Chapter 2

Six pondered about the mission on her flight back to Hereford. She didn't feel comfortable about the mission handed to her. Maybe it was the fact that she would be sending her operators into a total warzone. It would be a totally new setting for Rainbow, but she knew her operators could handle it though. The amount of experience some of the operators had with being deployed would play in their favor. That's what she'd base her operator selection for the mission off of. She looked out the window of her plane. It was cloudy and drizzling. The usual weather in England. After the plane landed and Six was settled back in she went to straight to her office. Hereford Base buzzled with activity. Recruits went about with their usual training. She saw some of her operators in the mix doing physical training with them.

"Good afternoon Director Six." A voice female voice said with a heavy German accent running past her. GSG 9 operator and Electrical Engineer Monika Weiss was getting her usual afternoon run.

"Good afternoon." Six said smiling and made her way to her building. She climbed the steps of the old brick building to the top floor. She walked down the hall to her office. It was so silent she could hear a pin drop. She unlocked her door put her bag down and approached a safe behind her desk. She placed her thumb on a thumb print scanner. The safe unlocked itself revealing a shelf full of manila folders. Everything Six needed to know about her operators were in the folders. She pulled out all the folders and laid them in a pile on her desk. She took a seat and opened the first folder on top of the pile. The name on the tag read: ALVAREZ, MARIA.

She placed the file back in the safe. She needed operators with experience in undercover work and has had time in country. She turned her chair around and looked out the window toward the base pondering her thoughts. She knew all of their backgrounds extremely well. She personally handpicked every operator on her team.

She leaned forward in her chair and staring at the pile of folders until an idea hit her. Six startled shuffling through the folders looking for the name she desired.

"Gotcha." She pulled out the folder that read, "BRUNSMEIER, DOMINIC." She opened the file and skimmed through his previous missions. Most of the file was covered in black ink so there wasn't much to read but she already knew Dominic's previous work before he joined Rainbow. He was an undercover cop who infiltrated the Hanover Chapter Hell's Angels. He did a lot of dark things over there. He has plenty of experience in working undercover. But not in a war zone. She placed his file on one side of her desk starting a new pile. She opened another folder that read, "COHEN, ELIZA." She flipped through Eliza's folder looking at her previous experience. Eliza was born in Jerusalem and saw action in the Middle East when she was in the Israeli military. She'd be a nice fit for the team, but Eliza was on break. She'd just gotten back from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Six wanted to give her a break. She didn't want to risk having her make mistakes and jeopardizing the team. She placed her folder in the safe. She thought of another operator and fished through the big pile of operators until she found the name she was looking for. She pulled a file that read: "BOSAK, ELIZABETHA." She flipped through her file. Six knew her well but not in a good way. She's been a trouble maker her entire life. Ela, Liz, Elizabeth, Elizabetha or whatever the operators on base has 2 tours in Iraq. One as a private military contractor and the other doing undercover work for the Grom known as Operation Orange Sky. Dismantling terrorist networks was one of her specialties. During Orange Sky she worked alongside Valkyrie, one of Rainbow's Navy Seal operators and top intelligence gatherers. The two managed to destroy an entire terrorist cell in Iraq without killing a single civilian. Six placed Ela's folder with Dominic's and looked through the pile of operator names. She pulled out a file that said, "CASTELLO, MEGHAN." She placed Meghan's file with Ela and Dominic. The girls were young, but she knew they could handle it together. After tedious amounts of work, she found her squad of 5 for the mission. The 5 operators that would be taking part in the mission would be, "Dominic Brunsmeier (Bandit), Elizabetha Bosak (Ela), Meghan Castello (Valkyrie), Jordan Trace (Thermite), and Mike Baker (Thatcher). Jordan and Mike have been deployed to the Middle East multiples times and saw a lot of action. They'd go as look outs and keep everyone in line while the other 3 did majority of the undercover work. Mike will be assigned as mission lead. Mike had lead many missions during Desert Storm so there was no questioning his ability to make decision and listen to his advisors. She picked up the phone on her desk and dialed a number on a secure line.

"Six?" An old rough voice said.

"Mike, I need you, Dominic, Elizabetha, Meghan, and Jordan to my office please."

"Yes ma'am. Give me some time to round them up."

Six hung up her phone and turned in her chair toward the windows.

Mike hung up his phone. When Six asks for specific operators to her office it normally meant something bad was going on in the world that Rainbow had to fix, or someone needed discipline beyond his paygrade. Mike took his glasses off his head and rubbed his temples. He rose from his desk and exited his office to the noisy hallway of the dorm where all the operators stayed. He could hear music being played at one end of the hallway and ambient chit chat from the different rooms. Each operators callsign was written on the doors to show whose room belonged to who. He walked down the hall glancing at the doors. No sign of the people he was looking for. He made his way to the common room in the middle of the two hallways. Jordan Trace was on the couch along with his fellow American operatives, Craig Jensen, Miles Campbell, and Jack Estrada. They were watching a football game on the TV. Mike rolled his eyes. He could never understand American football. He didn't know how they could even call it, "football." There was only one kind of football Mike knew and that was with using your feet. Real football.

"Hey Trace, aren't you missing someone in your group?"

"Eliza thinks football is 'silly.' " Jordan said still watching the game and making air quotes with his fingers on the 'silly' part.

"I strongly agree with her. Quit watching your childish games. Boss wants you in her office."

"God damnit what did I do this time?"

Jordan got up from the sofa and stretched.

"Can't be anything that bad because I was requested there too. I'll meet you there."

"Yeah don't get lost old man. We know you're getting senile these days."

"Wanker."

Jordan laughed and walked downstairs.

"You chaps know where I can find Meghan, Elizabetha, and Dominic?" Mike asked to the rest of the guys watching the football game.

Right as Mike asked his question he caught a flash of bright green hair walk out from the laundry room with a laundry basket. He could hear the music from the headphones she was wearing and the gum she was chewing on as she walked past him.

"Elizabetha, Six wants you in her office." Mike said as she walked past him.

She kept walking as if she was ignoring him. Mike reached and pulled a headphone out of her ear.

"Can you hear me with those bloody things blaring in your ears?"
"Yes I heard you grandpa!" Ela said annoyed. Her English had a heavy Slavic accent whenever she spoke.

"Then acknowledge me when I address you."

Ela put her headphone back in her ear and chomped on her gum. He could hear her mutter something in Polish as she walked down to the other end of the hall and into her room. She slammed the door behind her.

The guys watching the football game started snickering.

"Children are so pleasant." Jack Estrada said chuckling.

"Craig, where's Meghan? I saw her door was closed."
"She's either swimming or lifting. If I were a betting man I'd say she's swimming."

Mike gave a wave goodbye and left. He walked through the drizzling rain to the rec center. He looked through one of the windows overlooking the pool. Just like Craig had said, there was Meghan doing the butterfly stroke in their Olympic sized pool. He watched her massive tattoo sleeved arms propel her through the water. He entered the facility and walked down to Meghan's swim lane and crouched at the end of the pool waiting for her to come to him. Meghan noticed Mike crouched above her and stopped. She pulled her googles off her eyes.

"Hey Mike! What's up?"

"Hey Meg, Six wants you in her office."

Meghan took off swim cap revealing her long blonde hair. She took a swig of water.

"Alrighty, help me out and I'll be right over." She said reaching her hand toward him.

Mike took her hand lifted her out of the pool. Meghan was so light Mike could have lifted her with his pinkie. Despite her menacing amount of muscle mass, she was one of the lightest operator in all of Rainbow weighing in at 134lbs next Yumiko, Rainbow Japanese offensive operator. Weight gain was something Meghan always struggled with as a Navy Seal. The navy always listed her as 'underweight' in physicals.

"Thank you!" She said as she wrapped a towel around herself and headed to the locker room.

"Hey, any chance you know where Dominic is?" Mike asked as she walked away.

"Gym!" She yelled as she entered the women's locker room.

Mike crossed the hallway of the rec center to the gym. The gym smelled of sweat. Loud music blared from one corner. Eliza Cohen was lifting 45lb dumbbells by one of the mirrors. There were dark circles underneath her bright green eyes. Mike noticed Eliza has been pushing herself harder than usual since her return from Truth or Consequences. This was normally a sign that something was bothering her. Mike's friend and fellow SAS teammate Seamus was on a bench press machine. He nodded to him as he walked past. He winked back at him. He noticed something odd about the gym. All the operators working out had confined themselves to one side of the gym. He looked around the room and noticed the Brazilian operator, Tiana Pereira was on the other side of the room meditating and doing yoga while listening to music through her headphones. No wonder everyone was on one side of the room. Tiana didn't like being bothered by anyone and most of the operators preferred keeping their distance from documented sociopaths. Mike was surprised to see her in public. He, nor anyone else has ever seen Tiana out in public like this. Only time they ever her was in training and missions. She looked different without her face paint. Her face was charming without it. It was almost weird seeing her dressed normal for once.

A mixed martial arts ring stood in the middle of the gym. Dominic and Monika were squaring off in the ring. Their GSG-9 teammates Marius and Elias watched from the outside. Mike stood next to him them and watched the ensuing fight.

"What's all this about?" Mike asked.

"Dominic made a bet with Monika that if he could beat her in a fight she'd have had to go out to dinner with him." Marius said.

"Dominic, the village idiot, vs the young banta weight MMA champion Monika Weiss? I have to watch this."

Elias chuckled at Mike's statement.

"Alright Monika! Show me what you got!" Dominic said putting his mouth piece in.

"Dominic this is your last chance to back out. I'm warning you this is going to end badly for you." Monika said loosening up her muscles.

"Give it your best shot woman!" He said.

The fight only lasted 10 seconds.

In the blink of an eye Monika had Dominic in an armbar.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I YIELD I YIELD I YIELD!" Dominic screamed tapping her arm.

Mike, Marius, and Elias busted out laughing.

Monika released Dominic's arm and helped him up.

"Better luck last time. If you need your ass kicked again just give me a shout." Monika said giving Dominic a pat on the back as she exited the ring.

"Monika, you can beat me up any time." Dominic said winking at her.

Monika gave him a death stare and made her way to the exit of the gym.

"We should let her beat your ass next." Monika said before walking out.

Dominic looked around trying to figure out who she was talking about.

"Who are you talking about? Marius… GAAAH!" Dominic said recoiling back to see Tiana standing next him. Mike and the rest of the guys laughed at his reaction and backed away slowly from the Brazilian woman to be safe.

Tiana just stared at them with narrow eyes.

Everyone abruptly stopped laughing. They exchanged nervous glances at each other and at Tiana. Tiana stared back at them. The staring began to get awkward.

Once Tiana figured she won the staring contest she hastily left the gym bumping shoulders with Dominic as she left.

The guys waited for her to get out of ear shot before speaking.

"Did anyone hear her sneak up on us?" Mike asked.

"And that's why we call her, 'Spook Bitch.'" Elias said as he watched her leave. Tiana's footsteps didn't make a sound as she walked. It gave Elias goosebumps.

"And I thought I was lacking with reading social cues." Marius said running his hand through his blonde hair keeping an eye on Tiana as well.

"Am I the only one who was turned on by that?" Dominic asked. Elias facepalmed. Marius looked at him trying to figure out if he was being serious.

Mike chuckled at their comments. He reached out his arm and helped Dominic out of the ring.

"Dominic, now that you're done getting your ass whooped, Six wants you in her office."

"Yeah I'll be right there." He said massaging his arm and walked to the exit.

Mike followed him and made his way to Six's office.