Nolan, Toby, and Grace sat around a small circular table shoveling in a breakfast of eggs, toast and coffee. Agnete the innkeeper had graciously served it to them, even in the early hour.

"Did they feed you while you were in captivity?" Toby asked between a mouthful of eggs.

Grace's features tightened. "They did. Sometimes."

"Like, bread and water?"

"Toby." Nolan hissed.

Grace gingerly lifted a teacup of coffee to her lips. "It's fine." She said, her voice slightly rising in tone. "They didn't always torture us physically...it was usually in psychological ways. We didn't have a mealtime or even full meals...sometimes nothing at all. The not-knowing drove...some of us crazy, eventually. We usually ate watered-down soup and water; sometimes bread. But that wasn't the bad part. We moved around a lot, but never knew where we were. That kind of thing." She took another sip of coffee as if it was no big deal.

"So are we headed for the library?" Nolan asked, trying to change the subject.

"No." Grace said. "Agnete had a laptop in her room, so I already sent over the files to Howard."

Both Nolan and Toby gaped at her.

"What?" Toby exclaimed. "Just like that?"

Grace nodded.

"Without telling us?" Nolan asked, dumbfounded.

She scrunched her eyebrows together. "I didn't know I had to tell you when I sent it. I'm waiting for him to call back with more information."

"So does that mean you can tell us what's on it now?"

Grace dropped her gaze and fiddled with a napkin that was partially hanging off of the tablecloth. "Those computers held maps and receipts, basically. The maps had fifty-four red marks around certain locations around the world; Kavala, Washington DC, Bolivia, Cuba, some US states. And then there were copies of receipts exchanged around the Midwest for some rather large pieces of equipment. We couldn't figure out was it was for, exactly."

Nolan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Red marks...so you're thinking those were areas they were wanting to attack?"

"Exactly." Grace said. "And whatever parts of machinery they were ordering was for that purpose. But here's the thing...the receipts were addressed to Dimyan Egor."

Nolan raised his eyebrows. "So he really is alive, then?"

"Seems so. And Howard's not completely crazy when he says he's planning an underground attack. None of this information would've been found if my team and I hadn't stumbled upon it while we were in Turkey. Needless to say, the terrorists weren't happy when they found out that we knew where their kill spots were. This organization has grown beyond the Bolsheviks, even though it's still headed by Egor. They've named this operation Colossus." She kept her gaze down as she tapped a nail against the porcelain of her cup.

"What about the heroin at the ice house?" Nolan inquired, after it became clear that she wasn't going to say anything more.

"I know this is going to sound crazy," Grace replied, "But that was how they funded this whole thing. Colossus has been running the biggest drug cartel in history, right under our noses. There's no telling how much money they've made; it's probably close to trillions of dollars. They've been trading drugs throughout the world and still haven't been caught."

They settled into thoughtful silence for a few moments. 

"So what now?" Toby asked. "Are Nolan and I still supposed to take out Egor? And what about you? Where do you go next?"

Grace seemed overwhelmed with the questions. "I...don't know. I'm supposed to be hearing from Howard soon."

"You mean you have all this information and don't know what to do with it?" Toby pressed.

Grace's face held a look of how could you be so stupid. In fact, that's exactly what she said.

"How could you be such an idiot? It isn't like we were planning to find it. And even if we did, we couldn't do much with it. Why? Oh yeah, because we were all being held hostage for a week. And frankly, I don't know what I'm doing. I went from having four other agents who helped each other out, to zero within a matter of days."

Toby closed his mouth with a slight click.

She gave a huff and rested her head in her hands. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just a little...overwhelmed."

Nolan and Toby exchanged glances. Should they comfort her? How? For some reason, Nolan always thought Toby to be a ladies-man, so he assumed he'd be the one to say something. However, telling by the confused look on his face, they were both in the same awkward boat.

Thankfully Agnete came bustling in from the back room, waving at Grace. "Chári! Telephone!"

Grace looked up and immediately motioned for Nolan and Toby to follow her into a small sitting room. It didn't look like it had been used much by the thick coating of dust that had settled over the couch and the heating vent smelled like a burnt oven.

An old-fashioned telephone sat apart from its receiver, connected to a yellowing rubber cable.

Grace quickly picked it up. "Hello?"

After a few seconds, she pressed a button to put Howard on speaker.

"You boys okay?" He asked, his voice crackling through the phone. He sounded worried.

"We're fine." Nolan said. He thought he saw Grace smirk, but couldn't tell.

"I'm assuming Agent Evans has informed you of the intelligence we've collected?"

"Yep." Toby said, crossing his arms.

"Well, I have some bad news. We found out why they were ordering that machinery. They were building something; a weapon of mass destruction."

"A nuclear weapon?' Toby asked.

"No..." Howard said, "An EMP device. The areas that were circled on those maps are sites for these things to be planted, if they haven't been planted already. Colossus built these things—I don't even know how—and they can wipe out the electronics of entire cities at a time."

Nolan rubbed his hands together thoughtfully. He'd heard of electromagnetic pulses. He'd even watched a show about people preparing for that kind of thing to happen. If Colossus had created a widespread EMP system, there would be no electricity, water, cell phones, vehicles...anything. How many cities were circled? Fifty-four? If parts of the world went without power...it would be utter chaos.

"What are they trying to get at? Is this an act of rebellion or something?" Grace asked, her dark brow bent.

"We still don't know. And we don't know how far Colossus has gotten, either. Egor's been at this for nearly eleven years and he has a huge following."

"So what about us? What do we do?" Toby interjected.

The phone went silence for a moment before Howard spoke again. "I've already assembled a meeting here. This is now bigger than our team in the basement." He gave an audible sigh. "We'll contact the UN and get more spies in place around the world. If these EMPs are validated as weapons of mass destruction, we could be on the verge of a widespread crisis. You three need to locate one of these devices and see what it even is. We'll also be trying to track down Egor, so taking him down wouldn't be bad either."

"Right, I'll just add that to my grocery list." Nolan sighed. "How do we find the source of the EMP? Do you know how long we have?"

"We're trying to detect any abnormal sources of energy in Kavala now. Since we have the entire CIA in on this, we have more technology, so getting intel should be easier."

Toby shoved his hands in his pockets as asked, "What about Maddie and James? Are you going to kick them out now that you have better people on your team?"

"No, of course not," Howard scoffed. "They're working with some of my people to get this thing under control before it blows up...quite literally."

When no one else said anything, Howard continued, "Well, I guess that's it. I've set up a credit card for each of you to use so you can go buy the necessary items for this operation. I'll contact you as soon as we get more information."

With that, he hung up.

Grace, Nolan, and Toby glanced around at each other for a few moments.

"I'm going to call Maddie." Toby said quietly, darting his eyes towards the phone.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Nolan said, exiting the room with Grace behind him. He wanted to go up to his room; to think, to process it all. But something made him turn back around to see Grace, her face ashen. She was chewing on her bottom lip nervously and her arms were crossed.

"You okay?" Nolan asked.

She looked up at him as if she were startled. She blinked before saying, "I just wanted to go home. I'm not ready for another mission."

"You seem to be handling it well." Nolan said cautiously.

"Because this is my job," She snapped, "I've held it together for as long as I can, for as long as I've needed to. I survived being held hostage; I got the information to Howard." She shook her head.

"You can try to convince Howard to let you out of this. Toby and I can probably handle it on our own." Nolan offered.

"I don't know..." She took in a slow breath straightened her shoulders, a determined look glinting in her eye. "I'm going out for a while."

Nolan watched as she promptly left the inn and took the opportunity to retreat to his room without Toby.

He lowered himself down onto the bed with a wince. His shoulder gave off a distinct throb at all times, but it wasn't quite as painful as yesterday.

He closed his eyes. Why would the Bolsheviks...or Colossus—whatever they were called now— want to take away the world's electricity? Why not create a nuclear weapon that would kill hundreds, maybe thousands, at a time?

Nolan had known about their group from the beginning. They were the regular terrorist assassins. They killed people as a demonstration of their power, took control of small villages, plotted against one another. Why take a non-deadly route? The results of an EMP blast would be devastating for sure, but what would it achieve for Colossus?

I guess that would depend on how many people they have stationed around these devices, then they might have a shot at leading some kind of rebellion, or even taking over cities with weak governments. Nolan reasoned. He then realized that if an EMP went off near a military base, the machinery there would be useless. No tanks, no helicopters, no...anything. There wouldn't be overseas aid at all.

Those smart scumbags.

He muttered a curse before dozing off for what seemed like a few seconds.

Toby burst through the door. "Clay! Get up!" He growled, shaking Nolan awake.

A trail of pain traveled across his back. "What the—Toby what're you—"

"I was on the phone with Maddie and she got a call from James. They've located the EMP here in Kavala...as well as Dimyan Egor."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello everyone! Thank you for reading! I'm so sorry it's late! Internet problems--gotta love 'em! ;) Anyway, thank you again for your patience!

What are your thoughts on the chapter?

What do you think about the latest information?

How do you think the CIA will handle such a massive problem?

I can't wait to share more! <3