Chapter 5
"Looks like I got to see your house sooner than you thought, huh, Amanda?" I asked, grinning at her.
"Yes it is," she stated, twiddling with her thumbs.
It has been 3 days since the incident in the gardens and I was waiting in Amanda's house, hoping that my team would show up today. Classes have gone by normally, nothing like what happened in the gardens. Although, I wished that something like that would happen again. That was pretty cool, even though I didn't wish any harm to befall Amanda. While I was pondering my thoughts, I heard some tires squeal. I proceeded to get up from the stairs and open the door to see who it was. Once my hand touched the doorknob, I heard a shrill voice scream toward my general direction.
"Who's at the door? Is your team finally here?" the voice screamed, bellowing over the sound of loud footsteps.
"I don't know, Amanda. That is why I am going to see who just pulled up." I said, opening the door and letting the sunlight shine into the house.
Once I opened the door, I saw three figures approaching the steps. I immediately recognized the figures, just by their body shapes and mannerisms. My team had finally arrived.
I greeted them with hearty handshakes and proceeded to show them into the dining area so we could begin. Once they entered the house, I shut the door. I looked up and saw yet another shocked expression on Amanda's face.
"You really should stop being so surprised. They're just some of my friends who are helping to protect you. Come on, I'll introduce them to you," I said, putting my hand out to help her down the rest of the stairs.
Once we got into the dining room, I noticed that there were only two in the dining room unloading some of their luggage. One of them was in a different part of the house. Seeing who was missing, I knew exactly where he was and what he was doing.
"Grey! Get the hell out of the kitchen and get in here!" I shouted, as loud as I could so he could hear me.
"Sorry. I kind of got a little hungry," Grey said, carrying out some snacks from the kitchen.
"You can eat later. Right now, I need to debrief you guys and perform introductions," I said, looking as serious as I possibly could.
Once everyone gathered, I nudged Amanda a little closer.
"This is Amanda Frisen, heiress to the Frisen fortune. We have our mission to protect her," I said, holding my hand up next to her head, showing who I was talking about. "Alright, introduce yourselves. Just something brief, nothing fancy."
"I am Christopher Grey, weapons and ordinance specialist. Plus, I'm more of a fighter, not a lover. I love eating some snacks, keeps my energy up. And it is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Frisen," Grey said, approaching Amanda.
At 5'11", he was a giant compared to her, and me of course. He was a very stocky gentleman, with brown hair and piercing brown eyes. Amanda shook his hand.
"Thank you," Amanda said. "You can call me Amanda if you want. All of you can."
"I believe I'm next. The name is Nathaniel Duncan, recon and small arms specialist. I like to see the enemy and prefer, if it can be helped, to not be seen by him. I'm a nice guy, so long as you don't push my buttons," Duncan said, approaching Amanda with his hand out in order to shake her hand.
At 5'7", he was a more toned individual. Not worrying about how people perceived him, he always worked on speed, rather than brute strength. With his dark skin and brown eyes, he was able to blend in a little better in a crowd than Grey could. Amanda shook his hand and thanked him as well for coming out to her estate.
"And, saving the best for last, I am Nicholas Cooper, but you can call me Coop. I am the heavy weapons specialist and, of course, the gatherer. I love to talk, flirt and mingle with any and all women. For gathering information only, of course," Coop said, extending his hand towards Amanda, his body almost bowing.
At 5'8", he was a slender individual, with a chiseled jaw and baby blue eyes. He always enjoyed smooth talking any individual, but mostly women. If we were to walk into a bar, he would gather all the information he needed on a woman by just talking to her for 5 minutes. Amanda approached him, slower than she did the others, feeling a little awkward. Once he had her hand, he kissed it, almost taking everything he did to the older days of Victorian, England.
"Okay, Coop. Let us not overdue it. And I am the last one to introduce myself. I am Aaron Cavanaugh, intelligence and hand-to-hand combat specialist. I am also very proficient at knife throwing and deception. I love to swim and am the leader of this team." I said moving towards the table and opening the laptop that was on the table.
Once I opened the laptop, the projector it was connected to start to whirr to life, showing a presentation of their first phase of the mission.
"Now, here is what we are going to do. We are scheduling a date tomorrow. Since tomorrow is Saturday, I decided to make the first phase a public phase. We are going to the mall, see a movie and walk around a little. Our objective: observe surrounding personnel for suspicious activity and only move on an individual if we need to. Duncan, your primary mission is to go to the mall tonight and observe any human anomalies, pinpoint where the infil and exfil routes are and be our eyes and ears during the operation. Sound good to you?" I asked, pointing at him and making sure he was paying attention.
"Yea, you know I love a little recon for dinner," he said, licking his lips, as if enjoying what he was just told to do.
"Good. Now, Grey. Your mission is more of a secondary task. I'll need you to work with Duncan and secure an exfil route for us, using the PACE plan, of course. Use some smoke bombs, flashbangs, whatever you need to make sure that when we go through, no one follows. Clear?" I asked, cracking a little smile to respond to his gigantic grin on his face.
"Crystal. This is going to be epic." Grey said, moving towards the giant crate that said 'EXPLOSIVES' on it.
"Coop. Your part is one you're going to like. I need you to befriend some of the vendors and make them informants/contacts. Once you do that, convince them, by any means necessary, to look for someone new or suspicious around Amanda and me, reporting it to you. Just don't go overboard with the convincing, okay?" I said, hoping he would follow my instructions to the T.
"Yes sir. Now, where to start," Coop said, looking around for his area to work with.
"And finally, I will be on the ground, playing protection detail and coordinating anything we would need. If something happens to me, Duncan will assume control of the team. Once we have everything set in motion, it will be a quick pace if something goes wrong. This is not something that is completely actionable, but Amanda has been receiving weird letters and phone calls. So, we all need to be on our A-game tomorrow. You guys ready?" I asked, making sure they were all paying attention.
"Hooah! Let's do this!" All three bellowed out, in a large, thunderous roar.
"Good. Get ready. And one more thing. Grey, is that in position and ready?" I asked Grey.
"Roger." Grey replied. "Comlink 3 will be that station."
"Good. That will be a worst case scenario. I'll be on the terrace if you need me," I said, walking out the glass doors and getting out one of my cigarettes.
I started to look up at the sky, and realized the sky was starting to grow darker as the sun began to set. It looked absolutely beautiful. The orange tint in the sky made it look like I was staring into a TV screen, watching a movie. I felt a warm object touch my shoulder, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was Amanda's hand, he realized, returning him back to reality.
"Do you think they are coming after me when we go out tomorrow?" She asked, sounding scared, anxious, nervous and concerned all at the same time.
"I don't know if they will tomorrow. But if they do, we will be ready. Now, go to sleep. We've already set up security for your room, so you will be safe," I said, moving away from her hand.
Without another word, she moved swiftly towards the stairs making her way to her room. As I watched her leave, I couldn't help but notice that I heard some laughing in the background. Of course, it was the team, giggling at me. I was about to go over there and see what they were laughing about when I heard some disturbance in the garden. I instantly drew my knife and threw it in the direction the sound came from. I heard a high voice, one only a woman would have, screams out in pain.
"Grey, move to Amanda and protect her. Duncan, right flank. Coop, left flank. I got the center. Scatter!" I yelled.
In that instance, everyone moved to their positions in the blink of an eye. Coop, Duncan and I moved into the garden to locate any movement.
"12 o'clock, 50 meters, one target!" I yelled out, seeing movement directly in front of me.
Once the target moved, I started to run straight towards it, moving as fast as I possibly could. Once I started to gain speed, I drew another throwing knife. Once I was within 10 meters, I saw a shimmer fly towards me and deflected it. It was my throwing knife I had hit the target with. Once I deflected it, I saw the target jump over the wall. Following it, I jumped over the wall, only to see the target jump into a vehicle and speed off. Duncan and Coop caught up to me only seconds after the car disappeared.
"The plan is still a go. We are to continue mission tomorrow. Duncan, get to the mall and get those routes planned out. Report to me when you are complete. Coop, get some rest. I'll go check up on Amanda and Grey. We leave at 0915 tomorrow. Move out." I said, making my way back over the wall and heading into the house.
Giving me an understanding nod, Duncan and Coop went to carry out their mission. Once I got back to the house, I looked at the knife that was thrown at me and saw that it had been wiped clean.
'Dammit! Whoever that was wiped the blood off. Seems like a professional,' I thought to myself, heading up the stairs toward where the bedrooms were.
"What happened?" Grey asked, standing alert in front of Amanda's door.
"A suspicious individual was doing recon. They got away, but I wounded them," I said, opening the door to her room. "Go get some rest. 0915 departure tomorrow."
Once Grey had left, I went inside and updated Amanda. I let her know that we were still going forward with the mission and made sure she was okay with that. At her request, I stood watch in her room while she was asleep, adding some extra security. After 2 hours of waiting, Duncan returned with the exfil plans and briefed me on them.
"Good," I said. "Take these to Grey and let him know so we can have everything done by the time we leave."
"Understood," Duncan said, making his way towards the door.
He stopped for a moment, looked at me and started to smirk.
"You're not in love with her, are you?" he asked.
"No, I'm not." I said. "Now go brief Grey. I'll see you in the morning."
"Understood. See you bright and early," Duncan said, entering his room
On that note, he left the room, shutting the door behind him. I walked over to the window and started laugh, as low as I possibly could. I was glad it was already dark, so Duncan couldn't see that I was blushing when he asked me if I was in love with her. Regaining my composure, I decided to check on Amanda before heading to bed myself. Approaching her room, I could hear faint crying.
"You ok, Amanda?" I asked, opening her door.
"Yea. Just a little scared," she said, sniffling a little.
"Don't worry, I will be in the room right next door. No one will hurt you. Go on and get some sleep. We have a date tomorrow," I said, giving her a wink and shutting the door.
'Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.' I thought, knowing I wasn't going to get any sleep that night.