David

This is a long walk. Brandon and I were walking away from the resort. We knew that Big Luke was back there probably being interrogated but we were undermanned to go in there on our own. We decided that we would return to our location on the adjacent mountain top and try to cover Big Luke as much as we could via sniper rifle.

"Did you see any sign of Percy in there?" I heard Brandon ask ahead of me.

"No. Not really," I answered back.

"Me neither. I don't think he's there. I think that resort was a front for something else. That's why we didn't see any sign of any monsters," concluded Brandon.

"Makes sense," I replied.

"We need to find a way to communicate with Chiron; tell him that the missions been compromised and Big Luke's being held captive. We need to make a rainbow," explained Brandon.

"How? We are the top of a fucking mountain! I doubt that there are any waterfalls around nor do we have any way to spray water into the air to make a rainbow," I countered.

Me and my big mouth. Just after I said that, Brandon looked over my shoulder at what seemed to be something more important than whatever I was saying.

"What are you looking at?" I asked as I turned around only to see Chiron staring back at me. "Hey."

Chiron looked to be in the woods somewhere sending us and Iris message. There was daylight where he was. Made sense; we were on the other side of the world.

"Hello, heroes. How is the hunt going?" he asked.

I briefly looked at Brandon and had a silent agreement with him: Don't mention Big Luke.

"Well, we have come to the conclusion that Percy isn't here. Nor do we believe that these guys are planning on attacking us. They're definitely doing something illegal but I don't think it's really our battle to fight," Brandon explained.

"Hmmmm," thought Chiron. "Yes, I suppose so. Alright, go ahead and come on home. Perhaps Percy will turn up on your return trip. But before you go, I have something for you."

He reached down to a satchel over his shoulder. He pulled out something from it and handed it to me through the Iris message. I took it from him and looked at the large satellite phone in my hand.

"You should use that to call your old pal, Dasha. I hear that she is stationed somewhere in Europe. Maybe she can help you get home," advised Chiron.

"Yeah, our old pal, Dasha." I looked back at Brandon with a mischievous grin on my face. Brandon gave me a death glare; Don't even go there.

"OK, well, you gentlemen have a safe trip home," said Chiron right before he swiped his hand through the Iris message.

I looked at the back of the phone. Taped on the back on a piece of paper was a phone number. It started with a seven. Must be the extension code for Russia.

"Here," I said as I tossed Brandon the phone. "Your first phone number from a girl."

"Ha ha. Real funny. For your information: I get plenty of girl's phone numbers," he replied as he checked the back of the phone. "However, she was the one that got away."

We eventually made our way back to our post. It was still pretty dark outside so we replaced our thermal scopes on the sniper rifles and we started searching for Big Luke and Brittany. We checked. Then we double checked. Then we triple checked. Then we quadruple checked each window that we could see through and couldn't find anything that remotely resembled either of them. All we saw were white hot silhouettes drinking, kissing, smoking, anything that didn't look like an interrogation.

"I can't find either of them," Brandon informed me, peering through the scope on Big Luke's M40.

I found myself staring at that rifle. Roughly two summers ago, I was staring through that same scope at a piece of paper that Big Luke had stapled to a board. The first shot was low and left. The second hit the bulls eye. The third went through the same hole that the second made.

"David, I know I'm sexy but we got work to do. What are you staring at me for?" Brandon asked. We give each other a lot of shit.

"I was staring at that rifle. Remembering the first time I shot it. Two summers ago," I replied, looking back down my own scope back at the resort.

"Yeah. I was still using that MP5 then." we both took a minute to reminisce as we gawked through our scopes at the resort.

Finally, I caught a glimpse of something that resembled a six-four Marine. Big Luke was facing away from us as he crouched in a doorway. Judging by the way his shoulders were set, I figured he had a pistol of some kind, probably his 1911 but it was hard to tell from a silhouette. There were three other people in the room with. However, they didn't really appear to be any kind of a threat, they were buck naked.

"i found him," I told Brandon.

"Where?" asked Brandon, frantically moving the rifle around until he settled on a spot. "Never mind. I found him."

I saw someone pop around the corner and point a rifle at Big Luke. The Marine double tapped him. I could see the blood splatter come out as hot lava through the scope. Two more guys came around the corner and Big Luke dropped them too.

I pushed my radio button. "Big Luke? You there?"

I released the button and waited for a response. I got nothing.

"Something must of happened to his radio. He would of responded by now," concluded Brandon.

"Yeah. But... what do we do?" I asked him.

"We cover him the best we can. We got suppressors, we should be able to hide for a little while. Just try not to shoot him," he explained. I could feel him grinning eight feet next to me.

I took my rifle off safety and fine tuned my grip and cheek weld. I steadied my breathing, my chest resting on top of my left arm. My left hand was supporting the stock of the rifle. I bent my right knee and turned my left foot inward. I was stable as the mountain I was laying on.

Big Luke had his arm outstretched like he was doing that mirror trick to see down the hallway. He wasn't doing much. At one point he reloaded his weapons then started looking back down the hallway. It was almost like he was having a discussion with someone down the hallway. The hallway itself was brightly lit, however most of the rooms were dark. We couldn't really see anything except Big Luke, which meant I had nothing to really shoot at.

All of a sudden, Big Luke stepped out from the door way and fired a single round. I could tell because his rifle recoiled back once. Then he disappeared. Took off down the hallway.

We spent the next hour searching for any sign of him. Nothing. We even took it upon ourselves to move around the bowl to try and get another angle, but no joy. We trudged back to our camp and watched the sun come up as we decided what to do. Brandon started a fire between our tents which felt good after laying in the snow and cold rock for hours on end.

Brandon sat across the fire just inside his tent with his feet sticking out. Legs bent and elbows resting on his knees. He had the sat-phone in his hand, bouncing it on his shin.

"I think it's about time you made that phone call," I suggested.

"I think your right." he pealed the number off the back and read it as he dialed the number. He finished dialing and put the phone up to his ear. Then waited. "Hey. It's Brandon. Remember me?... Yeah. It's been a while... Actually, I need a favor. Where are you hanging out these days?... Spain? What you doing there?... Oh, well, how would you like to come over to Switzerland and chill with us in the Alps?... Yeah. We got ourselves in quite a conundrum... Yeah. I think we got a flare gun. Hang on." he placed the receiver to his shoulder to mute himself. "Find that flare gun we got," he asked me, snapping his fingers towards a mutual gear bag we had.

I rummaged through it to try and find this flare gun he was talking about. I eventually found the giant orange tube with a pistol grip and handed it to him. He held the gun sideways in his palm. He read the side.

"It orange colored," he said into the receiver. "OK, I'll see you soon... OK, bye."

He pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed a button on the number pad. He pushed the the antenna in and dropped it on his rolled out sleeping bag behind him. Then he ran his fingers through his hair. He was stressed.

"Don't worry. We will find them. Big Luke's a survivor and a protector. He'll keep them both safe," I tried to cheer him up. Trying to say anything that will get him to lighten up.

"Yeah. You're probably right. Lets move out. Try to find them," he suggested and we moved out. I took my M110 this time so I could see and engage targets at a longer distance. Plus, I'd be able to see Big Luke easier. Brandon flipped his magnifier on his 416 so it lined up with his EOTech.