0700

October 3rd, 2017

Undisclosed Location

This was not a good day to say the least. Just yesterday the worst terrorist attack to any of the NATO countries took place in the United States at one of the most prestigious schools in the world, Bartlett University. Marching down a bleak hallway, Mike Baker shook his head as thoughts raced through his mind about what went wrong the day before. The intel was off, causality rates were high on Rainbows side, somehow these guys flew under the radar with mass amounts of chemical weapons, overall sloppy coordination, and the overwhelming thought of who the hell were these men that wore white masks flooded his thoughts.

As he passed by dull brown wood doors that carried on for what seemed like an eternity, he saw the door he meant to stop by, an unmarked steel door, the only one of its kind. He grasped the handle and took a deep breath. He was not looking forward to the conversation with her. The man wasn't fearful of the coming discussion, his years of combat experience had forced fear out of him; however, to say he wasn't anxious would be a wrong assumption. He had a healthy, respectful understanding of the coldness that came from this woman. With a twist and a push, the door creaked open into a sullen, simply furnished room with a single light hanging from the ceiling. A chair sat in front of a large oak desk, filing cabinets behind it held classified information that may never see the light of day again. The only other person in the room was a dark skinned woman wearing a red executive type suit.

"Good morning ma'am," Baker croaked out as he snapped to attention.

"Right on time Baker. At ease," She responded coldly. Her eyes were deep and foreboding; an abysmal plain that let no light that entered it escape. "Please, have a seat," she motioned to the chair in front of her desk. The simple leather bound chair matched the desk it sat in front of.

He entered parade rest before taking his seat. "You said this was of the utmost importance?"

"Correct," she pulled a black briefcase out from behind her desk, unlocking it and pulling from it several unmarked file folders with photos clipped to the front of them. He couldn't directly see the pictures well but he saw what looked like various soldiers from many different parts of the world. A pit opened up in his stomach as he realized what these were.

"These are our Rainbow operatives we've had embedded in countries doing intel work."

Baker took the folders and inspected the photos. "These are the …?"

"Chinese SDU, Polish GROM, Korean 707th SMB, Spetsnaz, and GIGN."

"We're pulling these in to increase our numbers aren't we?"

"Correct, because we don't have the numbers to be spread across the world and be combat effective. Especially after the Bartlett attack."

The counterattack by Rainbow at Bartlett had gone awry when Rainbow's intelligence proved to be off and the attack was much earlier and much more violent than anticipated. Rainbow only had a handful of operators from the Siege division in the United States at the time and had to pull additional assets from the Vegas division as backup. That backfired however as all of the Vegas operators had no knowledge of the situation and were not used to working while wearing chemical hazmat suits. Several of the Vegas operators were KIA during that day, and this is why Siege needed to pool in these operators. Their numbers had to be increased.

Baker flipped through the files, refreshing his memory on who they were. "What roles will these new operators fill ma'am?"

"Half of them will fill direct action roles, the other half will fill primarily logistical roles such as intelligence, reconnaissance, or medical."

He scratched his head, thinking would these numbers be enough for him to feel comfortable splitting the main force apart for various missions. Sure everyone could be direct action on missions while serving their roles of intelligence or medical or whatever they were, but some just preferred to not be in the fight, such as Gustave. From glancing through the files, Baker remembered which ones were primarily for logistical purposes, and what ones were more for direct action. These would bring Rainbow's direct action operator numbers up from 19 to 23. Those numbers were better but not exactly as high as he wanted.

"Do we have any recruits we can add to this within the next few weeks? These numbers are better but not as high as I would like. I believe more operators would raise our numbers up to a more comfortable level."

She stared at him and seemed to ponder the thought for a few moments. "I'll look through our candidates. I believe we have some American candidates. But, we'll discuss that at a later date. As of right now, these operators will be heading to Hereford within the next few weeks as they travel from their respective countries they're embedded in. Ela, Lion, and Finka will be here within a week, the rest will come within 6 or 8 weeks."

That was a timeframe Baker did not like to hear. On top of the time frame, the idea of American operators frustrated Baker to no end. He had met many American operators throughout his military career, and the yanks were always prone to aggressive behavior on the combat field. While good at their jobs, Baker didn't like it when it came to putting them into squads, as the Americans while working with their squad mates tended to make coordination and tactical analysis difficult. It was a more of pain than getting shot at. Baker grimaced at the two problems stacking on top of each other; clearing his throat he responded;

"Ma'am, with all due respect, we need more operators faster than the last 5 can get here. The first 3 coming within a week is fine but six to eight weeks to get the rest of our reinforcements is far too long. We need more operators within the next week or two if at all possible." Setting the folders on her desk he looked her in the eyes and decided to take a risk and try to push her to find more operators.

"Can you get those new recruits here within the next 10 days? I would like our numbers to be higher sooner rather than in almost two months. By then these individuals in white masks could be attacking Paris or Germany."

A slight look of surprise came over her, an emotion Baker wasn't sure she possessed.

"That's a tall order," she paused and kept her gaze affixed on him. It seemed she was studying him to find out something he wasn't saying. No look of anxiety was upon him, only confidence that he was asking the right questions. After what felt like forever she nodded and finished her thought. "Come back to me in 48 hours and I'll have you some candidates. I can't guarantee any numbers, but I'll see who I can get. They'll have to be fully evaluated when they arrive however, but I'm sure you already thought of that."

"That is right, I know we can use the SAS training facilities here at Hereford to evaluate them. It will work out."

She nodded, as if approving of his thoughts. "And as far as this meeting is concerned, we're done here."

Relieved, the man stood up and saluted her. "Thank you ma'am."

She motioned towards the door.

"You're dismissed."

Grabbing the files, Baker left and headed straight to a few doors down where the gear inventories of each incoming operator would be processed and the necessary new gear set-aside for them. Opening the door he was greeted by their top tech and inventory specialist, Mark Chandar. When in the office Mark dressed in business casual with a white collared shirt, sleeves rolled up, and black slacks, a stark contrast to his blue SAS BDU's he so hated to wear.

"Morning sir," Mark said rather dry, as per his usual method of speech.

"Morning Chandar," Baker set the folders down in front of him. "We've got 8 operators from across the globe coming in, 3 within the week, 5 within the next month or two."

Mark thumbed through the folders and pulled out what he needed to start inventories. "Reeling everyone in eh? Figures after that botched op yesterday." Mark overlooked the paperwork he had, reading everything as usual. "Who are the ones coming in a week, I want to get their information processed first."

"Their names are Ela, Lion, and Finka. They'll be here within a week."

Mark brought their papers to the front and began typing away, effectively ending the conversation.

"Thank you Chandar," Baker said as he grabbed the folders and headed out to the door across the hall. Most others would think that Mark's behavior was rude, but this was hardly the case. Sure he was the youngest operative in Rainbow but that wasn't the reason the man was short with everyone. That was just his nature, and Baker knew to not think anything of it. The other operators in Rainbow took some time to get used to it, and some still aren't used to Mark's personality. It is his personality that is why Baker likes him so much. Short, sweet, and to the point as he always says.

The room across from Mark was where Rainbow's intelligence and logistical personnel were located. Along with the people who worked behind the scenes to get intelligence, some of their operators worked in this office as well. As Baker entered the room he was greeted by one of their best intelligence operators, Meghan Castellano. The blonde loves working in the field just as much as she loves working behind a desk. Both give her a sense of accomplishment as she puts it.

"Well good morning sir, I'm shocked to see you up before noon," the smile across her face showed her more playful side when working in non-combat environments. She respected Baker but gave him hell for being the oldest member of the team any chance she could. Her eyes spotted the folders in his hands. "Ooh is that some new intel for me?"

"Oy, knock it off Castellano," he quickly remarked as he walked by her desk, eliciting a groan from Meghan. Walking to a small office at the back of the room, Baker entered without knocking.

"Estrada, we're -," he stopped mid sentence when he saw Jack Estrada with a card tower on his desk.

"Oh, hello sir." Jack smiled and looked at his creation. "I did this in about 15 minutes."

Baker paused staring at the sheepish man before continuing "Uh, yeah alright." Straightening up the folders, Baker set them down on Jack's desk. "We're pooling in our operators so I need you to rework the squads again."

Clearing his throat, Jack looked through the folders slowly. "Oh yeah I remember these people, I've already determined where I think they should go so I'll just print out that file right-" but Baker stopped him mid sentence.

"They're coming in waves. Ela, Lion, and Finka are coming in a week while the others are coming in 6 to 8 weeks."

Jack's eyes widened from the shock of how far apart those times were. "Son of a bitch that's a while." Drumming his fingers on the desk he thought deeply for several moments.

"I know it throws a bloody wrench in our system. Wonderful isn't it?" Baker laughed as he went to step out. "I'll leave you to figuring it out Estrada."

As he went to pass Meghan's desk she stopped him.

"They're pooling in our other ops? All of them?"

Baker nodded, the furrows in his face accentuating the slight look of perplexity. "Why?"

Groaning, she slouched back in her chair. "I'm not looking forward to meeting that stuck up Korean girl."

"How in the bloody hell do you know she's stuck up? Her files make no mention of that."

Smirking, she looked up at him. "I'm in intelligence sir, I find out a lot when I'm bored. Like I know about your time in Scotland all those years ago." A sly grin stretched across her face, her mischievous nature coming out.

Rolling his eyes, Baker walked out in a huff. "Get back to work Castellano!"