Chapter 7 "Quiet's past, part 2"
Skull Face had picked up something serious during his research on Africa and called me. "Child, something unexpected has happened here in Africa, I have to stay much longer than expected. There is another research team working on something in Afghanistan. You will depart there, and you will be briefed on the situation and your mission. Depart to Afghanistan; someone will be waiting for you there."
I pack my bags to leave for the airport. When I arrive to Afghanistan, at the research site, one of the fellows XOF soldiers escort me to a research site, through the trip I ask him about my new mission. "Hmm, I just arrived here myself recently too, I'm stationed at …." We keep talking and catching up on recent events.
Reaching there, a soldier briefs me on my mission. "Your mission will be that of a bodyguard, there's a very important scientist here working, he needs to be watched and make sure he does his work"
"Why am I on this?" I ask as I put my bags down.
"The scientist finds himself distraught after a recent incident, even death threats don't motivate him enough, however, he's very fond of women, so having you watching him can put him at ease. Any more questions?"
"No sir."
The soldier escorts me to this big strange building. It was about a quarter of a football field long. You cannot see anything outside; the building had no windows of any sorts, just an exceedingly small thin gap surrounding the rectangular structure. The entrance was an electric sliding door that required a keycard to open it. As the soldier uses his keycard to open the door, I step in and take a good look at the inside of the building. This was a lab; I noticed many walker gears hanging on the walls, almost an endless row. The scientist working had a big table with many blueprints laying around and walker parts. Surrounding the table were many servers-like machines where he used them to materialize the walker parts.
"Emmerich! Present yourself!" yells the soldier as he steps inside the building. There comes this man wearing strange mechanical legs "Pre present, sir…" responds very nervously. He was wearing a white coat, sporting glasses and an incredibly nervous face.
"Doctor, this woman has been assigned to watch over you, we have pulled off the squad so you can work in peace, take this as kindness from Skull Face!"
"A woman?" His voice didn't sound manly either, it was a bit high pitched.
"Didn't you hear me?"
"Ah ah I did sir…"
"If he gets handy with you, you can beat him, just don't kill him or incapacitate him," the soldier whispers to my ear. As he leaves, I bid him off with the military salute. Emmerich keeps staring at me.
"Go back to work doctor!" I yell at him, "Uh right!". I sit on a nearby chair, putting my feet on the table and laying my head with my arms and observe him do his work.
Hours go very slow; all he does is sit with his mechanical legs working on a computer or scribbling some blue prints. He then decides to talk; he begins to talk about his life, family. Then he says something that catches my attention "Then I met Big Boss.."
"Big Boss?"
"Ye.. yeah the legendary soldier himself."
"Tell me more about him"
"He… him? I thought all you soldiers know about him."
"Go on..."
"Right… well I met him…" The doctor proceeds to tell me all about a man I had never met.
I felt astonished at the feats this man had achieved, the time flew by for every tale I heard from him. Then I asked something about him that really hit a nerve on the doctor "What happened in Costa Rica's base?" He grew pale and turned his gaze to me away from his computer
"I.. I didn't know, I swear, the inspection was supposed to help everyone."
"Doctor?" He got extremely nervous
"Plea please believe me!" on his knees he pleads to me like holy Mary, grabbing both my arms.
"Doctor, continue your work." I shove off both his arms.
Few weeks after I get a call,
"Child, your bodyguard gig is up, you are going on a strike force mission now."
"Master?"
"One of my men is going to pick you up now as we speak, he will brief you."
My next mission was to assassinate someone in a Hospital on Dhekelia. The target, Big Boss himself. Apparently, Skull Face told me the team had been tracking him down these past 9 years but weren't able to find him anywhere. Until they got a tip of someone whom waked up from long coma in Dekhelia. Skull Face deduced that the target was certainly in there because the hospital is one of Ciphers secret bases. "Clever ruse that must be from Him himself" says Skull Face with a grim tone, as we are on the chopper on route to the Hospital.
"Child complete this mission and XOF plan will be complete. Cipher will no longer have competitors." As we arrive close to the hospital, I look at Skull Face and he gazes down to his feet, only waiting for the mission to be completed. "Remember the Alamo!" He screams as I drop down with the rope.
For this mission, Skull Face said it was easier to stealthily eliminate the target before using a strike force team. Therefore, in this case the strike force team would serve as backup and kill all targets in the hospital vicinity, as most likely the target would blend with the crowd. Before the team makes a ruckus, I quickly make my way to the target's room on the hospital. As I arrive, I first kill the nurse, and then proceed to strangle the doctor. Big Boss is laying there, watching helplessly as he tries to reach for the doctor's gun. He looks thin and old, not what I expected from meeting the legend face to face. After I finish killing the doctor, I get a call from Skull Face "Is he dead?" As I press the button on my mic "Not yet, the patient in the next bed saw my face." "Carry on..." "Yes, consider it done."
As I proceed to kill the target with my knife, I see the gun he tried to reach for on the floor, just at my feet. A funny thought occurs to me "It'd be quicker with the pull of the trigger." I pick up the gun and point it at him; suddenly my mind goes blank for a second, as I keep staring at this man, how frail he looked. For that one second as I'm about to pull the trigger, something pushes me to the side. Snapping myself out, I throw the man with his face covered in bandages out of my body, I quickly pick the knife, he begins to throw random stuff at me, one of them a crystal medicine bottle that breaks upon impact on my arm and my whole body is smeared in a smelly liquid. I throw the knife; the man has good reflexes as I aimed at his heart but he quickly dodged it and impaled his shoulder. Still it was enough time for me to eliminate the target. I quickly proceed to grab him and strangle him since I had no weapons at my disposal, I felt frustrated, as I had to meet the legend in such a frail state, now I just wanted the mission to be over as quickly as possible. Before I know it, I'm burning, at the start it hurts, a lot. But I focus myself on eliminating the target, it's the priority. I crawl over, the bandaged man throws my knife back at me, I reflect it. Right now all I can think of is strangling the target again while he burns with me, we'll burn together. This was the only way now to finish the mission. As the thought runs through my head, my pain is now gone, my body all numb while still burning I pick up the pace but suddenly, another bottle flies towards me and flames me up again.
This time the pain I cannot endure, it hurts a lot, everywhere, I can't even think straight, I lose control of myself and fall out the window, in one second of clarity, I just think "To have met the legend itself, in such a state, and I'm falling down, burning, is this what will my end be? In failure?" As life flashes before my eyes, my training with Skull Face, him picking me up in Russia, Big Boss pictures, my time with xof, I hug myself and I whisper "No" not like this I thought, it cant end like this, there is still something I have to do. I don't want to die in flames, yet.