Trouble in the Tropics

"Trouble in the Tropics" is a level in the award-winning video game The Operative: No One Lives Forever. It is the 10th mission of the game and follows Cate Archer's infiltration of a tropical island in search of the antidote to thwart H.A.R.M.'s evil plan. It consists of four scenes and is immediately followed by the mission Low Earth Orbit.

Briefing
There is a small but nonetheless intriguing possibility that H.A.R.M. is storing the antidote for the reagent at a secret research facility on an island off the coast of Mandaru.

''Your first objective will be to establish whether or not such a facility even exists. If it does, you must infiltrate it and retrieve a container of the antidote.''

Scene 1
Infiltrating the submarine dock of H.A.R.M.'s island base, Archer heads to the radio room to destroy the dock's communications system. (The security camera and alarm system can be disabled in the the area below the radio room.) After that, Archer proceeds towards the surface level via a shaky service elevator. During her ascent, her elevator stops right next to another faulty elevator being serviced by a maintenance worker, who is accompanied by an armed guard. Following an explosion, this second elevator plummets into the depths and Archer climbs a maintenance ladder to the top. After clearing out this floor, Archer uses the code breaker to exit the docking station.

Scene 2

 * T minus 36 hours
 * Somewhere off the coast of Mandaru

Archer reaches an area where a freight operation is underway, with a helicopter flying cargo out to the main facility, as well as two guards bickering about its inefficiency and the futility of any alternative methods. She heads further inland until she finds a heavily guarded temple-like area housing the main entrance to H.A.R.M.'s launch facility, blocked by impenetrable doors. She soon leaves this place for a large pond, where she accesses the facility through an exhaust tunnel high above.

Scene 3
Archer heads through the exhaust tunnel to a blast pit where a test is being conducted. She overhears two scientists arguing over a "spontaneous 90 second test fire", realizing that, left uninterrupted, it could end up killing her. Following this, she sabotages the rocket engine's support struts and causes the test to backfire, killing the scientists. This draws the attention of several guards who Archer fends off before proceeding further.

Scene 4
Reaching the heart of the facility, Archer searches high and low for the antidote, making sure not to raise the alarm, but to no avail. Eventually, Archer overhears a conversation between two scientists who discuss the status of the antidote. As the antidote can only be produced in outer space, samples must be transported to Earth every second week. Upon learning that the next rocket is due to lift off shortly, Archer contacts headquarters and informs Mr. Jones of her newfound information, alongside her intention to be aboard. After obtaining a space suit, she boards the next rocket bound for H.A.R.M.'s secret space station.

Memorable quotes
"When do you go back on shift?" "Five minutes ago." "Heh, me too."
 * H.A.R.M. Thugs

Trivia

 * This is the second mission in the game where the player cannot select their gear, as it is forcefully set to SCUBA gear.
 * Archer is only clad in SCUBA gear for Scene 1. For the rest of the mission, she wears her spy catsuit. However, first person view still shows her with a mask when diving underwater.
 * A part of the map Scene 2 that cannot be reached in normal gameplay depicts a lift with Archer, now wearing spectacles, looking at an engineer. According to a list of all the game's voice clips, the name of the engineer was supposed to be Chuck Barnes and was meant to be talking with Archer about how to "optimize propellant chemistry". It could be assumed that Archer's dubious answers to the engineer were intended to be the original method of sabotaging the test-fire, as opposed to her interference with one in progress in the final game.Nice little chat.PNG
 * The island, as well as Mandaru, is a fictional location. Since it is described as "tropical", it is supposedly somewhere on or near the Earth's equator. According to the No One Lives Forever Prima's Official Strategy Guide, the island is located in the Caribbean.
 * The ancient temple in Scene 2 suggests that the island was formerly inhabited by an old civilization, along the lines of the Inca, Aztec and Maya.
 * This is the first mission since Berlin by Night that is immediately succeeded by another mission as opposed to a briefing/training level.