Here´s chapter 17. Again I wanted to thank Donakiko for the review. It really cheered me up to continue this story as fast as I could and I hope you like the chapter. So now everybody enjoy reading this. Reviews are welcome. :)


„It means he doesn´t like how he looked. "

"No, he is jealous about his rank."

"Maybe he doesn´t like his eyes."

"Or he´s unhealthy attracted to him."

Roach shook his head. Meat and Royce were arguing about the blackened pictures of their Captain for almost an hour now. They came up with ridiculous theories such as Andrew was the Captains lover. Even if they were in a serious situation Roach couldn´t help but smile at the crazy thoughts of his teammates. Till now them haven´t had the slightest clue why and where Soap was captured. They read over the papers again and again but couldn´t understand their meanings. The only thing they knew for sure was that the truck left the town, which they had seen on the traffic supervision tapes.

They all tried their best to work accurate but all of them were tired, who could blame them for it? They still felt the exhausting of Anna´s rescue. Mac had told them they should take a brake if it gets too much but none of them wanted to leave the work on others and so everyone had their own way to fight against the fatigue. Most of them drank coffee or Energy Drinks, others went out for a walk, to get their mind free and let the fresh air activate their weak bodies.

Roach was worried about Ghost. He hadn´t seen him since he stormed out of the room. At first Roach wanted to get him back in there but Mac and Price told him he should let Ghost abreact. Roach could imagine how Ghost was feeling, Roach liked Julia too but he hadn´t spent as much time with her as Ghost. Ghost had told Roach he had seen her every day since he woke up from his coma and Roach knew Julia got a part of Ghost´s heart.

Roach shook his head again. The most important thing now was to rescue their Captain, about Julia he could worry later. He stood up and walked to a bulletin board where they had pinned all the pictures. Roach studied them and noticed that not only Soap´s face was blackened, his ribbons were blackened too. He stared at the pictures like he was going to tell them they should talk to him what Andrew intended with this.

"Meat?"

The named turned around and looked at Roach.

"Yeah, what´s up Roach?"

"You said you think Andrew is jealous about Soap´s rank, right? Why do you think that?"

"Well, he blackened all of the Captains ribbons. If you ask me he has some personal problems with Tavish being a captain."

Roach thought about what Meat had said deeply for a moment and out of the sudden he remembered what MacMillian had said as he briefed them about Andrew.

"That´s it Meat, that´s exactly the reason why he blackened him." Roach said hopefully and earned a clouded stare from Meat.

"Whatever you say Roach." He just answered and watched the Sergeant walk up to the General.

"Sir? Do you have some time to listen to me?" Roach asked.

Mac who was talking on the phone put it away from his ear and looked at Roach.

"Got something Sergeant?"

"I think so. You told us Andrew had his problems to subordinate under a Captain right? We noticed he blackened Soap´s face as well as his ribbons. Maybe he is jealous ´cause Tavish got promoted as a Captain and he is still s Lieutenant."

Mac thought about the Sergeants words for a few seconds before he responded.

"That could be true but why on earth did he capture MacTavish? He´s not the only one who got promoted as a Captain the last six years. There must be something else, we need to keep on searching."


Roach nodded to the General and left him to find something more out. He was about to check the papers again as the door to the conference room swung up loudly. Roach lifted his had with an eased smirk, thinking it was Ghost who came back, but instead his eyes met with Anna´s. She stood in the door, looking embarrassed, she didn´t want to open the door with a loud noise. He could hear her saying Sorry and Gary just nodded and turned his gaze back to the papers, not recognizing Anna stepping up to him and looking him over the shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Anna asked suddenly, making Gary jump a little in surprise.

He turned his head and looked into her smiling face.

"I´m trying to find out what´s the meaning of these papers."

"Hm…." Anna tilted her head and seemed to think about something.

"They were in the room I was captured right?" Gary nodded in response.

"If you ask me they are the key to find out where they capture your friend."

"That´s what we thought but we don´t have any idea where this place should be."

"Oh, that´s hard. Would you mind if I take a look on them?"

"I don´t think you can help us with this. Why are you here anyways? I thought you need to rest."

"Oh, I just wanted to go to toilet and then head back in my room but as I left the bathroom you´re friend Skully scared me and now I´m afraid I could get nightmares of him if I go back to sleep."

Roach raised an eyebrow. What was she talking about?

"Who´s Skully?" he asked her curious.

"You´re friend with this scary Skull Mask."

"You mean Ghost?"

"Oh, his name´s Ghost? I think Skully would better match with him. Why does he wears this Mask anyways?"

"It has to do something about his look."

"His look? Does he look this ugly?"

"No, it´s just people start to stare at him when he takes it off."

"Really? But why don´t you wear a mask?"

"What?" Roach couldn´t believe what he heard.

"You say he wears this thing ´cause people start to stare at him but I´m sure people stare at you too. I mean this burn marks really look strange."

Gary stood there with his mouth open. He wanted to say something to her but was too perplex of her words. He started to feel uncomfortable in his body. Why was she saying such hurting words? Couldn´t she imagine how much pressure it was for himself to look in the mirror and except how he looked. He didn´t need someone around who told him he was unsightly. He was thinking about leaving the room to put himself out of this weird situation as Anna continued to speak.

"What´s wrong with you? You look like you´re going to kill me." She asked him disappointed.

"Do you expect me to give you a hug? You just said that I should wear a mask. I know I look strange but you don´t have to be around me if you´re scared of me." Gary answered her stupid question angrily.

Anna looked down on her hands ashamed.

"I didn´t meant it that way. I just wondered why you don´t wear a mask. I thought you don´t mind if people stare at you. I didn´t want to be rude. I´m sorry."

"Do you think you can take me for a fool? I know you think I´m ugly so don´t try to deny it. I´m not…."

Gary wanted to end his sentence as suddenly Anna stepped up to him, flung her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. Gary stood there with wide eyes, what was she doing? He wanted to push her away as she let off of him, stepped back and smiled bright at him.

"You´re cute. We should go out when this is over." Anna said and left Gary as if nothing had happened.

Gary followed her with his eyes still shocked, as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to look at a very serious Price. Gary swallowed hard, afraid of what his superior would do.

"She´s just as impulsive as her mother." Price said shaking his head.

"Sir?" Gary replied confused.

"Forget it Sergeant just make sure you don´t break her heart ´cause if you do I break your bones."

"But I didn´t want to kiss her. She kissed me out of the sudden. I don´t even know her."

"Whatever you say but remember my words." Price patted him on the shoulder and left a dumbfounded Gary who didn´t know what to think.


Gary was confused in such a way that he didn´t recognize that Ghost had entered the room, smiling at him amused. As Ghost was right next to him he harrumphed and Roach swept back to Reality.

"You´re still a ladies man, huh?" Ghost asked his friend but Gary just looked at him sour.

"Hey! Don´t be mad at me. I didn´t do anything." Ghost defended himself still smiling.

Gary just mumbled something as response and started to turn his attention back to the papers.

"How´s it going? Did you find something out?" Ghost asked him, studying the papers too.

"Not much, we only found out that Andrew must have a problem with Tavish being a Captain but we don´t know the reason yet."

"That´s not much, but better than nothing." Ghost replied and together they started to proof all of the papers again.

As the hours passed by many of the Soldiers were that much exhausted that they went to sleep, only Ghost and Roach stayed behind. Mac told them they should rest too but both told him they couldn´t relax anyways and so Mac let them do as they wished. In addition Mac allowed them to contact his Task Force, ´cause they were searching for MacTavish and Julia as well.

The two friends were sitting in silence, reading Andrew´s dossier as Mac´s phone began to ring. Both men exchanged a look and then turned their gazes to the phone screen. The display says it was an incoming call from an Angela. Ghost looked at Roach questioning but he just shrugged his shoulder and so Ghost took the phone and answered the call.

Gary listened to the words Ghost spoke, the caller must have some important information ´cause Ghost told her she should wait a sec and turned the speaker on.

"Could you please repeat what you told me?" Ghost asked the caller.

"Well we were searching for anything that Andrew did the last six years. We had found out that Interpol is searching for him, he stole some important Intel from the British Government. I tried to get someone from Interpol on the line what Intel it was but they didn´t give me any answers and so we searched about others crimes committed from Andrew.

We found out that shortly after the incidence on the bridge a hospital nearby reported someone stole first aid equipment and some pain killers. We´re sure it was Andrew because the thief had lost some drops of blood which we now found out they match with Andrew´s DNA.

We also found out about an old lady who said back then she found a young man who was badly injured and she offered him to call a doctor who should check his wounds but the man denied but she let stay him in her house for a night. She also told us one event she will always remember. In the morning she was watching TV as a report of the death of Imran Zakhaev was shown, and they reported about the only man who survived this and about the unit who saved him. She wanted to switch the TV of but Andrew, who just came downstairs told her he wanted to watch it.

She watched him closely and could feel he was getting very angry. The report ended and she was about to ask him what´s wrong as Andrew shot her a killing glance and asked her about some money. She told him he wouldn´t get any of her and as he got angrier she told him she would call the police. She turned around and tried to run to her phone as she got knocked out and crushed to the floor. She didn´t black out immediately and could hear how Andrew said the man who survived needed to pay. Later as she awoke he was gone and her house looked like a mess. He must have searched for some money but didn´t find anything."

"But why did you find this out only now?" Roach asked the woman on the phone and heard her breathing heavily.

"She didn´t go to the police and reported it. She was too afraid he might come back and we could do the blood test only after we searched for any crimes. The hospital sure did a DNA Test but it didn´t match to any wanted persons in their country and they didn´t bother to expand their search in other countries."

"Well, did you find something more?"

"No, I´m sorry. Andrew´s really good to cover his tracks. We´re about to check the hotels in Britain to find out if he stayed in one of them but Andrew´s clever, if he was in a hotel I´m sure he used a pseudonym."

"Ok thanks. At least we know the reason why he captured our Captain. Let us know when you find something out." Ghost told her and wanted to hang up the phone as Angela started to talk again.

"There´s one thing you should know. We also checked where Andrew kidnapped Julia and found out he met with her in a Russian hotel, shortly before she was going to fly to the US. The hotel stuff told us she left with him without any resistance but she left all of her possessions in the hotel, including her laptop. We checked it and found an email from a woman named Natasha; she told Julia she wanted to meet with her and if she would not come she would make sure that one of her friends would die."

"And she just met her? Without telling anybody about this? Why´d she do this? She didn´t even know this woman was telling the truth?" Ghost asked wondering.

"That was my first thought too but this Natasha also send a picture. It showed Julia with you two and another man, on a walk outside."

"What? Are you sure?" Ghost got furious.

"Yes, I´m." She simply replied.

"That must mean they have watched us."

"That´s right. I´m sure this Natasha extorted her with killing one of you."

"So that was all part of their plan, to capture Julia but for what do they need her?"

"That´s one thing we should figure out."

"Well thank you Angela."

"You´re welcome and if I can do something else for you just give me a call. Bye."

Ghost hung up and exchanged a look with Gary.

"We still have to find out where they are."

"That´s right but at least we know Andrew´s intends now."

"You´re right Roach. Come on maybe we really should get some rest and then continue the work. We made big steps ahead." Ghost stood up and walked to the door, followed by Roach.

Ghost opened the door as Roach tapped him on the shoulder and as he turned around he saw his friend smile.

"What´s wrong with you? Something´s funny?" Ghost asked not knowing what was going through his friends mind.

"I just figured out that this Natasha could be the woman who helped Andrew not Julia."

Ghost thought about this words for a few seconds and then began to smile.

"This could be the truth Roach."

Roach nodded in response and both left the room, switching the lights off.