| For the Exotic Marksman Rifle of the same name in Tom Clancy's The Division 2, see Mantis (Sniper Rifle). |
Linda Kaib, call sign Mantis, was a Black Tusk operative and member of the B.T.S.U. She is an antagonist in Tom Clancy’s The Division: Extremis Malis and a supporting character in Tom Clancy’s The Division: Broken Dawn.
Mantis coordinated weapons shipments from various paramilitary groups across the eastern United States, as part of Black Tusk’s proxy campaign against the Joint Task Force and Strategic Homeland Division. She also enlisted the aid of rogue agent Ike Ronson in an attempt to secure samples of broad-spectrum antivirals from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Biography[]
Prior to joining Black Tusk, Linda Kaib served in the military as part of the U.S. Army Rangers. She was eventually listed as ‘killed in action’ by the Department of Defense, though her physical description and fingerprints match those of Mantis.
Following the death of his family, Mantis contacted Ike Ronson via an intermediary and convinced him to become a double agent for her unknown employer. She then provided him electronic countermeasures that would prevent ISAC from marking him as a rogue.
Tom Clancy's The Division: Broken Dawn[]
Six weeks after their initial meeting, Mantis contacted Ronson with a mission to intercept April Kelleher, who had left Manhattan and was on her way to Ann Arbor, Michigan. This forced Ronson to abandon an ongoing JTF operation in New York, resulting in fourteen civilian deaths. Their bodies were discovered by another agent Aurelio Diaz, who vowed to find Ronson.
Mantis would check in with Ronson every forty-eight hours, updating him on Kelleher’s progress. He eventually caught up outside Milan and accompanied her to the University of Michigan, where they met Diaz. Kelleher told the agents about her husband’s research on broad-spectrum antivirals--a potential cure for the Green Poison that had been produced in the school's lab facilities. Ronson relayed the news to Mantis, who assembled a Black Tusk strike force nearby.
Ronson signaled to begin the assault, only to discover the antivirals had been sent to Washington, D.C. at the request of President Ellis. Shortly after, Ronson was knocked unconscious by Diaz, who left him bound to a chair and escaped with Kelleher as Black Tusk forces raided the lab.
Tom Clancy’s The Division: Extremis Malis[]
Mantis coordinated shipments of heavy weapons to paramilitary groups across the East Coast, such as the remnants of the Last Man Battalion, undermining the JTF and SHD’s attempts to re-establish civil order. She kept numerous safe houses across various states, and met with clients both in-person and via radio.
With help from Padilla, a civilian informant, the Division tracked Mantis to a warehouse in Chinatown. Faye Lau sent agents Caleb Dunne and Mathias Kaminsky were sent to raid the location, with support from the JTF. Inside, the agents encountered Mantis, who feigned surrender and took Kaminsky hostage at knifepoint. She then slit his throat and stabbed him before escaping. Kaminsky died soon afterwards, prompting Dunne to swear revenge.
Mantis then assassinated Padilla at his apartment in Greenwich Village. His body was found by Dunne, who identified Mantis as the culprit via ECHO. Trace chemicals at the scene led Dunne to the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant, where he witnessed Mantis talking with rogue agent Ike Ronson.
Dunne found Mantis’s safe house underground, which contained loose SHD Smart Watches and a map detailing operations across the East Coast, including between New York City and Philadelphia. Mantis returned and, after a scuffle, activated the hideout’s self-destruct explosives and fled. Dunne barely escaped, and was recovered by JTF personnel.
After recovering, he left for Philadelphia, where he partnered with agent Heather Ward. At the Camden Settlement, a defectir named Timmy informed the agents that Mantis was working with the Founders, a local paramilitary group. The trio infiltrated their headquarters at Independence Hall, where they recovered a SATCOM transceiver and destroyed their armory with explosives. This forced Mantis to call Milla "Wyvern" Radek and report losing contact with both the Founders and LMB. She reassured her superior they still had enough assets to proceed, but Wyvern warned her that given the stakes at hand, anyone was expendable.
Weeks later, NSA technicians managed to trace the transceiver’s signal to a farmhouse outside Fredrick, Maryland, where Mantis was stationed with a team of Black Tusk soldiers. Dunne, Ward and agent Brian Johnson arrived soon afterwards, prompting a firefight. Mantis attempted to escape in a Humvee, but Ward overturned her vehicle with a Sticky Bomb. Dunne overpowered Mantis and began choking her to death in a rage, only relenting at Ward’s insistence. As they detained Mantis, the SHD Network went offline, and their watches displayed the coordinates “38.8975, -77.0375”.
The agents escorted Mantis to the nearby Fort Detrick for interrogation, but found the entire base destroyed. On Wyvern’s orders, a hidden Black Tusk sniper then shot Mantis through the head and fled, silencing her. Her body was left behind as the agents departed for Washington, D.C..
Gallery[]
