It was somewhat silent in the tent as Logan Blake, Codename Ceartas, stared at the three folders on the bale and then looked up.
"This is the team you've chosen?" Valkyrie asked as she picked up one of the folders showing a photo of a man with dark brown hair and matching colour beard.
"Not really the ones I would've gone with." Jake muttered before he received a look from Valkyrie.
"Coming from the one who wanted this to be a three-man operation?" A womanasked as she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Jake who coughed into his hand in embarrassment.
"Look, they may not be your choices but they are mine." Logan told Eliza Cohen, Codename Ash as she planted her hands on the table, staring at Eliza with a look that said, "I'm not changing my decision."Eliza did a quick look over the remaining folders before she sighed and pulled out her phone.
"Six, it's Eliza. I need you to send over these three Operatives that Ceartas has chosen for his team," She said as she stared at the five folders disapprovingly, "Grigori Milendiv - Codename Canine..."
A russian mercenary from Moscow, specializing in infantry and blitzkrieg, not great for an operation that requires stealth…
"The next operator I want is Taina Pereire, Codename Caveira." Eliza said as she picked up another folder while Jake and Valkyrie talked and bantered about Logan's decision to make this a 3-man operation. Back and forth, points and arguments were fired from Jake and Valkyrie's mouths as the mission became more and more polished, like a statue being chiseled and smoothed into perfection.
A Brazilian deviant who specializes in silent takedowns and interrogation, finally, a good choice.
"The last operator…" Eliza began hesitantly, "...Timor Glazkov, Codename Glaz."
A Russian sniper who specializes in assassination. Not a person to be messing with at long range.
"Logan, I don't mean to be rude.." Ash spoke hesitantly.
"You're rude all the time." Logan joked getting a chuckle out of Valkyrie.
"But are you sure about these choices? I don't know how any of them would be useful in thi-." Eliza continued before Logan interrupted her, appearing intensely serious as he would proceed to ramble on.
"Well… let me ask you a few questions Eliza. Number one, who is in charge of this operation? Number two, who has more experience in commanding an entire squad in tight spaces than someone in MI5, specializing in anti-terrorism, me or you? Because both those questions have the same answer."Logan stated as he glared at Eliza. Eliza crossed her arms before she glanced back at Valkyrie who nodded in agreement to Logan.
"Alright. You'd better get ready…" Eliza said and soon left the tent.
A pair of boot covered feet hit the dirt, sending up a tiny dust cloud before a man-mountain landed next to the slim Brazilian.
"Hola, Valkyrie, who's this 6 foot babaca?"
"I call him dogbreath, his name's Canine." The woman answered as she scratched him behind the ears before the trio set off, with the fourth member lagging behind.
"What an original name." The South-American stated as she hostered her custom M12 and her silenced Luison pistol. She
"No-one asked you, Caviera." Canine replied in annoyance as he opened the rear doors to the truck to allow her entrance, Caviera giving a little bow to Canine as she did so.
"I thought this was a 3-man mission?" Canine said as he turned around to see Glaz in the clearing standing with his Dragunov, sporting the famed thermal scope he was named for.
"Well apparently it isn't, so stop your complaining, durak". The assassin said as he entered the truck decked out in high-tech equipment and bright lights. Canine simply replied by raising his middle finger while whistling, the melody being that of Jack-In-The-Box.
"Is this all of us?" Jake asked as he emerged from the back of the truck, wearing his light body armour, sporting the SIS logo - despite not actually going into combat.
Logan started the debriefing, "Right ye soldiers, we need you to go in and get our informant Ms Jessica Stevens, the guys we sent in for some recon haven't come back, so you need to get Stevens out and find what happened to our lads in the field. Right, make sure to enter the chalet without a sound, then get Stevens and get out. You are authorized to use deadly force… but try not to get killed… Welcome to Courchevel..."
They all nodded. "Now get the fuck out of the truck!" Logan reported calmly, "IS EVERYONE CLEAR?"
"Yes squad leader!" the two Russians, the American, the Brazilian and the Brit unanimously said in response.
"THEN FUCKING MOVE IT!"Logan ordered, damn - it feels good to be in charge for once.
The four field agents rushed out of the truck, not wanting their pay to be cut for not following orders. "Valkyrie, you stay with me, I need to link to your cams".
Once all of the field operators were out of sight, Valkyrie planted a quick kiss on Ceartas' lips saying "I'll be back soon… just watch my cams, rookie...".
Valkyrie exited the vehicle semi-reluctantly… Oh, how they wanted to head back to Hereford and have another training session, but that would have to wait - it's time to do their jobs.
It was a long thirty minutes, checking the occasional hacked camera… watching their body cams and making sure that every angle of the building wasn't left in the dark. It reminded him of the old days, reminded him of when he was unable to finish his job. The reason why it happened... his daydream was stolen from him as he realised his job was now...
"I'm in position", came a loud, Russian voice through Logan's earpiece, he sounded eager - it was a little scary how much he wanted to just pull a trigger, it didn't matter at what, he just wanted the sensation of delivering high precision damage to a distant target.
"This is Caviera, I'm 2 meters from the roof hatch.", this time, a passionate whisper from an out-of-breath Brazilian invaded his ears, that was 2/4 operators in position.
"This is Valkyrie, I'm in position 3 meters from the balcony entrance." she stated, even her voice through their comms system excited him… reminding him of their time in the training area.
"Canine, are you in position?" Logan said worriedly, he didn't want any mishaps during this mission, he didn't want to disappoint Six. No, he didn't want to disappoint Valkyrie.
"Canine, please come in…" Logan repeated, this time sounding much more anxious.
"BLYAT!" - a loud cry of frustration rang through Valkyrie's ears as she saw Canine's body being dragged away by a force coming from inside of the house.
"Venez au QG! Nous avons capturé un espion!" - Logan turned to Jake as if expecting him to be able to translate, Jake just shrugged his shoulders and continued with surveillance, one mishap was NOT going to throw off the mission!
After 2 minutes of nervous sweating and building fear, one of Valkyrie's Black Eyes reactivated, turning from a thick static to a clear image. She'd be held down by a man in a hooded green trench coat, his muscular arms too much for her to even think about resisting. In front of the camera, kneeled before them, was the mountain known as Canine and a female wearing a suit and tie. What they were looking for was found…
Standing behind the two kneeled before the camera was a man, with a slightly trimmed stubble poking out from underneath his mask, as well as their standard green trench coat. In his right hand he held a .357 revolver, clearly chambered and without any safety, he had it pointed down at the floor, appearing content with the security they had in place for Canine and the informant. After a solid 30 seconds of the camera being active, he opened his mouth and let out a flurry of words in a thick French accent.
"Hello there operative… my name is Drakon... and your group has been quite a thorn in my side for a while…"
Logan only stared at the screen, keeping his eyes fixated on the revolver, then back to the mask that the man donned. Something about this reeked of a situation which could only result in death on both sides, so Logan decided to activate his microphone as he uttered words of empty threat into the grille.
"So, you're the one who captured our informant?"
A brief chuckle was heard before the terrorist-alpha decided to speak up, "Yes... but today I offer my hand in an exchange today… an exchange that will help us both." Logan only stared at the monitor, keeping his eye on the monitor, the hazy static moving across the screen in somewhat of a twisted display of power.
"Now… offer me your answer… will you rather save your comrade? Or… rather… your source of any information on us?" The French ring-leader offered, allowing Logan to truly understand the magnitude of the situation. In the camera Valkyrie picked up the words, displaying a face of horror as she'd realise the two possible futures. Caveira watched on the camera, the blackeye she carried capturing her face of complete disbelief at the situation, in denial of what is about to happen.
Throughout the minute he paused, he was bombarded with points of who should live with arguments backing their claims up, all he could do was listen as he could process the choice he had.
"Canine is a comrade! People who abandon their mission are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum!."
"Logan, don't be an idiot - we need the information. You cannot let this slip away. If they get away we may never get another chance like this to capture them again!"
All throughout he heard the cries of a female, weeping in terror as they heard the situation unfold throughout the communications. The world began to spin around Logan as he opened his mouth to speak, the comms falling silent.
"I guess I have to ch-choose…
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