Author's note: Here's the next chapter. Hope it's worth the wait. Enjoy.
What Will It Take?
Chapter 11
"You must locate the bombs." Came the voice over the radio. "Insertion in forty-five seconds."
Every operator was glued to their phones to the point where one would think they were a bunch of teenage high schoolers. But they were most definitely not checking social media, everyone was controlling their drone, trying to locate one of the explosives.
"Thirty seconds to insertion."
On their screens, the operators were finding a lot of enemy fighters, but no sign of the explosives in question.
"Fifteen seconds to insertion."
"Found one, office room!" Meghan reported.
"Five seconds."
Everyone put there phones away as they felt the van come to a stop.
"Bombs located operation is a go, use your defusers to disarm the bombs."
"You heard the man, lets go." Meghan ordered as all seven operators disembarked from the van.
Yes, they were now working in a team of seven. That wasn't all, there were now three teams of seven attacking the park simultaneously. Meghan's team had been dropped off via police van at the main entrance, another team had hopped over a wall next to the teacup ride, and the final team attacked from the beach side behind the bumper cars. Meghan was leading her team, which consisted of herself, Ela, Jack, Alexsandr, Eliza, Siu, and Vicente. They were tasked with disarming the bomb on the second floor, which was discovered to be in the main office. Another team was assigned to the second bomb on the first floor, the third team was tasked with clearing any additional enemy forces but carried a third defuser just in case.
"Contact, front!" Meghan yelled as they moved through the main gate.
Unlike previous operations, enemies were posted outside of the building, they immediately began shooting as they saw the team roll up. All seven team members began returning fire, even scoring a few kills in the process.
"Keep up the fire, we need to go through that door!" Meghan commanded. Just then, more combatants poured out of the very entrance she was talking about.
"There's to many of them guarding it. We're going to have to find another way." Vicente reported. He and Siu managed to provide a large volume of fire with their LMG's, but the number of enemies was too much to advance.
"Damnit hold on, I'll see what we can do." Meghan looked around and noticed a staircase on the left side of the building. "That way, everyone get up that staircase."
The team moved to the stairs, managing to dodge the hail of bullets in the process, upon reaching the top, they saw a window and a door both boarded up. Vicente broke open a part of the window barricade and peered inside, a small burst was then fired from his M249 killing two enemies. Meanwhile, Jack had his sensor up to the door.
"Three inside." He reported.
"We got this." Eliza placed a breach charge on the door, once everyone was clear, she blew it and the two FBI operatives stormed inside. A few bursts of gunfire were heard and all three enemies inside were put down. "Room clear!" Eliza reported.
The rest of the team made their way inside the room, watching the open door that lead further inside the building.
Suddenly Vicente reported from his position "Eliza, a few of them ran into that daycare across from you, the wall is not reinforced."
Eliza pulled out her CREM, "Siu, with me." The two approached the wall and Eliza fired a round into the center. As soon as it exploded, Siu tossed in a candela, disorienting and blinding those who were inside. The team made quick work of the enemies inside.
They moved down the hallway, and upon reaching the end, they were stopped in their tracks by even more enemies. They were in three separate group taking fighting positions in three broken down rail cars.
"We have to get across, the bomb is just on the other side." Said Jack.
"I've got this one." Vicente pulled out his crossbow and took aim. He sent a bolt into the window of the middle car, which immediately burst into flames, causing the unfortunate souls inside to cry out as they burned to death. He then took aim at the right car and fired, providing similar results.
"So you CAN get kills with that thing." Eliza jabbed.
"You want to be the next one?" He responded.
"I would love to, but your out of fire arrows."
"Focus!" Meghan ordered.
"What do we do about the last car?" Alexsandr asked.
"I got it." Meghan said. She pulled out her nitro cell and threw it across, landing right inside the last car. She pulled out her cellphone and pressed the call button, causing the explosive to detonate. "We're clear, move up."
The seven of them moved up the room where the bomb was being held. Three of them gathered at the boarded window, the other four by the unreinforced wall. Siu placed a breach charge on the window while Eliza readied her CREM. Before they breached, Siu placed another candela on the window barricade, after a few seconds, the pops could be heard of the blinding flashes, followed by two explosions as the team breached the room. Meghan looked in the window, seeing a man blinded and disoriented from the chaos, she immediately fired her SPAS-12 into his chest. After putting him down, she hopped through the window, shooting another combatant behind the desk. The rest of the team each put down another enemy fighter as they also stormed in.
"We're clear." Meghan reported. "Ela, start the defuser."
Ela nodded as she opened up the case and punched in the code.
As soon as she was done, the defuser started beeping and once again a voice came over the radio. "Defuser has been activated, defend it." After a few seconds, his voice was back. "Be advised, a large wave of enemies is heading to your position."
"You heard him, set up defenses." Meghan ordered.
Everyone began getting ready, Ela placed a grzmot at each entrance, Meghan placed her cameras throughout the area, and Alexzandr set up his DP-28 in the middle of the room.
"Damn, he wasn't kidding, I'm counting at least thirty tangos." Meghan said as she checked her cameras.
"How the hell are we going to take on that many enemies." Jack asked.
"Just leave it to Tachanka." Alexsandr spoke up as he pulled back the charging handle on his gun. The explosions of the grzmot mines indicated that the enemy was upon them. "Come to Tachanka baby!"
"Ah crap!" Eliza shouted.
"What does he mean by-
"Get down!" Eliza practically tackled the Chinese woman to the ground.
Jack did the same to Ela, who also did not understand what was about to happen, albeit more gently. Meghan and Vicente dropped to the ground as well.
Just as the enemies began rushing in the room, the soviet national anthem once again began playing seemingly out of nowhere. It was then followed by the sound of machine gun bullets. The Russian man was firing wildly into the crowd of targets as they attempted to swarm the team. Bullets were flying everywhere, some barely making it over his team mates heads. Enemy after enemy dropped to the ground leaving a lot of dead bodies, and they all looked surprised. Just moments after it started, it was over, all enemies were killed. Once they made sure the chaos had subsided, the rest of the team stood back up.
"How does he do that?" Siu asked.
"We don't know, and at this point we don't question it?" Jack answered.
"The defuser only needs a few more seconds, we've got this!" Meghan excitingly pointed out. "I don't think there's any more tangos either. We did it!"
Suddenly there were five distinct pops from one of the side walls. The team turned to see what looked like five hockey pucks landing on the floor.
"Scramble!" Jack shouted as they all ran for their lives. Meghan and Siu jumped out of the window, Ela and Jack ran through the hole in the wall, while Eliza and Vicente left through the door. Alexsandr stayed where he was. The room was then rocked by five explosions.
Once the smoke had cleared they rest of the team came back inside just in time to see the defuser finish doing its job, signaling that their part was done.
"One bomb defused." Came the voice over the radio. Now they just had to hope one of the other teams could defuse the other one.
To everyone's surprise, Alexsandr was still standing right where he was at his machine gun.
"Um, Alex, I know its just a simulation, but you're still supposed to go down when your hit." Eliza pointed out.
"Do you see any paint on Tachanka?" He responded, and to everyone's shock, he was untouched by the misplaced cluster charge.
"How?" Meghan asked in astonishment.
"Tachanka does not die, if he does not feel like it." Was his response.
Before they could question him further, the voice came over the radio again. "Second bomb defused, mission successful!"
Everyone began cheering, after so many failed attempts, they had finally completed the course. Even though it was only a simulation, it was still a major obstacle they had managed to overcome, and that deserved some celebration.
"Good work, terminating comms, Kowalski signing off."
"What do you mean you have nothing? I thought you could 'find anything or anyone'." Isaac asked.
"It's only been two day's man, give me a break." McConnell answered. "I'm having my team interviewing everyone they can, turning over every stone, dusting for every finger print, but this shit won't just happen overnight."
"It hasn't been overnight, it's been two."
"Okay smartass, look. I'm going to put this in perspective for you." McConnell brought up his notes. "We know both bombs were destined for Taiwan." He brought up a map of the Pacific Ocean. "Now, as you said, the bombs are broken into three pieces and put on different ships, with an additional security measure of those ships departing twenty-four hours apart." He then pulled up a calendar. "As you can see, the first bomb left on the first, second and third of the month. The second left on the seventh, eighth and ninth. And we know they were on board because company policy requires a high-ranking official to physically see that the part is there, and once that happens, nothing and no one is allowed on or off the ship." He continued through his notes. "Now fast forward to the fourteenth, the first ship arrives at its destination and lo and behold, the piece is missing. At that point, a call goes out to every ship out there to verify that their piece is still on board their ships. That's when it's discovered that five other pieces are missing as well, even though the other five ships are still out at sea." He concluded.
Isaac took in the information given to him. "So, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying these guys are getting smarter, man!" McConnell stated. "Bigger too. It's not like when they first came around a couple years ago where they were small in number and every one of them was dumb as a rock, they're not like Antifa, or BAMN. These guys are getting smarter by the day and they're recruiting more people into their ranks, the amount of people and coordination that it would have taken to pull off this heist rivals anything we could have done."
Isaac took in the information he was given. It was true, unlike other terror organizations, The White Masks were only getting stronger as time went on.
McConnell's phone buzzed, signaling that he had received a message from his one of his team members. He unlocked his phone and took a moment to read it. "Oh shit."
"What is it?"
"Remember that official I told you about?"
"Yeah."
"No one has seen him since the bombs went missing."
"Kidnapping?"
"No, they just checked his house, it's been cleaned out, like he wanted to leave in a hurry."
"So, he's a runaway."
"Yeah."
"Interesting, now what was he running from…or running to?"
"That's not the only thing." He showed Isaac the profile picture of the man in question.
"…Peterson."
"Cheers, to a job well done." Mike said as everyone clanked their drinks together.
The two other practice runs that day were just as successful as the first. Now team Rainbow was celebrating the way they always celebrated, with lots of alcohol. Luckily, things were fairly tame, at least by their standards, since they would have to run the course again tomorrow.
Ela was sitting by herself, reflecting on the days events. She was glad that they had successfully run the theme park course, but the problem of dealing with her former team was still eating away at her.
"Care for a drink?"
She turned to see Jack, carrying two beer bottles and offering one to her. "Sure." She smiled. After their date had gone wrong, things were awkward between the two initially. However, after a couple days of talking it out, things had gone back to normal as they agreed to stay friends. Jack was a good person, just a horrible date.
"Good work today." He complimented
"You didn't do so bad yourself."
Across the room, Meghan couldn't take her eyes off the Polish girl, which was ironic since seeing her with someone else hurt to watch. It seemed Eliza was wrong, Ela's relationship with Jack was lasting, and she seemed to be happy by the look of it.
"You could have killed us all!"
Meghan turned to face the other problem that she was currently having. Ever since practice had ended, Siu and Shuhrat hadn't stopped arguing over the cluster charge that almost took them all out. Now, Meghan and Eliza had been taking turns playing referee and standing between the two, currently it was Eliza's turn making sure they didn't kill each other for real.
"Guys, this is a celebration, can we just calm down?" Eliza asked trying to mitigate the tension.
"Not until someone puts this guy on a leash." Siu said.
"It was an honest mistake." Shuhrat defended.
"Honest mistake?! You knew we were in the room!"
"There could have been enemies still in there."
"We shouted that the room was clear!"
"Guys come on." Eliza whined. "This is a time for celebration, now either agree to work together or stay away from each other."
The two looked at one another, without saying anything, both turned and left. Siu went back to her room, while Shuhrat went back to drinking with his fellow Spetsnaz. Eliza sat back down with Meghan, letting out a frustrated sigh.
"Those two are going to be a handful." Meghan commented.
"Yeah." Eliza turned to see that Monika had sat down with Ela and Jack at their table. She wanted to go sit with her, but she didn't want to leave Meghan behind. "Um, I'm going to sit with Monika, want to join us?"
Meghan looked over and saw who Eliza's girlfriend was sitting with. "No thanks, I'm good here." She didn't think she'd be able to handle being around Ela while she was with her boyfriend.
"You want me to stay here with you?"
"No, really I'm fine. Go spend time with her."
Eliza gave her friend a smile before walking off. Meghan was left alone to her thoughts.
Eliza walked up to her girlfriend and took a seat next her. "Evening beautiful."
"Hello there." Monika greeted.
"Hey guys." Eliza said to Jack and Ela.
"Hey Liza." Jack greeted. "Good work today."
"You too."
The four of them made small talk for a while. After a few minutes, the group noticed a familiar figure walked into the room.
"Is that Captain Isaac?" Monika asked.
Everyone watched as the tall man had in fact entered the lounge. "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen him in the barracks before." Jack observed.
"Maybe he wants to celebrate too." Eliza suggested.
"I doubt it. He never celebrates anything, not even when we succeed on actual missions." Jack added. "What do you think Ela?"
They all turned to see Ela's seat empty.
"Where on earth did she disappear off to?" Eliza asked.
"I don't know. Like I said, she's been acting strange every time the captain shows up." Monika answered.
"I wonder why that is."
"I'm not sure, Jack has she said anything to you since you two have been together?"
"Wait, what?" Jack asked, confused.
"I figured since you two are dating, maybe she mentioned something about the captain that's bothering her."
"Uh, one, she hasn't said anything, and two, we're not together. We went on one date, but we decided to stay friends."
"Oh, my mistake, we thought the two of you were a couple."
Eliza needed a moment to take in what she just heard, this whole time everyone thought Jack and Ela were dating and they were completely wrong. Come to think of it, that happened a lot in Rainbow. At the beginning when the team first formed, everyone thought Elias and Monika were dating. At one point, it was believed that Maxim and Tina were together. There were rumors that Emma and Julian were a couple, that proved false, albeit not from lack of trying from Julian. There was even a time when people thought Mike and Mark were romantically involved, that rumor was quickly killed, thank goodness.
"Eliza, you okay?"
"What?" Eliza snapped out of her reverie.
"You spaced out there for a minute." Monika said.
"Oh, sorry." She got up from her seat. "If you'll excuse me I uh, have to…take care of…a…thing." She then turned and ran.
"Why is everyone acting so weird?" Jack asked.
Meghan was on her third drink when a ball of red hair crashed into her. "Nice to see you too Eliza."
"Sorry, I think the alcohol is finally hitting me." She apologized. "Anyway, you have to go see Ela right now, I think she went to her room."
"Why, what for?"
"So you can confess how you feel."
"We've been over this, I can't as long as she's with Jack."
Eliza grabbed Meghan by the shoulders. "Ela isn't with Jack you dumb blonde."
"What?"
"We just talked with Jack." Eliza explained. "He told us that after they went on their date, they decided it would be best for them to stay friends."
Meghan couldn't believe what she just heard. "So you mean…"
"She's all yours!" Eliza shouted. "Now go get her."
"But what do I say?"
"I'm sure you can figure it out." Eliza pushed Meghan towards the door.
"But what if she doesn't feel the same way?"
"Well, at least you can say you tried and you can move on."
"Wish me luck?"
"Good luck, idiot."
"Thanks." Meghan left the lounge with a smile on her face and made her way to a certain Polish girl's room.
She did her best to make herself look nice and presentable, although she was still in her combat wardrobe minus the combat vest. She was excited and nervous at the same time as she knocked on the door.
After a moment, the door cracked open and a set of blue eyes could be seen. "Meghan?"
"Hey." Meghan waved. "Can I come in?"
Ela considered what to say. "Only if I can talk to you about something."
"Of course, I actually want to talk to you about something as well."
Ela opened the door fully allowing Meghan into her room. Only then did Meghan notice the look on Ela's face, a mixture of distraught and confusion, she also looked like she was holding back tears.
"What's wrong?" Meghan asked.
Ela crossed her arms and began pacing back and forth, unsure of how to begin. "Promise that you'll keep this between us."
"I promise." Meghan assured.
Ela took a deep breath. "Remember my old team I told you about? When I got half of them killed."
"I remember you mentioning them, but you never really went into much detail."
"Well, here's a little more detail." Ela handed Meghan an old photo, twelve figures were present, one of which was clearly herself. "Notice anyone familiar, other than me?"
Meghan immediately noticed several familiar faces, she couldn't contain her surprise as she realized the situation Ela was in. "My god."
"Isaac, Kowalski, Irvin, Norman and McConnell. All my former team mates."
Meghan looked at the remaining faces in the photo. "And the others, they're…"
"Gone." Ela finished her sentence. "Because of my mistake."
Meghan was now curious about Ela's former team. "What were their names?"
Ela looked back at the photograph and pointed to the first face. "That's Nelson, our squad leader, he was a natural soldier, and a good friend, respected by everyone who met him." She pointed to the next person. "Daniels, the youngest member, full of energy and spirit, he always had a smile on his face." The next two. "Jacobson and Stevens, those two were best friends and a couple of clowns. They would always be cracking jokes and playing around even during the most inappropriate times." The next face. "West, a hard charger, and a huge asshole. Those traits made him one of the toughest fighters you could encounter."
Meghan watched as tears began to well up in the Polish girl's eye's. She hated making Ela relive these memories, but she felt like letting it out may help her. She noticed one more face in the picture. "Who's that?"
Ela looked at the final team member. "That's Peterson, we never saw eye to eye, and we would often clash. He survived that day; however, I have no idea what became of him."
"Would the others know?" Meghan asked.
"There lies the problem." Ela answered. "I haven't spoken with any of them since I terminated my contract. I completely cut ties with them and haven't seen or heard from in ten years." By now, tears were flowing down her face and she began pacing back and forth again. "I don't know what to say, or how to even approach them. How do I know they even want to talk to me…they probably hate me."
Meghan wrapped her arms around her friend, if only to stop her pacing which seemed like she was about to have a panic attack. Ela returned embrace and held on to her tight, she noticed the girl was trembling as well.
"I'm such a coward."
"No, you're not."
"What do I do?" She asked.
"You want to know my honest opinion?" Meghan asked.
"Yes. I'm so lost."
"I think you should talk with them." She knew Ela wouldn't be thrilled with the idea, so she explained. "I can't tell if they hate you or not, but I think it would be the best course of action."
"How so?"
"Well, it may not be painless, and it may not even end well, but all of you at least deserve closure, and that's the only way you all be able to get it."
Ela mulled over the idea for a bit. "I don't know if I can."
"I'll help you." Meghan offered.
Ela looked at her. "You're willing to help me through this?"
"Of course, I'm on good terms with all of them, maybe I could set up a little meeting with all of you." Meghan offered. "And I'll be with you the whole time, in case you need support. What do you think?"
Ela thought it wasn't a bad idea, however she was still nervous. "Can we do it after this operation? Then Norman and Irvin will be back."
"Sounds good to me."
"Thank you." Without thinking, Ela nuzzled the crook of Meghan's neck, causing the SEAL to blush.
"Don't mention it."
Ela looked at her watch and noticed it was getting late. "Do you want to stay the night again?" Ela asked, hesitantly.
Meghan hid her surprise, last time Ela invited her to stay the night in her room, she was drunk. Now, she was completely sober. "If you're okay with that."
"Of course I am."
The two of them removed their shoes and jackets, Meghan turned off the lights as they both laid down on Ela's bed. Meghan laid on her back and Ela wrapped an arm around her waist and laid her head on Meghan's shoulder, the SEAL wrapped both of her arms around the polish girl. For a few minutes, neither said anything, simply enjoying each other's company.
"Thank you, Meghan." Ela whispered. "For everything."
"It's my pleasure."
"I've…missed you."
"I missed you too."
"What was it that you wanted to talk about?"
"I…" Meghan thought hard about what she was going to say, then realization hit her. "Uh, never mind, don't worry about it. Just get some sleep."
"Okay then," Ela said. "goodnight."
"Goodnight, Ela."
It only took a few minutes for the Polish girl to fall asleep. Unfortunately for Meghan, sleep did not come so easily. Her mind was racing from everything that she had learned about Ela, and now she agreed to help her reunite with her old friends, she had to figure out a way to make that happen and without it turning messy. And the worst part, she was unable to tell the girl her true feelings. She laid there with her thoughts, wondering what the future held for the two of them.
Author's note: After re reading this story, I wanted to give a little more depth to my fallen OC's so they are no longer just name's on a list. Also, for those of you who thought Meghan and Ela were getting somewhere, I'm sorry, but trust me, I have everything planned out. As always, I hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave a review. Until next time.