Cpt. John "Soap" MacTavish

Task Force 141

Straits of Malacca - 200 KM offshore

If Makarov and his men thought that they were going to intercept him on the docks, they were wrong. It was not a covert operation, but a joint one done with the Malaysian Coast Guard. That, of course, was only on paper. In real life, it was the Task Force 141 doing the dirty work, not that MacTavish had any qualms about that.

But something told him that this mission would not go as smoothly as Shepherd had expected. Of course, Anya had provided them with Intel better than they ever had received, there was still a chance that Makarov would be one step further than they were, just like every single attempt to take him down so far.

They approached the ship in the cover of darkness, trailing them closely in speedboats deployed from a vessel disguised as a fishing boat. It was not yet dawn when two teams of 141 field-men were sent onto the ship, hoping that the ship's radars would not sense them coming. They crept onto the deck of the ship, filled with as many containers as possible.

"Spread far and wide," MacTavish whispered into the comms, "Wait for the Malaysians to act first." His men all gave him positive responses, and he said to the Malaysian Coast Guards. "We're in position. You can contact them now." After saying those words, he took a deep breath and prayed for the best, as he had always done.

Cpl. Maria "Anya" Allen A.K.A. Ultranationalist Codename: Anya

Task Force 141 / Ultranationalist Terrorist Cell

Straits of Malacca – 180 KM offshore

"They're here," she told Makarov. She was with him at the bridge of the ship. Her sapphire eyes scanned the deck of the ship, and although she could not see anything amiss, she noticed that the fishing boat right beside them was tailing them with increased speed.

Makarov looked at the radar and asked her, "How do you know?"

"Look at that boat there," she told him. "I have been watching it for a while, it came from the coast, and now it seems that it wants to bring us into the port."

He nodded his head. "What country do you think is after us?" he asked further. As he had told her before, the girl had a sight that no one else had. His men did not even state the fact that the boat was near them at all, and he knew that they weren't just leaving her to discover it. He had spent many years with them, and he knew where their talents lie. Anya's, would be her clear sapphire-hued eyes.

She knew that he was not even referencing Malaysia at all. "Those NATO soldiers Batkin had told you about… I've encountered them before, and I was lucky to survive."

Makarov actually chuckled at her words. "I am sure you did," he told her, and turned towards Anatoly, who gave them in-ear communications systems so that Makarov could relay instructions to them. Of course, he would be out of the action as the leader of the operation, out of the eyes of the enemy. The rest of them, they were all expendable muscle, and yet, he commanded and expected that they be loyal to him… "S nami bog," he said in Russian, a prayer that was customary before each and every operation, and left to the appointed place where he was to be their eyes and their ears.

Anya looked at him as he left. She knew that he was a leader far different than MacTavish was. The latter was more hands-on, and at least he cared for his subordinates when Shepherd did not. Anatoly told her before that when they were younger, Makarov often ran the missions himself. And he would still do so, from time to time. This was just not one important enough for him to get his hands and feet wet.

"You should be glad that you only have to stay here," Viktor told her. "At least you won't get to see the face of the enemy."

She nodded and replied. "You don't know how grateful I am for that." She did not want to see the faces of the 141, now fighting on a different side with her. She did not want to see them, knowing that she would have to try to kill them, just as they would be forced to do the same to her…

Looking outside the window, she saw that the fishing boat was now behind them but there were several other vessels beside them. The Malaysian Coast Guard. They would be prepared to board the ship, and she knew that it would not be a pretty scene at all.

"This is the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency!" a man with a hailer announced from one of the Malaysian ships. There were four of them surrounding the Cinta Negara, front, back, right and left. "This ship is suspected of transporting human cargo as well as narcotics and will allow our men to board for further investigations!"

No word was said more. There was a warrant, and those on the Cinta Negara had to comply. The sun was rising, and already, the black gear of those bearing the emblem of a winged sword below an open skull could be seen. "Anya was right," said one of Makarov's men into the comms. "I see two of them to my right. They don't know that we're here."

"And let it stay that way," Makarov answered. "We need to be patient or we'll lose the element of surprise."

"We'd better pray that there's no one up there," Ghost muttered when he looked at the bridge. It would be a race to the top, because the bridge was the only place where one could get a bird's eye view of the deck, where all the containers were. Not only that, they had to discover which containers held the narcotics, and which containers held the people who were being trafficked.

"Archer, Toad, I want the two of you up on the bridge, now!" MacTavish said. "You'll have to be our eyes from up there."

But the moment before Archer and Toad could even move, a gunshot was heard. Men started to fire from all sides, the Indonesians that manned the ship, as well as a few Caucasians. There was not a doubt that those men were Makarov's. Altogether, their numbers were far greater than their own.

"Bullocks!" Ghost shouted. "Someone's getting really desperate here!" Their mission there was not to stop the cargo of the ship to enter Malaysia. Their mission there was to take Makarov down, but it seemed that their opponent has once again hid himself right before their eyes like the coward he was. Where was Anya when they needed her?

And then, it started. Right next to MacTavish, some of the Malaysian Coast Guard had fallen one by one, dead when he went to check on them. The enemy had a sniper amongst them, while theirs had to be yet in position… But why target the Malaysians when they had nothing to do with this rabble?

The soldiers of the Task Force 141 knew what was going on at that moment when MacTavish told them that some of the Malaysians were killed by a sniper. They knew that if they stormed up to the bridge, they would find what they did not want to. But Archer and Toad knew that they had to.

Thus, they stormed up onto the stairways to the bridge, but found their way blocked by the Indonesians that came with this ship. They were easy to take down, easy to overcome, but when they were on the third level, two more stories from the bridge, they saw a man with dark hair and mismatched eyes firing at them.

"We've encountered another Russian," Archer reported. "He's about 5'11", early middle-ages and has heterochromia."

"That's Makarov alright," MacTavish replied whilst shooting another Indonesian in the chest. "Engage with caution. Shepherd most likely wants him alive…"

However, Makarov seemed to have heard Archer, and went up to the bridge, where Anya seemed to have a field time picking off her targets. He saw her shooting one of the non-Malaysian combatants in the leg, it was not lethal shot, but he could not care less at that point of time. "Anya, it's time to go," he told her. "You'll do better next time."

Anya removed her eye from the scope of her sniper rifle and looked at Makarov. "But what about the operation?" she asked him. She had seen the 141 going through as many containers as they could, trying to look for incriminating evidence, but, they couldn't find any, as of yet…

"The cargo has already passed hands," Makarov told her. "Soon, we will receive the money, and we will be able to buy ammunition enough to further our other… pursuits." That look on her face, however, told him an entire different story. For the first time, he looked into her eyes and he saw a different emotion, and this one, was one of anger. But she did not speak; she only took her rifle into her hands and followed him to the roof of the bridge.

MacTavish was a man with strict sensibilities. He had hardly let out any profanities in his life, but the very moment he saw that helicopter he cursed. "I want that helo down now!" he shouted, and Ghost fired a grenade towards the helicopter. The lieutenant's shot would have been true, if not for the fact that Makarov and his men were still raining bullets at them.

"I've got a clear shot of Makarov, sir!" Archer reported, and MacTavish nodded. If they could not stop Makarov's operation, at least they could have taken him down. If anything happened to Makarov, then perhaps, everything would be put on hold, and they would be able to track him down and arrest him.

Archer, on the other hand, was sure that he could have done it. But he never expected to see a flash of gold at the moment when the bullet was supposed to enter Makarov's system. "Hit confirmed," Toad said with a shaky voice… "But, it's not Makarov that we hit…"

MacTavish could not believe it. What was she trying to do? What could she have achieved from that?

"Shepherd's gonna have our necks after this fiasco…" Ghost commented, and it was the last word anyone said until they returned to Sembawang in Singapore, and he was right. The Lieutenant-General was not happy at all when he received the news that not only Makarov had escaped, but also the shipment had already been transferred into a smaller vessel that reached Port Klang the moment the 141 intercepted the Cinta Negara. Malaysia and the countries that headed the Task Force 141 would be made laughing stocks for the weeks to come.

However, even Shepherd knew that with Makarov, one could never be too sure of their success before the very end. That man was not only cunning and ruthless, he was able to anticipate almost anything that would be thrown at him. This man would do anything and everything to achieve his goals, and there was no stopping him.

"This isn't the first setback we've faced," Shepherd told the boys. "Makarov's always been two steps ahead. It was like this before we sent Anya there, and we should've seen it coming." Their commander said nothing more, until MacTavish was the only one left in the briefing room. "MacTavish, contact Anya. I want a full report on why she failed to tell us that Makarov had a plan B. She should know him in and out by now."

MacTavish could only look down and utter, "Aye, sir."

Corporal Maria "Anya" Allen A.K.A Ultranationalist Codename: Anya

Task Force 141 / Ultranationalist Terrorist Cell

Sunway Hospital – Near Kuala Lumpur

"Where the hell am I?" Anya asked the moment she opened her eyes, finding Anatoly and Viktor before her. She felt a little pain in her lower back, but also something in her arm… That smell… she seemed to be in a hospital of some sort, but why?

"You were shot in the back, Anya," Anatoly said to her. "But luckily, the bullet missed your spine and you'll be on the mend very soon, despite how… inefficient these Malaysian hospitals are. Makarov actually had you transferred here from a government hospital near the port."

Makarov… she remembered now. She saw Archer aiming a shot at Makarov and she quickly shielded his body with hers. She did not know why she did that, seeing how the operation went, but what was done was done. And she knew that she would have to salvage the situation in another manner.

"Can you please thank him for me when you see him?" Anya told the two of them. She knew it more than ever that Makarov would be more inclined to listen to them rather than her. Just thinking about it just made her head hurt. She did not know what else she could do to gain Makarov's trust, and this time, she had let down the 141 for failing to help them… She would not have agreed to be Shepherd's mole if she ever knew that this was going to happen.

Viktor looked at the door and then back at her. "Why don't you just tell him yourself?" he asked her. "On another note, I think that he should be thanking you, not the other way around."

And as if on cue, there was a knock on the door and Anatoly rose to open it so that Makarov could enter. His brow was furrowed, as always, Anya noted, but there was something… different about him. "Leave us," he practically barked at Anatoly and Viktor, and his men did as they were told, but not with knowing looks that Anya could not decipher at all. And when they left, Makarov turned towards her. "Anya…" he said, and sat on the chair immediately next to her bed. "How could you be so stupid?"

She shrugged and shook her head. The universal answer to questions where one had no answers. "I wasn't thinking at all, I guess," she added, trying to smile even with that stern expression on his face. "You and the guys are probably the closest thing I've come to having a family these few months…" She was not going to wait any longer, nor was she going to give him any more time to brood about her worthiness. If she risked a shot from Archer, she would make sure that it was worth her while.

Without even thinking for a second further, she did what no American soldier should have done. There and then, she cupped Makarov's face and closed the distance between their lips. "Anya…" he rasped after the kiss, finding his arms around her waist. He could smell her, even, a faint scent amidst the heaviness of the chloroform and antiseptics.

"I have been an orphan for so long, Makarov," she added after she had gained her breath. "Please…"

Makarov closed his eyes. "We'll talk about this when we get back home," he told her, kissing the back of her hand.