Fighting with Phantoms, A Rainbow six story (Book 2)

Chapter 44 The Switch

  I feel my eyes flicker open, but the world around remains dark. The room was warm and I could hear a fan in the back. I panicked, thinking I'd gone blind. It's only when my eyes slowly adapt to the darkness when I begin to see a figure, short in stature but intimidating in presence. They stand there... watching me. Do they know I'm awake? What are they doing? I move my hand and feel a tug on my wrist. I pull hard to free myself but it's no use. I begin to feel my surroundings. Feeling two armrests, a head cushion, and lastly the thick leather straps holding my hands down. I scuffle in the chair and a monitor turns on to my right. It flashes number sequences over and over again until I could pick up on the pattern. 24, 48, 99, 17, 68, 9, 22, 71, 5, repeat. Monitors begin to turn on all around the first one, making a three by three grid. The numbers stopped flashing and each one appeared on a different screen. The figure steps in front of the monitors. Their shadow casts over me and they reach up, flicking on an overhead light. I could finally look around, my shirt was red with blood, and torture tools lined the floor. I also had a patch on my shirt that read P115. The figure turned out to be a woman. She wore a grey hoodie splattered with what I could only imagine is my own blood. Her boots held the drops of blood, destined for the ground, and her black jeans were relatively clean. The part that made this odd was the fact that she had on a plain white mask. She gets closer with a chuckle.

Mask:" You're finally awake. Good." She says, chuckling to herself.

P115:" Who are you? Where am I?!" I yell at her in anger and confusion.

She laughs uncontrollably and I feel a metal pipe slam across my face, sending it flying left. As my eyes follow it left I see the wall nearly painted red. I choke on my blood as it rushes out of my mouth. Catching my breath was difficult as my ears were pierced by her yelling.

Mask: "What is the code?!" She yells through the room.

P115:" I don't know what the fuck you're talking about!" I snap back at her.

Mask: "Yes you do! And you'll tell me now if you want to live another second of your miserable life!" she barks, walking around the back of the chair.

I flick my eyes around the still mostly dark room, trying to find an answer. Along with the tools scattered on the floor in front of me, there were documents and loose papers with the American seal on them. She grabs the back of my head.

Mask: "Shall we jog your memory then?" she says, forcing my head back to the right and handing me a remote.

I observe the remote and it appears to only have two buttons. A left and a right arrow. It's a presentation remote. As the thought crosses my mind, the middle monitor turns to a slide show.

Mask:" Whenever you're ready princess," she says mockingly.

I click the arrow and I'm met with a slide of the Marine Corps emblem.

Mask: "You're an Army Ranger part of the 75th Ranger Regiment, next," she says, leaning on the back of the chair as I click the remote. "You were captured by Russian troops in the battle of Daplov's Ridge. You were the only survivor of your crew and brought to Siberia to be tortured. They wanted information about American troops in the region but couldn't extract it from you. So after being a POW for two years in the harsh Siberian winter, you were chosen to be the carrier for Russian nuclear launch codes that would activate nukes aimed at strategic points in the EU and America. They brainwashed you and implanted the numbers into your head, so when the trigger word is given you will remember, but unless it's given you won't remember a thing. That's where I come in. You'll give me the code or you'll die a slow, painful death. Hahaha... I love my job." She says, pacing behind the chair.