Part 5 Chapter 13
It was turning to dusk in Ramadi, Iraq. The Islamic call to prayer could be heard echoing through the empty city streets as the 6 operators filed out of their apartment. The operators wore their usual battle dress that they normally wore to their trainings back at Hereford.
Thatcher was even wearing his gas mask today.
The operators silently maneuvered through the city streets and allies toward their target. Tension was high between them as they travelled. Stray dogs barked and picked at the large amounts of city trash. Street lights began to buzz to life illuminating the streets as the sun began to make its annual disappearance behind the horizon turning the clouds and sky a reddish orange color. The air felt hot and heavy. As usual, the city streets smelled horrible.
After 30 minutes of walking, the operators came to a small ordinary 3 story office structure. The operators stuck to the shadows of the alley they were in while Thatcher pulled out a picture of a satellite image of their target.
"This is it. Images lines up perfectly with this building." Thatcher said folding the map up and stuffing it back in his pants pocket.
They had found the Citadel.
According to the image, they were at the back of the building. There was a garage access with 3 White Masks milling around the garage keeping guard.
"Talley 3 tangos guarding the garage access." Thatcher whispered.
"I don't see anyone else. Let's take them out." Thermite suggested.
"Agreed. Do it quietly. Valkyrie pick a target with us."
Thatcher, Thermite, and Valkyrie lined up picking out their target.
"In position. On your mark Thatch." Valkyrie said. Her holographic sight settled on the side of a White Mask's head.
"Copy, 3-2-1, execute."
They each let loose one single suppressed shot dropping their targets. Their bodies hit the ground with a lifeless thud on the gravel pushing up a small puff of dust.
The operators waited, listening to their surroundings.
"Clear." Thatcher confirmed. He began to advance toward the garage. His teammates followed close behind him.
They lined up along the steel garage door.
"Drone spinning up." Thatcher said pulling out his recon drone. Thermite did the same.
The operators droned out the entire building calling out enemy targets and describing what they saw. The building wasn't very large, so it didn't take them long to complete the task and mark their enemies.
Thermite muttered a curse.
"What's wrong?" Ela asked.
"No sign of the leader." He said picking up his drone.
"Damn."
"Hey, mission still continues. Let's extract as much intel as we can. Maybe we can find where's the leader is hiding. Then we can make our next move." Valkyrie said to her teammates.
Thermite sighed.
"Looks like our vacation here lasts a few weeks longer." He said disappointedly.
Valkyrie rolled her eyes.
Thatcher laid out their game plan.
"Cut the chatter lads. Here's what we're going to do. Thermite make a big fucking hole in this garage door. Ela and Bandit clear out the garage. There're 5 hostiles waiting. Thermite and I will repel to the second floor and breach through the windows. Valk and Vanguard move to the third floor. I saw a room filled with computer servers. You should take a look at it Valkyrie. 8 hostiles are up there as well so be careful. Help Bandit and Ela clear the garage first. There's a staircase to the immediate left of the garage entrance. The stairs will take you to the third floor. Wait for my signal to breach."
"Understood. Thatcher, no EMP grenades. I don't want to run the risk of you knocking those computer servers offline." Valkyrie warned.
"Got it."
The operators moved to their positions.
"Big fucking hole coming right up." Thermite said with a grin while he unrolled his exothermic charge. No one took more enjoyment in blowing shit up than Thermite.
Bandit, Ela, Valkyrie, and Vanguard stacked up on the garage door near the charge. Ela prepped a grzmot mine to throw.
Thatcher and Thermite repelled to ta set of windows on the second floor. While Thatcher attached a breaching charge to the window Thermite prepped to throw a flashbang.
"Ready?" Thatcher asked into his comms.
"Affirmative." Bandit acknowledged.
"Thermite, hit it."
"Stand back its hot." Thermite whispered over the radio squeezing the trigger to his charge.
The exothermic charge hissed to life sending bright colored sparks around the outer perimeter of the charge. The operators shield their eyes from the bright light. They could hear panicked voices on the other side of the garage door.
Right before the exothermic charge exploded Thatcher kicked as hard as he could off the side of the building. When he began to swing in toward the window he detonated his breaching charge in correlation with the exothermic charge swinging through the now open window.
The exothermic charge exploded sending chunks of hot metal flying in all directions. Ela threw her grzmot mine into the garage. It detonated erecting screams from its victims. The explosion from the detonation of her mine made her head pound but the adrenaline helped her push past it.
Valkyrie pulled out a large block of nitro and primed the charge.
"DEPLOYING NITRO CELL!" She yelled and heaved it into the garage with ease as if she was throwing a hand grenade.
Bandit watched the block of nitro sail toward the other end of the garage next to 3 terrorists. The fact that Valkyrie could throw a very large block of nitro across a room like she was throwing a hand grenade was a testament to her superior physical strength and her creativeness as an operator. Bandit only knew 3 other operators who could barely do the nitro cell toss and that was Smoke before he started using impact grenades, Kapkhan, and Mira. But Valkyrie was the one who perfected the unique skill and was most well-known for it because it was her idea. The other operators with nitro had to preplace it because they couldn't throw it very far and blowing themselves up. Unfortunately, Bandit fell into that category.
"DETONATING NITRO CELL!" Valkyrie yelled. She pressed the talk button on an old Nokia phone. The nitro cell exploded vaporizing the 3 terrorists. The operators felt the concussion from the explosion reverberate in their diaphragms.
With one smooth stride Bandit moved through the new door and dropped a terrorist with his MP7. Valkyrie strode in behind Bandit.
"VALKYRIE, BACK LEFT CORNER!" Ela called out unable to get a clear line of sight as she was filing in through the hole in the garage door.
Like a machine, Valkyrie snapped to the last terrorist who was about to squeeze the trigger of his rifle and squeezed off a 3-round burst to his center mass. The terrorist fell backward along the wall. His white hockey mask fell off revealing his bloody lifeless face.
"ICED!" Valkyrie called out as she continued to clear the garage.
"Garage clear. Valkyrie. Vanguard. Move to third floor. Ela and I can handle it from here.
"Copy. Moving. Let's go Vanguard." Valkyrie acknowledged.
Valkyrie and Vanguard moved up the stairs toward the third floor. As they passed the second floor, they could hear Thatcher and Thermite taking care of the terrorists in their room. When they reached the top of the stairwell Vanguard unclipped a flashbang.
He looked at Valkyrie. She looked back at him.
"Do it." She said.
"FLASH OUT!" He yelled and tossed it into the hallway. The flash grenade exploded.
Valkyrie stepped into the third-floor hallway and dropped 4 blinded terrorists. The 4 other terrorists poured out of the server room and were immediately gunned down by Vanguard. The 2 operators stacked on the door to the server room.
The two operators met each other's eyes.
"Again." She said.
"FLASH OUT!" He yelled and tossed a flashbang into the room. After it exploded Valkyrie stepped inside sweeping her MPX back and forth in search of threats. No one was inside.
A desk with a computer sat near the far wall facing the door.
Vanguard camped by the door way covering Valkyrie's six.
"Vanguard I'm going for the computer. Cover me."
"You do your thing. I'll cover you from out here." He said giving her a thumbs up. He walked out of the room back into the hallway.
Valkyrie tossed her MPX on the desk and plopped in the rolling chair behind the desk. She wiggled the mouse and the computer hummed to life. She took an external hard drive and plugged it into a USB port. She began to download all the files on the computer. She didn't have time to go through each individual file. They could do that when they returned to their base. As the files downloaded she poked through the computer.
"Valkyrie this is Thatcher. 1st and 2nd floor is clear. What's your status?"
"We're all clear on the 3rd floor. I'm downloading files from the servers up here. Going to take a few minutes."
"Copy that. We're going to establish a perimeter down here. Come down when you're all done."
"Copy that."
"Make it quick you two. I don't like this. For the White Mask base of operations there was barely any security. I was expecting to meet a beefier resistance." Bandit interrupted on comms.
Valkyrie rolled her eyes at Bandit's paranoia.
Valkyrie noticed a messaging app on the computer. She opened it revealing a chat room. She opened the chat room. She began to download the conversation into the hard drive. While it downloaded she flipped through the conversation. The user on the other end of the messenger was named, "Anonymous." She started looking through messages from months ago. Anonymous gave orders for troop movements, attacks, supply exchanges, etc. From the messages Anonymous is clearly the person running the White Mask operation in Ramadi.
But where is he hiding?
She started to read conversations from recent when they first deployed to the city. The messages began to irk her.
Anonymous: Mission is a go. Target Romeo has landed, and I've made successful contact. Wait for further instructions.
Citadel: Copy
She scrolled through more messages.
Anonymous: Target Romeo taking shelter in building 235. More intel to come.
Citadel: Copy
She continued to scroll.
Anonymous: Romeo has set up multiple lines of reconnaissance in the market place. They'll be looking for you guys out there so stay frosty. These people are not to reckoned with. Extremely dangerous. Is the boy ready?
Citadel: Copy that. The information will be relayed to the IS. Yes, he is ready. He is willingly helping our cause. Explosives will be set too.
Anonymous: Is the IS in position?
Citadel: Yes, and so is the boy.
Anonymous: Kill as many Americans as possible. Send a message. Romeo will be mixed in with the crowd so keep your eyes open.
…
Anonymous: Commence attack.
She scrolled to when they were in the desert.
Anonymous: I've relocated to a site near our base in Lake Habbaniyah. Romeo plans on assaulting the base for intel. I'll send more information later. Inform the Captain. Start moving troops and equipment out of the campsite.
Citadel: Copy. It will be done.
…
Anonymous: Romeo is attacking. I've revealed the campsite's location to my military contacts. They'll be arriving in time to mess up Romeo's plans. Tell the Captain part of Romeo has entered the compound and is about to take him hostage.
Citadel: Copy. What about you, sir?
Anonymous: I'm already making a run for it by foot don't worry.
Valkyrie leaned back in her chair in complete shock. She looked up building 235 in Ramadi and sure enough it was the apartment building her team had been using as a hide out.
They'd been sold out.
Someone had been watching them the entire time. Hiding in plain sight feeding the enemy with intel on their every move.
She turned to the messenger and began to type a message.
Citadel: Anonymous? Do you read?
She hit the enter key and the message sent. She sat in silence listening.
DING
She heard a phone go off in the hallway.
Valkyrie hurtled the desk and grabbed her MPX.
She aimed her MPX at the door but was met by giant blinding white smoke plume.
She inhaled the fumes and felt all the oxygen leave her body. The fumes were toxic. She felt as if a truck had parked itself on top of her chest. Her heart began to race so fast she thought it was going to explode. Her skin felt as if someone had set her on fire. She felt her muscles lock up until her body was frozen solid. She began to lose feeling in her extremities. She beckoned her body to move but it refused. She tried to scream but her body wouldn't follow her brain's commands. She stood in the middle of the smoke plume frozen solid with her MPX trained head height at the doorway in front of her.
MEGHAN! MOVE! PLEASE! YOU'RE SUFFOCATING! GET OUT OF THERE! Her conscience screamed. But her body disobeyed.
She heard footsteps casually walking toward her as the plume began to disperse. She could make out a silhouette moving through the smoke. He hummed a happy tune as he walked. It almost sounded like Jail House Rock from her dream.
The smoke finally cleared, and Vanguard came into view smiling.
Her holographic sight was trained right on his forehead.
All she needed to do was pull the trigger. It takes 3 muscles to pull a trigger…
but not a single one of hers would move.
Vanguard placed a finger on the barrel of her MPX and gently lowered it down, so it wasn't trained on his skull. He gave an evil chuckle staring at the frozen Navy SEAL. He began to pace in front of her.
"I really didn't want things to have to come to this, but you left me no choice. You know what this stuff is, right?" He said with an evil slickness to his voice.
Valkyrie stared straight ahead completely paralyzed. Vanguard waited for her to answer despite already knowing she wouldn't be capable of answering.
"It's VX gas! A pretty lethal amount too. I gave myself the antidote beforehand, so I'll be fine. VX gas can do wonders to the nervous system such as leaving your body unable to function or control itself. Cause extreme pain and bunch of other nasty things. It's okay though, it'll all be over soon." Vanguard said reassuringly to Valkyrie.
He placed a hand on her twitching shoulder and flashed her a genuine smile.
"Well done Meghan! You did it! You found the… what did you call it… the 'ringleader?' Right? Of the White Masks. And you and your squad didn't disappoint!"
Vanguard began to circle Valkyrie as he spoke like shark hunting its prey.
"You violated international peace treaties as well the Geneva convention. You killed Americans and innocent civilians. Really bad stuff. Probably enough to sentence you to life in prison on war crimes. That's if the court decides not to give you the death penalty. I have all your atrocities documented, recorded, and accounted for. Man, it would be a real shame if the media got a hold of what I got. Rainbow Six would be finished! The media would have a field day with you guys." He said chuckling at the thought.
"Your unit would be forcefully shut down by a coalition. All of your fellow operators and your beloved chairmen would be tried and convicted for their atrocities. You see, no anti-terror unit was able to defeat the White Masks before 2015. We had the world by the balls! Then Rainbow Six entered the picture. We started to encounter one set back after another. We couldn't beat you guys! We needed to get rid of you or our network would be finished. Now that Rainbow has played themselves to their own demise, the White Masks can assert their control on the world once again!"
Vanguard stopped in front of Valkyrie and placed both is hands on her shoulders and lightly squeezed.
"Thank you for your sacrifice to the White Mask cause. Our victory couldn't have been achieved without your team's sacrifice. Now the White Mask can bring order to this world!"
His expression and tone of voice went from being smooth to dark and filled with pure evil.
"Meghan, do you remember that night we spent in the desert by the White Mask encampment?"
Valkyrie's mind flashed back to that cold night in the desert with Ela and Vanguard.
"How do you perform the atrocities we just did and not feel anything? None of this stuff bothers you in the slightest bit?"
"Not at all Meghan. The Farm trained me that in warfare, only the strong survive. People who are weak die and are forgotten. Don't get me wrong, the weak have their purpose but the people who are strong enough and good enough to take what they need are the ones who prosper. There's no more room in this world for the weak. The people I've killed were weak. Their deaths were meant to be." Vanguard justified.
"I don't understand." Valkyrie said confused.
"It's okay. You'll understand soon enough." Vanguard said reassuringly.
Valkyrie snapped back to reality.She finally understood what he meant on that night.
"Meghan in this world I play God. I decide who lives and who dies. I ensure that only the strong survive. You've served your purpose. Now you're alone. And your weak. And as I explained to you in the desert, you know what I do to the weak. This is nothing personal, it's just what I do. Your weakness is why you're failure." He said harshly. The words cut through Valkyrie like a hot knife through butter.
Vanguard put two fingers on Valkyrie's forehead and pushed her backward. She fell landing on her back. Her MPX skittered across the floor. Valkyrie laid on the cold dirty floor staring at the ceiling lights which appeared to be getting brighter and brighter with every passing second. She could hear Vanguard's footsteps as he left the room leaving her alone and afraid.
She could also hear Thatcher's voice through her comms.
"Valkyrie, this is Thatcher what's your status?"
"Valkyrie, this is Thatcher what's your status?"
"Vanguard, this is Thatcher what's your status?"
"Vanguard, this is Thatcher what's your status?"
She tried to scream for help, but she couldn't move her mouth to make words. Her lungs felt like that had completely closed themselves off. The burning pain on her skin began to grow as time passed. A soft ringing sound slowly began to build in her ears as the intensity from the lights began to white out her vision. She could feel herself going bradycardic.
No! I don't want to die! Please God let me live! I have to help my friends! I don't want to go! I'm scared! I'm not ready! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! She screamed internally.
She descended into the white light unwillingly.
…
Meghan found herself in a place of nothingness. She was still in her full battle attire. Everything was around her was white. She found that she could move her body again, but the burning pain still radiated throughout her entire body withering her down.
She also felt strangely cold on the inside too.
Meghan tried her best to let her SEAL instincts kick in and ignore her feelings. Despite not knowing where she was she did her best to keep her composure.
"Its okay Meghan. Please don't be afraid sweetheart." A soothing voice whispered to her.
She turned around and saw her mother standing before her.
Her mother's expression looked pained.
The fact that her daughter was with her at such a young age concerned her.
"Mom?" Meghan muttered. Meghan couldn't believe her eyes. She was finally meeting her mom.
"Hello Meghan. Last time I saw you before I died you were just an infant." Her mother responded managing to crack a smile.
Meghan's expression melted into anger.
"This isn't okay Mom. Miles was right. I'm a failure. I'm weak. I let everyone I hold dearly down. I guess my life was always supposed to end this way." She said bowing her head in defeat. Images of her father and her friends danced in her mind upsetting her.
Her mother didn't speak. She silently approached her daughter and stopped a foot away from her. Like there was an invisible wall preventing her from moving any closer to her.
Meghan felt a sharp pain in her heart. All of her emotions hit her at once. The pain, the suffering, the sadness, the stress, the guilt, the regret, the people that she missed dearly, the horrible things she did to other people, every emotion that she had been keeping bottled up inside of her released all at once.
Meghan reached out her hands and stumbled forward. Before she could hit the ground, her mother caught her in her arms. Meghan burrowed her head in her mother's shoulder sobbing uncontrollably. Her mother held her tightly stroking her blond hair.
The pain in Valkyrie's body subsided. She began to feel warmth inside of her. She felt as if she could breath easier.
"I'm… sorry…your daughter… was… weak… and a failure…" Meghan muttered between sobs.
Her mother rocked her back and forth holding on to her daughter as tight as she could.
"Its okay to cry sweetheart. You're not weak. You're not a failure. I watched you grow into the extortionary woman you are now. You never gave up on anything. Your carry the same fighting spirit your father carries. I'm so proud of everything you've accomplished Meghan. I love you so much." Her mother whispered soothingly kissing the top of her head.
Meghan's mother had been waiting decades to hold her daughter again.
But this moment felt so wrong to her on the inside.
Her mother never wanted her daughter to end up like this at such a young age.
It wasn't fair.
She wanted her daughter to a live a full happy life.
Her daughter was way to young to be taken. She had so much to live for. She'd miss finding a husband, getting married, having children, being with her friends and growing old with her loved ones.
Instead, her daughter's life was cut short by someone she thought she could trust.