Antetsation Warehouse (Abandoned)
Penstrat, Reford Republic
21:26

Footsteps echoed throughout the warehouse that Taskforce 141 had found to be the best place to settle down while they worked on their investigation. Price had his hands clasped behind his back, keeping his eyes on the floor as he paced back and forth while lost in his thoughts. From what he gathered, Laswell's intel may or may not have been incorrect. How did their leads bring them to a child? A child that Ghost seemingly knocked out; how he did that exactly, he didn't explain, only telling Price that he had to do what he needed to do to keep the situation under control. Right… This is what under control looked like. What worried Price the most was that Ghost didn't have a clue when she would wake up.

Price scratched his face, looking up at his team that was watching and waiting for him to come up with their next move. Technically, they did their job. They captured their person of interest but couldn't go anywhere from this point. Turning around, he looked at the girl lying on the blanket bundle, appearing to be sleeping soundly. She was covered in dirt and mud from whatever scuffle she and Ghost had gotten into while out in the woods. Price felt terrible for her. Honestly, he knew that Ghost probably didn't let up too much on whatever was exchanged between them; while Ghost wasn't a man of many words, he was a man of many actions.

"What have we talked about?" Price finally asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The three men looked between each other, not sure who he was talking to. At one point or another, Price had pulled them aside about their actions.

"Ghost…" He continued, giving him a slightly disappointed look as if that would affect him in any way. "Gentler approach? Remember that?"

Ghost only shrugged in response. Typical.

"What exactly led up to… this?" Price motioned towards the sleeping girl.

Alejandro, Ghost, and Soap slowly approached the run-down cabin that sat out in the middle of the woods. Apparently, the target had been tracked out to his location; what was out here was a mystery, as it didn't seem like the place where highly experimental weapons were being created. Ghost pulled the tracker out from his pocket to confirm that they were hiking in the correct area.

They stood outside, looking at the cabin as if something would happen if they waited long enough. The woods were silent, the wind blowing the branches causing the leaves to fall to the ground. Perhaps if the wind blew just right, it would send the cabin toppling over.

Soap drummed his fingers against the assault rifle in his hands, pondering whether or not he should get a hold of either Laswell or Price to confirm this was the right place.

"Let's just…." Alejandro started as he walked towards the backdoor of the cabin. He pressed three of his fingertips on the harsh wood, pressing his ear against it.

Soap began to pace in place as he began to feel impatient. He understood that the best play was to take it slow, but he couldn't imagine that this was the right place and that they were going to raid someone's poor cabin.

"Why don't we just-"

"Shh…" Alejandro hushed harshly, holding his hand up to him. He was trying to hear anything that would indicate that anybody was inside, but only the creaking of the cabin settling hummed in response. He mumbled something in Spanish before moving away from the door. "Nothing."

Ghost nodded in response, giving Alejandro all the permission he needed to open the door so they could get inside. Alejandro held his breath as his hand brushed against the cool doorknob, slowly pushing the door open, only for it to creak in response. He scowled at the sound, his eyes searching through the darkness of the cabin.

From what he could tell, it seemed to be someones living quarters for whenever they came up hunting in these woods. The door led into a kitchen dining room combo; papers were scattered over the dining room table, and pots and pans were sitting neatly in the sink. Clearly, somebody has been here recently.

As Ghost and Soap followed in behind him, Alejandro flickered the flashlight from his vest, pointing it down towards the table. He picked up a couple of the documents, trying to make sense of what they were getting into. Unfortunately, everything in front of him was written in Penstraten, so he couldn't make heads or tails of it. With a sigh, he dropped the papers to where they once were, turning to see what his teammates were getting into.

Ghost had his pistol drawn, slowly making his way into what appeared to be the living room. He peered around the corner before proceeding forward. Soap, on the other hand, was looking through the cabinets in the kitchen. What he was hoping to find, Alejandro didn't have a clue.

"Clear here," Ghost's voice rang out, lowering his pistol as he turned back to face the others. "Breaking and entering the wrong place. Lovely."

"Well… to be fair…" Soap started, closing the top cabinet before moving to the knee-level ones. "We are in the middle of nowhere; surely the coordinates won't be-" Soap stopped mid-sentence as he opened the middle lower cabinet. Inside was a person who had a hood over their head.

Before he could say anything else, the figure pushed past him as it scrambled to its feet. It shoved past Alejandro, as he was the only thing between it and the opened back door.

"We love runnin' track!" Alejandro called out to the figure with a smile on his face. "Vamos!"

"So we found nothing then?" Price questioned after hearing their tale. "Probably scared the poor girl. Didn't you say she lived out there?"

"To be fair, Laswell did put coordinates to that location…." Soap huffed, not enjoying being grilled by their Captain. "And she ran!" He added, leaning forward in his seat, motioning towards the girl. "That's a little suspicious."

Price let out a defeated sigh. "It's-" He stopped when he heard something shuffling behind him. The girl was sitting up in the blanket bundle, staring at everyone with wide eyes. "Good morning." Was the only thing that Price could think of to say. Maybe if he used a gentle tone towards her, she would be more likely to talk to them. He put his hands behind his back as he slowly approached her. "Did ya sleep alright? … Hey, hold on. Hold on…" He raised a hand towards her as she quickly stood up. "Relax, okay? You're okay. C'mon… c'mon…" Price moved towards her, holding his arms out as if to hold her to try to soothe her, but she only backed up until her back was pressed against the wall. The last thing Price wanted to do was to make her feel trapped, so he stopped, holding his arms up in defeat to show that he was no harm to her.

"What do you want?" Zoe demanded, looking between the four of them. There was a wild look in her eyes; whether she was about to attack Price on pure adrenaline or was trying to intimidate them, they weren't too sure. Not like she could do much towards them anyway. "Get away from me!" She grabbed one of the pillows from her nest, throwing it towards Price, who only grabbed it on reflex.

"We're not gonna hurt you, alright? I promise." He gently tossed the pillow down by his feet. "I think there was a mix-up, but…" Price trailed off, pulling the same documents that Ghost had presented to her early on. "I need help figuring out where I can find these." He held up the photos of the same small missiles toward her. "Or who built them? Do you know anything about this?"

"No." Price tilted his head to the side, turning the photo around to look at it himself. "What?"

"I feel like you're not tellin' me the truth."

"I could've told you that," Ghost interrupted, taking his place standing next to his Captain. "I can make this go quicker."

"Not necessary. We're doing this my way." He nodded towards the chair that Ghost stood from, telling him to leave him to it. Ghost was hesitant but did what his Captain told him to. "Hungry? I can probably scrounge up some ration's 'round here."

"Here." Soap said quickly, handing over a protein bar to Price.

"Should do, huh?" Price smiled at Zoe as he tore open the corner of the packaging before holding it out to Zoe, who only stared at it as if this was some sort of trick. "I promise you, there's nothin' wrong with it. See?" Price broke a small corner piece off it before popping it in his mouth. "Not poisoned. Honest."

"'m not worried about that…." Zoe mumbled, snatching the protein bar out of Price's hand.

"What's it you're worried about? The person who made the missiles?"

Zoe shook her head as she nibbled on the food, almost like a hamster.

"Worried that someone out there is hunting you?" Price glanced down at Zoe's hands, which were covered by knitted arm warmers. Yet, they didn't hide the minor cuts and burns that were present on her fingers. "Been doing some welding recently?"

Zoe stopped eating immediately, and her eyes shot up at Price.

"Does that have something to do with this?" Price pulled out a crumpled-up piece of paper from his vest pocket. Smoothing it out revealed a messy drawing of a missile that had yet to be exposed to the public or to 141. Alongside some messy handwriting that the team could barely make out at first. "Missing something?" He questioned when Zoe felt around her hoodie pocket. "Sorry. Fell out when you got brought in." He shrugged, looking over the drawing again. "Couldn't help myself."

"Give it back."

"Are you gonna tell me who made it? I'd like to talk with them about thi-"

"Give it back!" Zoe ran towards Price, grappling onto his arm in an attempt for him to drop the paper.

Price couldn't help but laugh as she put everything she had into wrestling with him over this. He had to give it to her; she had some guts running up to him like this. If it were Ghost, it'd already be over, although Price had to guess that she already knew that.

Alejandro chuckled as he stood up, patting Price on the back. "I think she's gonna give ya a run for your money, Capitán."

"Could be a good soldier yet." Price chuckled again. "Alright, alright… that's enough." He lowered his arm, allowing Zoe to snatch the paper from his hand. "All yours, Rookie."

"Don't call me that."

"I think we got off on the wrong foot." He knelt in front of Zoe, holding his gloved hand out to her. "Captain John Price."

Zoe was hesitant, staring at his hand. She figured that if she was going to be in their capture, she better attempt to get along with them. Maybe even get on their good side and they would let her go.

"Zoe Harplyn…" She mumbled, shaking his hand.

"And Zoe… Why would you be triggered as a target? You seem to be a bit young to work for the Reford Republic Government."

She scoffed. "Like I'd work for them…."

"Have a strong opinion on the government?" Price sat back on his heels. "Don't go silent on me now. I won't tell anyone."

"I don't want to talk to you!"

"Fine."

Price stood up, turning his back to the girl. The itch for tobacco was coming back strong.

"Keep an eye on her," he told his men as he took out his pocket humidor, pulling a cigar out with his teeth. "We'll get the information one way or another."