Penstrat, Reford Republic
20:47

Leafs ruffled underneath the four pairs of feet as they sprinted heavily through the darkening woods of Penstrat. Taskforce 141 wasn't strangers to chasing targets by foot, but a target who knew the woods better than them and a bit faster did put up for a good challenge. A challenge was something that Ghost did find interesting to keep the job on his toes. However, he would have preferred to have ended the little game by now, but Captain Price made it absolutely clear that no use of weapons was to be used to catch them. If Ghost had his throwing knives? It'd all be over with before they took off running, but Price didn't want the target to even be incapacitated. The sudden caution made Ghost overthink of what they were really getting into. The target appeared small; couldn't be more than five-foot, so all they could assume was that they didn't want them too injured.

"Keepin' up back there, Soap?" Alejandro questioned the younger man in Spanish with a smirk as they ran through the rain, moving around the trees that stood in their way.

Soap only let out a defeated sigh as he tried his best to speed up. While he could understand that Alejandro was poking fun at him, he still wasn't fluent enough to give him a response. He had to give him credit that he was trying to make light of the situation that they were in. It was cold, raining, and visibility was starting to get low. Knowing Soap's luck, he would end up running into a tree head-on.

From what Price had told them about this mission, it would be a simple quick in and out on extracting the target. Nobody told them that they would have to go through this obstacle course of woods to get to them. In fact, the debrief that they received could have been more specific.

"The Reford Republic," Captain Price started, standing up straight as he tapped on a remote location on a world map. "Is now under fire." The projector clicked before showing photos of what appeared to be riots in the streets. "Documents have recently leaked out, and now the citizens don't trust their own government."

"What else is new?" Alejandro asked wearily, his chin resting on the palm of his hand with his arm supported on the table by his elbow.

Price shrugged. "Apparently… the Reford Republic's Government has been constructing weapons under their citizen's noses for almost a year. Which would explain…." The projector clicked again, showing the run-down state of the country; barely any food or water, and the cities were almost in ruins. "This."

"And this involves us?" Ghost questioned, getting rather impatient with this. There were other things he'd rather be doing. A country doing what every other place is doing doesn't surprise him, nor does it warrant their help.

"Now it does," Price started again. "Especially since they're both selling these illegal weapons and working their way to human experimentation. Taking those rioting and injecting them with an unknown substance."

"And we're worried about the distribution worldwide," Kate Laswell stated as she walked into the debriefing room. "The last thing we need is for that to get out. Especially since we don't know what's exactly in it, there's no way we could cure whatever it is."

"So experimental weapons… and experimental medicine?" Soap questioned, hoping that he understood this correctly. "Two-for-one? They're feelin' a little ambitious, eh?"

Ghost let out a sigh. That was a giant leap for 141; they would need more than them to take on these two atrocities side-by-side. They would need someone who would be more knowledgeable on weapons than them.

"We have a person of interest," Laswell held up a file.

The short figure ahead of 141 seemed more nimble than any of the three men combined. Soap couldn't help but be impressed by it; it's something that he would see in a video game: the way they climbed over logs and fallen trees. This wasn't fair. They couldn't be knowledgeable and able to outrun them. Clearly, they knew the area well.

"Are you sure we can't handle this my way?" Ghost asked in his coms, growing rather tired of this.

There was a short silence on the other end.

"What'cha got in mind?" Price finally responded, as this seemed to get on his nerves as well.

"Hold on."

Ghost stopped momentarily, grabbing the throwing knife from his boot. Soap looked over his shoulder; seeing the blade made him hold his breath. He wasn't sure what his plan would be with that, but he could only hope that it wouldn't be enough to injure their target too severely. They just needed them to talk, nothing more and nothing less.

"What-" Before Alejandro could finish his sentence, he flinched as an unsuspecting throwing knife flew past him. He skidded to a stop, followed by Soap as they watched the blade. "What did you-"

Ghost hushed him, moving up to join them. They watched as the knife got caught in the fabric of the target's hoodie, landing deeply in a nearby tree, catching them. He moved past the rest of the team to get to the target before they could escape.

"Gotcha…" Ghost said under his breath as he approached the keeled-over figure who was desperately trying to yank the knife out of the tree. Thinking fast on their feet, the target ripped the fabric from the tree, but before they could stand back up, a firm hand grabbed their hood and tossed them back to the ground. "Where'dya think you're goin'?"

The figure reached back, trying to dig their fingernails into Ghost's arms, but his thick coat and gloves prevented any damage from being done.

"Let go of me!" The unexpected voice came from the figure, and she sounded a bit young to be running away from the Special Ops Unit.

Did Laswell get the wrong intel?

Ghost's eyebrows furrowed at the reaction, loosening his grip on the hood. No… this couldn't be right. He moved, helping the target stand up without releasing his grip on her.

"What the hell is this?" Ghost questioned out loud as the other two approached him. The girl was reaching behind her head to keep her own grip on Ghost's arm, her dark, wide eyes darting around the two men standing in front of her.

Ghost let out a frustrated sigh, glancing around the woods, making sure this wasn't a setup of some sort. Based on the debriefing they sat through hours prior, this country would be the type to send in a child as a distraction.

"Call Price?" Soap asked Ghost, his hand reaching up to his coms.

Ghost hummed under his breath, weighing his options. One: this was a trap and any time spent being confused about this only shortened their reaction time. Or two: this was a misunderstanding, but she could have some intel.

"Not yet…" Ghost said. "Here." He pushed the target into Alejandro. "I wanna ask her some questions first."

Alejandro kept one hand on the girl's shoulder while he kept her arms pinned behind her back, having her face Ghost, who was much, much taller than she was.

"Ghost…" Soap started as a warning that he shouldn't be too hard on the kid. Even though Ghost didn't physically acknowledge Soap, he did hear and listened to him. It was an excellent reminder to keep himself in check. He wasn't known for being the nicest person around.

"What're you doin' out here?" Ghost asked the girl, who tried her best to keep her face as expressionless as possible, but he could see through her mask. Ghost tilted his head to the side while waiting for an answer. He didn't like playing the waiting game, but Soap was right; he needed to be patient. "What-"

"I live out here," the girl spat out in an American accent before Ghost had a chance to repeat himself. Based on his presentation, she didn't want to risk anything. "I live here," she repeated quickly.

"Out in the woods?" Ghost spun around, trying to make sense of any structures, but failed to see any. "We're in the middle of nowhere." The girl avoided eye contact with him now, a simple way to tell Ghost that she was lying to him. "Hey!" He thundered, causing her to jump and look at him again. He pointed to his face quickly before dropping his arm. "Eyes on me."

Feeling bad for her, Alejandro loosened up the grip he had. He didn't like seeing Ghost being so hard on her, but if she had any information on the weapons or human experimentation, then whatever worked.

"What'chur name there?"

She shook her head, pursing her lips together to say that she would keep her mouth shut. Right. Like that would last long.

"Is that too difficult for you to answer?"

The girl looked away from him once again, mumbling something under her breath that none of them could understand.

"What's that?"

"Zoe."

"Zoe. Right…" Ghost knelt before her, pulling some documents out from his pocket. "What'd'ya know about this?" He unfolded what turned out to be photographs of small missiles and held them up to her. If the lighting was better out here, 141 would see the colour draining from Zoe's face. Just how her face dropped, and eyes widened was enough to tell Ghost what he needed to know. "Who made this?"

Zoe shook her head, shifting uncomfortably.

"Ghost? Everything goin' alright out there?" Price's voice came from the coms.

In that split second that 141 became distracted over their Captain's question, Zoe took the chance to twist out of Alejandro's loosened grip. In that quick moment, Zoe made the brief thinking attempt to run. In theory, it was a good plan. Unfortunately, Ghost wasn't stupid, and his reflexes were sharpened. When Zoe was next to him, Ghost's left arm shot out and scooped her up from the ground. The only thing Zoe could do now?

She screamed, hoping it would be enough for Ghost to put her down and leave her alone.

"For God's sake…." Soap mumbled.

"Hey, hey…" Alejandro attempted to calm her down, holding up his hands. "Shh. Shh…" He glanced around to ensure they weren't drawing too much attention to themselves. "Ghost?"

"That's enough out of you." Ghost told her, pressing two fingers underneath her ear. There was a pressure point just below the ear that, if done correctly, would knock someone out in minutes. "Just relax, yeah? We'll get this sorted out."

"Report in."

"Um…" Soap started in the coms, watching as Zoe was kicking, screaming, and attempting to punch at Ghost's arm. Well, her relatively weak punches did nothing against him, and she only got more ineffective against him. "We'll be back soon."

Through the coms, Price could hear the screams and the awkward reassurance that Alejandro was attempting to give her. Price flinched at the sudden noise, as he wasn't expecting it.

"What's-"

"May have a lead? We'll explain later!" Soap cut Captain Price off, cutting the coms off on his end. He turned his attention to Ghost, whose expertise on the pressure points had caused him to now hold an unconscious child. "An interesting turn of events…." He mumbled before letting out a grunt when Ghost suddenly forced Zoe into his arms. "Y'know, L.T., I think there could have been an easier way to deal with this?"

"Always."

Ghost moved past him, leading the way back through the woods back the way they came so they could meet up with their Captain, who would undoubtedly have a better idea of what to do in this situation. If he had been out here tonight, it wouldn't have gone this far, but unfortunately for Zoe, Ghost was the one who was here.

Alejandro chuckled. "I don't think parenthood would be right for you, Hermano."