"I hit a wall, I thought that I would hurt myself,
Oh I sure, your words would leave me unconscious,"
Rick Flag
They made their way to the top floor, then stopped in front of the huge steel vault door marked EMERGENCY OPERATIONS. It blocked them from continuing on. Croc attempted to push it open, but it stood firm.
"Chill, Croc." Rick tells him. "I got the key code."
He merely grunts in response. Rick ignores it and punches in the code for the steel door. The keypad lit up in green. He hears the rollers retract as the vault door ease open. Flag steps through and turns back to the others.
"You stay here. I don't wanna give this guy a heart attack." Rick said to the group.
Quinn grins, resting her head on Lawton's shoulder. "Aww. He's embarrassed of us."
Lawton shot him a glare. "Hey Flag. This dude better be able to cure cancer after all this shit."
The room was filled with computers and monitors. A block-by-block satellite view of downtown Midway was displayed across a dozen screen. Amanda Waller was sitting at the comm, impatient as always, staring at him. He could tell she was going to complain. She always did.
"About time, Flag." Said Waller. "I've been monitoring your progress. There were at least a dozen ways you could have gotten to me faster."
"Yeah, yeah. Feel free to write me up after I get you back home, maybe in one piece. You ready?"
"You wouldn't have made it without them." Waller said.
"We got lucky." Rick said. "I don't do luck. I do planning and precision."
She scooped up some important papers and stuffed them into her shoulder bag. "Admit it, Rick. I was right."
"I told you to get on the damn truck." Rick said, clearly agitated with her stubbornness. "Why did you stay?"
"I was studying you and Lawton's girlfriends." Waller answers simply.
Rick didn't want to talk about June or Lena. He glances at one of the monitors-it display a high-angle shot of the rail station. It was ringed by a palisade of stacked cars.
"She takes an average person-a yoga mom, an elderly retiree-and she turns them into soldiers who can take a headshot and still fight." Waller explains. "It's an instant army. The other sister just enjoys the bloodshed."
"No kidding." Rick mumbles. "She almost killed Lawton."
"Does he know that he girlfriend is possessed by an evil witch?"
He didn't answer her right away. "He's starting to suspect something."
"I been doing research on her." Waller pulls out a picture from her handbag and hands it to Rick. It was a black and white photo, it was dated around the late 1920's. It was a picture of a woman, dressed in the same type of amour as Morana.
"What the hell is this?" Rick questions her.
"That was taken during World War I. See anything familiar?" Waller explains.
"The amour."
"Exactly. Morana may be connected to this meta-human." Waller said. "We thought this woman, Diana Prince, was centuries old. But seeing Morana fighting like her- "
"She could be thousands of years old. That's just fucking great." Rick complains. "A goddess witch and a warrior witch. So what's the plan to stop them?"
"There is no plan." She said. "How'd they do it, Flag? How'd they game the system with you watching their every move?"
Flag clenches his jaw. He looks at Waller and shakes his head.
"I'll accept the consequences."
"I am your consequence."
"You might need to be careful." Came Lawton's voice. Turning around, Rick sees Lawton standing at the doorway. With his mask on, he couldn't tell what this man was thinking. How much did he over hear?
"They think we're rescuing Nelson Mandela."
Waller seem to not care. "I can take care of myself. She turns to the techs. "Shut it down. Wipe everything."
The tech team works quickly. Screens went blank, replaced with the programming code of self-deletion. Within seconds all information linked to Task Force X was gone. As far as the database were concerned, none of them ever existed.
Lawton looks at Rick with repulse. "Hey man. I know you can't hear me 'cause you're trapped in your temple of soldierly self-righteousness…but a two-faced dude like you wouldn't survive a second on the street."
"Oh, says the guy who shoots people for money." Rick almost laughs at the irony.
"Yeah, but you had seen all my cards." Lawton shrugs. "I don't hide who I am."
"You really pride yourself on being bad." Rick turns away from him. "Don't. That's starting off on the wrong foot. My way got it done. End of argument."
"Yeah, well. We're both pretty much the same-but you know."
Gunshot suddenly exploded behind Lawton and Rick. Waller had emptied her Glock into the technicians. She walks past the dead bodies casually; her expression was emotionless yet cold.
"Damn. That is just a mean lady." Lawton comments.
"Yeah. You get used to it." Mutters Rick.
"What?" Waller said. "They weren't clear for this. Any of it."
"And I'm the bad guy."
The Squad themselves wasn't to thrill to find out that the person they were rescuing was Waller herself. But he didn't care about how they feel, he was too consumed in his own guilt over June and Lena. He thinks about what Lawton said about them being the same. The murderer was right in a weird twisted way.
Both the women they loved were trapped inside those damn monsters.
And it was his fault.
He feels guiltier about not telling Lawton the truth about Lena. After all, she did agree to go along with Waller's plan for Task Force X for Lawton to see his daughter. She put her freedom on the line for his.
She did all of this for him.
The SEALs were waiting on the roof. They watched as the Chinook as it circled over him, then arched down to come in for a landing.
"Rides' here." GQ called.
Moving to the edge, the Squad stared down from the roof at the remains of what had been a thriving city. So many buildings were lying in rubble now. Others burned out of control.
Rick stares at Lawton and he stares back at him. He didn't like the guy but still…he should know the truth.
He looks up and watches as the Chinook hover just above them. Something was wrong. It was hovering over the Federal building but not landing.
"Savior One Zero. Why are you holding? Savior One Zero, respond, please." GQ shouted into his comm. He trades looks with Rick.
"They're not talking to me."
"Our bird's been hijacked." Rick said with certainly. "Light it up!"