Prologue

Prologue

Under the starry night sky, a helicopter banked towards the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, its rotor blades chopping through the cold night air. As the aircraft neared the mountain complex, the pilot spoke into his headset. "Control, this is Vector One, requesting permission to land." Moments later, a thick Turkish accent crackled through the radio. "Vector One, radar contact confirmed. You're cleared to land at Pad Three. Welcome back." As the helicopter descended to the structures, scattered lights appeared from the mountainside, revealing small clusters of structures built into the steep, rocky terrain. Just underneath a cluster, a landing pad jutted out of a gigantic crevice on the cliff face, almost seemingly suspended in midair. Several armed guards stood waiting beside the pad.

As the helicopter neared the landing zone, he eased the aircraft gently down onto the concrete. As the rotors wound down, several ground technicians rolled out a metallic cart and approached the cargo door. They slid open the door. Inside, sat a silver refrigerated crate. On the cover, a rectangular sticker no larger than a palm of a hand was neatly placed in the center. Like the crate itself, the label was remarkably plain and nondescript containing only a handful of things: a barcode, a serial number, a small biohazard symbol in the top left corner, and a line of fine print that read:

BA-9 #0184.

One of the technicians retrieved a scanner and scanned the barcode, while another had a clipboard in his hand and was filling out information while continuously looking back up to the crate. The technician with the scanner said quietly "Shipment verified." "Same drop-off next week?" asked the pilot. The technician with the clipboard responded with a shrug "Depends on if Ankara is even sending us anything." The pilot nodded.

The technicians loaded the crate off the helicopter and onto the waiting cart. The pilot got back into the cockpit, spun up the engines, and took off into night sky. The technicians on the ground with the security detail wheeled the cart into brightly lit corridor leading deep into the mount, disappearing behind a massive blast door as it closed shut.