Countdown to Murder

Countdown to Murder is a case featured in Criminal Case as the one-hundred thirty-second case of the game. It is the seventeenth case of the game's World Edition (Season 3) and also the final case to take place in Eurasia.

Plot
Upon The Bureau’s arrival in Kazakhstan, Chief Ripley had still been unable to reach Natasha Romanova to tell her that SOMBRA had infiltrated COSMORUS’s facilities and finished the satellite. Prior to their arrival, Elliot Clayton had given the player full clearance by overriding the security systems. The player’s mission was to stop the launch at the site in Kazakhstan and trust no one except for Jack Archer, the player’s partner.

The team arrived at the launch site only to be encountered by an enraged Natasha. Despite her not believing the team, Jack was able to tell her that the Bureau had found counterfeit swipe cards and that SOMBRA agents may have been setting up the launch at the moment. Natasha led the team to the control room, despite her hesitance. Fortunately, the satellite had not been launched; unfortunately, the team stumbled upon another murder investigation. Natasha had identified the murder victim as Vitaly Borodin, a senator from Russia. While the team started their investigation, Natasha started to take precautions that the rocket would stay on the ground.

While the investigation ensued, Natasha had placed the whole site on lockdown, and Elliot’s hacking plan had stopped working, preventing the Bureau from entering the site. Since only COSMORUS personnel could enter the site, Jack and the player disguised themselves as cosmonauts to enter through the training pool. After the team returned to headquarters, Ingrid Bjorn announced that there had been an explosion at the site and that the lockdown had been lifted.

To the team’s surprise, it was discovered on a badge that Anya Ivanova, an agent of the MGB, had entered Kazakhstan rather than returning to Moscow as ordered. Also, Agrafena Raskolnikova had to be flagged as a suspect for the third time after the team found her poster of the victim being the number one enemy. Yelena Tereshkova, a cosmonaut, and Nikolai Sharapov, a COSMORUS scientist, had returned as suspects in the murder investigation.

In the end, the killer was revealed to be Yelena Tereshkova. After Jack provided all the evidence in front of her, Yelena revealed that Natasha Romanova had told her to kill Borodin. If she did the job, then she would go to space. Natasha had told her that it was Borodin who blocked her applications to go to space as he was the head of the Security and Defense Committee. Just when Jack asked Yelena about the satellite, something she did not know about, the floor started to shake, signifying that something had launched from the control room.

The team rushed over to the launch control room to find Natasha with her gun in hand, revealing that she had launched the satellite. Unfortunately, Natasha had run off. Jack panicked at first, but kept his head in game. He told the player to tell the chief about what happened while Jack would go after Natasha – Yelena’s trail would have to wait. While Jack ran off to find Natasha, Chief Ripley opted to interrogate Yelena with the player. Yelena had never heard of SOMBRA, but she had heard Nikolai talk about them in a tablet. Back at headquarters, the Bureau agents agreed that while Elliot would try to hack into the satellite, Jonah Karam would accompany the player to find Nikolai’s tablet and Marina Romanova would help the player and Jack find her mother.

Jonah and the player went to the training pool and successfully found Nikolai’s tablet, which was sent to Elliot for analysis. Elliot confirmed that the tablet was Nikolai’s and he wanted to override the satellite as well. However, there was a piece of the code missing to completely override it. Jonah was then prompted to talk to Nikolai and convince him to give the player the code. Nikolai was hesitant, saying that he would not give the code because he wanted SOMBRA to reach out to him. When asked how he knew the name, Nikolai mentioned that it had kept appearing in Natasha’s files. As COSMORUS did not care about space travel anymore, Nikolai would hack into their satellite to get their attention. Jonah then forced Nikolai to come with them to help them stop the satellite.

Meanwhile, Marina and the player went to the launch control room and found Natasha’s cell phone, which Marina was able to unlock herself. She found a text message: “Hide in the egg until sunrise.” Thanks to Armand Dupont, the team discovered that the egg was the observation deck of the Bayterek tower. Marina and the player met Jack there, but they also discovered that Anya was there. While Marina was angered at seeing Anya, the latter remarked that the MGB and the Bureau could work together to bring Natasha to justice. Anya told Marina, Jack, and the player that she saw a woman with a red bob haircut wearing a green suit rushing into the observation tower. Although, Anya remarked that she was surprised to see this woman looking into a trash can and then panic as she could not find the thing she was looking for. Marina was prompted to look around the tower and found a metal briefcase with wads of cash. The player went through the suitcase to find a note addressed to Natasha from SOMBRA; Marina was able to translate the note, saying: “So long and thanks for all the fish”, signifying that SOMBRA was actually dumping her rather than helping her escape. Just then, Natasha appeared asking where the briefcase was at. Marina drew her gun and immediately told her mother to confess everything.

Natasha told her daughter that she wanted power. So SOMBRA promised her all of Russia if she launched the satellite; when the current government fell, she would take over. Marina then told her mother that SOMBRA had left her a note telling her that they were leaving her. Natasha panicked, asking for protection, and the player placed her under arrest and confiscating the SOMBRA money as evidence.

Judge Adaku was ecstatic when he found out he was having a double trial, something he had not experienced since the old days. When he recognized Yelena as the killer of Vitaly Borodin, Yelena immediately exclaimed that Natasha tricked her into doing it. Natasha chimed in, saying that Yelena did not complete the mission, saying that she was supposed to launch the rocket as well. Now addressing Natasha, the judge took her words as a plea of guilty for launching a satellite that would hand control of the world to a criminal organization. Because Natasha betrayed the trust of the Bureau, the Russian people, and the entire world, she was given a 75-year sentence in a maximum security facility. Yelena, on the other hand, was given a 50-year sentence in prison.

Shortly after the trial, Elliot had just managed to override the satellite, making the Bureau the organization in charge of the satellite. Moments later, Ingrid came in and told the agents that the satellite had detected an earthquake in New Delhi, prompting the player to go to India.

Victim

 * Vitaly Borodin (found with his throat cut)

Murder Weapon

 * Laser Torch

Killer

 * Yelena Tereshkova

Killer's Profile

 * The killer plays Flertis.
 * The killer eats beshbarmak.
 * The killer knows physics.
 * The killer has a bandage.
 * The killer wears a COSMORUS badge.

Trivia

 * This case is one of the cases in which the killer has to be interrogated once again during the Additional Investigation.