Chapter 11: The First Mission
After Rocky and Chase rejoined the group, they continued to play games like hide and seek and tug-o-war for the next few hours. Since the pups had not seen Everest or the twins in a while, they decided to catch up when they finished playing games. It had been a great way of decompressing for the four after the last few days. Unfortunately, this decompressing time had to come to an end.
"Then I grabbed the guy and ran out the door right before the building collapsed! It was probably one of the most intense situations I've been in" said Marshall, finishing his story.
"Wow. I wish we got called on more missions. Each one I've heard seems so awesome" said Tuck, marveling at the story.
"Well if you think that's cwazy, you should heaw the time I-"
"Sorry to cut you off Zuma, but I think it's time for us to go" said Chase to Everest and the twins.
"Awww" said the pups.
"Can't you dudes stay a bit longer?" asked Zuma.
"Sorry Zuma, but Chase is right we have to go" said Tuck, "but don't worry. Next time we come over I want to hear your story"
"Okay yeah, next time" said Zuma with a smile.
With that said, the pups all said their goodbyes and parted ways.
"We should visit you guys more often" said Ella to Chase, "It's always a great time coming over"
"Yeah, I know the others love seeing you guys" said Chase trying to brighten the mood.
"Believe me I wish we could stay longer too, but we have some important stuff to deal with; and now that Chase's tracker is disabled, we can get to that mission" said Everest.
"Yeah about that, it's not actually disabled. I need to-"
"What do you mean it's not disabled! That's the whole reason we came here!" Everest shouted.
"Yeah what gives!?" said Tuck adding on to the frustration.
"Well before Everest cut me off, I was going to say that it's not fully disabled but rather I can manually disable and enable it. However there is some bad news when it comes to disabling it"
"What's the bad news?" Ella asked.
"The bad news is that once I disable it, I disable my entire collar. Tracking, calling, recording, everything. So once I turn it off, we need a way of communication other than through our collars" Chase explained as they continued walking back to the hideout.
"I don't think communication will be too hard without a collar. We can just use specific signals to communicate. This is also kind of a good thing since communication through our collars could be loud" said Everest looking on the brightside.
"I guess, but it will definitely be more of a challenge" said Chase.
"Well don't worry about it. Let's just get back, look over the target file, and head out. Trust me, this'll be a piece of cake"
The four continued their walk to the hideout and made their way down. Once they walked through the door they were greeted by Sean.
"Where did you four go off to for so long?"
"We just went to get Chase's collar tracker turned off and before you say anything to him, trust me, we scolded him enough" said Everest as the others dispersed around the room.
"Alright, as long as everything is still hidden, then everythings fine. When are you and Chase heading out?"
"Soon. We just came back to look over the file one more time before leaving. I hope he'll get through this without a scratch" said Everest looking over to Chase who was checking the file and target board.
"Everest, from what I've seen, and what I've put him through in the past, he'll walk out fine. Just keep an eye on him. You and I both know how stubborn he can be" said Sean whispering the last part to her as he walked away.
Once Sean was gone Everest walked over to Chase.
"Alright we ready?"
"Yup just about" said Chase reading over the file.
"Did you find a location?"
"Yeah it said on the file that the target was operating in an abandoned warehouse down in Foggy Bottom"
"Well alright then, let's get to it" she said, leading Chase out the door.
The two made their way out of the hideout and onto the street.
After about 2 hours of walking in silence Chase spoke.
"We don't have any vehicles that we could've driven there, right?"
"No, why?" Everest said, looking over at Chase.
"Because this is taking so long" said Chase dramatically, "I wish we had a faster way to get there"
"Believe me, I wish we did too, but driving any kind of vehicle over would draw too much attention. Remember we're supposed to go in and out without being noticed. These guys got guards and I guarantee they would see and hear us coming"
"Damn. I wish we could let Ryder or at least Rocky in on this so we could get some more advanced stuff. I mean either one of them would be able to modify our weapons, communications, and even create some vehicles so we don't have to silently walk for hours on end"
"I thought you said you wanted the others to stay out of it"
"I do, but imagine if they could help us out without getting involved, physically I mean. Like what we're doing right now. I don't really think any of them would be able to kill someone"
Everest thought about it as the two walked in silence once again.
"You know, maybe they can"
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe they can get involved without having to kill anybody. Like maybe they can help the ones who go into the field from the base. Like for example, Marshall could be a medic stationed at the hideout and Rocky could work on what you said, modifications and upgrades. Although we would have to run it by Sean first"
"Yeah maybe" said Chase halfheartedly, still not thrilled about the idea of the other pups joining up, "Anyway I think we're close"
"Lets see" said Everest scanning the area, "yup that's it right there" she said pointing to a warehouse in the distance.
"How should we go in?" Chase asked.
"That's up to you. You're taking the lead on this mission"
"Alright uh let's see. It looks like there's a few different entrances. There's a ledge on the building over there. We can climb that and get in through the window. It also looks like they're driving in some supplies. Maybe we can hijack one of those trucks a little up the road and drive in undetected. We could also create some kind of distraction to draw some attention away from the entrance. That way we can sneak in. That might be a little dangerous though"
"Great, so we have three entry points. Pick whichever one you feel you can do best" said Everest.
Chase took a moment to go over the pros and cons of each point in his head. "The distraction would alert the guards putting them all on high alert which would make it hard to get in undetected. That wouldn't be good. Hijacking a truck could also go south real quick. They may be expecting certain drivers and just saying that we're new won't cut it. The window however, doesn't seem to have any major cons. As long as we can get there quietly, I think we'll be all good"
"Okay, I think I know the best entry point"
"Awsome, which one?"
"The window. The other points would draw too much attention. If we can sneak over to that window, we can get in without turning any heads"
"Good thinking. Before we go remember to turn off the collar"
"Thanks for the reminder" said Chase quickly shutting it off, "Now let's get to it"
The two then slowly made their way over to the fire escape. Thankfully, the guards roaming the outside were easy to sneak around. However, once they made it to the ledge they now had another problem. How were they going to get up?
"How do we get up? There's nothing to climb on" asked Chase looking over at Everest.
"I have an idea. Stand here" she said pointing to a spot on the ground.
"Okay but how does this help?"
"You'll see" Everest said as she took another look around the area. After making sure the coast was clear, she ran over and jumped off Chase's back onto the ledge.
"Woah, good thinking" said Chase walking over to the wall.
"What would you do without me?" said Everest with a smile as she lowered her paw down to the shepherd.
"Simple" said Chase grabbing her paw and getting pulled up, "I'd pick another entrance"
Everest rolled her eyes at the comment and walked over to the window followed by Chase.
"What now?"
Chase looked through the window. There were tons of boxes as well as other people and dogs moving them around. Alerting one of them would alert the rest of them so going in "guns blazing" wouldn't work.
"It looks like that door leads to an office. I would assume since Blackjack's the head of this operation, he's in there. I'll go and sneak into the office while you stay here and keep an eye out. While I'm sneaking around I don't want to take a chance peeking over the boxes. You let me know if it's safe to go or not"
"You got it" said Everest, opening the window for him, "Good luck" she said as he climbed through the window and made his way down to the floor.
Chase made his way to the first box. He looked up towards Everest, she nodded her head yes. He took a second, then quietly dashed to the next set of boxes. After waiting a few minutes he looked up again, she shook her head no, so he sat still. He was about to move until two men walked past him thankfully not noticing him. She nodded her head yes so he ran to the final set of boxes. She nodded her head yes one final time before Chase ran to the door, quietly opened it, and got inside. She let out a sigh of relief after watching Chase get in.
Chase slowly opened the door and walked in.