In Citadel, Manticore is an organization that stands for everything that Citadel opposes. To take Citadel down, Manticore attacks and kills Citadel spies around the world, but Manticore soon realizes that there are some who are still alive.
Nadia and Mason are sent to stop a man named Gregor Yovanovitch, who is carrying a bag full of uranium on a train. It turns out that there is no uranium and that an organization called Manticore fed Citadel false information to lure them out.
Gregor Yovanovitch already knows Nadia’s real name, and he wants to deliver a message to her. This is the end of Citadel and the rise of Manticore. He claims that Citadel is a myth, but Manticore is the truth.
What is Manticore?
Before Gregor Yovanovitch and his men attacked Nadia and Mason, he showed Nadia a symbol on his forearm. He also showed her how thousands of Citadel spies are being killed by Manticore around the world.
He sacrificed himself to kill Nadia and Mason, but the two survived. His last words to them were a promise as well as a warning that Manticore will always find them.
Eight years later, Bernard tells Mason that Citadel and Manticore are two very different spy organizations. Citadel was created almost a century ago for the good of all people; it is not loyal to any individual or nation, only to the safety and security of all.
On the other hand, Manticore is an organization that emerged eight years ago. It is a spy network built by the eight wealthiest families around the world to manipulate world events in order to amass wealth and power.
Manticore had been waiting for years to take Citadel down, and when they succeeded eight years ago, they got Bernard’s technology, which they used for disastrous things like causing catastrophic wars, grid failures, oil crisis, and more.
People like the UK’s ambassador to the United States, Dahlia Archer, and the secretary of state, Harold McCulough, worked for Manticore. Dahlia is still the broker for the families that run Manticore, and she knows that she will be killed if she messes up.
Manticore now wants to get its hands on the Citadel X Case, as it contains Citadel’s secrets and sensitive information, like the codes of every nuclear weapon in the world.
Dahlia threatens Secretary McCulough, who does not work for Manticore anymore, and he is forced to give away the location of the case. She then sends two Manticore agents, the Silje brothers, to retrieve it.
However, Manticore fails to open the case, as Mason steals it from them in time. Now that Mason has met Nadia, who has even regained her memories, Manticore will be targeting them to get the case.
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