Rainbow Six: Undercover
Act II
Chapter 18
Orange Team: The Hunters and the Hunted
Ela sat by a window with a cup of coffee and her notebook next to a warm hearth. The scenery before her: a beautiful view of the Kremlin lit up in Christmas lights from across the Moskva River during a snowstorm. Ela had been drooling over the view since she discovered it weeks ago and she was happy to finally have the opportunity to sketch it.
Six took a seat in the chair next her.
"Enjoying the view?" She asked scooching closer look at her sketch.
"Yes." Ela said smiling.
Six looked out at the view of the Kremlin in the snowstorm from the third floor of the Kafe Dostoyevsky. She could hear the wind howl past the windows and the skylight above them. The café bustled with activity on all floors. Russians from all around enjoyed their breakfast and socialized with friends. The building was covered in Christmas decorations and Christmas trees. Christmas music and carols played in the various rooms of the café giving it a homely atmosphere.
"Russian winter is interesting. Throughout history it has halted invading armies and killed thousands, yet, it is also strikingly beautiful." Six said still looking out the window.
"Mother Nature's a bitch." Ela said bluntly.
Six laughed at her comment.
"Yes. She sure is."
Six took a sip from her coffee. Their stay in Russia had been going well. The operators were able to find an apartment to hold up in. Six was waiting on a favor from someone who could help them with their predicament with the UN as well as a call from Mike Baker.
Ela was getting restless with all the waiting around. As much as she was enjoying making sketches of the Moscow skyline, what she really wanted was to take her shot at Vanguard but unfortunately that task was assigned to blue team.
Six's phone began to ring.
It was Dominic. She answered the phone.
"Yes?"
"Six, you guys should make your way back. It's not safe for you to be out with such minimal protection."
"Copy that. We'll start making out way back."
She hung up the phone.
"Who was that?" Ela asked.
"Bandit. He wants us to start heading back."
"Let me finish up this sketch and we'll get moving."
"Alright. Hurry it up."
Six waited patiently as Ela finished up her sketch. Six didn't understand why Dominic was so worried about Six's protection. It may not look like it, but Ela was heavily armed who was more than capable of defending her. Ela's Scorpion Evo was compact and fit in her backpack nicely along with her mines and her side arm which was concealed in a holster in her waistband.
Six placed her cup of coffee on a table and watched as the snowstorm began to slow down to a gentle flurry.
"Room for one more?" A female voice asked softly.
Six turned to see Taina Pereira with a cup of tea.
"Sure, but we're getting ready to leave." Six said ushering for her to sit.
"The guys sent me to make sure you make it back okay so its fine."
Taina found a seat and sat with the other two women quietly.
Six had built up a lot of respect for Taina over the years. Despite her shortcomings of completely failing her psych exam and showing sociopathic tendencies that freaked out all of the operators, Taina had proven her worth to Six. She worked hard to move from the Brazilian slums to Rainbow. It was definitely the true definition of a success story.
Six's phone began to ring again.
She picked up the phone and answered.
"Hello?"
All she got was static and then the line failed.
"Who was that?" Ela asked closing up her book and putting away her pencil.
"No idea. All I got was static."
"Must be the storm or something." Ela shrugged.
"You all set? I want to get out of here before I piss off Dominic." Six said getting up and leaning against the railing of the mezzanine overlooking the second floor which was now empty.
Empty?
Six did a double take looking at the now empty second floor. She remembered the café being full of people.
Now it was a ghost town.
Taina rose from her seat seeing Six's worried face.
"Six, what's wrong?" She asked looking worried.
"The café. Wasn't it busy a few minutes ago."
"I mean I guess." Taina said giving Six a strange look.
Old lady is probably just a bit paranoid. Taina thought to herself.
Taina went to grab her cup of tea but noticed something peculiar. The porcelain cup, along with the desk and silverware began to quiver. The tea inside her cup had ripples.
"Does anyone feel that? I may crazy, but it feels like there's an earthquake or something?" Taina said looking at her glass.
Taina! Get out of there! It's a trap! The voices in Taina's head screamed.
Taina began to look around the room. Everything looked normal. She wanted desperately to flip her mental switch from Taina to Caveira, but she didn't want to do anything rash without knowing the situation completely.
Taina began to use her head thinking of the events that just occurred.
A phone call with no answer.
Vibrations in the building.
Sound familiar Taina? The voices said to her.
Taina had seen these things before.
Taina and Ela exchanged nervous glances beginning to put two and two together.
Taina looked up at the sky light above them and saw the silhouette of a figure with a rifle against the cloudy grey sky.
"CONTACT ABOVE!" Taina screamed.
Taina combat rolled as the silhouette fired. She ran as quickly as she could to Six and tackled her behind a bar in the center of the mezzanine.
Ela turned around toward the sound of gunfire and was met a fury of rounds sending her sprinting for cover behind the bar with Taina and Six.
Bullets began to rip the third floor of the café apart. Glass shattered and exploded. Wood splintered. The three women hugged the floor. Ela and Taina unfolded their weapons they had been concealing in their go bags.
"Six, call the guys and get them over here before we get shredded to bits!" Ela commanded.
Taina and Ela peaked out from behind the bar and fired wildly at the skylight missing their targets completely while Six made her phone call.
"DOMINIC?!"
"Six? Are you okay? Is that gunfire I hear?"
"Kafe Dostoyevsky. I need you here pronto. We've been compromised."
"On our way."
Six hung up her phone.
The women heard cannisters clatter along the floor in front of them followed by a pop and hissing. White smoke began to fill the third floor obstructing the women's vision. Bullets continued to rain down upon them destroying the environment around them.
"We need to get the fuck out of here." Ela said loading a fresh magazine into her SMG.
"I have an idea." Taina said unclipping one of her impact grenades. She ran to a room behind the bar near a freezer and tossed the grenade at a wall opening a gaping hole leading to the room adjacent to them. It appeared to be a cigar lounge of some sort. Taina waved for Ela and Six to retreat through the hole in the wall.
"Six we have an exit move your ass!" Ela yelled pushing Six toward the hole in the wall.
"COVERING!" Taina yelled letting out a volley of shots from the safety of the cigar lounge.
Ela escorted Six through the hole in wall.
"Take the door on the left there should be stairs at the end of the hall that'll get us out of here." Taina instructed.
Ela followed Taina's directions as she escorted Six down a narrow hallway toward the staircase. Taina could hear repelling from within the smoke followed by footsteps getting closer to her. She stayed back to see who they were up against.
5 figures came into her view walking casually out of the smoke toward the hole in the wall that Taina created. Taina felt a knot in her stomach and began to take steps back as she saw what they were up against.
"We are so… FUCKED…" Taina muttered.
Leading the 5 figures at the point position was Blitz. To Blitz's left was Dokkaebi and Lion. To Blitz's right was Finka and Jackal. It was blue team's Hunter Killers. They were any roamers worst nightmare. The Hunter Killers were undefeated in matches against orange team and have carried out some of the hardest missions Rainbow has ever taken on with complete success.
Taina turned running for her life trying to catch up with Ela and Six.
"Don't let them get away." Overlord's voice hissed in the blue team's ear pieces as he watched the live video feed coming from a camera attached to Jackal's visor.
Finka nodded to Jackal.
Jackal knelt down and turned on his visor.
"Clean tracks I have a trail." He said scanning the mass of red footprints scattered on the floor.
Jackal's scanner matched the footprints to Taina. His scanner began to ping her active location as they ran down the stairs.
Jackal chuckled at his find.
"Well Caveira, darkness has betrayed you." Jackal said with a devilish grin.
"Where is she going?" Finka asked.
"She's heading down the stairs ahead of us to the second floor."
"You and Blitz pursue. Lion and Dokkaebi come with me we're going to flank around. She'll right to the rest of the group."
Jackal and Blitz sprinted down the hall following Taina's footprints.
Finka, Lion, and Dokkaebi turned around moving toward a different staircase.
Ela, Six, and Taina ran as fast as they could down the stairs colliding with Marius, Dominic, Alexandr, and Maxim.
"SHIT!" Marius screamed almost falling down the down the stairs as he knocked into Ela. Dominic almost went over the railing bumping into Taina.
"Guys, it's the Hunter Killers from blue team we need to get out of here right now!" Ela screamed.
"Seriously? I thought the Rainbow Six operators got arrested." Maxim said looking up the stairs not believing Ela.
Maxim was met by a flash from Blitz's shield. He stumbled back shrieking and holding his face. Blitz began to fire his pistol rapidly from the stair case landing. Jackal knelt on the edge of stairs firing his AR.
Marius tried lining up the sights of his ACOG on his 4-16 with Jackal. He fired but missed. The suppressive fire was enough to make Jackal take cover and stop firing.
Dominic and Taina fired at Blitz's shield pushing him back up the stairs with Jackal.
"Come on Maxim I gotcha! Follow my lead!" Alexandr yelled guiding the blinded Maxim back down the stairs.
The rest of the operators followed.
Except for Taina.
Taina stood on the second floor by the stairs continuing to fire at Blitz and Jackal.
"TAINA WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LET'S GO!" Dominic yelled at her.
Ela ran back up the stairs and helped Taina with the suppressive fire.
"Taina we don't have time for this let's move!" Ela shouted at her.
"No! Get out of here! I'll hold them off!" She said loading her last mag into her SMG.
"Negative Taina! We stay together!" Dominic said.
"Dominic, Jackal is tracking my footsteps. If I stay with you I'll only be leading them to us."
She lowered her SMG and looked Dominic dead in the eyes.
"This is the end of the road for me." Taina said.
"Taina I won't let you split off. Last time we did something like that we ended up losing one of our own. I'm not making that mistake again. I'm not gonna lose another friend."
Jackal and Blitz began to gain confidence and return fire.
"Taina don't be stupid! We can shake them!" Ela said throwing a Grzmot Mine up the stairs. It exploded with a thunderous boom silencing Jackal and Blitz again. The operators began to hear footsteps coming from the library next to them.
"No, we can't. I'm sorry." Taina said.
The building's structure began to shutter from Lion's drone scanning. The three operators knew how to counter it and stood still. Their phones began to buzz as well. They pulled out their phones. Their screens flashed with Dokkaebi's logic bomb symbol. Ela and Dominic silenced their phones.
Taina let her phone keep vibrating.
"Taina, please don't do this. We can figure out a way." Dominic begged.
Taina emptied her last magazine at Jackal and Blitz's position and tossed her SMG to the ground. She walked over to Dominic exposing her position on Lion's drone.
Taina took Dominic's hand in hers and kissed him on the cheek.
Dominic looked at her surprised. Ela watched her in shock.
Taina put but her hand on Dominic's covered face.
"Dominic, you worry too much. Go now. I'll be fine." She said flashing him an innocent smile. Without her face paint and in normal civilian clothes, Taina had a beautiful, innocent looking smile. You'd never guess she was someone who took extreme pleasure in inflicting violence upon others.
Taina removed her hand from Dominic's face. She drew Lusion from the back of the waistband of her pants and sprinted down the hallway toward a train museum on the other end of the hall. Dominic watched her run away. She disappeared out of sight when she turned the corner at the end of the hallway.
The building stopped shuttering as the Lion's drone scan ended.
"Ela, lets go." Dominic muttered hoping she'd turn around and come back. He felt foolish to think she'd do such a thing.
"Right behind you." Ela said hoping Taina would come back to them.
They ran down the stairs and exited through a garage door at the back of the café. Alexandr was waiting in a black SUV that the men had used to get to the café when Six called for help.
"Where's Taina?" Alexandr asked.
"She stayed behind. Now go before they see us." Dominic commanded.
Alexandr cursed in Russian as he put the SUV in drive and sped away leaving Taina and the café behind.
"Finka, targets are moving toward the train museum. They might try to ambush you so be ready." Jackal radioed as he watched Taina's ping move toward the center of the building.
"Copy that. Continue your pursuit. We'll pinch in from the other side."
Taina entered the train museum. There were two train cars, a green car along the back wall of the museum and a grey car in the center of the room with antique train parts in display cases surrounding it. Taina stood in the center of the room between the two train cars waiting for her pursuers. She could her Jackal and Blitz rushing through the dining room adjacent to the train museum on her right . She also heard footsteps coming from the opposite end of the museum. There was an explosion through dining room wall as Blitz ran through it flashing her with his shield.
Taina raised her hand over her face shielding her eyes and fired her side arm impacting Jackal in the shoulder.
Jackal dropped his weapon and fell to the ground grimacing.
Blitz sprinted at her with his shield raised. He swung his shield but Taina took a step back and kicked the now exposed Blitz in the chest sending him toppling backward. Dokkaebi turned the corner around the train car in the center of the room firing her SMG side arm.
Taina combat rolled into a green train car and fired at Dokkaebi hitting her center mass. She dropped to the floor.
Finka and Lion used the train car in the center of the room as cover and put down massive amounts of suppressive fire between Lion's drum mag assault rifle and Finka's PKM light machine gun. Taina returned fire missing. She went to reload but noticed she was out of ammo.
Because her team was always on the move Taina packed light and didn't bring many mags with her. Now she was paying the price for packing light.
Finka and Lion suddenly stopped firing.
Taina heard clanking footsteps come from her right side. Blitz entered Taina's train car and sprinted toward her. She unclipped her last grenade from her belt and went to throw it, but Blitz was faster.
He flashed her with his shield again completely blinding her this time. His flash was followed by a strong swing of his shield impacting Taina right below the jaw. She flew out of train car and hit the concrete ground hard. Her impact grenade flew out of her hands hitting the roof and harmlessly exploded. Lusion had also flown out of her hands and disappeared.
Taina struggled to her knees and was met by a hard kick to face by Blitz knocking her onto her back. Blitz put his sneaker on her sternum and aimed his pistol at her head.
"This is where your journey ends." He said pulling back the draw on his pistol.
"Blitz, keep her alive. Overlord can deal with her." Finka said placing a hand on his shoulder.
"So be it." He said taking his foot off of Taina's sternum.
Taina kicked Blitz and rolled backward drawing her knife.
Blitz took aim with his pistol.
"Please let me kill her Finka. This woman always freaked me out." He said taking aim with his pistol.
Taina stood trying to catch her breath clutching her knife in her hand.
Her once pretty face was now badly bloodied.
"Negative. Let me handle this." Finka said dropping her LMG. She pulled out the knife that her mentor Maxim had cut her face with years ago in Spetsnaz training which he then gave to her as a gift when she graduated. She spun the knife in her fingers demonstrating her skill with the knife.
Taina chuckled at the gesture.
"Finka. Are you sure about this?" Lion asked looking at her concerned.
"I'm positive. Go treat Dokkaebi and Jackal." Finka said eyeing up her opponent.
Taina smiled.
"Alright Lera, show me what Maxim taught you and I'll show you what I can do." Taina said raising her hands to fight.
Lera charged Taina and swung her knife with lightning speed. Taina dodged and parried the swings. Lera mixed up which hands she swung her knife with by flipping the knife into the air and catching in the other hand. Finka's dexterity with a knife impressed Taina but her attacks were easy to defend against.
Blitz sat back and watched the fight while Lion tended to their downed comrades.
Finka raised her knife up high to swing downward which exposed her stomach. Taina kicked her in stomach forcing her backward into the side of the train car in the middle of the room.
Now Taina was on the offensive. She grabbed Finka's head and kneed her hard in the face cracking the hazmat mask she always wore. She then punched her in the stomach multiple times before finishing with an uppercut below her chin. Finka fell to the floor. Taina pounced striking downward with her knife but Finka was ready stopping her strike by raising her foot to catch Taina.
She kicked Taina in the face knocking her backward and turned her around. Finka came up from behind Taina and suplexed Taina headfirst into the concrete floor. Taina quickly rose to her feet dizzy and wanting to throw up. Her vision blurred in an out. Finka sprung to her feet and swung her knife at Taina who took steps back dodging each strike. Taina eventually found herself pinned against the wall with Finka closing the gap with her knife swings. Taina parried a knife strike with her own knife but Taina's grip had weakened. Taina's knife fell out of her hands and clattering to the floor away from her. Finka swung her knife from over her head downward toward Taina aiming for the neck. Taina blocked the strike with both her forearms leaving the two operators in strength battle to see who could resist who. While Taina was concentrated on holding back Finka's superior strength, Finka let her knife slide out of her hand right hand.
The knife looked like it was going to fall to the floor, but she caught it in her left hand and stabbed upward into Taina's ribs.
Taina gasped in pain as she felt all the air leave her body. She felt all of her strength slip away as Finka overpowered her. Finka grabbed Taina by her throat and threw away from the wall. Taina stumbled back clasping at the knife in her chest. Finka grabbed Taina's arm and with a swift judo move she spun and flipped Taina over her back smashing her into the floor.
Finka knelt down over Taina and pried the knife out of her chest. Taina cried out in pain as blood began to pour out of the wound. She put her hands over the wound to stop the bleeding but the blood pooled through her fingers and continued to gush out.
Fink stood over her victorious. She placed her hand on her earpiece.
"Overlord, this is Finka. One fugitive down, ten to go. Unfortunately, Six and the other operators got away." She said.
"Don't worry Finka you did excellent work. I have the Russian authorities en route to assist you."
"Lion, how's are they?" Finka said pointing to Jackal and Dokkaebi who were now on their feet staring at Taina.
"Their body armor caught Taina's rounds. It's not like Taina to shoot at the body armor. She knows better then to do that. Its almost like she was aiming there on purpose… so she wouldn't hurt them." Lion said inspecting Dokkaebi's and Jackal's armor.
Taina laid on her back staring at the ceiling. She listened to Finka's voice fade away as blood began to pool around her. The smell of pennies made her nauseous. She began to feel afraid as her vision began to slowly white out.
Her mind began to race.
She knew this would happen to her eventually. She always knew she wouldn't last very long on this Earth because of all the things that were wrong with her. She thought she was ready to meet her maker but now that she was literally about to, she wasn't sure if she was as ready as she thought she was.
After Taina had found out about Meaghan's passing she wondered if she'd get to meet Meaghan again after she died or if she'd be taken to someplace different. Someplace where terrible people like her belonged.
But she never thought her teammates would be ones to arrange the meeting.
Author Note:
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! As always thank you for taking the time to read my story! I love all my readers and the feedback I get from you guys! I've been trying to write back to a lot of the people who have been leaving feedback or have messaged me asking questions about the story so if you have any questions about the story or what goes on in my head feel free to ask and I will try to answer! Also, unfortunately for me, college has started once again. I'm in my senior year as an electrical engineering student so things are going to get a little busy for me which will affect how frequently I upload new chapters so please bear with me. I will do my absolute best to manage time between my classes and writing new chapters. See you in the next chapter!