Rainbow Six: Operation Black Skies

Chapter 13

I wake to a blinding light shining in my eyes. Looking around I see that I'm on a sandy white beach with my best friend, Jakob, and my brother Eric.

"Fancy seeing you here, ya piece of shit," Jakob says plopping down beside me.

"Yeah well I didn't exactly plan to be here," I laugh slapping him on the back.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" Eric says sarcastically walking over and putting his hand out and I take it getting up then hugging him tightly.

"I missed ya man, I really did miss ya," I tell him tears filling my eyes.

"Alright enough with the sappy shit, Gaege. Yes we missed each other, yes we're dead or going to die," Jakob says pointing at each of us in turn. I step away from Eric and look around at my surroundings. White sand, clear blue ocean water, and palm trees are all around us.

"Anyways what is this place?" I ask the other two.

They hesitate before answering, "It's where you- we go before we die, you can go into the water to accept your death and move on to the afterlife," he says pointing towards the crystal clear water, "or you can go into the trees and reject death and return to the world of the living and live until another near death experience or you ultimately die," he shifts his gaze to the trees behind me.

"What if I stay here?" I ask looking behind me and into the trees.

"You'll become a guide for other souls just like me," Jakob whispers then snaps his fingers and Eric disappears and the sky turns dark with storm clouds and the ocean gets stormy and is racked with waves.

"You need to choose one. Fast because your fading rapidly," Jakob tells me urgency in his voice.

"I don't know what to cho-" I start to say then he punches me across the face making pain sear across my vision.

"You have ten seconds to choose. If you don't choose in those ten seconds you will be stuck here," he shouts over the ever increasing wind. I start a countdown in my head.

10...

I start to walk to the water then I think of Emmanuelle, Tina, Eliza, and Monika.

9...

"What would they think?" He asks me.

"I don't know," I respond lightly.

7...

I take a few steps back to my original spot then think of what Mike taught me when I first got into Rainbow, 'When your confronted with two or more decisions go with your instinct. It's always right.' "I don't know what to choose," I yell.

4...

"Choose one now! You have three seconds!" He screams at me.

2...

I turn tail and run into the trees behind me. I keep running as fast as I can until I trip over something and fall into a black pit.

Feeling pain spread across my entire being I wish I was back on the beach oblivious to all the pain and agony that I'm going through. I manage to peel open my eyes little by little and make out a hospital room filled with flowers, cards, and a person? Once my vision comes into focus I see a familiar black haired Canadian lying in a chair beside my bed.

I clear my throat and notice that it's invaded by a tubes, reaching up I pull them out barely gagging. I reach for the call nurse button on the side of my bed then press it. All of a sudden Tina jolts up then looks around then finally notices that I'm looking at her.

She squeals hopping up and giving me a small but tight hug and I grunt. "Nice to see you too," I say then feel the weight get off of my chest and a fist slam into the side of my face knocking me sideways.

"The hell was that for?" I rub my aching lower jaw.

"That's for getting yourself stabbed and almost dying, asshole. And this..." She takes my head in her hands and plants a firm yet passionate kiss on my lips. "That's for saving all of our asses from retirement and from getting fired,"

I press my fingers to my lips which are still tingling slightly from her kiss. Gustave walks in looking like he hasn't slept in days. Unshaven, usually impeccable hair now distraught and matted with sweat, and with a scowl on his face, he says, "Well, well look who's back in the world of the living. After the wounds that you suffered I figured that you'd be out for another month or two,"

"How long was I out?"

"Six months. She did a number on you, Gaege. Severed your abdominal artery, punctured your stomach, cut through your small intestine, and a bunch of other stuff, but the main thing is that your alive." He responds something in his voice that I couldn't make out.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong?" I ask.

"There's been multiple attacks in the six months that you were out. The Masks and another organization joined forces and now there the biggest threat we have to face, not to mention the bio-agent that they released a couple months back," He explains shaking his head. "Poor bastards. Still don't know what they used, but whatever they used gets into your head and rats out your greatest primal instinct and makes it surface making you more like an animal than a human."

"Any idea what it is?" I ask the doctor swinging my legs over the side of the bed in an attempt to stand.

"From what we've gathered, Lera and Olivier have been studying the pathogen, and they have found that it mutates every four days making it impossible to figure out the genetic code and makeup of it. Anyways I would say that your good to go on missions, but you know what needs done first,"

"Physical therapy, yeah, yeah, yeah," I bite standing holding on the bed for support testing my balance. I let go of the bed and step forward on unsteady feet. Gustave watches me admiration in his eyes, then I say, "Go get me clothes to change into," He nods and leaves the room and Eliza, Tina, and another person I don't recognize walk in.

"Eliza, Tina, and person I don't know," I greet turning around and walking around slowly.

"Gaege, this is-" Eliza starts.

"Nathan Durland. Master Sargeant Nathan Durland, head of the PMC-" the mystery person says cutting Eliza off.

"Your head of 'The Bassets', yeah I know who you are, now what do you want?" I finish for him.

"Straight to the chase and quick-witted too. I like that, I admire those things in a soldier. You know what else I like,"

"Alright here's your clothes, Gaege," Gustave walks in with a pair of my clothes in his hands. He looks up and his face drains of color and a red hue takes it's place. He yells at the man in French and when he gets done Nathan holds up his hands in a surrender gesture.

"Anyways here's my card if you have any questions," He extends his arm and holds out a card which I hesitantly take. He claps his hands and smiles softly and walks out.

"Who the fuck was that?" I ask openly. Everyone in the room looks at one another contemplating whether to tell me or not.

"He's the CEO of Wolf Fangs and The Bassets which are two of the most feared PMC's in the world. More specifically Wolf Fangs," Gustave says and takes a breath before continuing, "he's been trying to recruit operators from Rainbow for a couple months since the rise of attacks around the world,"

"Sounds like a prick. What's Six's opinion about this?"

"He doesn't like him, but apparently his hands are tied up in other situations with... certain operators, and attacks," Eliza responds with barely concealed hatred.

"So I'm guessing that Six is telling him that he's gonna think about it about certain people, especially recruits?" I ask Eliza and she just shrugs her shoulders.

"Anyways am I free to go, Gustave?"

"Oui, remember therapy for a couple of weeks until you can go on missions," he answers.

"Yeah, yeah," I say walking past him and out of the infirmary to my room.