The Fifth Freedom
Ash, all standing straight and remorseful, waiting for Six to reviewed her mission yesterday. The call to return to Hereford was expected, considering the importance of its danger. She contemplated all the views she could bear where one involved her to safe the bomber. Hysterical begging led her to reminisced the mission before this. But the important part for all the world to see is… She was sad.
"Hey, you're okay?" Thermite whispered beside her.
"Jordan….. I'm all good." Truth conceded to her lies. Thermite nod with the answer, even though it's a blatant lie.
After closing the last page in the report from mission control, Six proceeded, "Eliza, you're doing what you can to save everyone on that bridge. Good job.". Much to her disdain, she nodded while keeping her face straight.
"Jordan, can I have a moment with Miss Cohen here?" Six proceeded.
"Sure thing." and Thermite left the room.
"Eliza, sit down." Six handed Ash the seat on her left.
Right after, Six shut the shutters down, leaving a few bright lights coming in and turning on a jammer as an extra precaution for any spy sets put in the room unknowingly.
"Eliza… if you have something to say, it's time. Off the record." Thermite wasn't the only one noticing Ash's troubled mood.
"Look, it's... just... that I'm not in the best mood for the week….. I'm okay…..." Ash defended her stance as Six pulled out another file from her desk.
"Eliza, since the mission in Panama, I've ordered Doc to kept a close eye on you and do a psychological check from away. From what I've seen in the report, you're not okay and Doc actually wanted to call a psychiatrist, his old friend from MSF, to find what's wrong and maybe, get something to relieve you from this. But, I said no, at least until you wanted to have anything to say to me directly. So Eliza, just tell me… How are you doing?" Six edged Ash to get her to tell anything she kept buried under.
But to no avail, Ash kept herself shut, holding anger and cry to not be shown to her superior, all to protect her from telling the truth.
"Okay then… Since you're not telling and I know you won't see that psych anyway. I'm not gonna press you forward with this." Ash remained stoned and her glare was in sour taste.
"And Eliza, remember this….. We're here to save lives in any way possible, even if it means breaking basic human rights or sacrificing others for the greater good. The fifth freedom, while it applies only for US sanctioned personnel in the beginning, is given to us, the world's best special forces, to combat similar threat worldwide. Governments in the whole world agree with our extreme measures and if you feel any regrets with what you do, potentially, bigger lives will be lost." Six speech Ash, knowing the actual essence of her troubled mood.
"And if that means justification for taking or neglecting innocent lives for the greater good, we're no better than what we fight against." Ash finally spit her soured words to her superior, but Six understand.
"Eliza, I'm gonna demote you from the lead and make you as a second-in-command for the lead in all mission. You need this to clear your minds." Ash waved her view down and nod to the demotion.
"Then who'll take my place? Mike? Jordan? Or Senaviev?" she conceded to the demotion and ready to report to the possible appointed leader.
"No actually. I'm gonna put the new personnel to our team as the lead." Ash got caught in the curiosity.
"A new guy? We just got Erik and Evans last week. It's very rare to get new personnel in this time" Ash proceeded with her curiosity.
"Actually two guys and both of them came from the Fourth Echelon, an agency you know as Blacklist Zero." Six filled in Ash with the new recruits.
"I see…." she replied flat.
"You should greet them, they should've made it by now." Six softly urged Ash to handed over her lead position in a morally manner.
"Okay." Ash replied.
"I'll see you later Eliza. And please, don't keep this inside you or it will eat you." A kind advice concerning Ash's condition.
In silent, she left the room and on her way to greet the new recruits. Six, contemplating the the content of the file, can only hope for the best.
Slowly, she traced the hallway along the second floor and went down downstairs where the lobby stands. A few recruits greeted her but replied by a passing by and an empty stare, something people rarely see in her. Approaching the lobby, a commotion could be heard and familiar faces appeared to had beaten her to meet the recruits. The news about the arrivals of these two new recruits weren't something new, it's already announced three days ago but Ash had a bigger concern to heard such news.
In her walk, she sighed and gasped, keeping everything inside her before going in. She nodded her head up, forced a smile, and try to make a genuine warm greeting. She was troubled creating the fake facade, the same as creating her lead facade yesterday. But, Mira saw her and waved her hand, calling Ash to come. She smiled and approached.
Everyone seemed to make it like party. Balloons, confetti, and even cake. Mira, Doc, Lion, Thermite, Valkyrie, Blackbeard, Fuze, Mute, Zofia, Caveira, IQ, Blitz, Jager, Echo, and Kapkan all there, greeting the new recruits. Ash surprised by the crowd, a rare sight for this many people it greet two operators.
"They must be a big deal for these guys." Ash commented.
Mira took her hand and said, "Hey Eliza, come on meet the new guys.". Against the crowd, Mira helped Ash to meet the new recruits. As she saw them, she knew what's the big commotion is about.
"So Eliza, I want you to meet…"
"Keyzer Szabo and… Jack Fisher." Ash knew them from the old days.
"Ahhhhh so you guys already know each other?" Mira asked.
"Yes….. A long time ago." her smiled turned into an honest smirked.
Suddenly, Blackbeard dropped his cake on Mira's shirt and she proceeded by yelling at him. Meanwhile, Ash only stared at both men and stunned.
"What? I got a cooties or something?" Jack snapped her to say something.
"No… I'm just glad you're in the team…. Sir." she held his hand and hugged him a bit in a distant, so no immediate attention came to them.
"Hey hey soldier… enough with the hug." Jack softly said.
"Sorry sir." Ash releases her hugs.
"No hugs for the Hungarian spider?" Keyser wanted to get another hug as well.
"No." She curtly answered.
"So sad…. anyway, you guys must have a lot to catch up and I want to get more of those tasty syrup. So bye." Keyser proceeded to go to the syrup's bowl.
"Oh my God…. You're in the Fourth Echelon? And Fourth Echelon is real?" Ash was in shock.
"Yes for the first question and yes for the second question. You wanted to know more?" He Answered.
"Yes." She's eager to know his answer.
"Well, after my time and Keyser is up in the seal to train the FBI, I was called back to Seal and lead some battles here and there. After two years, I got transferred to the Fourth Echelon. Much to my dislike, I got demoted back to major. But, it's a direct order from the POTUS so nothing I can do and the pay is much much better and I get to use crazy equipments no normal operators will use. And then, me and Keyser under the mandate from POTUS, says that America needed to be more involved in keeping world peace and et cetera and so, here I am." Jack went to a long speech on his time after trained Ash to be the woman she is.
"Anyway, enough about me. How are you doing with others Liz? Still being an annoying snobby person?" Jack wanting to caught up with her updates after their separation.
"I'm….. fine… I'm getting along with everyone and so far, no one called me snobby and stuff." she giggled and so as he.
"Well I guess that training really keep you down to earth huh?" Jack continued.
"A bit…. I don't know actually. I still can't get over with the part where you told me to be patient or keep it cool in missions…. and that just…"
"Well Liz, I don't expect you to suddenly change because you're not exactly a patient person. But it's still nice to see you keep everything cool better in your time here in Rainbow Six, unlike those times during your training." he grinned while pulling out his cuban cigar.
"Hahahaha…. Well, it's nice that you taught me and pushed me to be patient in everything." she smiled and he blew his smoke above.
"You're always the best in class Liz, and I guess that won't change huh? At least from what I heard during your time here." he hint her he knew what she's been doing in Rainbow Six.
"Oh really? And how do you know?" she baited him.
"Well, let's say my little birds kept me up with information and yes, they knew our relationship." Ash realized all the people greeted him and Keyser were his little birds.
"I see… They owe you?" she was curious.
"You can say that." he blew another smoke above.
"Anyway, I reckon you haven't figured out that we'll be in a mission together huh?" Jack continued and Ash was joyful inside and expressed in an intrigue mimic.
"Actually, I don't know. I haven't kept up with the news lately. Hell, I didn't even know that you and Keyser will be the new guys." Ash answered with curiosity.
"Well, I'm just gonna fill you in later. Let's just chill for a while okay?"
"Roger sir." she happily saluted him.
"Easy soldier. We cannot let you went bombastic again." The line which put her in laughter.
Jack left her in the crowd and approached others. Everyone was eager to get to him and Keyser. In the distant, Ash some recruits, confused with the commotion and the big greeting for these two recruits. She smiled, seeing them being blunt to the best soldier in her life and maybe, the world.
Meanwhile, Jack approached Keyser and said, "Hey fella. Easy with the syrup there. Diabetes man... Remember you may have that."
"So? I'm not the one that smoke Cuban cigar three times a week." Keyser replied and Jack giggled.
Suddenly, Zofia hugged Keyser from behind and took a glass of syrup through him. He turned and saw her drinking, flirting with her eyes. And of course, he enjoyed it.
"It's been a long time Zo." he greeted her.
"Yes, it's been a long time. I haven't seen you since that op in Mali." she smiled and cleaned his sleeves. Afterwards, she slapped him hard, but quiet enough without anyone getting any attention.
"And that's for leaving me in my room…. In the top of the morning... In Mali." she turned her expression to annoyance.
Keyser lifted both of his arms, palms up, elbows down a bit, and said, "Well…. I'm sorry?".
She kissed his slapped cheeks and said, "Sure, it's okay. You saved my life and helped me to meet my would-be husband at the time."
"That's interesting. Anyway, how's Jakub? He's doing great? And your sister Elzbieta, she's here right?" Keyser wanted to catch a lot of stuff with her and Jack watched them while finishing his cigar.
"I'm trying to patch things up with her….. I mean after my father died and I got Agata…. I just feel that, 'Hey, time is short, I should get things together with my estranged sister.' Which I tried and went….. miserably….. a bit… at least she talked to me, like, 'Get away Zo.' and, 'Zo, just leave me alone." and also, 'Zo, screw you!'... something like that. And about Jakub? Can we not talk about him please? Or even Ela... How about we talk about you? I haven't heard about you in a long time. I thought you lost your charm when you joined in Fourth Echelon." Zofia smiled and traced her left hand around his sleeve, even though Keyser knew she wanted to close all the hardship on telling her stories.
"Sure, we can talk about me and my spyder and of course, my magical cooking for steaks." he wanted to cheer her up, knowing she needed some smiles from what he heard.
"I would love to….. and maybe we can do it in my room." she whispered while grabbing his chest.
"Guys, you know what, I heard Mark and Shuhrat called me….. bye." Jack didn't want to disturb and proceeded to meet Mute and Fuze.
"Well, I guess we have the time together. Beside, I needed someone to accompany watching some of my Netflix list. Wanna go now?" she flirted him more.
"Maybe after the scene is clear, I'll get to your room after seven." he obliged with her offer.
"Okay….. I'll see you." she left him and went to take a cake to her room.
In the distant, Mute and Fuze shook Jack's hand and Jack greeted them.
"So gents, I believe both of you still up with the offer?" Jack asked.
"Da. I took what I can from my comrades in GRU and Mark did the same with his comrades in GCHQ and SIS. If we wanted to find him under the radar, we needed to find a secret room for us to operate." Fuze answered.
"A man, owner of a pub, which I beat in a poker match before I got here, gave me his keys to his room in downtown Hereford and the address is in here." Jack handed Mute the address in a paper.
"Roger sir. Let's hope no one knows." Mute kept the secret in his wallet.
"Well, I believe we needed to recruit more than us and Keyser, we're not strong enough to fight against them, at least in this numbers." Jack added.
"It's okay sir, we believe in your choice of men or women." Fuze agreed with the condition applies and Mute nodded.
"Alright then, any of you wanted some cigars." he handed them his last two Cuban cigars.
Mute denied the offer, Fuze took it and Jack lighten it up.
"Remember….. like it or not, we'll exercise our fifth freedom in this task." Jack warned the duo.
"Roger." They both replied.
But much to their knowledge, Caveira caught up their chatter and she suddenly left to go the bathroom.
Jack felt someone grabbed his shoulder and turned to saw Ash.
"Hey Liz. What do you want?" Jack asked.
"Hey uhhhh….. I'm gotta go, I got something to do with some recruits in the gym." she answered.
"You're not a kid Liz, there's no need to tell me about this." he puffed a breath out, containing the last smoke from his now burned cigar.
"I know, I just wanted you to know." she continued.
Ash parted her ways and left Jack for the gym.
Suddenly, his phone rang and as he opened it up, a message notification shows on the screen. Written by someone named Solid Fish, he sent, "Jack, good luck in Rainbow Six. We're all gonna miss you."
Jack replied, "Well, miss you guys too….. Just pray that I'll find what the POTUS wanted."
"Will do." the last reply.
Jack locked his phone back and sighed, prepared for his mission in Rainbow Six.