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Chapter 8

Vem da greš

The Complex, Montana, United States of America (UTC-7)
27th of February 2023, 0112 hrs

The moon was already at the top of the sky, gently illuminating the whole area with its bright shine. Here, in the wild, among the Northern Rocky Mountains, the sky was so marvelous. It reminded Del about all those times when he and his dad were watching stars in their garden. All those sleepless nights spent on looking up and admiring…

Now, he still could recognize a few constellations. From the obvious ones like Ursa Major, Gemini or Orion to those more rare like Perseus or Andromeda. Being honest, he never was a big fan of astronomy. It was mostly what doctor Harry did after hours and the young boy appreciated every single minute he could spend with his dad, so he wasn't complaining.

Harry Lawson, always busy but still a kind and cheerful man, on contrary to his wife. Sometimes Del questioned his choice of medical college, wondering if it was really the thing he wanted to do or just a way to get closer with his dad. Maybe both. Maybe neither. It wasn't like he didn't enjoy his job- being a paramedic gave him a feeling that what he was doing actually mattered something for the world. Not living as just another gray human being fighting for survival from paycheck to paycheck.

At moments like this the thoughts questioning his all life decisions were the loudest. What would happen if he stayed in London getting back to service in LAS? In the end he was close to finishing his practitions. Though then he wouldn't be here, right? Standing side by side with the most elite soldiers in the world, being one of them.

"Hey, Cheet, what are you looking at?" the soft voice of the Lithuanian snapped him out of his thoughts.
"The stars."

"Any in particular or just admiring the view?" She took a seat on the cold ground next to him. The road down the hill they were supposed to watch was quiet and peaceful like water in the lake on a sunny day.

"Trying to relax at least a little before going in there. No light pollution makes it easy to see everything clearly.""

"So…" Léja tilted her head upwards "... any favorite constellation?"

Del let out a slight chuckle, raising his hand and pointing up.

"Not my favorite, but one of the most beautiful in my modest opinion. Right there, Orion. Next to it- Canis Major, the great dog. That star, the brightest one, is called Sirius. The one over there…" he moved his hand to the North. "It's a lynx constellation. The funny zigzag, barely visible now."

"What's so special about it?" Dvasia rolled on her side, giving the Brit a questioning look.

"Actually, not much. Lynx are cool animals." he bursted into laughter. "It was called like this because the five stars that create it are quite dim. Absolutno, Alsciaukat, Gloas, Koit and Stribor, that's how they are called. The scientists claimed that you have to have eyesight of lynx to see them all. And in theory it should look like a lynx climbing up a tree, but honestly? I can't see that."

"I would never say that you're an astronomy guy."

"Cause I'm not. I just have a great memory for such dumb things." Del shook his head.

"Great memory, you say?" she snickered. "Just like you remembered to give me back my book that you borrowed half a year ago?"

Before he could answer a sound of broken twig, made them both flinch.

"Lawson, Bayrus. We're starting in fifteen minutes. No traffic on the road?" Bruno's silhouette appeared over two soldiers, partially covering the sky.

"Empty like Del's mind, sir." Léja joked.

"Oy, you dickhead." the Brit scoffed, poking Dvasia and getting up from the ground. "We're ready, captain. Any changes in the plan or updates?"

"No. All things seem in place, I'm sure that we didn't blow it. By their readings from the GPS we're currently on our way to Portland."

"Well, we'll have to somehow explain why we won't be here in the morning. From here to Portland we still have a few hundred kilometers."

"That's why the faster we'll get over this the better. Get the devices on, as soon as the guard finishes the round around the complex we're going in."

Del nodded, adjusting the band on his wrist.

"Those look different from the one that Nokk is using." Soarele, who had been busy mapping the guards' patches finally spoke up. "Do they work the same?"
"Yes. Those are new prototypes of HEL we've been working on with Nokk and Mira." the Lithuanian explained. "Now it's just a control panel. The whole system and battery is in the vest. Though it makes you slightly less mobile, you don't have to worry about the cooldown. Battery will last for more than enough time for us to finish up. At least I hope so, we didn't test it in the field." she winked at Ursu.

"Dia a' guidhe ort…" the Brit let out a sigh. "That's why the vest feels heavier."

"I'm afraid that you just got fat from all the food that Thomas cooks."

"Léja, c'mon!"

"Get off him, Dvasia" Bruno cut the conversation. "Not the best moment for teasing. Keep your focus on the mission, we get only one hit on this."

Lawson took a deep breath, rolling his eyes. He loved nudge with the Lithuanian back and forth, he truly did. But now, his muscles were too tensed up, the body was numb and the mind felt foggy.

Dima's eyes followed the light disappearing behind a corner of the building, as they got close to the fence. The guard was just finishing his another round around the whole complex, giving them a chance to get inside.

He squeezed his eyes shut landing on the ground. In the silence of the night the sound of boots hitting the concrete felt like a tsunami wave crashing into the coastline. Loud, destructive power, crushing everything in its way. A quick glance at HEL to make sure that it was still online and after that the man stood up, signaling the rest of the squad to also drop down.

The area seemed clear. For now, at least. Just like on the blueprints- a small guards' booth was located far on their left. The lights turned on inside gave them a clear view of one of the guards snoozing, lazily laid out on the chair with his legs stretched up on the desk.

"We don't have to worry about this one, now." the Lithuanian whispered, coming closer to Soarele.

"Move to the first warehouse." The captain ordered, taking out his pistol.

Slowly moving along the fence, they quickly got to the first place.

"Look around. Make photos of anything interesting you'll find." Bruno lowered his gun. "I'll cover the exit in case any guards are wandering around."

The dim light in the warehouse flickered from time to time, making Dima's heart beat faster. He should have got used to stuff like this, it wasn't his first operation in the end. So many years in service should have been enough to make him immune to the stress. Maybe it was the thought of no support at all that made him feel that thrill. Nobody knew that they were here. If something would go wrong, their bodies would rot here, among the enemies. Or maybe it was just something in this place. Something that spreaded the awful smell in the air… smell of death.

The Brit's pupils narrowed when he kneeled in front of the row of barrels. The seals on the object seemed untouched by anybody's hand.

"SOCl2, Fragile, Keep Dry, no.341"

Running his fingers on the label, he cursed under his breath and picked himself from the ground. Till this moment he really hoped that somehow… that somehow they were wrong. That this place would be a dead end. But a barrel filled with chemicals was standing right in front of him. Not one barrel. A whole stash was filled with them.

"Captain." He quietly called out to Sykora. "You were right, it's White Masks warehouse. Thionyl chloride is one of the main compounds of the new Z-8 they've been using in recent attacks."

"Shouldn't this place be crawling with them, then?"

Dima's question was surprisingly simple. Somehow none of them was concerned by this earlier. If it was their stash why weren't they here?

"The satellite photos showed a lot of movement around but they weren't staying here for long. It was always getting in and then leaving in a few hours. Maybe it's some kind of outpost where they just keep the compounds?"

"Outpost? Here, we have enough chemical weapons to kill every single resident of Montana. Twice. What's their main base then and how much chemical weapons are they holding there?" Del's voice almost broke, as he put his hand on the top of the barrel.

"Then, maybe the next hit will be somewhere in Montana? What's the biggest city?"

"Billings, 120 thousands residents." Léja answered quickly.

"Too small to be a target…" a long sigh was let out by the Czech. "At least too small to hold so much of this shit here."

"Maybe there is another facility around here where they use this to make Z8?" Ursu crossed his arms.

"Maybe, maybe and maybe. It's all just theories. Now we should focus on our main goal. Let's move to the main building and hope that we can dig some data from their databases."

Although between them and the other building was only a few dozen meters the way there felt like a road to hell through the longest highway. As soon as the EMP impulse released the electronic lock, letting them inside, Dima let out air from his lungs. He didn't realize how tense he got on the way here.

"The main office should be on the 2nd floor."

"Last room on the right." the Moldavian nodded for confirmation.

The corridor gave him a vibe of an old horror video game location. Yes, this place could definitely work out as a place for another Outlast or Amnesia game. He always found such locations unsettling but on the same hand somehow interesting. When the first Resident Evil was released, a barely eleven year old kid became instantly fascinated by that genre. Walking through the dark staircase made him feel young again. Nostalgic but terrified in the same second.

He wasn't sure why he said "yes" to this crazy idea. Off-records raid on an enemy facility who probably knew their ten steps ahead. The part that was the hardest for Dima was probably a necessity to lie to his teammates' faces. To the people he thought arm to arm for a whole year. To the people he trusted his life to more than once.

A night before the action he still couldn't get out of his mind the look that Artyom gave him when he said that he needed to stay a day longer with Bruno in Seattle. Maybe mom was right and he was just a bad liar, cause he was sure that the Pole knew that something was going on. An ugly liar.

It sucked. Overall, the last events made him want to leave this damn job, but the urge to get his revenge kept him in the team. Revenge not only for the captain of Strigorii, but also for Harry. The day when White Masks stained Moldavian soil with blood of his mentor and friends was the day when he decided that those bastards had to be terminated no matter what. The day when Six was murdered, he decided that he was going to kill every single of them even if it cost him his own fucking life.

"This door." Sykora slowly put his hand on the handle. "Ready?"

Soarele nodded confidently, feeling his fingers clenching on his pistol's grip. The door slowly opened, letting the captain peek inside. By the movement of his hand Bruno signalized that they were clear to get in.

The office was bigger than the Moldavian had imagined. Sterile white walls, coal black tiles and big window with buffy, long curtains reminded him of the hospital where his mom stayed.

"I'll get on the computer." Bayrus quickly took a seat on the chair, getting her hands on the keyboard. "I'll need some time for that."

"Do what you need to do."

Her fingers quickly started hitting the keyboard, as she leaned in, staring at the screen.

"The hospital room was the same," Dima thought while looking around. The only difference was obviously the furniture and a door leading to some other room. Out of curiosity, the Moldavian slowly opened it, peeking inside. As he expected- nothing fancy. Just a small bathroom.

"I'm in." Dvasia broke the silence. "There is a tone of files. Seems like they are mostly the company data." she started clicking from one document to another. "Some of them are encrypted. I'll download them and we'll break them in our base."

"Good." Bruno nodded.

Looking up through the window at the sky, it felt like all those hours he spent sitting there with mom. Brushing her hair, reading her favorite books. The disease was taking everything away from her. Becker muscular dystrophy. When he heard this phrase the first time, he was just nine. Barely nine.

A loud squeak immediately pulled him out of his thoughts. Covering his ears, Dima in confusion turned at the desk and computer.

"Turn it off!" Bruno tried to keep his voice low. Both Cheet and Soarele stood there frozen in fear, staring at the device.

"I don't know how! It's an intruder alert, goddammit!" the Lithuanian kept cursing under her breath. "Po velnių!"

"Dvasia, fuck!"

The sound kept howling constantly, like an injured animal in its last moment of life. It wasn't long before screams and quick footsteps could be heard from the staircase and corridor.

"We alerted the fucking guards!"

"Léja, get off this damn thing!"

The woman didn't listen. She kept staring at the progress bar which was going up all the time.

95%

96%

The footsteps were getting closer.

"Hide!"

The first idea was the bathroom. The captain thought it was the same as he quickly grabbed Del, pushing him inside.

"It's just a few seconds! It's almost finished!"

"Léja!" Soarele hissed through his teeth, clenching his hand on the woman's forearm. As soon as they were all in and ready to close the door, the Lithuanian's stomach dropped to her knees.

"The pendrive! It's still in!" her voice broke.

She was right, the device was still finishing downloading the files. If the guards would see it, they immediately figured out what was going on. The sound of the footsteps was coming right behind the door, when Dima dashed out of the bathroom and with smooth movement caught a grip on the pendrive, pulling it out and sliding under a desk, Before the guards entered the room he managed to curl up and pull the chair closer to not make it look suspicious.

"Fucking trash!"

His heartbeat almost drown out the stranger's voice, What the fuck have he just done? If the guy would come just three or four steps closer he would see him. And he obviously will do it to turn that damn computer off. The whole operation will be fucking blown in a few seconds.

"Think, think, think, goddammit!" his mind was flooded with this one thought.

"It turned on again on its own?" another voice, this one definitely was coming from a younger person.

Putting a hand over his mouth, Dima kept repeating a silent prayer. What else was he supposed to do? Closing his eyes, he clenched his second hand on that damn pendrive. He fucked up. What were the chances that they would notice a pendrive? Probably close to zero. Or maybe not. But for sure it would be harder to see a device a size of pen than a full grown man sitting under the desk.

"Yeah. Fucking piece of crap."

"Think, fuck, Dima think!"

First footstep, then another. That was the end. The most pathetic way to fuck up an operation. How could he be so…

With another step his pupils narrowed. One movement, stretching his hand towards the wall and clenching it quickly.

The room went silent. Completely silent.

"Oh?" The guard stopped at the side of the desk. "Well, the problem got solved, I guess."

Soarele was sure that in this silence his heart could be heard even from the bathroom. Racing, like a horse fighting for its life, on the edge of breakdown, painfully thrashing around his chest.

"Scared the shit out of me, to be honest. I was sure that somebody broke in."
"Nah, welcome to Yahata Security. Nothing fucking works as it should. Let's get back outside, we start another round in a few minutes."

The Molvdavian was never so relieved to hear a door slam. Completely collapsing under the desk, he let out a long sigh, rubbing his face.

"Soarele?"

Bruno's voice felt like a salvation, bringing him peace and reassurance. They were gone. It was all fine.

"I'm alright." he said, scrambling from under the desk, A single curse escaped his mouth as his head hit the counter.

"What happened?"

"I pulled the plug. It turned off the computer, so they decided to not fuck around and get back to their booth."

"Smartass." the relieved Czech chuckled, patting him on the shoulder.

"I am truly amazed that such a tall guy like you, fit down there." Dvasia chuckled.

"I'm taking you all out for a drink. But first let's get out of this shit hole."

The tension dropped almost immediately after they left the building. Cold, night air was the thing that they all needed now. The sound of the wild life surrounding them, made the place feel… more cozy, than at the moment when they started the operation.

Throwing her leg over the edge of the fence, Dvasia let out a relieved sigh. Dropping down on the other side she looked behind her shoulder.

"Alright, get up, Soarele." The Czech folded his hands, helping out the soldier to jump up, getting his hands on the top of the wall. "Cheet, no time to look around like this." he sighed.

Del's eyes stayed fixated on one of the cameras. The red light of the device blinked steadily suggesting that somebody was currently checking it. It wasn't anything new, though the amount of time that the guard spent on this single camera was concerning.

"Cheet." Bruno called out to him.

"Coming." he shook his head, making a step forward.

At the same time the reflector illuminated his body with bright white light. For a second he stood there like a statue, not being sure what to do. Why did it turn on?!

"Fuck…" he cursed under his breath, dashing to Bruno. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Why the hell a reflector turned o-..." before the captain could finish, the wail of an alarm siren pierced the air.

"How the fuck did they found us?!"

"Captain, let's get out of here!" Dima stretched his hand towards the man, still sitting on the fence.

But Sykora didn't listen. He grabbed the Brit's arm and checked the device. No yellow light was coming from it, suggesting that it went offline. Despite two tries of turning it on, HEL refused to work.

"Fucking prototype. It stopped working."

"Captain, let's go! They're coming!"

Del broke free from the man's grip, taking two steps back. His green, terrified eyes stared at Bruno with the desperation and fear the man had never seen in his life.

"Captain, get the hell out of here. I'll get their attention, they don't know you're here. Go, you'll pick me from the second rendezvous point!"

"Negative, I'm not leaving you here, Lawson!"

"Duty to disobey! Get the hell out of here, captain!" The Brit pushed him towards the fence.

"Don't you dare to… hajzl!" he shook his head. The footsteps and shouting was getting closer, making the captain's heart beat faster. "You'd better be there, Lawson." Bruno muttered under his breath, grabbing Soarele's hand and getting up the fence.

Undetermined location

28th of February 2023, 0250 hrs

The constant sound of keyboard buttons being pressed down drove the man crazy. He wasn't the most patient person and his employee knew that. Curled up in his hair, he was running his slim fingers from letter to letter.

"I might be able to save a backup from our drives. It should allow us to get back at least part of the research." he muttered. "No promises though, Fenrir was surprisingly meticulous in his actions, deleting almost everything we had in our database."

"Almost?" the voice coming from under the mask sounded annoyed.

"Yes, that's why I'm saying that I might be able to save the backup."

"Do what you have to, then." Deimos took a few steps back from the desk.

"Are you sure that you didn't make a mistake by killing scientists? We lost Fenrir."

The question coming from White Mask's leader was somehow surprising. Deimos tilted his head, looking at the man who sat on a couch at the other side of the room.

"Are you questioning my leadership skills, Phobos?"

"Not at all, Deimos. I'm just saying that we lost… quite valuable asset."

The man crossed his arm, staring at his ally. "That was the right choice. Fenrir was a weak link. Getting rid of him is an advantage."

"Not if he'll go to Rainbow. F-NNAT was supposed to be our great, secret weapon. If they'll get their hands on it…"

"That's none of your concern, my friend." The last words were filled with hate and disrespect. Phobos was sure that if Deimos had his mask off he would spit right in front of his feet.

Before they could continue the door opened quickly, hitting the door.

"Sir! Sir! There is an intruder in the Complex!"

"Vitun helvetti!" Phobos swore. "Intruder? Just one intruder?"

"That's what the guards said. Looks like some military guy…" the guy caught his breath.

"That's weird… Deimos, what do we do?"

In answer the man laughed, coming closer to the board, located on the wall.

"Ohhh, smart kids." he shook his head. "I underestimated our fellow Thermotouch team." he ran his hand on the map, slowly moving four markings from Seattle to the Complex. "Phobos. I think that they screwed us over." The maniacal laughter filled the room, as Deimos kept staring at the map. It was the second battle he lost that day. Firstly losing Fenrir and now… this. "Finally, a worthy opponent. We'll have a lot of fun together, mister Sykora.'

Phobos watched in terror the man slamming his fist against the wall, leaving a hole.

"Why are you standing there like fucking morons?! Send reinforcements! I want their heads here on my fucking desk in the morning! All four of them!"

The Complex, Montana, United States of America (UTC-7)

28th of February 2023, 0256 hrs

The wailing made his brain unable to think straight. The rest of the team was heading west, escaping to the closest road down the hill where they left their vehicle. He needed to give them enough time to leave and turn around, getting to the second rendezvous point.

He felt like his steps echoed through the whole forest surrounding them, announcing his presence. He was getting close to the guards' booth located in front of the entrance barrier. The snoozing guard in rush and confusion was picking up his stuff from the desk.

"Shit…"

The man hasn't seen him yet, but as soon as Del would get into the radius of the reflector set above the barrier, he would be an easy target for him. His hand went to his holster, with smooth movement pulling out the pistol and breaking the light with one shot.

"Fuck! Who's there?! It's a private area!" the guard rolled out of the booth, looking around. His flashlight caught in its light the soldier sliding under the barrier and made the man immediately pull out his weapon. "Hey!"

Del didn't look back at the guard. As soon as he got up, he made a mad dash towards the side of the road. Losing the tail in the forest seemed like the only reasonable and sane option he had now. Though getting lost there himself would be even more problematic.

"Stop!"

The guard followed him, firing shots, one after another. A bullet swished millimeters from Del's ear and right after that an enormous force pushed him forward. Tripping, he rolled down the slope, trying to cover his head with his arms.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…" he swore, feeling like losing his breath. The pain was excruciating, making him unable to do anything for a good few seconds. Pushing his hand under his shirt he touched the side of his torso. "Fuck…" muttering, he managed to pick himself from the ground. The shot didn't get through the plate. Lucky one.

Despite the pain he had to move. The guard was already getting closer, breaking twigs and slurring loudly. Del picked up the pace, moving further down, in a direction he thought was South.

The sounds of the guard started getting distant after some time of this madness. Taking this opportunity he finally caught his breath, leaning against the tree. According to his compass he was heading the right way, most of the time. At least one good thing in this whole situation.

Lawson tried his best while stepping down on the ground. He wasn't sure where the guard was, but if he was still around, Del didn't want to risk being shot at after making too much noise. Within the next minutes the forest started to get slightly less thick. It meant either that he was getting closer to some road or river. And if he was going the right way, he should be near their rendezvous point.

The steady sound of the car engine filled his body with relief. They were here, waiting for him. Carefully peeking from behind the bushes, he watched the road.

His stomach dropped to his knees as he realized- it wasn't Bruno nor any other Rainbow member.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…" he shook his head. How the fuck did the reinforcements know where they were going to meet?! The van stood on the side of the road, being surrounded by a few guards.

Damn it, he had to think of some other plan of how to get out of here. Probably going to some village located somewhere around was the best choice. The police station! For sure they had one somewhere.

Making slow steps back, he kept his eyes on the road. They didn't notice him, so he had his chance to escape.

A sudden crack made the man hold his breath. His vest pulled one of the twigs, breaking it.

"Hey! Something moved there!"

The panic hit him as without any moment of hesitation, Del turned around and started sprinting back to the woods.

His heart was painfully pounding in his chest. What the hell did he think? With every step, his vision was getting blurry. The sound of branches being broken right behind him, made the adrenaline in his veins arise.

He cursed under his breath, jumping off a small cliff, rolling into a gorge. Leaning his back against the wall of the gorge, the Brit covered his mouth with dirty, dusty hands.

"Just be quiet, just be quiet." The thought echoed in his mind, as he tried to calm down. His dark uniform was for sure hard to notice, blending in with the ground and tree roots, so now he prayed for whoever chased him to just go past him.

Closing his eyes, he let his muscles relax a little bit. The illusion of being safe, the lie he kept telling himself, allowed his heart rate to drop. He was not alone, he'll get to the village, Bruno will find him, everything's gonna be fine.

The noise of blood running through his veins was in some way calming, filling his ears and mind completely. His eyelids slowly opened, for him just to realize that the moon light falling on his face was gone now.

The Brit's pipuls narrowed, looking like two grains of sand. Shadow standing in front of him, with its hand stretched forward. The shining barrel of revolver, reflected in the man's eyes.

the guards' hand was shaking lightly, as their chest moved up and down, sinking lower and lower.

This could not be happening. Not like this.

They were staring at each other in silence. Both waiting, one for his death, the second one for pulling the trigger. Why were they waiting?

"Just pull the damn trigger. You won." the thought crossed his mind. Maybe it wasn't taking as long as he thought it was? Did the time just stop?

Looking directly at the black barrel, Del kept repeating in his mind. 586, revolver produced by Smith and Wesson, cartridge either .357 Magnum or .38 Special. Manufactured from 1981 to 1999 and then back in production from 2012. The specification of a weapon located just tens of centimeters from his head echoed relentlessly, like a final prayer.

Why was he thinking about this? About a stupid gun, right before his death. Where was the whole "life flashing before your eyes thing"? Though, maybe it was better? This way he didn't need to see their faces again. Dad's face. Mom's and aunt's faces. Thomas's face and his brown eyes. Those lovely, brown eyes…

His muscles tensed for the last time, before a single gunshot pierced the air.

Author's notes:

Ayee, speedrun!

Translation for non-english phrases:

Vem da greš- (from Slovenian) I know you have to go

Po velnių- (from Lithuanian) Goddammit

Vitun helvetti!- (from Finnish) Fucking hell