Hyyyaaaaa, I'm back ! This chapter is crucial because it contains a lot of important information. Be sure to read it well because after this, it only gets more difficult. I am a huge fan of these kind of operations you know. I love the military, my two cousins are both Privates and I'm very proud of them. I did A LOT of research to make this chapter. I don't really know how all these people speak, I tried to write it down as formal as I could. But then again, Englisch is my second language.
I hope you like it. Ciao ciao...
PANG ! PANG ! PANG !
Three bullets fly through the air, almost hitting his head. He ducks and falls on the ground. Quickly, he stands up and runs. Adrenaline shoots through his veins and his heart beats almost through his chest. His breath rasps through his throat. It's hot outside and running makes him sweat like a pig. His legs are getting tired after running for almost an hour now. He decides to stop, they must be far behind him. He bends forward and rests his arms on his legs. When he regained control of his breath again, he looks around in search of a well. There should be one nearby, if he's correct. He places his hand half over his eyes to block the sun. In the distance, he sees a few stones placed on top of each other. He walks to it; it's a tiny well with dirty water. Well, water is water. He gulps the water down his throat and sighs satisfied. Time to search the camp.
After two hours of walking, he finally enters his base; a little town with a little over hundred inhabitants. Most of them are dressed in thin clothing and are wearing protection against the sun. Because in countries like Iraq, the temperature can reach a little over a hundred and fifty Fahrenheit. He walks through the gates and greets the men who are feeding the goats. They smile and wave back at him. He is quite known in the town as Markus the Helper. Markus has helped many of them in putting up their own business. Wether it's herding goats or selling clothing; he has helped them all. He almost reaches the building where his appartement is, when suddenly the sound of gunshots are heard. He instinctively ducks and crawls on his stomach to the nearest stone wall. A man nearby, who is still standing, gets shot through the chest and falls on the ground. Right in front of Markus' face. He narrows his eyes and crawls to an alley to hide from the attackers. In town, everybody screams and yells. The poor people are terrified and bullets are send everywhere. Glass windows, pots, trees, play fields, shops, animals, people; everything is a target and gets shot at. Markus furrows his eyebrows. This is all my fault, he thinks. His hand goes up his chest to feel a hard square disk in his pocket. He needs to get that thing safe, he knows they are after this. They are after him !
After a while, it gets silent. The firing has been put to an end and people aren't screaming anymore. Markus decides to stay hidden for another two hours to make sure they are gone. He slowly peeks his head around the wall to see what is going on. What he sees is more than disturbing; bodies are laying on the ground, everywhere. Animals and people, there has been absolutely no mercy at all. Children are laying on the ground, some of them are still alive but hurt badly. The dead bodies of men are thrown around to find what they don't have. The dead bodies of women are undressed and bruised and battered. Some of the bodies show that they have tried to put op a fight while being still alive. A simple bullet through the head stopped them easily. Markus sighs sadly as he walks through the slaughter field. It is his fault, he has put them all in danger without telling them. PANG ! A bullet flies through the air and hits his leg. Markus snaps out of his thoughts. This is a case of life and death. He has to make it to his computer. He has to make this, this last mission. When this is over, he will surrender and they can do what they want with him. He just needs to do this, for himself but also for his colleagues and his friends and family in the States.
He runs to his appartement, to his room. When he arrives, he quickly places a disk into his computer, uploads the information and seals the disk with a code that consists of four parts that fit together perfectly. Then, the man copies the disk, leaving him two disks but the copied one is a fake which contains six random codes that lead to nothing. That one, he lays on the table. The other one, he puts in an envelope and pushes it in his mailbox, this way, the envelope will be send to the address that's written on it.
PANG, a bullet hits the window and flies square through his chest. The man falls on his back from the impact; he's been shot. His eyes shoot open as he remembers one fatal thing he couldn't do. He tries to get up and crawls to the phone and dials an anonymous number.
"My name is Markus Klee. I am the Former Master Gunnery Sergeant of the Marine Corps US. And I...I am about to die within a few seconds. Please send this message to my good friend John Parker, Warrant Officer 1. He... He will know what to do."
The man breaths heavily and squeezes his eyes due to the pain in his chest. He's bleeding but he doesn't mind. He closes his eyes, breaths out and flies away to the light that is already welcoming him...
BANG, the door is kicked open and four men armed with guns enter the room. They walk around, searching for something. One man screams in Arabic and waves with the disk he found on the desk. The other three men nod and walk away, leaving a house that's been wrecked and a body that's been brutally murdered for something that was supposed to be secret...
"Officer, we need to talk." A deep male voice speaks from the other side of the phone. "Come to the headquarters immediately." And with that, the man hangs up.
John stares at his cellphone. Why would the captain call him ? They are supposed to be off duty for a couple of months. It couldn't hurt to come and see what's going on. He thinks and then walks to the bedroom to get his bag. Just when he wants to leave the appartement, Seth comes running at him and howls softly. John bends over to pet his dog. "Sorry buddy, I'll be gone for a while. Elsa will be home soon, she'll walk you." Having said that, the young militair grabs his bag and closes the door behind him.
A good hour later, John shows up at the location where the bureau was. He walks through the doors straight to the office of the colonel. "Sir, I have arrived. To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you today ?" John greets him while taking off his baret.
The man walks up to the young man and shakes his hand. "Warrant Officer*, I am glad you came. My name is Jacob Red. Walk with me to the meeting please."
The two men walk to the meeting room, when John enters the room, a good twenty men are already seated. They all look up when the two men arrive. Jacob gives a small nod. "Gentlemen, please sit down. We have important things to discuss."
John takes a seat and studies the paper that lays in front of him. What is this ? Why does no one tell me what's going on ? He turns the page and reads the sentence. The Marine Corps of the United States of America. Signed by Robert Adams, your General. MISSION: DiskE21 Special Operation
When he looks around, John can recognise a few of his fellow colleagues and his Field Team. The Field Team consists twelve men, including John. You have Four Privates; Nico Hayes, Ruben Flores, Brent Price and Matthew Wreight. The Sergeants. Gunnery Sergeant, Chad Wessels. Master Sergeant, Mason Casey. First Sergeant, Justin Smith. Sergeant Major 2, Jeffrey Hop. Sergeant Major 1, Lucas Thomas. Warrant Officer* 4, Aaron Brien; he has been kidnapped by the IRA and is missing over five years now. The Field Team is still searching for him. The replacement for Aaron is David Copper. Warrant Officer 2, Tyler Jones. Warrant Officer 1, John Parker. This team has been brought together over six years ago, right after that, former Warrant Officer 4 was kidnapped and the team had fallen apart. Luckily, John introduced David to the team and now they are stronger than ever. Their strategy is at its best and their Privates are in top condition, as for everybody else.
The man, seated at the head of the table, stands up and walks over to a huge screen. It's the Major General of the United States Marine Corpse, Martin Clark. He clears his throat and speaks. "Gentlemen, my sincere apologies for recruiting you on this short term. I am aware of the fact that all of you are currently off duty since you came back four months ago. But, sadly, something has interrupted your time off and it is quite important." The huge screen changes of color and now shows an official picture of a former sergeant, completely in uniform. "This is Markus Klee, he was the Master Gunnery Sergeant. He retired three years ago but never left Iran. Sources say that he still was operating anonymously but no one knows what mission he had. It is our task to find that out. Yesterday, a disk arrived at our bureau. We tried to open the documents that contained it but we need a code to get acces to the information. Sadly, no one knows how to. Our best computer scientists are trying to solve it right now."
A door opens and a secretary apologises for interrupting their meeting. Another man steps into the room, immediately, everyone stands up, takes off their baret and bring one hand up to the side of their head. "Lieutenant General." They greet in unison. The Lieutenant General, Carl James, nods and walks straight to the Major General, whispers something in his ear and takes a seat. The Major General swallows hard and then continues his story. The next picture is shown on the monitor. It shows a wrecked room and in the middle of it lays a male corpse.
The Major General points at the corpse on the picture. "This is Markus now. He has been killed by, what we believe, members of an elite assassin group called IRA. Their name stands for Islamic Republic of Assassins. They are highly skilled an have secret agents everywhere, even here in the States. We believe the group has four head quarters and multiple bases all over the world. One of the four headquarters was recently discovered in Egypt. The other three remain unknown. Markus Lee is founder of a small team of investigators, they call themselves KAPLAL. It stands for Klee's Agents Protecting Law and Land. They operate at night and no one knows how big their group is. It could be five, it could be fifty. All we know is that Markus was aiming at something, he was discovering something that was supposed to be hidden. He had set up a cover but someone blew it. We believe it was an insider because the descriptions given were too precise for an outsider. Luckily, KAPLAL had a warning system which they used immediately. All of Klee members got away and are now hiding in different countries. Sadly, someone sold them out because word got out quickly about them hiding and now the IRA is tracking down everybody who has to do with KAPLAL's secret mission or is in a way involved with Markus. IRA's main target is now dead, but it doesn't mean they have stopped searching. They will kill everyone to protect what they have to protect."
Carl stands up from his seat. "Gentlemen, I believe it is time to put our heads together and make the decision whether to go to Iraq or not. It is a big crime, someone of ours is killed; we can't just ignore it. I say, we send the Field Team along with two hundred men under their protection. Warrant Officer 1, you are in charge of the Teams. Make sure you are prepared enough. Can you handle this task ?"
John stands up and salutes to his supervisor. "Sir, I am honoured that you are willing to lay a task this important on my shoulders. I will not disappoint you and will try my best to bring all the men home safely."
The Lieutenant General nods. "Good, that is settled then. Now I know that you're specialised in the Field works of Iraq, however, for this mission, you have to go to Iran. We will train you on short term, you are the best officer we've got. We have to give this a try. Oh ! And I also need you to look at the disk, Markus addressed it in the first place to you. We only made sure if it wasn't a trap."
"Yes Sir." John replies and follows Carl as he walks out of the meeting room, down to the Computer Hackers Department, where the best computer scientists and geniuses are trying to solve the difficult code it contains.
"What do you have." Carl asks the head of the department.
A smaller, bold, Chinese man with glasses salutes the Lieutenant General before speaking. "Sir. Up until now, we've got pretty much nothing. We need to open the files on the disk but it's locked by a firewall. We are currently scanning the disk for any vulnerability. But I am afraid that the thing is sealed as platinum. We are considering using a bot** for this jewel."
"Thank you Shuhou." Carl answers and turns back to John. "As you see, the disk is sealed pretty well. We're trying our best but till now, no one has come a step further. Maybe you could take a look at it. You're quite smart yourself."
"I'll see what I can do, Sir." John says while moving over to the desk with computers. He enters a code and immediately a malware program*** is activated. "Shoot." He scoffs as he realises what he has done. He quickly types a code in and the computer shuts down. He exhales and stands up. "Sir, I'm afraid that we've got to do with a DOS****. Currently, all of our information is leaking. And if we don't stop the leak, no member of the Marine Corps will be safe. We don't know its source, could be IRA. I had to shut the computer down, otherwise, the IRA could track down our headquarters with the information given by DOS. We'd have to plan an attack on it but sadly, the data packets are sent malformed to further stress the system if we're going to hack it. We could lose all of our data, including important information about every service officer here." He informs Carl.
The man nods, then he turns to John. "Officer, weren't you the one with the girlfriend who is extremely smart ?"
John nods. "Yes sir, I believe you mean Elsa ?"
"That's correct. She teaches at a university right ?"
"That's right, sir. She is a professor in mathematics. She knows a lot about numbers and stuff."
Carl's face lits up. "Then this is the girl we need. Bring her to the office tomorrow. I want her to take a look at the disc as well. Maybe she can help us."
John frowns, he's not sure if this is a good idea. "Eh, sir ? Is it a good idea to involve Elsa as well in our S.O ? I mean, I do not wish to put her in danger too."
The Lieutenant General places his big hand on John's shoulder. "Do not worry. We'll cover for her. And she doesn't need to know what we're doing, just solve the code. Maybe she'll see it different, from a woman's point of view, I mean. We only have men in our Computer Hackers Departement, I want to know if she can do the job. I want to see how her brain works. She seems smart enough to me."
"Ok then. But I don't want her to get hurt or something. I don't want them to be able to track her down as well." John replies.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of it." Carl reassures the young soldier. "Nothing is going to happen to her. Now, I'll give you the disc if you need to persuade her to work along. The moment she sees that it's an official document with attached file, she'll come around." He says while giving John the papers and the disc. "Don't lose it. Bring it back tomorrow."
John nods. "Will do, sir. Thank you." And he salutes.
Carl pats him friendly on the shoulder. "You know, John, I like you. You're a fine young men. You kno-..."
"SIR !" Shuhou suddenly calls, interrupting his conversation. "SIR, you might wanna see this..."
Immediately, the Lieutenant General walks over to the little Chinese guy. "What happened ?"
"Sir, the IRA has put a video containing information about five secret agents on the internet." Shuhou informs while showing the video. "It already has half a million hits."
"Hmmm, this is not good. It seems like we have to take drastic measures." Carl mumbles and walks away. "Hack into the network and delete the video as soon as possible. I do not want information about my agents spilled on the internet. AND FIND THE SERVER !" He orders while signing to an assistant to come.
She stands up from behind her desk and runs over to Carl. "Yes sir ?" She asks while holding a paper and pencil to write notes down.
John follows Carl closely.
"Gather the the Field Team, only them. Inform the General about our little change of plan. And call the SWAT Team. We need a second team, they probably are willing to work along." He orders his assistant. She nods and begins to call people directly. Carl walks into another room. He waits for the team to arrive before he seals the room shut. "Gentlemen, I have news. Say goodbye to your loved ones and prepare yourselves; you're about to leave within a week."
John's eyes go wide. Within a week ? How will he tell this Elsa ? She'll be disappointed and sad and alone again. They'll have to postpone the wedding since he doesn't know when or if he'll come back. He sighs. This is not going to be easy.
* A Warrant Officer is someone who is an expert in a specific specialised field, for John that would be Iraq, and provides leadership only within that specialty.
** A bot is a robot that can perform automatic tasks on its own. Bots don't interfere with the user, they work alongside them, providing more information or even destructive tasks.
*** A malware program is a program which maliciously activates all kinds viruses that cause damage for the computer and the network.
**** DOS is a Denial of Service Attack and is designed to target a website, or in our case; the documents of the Marine Corps, and make it inaccessible or crash.
When he's at home, John first tries to find a good hiding place for the disc. Elsa can't know of this or he might be a dead one. She would ask difficult questions and he would have to tell her the truth eventually and then she might be in danger. John shakes his head; NO, she can not know the truth, not entirely. John lets his eyes roam the living room. Now where can I possibly hide this thing ? Just as he thought he found a place, the phone rings. He throws the disc under the side table and walks over to pick up the phone. Hmmm, anonymous number. Wonder who that might be.
"Hello ? Who is this ?" He asks.
"Hello John. Remember me ?"
"Mother !?" John exclaims. Why in the world would she call me !? "Why are you calling me ?"
"Sweetie." The woman on the phone says. "I wanted to know how you were doing. I haven't heard from you in such a long time. You are my son, you know, I still care about you, even though you think otherwise."
He sighs. "I've been doing great. Thank you." He replies shortly while pacing through the living room.
It stays still for a while. How awkward. Then, his mother starts to speak again. "Anyhow, I would like to talk to you in person. See if you can visit us ?"
And she's still pretending like nothing has ever happened. "You're talking to me now."
She sighs dramatically. "Yesss, but that's different. I want to see you in person, I wanna know how you look like and what you've been up to lately. Don't you understand ?"
"If you wish to see me, then just look at my old photos. You have plenty of them." He simply says being quite annoyed. He walks over to the kitchen counter and then back to the couch.
"Oh come on Johnnie. That's different ! I want to hug you and smell you and see how you're really doing. What if you're sick of underfed or-..."
That's it, how dare she ! "I can take care of myself perfectly, mother !" He interferes.
His mother mutters some words and then takes a deep breath before speaking. "John, I insist you visit me. I don't like the feeling of you being alone all the time with no one to look after you."
"Excuse me ?! I have plenty of people looking after me; my buddies at the military, my friends, my dog and my girlfrien-..." Shoot. John quickly closes his mouth when he realises his mistake. His mistake for noting he has a girlfriend. He closes his eyes and waits for a reply.
"John." His mother begins. "Since when do you have a girlfriend ?" She asks like he would never be able to get a girlfriend but showed her the opposite.
"For about four years now mother."
"And you didn't even care to introduce her to us !" She practically screams.
"Well, I didn't think it was any of your business !" He shouts back.
"You are my SON. Everything that has to do with you, is my business, including a girlfriend for God's sake !"
"You never cared about me, and now all of a sudden you wanna meet me ? What's going on, where's Evan; your Angel ?" John asks suspicious.
"... Evan is..." His mother sighs deeply, John even hears a barely audible sniff. Did I hear that right ? When did my mother become this sentimental ? She continues. "Evan died two years ago."
His eyes grow big. "WHAT ?!" He mumbles and falls on the couch. "H-h-how did this happen ?"
"You know that Evan was... severely hand-..."
"Yes I know that mother. I just wanna know how he died."
"Well, one day, he was crossing the street and didn't watch out. He got hit by a truck and died two days after because of his injuries. Your father and I have been sitting by his bedsite for those days, hoping he would recover somehow. But he never did..." His mother begins to cry. "You're all I have left now John. Please, I can't hold it anymore. I have to see you, I need you. I need to see how my kid is doing, especially now you have a girlfriend. I wanna meet her, is she nice to you ? Does she take good care of you ?" She rambles.
"Why hadn't you called me when he died. I am his brother, I should hear about these things." John states, ignoring his mother's cry for him.
"B-be-because... I tried to call you, really honey. You have to believe me. You didn't pick up your phone and I didn't know where you lived at that time. You could have been in some country in the Middle East, I couldn't call you home. Not when you were serving for your Fatherland."
"You should have." He says shortly.
"Please John." She pleads. "I need to see you. I am your mother. Please don't ignore me."
He sighs. He has never been able to cope with pleading women. Maybe she's changed. Maybe she accepts me for who I am now. "What about father ? Does he wish to see me as well ?"
It stays still.
"I knew it. I'm sorry mother. If dad doesn't want to receive me, then I see no need in visiting you." He says, ending the conversation.
"NO ! PLEASE ! Your dad... Your dad wants to see you too." His mother tells. "He just didn't say it with that many words, but he loves you very much. You now that right ?"
John shakes his head and closes his eyes. "No he doesn't. I've seen the way he looks at me. He hates me with all his being."
"NO, no, no. You know that's not true. He loves you. I love you. Please John. Don't do this to me !" She almost cries. "Please visit us. Even if it's briefly, just visit us. Stay for tea and then you can go home if you don't enjoy yourself."
"Mother, please." John snaps.
"John please, you have to come. I need to see you, I miss you so much and you know, you're my baby. My first born, my little boy !" His mother suddenly starts to cry.
He frowns and mumbles. He doesn't like it when women cry, especially not his own mother. He sighs before he makes his final decision. "Ok. I will visit you and I will bring my girlfriend with me. And you better not embarrass me, nor will father; or you'll never see me again." He threatens.
She swallows, a little bit too hard. "I promise." She whispers. "Thank you John."
"I am only doing this for Elsa and I. We're engaged and we need your blessings. I expect you to give them when we are visiting." He says coldly.
His mother gasps as he mentions the engagement. "You proposed to her already ? Don't you think that's a little bit too soon ?"
"I am a grown man. I make those decisions myself. If you're going to argue, then I will not visit you. I won't put Elsa into this family disaster of ours."
"I'm sorry." She replies ashamed. "I won't interfere with your life. I look forward to our encounter. When will you be visiting ?"
"This week... In two days." He decides. "Bye mother, I have to go."
"Ok. Bye son, I love you." She whispers.
Yeah right. John thinks and ends the conversation. He lays down on the couch and stretches. This whole conversation has tired him out and he decides to take a little nap before Elsa gets home. That was a very strange day.
Soon after he fell asleep, Elsa enters the room. When she notices him laying on the couch, totally worn out, she smiles and slowly takes off her shoes. She climbs over his body and lays her head on his chest; listening to his steady heartbeat. In his sleep, he puts his arm around her shoulder and presses her against his upper body. Elsa smells his scent, she lets her hand go through his hair and plays with the strands on his face. She studies his face as he sleeps; he looks a little bit stressed. A tiny crease between his eyebrows is visible and his lips are slightly pressed together. Elsa kisses him in the neck and moves up to his cheek. He moans and presses his head against her lips. She smiles and snuggles until she lays comfortable. She closes her eyes and listens to his heartbeat, the only sound in the room. She has always loved to listen to heartbeats: hers, her sister's, her mother's, her father's, John's; she has listened to everyone's beat. It soothed her, it was the only accurate sign of someone that showed her they were still alive. She could listen to it for hours. Elsa grinned when she remembered the first time with John, that she had tried to listen to his heartbeat. He had stared at her like she was some kind of lunatic.
Elsa moves closer to him. He looks at her with one eyebrow lifted. "Elsa, what are you doing ?" He asks, not sure what to do with her strange behaviour.
She smiles. "Just lay down." And she places her hand on his chest to get him laid down.
He removes slowly her delicate pale hand. "Not if you won't tell me why."
She smirks. "Come on Joohhhnn." She whines and pulls her sad puppie dog face. "Please lay down, for me ?"
John laughs. "You are such a tease." He says while rubbing his index shortly on her nose. "Ok then, but you better know what you're doing." He warns as he finally lies down.
Elsa's face lits up as she softly lays next to him. She moves her upper body on his and lays her head on his chest.
"Ok, uhm, what now ?" He asks now she finally got what she wanted.
"Nothing." She whispers. "I just wanted to hear your heartbeat. You have a steady one."
"Right. Well, that was funny." He says sarcastically and makes a move to stand up.
"No, wait !" She says and moves up to sit on his waist. She places her hands on his shoulders and lowers her head to stare him deep into the eyes. He swallows hard. "Listen, I'm not crazy or disturbed, if that's what you think. I just want to hear your heartbeat, to make sure that you're real, that you still exist and that it's not a dream. I want to hear you breathing, to feel your chest rising and falling with each breath you take. I want to hear you blood rushing through your veins and you muscles relax at my touch. I want to hear your voice, how it hums in your chest and how it makes my ears buzz. I want to feel the warmth of your body emerge and flow into mine. I just want to be close to you, I don't wanna lose you...too.." She explains, tears well up in her eyes. She's lost too many people she loved. Her mother, when she died. Her sister, whom Elsa shut out only to protect her. Her family, when they moved to the other side of the world. And her friends who she never saw again. A tear falls from her eye on John's shirt.
"Hey." He says softly and cherishes her jaw and cheek with his left hand. "You will never lose me. I promise that." He smiles and pulls her head on his chest. She lays down and relaxes, listening to his heart doing its job. "Shall I tell you a story ?" John asks.
Elsa nods. "Please."
"Ok then." He starts while rubbing her shoulder and kissing the top of her head. "Long time ago, before I had met you..."
They had laid like that the whole evening. Just him talking and her listening to his body. Elsa smiles, it's such a long time ago. So much has happened after, it went all too fast. Now, they're getting married soon and she can't wait until the moment she can call him her husband. He stirs and opens his eyes. When he sees who lays on top of him he smiles. "Hey gorgeous."
She looks up to meet his face and his insanely beautiful eyes and totally melts at his sweet comment. "Hi handsome. You're laying comfy ?"
He nods. "Yeah. I'm tired, gonna grab some sleep before I start cooking."
She gives him a kiss on the lips and lays her head back on his chest. "Ok. Now, shall I tell you a story ?"
John grins, this seems familiar. "You should." He replies and closes his eyes again.
"It started way before I met you..." She begins.