Sam Fisher- Suction Cup Mic

  The corridor is empty but I can hear angry voices in a room down the hallway. There’s a washroom next to it, so I go in there and shut the door. I open a pouch on my leg and remove a microphone with a suction cup attached to it. I lick the cup and stick it on the wall, then adjust my OPSAT to pick up the signal. Through my headset I can now hear what they’re saying. The Russian is difficult to pick up but I can understand some of it. For good measure I start recording it just as Carly St. John, Third Echelon’s acting technical director, speaks through the implants.

  “I’ll try to give you a rough translation as we go, Sam,” she says, “then later we can do the whole thing.”

  Either the general or Herzog is doing most of the talking. He’s giving the two men from the building a royal chewing out.

  “It’s something about ‘failure to do this and failure to do that,’ ” Carly says. “And ‘a security breach.’ They’re ‘closing down the facility.’ ”

  One of the men protests and sounds very frightened. Apparently he’s about to lose more than just his job.

  BLAM! BLAM! The two gunshots startle me. They’re followed by the sound of two bodies hitting the floor. I hear the general or Herzog mutter something and then the four newcomers leave the room. They march down the hall, past the washroom, and exit the building. The place is dead silent.

- Operation Barracuda, Chapter 1