Chapter Three
A familiar face
The night fell quite fast since it was wintertime, but it was 19:00 and nobody really did care. Team Rainbow did have a thing for Christmas time so the whole Hereford was shining with lights.
"Bah! They decorated without us!" Marius grunted, looking at the base. Merc was sitting next him, leaning on the window.
"Even people like us can have fun on days like these. I like the way it looks. How many CTU-s are on the campus right now?" Merc asked, looking at Marius flying the V22. Hereford wasn't all too active at the time, but several operators could be seen waiting down at the landing pad. "Looks like we are expected." He had noticed, lifting his head up and looking down, trying to see who exactly was waiting down there, but it was too dark to see. He got up and went into the other cabin to notify Lera and Zofia of the arrival. The two got up, along with the hostage. Marius set out the landing gear and opened the ramp where five operators were waiting for them. Mike, Jordan, Maxim, Meghan and Craig were looking inside the V22 as everyone slowly vacated the vessel. First were Zofia and Lera escorting the hostage. After them, Marius and Derius were slowly walking towards the group, muttering something. Mike took a step forward.
"Johnathan Derius "Merc" Guerra. Let me be the first one to welcome you to the Hereford base. Home of Team Rainbow. I see that you might be hungry so feel free to hit the mess hall. Mrs. Castellano here will be your guide." Mike said pointing around and in the end, towards Meghan. "I'll take your weapon to the lockers and will give you the code later. My room is now yours; I will be using some other room on the campus. You will get the locker key as soon as I empty it of my stuff." Mike added and nodded to Meghan. Merc gave his gun and ammo to Mike before Meghan approached him and extended her hand.
"Meghan "Valkyrie" Castellano. Nice to meet a person crazy enough to take on a White Mask platoon by himself. I do hope you will prove an asset to the team." She said with a smirk on her face. She was type of a person who would not fall down to anyone and wanted to make sure Merc knows that by looking at her stance.
"Nice to meet you Mrs. Castellano. As I said before to your friends there, I have four names so I do not mind you use any one of them. Fear not too, as I know how to follow orders. I do like to talk things through when possible. I do hate to make this conversation a bad one, but I sure am hungry. You would not mind leading the way now, would you?" Merc sad his part before asking Meghan to take him to the mess. She nodded and led the way.
Meghan pointed around where most of the things were. Merc had tied his hair so it does not get in his face. He was thinking about a haircut from time to time and since he was going into a team, it would have been a good idea.
"That big building is where we practice for combat operations. On the other side is a big gym, which has all the necessary workout machines needed to keep you in shape or even buff you up, depending on what you want. It is also a place where we hold hand-to-hand training. You will like it. On the west, where we are going right now, are the dorms and the mess hall." Meghan was talking, turning around and pointing everything. Merc was just following and taking in information that actually was necessary at the time.
They arrived into the mess hall where everyone was. Merc looked around and saw almost everyone at his or her respectable table, but some of the operators did sit in pairs, talking hush hush to each other.
"Oh yea. I wanted to ask." Merc took out a tablet out of his jacket. "Whose is this? I want to return it before I get into my eating mood." He said jokingly. Meghan pointed at a pair that was talking silently and giggling.
"That girl with braids. Grace "Dokkaebi" Nam. It belongs to her. I'll save you a spot at my table." Meghan said while walking towards the self-service counters. Merc approached the pair with the tablet in his hand.
"I hope I am not interrupting. My name is Johnathan Derius "Merc" Guerra. I believe this belongs to you." He handed the tablet to Grace. "Funny little thing. Did not actually use it, but it was worth to carry it just in case." Merc said before He looked at the person that was sitting opposite of her. He noticed the young fellow right away. It was the shy fellow Mark or how his operator name was, "Mute". "Oh, hi Mark!" He smiled and nodded at him. He gave the tablet to Grace and bid them a good evening. It was a weird encounter. Merc was sure that "Mute" was actually mute since he never heard him talk, but there he is chatting up a Korean cutie. Merc approached the counter, took some regular food, and went to the table where Meghan, Craig and Jordan were sitting. He nodded to them and they nodded back.
"So you are the new hotshot, huh? Jordan asked Merc.
"I would not call myself a hotshot. If I am given a job, I do it. Simple as that." Merc said before he continued eating.
"You have a kill count?" Craig asked as he leaned with one hand on the table and on his knee with the second.
"One hundred and twenty-three. At least it was before today since I took out some bastards with the cluster charges." Merc frowned and continued eating.
"Nothing I would not expect from a mercenary. You bunch are merciless bastards." Meghan said with an annoyed tone.
"It is not fun, but when you have nobody to do it for, but yourself, it works as any other job. Besides, I learn a lot from other CTU-s." Merc said as he leaned to his chair.
"You kill people for money. You are no different than a hitman." Meghan said, getting more annoyed with each word coming out of Merc's mouth.
"You kill people too. The only difference between us is that I decide which side to take at any time and you are here for the whole time. My main decision is that I work for the good guys and that is that." Merc got annoyed quite fast as Meghan started attacking who he was.
"Alright, that is enough you two." Craig said. "We all have our shitty pasts, but here at rainbow, we set them aside." He said calming the two.
A few minutes passed in silence and everyone slowly got up. Craig and Jordan showed Merc to his new room with the SAS operators. The room looked nice. It was not cozy or anything, but it was better than anything he had so far. He left some of his stuff and followed the Americans to the common room. They walked in and there was a long table, which could allow up to ten people to sit at once. The trio sat down and they started talking.
"So I noticed that you actually used some of the stuff that was given to you. What crazy stuff did you do there?" Jordan asked with a smirk on his face. Merc looked at him and took out a candela from his jacket pocket. Both Craig and Jordan were confused, not knowing why Merc would show them Mei Lin's candela.
"A small system like this can be used for anything. I noticed that it was used as a nine banger of some sort. Not bad, but what if you could change its contents. A delayed grenade or something." Merc twisted and opened the candela carefully. Inside was an EMP grenade that Mike tends to use. Craig and Jordan were even more confused looking at the device. "Regular EMP detonates within three seconds. This, with a little modification can be much more." As Merc talked to the two, more operators joined in. Chul, Elzbieta, Ryad, Tina, Emmanuelle and even Mei Lin sat down looking at what Merc did with a poor candela.
"I extended the detonation time from three to four, five or six seconds. The outer shell will protect the grenade from most impact that might destroy it." Merc said pointing around the candela and the EMP.
"It might have done you good on this mission, but you are not getting any more candelas from me. Otherwise, that is quite impressive." Mei Lin said smirking at Merc.
"That is pretty much it. I don't have anything else up my sleeve. I look forward to working with you all." Merc said as he leaned on the chair and spread his hands a bit. The group kept talking and getting to know Merc and vice versa, but before they knew it, it was near midnight. Everyone slowly went to their rooms ending the night. Merc entered his room, got himself ready for sleep and crashed into his new bed.
To be continued…
Author note:
Sorry for the wait, guys. I was on them holidays so I was not able to write anything properly. I hope you like this chapter. Going to make some good shit for the next one.
