Part 4 Chapter 12
"Dominic, you're over reacting."
"Mike, I'm telling you, something isn't adding up with Miles."
Mike took a sip of tea and shook his head in disapproval.
"You still haven't listened to Elzbieta's side of the story yet, so it'd be in your best interest if you referred from jumping to conclusions and spreading rumors about your comrade."
Dominic sighed slowly stirring his tea.
"That's if Elzbieta even remembers what happened to her." Dominic muttered.
The two operators sat at the kitchen table in silence. They had the downstairs to themselves. Two days had passed since Valkyrie, Ela, and Vanguard returned from the desert. Miles and Jordan were somewhere in the city monitoring uniform activity while Meghan tended to Ela who was still recovering from her concussion and traumatic injuries. The two operators hadn't seen Ela since she was moved upstairs after her return. Dominic and Mike wanted to give her space to rest. Meghan had been giving them updates.
Mike and Dominic heard soft footsteps coming down the stairs.
"We'll continue this conversation another time." Mike whispered hastily.
Dominic nodded in agreement. The two men turned to see who was coming downstairs.
Low and behold, the Bosak Tempest carefully walked down each individual step. She appeared to be still struggling with her balance.
"Well look who it is!" Thatcher said with a big grin.
Ela managed a weak smile.
"Hi." She greeted them softly.
Mike got up from his chair and offered it to her. She sat down in the chair happy to be with her friends. Dominic gave her a smile and thumbs up from across the table. He eyed the damage done to her beautiful face. One half of her face was covered in an assortment of red, black and blue hematomas. The swelling on the one side of her face was gone so she was able to open her one eye completely. The sclera of the eye was a reddish black color instead of white from popped blood vessels in the one eye. Her bright green iris stood out against the ugly deep red background. Her other eye looked normal. Despite her one eye looking badly injured it hadn't affected her eyesight at all. Her right hand was in a cast.
Ela felt eyes staring at her. She lowered her baseball hat over her eyes using the brim to hide away her damaged appearance.
"Food?" Dominic offered to her.
"No thank you."
"You good?" Mike asked gently putting a hand on her shoulder. Her body flinched away at the body contact. Mike immediately lifted his hand as if in surrender.
"Yeah. Yeah." She muttered.
"Where's Meghan at?" Thatcher asked.
"Still asleep."
Dominic grabbed an MRE from his rucksack and quietly ate. Mike went back to enjoying his tea time. Dominic crafted his mediocre dish and ate quietly. He looked up at Ela who was staring into space.
"Elzbieta?"
"Yes?"
"I know you're trying to recover from your injuries and all, but I have to ask. Can you tell me what happened at the White Mask encampment in the desert?"
Mike lowered his tea glaring at Dominic, which he ignored.
The question struck a chord in Ela. She looked away from him embarrassed.
"Dominic. I'm sorry. But I don't remember and besides, I really don't want to talk about it right now." She said sheepishly.
"Are you sure? Anything at all? The mission details aren't adding up Elzbieta." Bandit said pushing her.
"That's enough Dominic." Mike growled.
"Seriously you guys? You're just going to let this slide?" Dominic said raising his voice and throwing up his hands in frustration.
Mike felt his patience being tested.
"Dominic stop acting like a muppet and let it go!" Mike said angrily.
Ela cupped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut trying to drown out their words.
"Vanguard didn't do anything wrong Dominic, if that's what you're trying to pursue. He was thinking about the mission. I'd trust Vanguard with my life if it came to it. You weren't even there so, who are you to judge? Now drop your attitude now… or I'll drop you right where you are." A voice said from behind Dominic.
The men sat hushed at the table.
Bandit slowly turned his head to see Meghan standing behind him menacingly. She had a murderous look in her eye. The kind of look she gave when she was ready to inflict violence upon a terrorist dumb enough to try and harm her. Dark circles hung below her eyes. Her blonde hair was a mess. Her once bronzed colored face was pale. From the looks of her she hadn't slept since she returned from her mission in the desert. Probably so she could monitor Ela continuously.
Dominic turned back to the table and shotgunned the rest of his tea in one gulp. He slammed his cup on the table making Ela jump in her seat. He stood up and approached Meghan meeting her eye to eye. Their faces inches apart from each other. Meghan stood her ground as Dominic began to tower over her. He was three inches taller than she was.
"Was that a threat Miss. Castello?" Dominic muttered to her.
Meghan didn't say a word.
The two operators stood mean mugging each other waiting to see who would throw the first punch.
Dominic wasn't intimidated by Meghan. Her strength and the fact that she was a frogman meant nothing to him. If Meghan wanted to exchange blows with Dominic, then he would gladly participate holding nothing back.
He had learned over time that it didn't matter who they were, male or female, friend or enemy; never put up with anyone's bullshit.
Meghan had the same mentality.
Meghan balled her fists. Her knuckles turning white.
Mike stood ready to spring into action if the operators lost their cools. He didn't want to jump in right away. They were adults after all. He wanted to see if they could talk it out by themselves.
A few seconds of silence passed between Meghan and Dominic.
"Alright I'll drop it. Maybe this place has me on edge or something." Dominic said and walked past her.
"Yeah, just a little." Valkyrie hissed back at him.
Despite not appreciating Dominic's attitude Meghan would forget her confrontation after she cooled down. Dominic was just being his usual, over protective self. Meghan understood he was only trying to look out for her because he cared about her. He just needs to understand when to lay off a little bit.
The front door opened to their apartment. Miles and Jordan filed into the apartment shutting the door behind them. Dominic and Miles walked past one another exchanging a brief look of distrust toward one another.
"What's going on here?" Jordan asked feeling tension in the room.
"Just some conversation." Mike said covering for his two teammates.
Miles and Jordan disregarded the purposely vague answer and stripped off their combat gear.
Meghan took a seat next to Ela.
"You should be resting." She said pointing a finger at Ela.
"I want to go through the intel we collected from the encampment." Ela said ignoring what Meghan had said to her.
"Alrighty. If you're up to it. I honestly think you should be resting."
Miles passed a large pile of documents to Meghan. The operators gathered around the table observing the documents. Meghan started the briefing.
"After our fiasco at Lake Habbaniyah, we were able to successfully ice Captain Anderson and obtain intel to plan our next move. The original plan was to interrogate the Captain but…" Valkyrie looked at Bandit who was now sitting at the far end of table. "…things went south so we improvised accordingly."
Dominic rolled his eyes.
Meghan spread out the documents and maps across the table. The documents consisted of plans for future attacks, troop movements, locations of enemy encampments, and other dispatches.
"While listening to Captain Anderson's conversations, he brought up a location called the Citadel. He actually commanded his units to retreat there when the uniforms attacked us." Meghan said pointing to a building on one of Anderson's maps. It was large structure located near the city center. It was circled in red marker labeled, "Cit."
"I have reason to believe that this is where the king pin of the White Mask operation is holding out and if he didn't know that we're hot on his trail before, he surely knows now. We need to move in on this target before the Masks torch and burn the place." Meghan said trying to sound persuasive.
The operators sat in silence pondering their options.
"How do you know that the Citadel is the center of their operation?" Thermite asked.
"Look at the documentation." Ela interjected sorting through the documents. "All of them refer to the citadel, have come from the citadel, or eventually made their way to the citadel. The Citadel is the center of the universe for these guys. Someone in that building is calling shots to these persons in charge out in the field. Meg and I have seen this during Orange Sky. This is a complex embedded terror network we're dealing with and we know where the ring leader is. This is a once in lifetime opportunity for us to put an end to this op."
"What if our prediction is wrong? What if the Citadel is a bust and don't find the ring leader?" Mike asked.
"Regardless if we find the ring leader or not it'll still be worthwhile to check it out. I guarantee you we find the ringleader or intel on the ringleader's whereabouts. I also agree with Meghan on this. We need to hit this location hard and fast. After the military's interventions on their secret encampment by the lake I'm sure the Masks are packing up their stuff to change locations. If we lose them then we'll probably never find them again."
The operators sat in silence thinking to themselves.
"If we pull this off and kill the ringleader, then we get to go home. We're so close to finishing this." Ela added.
The joy of returning to England brought satisfaction to the operators.
"I say let's do it." Jordan said breaking the silence.
"I'm in." Mike added.
The operators turned to Dominic.
"If pulling this mission off gets me the fuck home, then I'm in." Dominic said with a smile.
They all turned and stared at Miles.
"Sure." He said with a flat tone of voice.
"Then its settled. I say we attack this place tomorrow. We can construct our plan tonight. Sound okay?" Thatcher said.
The operators nodded in agreement.
"Wait…" Bandit murmured.
"What is it mate?"
"How are we going to operate in a building that we have no idea what the layout looks like or what's inside since we're not taking a few days to do some recon?"
Mike and Jordan exchanged looks with each other and laughed at Dominic's comment.
Dominic, Ela, and Meghan exchanged confused looks with each other.
Jordan cleared the confusion.
"This is the difference between us blue team operators and you orange team operators. Every time we do a 5 vs 5 training session, the blue team has no idea what the layout of the map is going to be nor, do we know what you orange team guys have planned for us. We go in blind on every training op having no idea what we're up against. Going into hostile environments blind folded is what Thatcher and I do for a living Dominic. Trust us."
Mike gave Jordan a nod of agreement.
"Well please tell me you at least have your drones." Meghan added to the concern.
"Yes, we brought our drones. Its all we have for intel collection. I'd never leave home without it." Jordan said placing a small black remote-control drone on the table.
"Well at least we have those." Dominic said with a sigh of relief.
"We should conduct the op at dusk. Minimize civilian casualties and unwanted uniform involvement." Mike suggested.
"Agreed. Mike and I can start by droning out the objective. Once we have the place scouted out, we'll make our assault. Since this looks like a multiple story structure we can divide and conquer each floor. Collect any intel we can find. Find the ringleader if possible and take him down. Extract immediately."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Thatcher put a hand on Ela's shoulder. She didn't flinch this time.
"Elzbieta, you should probably sit this one out. You're not healthy enough fight." Mike suggested.
"Mike, there's no well in hell I'm missing this. I'm coming no matter what. You can't stop me." Ela said to him confidently.
Mike sighed. There was no use in arguing because he knew he'd surely lose.
"Okay. But we'll be keeping a close eye on you. If we see any sign of health instability, then you're gone. We clear?"
"Crystal."
The operators studied maps and the outside of the building through satellite imaging. They prepped all the little nitty gritty details having no idea what was waiting for them inside. The preparation lasted for hours as each operator took notes of the roles they would be playing, hot extract, possible points of entry, etc. By the time they had completed analyzing all the intel it was getting dark.
The operators retreated to their sleeping quarters eager to conduct the mission.
Valkyrie took a knee by her sleeping bag. Before she went to bed she liked to take a second and talk to God. She was raised Catholic and she liked to say a quick prayer before bed. She prayed for tomorrow's mission to go well.
She prayed she'd see her father again, so she could give him a big hug.
She prayed that Elzbieta Bosak would be allowed to see her niece again to ease her pain and suffering.
She prayed that Mike Baker would return home to his wife and son that he missed dearly.
She prayed that Jordan Trace would return to England, so he could continue to blow stuff up in his chemistry lab and maybe build up the nerve to finally ask her friend Eliza Cohen out.
She prayed that Miles Almasi would help keep her squad safe on mission.