A Cube of Sugar - Recap

Dan picks up his briefing at a wine shop is informed that Vincent Deane, an American agent, operates undercover as a jazz musician. While on a concert tour behind the Iron Curtain, he got hold of a coded computer microcircuit with the enemy’s second-strike capabilities. Senko Brobin, director of counterintelligence, has been assigned to break Deane and recover the microcircuit, but so far he’s failed. The IMF must rescue Deane and recover the microcircuit.

Dan assembles the briefing and reveals that the microcircuit is hid in a cube of sugar. They test a magnetic ring that allows them to extract the microcircuit from the crushed sugar. Barney informs the team they can get through the double walls of a crematorium, while Rollin notes they’ve been treated to be immune to drugs and he’s been working on his straitjacket escape. They go over a floor plan of the medical center and Dan gives Rollin a specialized tool holding everything he needs for his escape… including drugs to make it appear that Deane is dead, and another for Brobin.

Brobin and his man Polya are forcing addictive drugs on Deane then plan to force him to suffer through withdrawal. They go through his personal belongings, including the sugar cubes soaked in LSD, but don’t find the microcircuit. Dan comes from the U.S. embassy to ask for releasing Deane while Barney and Willy sneak into the sewers by the mortuary. Brobin claims that Deane was arrested for killing a woman while using and will be released in a few weeks if he doesn’t recover enough for trial. Brobin agrees to let Dan see him.

Barney and Willy work to bypass the electrical conduits and cut through the double wall to the crematorium, while Dan visits the psychotic Deane. as they leave, Dan lights up a cigarette and slips the sharpened escape tool into a slit in the padded walls of the cage. He then informs Brobin that Deane’s wife has arrived in the city and Brobin agrees to meet her at a night club. Cinnamon tries to explain that Deane isn’t a spy and was unwittingly making a delivery for someone. She points him out to sketch artist Rollin, who tries to make a break for it but is easily arrested.

While Barney and Willy work to bypass the conduit, Rollin is locked up in a cell next to Deane. When Brobin threatens Rollin with the same treatment, Rollin goes berserk and they put him in a straitjacket then inject him with a psychedelic. They then raise the padding on the cell bars, cutting him off from the outside world. Once he’s alone, Rollin escapes from the straitjacket then recovers the escape tool Dan hid earlier. He uses its knife edge to cut through the padding then a small screw-jack to push two bars apart enough to slip through.

Barney and Willy start chiseling through the walls while Cinnamon meets with Brobin. Rollin’s escape tool also works as a slingshot and he fires an adhesive pellet onto the radiator pipes. It burns through the metal and Rollin gets into the drug cabinet and injects one of the hypodermics into Deane’s medication. However, the next man arrives ten minutes early and Rollin barely manages to get back into his cell and the straitjacket. He cowers in the corner to conceal the tool.

Cinnamon notices the sugar on Brobin’s desk and feigns interested in the drugs. He offers it to her and she uses her magnetic ring to get the microcircuit. Willy and Barney make slow work since they can’t use the electric saw for fear of setting off the gas. They have to insert a bypass valve once they cut through the pipe blocking the way.

The medics give Deane his treatment at which point Rollin’s injection causes him to “die.” They notify Brobin who goes to investigate and Dan is called in. Cinnamon slips the microcircuit to Dan and Brobin claims Deane died of a heart attack and dismisses Cinnamon’s claims as those of a drug user. Dan escorts her out after threatening to do an autopsy, so Brobin orders Deane’s immediate cremation.

Barney and Willy get into the crematorium chamber while Deane is taken out, and Rollin starts screaming for Brobin on cue. Rollin asks to confess to Brobin alone, then drugs Brobin with the second drug. He then removes two masks from the escape tool.

Deane is placed in the chamber and Barney holds a gas torch up to the window to make it appear there’s flames inside. Once the security men are gone, they take Keane out through the hole and into the sewer. Brobin emerges from the medical center and gets into the van, where Dan is waiting. Once inside, “Brobin” removes his mask to reveal… Rollin. Brobin is wearing a Rollin mask and unconscious in the cell. The team examines the chip, coated in sugar to blend in, as they make their escape.

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