Rainbow Six: Undercover
Act II
Chapter 20
A Fallen Angel
Where am I?
What's going on?
"Taina."
"Who said that?"
"Taina!"
"WHAT?"
"Meghan is that your voice I hear?"
"Yes. Listen. You're in trouble. You need to wake up!"
"Wha… what I…"
"TAINA WAKE UP!"
Taina felt an impact across her face.
She sagged her head and spit a gob of blood on the floor. She looked up to see her attacker. It was a man in an unmarked military uniform. Finka stood behind him. The room was dark, so it was hard to see their facial features.
A bead of water dripped onto the back of neck. She felt the cold-water droplet slide down her spine making her shiver. Taina found herself strapped to a chair in what looked like a dungeon.
She felt nodes attached to her forehead, an IV in her arm, and nodes attached to her chest. She could hear a heart monitor beeping to her left side. The area where she was stabbed felt tender.
"Taina? Can you hear me now?" The man asked.
"Fuck you."
"I'll take that as a yes! I'm Overlord! It's finally nice to meet you Taina!" He said joyfully.
"Why didn't you let me die?"
The man laughed at her question.
"Let you die? No way Jose! Good thing your pal Finka is a doctor with nanobots. I need you! You have information on the missing operators."
He leaned in close to her face.
"And you're gonna give it to me."
"You can try. I'm an interrogator. You don't think I know all the tricks in the book?" Taina sneered.
"You may know all the tricks in the book, but have you tried all the tricks in the book?"
Taina stayed silent.
"I read in your file that you suffer from antisocial personality disorder."
"I wouldn't say 'suffer,' but I yes I've been diagnosed with it."
"I find it funny that a mentally ill person is aloud to work on an elite counter terrorist unit."
"I'm not mentally ill."
"Not according to your medical records. I've also seen how Rainbow treats you. Assigning you a handler to follow you everywhere you go. Locking you away in your dorm on your own floor away from everyone else. Giving you a curfew. Having to ask to go places. That doesn't sound like fair living arrangements."
Taina rolled her eyes. A person as ignorant as Overlord would never understand what Rainbow has done to help deal with her mental health. She didn't mind her handler. She her safe from her own self. Her handler also respected her personal space and sometimes came to points where Taina had no idea she was with her. Taina is a recluse on base for most of the time so she enjoyed having her own floor and room to herself. Taina never, ever, stayed up late unless on mission and she never asked to go places. She just had to let her handler know what she was doing.
"Are you aware of the CIAs experiments on mental health in the 1950s and 60s?" Overlord asked.
"No."
"I think it was in 1955. The CIA ran experiments on sociopaths to find a cure to their mental illness. They used all sorts of treatments. Like giving them LSD and crazy shit like that. But they found the most progress using electrocution therapy."
Taina's face turned pale.
"Those nodes attached to your head will send 2,000 volts of electricity to your brain for every question you fail to answer. If you pass out from the shocks, Finka will revive you with a shot of nanobots. We'll continue all night until I get what I want. It's a win win scenario, well at least for me it is. Either I get the information on your friends or we cure your mental health making you easier to deal with. Worse comes to worse, you die. We clear?"
Taina began to breath heavily as fear built up inside her.
"So, I'll get right to the pont. Where are your friends?"
Taina squeezed her eyes shut bracing to be shocked.
"Silence is the wrong answer." Overlord said pressing a button on a black remote.
2,000 volts of electricity arched through Taina's body. Taina grimaced and tried to breath as her body spasmed from the shocks. The heart monitor beeped frantically next her.
The operators in the jail, which were in the next room over, looked up at the ceiling lights with curiosity as they began to blink on and off.
Overlord held the button for 10 seconds and let go. The nodes stopped shocking leaving Taina gasping for breath.
"Let's try again. Where are they?" Overlord asked again politely.
"Shock me again please."
"As you wish." Overlord said upping the voltage on the nodes. He pressed the button and Taina was shocked harder than the first time. Her body began to spasm in the chair. She grimaced and gritted her teeth trying not to scream.
Overlord made this shock last longer. He held it for 15 seconds and released the button and released it.
Taina gasped for air again. Her skin felt hot. She was drenched in sweat. The heart monitor was beeping out of control.
"WHERE ARE THEY!" Overlord yelled in frustrated.
"SHOCK ME FILHO DA PUNTA!" Taina yelled back at him.
Overlord cranked the voltage even higher and held the button.
Taina let out a blood curdling scream as the electricity arched through her entire body.
The operators picked up their heads hearing the screaming as the ceiling lights flashed faster than before.
After 15 seconds of being shocked Taina eventually went unconscious. The cardiac monitor attached to her chest flatlined as she went into cardiac arrest.
"God damnit. Finka, bring her back please." Overlord commanded turning off the electrocution device.
Taina found herself in a room of complete whiteness. This time instead of only being able to hear Meghan, she could actually see her this time. Meghan had her arms wrapped around her holding her tight. Despite looking pale and tired Meghan's figure glowed and she felt very warm.
"You're okay Taina. You're okay." Meghan said stroking her hair.
"Why won't they let me die already?" Taina asked emotionally.
"You're gonna make it through this Taina. You're doing amazing. You're so strong." Meghan said soothingly trying to encourage her.
Taina felt something pulling her out of Meghan's grasp.
"Don't let me go." Taina begged.
"I'm sorry Taina." Meghan said and let go of Taina.
Taina felt an impact in her ribs right where she had been stabbed. She yelped at the impact as she was brought back to reality.
"She's alive!" Overlord yelled joyously.
"I'm ready for more shocks." Taina muttered.
"Then that's what you'll get."
Overlord pressed the shock button and Taina screamed as she felt the flow of electricity surge through her body.
Tears streamed down her face.
All she wanted was to die. It was what she wanted most.
The operators in the other room lowered their heads as they continued listening to the screaming. The anxiety from the screams of the tortured subject began to take a toll on the operators. Tina and Monika began to cry. James gripped the bars of his cell wishing he could break free and rescue whoever was being tortured. Captain Vicente Souza sat in the corner of his cell staring at the floor. With every scream he closed his eye trying to tune it out. He recognized the voice of his BOPE colleague suffering and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The screaming suddenly went silent again making everyone pick their heads up.
"HIT HER WITH THE NANOBOTS AGAIN!" A man's voice screamed startling some of the operators.
Taina found herself laying on her back with Meghan cradling her in her arm. Meghan looked down on Taina with her tired eyes. She watched Taina with a pained expression.
"I don't think I can go on much longer..." Taina managed to say. Her tongue felt paralyzed, so it was hard for her to speak.
Meghan wiped the tears from Taina's eyes. She gripped Taina's hand in hers.
"Don't give up hope. I'm right here. You're not alone." Meghan said softly to her.
Taina felt herself being yanked from Meghan's grasp again. The girls tried to hang on to each other's hands for as long as they could. Taina felt her grip slip and she found herself back in the chair with Overlord and Finka.
"Ready for more? Or do you want to cooperate? Your call." Overlord said to her.
Taina couldn't make out Finka's face very well but she looked dead on the inside having to watch her friend be tortured to such an extreme. She may be under control of Overlord's influence, but it didn't mean her feelings were erased.
"Please…just…. kill me…" Taina murmured bowing her head.
"Sorry Taina. I can't do that. Looks like the pain continues." Overlord went to press the button to continue the shocking.
"SIR!" A man's voice said from Taina's right.
"What?!"
"Sir there was a situation at Seoul, South Korea. A South Korean journalist was just kidnapped from her workplace last night. Security footage reveals that it was the Rainbow Six operators that escaped."
"Show me."
"Sir what about the prisoner?"
Overlord turned to Finka.
"You go back to your lab. I sent Mr. Chandler from the SAS to assist you in developing more nanobots."
Overlord turned his attention to Taina. He unclipped the electrical nodes, the IV, the heart monitor, and the restraints.
Taina's stared at her feet not having the strength to pick up her head. Overlord gripped her by the bangs of her hair, so she was forced to look at him.
"This isn't over." Overlord whispered to her. He hit her with an unexpected punch to the side of her head sending her flying out of the chair and knocking her out.
"Sir." A guard mustered.
"What?"
"Don't you think we're being too hard on some of these operators?"
"They're terrorists. They endangered American lives. They killed innocent civilians and revealed secrets. They deserve what we're giving them. The UN supports it."
The soldier lowered his head frowning. Overlord got into the guard's face.
"Why are you asking? Do you feel sorry for them? Are you okay with our boys over seas being slain by these people? If you're gonna sympathize with them then maybe I should throw you in prison with them."
"No I just thought…"
"Shut the fuck up and do your job. Nobody's paying you to think."
"Yes sir."
Overlord grabbed Taina by her arm and dragged her to the prison.
The operators in their cells stood to get a better look at the commotion.
They gasped and whispered nervously to other operators when they noticed Taina was the one being dragged into the room. Overlord threw her into an empty cell next to Timur and Shurat.
Taina fell face first onto the concrete floor of her jail cell and didn't move.
"Don't touch her. If you do, you die." Overlord said pointing at the two Russian operatives as they stared at their lifeless teammate through the bars of their jail cell.
Overlord stormed out of the room with the guards.
Timur looked to make sure the coast was clear before speaking.
"Taina? Can you hear me?" Timur called out.
She didn't move or react to his voice. The Russians could see the steam flowing off her skin and blood beginning to pool around her head and torso.
The operators stared helplessly at Taina unsure of what to do.
"Timur, keep watch." Shruat whispered and reached his hand through the cell bars for Taina.
"Be swift Shurat." Timur said moving to the front of the cell to keep watch.
The operators watched the Russians nervously from their cells as they conducted their rescue mission.
Shurat was just out of reach of grabbing Taina's shirt.
"Sukin syn (Son of a bitch)." Shurat cursed in Russian.
"Kakiye (what)?" Timur asked looking over to his frustrated teammate.
"Ya ne mogu dobrat'sya do neye (I can't reach her)."
Timur heard footsteps approaching them. The other operators began to discreetly give signals that someone was coming.
"Stop. Kto-to idet. (Someone is coming)." Timur whispered yanking Shurat away from Taina's cell.
The operators pretended to mind their own business as a guard walked by the cells. Timur and Shurat exchanged nervous glances with each other and at Taina as more blood seemed to be pooling around her.
Once the guard was gone Timur reached between the bars with all his might got a finger around the neck of Taina's shirt.
"Got her." He said and pulled her body toward him.
He could hear the operators watching the Russians from their cells breath a sigh of relief.
Taina's blood streaked along the floor as Timur pulled her toward him. He positioned her against the bars separating their two cells from each other.
"Shurat, help me." Timur whispered ripping a hole in Taina's white shirt where the blood was coming from.
"She has a few popped stitches between her 9th and 10th rib. Looks like she got cut pretty good." Shurat said putting pressure on the wound.
Timur examined her temple. There was a small laceration on the side of her head making her beautiful blackish brown hair sticky smell of copper. Timur began to put pressure on the wound and felt for a pulse.
He could feel an extremely weak and threaded pulse. Her breaths were slow and shallow. Her life was circling the bottom of the drain.
"Her skin feels really hot." Shurat said looking up at Timur.
"And she barely has a pulse and her breaths are shallow. She's out of time." Timur said to Shurat with a grave look on his face.
Shurat looked down at his dying teammate.
"Just keep providing care Glazkov." He whispered as he continued to try and stop the bleeding.
Timur nodded.
"Of course." Timur said and continued to treat her head injury through the prison bars.
Timur wished Siu Mei, callsign Ying, could see Shurat like this. Siu had filed a complaint against Shurat saying that he had little to no regard for human life which resulted in them having a huge fight that Eliza had to break up.
Yet here he is risking his life to take care of a teammate barely hanging to their life.
…
"Tell me what you found." Overlord commanded.
"From the looks of the security cameras it's definitely blue team." Dokkaebi said pointing at the figures on a black and white camera screen.
Overlord could make out Seamus bludgeoning three shooters to death with a sledge hammer. Mike, Eliza, Craig, and Jordan carrying Jess out of the tower and escaping.
"They also had a phone conversation that was pretty interesting." Dokkaebi said handing Overlord some headphones.
Overlord listened to a conversation between Mike Baker and Vanguard.
"Do you know who Vanguard is?" Dokkaebi asked.
"I have to go. Thank you for telling me this information Dokkaebi you've been a vital asset." Overlord said and rushed out of the room.
Overlord walked into the prison and marched over to one of the cells and unlocked it. The operator inside rose to their feet.
"Its time." He said.
…
"I want to know why of all operators here, Overlord sent me to work with you. Why couldn't he drug Gustave with the slave driving nanobots instead of me? I mean he's medically savvy." Marks said playing with one his jammers.
"Mark, stop playing with that. You're supposed to be helping me with the nanobots and I don't need someone who's medically savvy. I need a tech nerd and that's you. Do I need to give you third dosage of nanobots to make you stop complaining?"
"No. No I don't. If you want a nerd's advice, your creation needs some work. I think I have some ideas." Mark said rubbing his arms where Lera had given him a rather large dosage of nanobots.
Lera walked over to Mark and his jammer. Mark's jammer was arguably one of the most vital pieces of equipment on orange team and he was always finding ways to make it better.
"So how does this work exactly?" Lera asked examining the jammer.
"My signal disputer emits its own radio waves at the same frequency as your gadgets scrambling their signals."
"So, it's just a simple radio wave on a specific frequency?" Lera said pulling out her phone.
"I wouldn't say simple; the process is a lot more complicated, but yes that's the gist of it."
Mark pulled the handles down on his jammer. His gadget murmured to life sending out its radio signals.
"Check your phone. It should be jammed." Mark said.
Lera pulled out her phone. She had no reception.
"That's so cool. So, is your phone effected by it?" Lera said and rubbed her head with the heel of her hand.
"Nope. My phone and my teammates phones and gadgets are all set to special frequencies, so they don't get jammed."
"Interesting."
"Hey, do you hear that?" Mark asked rubbing his ear.
"Yeah I hear that too. Sounds like a dog whistle or something. I need to sit down. My head hur…" Lera paused as she felt blood dripping out of her ears.
"Lera…" Mark said seeing the blood.
Lera felt her legs give out and she crumpled to the ground.
She heard Mark hit the ground right after her.
Her vison suddenly went black.