The hunter's bow

The fortress

Aksel's pov
       I was the first off the helicopter as I lifted my hand shading my eyes as I squinted, the sun was brighter than I remembered. Harry asked "do I have any volunteers to give Aksel a tour of the fortress?" Sanaa spoke "I will, I don't have anything to do" I looked over and nodded my appreciation as Harry finished up "wonderful, Freyja, he'll be bunking with you, Sanaa and Craig. Get the room ready" she nodded as Sanaa spoke "come, let's start the tour" I shouldered my bag and rested my hand on the padding of my buttstock. She started off causing me to wave to Freyja as I followed her, Sanaa walked through the hallways explaining the different rooms and what they do. I asked "so what do you do here?" She looked back at me and spoke "I make wind" I shifted my weight and asked "you make wind? How?" She asked "did you see the contraption on the side of my Ak?" I racked my brain for the memory and replied "it sounds familiar but I'm not sure I really saw it." She explained "are you familiar with a grenade launcher?" I nodded with intrigue.
She continued her explanation "it's like an air propelled grenade, when it hits a wall it sticks and when someone walks by it releases a burst of gas that launches whoever set it off" I commented "sounds cool" as we continued. We stopped and talked with any of the operators we ran into, my personal favorites were Valkyrie, Maverick, Buck and Mozzie. Sanaa brought me to the roof, we stood and looked out at the landscape. I asked "so why do you want me to train you to be stealthy?" She looked over and spoke "I've had more than a few close calls where the  masks heard my footsteps and just sprayed trying to take me out. Then there's you and tombstone, you guys were undetectable. I can smell the difference in the air from a masks lunch but you were a few meters infront of me and we never knew you were there until you wanted us to know" I replied looking at Morocco "it's not as difficult as you think it is, just takes a lot of practice. Practice and patience, if you have those two qualities it'll be fairly easy to master the ability to disappear"
     She looked over and asked "how long did you train to be able to do what you do?" I thought about it before replying "probably close to 3 years, training for the jaegers and then with Freyja." Sanaa asked "I suppose we should finish the tour, shouldn't we?" I picked up my bag and nodded "I'd like to get unpacked" we started back into the fortress and quickly finished the tour. Sanaa brought me to the room and opened the door saying "we'll get you a key before the month ends" I nodded as she walked in and motioned to the bunk bed on the left "Freyja and I sleep there, you get the top bunk above Craig" I nodded as she spoke "the foot locker to the right of your bunk is free" I walked over and unpacked putting my extra clothes and toiletries in it before Sanaa pointed to the open weapons locker "your guns go in there" I looked at her and spoke "I don't leave this room unarmed" she nodded and clarified "for when we sleep, come, there's a sim going on" I followed her confusedly as we walked through the increasingly familiar halls.
     We arrived to the room and I saw 10 operators in full body rigs, I looked on in interest before Sanaa directed my eyes to the screens as I saw what they saw, it was a digital mock up of the fortress and they were fighting against one another. I asked "so how does this work?" She replied "it'll have you touch points all over your body and enter your height weight age etc and then it'll give you some tests to see where your skills lie. It's the truest reflection of your skills we can get and it helps us improve since we try to top each other" I whistled and commented "has to be an expensive outfit" Harry spoke from behind me "it was, thankfully the US government is our main financial backer allowing us to get these toys." I looked at him as Sanaa spoke "nice to see you so soon Harry" he nodded and asked "you as well, are you done with the tour?" I looked at Sanaa in question as she spoke "we just finished, I was explaining the sim to him" Harry looked at me "come with me, I have some questions" I shrugged and followed him through the halls to an office just across from the main one.
       When we walked in I asked "with all due respect, why aren't you in the main office sir?" He replied as he stood infront of a bay window looking into the valley "our operator Kaid, this is his fortress, as a sign of respect and gratitude I insisted he keeps his office." I nodded silently as I stood awkwardly until Harry turned and commanded "tell me about your father" I asked "min far?(my father)? What about him?" Harry instructed "who was he? Describe him to me" I thought about it before replying "harsh, determined, intelligent, a cunning business man and an intense hard ass. He knew what he wanted and how he was gonna get it, he never once wavered in his promises" Harry mused while staring at me, no, into me "it sounds like you resent him" I shook my head no "nej, I wouldn't be who I am if it weren't for him. I just wish he were here to see the man he made me, I appreciate what he did but I remember the harsh words when we failed, without fail he would let us know how disappointed with the failure he was. It's why Freyja and I have to be the best"
      He nodded and spoke "you've got a lot of big names watching you, you're aware of this right?" I felt my brow scrunch "sir?" He explained "the queen of denmark is watching your career, so is the president of the Us and Russia. A lot of big names are taking interest in the premiere stealth expert in the game" I replied "I hadn't a clue, I've just been doing my job sir" he looked to his left and spoke "continue to do so, I cannot afford for any of my operators to slack off. We are far to busy for someone to not pull their weight, do you understand what I'm saying?" I saluted "Ja hr(yes sir)" as Harry spoke "dismissed, oh, before you go. Your sister was looking for you" I processed the information and spoke "tak hr(thank you sir)" before I spun and walked into the hallway, closing the door silently wondering what that was about before I set about the hunt for my sister who was somewhere in this massive fortress doing the same thing as I was. I walked around for a couple minutes before I ran into Sebastien "hey Sebastien" he turned and smiled kindly "hello Aksel, your sister was looking for you"
       I nodded and replied "I know, have you seen her?" He shook his head no and offered "I can help you try to find her" I questioned "you don't have anything to do right?" He nodded and spoke "I just finished inventory" I asked "got any idea where to start searching?" He gave me a look and spoke "she's your sister" I sighed and thought about it, she can't be in the dorm I was just there, she might be shooting or working out, something to better herself. I suggested "why don't we head to the range? She might be practicing her shooting" he shrugged and said "worth a shot" as we started towards the gun range. I heard Sebastien ask "so how do you like the Fortress?" I looked around as I answered "it's a new experience but there's something about it that makes me feel like I'm home." He nodded and replied "I agree, it just feels like when you're here nothing will go wrong" I agreed "exactly" as we walked outside and up the road to the range hearing gunshots grow louder as we approached, they sounded small caliber.
     When we turned the corner I saw Freyja shooting her FMG, we watched as she shot before she cleared her gun empty and turned. I asked "du ville tale(you wanted to talk?)" she nodded and replied "ja, du har en sim om to timer. plus jeg vil se, hvor meget bedre jeg er end dig(yeah, you've got a sim in 2 hours. Plus I wanna see how much better than you I am)" I chuckled before replying challengingly "vil du miste det dårligt?(you want to lose that badly?)" Sebastien spoke "I'm gonna head back, have fun" I waved as he left and Freyja replied "du spiser dine ord(you're gonna eat your words)" I laughed as I lifted my 416 and asked "så hvordan gør vi det? hastighed? nøjagtighed? begge?(so how are we doing this? Speed? Accuracy? Both?)" Freyja replied "begge(both)" I chuckled and spoke "lad os gå, jeg tager dig tid først (let's go, I'll time you first)" I stepped back and pulled a stop watch off the wall as she reloaded before counting down "tre, to, en(three, two, one)." Freyja quickly emptied her magazine and I stopped the timer "5,3 sekunder(5.3 seconds)"
     She snatched the watch from my hand and snarkily remarked "top det(top that)" I smirked and lifted my IAR hearing her count down. When she got to two I took a deep breath and focused my mind, when I heard one my eyes opened and I fired and shifted my aim as fast as my mind could process my actions I released my breath as the last target dropped causing my to look at Freyja and anxiously await my time. She looked at me and asked "klar til at tabe?(ready to lose?)" I replied confidently "fortæl mig tiden(tell me the time)" she looked down and I grew a smirk when I saw the color drain from her face "5.1 sekunder(5.1 seconds)" I laughed and yelled "hahahahaha jeg vidste det!(hahahahaha I knew it!)" she grumbled under her breath as I rubbed it in "hvordan føles det at tabe til din lillebror?(hows it feel to lose to your baby brother?)" she sighed and spoke challengingly "jeg får dig næste gang (I'll get you next time)" I nodded and sarcastically answered "og himlen er lyserød(and the sky is pink)" she huffed as we headed back to the fortress. I never realized just how much I missed our competitions, or just her company, we used to be two peas in a pod as kids and until now we hadn't said two words to one another in years.