Authors Note: We're back! Sorry this took so long but work has been hectic. Here's where everything goes to hell, after this we'll return to Damien's and Valmet's road trip. Of course I made a few changes to how the story progresses but you'll have to wait and see to find out.

Get ready to rip and tear.

Chapter 20: The Choice

February 9th 2008 0054 Hours

On Approach to Black Site Anvil, Afghanistan

I kept quiet during the whole ride back and the team were giving me stares on wanting answers but I wasn't going to give them one, at least not yet. That prick Kane had screwed me over for the last time and I had had enough. It was my duty to protect my country from all threats, foreign AND domestic. Who knew my first successful thing I could do in making an impact on the world would be finding and exposing a scandal within our intel community. They were not a law unto themselves, they weren't the fucking KGB.

"Captain, are you gonna tell us where the hell you went and what the hell you did?"

As I looked at Sawyer his mood had soured greatly. He wasn't his usual individualistic self, but I kept my composure and remained silent. All I needed to do was just get a call into ISAF and Kane would be out of a job. I know I would face legal punishment for this but it'll be worth it. As we neared Anvil and begun our descent, Ken then spoke up.

"Sir I must agree, I don't like being left in the dark so before we go any further. Why did you tell us we needed to make a quick exit?"

Might as well give them a little something.

"I will let you guys know what happened in due time. Let me make a few phone calls first and then I'll let you know whatever you want to know. All I ask is for you three to trust me, have I ever lead any of you astray?"

The lack of response from them was expected, but they knew I'd never place them in mortal danger. So I asked again.

"Have I?"

Lucente looked to 3 and 2 and answered for them.

"You have not Captain."

As I nodded my head in acknowledgement, the chopper touched down. As we departed from the helipad the bird then powered up and took off rather suddenly. Plus as we were walking towards our barracks the site was unnaturally quiet except for the guard towers looking out towards the surrounding areas. Then all of a sudden bright lights appeared out of nowhere, followed by shouting, and then me ending face first into the ground after being tackled by several men.

"What the fuck is this!? What'd we do!?" I heard Kennedy's shouting as he was being zip tied with an M4 to his head. I then looked in another direction to see Sawyer get punched in the face, and then I heard another voice that I didn't want to hear.

"That's enough Frost! I wanted them detained not beaten! Him however do what you please."

"KANE! What the fuck are you doing!?"

"I ought to be asking you that same question boy. You just ruined eight months hard work, I warned you not to test us."

As he walked off, the one called Frost walked over to me. Three men had me pinned to the ground and I couldn't move. The last thing I remembered was his boot coming down on my face.

…

Daylight, followed by a throbbing headache, and numbness all over. From what I saw the cell I was in they must have thrown me in the detainee cells and injected me with something so that I wouldn't cause too much trouble. I was also stripped of my gear down to my fatigues, they even took my boots. While I could stand I couldn't get my arms to move, that's when I felt a zip tie around my wrists. As I sat down on the cot with no sheets, I looked through the bars at a dimly lit hallway. All I could hear was the small hum of the heating vents and the occasional gust of wind hitting on the reinforced glass window above my head, I was alone.

Where's the rest of the team?

Then came the opening of a metal door followed by slow moving footsteps, I shut my eyes and decided not to say anything until whoever it was spoke first. No surprise, it was Brooks.

"I can make this very easy for you Andrushko. Just tell us where Kasim went and we'll pretend all of this never happened."

I opened my eyes slowly and looked toward him with utter hate.

"So you can find him and cap a leak on all the shit you and the rest of the SAD are pulling out here? Fuck off."

After a moment of pause he responded without emotion.

"You really are just a stupid kid with childish dreams. You think that we are supposed to be righteous and just and set an example for the world to see how right we are? When in reality the world is cruel, unfair, and misshapen. Our goal here is to find those responsible for attacking our country and then leaving. Have you even seen the regular grunts that go out on patrols here? They don't give a shit about these backwards fucks and their mud huts and neither do we. They can hate us all they want but it doesn't change the fact that we are on a mission."

He then snapped his fingers rather violently and I then heard multiple footsteps coming down to the cell. One of the contract guards for the site and the bandaged and bruised face of a SAD member I beat senseless, Trent.

"Take him to Kane. Seems he doesn't feel like taking the easy way."

As he opened the cell door Trent approached and then rifle butted me in the stomach. As I let out a painful shout and cough, he grabbed my slightly longer than normal hair and pulled my head back.

"You REALLY don't have any idea what you've done you stupid son of a bitch!"

As they then hauled me up they then took me outside. It wasn't terrible out today but I could tell it was getting close to noon. And the rough stuff had already begun since we were obviously walking towards the interrogation building I still didn't have my boots on and the rocks were digging into my feet.

"Hold up. That man is still a US Military prisoner, he will be treated as one."

I then turned to the familiar voice, Lucente. With Sawyer behind him holding my boots, but both of them were without their weapons and gear.

"Very well Sergeant. We only need one thing out of him and once that's done you can call your superiors and escort him to Kabul where he'll face a court martial."

He then approached me, and motioned me to turn around, he then cut the straps. Sawyer then threw the boots at me and then walked off aggressively. Lucente then stared at me coldly.

"I take back what I said to you the other day. Your just a selfish fool, Kane told us what you did and who you let go. But I'll let him tell you who that was."

As he walked off I tried to get his attention but Trent pulled me by the shoulder hard.

"Put your damn shoes on and let's go! Kane's waiting."

1529 Hours

With no windows, a single door, and a single light hanging over my head, it was the basic standard for where one wanted to "acquire" information from prisoners. As I was tied with brand new zips, Kane was just sitting in front of me for what seemed to be an hour just looking at me. But what really weighted heavily on me was who his guard was, Ken. That meant two things, one; he was there to make sure Kane didn't make too much of a mess out of me. Or two; he wanted to rub extra salt in the wound considering in his mind I just committed treason. But the real traitor was right in front of me, he knew I was on to him. After a few more minutes, his cell phone rang.

"Yes?"

…

"I'll have to explain it to him. Take your time."

He put his cell back in his pocket and stood up from his chair.

"I don't know what craziness Kasim said to you but it is abundantly clear you cannot handle the difficult choices or the effort it takes to accomplish a mission in the world of black ops. It's sad though, you had so much potential, and you decided to throw it all away based on your gut on what was right."

I then began to chuckle, he was truly full of himself. One of the things I was literally praised for during my time in training when I was in Pineland in Ft. Bragg was my ability to read people, to see through truth and lies. And what was in front of me was a Cold War leftover that just wanted to keep working until he got his big break.

"What's so funny?" He said eyebrow raised.

"You, and your hypocrisy. Difficult choices? You and the CIA are just making this country into a mess just so you can probably spend your years annual budget and ignore whatever the hell else happens. Like or not Kane, grudges from people in nations like this don't fade or stop hurting. They'll keep fighting until they win or there's no one left. What's worse is that you assholes know where the key players are, you could kill them and end this war today. But you won't, cause it's not as profitable."

His eyes then twitched slightly, I got under his skin but Kennedy then stepped forward under the lamp.

"This goes beyond what the CIA is doing Captain. Kasim wasn't just an arms dealer, he was an agent working for the ISI."

The Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan was a key ally in combating the Taliban here during the Soviet-Afghan War. But decades later it had manifested into what is known as a state within a state, that while they represented the Pakistani government they didn't really act on their full behalf. Counter intelligence was something that the CIA did to all countries but why was the ISI so special all of the sudden? But then the answer was obvious and I looked back towards Kane.

"Let me guess, when you first met Simran you told him something that you probably shouldn't have right?"

The silence was an acceptable answer but surprisingly Kane answered my question anyway.

"I made him an offer and he decided to back out after we agreed. Naturally I can't let him get away with what he knows, and only you truly know where he went."

"So what are you gonna do? When I show up to my court martial with electrical scars or even worse not show up at all, the Army is gonna start asking a lot of questions."

"That is why Sergeant Kennedy is here. He asked to be a witness when we were questioning him and your team on why you did what you did. Thankfully for them, they didn't know what you were doing. So just for now, we wait."

Wait for what and what the hell's he planning? I only memorized Simran's number, not where he is. But they don't need to know that.

1802 Hours

Time had literally become a crawl for how long I was waiting for whatever the hell that was going to happen happen. Kane and Kennedy were quietly discussing multiple things every now and then, most of it uninteresting or trivial. This must have been part of the interrogation, to keep me tense and maybe I'll let something slip. I did let something slip though, the zip ties behind my back. Whenever they were not standing behind me I pulled on them ever so slightly to loosen them up, with my strength all it really takes is one heavy thrust forward and they'll snap. Being a large man had its benefits, and what was just as beneficial was that the drug they shot me with was starting to wear off, I could still feel numbness but not as much.

"Kane, we've been sitting here for hours. We should just take him to CID in Kabul and be done with it, you're wasting time."

"Calm down Sergeant. What we need should be here momentarily."

No sooner the moment he said that I heard shouting outside the door. The shouting of Pashto from a woman. Then entered the guy who booted me in the face, Frost, and behind him a bound woman as he threw her to the floor. She wore a black bag over her head and western style clothing more suited to business casual but it was also dirty and ripped in several areas. But what followed next I didn't want to believe and then the fear hit me.

Oh God please no!

Frost placed her on her knees and then took of the bag, her glasses were gone but her face was covered in cuts and tears, Khandan.

"Don't look so surprised Andrushko you're the one that decided to involve her in all of this. When you took Trent's phone you obviously didn't take into account that we'd check his call history." He said forcefully grabbing her hair as she was struggling.

"DAMIEN! THEY CAME AND SHOT MY FATHER! THEY SHOT EVERYONE ELSE! THEY BURNED DOWN OUR HOME!"

As she was crying hysterically I then looked back over to Kane and he was just as expressionless as he was the whole time. Kennedy however had the look of confusion and shock.

"Kane what the hell is this all about!? She doesn't have anything to do with this!"

"Your wrong Sergeant, YOU no longer do."

As he was saying that Kane pulled out a Sig Sauer pistol with a suppressor on it and without warning turned towards Kennedy. There was only a brief moment of surprise of what Louis realized but it was too late as Kane shot him in the head. Time froze for me in that brief moment and then returned as his body fell to the floor and Khandan started screaming. Frost then smacked her across the head with his M4. My anger then got the better of me as I tried to rise out of the chair but fell face first on the floor.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Kane then walked forward and kicked me in the gut.

"Shut up Andrushko! You could have easily avoided this if you just used your head and stopped trying to wage your own war! I'll tell you the reason why Kasim is so important to us. He was providing intelligence to key Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders on missile strikes on where they would be at. The reason why we haven't been able to end this war quick was because he was keeping them alive! And you let him slip through your fingers as you thought he was some type of sob story."

"What the fuck does that have to do with what you just did!?"

"I'm giving you one chance Andrushko. You can answer me on where Kasim is and go to your court martial with the simple charge of disobeying a mundane order and at the most just get sent back home. As of what happened at this moment, she shot Sergeant Kennedy and was gunned down trying to escape. With her father being a drug dealer it'd be no surprise that she was trying to make some connections in ISAF to find some distributors. It's an easy story to make."

That was why he got her involved in this. Tie up another loose end and use her as a scapegoat.

"Or you can spend your life in federal prison for compromising national security by letting a spy go and murdering one of your own men so you could try and hide evidence of treason."

Either way he's going to kill her and this shit gonna continue. He's making me out as a coward backed into a corner with one choice or the other.

…

Fuck this. I've had enough, I'm gonna do what I think is right. No one control's me and I'm nothing like this fucking scum.

"Well, what's your answer?"

I shut my eyes and breathed deeply and started to pull apart the ties, I had to time this right, I then looked over to her.

"Khandan I shouldn't have got you involved in this, I can't apologize to you cause I don't have the right. Kane?"

He then looked down to me, I would be the last man he ever looked down on.

"I don't got time for this shit!"

Using all my might I broke the ties and with a roll threw the chair at Frost sending him back in a stumble. At the same time during the roll I sprang up at Kane. He tried to aim his pistol but I was planning on taking it. With both hands I grabbed his arm and hand and aimed the pistol towards Frost. Before he could react I hit him with a double tap, then using my height advantage nailed Kane with a reverse elbow and twisting his arm around so that he was pointing his on pistol at his neck. The bullet went through easy but it didn't kill him, what happened next was the gurgles and the reaction of him choking on his own blood and inability to properly breathe. He then dropped to his knees as he looked up at me with hatred in his eyes and his hands around his neck trying to stop the hemorrhaging. I wasn't gonna bother finishing him off, as he hit the floor I let him bleed out and suffer. I then kneeled down and untied Khandan, unfortunately I didn't know what to do next. But at least Khandan was ok, and we could both testify on what Kane was trying to do. She then hugged me still crying.

"Wallah! Damien! What's going to happen to us!?"

"I don't know! But I'm not going to let anyone else hurt you!"

She was still sobbing but she had at least calmed down a bit.

"When I said I would help you I meant it! I'm not letting men like this get away with killing innocent people! I don't care what happens to me now! I have nothing!"

I then took her off of me and placed both my hands on her face.

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down. Calm down. You've got me, and you've got a future helping people get better. You're gonna have it, all of it! I'm not letting anymore innocent people like you suffer because of assholes like Kane. Ok?"

In that moment, slowly came that innocent smile she normally had when we talked. And then she placed hands on my face and spoke with confidence. "Ok."

"Ok, we gotta get out of here. And we got to call SOCOM, they'll know what to do."

As I let her go I kneeled at Kane's corpse and searched his pockets for his phone. But when I found it I heard the sound of a gun being unholstered. Then multiple shots rang out but what hit me was one solid force, Khandan's body. With Kane's pistol still in hand quickly turned around and emptied the clip into the now fully dead Frost. Khandan was still holding on to me but I felt something wet on my hand, blood. I then heard shouting outside, guards were moving toward us. I grabbed Khandan and got out of the interrogation room quickly away from the sounds of running footsteps towards one of the hangers where the MATV's were.

I set her down near one of the tool chests and grabbed the first aid box off the wall but before I could do anything she then took my hand with force.

"Why?" I asked.

"You didn't deserve such a cruel fate Damien." She said weakly.

"What are you talking about!?"

"When we first talked to each other on the day I ran into you I saw uncertainty in your eyes. You didn't really knew if you should be here."

"I…I…!"

"Shhhh. That doesn't matter now, what does is that you are better than them in every way possible. You were willing to sacrifice everything to make sure that true justice was served. Don't let what Kane said or did be the end of you. You said you wanted to make an impact on the world, so do it in a way that only YOU want. I know you'll make the right choice."

She then reached up to my face with her other hand. I then realized I was crying.

"Your eyes, their so unnaturally blue as well as gentle looking…for a big ape."

What she said in last moment was kind of funny, she managed to see me smile until her one hand fell to the floor and the other loosen its grip in my own hand. I then gently placed both her hands across her chest and shut her eye's. As I stood up I began shaking all over, my fists and teeth clenched hard and only one thought was running through my head, destruction.

1905 Hours

Anvil had been placed in total lockdown mode, no transmissions, vehicle or air traffic going in or out of the site. Only ones were the radios inside the site and for the site only. As Ruvic and Trent were scouring the area around the interrogation building, Brooks was on his radio.

"I want Andrushko and Fahim's daughter found now! Tear the whole base apart and give Iron 3 and 4 their weapons back! Let them know their former Captain just shot one of their own team!"

"Sir! We've found a blood trail going into the hangers."

"If you see either of them in there you are declared hot!"

Three men stacked up to enter with five outside for support. After going through the fatal funnel, the lights on their M4's lit up the dark hanger. There were four MATV's along with tool chests lining the walls with shelves of various lubricants. But what lurked in the shadows was an enraged monster waiting to pounce and kill. The team lead followed the blood trail to Khandan's body. He then got on his radio, unaware of the figure above them in the rafters.

"We found the girl. She's dead. No sign of-AAAAUGH!"

The screech of the radio caused Brooks to cup his ear in pain. Damien was still in there so he motioned to the support team to move in with frag grenades. But before they could stack at the door there was the revving of an engine. Suddenly one of the MATV's smashed through the simple garage door and careening across the motorpool, the SAD members and guards opened fire on the truck hoping to disable it as the rifle rounds would just bounce off the armored cabin. But then it started twisting erratically and rolled onto its side sliding into a building.

As the SAD members and guards moved toward the rolled truck, Brooks motioned to one of them to check it. Switching on the light on his MP5 he made his way to the turret hatch, bent open from the violent crash, there was no one inside.

"Brooks! This thing's empty!"

Realizing what he had just fell for he turned the opposite direction and started sprinting.

"SHIT! Hanger!"

Brooks was first inside after passing through the broken open garage door scanning around with his rifle not thinking tactfully at that point. He then made towards the light's and after he turned them on, saw his breaching team. They were stripped of their weapons and equipment and were apparently killed with tools. One had a screwdriver jammed into his head while the other two were they were beaten with a wrench so hard that the tool was warped. Damien was already long gone.

Across the base one of the corner guard towers was scanning the interior of the base. The threat tonight was inside not out, but it was closer than he thought. As he heard a metallic thump and roll he already knew what was inside the tower with him but it was too late. As the blast sent both him and the tower apart, two contractors noticed the explosion and took cover behind one of the buildings along the wall, the one looking at the tower got on his radio.

"Brooks! He's over here! South east side! He just took out the guard tower!"

"Don't let him jump the fence! We're moving to you now!"

"Got it! Ok lets…huh?"

His partner wasn't behind him anymore. Keeping his weapon high and at the ready he moved around the corner or the building and saw his partner lying face down but his body was facing up toward the sky. In the slight moment of pause a massive hand came down in front of his eyes and grabbed him by the nostrils yanking his head back violently then in a flash a fist came towards his chest and landed with a sickening crack forcing him against the side of the building. He then saw Damien, wearing the stolen bloody gear of a SAD team, his fist still on his chest and his other hand holding his weapon against him. As he then yanked his weapon from him and backed away he realized what was holding him against the wall. A piece of rebar from the fallen tower had impaled him through his chest, the siding, and the plywood of the building.

"Stick around." Damien said with a rather evil smile.

Apparently some didn't care about the risks about Anvil being exposed and tried to undo the communications lockdown on the computers. Kramer was arguing with one another one of the contractors who was on the comms.

"He's tearing this place apart!"

"It's just one man! We'll find him! You want to compromise this site!?"

"It's already compromised!"

Another SAD member then leaned inside from the open door. "Damnit Kramer let him do what he wants! We need to find-AAAAHH!"

A burst of fire then ripped through him as the two men hit the floor for cover, then a large red plastic container flew past the fallen man. Taped to it was a grenade without it's spoon. The blast was not huge but the fireball was and it had totally engulfed the comms building. Damien then darted off looking to keep the kill count growing, the screams of men being burned alive behind him.

"Sorry. You've been disconnected."

Suddenly more gunfire opened up. Brooks didn't need to figure out that the guards were starting to lose their cool, they were shooting at shadows. But it then started to become more and more intense, he then looked to Trent and Ruvic.

"Looks like Andrushko's done hiding. We're ending this now, Ruvic do you still have that AT4?"

"I thought you'd never ask." He said with an arrogant smirk.

A much larger explosion then happened and were followed but a series of twoomps all three looked at the fire balls popping up lighting up the entire site, Trent knew where he was at now.

"Looks like he just hit our fuel point, it's not in that direction is it?"

"No, it's this way lets go."

As they both left, Brooks was still looking in the direction of the fire, Ruvic got his attention.

"Brooks! Come on!"

He kept eyes on the fire till the last moment as he hurried off with the other two and probably last members of his SAD team.

He was trouble from the start, there was no way a maniac like that would ever listen to us. Kane, you fucking idiot.

Panic, fear, impending death. These thoughts were going through the minds of whoever was left on the burning black site once known as Anvil. Shell casings, bullet holes, burning buildings, scattered weapons, and bleeding out corpses were everywhere. Damien was constantly on the move using the multiple sources of cover taking out one or two men at a time. He was running solely on his hatred. Hatred that he had be manipulated, forced to witness horrible things, denied his ability to do his duty, and have an innocent girl die in his arms. He was drenched in sweat from his constant sprinting and when not shooting his enemies, stabbing them relentlessly or beating them with his bare hands. Combined with the cold of the night, his sweat emanated off of him like an aura, like an aura of violence. Seeing no one else around he assumed they were all dead and turned around towards the motorpool. Pausing at a several mangled concrete barriers upon hearing a familiar Spanish accent.

"CAPTAIN STOP!"

Damien slowly turned around, Sawyer and Lucente were behind him with weapons aimed.

"Drops the guns Andrushko! It's over!"

Damien remained still as a statue, he had already killed so many in one night. But he didn't know for sure if he could shoot his own team.

"James…Nestor…I…"

"SHUT UP!" Lucente said with uncharacteristic anger. "I don't care what fucking reason you're doing all this for! End it now or we will kill you!"

"Wanna know something pathetic Damien? I actually wanted to side with you on what Kane has been doing. But I never expected you to go THIS far. Give it up."

Damien continued to hold his pose, head turned to the both of them, one hand on the stolen carbine, and the expression on his face was a mixture of concern and being perplexed. He didn't know what to do next. But he then noticed a bald figure behind a steel container holding a cyndrilical object and putting it on his shoulder. Damien's eye's widened in fear.

"SHIT! COVER!"

The rocket fired and the shot hit its mark landing in the center of the three men sending concrete and dust everywhere. As Brooks then dropped the spent tube on the ground, Trent spoke up.

"Did you have to hit all three of them?" He said without emotion.

"All that matters at this point is trying to make up a story to explain to Langley, just make sure they're dead."

Ruvic and Trent then slowly made toward the blast area where two of the three Green Berets were dead. The blast and the large amount of shrapnel wounds indicated that the cause of the deaths of James Sawyer and Nestor Lucente was instantaneous. Ruvic then looked to one specific concrete barrier, it had taken damage but unlike the rest of them was intact. He then motioned to Trent and they both moved toward it with guns high at the ready. They peered over it, but there was only a ruined M4 and no body. Suddenly to their right was an eruption of several small concrete pieces, Damien hid under them and waited for Trent and Ruvic to get close enough. He opened fire with two stolen Sig Sauer's, and both men fell before they even knew what hit them.

"DAMN YOOUUU!"

Brooks saw Damien and then open fired in full auto mode while advancing from the container. Damien ducked back down to whatever cover he could find and sprinted to the armored Humvees. Brooks then reloaded and made it in between the two rows of them and slowly advanced, he then saw an empty Sig on the ground and knew Damien was running out of ammo and waiting to pounce so he decided he put him more on edge hoping he'd expose himself unnecessarily.

"I know you're still here Damien. So let me say congratulations, you infinitely surpassed to what I expected out of you."

He knew he was still somewhere in between the two rows of Humvees and continued.

"Don't know what I'm talking about? Think back, all the way to West Point and your training days. What you were perfect at, what kind of knowledge you preferred, how you acted. It was all based around violence and look around you, this is what your best at! In West Point you did a class lecture on medieval warfare on how sword fighting is to be properly done to kill a man as quickly as possible, quite descriptively in fact. So much so the teaching staff questioned you about your mental stability. During airborne training when one of your classmates was being dragged from the plane when his chute got caught you were the only one who didn't even acknowledge or care that a man had just died. Even after you were being disciplined and threatened to be kicked out of the course you pulled some regulation out of your ass and told them that they couldn't and you got them removed from their training positions. During your Green Beret combat training, you beat your instructor so badly you nearly put him into a coma. During all that time they didn't know how to discipline you because you powered through all their punishment and still kept passing their tests. So they just decided to get rid of you. But you got your father to jump in at the last second and you essentially cheated your way into the Special Forces."

Brooks then heard dirt shuffle to his left rear.

"The reason why Kane wanted to recruit a freak like you was that he thought that you could perform the impossible. That you can use both aggression and manipulation at the same time. He thought he could have easily got you dancing to his tune and getting the nasty jobs done. But I warned him that you were too independent and too smart for your own good. Not to mention dangerous and trying so desperately to be like daddy."

Suddenly the humvee's light's came on and as Brooks squinted his eyes Damien leaped off the hood onto Brooks. As he fired his M4 blindly Damien screamed as one of the shots hit their mark but he still landed on Brooks knocking his weapon away from him. Getting into a dominant mount Damien delivered a strike but Brooks blocked it and pulled Damien down and both rolled along the ground trying to get an advantage on their opponent. While both on their sides Brooks pushed Damien off of him and both got to their feet. Damien approached with a round house but Brooks countered with forward side kick. He then threw a straight but Damien closed the distance with a block but failed to follow through with an uppercut. Brooks then came forward with a jump kick but Damien moved to the side to deliver a knee but Brooks caught it and both at the same time delivered a straight left to the face. Again they backed up into defensive stances Damien seemingly unfazed by the fact that there was a chunk of him missing from his left side from where Brooks shot him.

"Even if you kill me, it won't matter. You're only delaying the inevitable Andrushko. The CIA will figure out what happened here eventually and you now have a permanent target on your back. No matter how far away you go or fast you run we will never stop chasing you."

Damien then spat out blood. "Then it's a good thing I got a lot of stamina."

Damien knew that it was now or never, Brooks was still armed and he only had his knife. Placing all or nothing on it he rushed at Brooks. He was quicker on the draw but Damien then kicked up some of the Afghan moon dust at him. The side arm was up a Damien's chest but falling back on his skills in Krav Maga he slashed the pistol out of his hand by cutting his wrist. Brooks had however predicted the follow up and blocked the overhead stab. He then landed a knee in Damien's injured side. Taking advantage of his pain he brandished his own knife, delivering a swing, and the blades connected. Using his free hand, Damien delivered a punch to the stomach. Brooks brought the knife around and attempted a cut but he missed. Damien then made what appeared to be a haymaker but as he was halfway through the swing, he dropped his blade into his other hand. At the same time Brooks was going to counter it with a strike of his own but he was left wide open. Damien brought the blade straight up through his jaw and into his brain. Brooks' body immediately went lifeless and blood flowed from his jaw covering Damien's hand. He then kicked his body off of the blade. His sweat still emanating from him like an aura in the cold night, his unnatural blue eyes void of emotion, and covered in dirt and blood he was satisfied with his fill, Damien then let out a vicious roar.

February 10th 2008 0001 Hours

Location Unknown, Kandahar Province, Moving towards Pakistan

No one would ever control me again, no one would make me out to be their scapegoat, no one would ever tell me what I should think is right or wrong, everything from here on out was gonna be my choice and mine alone. However I had to find some way to get money to get as far away from Afghanistan as possible in a short amount of time. Having access to a lot of US weapons and CIA tech, of what I could salvage, would prove to be enough. After gathering as many weapons and equipment as I could, I stuffed it inside one of the undamaged MATV's and made a beeline towards Pakistan. I kept all the lights out and the only images I saw were through my NVG's going fast but careful as to not hit any ditches or large rocks and go around any large hills. I was multitasking a little more than I should as I had to focus on not crashing, not passing out from the blood loss from my wound and talking to Simran on Kane's cell. All he needed to know was that I ran and I had nowhere to go.

"You said you owed me, I'm calling in the favor right now."

"Hmm. You're right I do. But I didn't expect it this soon, what really happened Captain?"

"Well let's just say I'm not a Captain anymore and we'll leave it at that. But I need into Pakistan and you are the one that can get me in without anyone really looking."

"Now how could I-"

"I know you're ISI Simran! Look I'll explain everything later but I am desperate! I need to get away from the US military. I'm little more than two hours away from the Pakistani border and I've been lucky so far that I haven't been spotted by any night patrols. I just need out of Afghanistan, can you help me!?"

There was a moment of silence on the phone but I heard him sigh.

"What is your current heading?"

I then checked my Garmin. "South east at 158 degrees."

"I'm going to text you some coordinates. It's one mile from the border, my men will meet you there."

0201 Hours

Azam Khan, Kasim's Safehouse, Pakistan

Explaining the story all over again didn't convince Simran that I had actually did what I did. But as I told him again to believe my actions instead of my words he was a little uneasy around me. Which was highlighted by the two armed guards he had. Needless to say I was utterly exhausted and I didn't really have any strength left in me to fight if something went wrong so I wasn't going to start anything. As his men were unloading all the guns, tech, and occasional grenade out of the MATV downstairs in the garage his medic was stitching up my side. Simran sat in front of me much more cleaned up than our last meeting but still had his eye swollen shut from the beating he received, smoking a cigarette.

"So now that you are here. What will you do?"

My mind at the time was totally blank so I answered honestly. "I don't know."

He then put out his cigarette. "It's tragic on what happened to your men and that girl, but she saved your life and your men wanted to keep you alive. Don't hate yourself for that."

As he stood up I still had a blank image running through my head. The adrenaline was gone, the anger had subsided, and I was calm. That shouldn't be possible.

"I take it that it was Kane who told you who I was. What did he say about me?"

"That you were providing the locations of where the US Air Force was going to conduct its strikes on key Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders allowing them to keep on the move."

He then formed a slight smirk and then motioned to one of his men to a trunk.

"That's not really 100% true. There are leaks everywhere like that but I guarantee that he didn't tell you everything. As a matter of fact they've known about that since your war there started seven years ago. What they were really interested in, is to try and denuclearize us."

"What? Why the hell are they interested in that?"

One of his men then approached us with two glasses and a bottle in his hands, vodka. Needless to say I did need something to drink to get some type of shock back into my system. Simran then continued as his man poured the glasses.

"I don't need to tell you that sometimes the United States wants to think that it's the world police. But more often than not, once they see an opportunity they take every chance they have to spread their tentacles into the affairs of others no matter how trivial. They want to stay as the apex military of the world and they'll do anything to insure that as you can attest from what you've seen and experienced."

He then grabbed his glass and looked into it shifting the ice around.

"Kane wanted me to help set up the agency to make some big holes in our nuclear defense so that if any relations between our two countries went poor they would use it as leverage to make my government cooperate with the United States. I unfortunately decided to agree and didn't realize that the fallout that would follow would be disastrous. So I changed my mind and he came up with some story that I was some sort of super-terrorist and you know the rest. Now I know what you might be thinking, why didn't I just report this to my superiors in Islamabad? Well I love my country but I know it's not perfect. I don't care what either side does. While I do work for both an arms dealer and my government I told you the only side that I take is the one that supplies, I don't care about causes."

He then handed me one of the glasses, I took it wincing in pain from the gunshot wound.

"However you did save my life and I am indebted to repay you for that. You probably want to get as far away from this place as possible and I'll help you do it. Once that happens, we're even."

He held up his glass for a toast of agreement. Naturally at this particular moment I didn't have a choice at this moment. I was a wanted fugitive now. I tapped his glass and we drank to our accord.

"AHH! Now we shall save what we will arrange for each other later. It's the middle of the night and your exhausted, take some time to rest your mind and body. I will make a few calls in the morning, I know a few individuals that would love the opportunity to have an actual United States Special Forces Operative as one of their employees. Not to mention I will share with you the profits of those guns and vehicle you gave to me for free."

"I don't care what you pay me. As long as I have a choice in the matter we agreed upon."

In that moment, I took my first step into a dark world.