Outskirts of Astana, Kazakhstan: A local is offering pumpkin seeds to Cable. It is the third time this has happened so Cable looks in the man’s mind. He extracts a sentence in Russian and says it. The man, named Khemhebek, brings Cable to a truck that’s waiting for them. There two more locals, Nurian and Oraz, who have been waiting for Kemhebek, ask him who he’s with. He answers that Cable is the man they’ve been looking for. Oraz answers that that it’s not possible, Nurian already found who they were looking for, a young woman who is sitting by the truck. Oraz adds that she knew the password. Khemhebek argues that Nathan knew the password as well. Nurian decides they will take both of them along and allow their employer, Kolya, decide. As they get on the back of the truck, the woman introduces herself to Nathan as Joy.
Meanwhile Kolya is talking to Vanya, his brother. They are in the dessert on horseback watching Kolya’s eagle. Kolya asks Vanya what he thinks when he sees an eagle. He answers that he thinks that 2 million isn’t enough, their father suffered a lot and 2 million just isn’t enough. Kolya simply says he wishes he were an eagle every time he sees one.
(dusk)
Back on the truck Joy asks if Nathan is Nathan Sumner a.k.a Cable. He asks in turn if she is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Joy is surprised by Nathan’s telepathy, but he answers that he knew she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, because only their file misspell his last name that way. Joy makes a comment on the error saying that the secretary must have been thinking of Sting. Cable asks who that is. She responds saying he is a rock star, who protects the Amazon and can make love for hours. Nathan remarks with a grin that making love for ours is no big thing.
The truck comes to sudden stop. Four men on horseback with machine guns have ambushed the truck. They want the Americans. Kemhebek and Nurian realize that Oraz has sold them out. He argues that they have no guarantees that Kolya will pay, and besides that, he doesn’t trust the Russians. One of the thieves snatches Joy’s backpack and empties it looking for the money. He finds none. Oraz looks for Cable, but realizes he’s gone. Nathan ripped aboard from the bottom of the truck and used to knock out one the thieves. A shoot out ensues. Cable uses the body of the thief to cover himself and his machine gun to kill his comrades. Looking at Joy picking up the contents of her backpack he asks why is she carrying magazines around. She answers that they really near-mint comic books worth about 2 million dollars. They are easier to move around than cash. Cable asks why she needs that kind of money in the Kazakhstan steppe. She replies that she is going to buy a nuclear warhead. In the meantime Nurian and Kemhebek beat up Oraz, with the latter breaking his finger in the process.
Meanwhile Vanya and Kolya are still discussing about the money. Vanya is thinking how the nuclear tests killed their father and the poor irrigation made him poor. Kolya remarks that their father never complained, he lived his life the best he could, like an eagle.
Continuing the trip on horseback Joy asks Cable why he didn’t use his mutant powers in the scuffle. Nathan answers that he doesn’t trust his powers anymore. Joy asks if it has anything to do with the 83 minds he wiped in Rio. He tells her that the incident affected him in a different way. He did not feel any guilt; he was only concerned about how it would affect him. He then asks why S.H.I.E.L.D. is paying for the warhead instead of just taking it by force. Joy tells him the James Bond times are over; they rather avoid a diplomatic incident.
(the next day)
The party arrives at the rendezvous point. Vanya asks why they’re late. Nurian tells him that Oraz was a traitor and that the radiator got shot in the ensuing scuffle. Vanya wonders why there are two Americans, since they only expected one. Joy tells Cable, that if he doesn’t intervene she won’t tell her superiors she saw him. She then goes to the hangar with Vanya, because she wants to see the bomb before she pays.
Kolya and Cable begin to make small talk. Nathan asks how they found the bomb. Kolya tells him they bought it from a peasant who thought it was a briefcase. They decided to sell the bomb to Americans because they figured the Americans wouldn’t use it, since they already have so many. Kolya also tells him he would like to be an eagle; Cable in turn says he’d like to be whale.
Suddenly a gunshot is heard Cable and the others burst in to find Joy dead from a shot to the head. Vanya tells Kolya 2 million isn’t enough and they can sell the bomb over and over again. Meanwhile Cables techno-organic eye begins to glow. Kolya releases his golden eagle and explosion ensues.
(two days later)
Kemhebek is the Astana police precinct being interrogated by Captain Chikarev and another officer. The policemen ask him to recount past days events. Kemhebek tells them he went to the back of the hangar to piss, when he heard a squeaking sound.
(flashback, two days before)
The hangar falls, only to reveal the lone figure of Cable standing beside a giant hole in the ground and the deceased body of Joy. He turns towards Kemhebek, who pleads for his life. Nathan then simply walks.
(present)
Officer Gerri walks into the interrogation room. He tells the captain he has the results he’s been waiting for. No seismic activity was reported in the area and the radiation levels are normal. He concludes that Cable disintegrated Vanya, Kolya and Nurian himself. The captain tells Gerri to return Joy’s body to S.H.I.E.L.D. and hint that Cable was involved. Then he tells him to destroy every copy of the report and to get Mr. Singapore on the line for him.
