A Ghost Encounter: My Time with Simon "Ghost" Riley

Part Forty-Nine: The Push

As we creep through the halls—not trying to bring attention to ourselves—we turn the corner into the lobby of the 54th floor.

"Do we know the general area of where the server room is, Laswell?" I ask her over the comms.

"No, unfortunately. Looking at the blueprint of the building it seems there are about five to seven rooms on each floor. Search them all," Laswell instructs.

Five to seven rooms may not sound like a lot but considering we're being hunted, maneuvering around that many rooms will prove to be difficult.

"Soap, get down," I whisper as a group of three Shadows enter the lobby.

We both drop into a squat and take cover behind the front desk.

"Stealth would be optimal."

"Agreed." Soap nods. "Our guns don't have suppressors. Do you have any knives?"

Little does Soap know that I'm a master with blades. Without saying anything, I reveal my collection of throwing knives to Soap.

The biggest, cheesiest smile ever appears on his face. "I'll take some of those."

Dividing up the knives leaves me with four to use and there's a hell of a lot more than four Shadows here.

The Shadows move their way throughout the lobby, trying to locate any form of movement. They know we're here but they're not exactly sure as to where.

One of the Shadows approaches the large printer in the room and the other two peer around one of the corners.

"I'll take the pair," Soap whispers.

"On the count of three, yeah?" I take a deep breath. "One...two...three!"

Soap makes his way behind one of the Shadows, slicing their throat. The other Shadow doesn't have enough time to react and Soap shows him a similar fate.

Impressive.

Concurrently, I creep up behind the lone Shadow I was assigned and take him out.

"Nice job." I give Soap a thumbs up. "Looks like there are about five rooms on this floor. Should we split up? It'll be faster."

"Faster but riskier." He sounds concerned.

"Do not split up." Ghost interjects over the comms.

I'm starting to wonder if Ghost's decision-making is being clouded by the feelings he has for me...

"I agree. You'll need each other's support," Laswell responds.

"Guess we'll go together then." I shrug my shoulders.

Soap nods and we make our way to the first door closest to us.

Pinning my ear up against the door I hear chatter.

"We have some friends," I inform Soap.

"I'll frag it." Soap readies on the side of the door as I stand almost directly in front with my gun aimed. "On my word, I'll throw the frag in and you cover me."