Horseback Mountain

Horseback Mountain 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 fifth case to take place in Eurasia.

Plot
The Bureau had just gotten off the train in Mongolia when Chief Ripley refreshed the player’s memory in what they learned about SOMBRA: the global organization was building a master satellite which would allow them to take control of all the other satellites in orbit and have stolen launch codes and satellite parts from COSMORUS in the process. As the Bureau had no idea how advanced the project was at the moment, the chief informed the player that there was a secret facility hidden in the wilderness where they would learn more about the satellite.

Carmen Martinez and the player then went to Mount Khan to find clues. However, they stumbled upon a dead body as well as the murder weapon used to kill him – a saber. The team immediately identified the victim as satellite engineer Andrei Beloglazov by looking at the name tag on his lab coat and shipped him off to Angela Douglas for autopsy. Meanwhile, Elliot Clayton discovered the location of the secret satellite factory, which was hidden underneath the statue of Genghis Khan. The team found a model of a satellite and scanned it for fingerprints, which belonged to Mossad agent Asal Hawaa, who claimed to be in Mongolia to spend time with Jack Archer, but actually was there to investigate the mystery behind the stolen components. Carmen also discovered that cosmonaut Yelena Tereshkova had seen the factory as well.

As the team was recalling what they had learned so far, Jack ran into headquarters and worriedly announced that Asal and MGB agent Anya Ivanova were threatening to shoot each other at the factory. The team arrived at the factory just in time. Carmen suggested Jack to take Asal with him so that she would not jeopardize the investigation while she would interrogate Anya. After collecting and analyzing the remaining pieces of evidence in Mount Khan, the killer was incriminated to be horse breeder Tsetseg.

Carmen assumed that Tsetseg had killed Andrei because he had left her horse on Mount Khan to suffer and die alone. After she presented the last pieces of evidence to the killer, Tsetseg admitted that she had gotten sloppy on weapon techniques and that she would never had made a mistake in the past. Tsetseg told the team that she was, and still is, one of the world’s greatest hitwomen, but her job with Andrei would be the last job she would take before retiring to focus on running the family stables. She admitted that she was stupid to accept an offer from SOMBRA to kill Andrei. Getting the message that Andrei had worked for SOMBRA, Carmen asked the horse breeder if the satellite was complete. However, Tsetseg refused to answer, saying that she said too much. As she had also told Judge Adaku that she had said too much, the judge did not hesitate to sentence her to 30 years in prison.

With everything pointing to the satellite having been built, the Bureau was to determine where the satellite went. Therefore, Carmen was prompted to head to the satellite factory again to search for clues. There, they found a locked safe which contained COSMORUS swipe cards. As Natasha Romanova made it clear she would no longer help the team on the train, the team sent the cards to Elliot for more information, only to discover that the cards were fake. Elliot revealed that SOMBRA was planning on disguising themselves as COSMORUS employees and using the cards to access one of the launch sites. As Carmen had no idea which site to look for, the team decided to turn to Yelena for help. Yelena revealed that the victim had an argument with someone about shipment in front of Mount Khan, and that prompted the team to head there.

Carmen and the player found a delivery slip with the COSMORUS logo on it for a satellite, which confirmed that the satellite had indeed been built. However, they also found that the satellite was being shipped to Kazakhstan. Now feeling the team had no choice, Carmen attempted to call Natasha, but without success. So they turned to Elliot for help. They told him everything they had discovered, including the fact that Natasha did not answer her phone. Elliot agreed to help the Bureau gain high-level clearance into the launch site in Kazakhstan by hacking into COSMORUS’ security systems.

Meanwhile, Asal had wished to talk to Jack and the player in the interrogation room. After admitting that she did care about Jack, she suggested the player to keep an eye on Anya as she believed that the latter was unhinged. Asal would have interrogated Anya herself, but she had to leave for another mission, so she gave the team cash for their investigation at the Mongolian restaurant the player had gone to earlier with Carmen. There, they found a microfilm inside a bowl of beef noodles, and it was sent to Elliot. Elliot found a message from the MGB to Anya, telling her that the mission she was on was unauthorized, and she would be sent back to Moscow. The team interrogated Anya, who told them that she was still trying to bring SOMBRA down, despite the MGB to drop her investigation. Jack told her to stay out of the player’s investigation, but Anya did not take the threat seriously.

Victim

 * Andrei Beloglazov (found nearly sliced in half on Mount Khan)

Murder Weapon

 * Saber

Killer

 * Tsetseg

Killer's Profile

 * The killer knows sword fighting.
 * The killer goes horse riding.
 * The killer drinks salty tea.
 * The killer has brown eyes.
 * The killer is female.

Trivia

 * While one task in Darkness Descends required a star to talk to Elliot Clayton, he was not accused of any wrongdoing, and him showing up on the suspect list during Darkness Descends should be considered incidental.
 * This case is one of the several cases containing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) suspects.
 * This is one of the cases containing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) victims.
 * This is one of the cases in which Carmen and Jack interact with each other.
 * The name Horseback Mountain is most likely reference to the 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain.