The sky over the western horizon was stained red by the setting sun, as the pickup truck bumped and jostled its way over the rugged landscape of the Onon-Balj Basin National Park. Roads were few and far between in this remote patch of Mongolian wilderness, and the journey had not been a comfortable one, especially in this aged vehicle which -- although solid enough in its design -- seemed to be held together largely with duct tape and prayers. The surroundings offered a breathtaking view, at least by Carmen Sandiego's reckoning. She could happily look at this country's majestic vistas all day, its wild sweeping expanses of steppe forest and grassland, its hills and rivers. This place felt like an older world, a world untouched by human development. There were people who lived out here for sure, but the culture of this place was still primarily a nomadic one, and when those people moved on from one area to the next, they left very little of themselves behind.
Mongolia had of course offered her some captivating sights other than its natural scenery. Carmen turned her head from the passenger side window and stole another glance at Buri, the truck's driver and her partner in this caper. He was certainly nothing if not memorable to look at. Standing 6'6" tall, the Mongolian was a giant of a man with muscles like a weightlifter. Carmen had clocked him as being some form of ex-military within moments of meeting him. Threat recognition was something she had been taught keenly as a youngster, and she was very adept at recognising the signs of a law enforcement or military background. More than that, she noticed that the way Buri conducted himself in the field was very reminiscent of western military training. She had no doubt that he had served his own country in the Mongolian armed forces, but she did wonder where else in the world he might have operated. Had he perhaps been a mercenary at some point, a private military contractor? No, by her reckoning he didn't seem the type to be a hired gun. Maybe he had previously been involved in intelligence work, even black ops. It was clear that he was also a very capable field medic, and it was his skills in that area which now enabled him to make his living out here, moving from one group of locals to another as he was needed.
Carmen was more than grateful for his help on her latest adventure. With an increasing number of V.I.L.E. operatives trying to rebuild their old organisation, the syndicate had established a hidden field operations centre here in the Onon-Balj Basin, from which they were smuggling and distributing stolen cultural artefacts to unscrupulous buyers across the globe. The international black market trade in antiquities and treasures was booming, after all, and even many legitimate institutions were willing to turn a blind eye when offered valuable objects whose providence was rather sketchy. It made Carmen despair just how high the demand for such items was, but she had dedicated her life to making sure that V.I.L.E. would not be able to feed that demand. Buri had been at her side throughout the infiltration of that facility, and his combat expertise had been something of a marvel to behold. Carmen was an extremely accomplished martial artist in her own right, but Buri was something else. She had not seen prowess like his since her ill-fated brawl with Coach Brunt in Poitiers years ago, and she suspected that he only took a non-lethal approach to dealing with V.I.L.E.'s goons because Carmen had asked him to.
Once the facility's many security systems had been disabled, its location and a manifest of all goods stored on site had been broadcast to the authorities. With their secret out, V.I.L.E.'s personnel had ordered a full retreat. The Mongolian government took an extremely dim view of the theft of national artefacts, and it was likely that a full military operation would be mobilised to reclaim everything there. While Carmen intended to be gone long before the army arrived, there was one item among the facility's loot which Buri had insisted on taking back in person, and that item now rested within a large wooden packing crate on the back of the truck. It was the fossilised skull of a dinosaur,
Tarbosaurus bataar
, the Mongolian cousin of
Tyrannosaurus rex
. That specific fossil had some history of its own, having been purchased in 2007 for over a quarter of a million dollars by Nicolas Cage. The actor had later returned to skull to Mongolia in 2015, after being presented with proof that the item had been exported illegally, and the gallery had bought it from an illicit supplier. Carmen imagined that V.I.L.E. planned to charge one of their clients a very high price for a prehistoric relic which had not only been recovered by law enforcement once before, but had passed through celebrity hands in the process.
Now that the evening was closing in, they were going to have to stop soon. Buri might have been willing to drive over this treacherous terrain all night, but even he had to recognise the danger of doing so when the both of them were running low on sleep. In the passenger seat, Carmen stretched and yawned, arching her back a little more than was strictly necessary. Buri glanced over to her, eyes lingering a moment on her chest as he stifled a yawn of his own. Finally taking the hint, he began to slow the truck to a halt. As the vehicle finally stopped, Carmen unclipped her seatbelt and opened the door, climbing out to take once last look at the landscape before the fiery red sun finally dipped out of sight. Buri wasted no time in grabbing his insulated tent from the truck, pitching it before the evening cold began to bite. The central Asian wilderness could be blisteringly hot during the day, but after nightfall the temperatures could drop to near freezing very quickly. This region of Mongolia may not be anything near as harsh as the Gobi desert to the south, but it would be foolish not to respect the area's climate. In minutes the tent was up, and a yak fur blanket and a pair of insulated sleeping bags had been laid out within. Buri then tilted his head towards the packing crate, indicating that he wanted Carmen's help in lifting it down.
"It's going to be a tight squeeze, keeping this thing inside with us," she remarked as they heaved the box down and carefully manoeuvred it into the tent. It was far from a complaint; she had every intention of getting as close to Buri as possible before the night was over. She was pretty sure that he felt some physical attraction to her, and she had plenty towards him.
"I'm not letting this box out of my sight," Buri explained. "I wouldn't forgive myself if we woke up tomorrow and some V.I.L.E.
deeremchin
had managed to follow our trail and take it from us in the night."
"Well, that won't be happening here," she assured him.
They carefully placed the crate down, and lifted the lid to check on the contents. Inside lay the last remains of a predator which had once dominated this countryside, more than sixty-five million years previous. Carmen had seen plenty of dinosaur fossils on display in museums, but all the same, she couldn't help but be a little awed at being so close to it. Looking at this skull, she could almost imagine the sound of the long-dead animal's breathing, the thump of its weighty footsteps. Buri's large hand clasped her shoulder.
"It's beautiful," he told her. "I can't tell you how grateful I am, that you helped me track down those who stole it. This is a priceless treasure of my country."
Carmen turned herself towards him.
