Antetsation Warehouse (Abandoned)
Penstrat, Reford Republic
23:12

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"Flashbang!"

The warning Ghost cried out was enough for Soap to close his eyes and cover his face with a blanket to avoid getting blinded by the flashbang, but that couldn't prevent the piercing ringing that followed behind the bang!

"What the fuck?!" Alejandro shouted in Spanish, rubbing his sore eyes, ears also ringing. Thankfully, he had been asleep at the time, so he wasn't blinded by the flash of light. What a great way to wake up... to loudness and confusion. He shuffled around his bundle of blankets, grabbing a pistol lying next to him as he couldn't find his rifle. "Ghost? Soap?" He looked over towards the large nest of blankets where the girl was last seen, only to see it was empty. "Shit…" He mumbled.

"Hey… you alright?" Soap questioned Ghost, poking the taller man in the shoulder, only for Ghost to nudge him away. Ghost had a hand over his forehead. Thankfully he wasn't blinded, but the high-pitched sound definitely got to him.

"'m fine…" He mumbled as his grip tightened on the rifle still in hand.

The team recognised a quick, high-pitched whistle as Price's cue that they were to be silent and move with him. The sound caught their attention quickly, turning to see their Captain with his rifle in his hand as he quietly spun a finger in the air to signal them all to regroup. The four stood silent, keeping themselves as close to the shadows as possible in the dark warehouse. Besides the flashbang that had soared through the window just moments ago, neither of them could hear anything indicating that anybody was hunting them down. If they didn't throw the flashbang in the first place, they would have had the upper hand in ambushing them.

"Where's Zoe?" Soap whispered to Price and Alejandro, hoping that they happened to see where she went or helped her hide.

"Thought she was with Price?" Alejandro replied in a hushed tone.

"Told you we couldn't have trusted her," Ghost mumbled; having to prove his point whenever possible was his speciality. Especially in the worst of times. "Probably tipped them off."

Soap rolled his eyes; this wasn't the time or place to have this discussion again. She was a kid; besides, they checked her before she woke up, and there wasn't anything on her that could contact anybody from the outside. Unless there was a tracking device on her person that they didn't see. While they wouldn't talk about it now, Soap would certainly make a mental note to chat about this situation with Ghost later.

Price put a finger up to his lips to shut them up, eyes scanning the room in search of Zoe. There was no possible way that she was the one who threw the flashbang through the window, right? Price had secured the known exit just in case she attempted to make a break for it. If anything happened to her out there, Price would feel more than guilty, as he felt he needed to protect and keep her safe.

The metal door forcible swung in from somebody kicked it in, followed by heavy footsteps echoing throughout the warehouse. Another high-pitched whistle bounced off the walls, but this time it didn't come from Price, but from whoever broke in.

Ghost moved behind a set of large crates, settling on his knees and mounting the rifle on the edge of one of the crates. He peered through the optic, waiting for Price's signal.

"Zoooey!" A man's voice rang out, and even though 141 couldn't see his face, he had some sort of smirk based on his tone. He clicked his tongue several times like he was calling an animal. "C'mon, Zoe! We're not playin' this game again!"

Again?

"Steady…" Price whispered to Ghost before kneeling behind him.

Peering around the corner of the crates, Price still couldn't get a good look at the man, but based on the silhouette, he was decked out in heavy tactical gear. He was prepared for whatever he was about to find in the warehouse, that's for sure, and who knew if he had backup waiting outside for him. What they wanted with Zoe, Price could only guess. Maybe there was some truth to Ghost's suspicions; there always seemed to be, but something about this wasn't adding up correctly. Price frowned; whatever was going on and whatever they wanted with Zoe, he wouldn't allow that to happen.

"I don't like this…." Alejandro mumbled to himself, glancing over his shoulder, feeling as though somebody was watching him, but he didn't see anyone. He mumbled something else, moving away from the group to cover the rest of the warehouse, just in case more enemies made their way into the building without them knowing. The only way he could think of that happening was if Zoe let them in, but they had the exits pretty much secured, so she couldn't escape, but seeing that she was nowhere in sight…

Alejandro shook the thought away. That's not what he honestly thought of the girl; Ghost's words were just getting to him. He's seen many kids like Zoe before while growing up in Las Almas, those who have been exploited by the corrupted into doing their dirty work for them. His heart ached for her, it was an unfair position for any child to be in, and if that was the case, he wanted to do whatever he could to help her.

"Zoe!" The man called out again, kicking over an empty desk that sat in the centre of the warehouse. Whether he thought she was hiding underneath it or hoped that the sudden noise would get her to come out, 141 wasn't sure. The only thing it did was give Ghost confirmation of where he was moving. "Your father's getting impatient with yooou," he added in a sing-song tone.

Ghost looked over at Price, who met his gaze and shook his head in response. Was the mercenary aware that they were here? Or did he assume that Zoe was the only one here? Either way, Price had to play this safe and assume that this guy had an army out there who knew they were here. They needed to plan for the worse case, and if it turned out that it was just a clueless merc on his own, then that would be even better.

Alejandro kept low to the ground, his eyes scanning through the dark room that his eyes couldn't seem to properly adjust to looking for Zoe. She had to be around here somewhere; there was no possible way she was able to slip past them. Alejandro paused his train of thought… 141 set traps up everywhere in the woods around the warehouse… how did this guy get passed on all of them without setting even one off? Did he see them setting up and want to wait for the perfect time to strike? Does that mean he knows they're here? Something wasn't sitting right with Alejandro, but he knew what they needed to do: the objective was to secure the area and find the kid.

"Just… tell me where she's at, okay?" The voice rang out, sounding impatient, sending a wave of shock through Soap.

So he knew that they were here. The way he made his presence known the second he walked in gave him the sense that he was either overconfident in his ability to take them on or had more people on his back.

"Her dad's lookin' for her… she has a project to finish, you understand."

141 kept their mouths shut. The number of questions running through Price's head that he wanted to shout out was unbearable. He wanted to know more about this girl and how she connected with all of this. And a project? What project could she possibly be a part of? Price felt Ghost's dark, focused eyes on him again; still, Price shook his head. The merc was already giving out more information than he should be, meaning he was planning to kill them to throw those secrets away.

"Y'know…" the heavy footsteps rattled the floor once again as the man began to pace around the warehouse, looking for either the soldiers or Zoe. "You should've just left her out in the woods. We were on our way to pick her up." The silhouette shrugged, kicking over a metal chair to make himself seem more rigid. "Don't think her dad would appreciate you kidnappin' his kid."

Kidnapping? Well… technically, that may have been the truth. To be fair, they had a reasonable cause to bring her in for questioning. Maybe the way she was brought in wasn't ideal, but since she was listed as a target, what choice did they have? This was their job, after all.

"Just hand her over, and we'll let you go!"

Price tilted his head to the side, giving Ghost the signal to shoot off a warning shot. Ghost nodded in response, peering through the optic piece once again and lining up his image. The goal wasn't to injure the man too bad, but enough to get their point across that they weren't pushovers and wouldn't bow down and do whatever he wanted.

Ghost held his breath briefly, steadying his hands before pulling the trigger. The bullet didn't hit the man; Ghost had lined up the shot to the man's arm but only skimmed the shell past him. From where the two were crouched, they saw the man spin around, visibly unnerved about the sudden bullets flying toward him.

"No. We're not playing this!"

Alejandro looked over his shoulder to see what the rest of the team was up to. If they were starting a gunfight, he needed to focus on it. Without seeing or hearing any more gunplay, he turned back around, almost jumping out of his skin when seeing a pair of wide, dark eyes staring back at him. His heart slammed against his chest, his eyes wide until he slowly realised that it was Zoe who was staring back at him. He let out a quiet sigh of relief upon seeing her. Thankfully she seemed to be in one piece and uninjured. Alejandro looked beyond her to ensure she wasn't setting him up.

Alejandro opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get any words out, Zoe grabbed his arm as tight as she possibly could, doing her best to keep her breathing evened out so the man wouldn't hear her hyperventilate.

"You'll be okay…." Alejandro whispered in Spanish, not considering that she may not understand what he was saying. "You're okay…" he repeated, putting his free hand on her shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze to show that he was serious.

"I don't want to go," Zoe whispered back, tears filling her eyes.

"You're not going anywhere. We'll keep you safe."

Zoe nodded. She had to accept that if she was to get out of there alive and stay away from her father, she had to put her life in their hands and trust that they would keep her safe like they kept insisting. Zoe always had to fend for herself, so being in a position where she had to let others take the wheel for her was strange, to say the least.

Alejandro wrapped an arm around her, bringing her close to his chest in case he needed to move fast so he could pick her up. In an instant, he could feel her tremble against him out of fear. What if the only possible way for her to escape would get taken away from her again?

"It's okay," Alejandro repeated again, slowly moving across the floor. Shushing her and trying to keep her calm, the man yelled again about whatever this project was and how Zoe's dad wouldn't be happy with them. As much as Alejandro wanted to shout back that they didn't give a shit about that, he kept his mouth shut. His priority right now was to keep her safe and out of harm's way.

The team was blinded again, not from a flashbang this time, but rather the warehouse lights getting turned on from out of nowhere. Clearly, the merc was losing his patience with them and wanted to start moving this along. There was no way he could flip the lights on, which only left the fact that he had backup waiting.

Price put a hand on Ghost's shoulder before standing up from where he was. He had his hands up to his shoulders to show that he wasn't a threat to the merc or whoever else was lingering in the warehouse. The merc tilted his head to the side in confusion; he didn't expect them to give themselves up this quickly or easily. While he was surprised and pleased that it was moving right along, that didn't ease him at all, and he kept his tight grip on the rifle.

"Hi," was the only thing the merc could think of to say to Price. "Where is she?"

It was time for Price to put on his best-acting mask and do what he could to get the man to stand down. With the warning shot that they already fired, it may be more complicated than once expected. Maybe not the best judgement in hindsight, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

"My apologies…" Price started, moving around the crates so the merc should see him fully so there was no confusion that he may be reaching for a weapon. Ghost kept his sights on the merc while Soap carefully watched Price to ensure nothing went wrong. "I think there may be some sort of misunderstanding…" he continued, only for the merc to scoff in response.

"Right… misunderstanding… that's why we had shots fired?"

Price shrugged. "To be fair… you threw the first stun."

The merc chuckled as if they were having a casual conversation.

"Hm… that's true. Again… I'm just lookin' for the kid."

"I don't have a kid here… Special ops. Startin' to think we got lost. Our GPS got all screwy." Price waved his hand.

"Uhhuh…" the merc looked Price up and down, trying to decipher the situation. While Price did sound sincere, something didn't sit right about this. "About yay-high…" the merc held a hand up slightly above his hip. "Dark hair… ringin' any bells?"

"I'm afraid not…."

"Oh…" The merc's eyes flickered up, looking past Price's shoulder. Whatever he saw caused him to flash a strange smile. "You're not from here. It's rude for guests to lie."

While Price was disappointed that his gentle tactic didn't work, he kept himself collected and showed no emotion on his face. What did the merc see? How did he know? Was Zoe in sight at this point?

Alejandro moved his body to the side, pointing a pistol at the quiet figure that appeared from behind a set of totes. There was no denying that he saw Zoe in his arms and knew they had who they wanted.

"C'mon, Zoey. It's time to go," the new man said loudly enough for everyone to hear. A chill went down Price's spine, hearing the unknown voice.

"Stay away from her, cabrón!" Alejandro shouted back.

The urge to turn around to see what was going on behind him was strong, but Price also had a strong feeling that once he turned his back to this merc, he would shoot him in the back. He had to trust in Alejandro that he would keep her safe, and he had Ghost to keep him safe, so Price expected that Soap had Alejandro's back.

Soap sneaked up behind the second man, pressing the rifle into his back. Just as they were, he was trying to wrap this up so they could find some time to rest before going back out to find more clues on where these weapons and possible medical experiments were being held. Alejandro may be used to seeing guns pointed at kids based on the childhood he explained on their first trip to Las Almas, but Soap was not, so he was on high alert. The way Alejandro had his arm wrapped tightly around Zoe, putting himself in between her and the second merc, showed how much he cared about her; it didn't matter how long ago they met. On a selfish note, he strongly felt that she was in the middle of these weapons, so if she died, the mission would fail.

"Drop it…" Soap told the merc, pressing the rifle deeper into his back.

"We're just trying to do our job…" he said calmly as if a gun wasn't pointed at him.

"So are we."

The merc let out a deep sigh, testing the waters on how far he could go with Soap behind him. He dropped his rifle, putting his hands up to his shoulders to show that he was no longer a threat to them or their mission.

Yes, Soap knew that he should always be on his toes, even if his enemy lets his guard down, but he wasn't thinking clearly in his sleepy state. Soap took a small step back, the rifle now loosely against his back. Taking that chance, the merc elbowed Soap as hard as he could in the ribs, causing him to let out an audible oof as he stumbled back a couple of steps.

Hearing Soap grunt in pain made Price look over his shoulder for a split second, but that second was all the first merc needed. He raised his rifle, aiming it directly at Price's head, which was his first and only mistake. With Ghost still on his game, he immediately pulled the trigger, shooting the merc in the chest.

Zoe let out a scream, covering her ears at the sudden gunshots that rang throughout the warehouse. She wasn't a stranger to weapons firing, she worked rather closely with guns, but it was always in an environment where she knew she wouldn't get hurt. Right now, she was in a game of chance; her life was in the hands of four guys she barely knew.

It was the only chance she had.

"Good one, Ghost!" Price praised loudly, patting him on the back.

"Owe me one," Ghost replied, readjusting the rifle.

"Always."

Soap raised the rifle towards the second merc, still slightly disorientated from being elbowed. The man tilted his head to the side, grabbing the gun and trying to pull it out of his grasp to no avail. Not wanting to wrestle over a weapon, Soap kicked the man in the stomach, causing him to stumble and collapse onto the floor.

The merc reached towards the rifle he dropped moments ago, only for Soap to stomp on his wrist to prevent this. He let out a pained yelp, the boot making it painful for him to attempt to pull his arm away.

Price knelt next to the merc, now holding a pistol and pointing it at his chest in case he decided to make sudden movements. He had sent Ghost to check out the interior and exterior perimeter to ensure there weren't any more surprises waiting for them. They weren't going to have the lower hand again. Price knew that once Laswell got wind of this, she wouldn't let them live this down.

"Any more friends we should worry about?" Price questioned. His ears perked up at Alejandro, who was trying to calm Zoe down.

The man underneath Price cursed at him in Penstraten.

"Am I taking that as a 'no'?"

"You… are in possession of government property…." The merc spat.

"Government…" Price trailed off, connecting the dots of what he was talking about. "She's not government property. She's a child." When the merc started laughing at him, it took everything in Price to not smack him with the pistol. "The weapons. The missiles. Where are they coming from? Who's making them?"

The merc looked from Price to Zoe, who was still in Alejandro's arms, and he began laughing again.

"You ask a question you have the answer to?"

Was it him?

"I want an answer."

"You have your answer. You have the Reford Republic's strongest asset in your care."

Zoe.

Price's face scrunched up in confusion, letting out the breath he had been holding. They had their target all along. No wonder she got all uptight when he took the weapon plans.

"If we have our answer…." Ghost's voice was behind Price now, startling him. He didn't even hear him approach. "Then there's no reason to keep you alive."

Price let out a defeated sigh. He knew Ghost was right. If they let the merc live, he would go back to wherever they came from and tell them where they were hiding out. Not like they were going to continue staying here long, it would be a death sentence.

He stood up, motioning for Ghost to do what he needed to silence the merc.

Another gunshot rang out, followed by Alejandro gently shushing and consoling Zoe while rocking them back and forth. This sent him back to when his daughter was younger, and he had to comfort her like this whenever she was upset.

"You're safe… you're safe…" Alejandro comforted her, tucking strands of hair behind her ear. "They're gone."

Zoe gripped tightly onto his shirt, burying her face into his side. As much as she wanted to believe that, she knew they wouldn't stop until she was back in her father's hands and the rest of the Reford Republic Government. She would never be free of them and would never be free until she was six-feet underground.

"Ghost? What'd you find out there?" Price questioned, moving over towards Alejandro.

"A GPS tracker. Destroyed."

"Good work. Soap? You alright?"

"All good, Captain," Soap croaked, his arm wrapped around his torso. He would be surprised if he didn't have any bruised ribs during their little scuffle.

Price knelt down next to Alejandro.

"You did well keeping her safe," he told her. He tried getting a look at Zoe, but with her face still buried in Alejandro, it was impossible to ensure she had no injuries. "Zoe?" He reached towards her, gently moving the hair covering her face. The moment he touched her, he instantly regretted it as she flinched against him. "It's over now."

"You're gonna kill me now?" Zoe's voice was muffled, but the hint of tears was clear behind it.

"Why would we do that?"

"Because…" She hiccuped, pushing herself to sit up so she could look at Price. "Because I'm the one who made the weapons."