It was supposed to be just a normal day at the British Embassy in Moscow. It just didn't turn out that way. The day started with the regular receiving and sending of the usual deliveries brought by the typical logistics partners of the Embassy. Somehow a pallet of goods showed up with the manifest papers either destroyed or missing. One of my warehouse dock worker employees took it upon themselves to open the shipment and ascertain the contents and where they are meant to go. That's when I was notified of an emergency in the receiving warehouse and my presence was requested most urgently with the utmost of discretion. When I arrived at the warehouse and was pointed in the direction of the unmarked pallet crates by the shocked worker who discovered the shipment, I came round to the crates with some trepidation and I was not prepared for the sight awaiting me. I stood in absolute shock and disgust at the violent tableaux and somehow I saw what appeared to be a note tacked to the inside lid of the one opened crate. I cautiously walked to the crate and peeled the note from the lid and backed away. Once I tore my eyes away from the gruesome sight I read the contents of the note- ----------------------------------------------- To the Director of Intelligence and Security Operations at the British Embassy in Mockva, Russia - That safe house you are using as a forward operations base for your clandestine agents on Russian soil, the one cleverly disguised as a women's salon in downtown Mockva, staffed by four lovely 'salon professionals'? Well, you need not worry about its maintenance implications on your budget rolls as we have found and rendered the listening post - inoperable. As you can see, we are returning your broken property to you in four robust shipping containers. Should the news of casualties sustained by British MI-6 in this incident be leaked to the public, we have no doubts that you will deny such allegations but know this, the identification documents of your fallen agents were found in a safe inside the basement of the salon and those agents have been cross-checked and verified with our dossiers we maintained on each of them and have been duly marked as Killed-In-Action by our elite security organizations. Let this be a lesson to her Majesty and the United Kingdom on how to behave in a country that is not their own. You can blame your American cohorts for their shoddy encryption protocols for this catastrophe. If it is any consolation, your field agents died well and fought to the end. I've never seen an esthetician wield automatic weapons so proficiently like those women until yesterday. Perhaps this incident will be the impetus to reconsider and indefinitely halt whatever unofficial operations and irresponsible adventures within Russia that you may have in progress. We do hope that your future encounters with us will be more prudent and respectful as you are dealing with The Bear in its den. From Russia - With Love. --------------------------------- And with that I called the Embassy switchboard and requested the security department most urgently... ------------------------------- Next - ------------------------------- V4, DAZ Iray.