Unmasking Ghost

Unsafe-House Part 1

Ghost POV

Location: Estonia
Local time: 1407

We pick up transport in Tallinn, and I drive us to the small Estonian border town of Permisküla closest to Russia.

I cannot be distracted. Not now, not with so many people relying on me.

I can still smell her. My mask smells like her.

I can almost still taste her. Oh, how I want to truly taste her.

"Whoa, you fucking mad man," Soap yells over at me. I swerve unnecessarily between two cars, doing a completely normal turn in the road.

"Try not to kill us before the Russians do, boss," Taylor shouts from the back of the van.

It has been four hours so far, and for most of it, I sit in silence while everyone moans about travel and fatigue, Gaz regaling stories of his ascension through the ranks but lately about my shit driving.

"We make it to the safe house, we rest and eat, and prepare to gather intel at first light," I repeat the words Price had already instructed us out loud to the van.

"Yeah, if we don't have an RTC in the process," Lara pipes up. It is the first time she has spoken to me since our kiss.

Gaz lightly punches her arm and winks at her. I catch it all in the rearview mirror. It is trained on her, not the back of the van.

I feel the prickle of jealousy as Gaz's arm rubs against hers. She feigns pain from the punch, and Gaz rubs her arm in mock sympathy. She giggles and digs in her bag for the chocolate bar she half-ate on the plane. The one I left in her jacket pocket. She snaps off a chunk and puts it to Gaz's mouth.

"Boss!" Soap, who has actually been watching the road, is waving a pointed finger at a stationary arctic lorry in our lane. I slam the brakes and come to a stop behind it.

Silence

"I can drive if you want, mate," Stew offers up.

A chunk of chocolate that had flew past my shoulder slides down the dashboard.

I love wearing this mask, I think as I smile like an idiot as Gaz watches it drop into the footwell.

My boot crushes it.

The safe house looks the same as all the other small ramshackle houses we passed in the village. Two-story but small. I pull the van up.

There is always a rear entrance with an enclosed carport at safe houses. It makes it easy for people to come and go undetected.

"Get everyone settled," I say, looking across at Soap. "I am going to check in with Price."

I squelch in my boots out the rear of the property in the cool air. I pull my balaclava up, and I light up a cigarette, holding it between my lips. The rush and taste calm me. I close my eyes and imagine I am standing out the back of my house in England. The smell of wet grass is much the same.

I finish my cig as Price closes the call off. "Well done, Si, the intel Lara pulled is filling some of the gaps we have, but I suspect we will need more. I will send you the coordinates at 0630 local time." The phone clicks off. I drop the cigarette and hear the tss noise the hot cherry end makes on contact with the wet grass.