".and keeping all this in mind, it is my personal belief that Rainbow
Six has preformed above and beyond the call of duty in light of this recent
altercation. The weapon has been returned to the Americans, both the
Americans and the Chinese have apologized; China has withdrawn its forces
from occupied territories. We have paid heavily with this campaign, but I
would like to assure you all, it was worth it. We have succeeded." Stated
John Clark.
I was barely listening. The night of Ding Chavez's death still haunted me. I still couldn't cope with his absence. Chavez was the one that had been here the longest, we all looked up to him as he was the Team Six leader. We all were trying to meet his expectations. Now he was gone and Six was now a confused mess.
Arnavisca was now thrown into the position of operational leader of Team Six. I got the feeling that he wasn't really ready for the position and it came as somewhat of a shock. What was even more of a shocker was the fact that I was promoted to Deputy Operational Leader, Arnavisca's old position. I thought after John Clark had seen me loose my cool back on the tanker and take off after Chavez's killers I would be finished with Rainbow. Apparently not.
The briefing was dismissed and we all left the theater. I took the elevator down to the housing section of the base and went to my own room in the Hereford-Rainbow operations building.
I unlocked the door and stepped in. I felt dead tired, so I flopped on the bed and was fast asleep, not even bothering to undress and crawl under the covers.
I awoke to what I believed was the next day. A glance at my watch told me that I was correct. There was now way for me to know any other way, as most of the Rainbow base is subterranean. The noticeable lack of windows made the passage of time difficult to judge.
I got up and jumped into the shower the water revived me in its usual way and then I threw on a fresh set of woodland combats. I exited my room and then made my way over to the duty roster that was posted on a clipboard outside the gym. I took a look at it and saw that most of team six had been given leave for the next three days. Things may have been looking up.
I considered booking a plane ticket to Canada and going to visit my family back in Alberta, but three days was not very long, plus I would need to be near if I we were called back. I opted to see what Duke or Krystal were doing and inviting them to come to one of the local pubs and celebrate our victory, even though I didn't really feel like it was much of one.
I picked up one of the phones in the corridors and called Duke's room. It rang for several seconds, and then he picked up. "Hello," he answered.
"Hey, its me." I announced myself.
"Oh, hey. What's going on?" He asked.
"Not much, just wanted to know if you and Krystal wanted to go down to the local watering hole for some celebratory beers."
"Uh, No, I can't, sorry. GSG-9 called me back this morning. I leave in an hour. I would have told you, but I just got the call not ten minutes go myself. I'll stop by before I leave and say goodbye though." He said regrettably.
"Oh. Alright, that would be good, you might have to look around a bit to find me, I'll be bouncing about a bit." I said.
"Heh, Occupational hazard?" He asked in a laughing tone.
"No kidding. I'll see you in an hour."
"Bye." The phone clicked as he laid it on the base and I slowly set my end down as well.
I decided that I had some aggression that I needed to take out on something. I walked down to the armory and signed out some light armor, a SOCOM, and an MP5 A4.
I threw the gear on in the lockers, and then walked out of the building and into the shooting range that had been constructed on the 300- acre lot that Rainbow was constructed on on this side of the Atlantic.
I pulled a clip out of the pouch on my side and slid it into the receiver on the submachine gun. I then grabbed the tab on the slide and pulled it all the way back and then let it slip through my fingers and scoop a round off the top of the clip, snapping it into the chamber, ready to fire.
I chose the medium range. The targets were far enough away to be somewhat of a challenge and stay within range of the weapon.
I aimed across the desk at first and popped off a few rounds, shredding the paper targets placed at the other end of the range.
I decided to switch over to the short range. There were targets there that were made for the shooter to be moving towards when they were firing. I walked over, snapped up the MP5 and sent the rest of my mag into the thing.
I dropped the mag and slipped in another. I advanced on a fresh target, instead of firing in short bursts, I let my aggression fly and held the trigger down, advancing while forcibly holding the weapon from climbing. I held it until the firing pin clicked down on an empty chamber. I let the submachine gun drop and hand off me on its sling. My hand dropped to the SOCOM holstered on my thigh. I brought it up and sent the entire mag into the silhouette's head.
When the magazine was exhausted and the slide locked back I looked straight ahead through the sights at the shredded target. I then let the pistol drop back to my side, where I slid it into its holster again.
"A little aggressive aren't we?" Came a voice from behind me.
I jumped a little and then turned around. Krystal was standing there, clad in entry-black combats and holding her SSG3000 sniper rifle. She was chewing her gum.
"I'm just working those out right now." I said motioning towards the target.
"I see that," she said. "Very nice. Did you ever think that there might be a root to all this misdirected aggression?"
"I don't know, perhaps it's the fact that our leader is dead, Duke is leaving for Germany again and I don't have any idea what I am doing."
"Duke's leaving? He didn't say anything to me." Krystal said quizzically.
"Me either, he said he just got the call this morning. He said he would stop by and say goodbye." I said.
"Huh. You might want to talk to Clark and get him to put you on the active roster. You never did deal very well with not working."
"Yeah. Oh well, you never know when something is going to happen, in this line of business anyway." I commented.
"No kidding. Anyway, I was going to come and get you. You know, you never gave me that lesson on close quarters combat that you promised me."
"Yeah, I know. We should do that now while we have a chance. Sound good to you?" I asked her, motioning with my arm for her to lead the way.
"Just fine." She said and followed my lead.
I stepped short as I felt a vibrating sensation at my hip. "Hang on a minute." I said, taking the beeper off my belt and looking at it.
"We'll have to do this another time, Clarke is calling me to his office." I stated regrettably.
I walked back into the building, checked my weapons at the armory and then took the elevator up to his office. He was sitting behind his desk working on the paperwork that we were so ridden with these days. He looked up as I walked in. "Ah, Hello. Have a seat." He said, motioning with his cigar to an empty chair across from his desk.
I did so. "I've got some bad news. We identified the terrorist group involved in all of this. The problem is, they have been moving troops and supplies at an increasing rate over the past four months. That is normal when they are preparing for a major attack. The thing is, when we seized the weapon. They didn't stop. They are still moving at an increasing rate. They appear to be shipping their assets all over the globe. Weapons to Ireland, people to Canada, money in foreign banks, and there is more every day. We don't know what's going on."
"They still have a bargaining chip, either another weapon or an important person. We didn't get everything from them."
"Exactly. Here, intelligence just grabbed this off the airwaves." He said, handing me a paper.
I looked at the white sheet. "They stole three hundred gallons of heavy water." I said and set the sheet on the desk.
"And a nuclear weapons technician that isn't in any of the reports. The Russian government is trying to keep that one quiet."
"Wait I remember now," my mind flashed back to that night we were in the meat freezers in Japan. "We found the bomb, and there was something else in the corner, stacked against the wall. About a dozen black sheets of some sort of metal, and about half a dozen blue plastic barrels."
"Probably lead shielding and heavy water. The lead shielding is useful for moving something radioactive; say a bomb, without radiation leakage exposing it to overhead satellites. Once in a storage facility, the material would be immersed in a pool of heavy water to prevent any further radiation leaks. I think its obvious now, we have a nuclear weapon on our hands." Clark said solemnly.
"We don't know where it is, though. That's the problem." I pointed out.
"Yes, but we have a contact in the terrorist group who just might be able to feed us some information on its location, plus we have satellites scanning the globe constantly until the weapon is found. If we can locate it we can bring a significant part of terrorism on the European continent down for good."
My mind was swimming. I didn't think anyone was ready to admit that the biological weapon hand been a decoy, especially since we had lost people finding and seizing it. Unfortunately, all the evidence was there and it all seemed to add up. We weren't finished yet.
"Ready the team. We go as soon as possible." Said Clarke, then he looked back to the paperwork on his desk.
I was barely listening. The night of Ding Chavez's death still haunted me. I still couldn't cope with his absence. Chavez was the one that had been here the longest, we all looked up to him as he was the Team Six leader. We all were trying to meet his expectations. Now he was gone and Six was now a confused mess.
Arnavisca was now thrown into the position of operational leader of Team Six. I got the feeling that he wasn't really ready for the position and it came as somewhat of a shock. What was even more of a shocker was the fact that I was promoted to Deputy Operational Leader, Arnavisca's old position. I thought after John Clark had seen me loose my cool back on the tanker and take off after Chavez's killers I would be finished with Rainbow. Apparently not.
The briefing was dismissed and we all left the theater. I took the elevator down to the housing section of the base and went to my own room in the Hereford-Rainbow operations building.
I unlocked the door and stepped in. I felt dead tired, so I flopped on the bed and was fast asleep, not even bothering to undress and crawl under the covers.
I awoke to what I believed was the next day. A glance at my watch told me that I was correct. There was now way for me to know any other way, as most of the Rainbow base is subterranean. The noticeable lack of windows made the passage of time difficult to judge.
I got up and jumped into the shower the water revived me in its usual way and then I threw on a fresh set of woodland combats. I exited my room and then made my way over to the duty roster that was posted on a clipboard outside the gym. I took a look at it and saw that most of team six had been given leave for the next three days. Things may have been looking up.
I considered booking a plane ticket to Canada and going to visit my family back in Alberta, but three days was not very long, plus I would need to be near if I we were called back. I opted to see what Duke or Krystal were doing and inviting them to come to one of the local pubs and celebrate our victory, even though I didn't really feel like it was much of one.
I picked up one of the phones in the corridors and called Duke's room. It rang for several seconds, and then he picked up. "Hello," he answered.
"Hey, its me." I announced myself.
"Oh, hey. What's going on?" He asked.
"Not much, just wanted to know if you and Krystal wanted to go down to the local watering hole for some celebratory beers."
"Uh, No, I can't, sorry. GSG-9 called me back this morning. I leave in an hour. I would have told you, but I just got the call not ten minutes go myself. I'll stop by before I leave and say goodbye though." He said regrettably.
"Oh. Alright, that would be good, you might have to look around a bit to find me, I'll be bouncing about a bit." I said.
"Heh, Occupational hazard?" He asked in a laughing tone.
"No kidding. I'll see you in an hour."
"Bye." The phone clicked as he laid it on the base and I slowly set my end down as well.
I decided that I had some aggression that I needed to take out on something. I walked down to the armory and signed out some light armor, a SOCOM, and an MP5 A4.
I threw the gear on in the lockers, and then walked out of the building and into the shooting range that had been constructed on the 300- acre lot that Rainbow was constructed on on this side of the Atlantic.
I pulled a clip out of the pouch on my side and slid it into the receiver on the submachine gun. I then grabbed the tab on the slide and pulled it all the way back and then let it slip through my fingers and scoop a round off the top of the clip, snapping it into the chamber, ready to fire.
I chose the medium range. The targets were far enough away to be somewhat of a challenge and stay within range of the weapon.
I aimed across the desk at first and popped off a few rounds, shredding the paper targets placed at the other end of the range.
I decided to switch over to the short range. There were targets there that were made for the shooter to be moving towards when they were firing. I walked over, snapped up the MP5 and sent the rest of my mag into the thing.
I dropped the mag and slipped in another. I advanced on a fresh target, instead of firing in short bursts, I let my aggression fly and held the trigger down, advancing while forcibly holding the weapon from climbing. I held it until the firing pin clicked down on an empty chamber. I let the submachine gun drop and hand off me on its sling. My hand dropped to the SOCOM holstered on my thigh. I brought it up and sent the entire mag into the silhouette's head.
When the magazine was exhausted and the slide locked back I looked straight ahead through the sights at the shredded target. I then let the pistol drop back to my side, where I slid it into its holster again.
"A little aggressive aren't we?" Came a voice from behind me.
I jumped a little and then turned around. Krystal was standing there, clad in entry-black combats and holding her SSG3000 sniper rifle. She was chewing her gum.
"I'm just working those out right now." I said motioning towards the target.
"I see that," she said. "Very nice. Did you ever think that there might be a root to all this misdirected aggression?"
"I don't know, perhaps it's the fact that our leader is dead, Duke is leaving for Germany again and I don't have any idea what I am doing."
"Duke's leaving? He didn't say anything to me." Krystal said quizzically.
"Me either, he said he just got the call this morning. He said he would stop by and say goodbye." I said.
"Huh. You might want to talk to Clark and get him to put you on the active roster. You never did deal very well with not working."
"Yeah. Oh well, you never know when something is going to happen, in this line of business anyway." I commented.
"No kidding. Anyway, I was going to come and get you. You know, you never gave me that lesson on close quarters combat that you promised me."
"Yeah, I know. We should do that now while we have a chance. Sound good to you?" I asked her, motioning with my arm for her to lead the way.
"Just fine." She said and followed my lead.
I stepped short as I felt a vibrating sensation at my hip. "Hang on a minute." I said, taking the beeper off my belt and looking at it.
"We'll have to do this another time, Clarke is calling me to his office." I stated regrettably.
I walked back into the building, checked my weapons at the armory and then took the elevator up to his office. He was sitting behind his desk working on the paperwork that we were so ridden with these days. He looked up as I walked in. "Ah, Hello. Have a seat." He said, motioning with his cigar to an empty chair across from his desk.
I did so. "I've got some bad news. We identified the terrorist group involved in all of this. The problem is, they have been moving troops and supplies at an increasing rate over the past four months. That is normal when they are preparing for a major attack. The thing is, when we seized the weapon. They didn't stop. They are still moving at an increasing rate. They appear to be shipping their assets all over the globe. Weapons to Ireland, people to Canada, money in foreign banks, and there is more every day. We don't know what's going on."
"They still have a bargaining chip, either another weapon or an important person. We didn't get everything from them."
"Exactly. Here, intelligence just grabbed this off the airwaves." He said, handing me a paper.
I looked at the white sheet. "They stole three hundred gallons of heavy water." I said and set the sheet on the desk.
"And a nuclear weapons technician that isn't in any of the reports. The Russian government is trying to keep that one quiet."
"Wait I remember now," my mind flashed back to that night we were in the meat freezers in Japan. "We found the bomb, and there was something else in the corner, stacked against the wall. About a dozen black sheets of some sort of metal, and about half a dozen blue plastic barrels."
"Probably lead shielding and heavy water. The lead shielding is useful for moving something radioactive; say a bomb, without radiation leakage exposing it to overhead satellites. Once in a storage facility, the material would be immersed in a pool of heavy water to prevent any further radiation leaks. I think its obvious now, we have a nuclear weapon on our hands." Clark said solemnly.
"We don't know where it is, though. That's the problem." I pointed out.
"Yes, but we have a contact in the terrorist group who just might be able to feed us some information on its location, plus we have satellites scanning the globe constantly until the weapon is found. If we can locate it we can bring a significant part of terrorism on the European continent down for good."
My mind was swimming. I didn't think anyone was ready to admit that the biological weapon hand been a decoy, especially since we had lost people finding and seizing it. Unfortunately, all the evidence was there and it all seemed to add up. We weren't finished yet.
"Ready the team. We go as soon as possible." Said Clarke, then he looked back to the paperwork on his desk.