Love Struck Delusion
Chapter 231 - A partful turn.
Raptor's POV.
"I can do that." Cody told me as Pepper sat in my chair just behind me as I just got done talking to the kid in front of me.
Cody was aware of the danger and thanks to his boss I now knew things were getting really bad for Afghanistan and Archer. Ying was pulling out and Cody was the guy to help him. I had no issue with Ying himself. However I knew why he came here in the first place. I knew he passed the point in looking for the answer, but I was concerned when Cody got there he would be told to escort him back to Iraq. Ying would have the chance to come right to me for his answer, rather than trying to help Archer get me for it. I was ready to lie through my teeth if that was going to happen. I told Cody just now if he asked, he would be allowed to come to me with Ying. I wasn't going to deny the man the chance to get some closure. He would keep on my tail if he didn't get some at some point, so why not just get it over with? Even if it would be a lie in the end.
Cody had his orders and I told him to get them done. If he wanted to go after Archer himself, I said I could make a call to the anti-rebellion for him. They would be a good asset to have over there. The choice was his if he wanted to risk it. He knew just as well as me that I had a plan to kill Archer soon enough. His choice will come down to his confidence. Which he had a lot of I feared. Offering me his hand, Cody stated with a wide smile.
"I'll be back. You have my word. If I decide to stay I'll give you a call and you can do your thing."
"I don't want you getting killed for your boss Cody. You shouldn't even consider taking Archer down by yourself or with your comrade. Just come back here. Safe and sound mind you."
"I understand." He again told me as I shook his hand and urged him.
"You need anything and I'll send Char and his men out. In fact once you're done with Ying and if you decide to go back to Pakistan to peek around. They'll be your extraction. In case things get bad or if you just need a ride back. You just let me know, kid. I'd hate to lose you."
"You haven't met Peek. He'll be with me and together we'll be okay. But I will call if things get out of hand. You have my word again."
"I'm holding you to it." I replied as he went to leave my office. Once the fox had left, I looked back at Pepper and asked.
"What do you think?"
With her mask on, she replied behind the steel.
"I think a lot rests on his shoulders now. If Ying comes here you lie your ass off about his kid."
"Yeah." I mumbled as I tried to get my seat back by coming back around to her side. Pepper slowly got up and at the same time told me.
"He's not dumb. He's a perfect user like me. He'll come back and he'll be safe. For now you need to forget about what he's doing and refocus on what you got left here. Starting with that fucker who shot Zeta. You're going to interrogate him right?"
Nodding as I sat down, I replied.
"In a few minutes."
"I'm coming with you for it."
I sensed her anger and stated.
"I need him to be alive to speak Pep."
"Oh he'll be alive. I'm just going to break his hands."
My eyes looked back up at the wolf and at first I didn't know if that was a joke or not. However she directly told me with force behind her voice.
"He knew what he was doing. He's not one of your fucking men anymore. He's not even a soldier to the cause. He's worthless and I'm going to make him feel that way. He almost took her from me."
"He didn't know." I replied as she shouted.
"That's not an excuse for it!"
I calmly shut my mouth as she growled.
"You know I'm right. Stop guarding his life. You want your answers? He won't talk because he knows you're here. He's gonna beg for forgiveness when he sees you because he knows you're soft and you'll see the good side. You'll see how he was forced to help Archer and how he can repent now for it. He'll give you your answers if you spare his life, but he'll also give you your answers if he knows he's about to die. Either way you'll get what you want, but I swear to god if you let him slide for what he did I'll….?"
"You'll what!?" I shouted back. Pepper took a step back as I stood up to slam my fist onto the desk. She was stumbled by my sudden anger, but I was never planning to be threatened by her. She saw my display in it's fullest and quickly whispered with her head down.
"I'll….?" Reaching out and grabbing her by the vest, I growled back as she choked on her sentence.
"You'll do exactly what I say. You have no power over my choices. I admit I'll listen to what you have to say, but regardless you have no power over me. Nether does your sister. I make the rules here. Everyone else follows them. You want to threaten me Pepper?"
With our eyes locked she replied.
"I didn't mean for it to come out that way."
Releasing my grip and pushing her back about an inch, I told her bluntly.
"Then watch your fucking tone when you speak to me about shit like this. I will not be stepped on. That's the one thing Archer and I have in common with being leaders. We will not stand by as someone else walks over us to get what they want. You want to kill the kid that bad? You want to scare him? You want to take your anger out on him for what he did to Zeta? You think I don't want to do the same?"
Pepper looked back at me as the question left my lips.
"I want to rip his fucking throat out, but I can't just do those kinds of things now. I'm not that man anymore Pepper. I need to keep my hands clean. I need answers and I need intel. No one will say a fucking word if he disappears. You have my word. You have my permission."
The wolf was stuck there for a moment. She was unsure of what I meant by that. So I just stated it bluntly for her to understand.
"Go do whatever you want to do to him, but after you're done I want to know what he said. I want you to ask him the important things. Layout of the capital and all the checkpoints, current command structure and who is in charge of what over there. I need to know what kind of security Archer has and what he has left in terms of heavy armor and support. I need to know everything he knows Pepper. Am I clear?"
"Yes sir." She replied as I then ordered her while sitting back down.
"Don't threaten me again. Now go do what you do best."
Pepper waited till I was seated. Once that happened she whimpered back.
"I'm sorry."
"Go." I urged her now as I was still growling. The wolf made haste out of the office and once she was gone I took a moment to think.
Cody's POV, An hour later.
I waited at the dead drop for about an hour now and no sign of Peek or the gear Jessup said he was sending. I'm assuming they got delayed, but Ying didn't have all the time in the world. I got done talking to him just a few minutes ago. He was going to meet us just outside the capital, but I was still concerned with his plan for getting outside the gates. He was going to sneak out with one of the resupply patrols that were going to be heading for the border. Plan was to stop that convoy and probably kill whoever was there; apart from Ying who was bound to be hiding with the supplies. He told me to keep a lookout for a big cargo truck. It would be covered up with a tarp and that alone was enough for him to hide in. So long as we didn't hit the thing with bullets, he should be fine when it's all said and done. Of course I had to be in position by the end of the night and currently we were behind schedule waiting on this shit.
I played with my gameboy and every now and again I looked out my window. I was in the middle of the fucking desert and to be honest it was getting cold out here. As time passed and my focus continued on my game, I felt my heart jump when I heard from the back of the car a pair of knuckles hitting the trunk.
"Knock! Knock!"
I nearly shit myself. Dropping my gameboy to my lap and looking out my window, I widened my eyes when I found Peek just hanging out around back with a large metal suitcase strapped to his back. When our eyes locked he began to laugh. Putting away my gameboy, I shouted at him as I unlocked my door.
"What the fuck are doing to me?! You know I hate being surprised!"
Peek was twice my size. Maybe about as big as Raptor. Six feet tall and decorated with gray feathers. Along his wings and arms and down to his legs was an always beautiful look of orange and black feathers mixed in with the gray. His eyes were gold like Zeta's and without a doubt he knew he was one of the only birds in the killing business. Didn't help that he was born with such a good color palette. He always managed to draw attention wherever we were and right now all I wanted to do was get out and strangle him as he continued to laugh over the sound of me getting out of the car.
"Hahah! Did I catch you napping? Or were you playing that game of yours again?"
Peek was originally from the states. His accent was what set him apart. Not many birds are seen outside the states. I can't begin to tell you how many times he gets asked where he's from by the people we deal with on this side of the planet.
"You're lucky I just got a checkpoint. Fucking got me so good the game crashed."
Undoing the strap that was around his vest, Peek put the suitcase down on the trunk to reply.
"At least you can see the silver lining still. Sorry for being late. Pilot had to drop me off early. Not enough fuel to do the whole trip. Thankfully it didn't take too long to reach ya."
Peek had the same uniform I had minus the hat. Much like myself he was another perfect user and that only added to his ability to remain calm despite having to walk a mile through the desert in this temperature.
"That the order I placed?" I asked him as I cracked open the case. Nodding his head as I did it, he replied.
"Should be everything. C4 on the bottom and the mark seven right there. You know what it's like to have fifty million dollars on your back in the middle of the desert?"
Chuckling as I got my hands around the vest I replied.
"Not fifty no. I'll have twenty after this gig though."
Smacking my arm as I said that, Peek stated.
"That's fucking madness that your getting paid that for guard duty. You know I didn't plan on sticking around with ya right?"
"You know I planned on asking you to stick around though?" I asked him back as he chuckled and gave me another chance to speak.
"You cool if we go half then on this? It's worth the money."
Nodding as I got out the rest of the set, Peek replied.
"I'm good for that. What's the gig you're after right now?"
I held back on saying the answer. I was more focused on being gentle with this armor. Peek understood why I didn't answer right vest was massive. Twice the size of my normal plate. Looked more like an E.O.D vest then a combat vest. Weight was about the same too. Making sure it was strapped on all right, I then got to work on strapping on the arm plates and the leg plates. All together it felt like it was another fifty pounds on my person. Once that was all set, I took out the generator for it all to work. This suit was beyond anything prior to it. It broke the laws of physics and our eggheads back at Shader industries put their hearts and souls into making it work. I was curious just how well it would hold up to live fire though.
Peek watched as I got the generator around my waist. It was held together much like a belt. The generator itself was sitting comfortably on my lower back and thankfully it wasn't all that big. It actually blended in really well with the bottom of the vest. In fact there was a pouch for it to rest in back there. Peek helped me lock it down and once it was in place he told me with some excitement.
"I got to test this thing out before we left. It's a fucking trip Cody. You'll love it."
"So long as it stops bullets I'll love it." I replied as he chuckled and got the generator on for me. I heard it firing up and for a moment it went to the sound like an old computer booting up. Then it came back down till all I could hear was a slight hum. However it was vibrating and it began to feel like a back massage after a few seconds. With it all set, Peek came back around to my front side to warn me.
"You're gonna feel a slight tingle."
With my body ready I jolted in place as I felt energy from the generator being released. The power embodied me in less then a second and as it reached and went over my head did I shout to Peek who just laughed.
"A slight tingle!? Feels like I got tazed!"
"You're a big boy. You can handle it. It should be dying down. I know it's not as bad as it was for me. Birds and electric currents don't get along well." He informed me as a joke. I slowly began to notice however that he was right. Once it had calmed down, Peek asked.
"Good?"
I nodded as he went behind his back to pull off another strap. As I tried to adjust to the weight, my eyes widened as he handed me a rifle. Once it transferred to my hands Peek told me.
"TAR-21. All kitted up for you and Jessup had me load you up with a few grenades for the M203. Here you are."
Handing me four rounds from one of his front pouches, he then said.
"Two explosive rounds and two smoke rounds. Should be enough. You ready to get going? I've been freezing my ass off up till now."
Loading one of the explosive rounds and then throwing the rifle over my back, I replied to my shivering comrade as he went for the passenger seat.
"I'm all set. We're behind anyway, so we got to floor it if I'm to have enough time to set up."
Once we were both in the car did he ask me again.
"What's the gig?"
"I'll tell you on the way. Strap in. We got a long drive."
Peek got himself buckled up and with no time to spare I got us moving.
mT Shadow.