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Harishva "Harry" Pandey

…

Leather shoes pattered across the hallway, as one man followed the lead of a lithe woman in military clothes. His attire, on the other hand, was not what her comrades would say as 'appropriate'- just a simple shirt and a pair of trousers as a tourist would don. Underdressed for the field, as Aurelia always jabbed. Perhaps the only apt accessory was the scarf wrapped around his neck. The thin beard certainly did not give him any favors for the heat, nor the slightly curly hair that crowned his head. The rimless eyeglasses didn't command a demanding presence either, but it's what the missus picked for him.

None of that mattered tonight. It'd been a while since Harry met with everyone.

"Seriously? You were staying at the Fortress this whole time?", Grace Nam asked while she walked ahead.

"Only since yesterday; I apologize for coming without notice.", he politely replied. "You could say this was a spur-of-the-moment visit."

A little lie. He originally planned to personally assess how Commander El-Fassi was acclimatizing with his new colleagues: the more than a dozen individuals who were all lodged at his own 'house'. His unforeseen departure for an important meeting in the Capitol had put a spanner in the works. Also, Harry had been window shopping for a second base that Team Rainbow could use, a home away from home. The Kasbah Sekria Mania here in the Atlas Mountains looked like an interesting prospect, but he never had the chance to experience its hospitality firsthand. Both of these objectives gave him good cause to do a quaint little undercover mission of his own. It had so far achieved favorable results.

"I don't believe you, sir. This field trip was your idea from the start, wasn't it?"

"Field trip? …Oh right! Well, the exercises were meant to expose you to unfamiliar territory, considering how dynamic our mission profile had become… Though, I certainly didn't plan for us to respond to an SOS tonight."

"Tch. Riiiiight…", she scoffed in reply. "…If that's the case, why did Six send in the guys in England, huh? Me, Chul Kyung… the rest of us here could've done the mission with no trouble. She should've known we're nearest to the coast."

Harry remained silent, for he did not want to give her any ideas to what was happening behind the scenes. At least not yet. Besides, the girl's privy ears would not take it well if she had known that that she and her fellow newbloods were not yet cleared for duty, on account of being fresh off the boat. Sure their dossiers would tell a different story, that they were indeed the best of the best that their governments could offer, but the fact remained they were still ill-equipped for the kindss of danger the Team was intimately familiar with. Hostile environments, rugged terrain, asymmetric warfare… This little outing in Morocco was meant to ease their transition.

Though, that was not the only reason. This whole thing with the White Masks… it proved to be a lot more complicated than Harry and Aurelia originally thought. As the former had feared, the attacks in America had finally begun to resonate with the rest of the world, emboldening others to sow fear as they saw fit. And tonight's hijacking proved that things were about to get worse. From masked psychos to daring pirates, every enemy imaginable would be Rainbow's prey from now on. The months ahead would be a lot more taxing, that much was certain. Not only for the Team, but also for the ones paying their bills. It suddenly made more sense for Barton and Sweeney to snoop on them...

…

"Here we are.", Grace announced to Harry. "Do you want me to tell them you're here, or…?"

They stopped just a few feet short of the entrance to the command center. Faint noises were coming from the other side, radio chatter and ambient noise, which meant that the rescue op was still underway. Harry was tempted to pray for his men's success, but that would just be repeating what he had already been doing. He shouldn't be too worried, the optimist in him assured. Jenson and his guys were up for the task. They had to be, otherwise the good doctor himself wouldn't have recruited them in the first place.

Grace reached out to the doorknob, but Harry smiled at her and bid her to stop. He didn't feel worthy of the courtesy. On the contrary, he believed he should be the one doing the honors, as a simple token of appreciation for what the best warriors on the planet put themselves through every day. So he went in first, making as little noise as possible. He didn't want to interrupt everyone on the other side, who were no doubt spectating the action on their monitors.

*creak*

"Positive ID, Switchboard. I say again, positive ID…", a male voice, presumably Jenson's, announced over the speakers. "…Scanners tell us the ship's carrying a stockpile of uranium… at least a couple hundred metric tons of it. Cargo's not listed on the manifest."

Those in the command center murmured to each other, hiding their shock or subtly expressing it. The report was spine-chilling indeed, if the likes of Mike Baker would give himself pause. Erik Thorn, as expected, analyzed the results as they came without flinching. Emmanuelle Pichon was similarly perturbed, but hid her dread with an unseemly joke to Detective Morowa Evans. Liu Tse Long and Siu Mei Lin whispered in their native tongue, giving themselves privacy from the company of supposed-friends. Everyone else behaved as their natures and demeanor dictated. All of them remained professional about it, as one could expect from the best of the best. The very best that the world could offer, to answer the call of duty.

Hopefully, they would be enough to stop what was about to come. The reality was clear: Rainbow had just stopped a band of pirates from getting their hands on nuclear material. To what end? That would be an inquiry that would surely step in a lot of toes. And this would just be the beginning. Chemical weapons were one thing, but the horror of something ubiquitous, yet so powerful, falling into the wrong hands would be enough to strike fear in the bravest of hearts. While his face remained unchanged, Harry frantically made a few mental notes, dictating his steps over the next few days. It was high time for him to double-time it with the cross checks and interviews, find more talent to add into the roster so that Rainbow could cover all of its bases. The CBRN Threat Unit would have to be reassessed as well, their numbers expanded if need be, now that the prospect of rogue nukes had just been realized tonight. And Aurelia would have to brush elbows with quite a number of bigwigs, get them to bankroll this whole operation for Sweeney and his friends.

The last bit was rather dour to even contemplate; Rainbow's time in America had consequences both unintended and undeserved. Harry took a good look at men and women in front of him: grizzled or colorful individuals, donning black uniforms and pistol holsters, hailing from different cultures and walks of life, each a formidable soldier and an expert at their field, united by their desire to protect the innocent from the wicked. Their faces spoke volumes about who they were and how they would face the enemy that was previewed to them. All focused and unflinching, despite what their body language would otherwise tell. And the man who brought them all here was doubly proud to see them gathered under one roof. They all had big shoes to fill. They all deserved better.

"Check that, Alpha. Hazmat is confirmed on-site…", acknowledged a female voice over the horn.

The accent clearly belonged to Meghan Castellano, presumably overseeing the operation from her office in Hereford.

"…Mark the container with a tracking strobe, then link up with Bravo for extraction… Hazmat units are one minute out."

"Check. Marking the cargo now, headed topside for extract."

"Understood. To all callsigns: we are Code White. Repeat, Code White. All objectives complete, proceed to primary rendezvous and stand-by for RTB (return to base)."

A collective sigh of relief escaped from the spectators. The mission was finally over. The joy was short-lived, however, judging from the banter that followed. Tonight was a reality check for everyone. Mere months after the White Masks struck, and now it was back in business for all players involved: heroes and villains. Those who fought in America knew the score well. Those who didn't, they realized tonight was but a tidbit of the action they could be expecting soon. One could only assume what was going in their heads while the facts slowly dawned on them. They were probably anxious, excited, and frustrated in equal measure. Nuclear weapons... Harry never thought he'd be pitting his people against such horrors, so soon.

He crossed his arms and held back a sigh. He should take care not to put himself in their shoes too much. But he wasn't a soldier or a cop like them. He didn't jump out of airplanes or dodged bullets for a living. And unlike Aurelia, he most certainly never harmed another human being even out of self-preservation. No, he was a theorist. A thinker. A doctor. And in a few months' time, he would be something more.

"Ahem!", Grace suddenly blurted out.

She immediately got everyone's attention, compelling them to turn their eyes to the door. They very nearly chastised her for the inappropriate outburst, but they quickly paused – they were stunned to see one of their own in the company of a man they never thought would be visiting them tonight. Some mouths left gaping; others were better controlled. The feisty Korean, on the other hand, was smiling from ear to ear. She purposely made her voice louder – a low-key way to embarrass her guest to the rest of the gang.

"D… Doctor Pandey?"

"Harry? What the hell?"

The questions came quickly. The answer they got was a humble smile, the same thing that the man greeted them with on the very first time their paths crossed. It was a bit awkward being singled out in the crowd all of the sudden, but Harry kept his cool. This was no time to be lily-livered, for these professionals deserved better. Mustering a bit more courage for himself, he strode in front and stood beside the monitors that they were watching a few minutes ago. He didn't care if he failed to look presentable in their eyes.

Such a lame outfit. A shirt, a scarf, plus a pair of trousers and leather shoes. They were a stark contrast to the more rugged attire that his supposed 'subordinates' were wrapped into. As an introduction, the man fixed his glasses and cleared his voice.

"Good evening! …Don't worry, I was not asked by Six to do a surprise inspection."

"That's oddly specific…", Baker asked. "…What are you doing here, eh?"

"Visiting.", he chuckled. "Six wanted me to make sure you were treated well by our gracious hosts…"

They remained silent, as if the words didn't surprise them even for a bit. Harry changed the subject by turning around to the screens, realizing that they were still playing live cameras feeds of the operation that just concluded. A large ship, drifting in its lonesome at sea, boarded Rainbow Operators who were marked as blinking lights. Eight men and women moved to their designated rendezvous with weapons drawn, moving past blank lights that indicated where an enemy combatant laid dead. Once again, a textbook boarding mission done as clean as possible. The only fly in the ointment was the container truck's worth of uranium, no doubt the hijackers' real target. This news would surely not turn out well for every defense agency across Europe, realizing that the catalyst for a potential terror attack had just be thwarted on their backyard.

Such was the nature of Team's line of work.

"…Chilling isn't it?", Harry went on. "…Let us hope our friends in the Navy can pick up the slack for us… We cannot afford to have another one of these ships slipping through our fingers."

He pointed at one of the screens.

"…You see this? Everything you've learned until this point, every tactic and skill… they will soon be put to the test. That, in part, is the reason why you are here..."

Then he removed his eyeglasses, accentuating his point.

"…And I certainly hope that you are not regretting your career choices right now. We can't afford to turn back."

Typical jest from a civilian, met with scoffs and fake giggles from the heavyweights, so as to not ruin the moment. But Harry's words were also rhetorical, as he already knew the answers that these Operators were looking for. One of them had the gall to call him out of his crap, right before a quick round of laughs ensued in the room.

"That's it?", Grace blurted out. "You came a loooong way for a lecture, doctor."

The laughs certainly helped clear the air with everyone, who just witnessed a rather-tense few minutes unfold at the monitors. Silence soon started to settle, to which the man took an opportunity to have a sweeping glance at the people in front of him. He brought them all here, albeit at different points in time. From here on out, he would be accountable for them and their success. Much as how Rainbow would be accountable for the world's well-being, for better or worse. Easier said than done, considering the stakes laid before them were daunting indeed. Yet this was the path they chose to take. The burden they chose to carry. Aurelia had led them this far.

"No, I'm not.", Harry continued. "I actually have an announcement to make."

"Huh? But you said-"

Once again, Grace failed to catch onto the lie. It was enough to make the man smile yet again.

"Rainbow Six will be resigning next month… I will be replacing her."

Now, the real work could begin.

…

Author's Final Comments/Notes: It was a little hard for me to flesh out a character we've literally seen or heard just once. Hard to imagine he would be taking the reins from Angela Basset's character, which makes me believe that Ubisoft will be adding more snippets of him in the near future. Hopefully they'll be through an amazing CG short film too, or even a trailer, so I've got my fingers crossed for the upcoming Season.

And so, another story comes to a close! Thank you all for the support and feedback! Apologies if certain bits of the fanfic allude to vague things and events. These are all part of the setup for the next big narrative I'll be making, "Zero Protocol", much like how it was when I wrote Part One of this story. Can't promise any ETAs yet, but hopefully I won't take too long this time. Please look forward to it! ;)

Until next time!