Victoria Hand had long since prepared an explanation for SEAL Team's failed operation. She had even prerecorded fake combat communications to replace the recordings that should have been uploaded in real time. Three assassins disguised as the pilot, guide, and sole surviving SEAL Team member would head to Constanta, a Black Sea coastal city in Romania. They would take the crashed helicopter to the designated evacuation point, rendezvous with CIA spies embedded in Moldova, and return to the United States through special channels.
This infiltration mission existed independently of Hydra's network of connections. Stephanie Malik and Diana List knew nothing about it. It was a classified mission secretly authorized by Regent Victor von Doom and handled entirely by Victoria Hand. This operation, inexplicably named "Raccoon Dog," was not being carried out for the first time. Otherwise, the Intelligence Department could not have secured the full support of the First Secret Regiment.
Although the Emperor had adopted a conciliatory approach after the first Expansion War, countless people still tried to flee westward. After all, the Emperor's policies made it clear that the new government was not friendly toward capitalism. A great many vested interests had been forced by the Emperor's butcher's blade to surrender their privileges and accumulated wealth. While the Emperor's conciliatory order remained in effect, they hurriedly fled with their families. Yet quite a few people deliberately stayed behind, intending to leave only after obtaining intelligence that could fetch a high price or making themselves famous as anti-Latverian revolutionaries. In truth, most of them were bait planted by the Intelligence Department—people whose rebellious tendencies had been detected through algorithms and network surveillance, yet who had anomalously chosen to remain. It was hard not to suspect such people. The Intelligence Department could then feed them outdated intelligence, letting them believe