Everyday around 1700 hours I left the cave carrying my “new” 35mm camera. Destination: The old Mulberry Ridge National Laboratory. Just like any other reconnaissance mission, I would get in, take some photos, note enemy capabilities and equipment, check for suspicious activities, then get the hell out. It was pretty straightforward. Thick stands of pine whose limbs were sagging with snow cloaked my presence to the enemy. During my few days on watch, I hardly saw any action. Although an easy job, a recon mission could become tedious pretty fast. The fact that the ground was still covered in snow didn’t make things easier. My feet were always wet and cold. I occasionally smoked a cigarette under my poncho and savored the crunch of peanuts from a MRE pouch Malloy had brought me the week before. But the dullness of my nights ended rapidly on Tuesday evening. When I arrived at my makeshift observation post at 1800 hours, I noticed a military cargo Humvee parked in front of the building. Eager to snap my first relevant photographs, I sat in the snow holding my camera. Within minutes, through the main entrance, men wearing hazmat suits began carrying out several cylindrical containers from inside the building. The black casks seemed heavy and some of the containers bared hazardous warning labels. I snapped a few shots and kept my eyes focused. I spotted only three men. Two of them were loading the truck with the barrels. A third one carried a SAW M249 light machine gun and seemed to be on guard. Their operation was slow. From time to time the men would stop and talk to each other. I caught a few glances of their faces, but their masks concealed their identities nicely. The whole procedure seemed normal for these men. Actually, the event almost seemed ordinary to me as well, if it wasn’t for the fact that the casks displayed both biohazard and radioactive labels at the same time. After a few hours the men finished loading the Humvee. Not long after a forth man appeared through the front door. It was Baxter! I should’ve known… I held my camera tight, as I shot a few pictures of the bastard. Baxter seemed relaxed and untroubled with his cargo. He exchanged a few words with the other men, tapped the back of the Humvee and made his way to the cabin. He turned the engine on and drove away like nothing mattered. The night became silent. The other three men disappeared inside the building. I noticed I had a runny nose. All these nights I spent out in the wintry weather finally caught up with me. I had a cold. I decided I had enough action for the night. I packed up my poncho and stashed the camera in my day-pack. I had already crossed the swamp; the stand of pines behind me had washed into a blur of gray and white, when suddenly, I spotted a set of headlights heading to the lab. Not Baxter, but someone else… I turned around and sprinted back to the pine trees as fast as I could, imagining what else could’ve happen in a night like this. I laid on the melting snow once again and struggled to find my camera inside my pack. I jammed my right eye into the camera’s viewfinder and let the lens do its job. A black van was now parked in front of the old Lab. A few guards stood around while someone was opening the van’s sliding door. That someone looked like the civilian I had seen on my last visit to the lab. The driver had gotten out and the sliding door was left open for a while. I tried hard to peek inside, but I saw nothing. Finally a few minutes later, the driver produced a wheel chair from inside the van. I was totally confused. The civilian looking man, with the aid of the driver helped a passenger out of the van. I couldn’t see anything! I moved around, shuffling between the pine trees in order to get a better view. What I saw next, turned my stomach into knots. Seating in the wheel chair was Dr. Adrian Ivanov!!! I had no idea he was disabled! To be frank, I was surprise but disappointed: my enemy was a paraplegic of sorts. - Disabled or not he’s going down… - I thought to myself, while my camera photographed the unexpected. As I recuperated from the shock, the driver wheeled Dr. Ivanov inside the building. Guards went in, the front door was shut and the night became silent once again. I was left outside with my runny nose still annoying me. But what really bothered me was Ivanov’s presence: something wicked about it; something malignant. I packed my stuff again and went back to the cave. I better not get sick right now. Something big is about to happen…