills when I hear is voice so close.
I can hear the air moving from his mouth on my neck.
I couldn't resist and shiver a bit.
He still has this effect on me.
"Where are we?" - I ask.
I'm mostly awake now.
"We are... "- Adler tooks a moment to look outside. " ...almost arrived."
"You reach the dreaming world in the plane, when I took you two in the exfil. You were still sleeping so I brought you into the car."
Adler is nice to me, maybe he's not using me like I thought.
I close my eyes again, won over by tiredness.
Only five minutes.

I can't see nothing from the sit but I recognize the cold Berlin's atmosphere.  This is why I woke up again. Besides the temperature someone lent me his jacket. And I guess I know who is it.
Adler isn't next me but behind the wheel. And on the passenger sit there is Woods.

Mason is next to me, who seeing me awake congratulates.
The light hits Adler's hair, making them appear almost blonde.
And he's without the jacket of course.
"What you were discussing before?" - I ask.
"The talk is about this little piece of shit, Hudson." - replies angrily Woods.
Adler sills the hands around the wheel.
"I will have a proper discussion with him now. He has a lot of explanations to do. I still can't believe he hid such a big plan like this." - he remains calm.
How can he do this?
"The entire Europe is in danger?" - I look Adler in the eyes.
"Not for now. Perseus is playing with us, and so is Hudson. You did a great job, he probably thought you would only take pictures of the area , just to keep him informed. He didn't except you two would enter in the base's heart and hacker the source."
His breath is smelling like tobacco and mint.
In fact he's holding a cigar.
I find interesting how he continues to smoke without coughing, not a time.
The car stops.

Woods gets off the car and shuts the car door.
He's so pissed that he forgot about me, stumps his feet as he walks on the grass.
"Here you go." - Adler puts my hand all over his neck and helps me to get out.
He put the cigar in his mouth. Damn...
I've lost my words and can't do anything but stare at him.
I turn back his brown jacket and stretch my legs.
I needed fresh air and the sky is tinted by the first rays of sunlight.
While Adler moves step by step with me Woods is rushing to reach a man on the courtyard of our safehouse.
It's Hudson, and he seems busy with his giant white phone, as usual.

I still don't understand if Hudson dresses like Adler, or it's Adler who dresses like Hudson.
Same jacket, same sunglasses, but they're completely different.
"Yes sir. I'm on it."
No you're not, I think.
As he see us Hudson ends the call.
Woods now is angrier as ever while Hudson is so calm and doesn't do nothing when Woods punches him in the face.

Hudson recedes and Woods pins him on the wall of the safehouse, near the white door.

That's where me and Adler had a conversation, once.
"You knew the nuke was from Greenlight and didn't tell us! What else are you hiding? Maybe I can knock the truth out of you."
He's shaking and ready to punch Hudson again.

Suddenly we can all ear the click of a gun being loaded. This is a warning from the leader.
I hold my breath and freeze with Adler.
"You might want to rethink that, Woods." - he say's calmly.
Now he's point a gun on his stomach.

"Adler, you can't let him do this.." - I whisper.
"Everybody stand down." - he gently leaves me behind and steps forward. "This little pissing match isn't gonna help us catch Perseus."

Woods gets off of Hudson.
Adler knows what he's doing, I don't know why we need someone like this jerk if we have him to guide us.

Mason was just listening and waiting for the right moment to speak.
"Why didn't you tell us it was an American nuke?" - he says pointing a finger against Hudson.

"Yeah, why Hudson?" - I take the nerve. "Send me and Woods in their base, alone, maybe you hoped we would die there? Well, surprise, we're here knowing your secret. And guess what? We almost get trapped and this" - I show the dry blood near my neck - " is your fault! It's so easy to sit on your ass while we're out here risking everything."
I throw out my emotions and anger, nobody expected me to react like this.
"Well, well." - he seems pleased. "Look who talks. Instead of making out with Adler you should sleep, maybe you'll be more awake on the mission. Keep it professional, Bell, or do you wanna be used like a toy again?"
Hudson chuckles.
I can't believe it. There's so much I wanna say but I just wide my mouth, shocked.
First of all, how dares he? I risked my life only to find something he already knew for so long. And second, I thought Adler was interested on me. At least that's what it seems.
That's a low blow. My conclusion were right, there's no possible relationship between two members.
"Yeah, he's right." - I low my head, embarrassed.
"As always." - Hudson replies.
"Woods survived because of her." - Adler takes the word. "You should be grateful, they accomplished the mission. Isn't that what you wanted?"
They look at each other in the eyes.
"I don't think she can save our asses again in the next mission, she's injured, not deeply but hasn't the full mobility we need."
Adler adds."And watch your mouth."
The smoke coming out from his mouth make me nauseous, I can't believe he actually used to kiss me for own pleasure.
The whole team seems confused, Hudson didn't ever speak like that.
"He needed us to clean up his mess. The bastard's been lying to us all long." - Woods continues.
"It's not a lie.It's an omission of fact." - he replies, with blood coming down the lips.

"That's what you do best, isn't it, Hudson? Manipulate people... tell them your own version of the truth." - Mason is speaking for everyone.

They look each other in the eyes, ready to fight again.
"There is no truth, who you choose to believe. Adler knows all about that. Don't you, Russ?"
What are they talking about? Did he know too?!
He throws away the cigar and make eye contact with me for a sec.-" Operation Greenlight. What is it? Tell us everything?"

He cleans the blood from his face before starting.
"Back in '58 the arms race was in full swing. Eisenhower was convinced that if the Reds moved on Europe, we couldn't respond quick enough. So he authorized Operation Greenlight: a top secret program that placed nuclear bombs in every major European city. The ultimate countermeasure to a Soviet invasion. In '74 the bombs were upgraded to high yield neutron bombs, capable of terminating personnel without damaging infrastructure."
"Thousands dying in a flash and you're talking about infrastructure." - Woods points a finger on him and gets closer, as angry as before.

"How's that for civilized? We kill the people but preserve the buildings." - Mason puts an hand over Woods to calm him down.

They seem very great friends each time, never separated and take part of each other.
"We're trying to preserve out way of life."
"Wrong like before, to me." - I say.
"How long have you known about the missing nuke?" - asks Adler.
So he wasn't part of this.
Why do I care?
"One of the Greenlight nukes went offline eight weeks ago. We suspected it was Perseus but couldn't confirm it until we sac the photos you brought back from East Berlin."
Those photos, I remember them.
After I've seen them a Perseus' partner knocked me down.
Back then me and Adler were so distant from each other, but so close.. Stop think about it Bell.
"So, there's an American-made nike in the wild and once Perseus detonates it... the United States becomes global enemy number one."

As Adler tries to clarify things, Woods is gettin more angry and cracks his knuckles while Mason is getting more upset.

"We wouldn't have this problem if you'd done your job and killed Perseus in Vietnam." - Hudson explains with authority.
He's trying to be on the right part even if he's not. The blood under his nose starts to coagulate, I can see how the light above us reflects on it.
Woods gets closer, ready to do another round but Adler stops him with one hand.
His hands are so big, he was holding me with them... Stop it.
"Careful, Hudson. Next time I might not stop Woods."

It's impressive how much authority Adler has, even if he's not the leader number one.
It would be more easy if he didn't just used me, this is what Hudson said, after all.
Is it a lie?
Everyone starts to go inside the safehouse, leaving the jerk out here; first Adler, Woods, then Mason and me.

I see Park at the table talking with Lazar.
"Bell, Woods told us about your saving. Not everything went as we planned but"
"Yeah Park, nothing went as we planned. At least there is still a couple here, right?" - I go straight ahead down the little stairs to my dorm.
Adler, who was analyzing the proves turns in my direction, but I ignore him.
"Relax, we'll find a way."- Mason is discussing with Woods as usual, he's trying to calm him down.
I'm about to get in but someone calls me.
"Bell." - it's him.
I close the door behind me and lay on it.
"Bell!"
Adler is banging on the door.