As the new week begins, I can feel a difference in the air between König and I. We both act the same, callous towards each other as always. But I can sense it. I feel his eyes on me more often than not, and when I talk to him, I feel my cheeks heat up. I don't know what the difference is, exactly. I tell myself it's a deeper hatred for me from me mouthing off to him at the gym.
There's a new mission in the works. It's basically a repeat of what we just did, except this time, there's ten hostages and double as many guards. I work overtime trying to get everything I can on their routine, techniques, and power. This one is in two weeks, and I'm basically doing twice the work in half the time.
Simon brings me croissants, again, and as I thank him, I see König come in. His eyes fall on the interaction and, for a brief second, I wonder if he does remember what he said the other night. He probably only said it because he doesn't like seeing anyone, especially not me, be friendly or happy with anyone.
Simon catches my glare. He looks behind him, seeing König. "Oh," he says, the distate in his tone evident.
That following weekend, there's a repeat incident of König coming in, watching me work. Only this time, he's more talkative. Right now, he's asking about the primary leader of the compound.
I give him a brief history on him, and then pause. "Wait a second. I don't need to provide this to you until our meeting tomorrow."
König shrugs. "I like to know early."
"I don't have to tell you early." I ignore him leaning over the table, towards me.
"I'm your superior," he says.
"Oh, nice, now you'll try to enforce your rank. Here's the thing, dipshit, I work with you, not for you. Now fuck off," I say, bringing my face close to his hood.
He sits back in his seat and I continue to work. He doesn't ask any other questions.
The next week, I'm swamped. I feel like I'm going crazy, trying to sort everything out. Price tries to tell me to calm down a little, take a break, but as soon as I find out some great new information, three more questions pop up.
I continue to work with Simon a few nights out of the week. I'm still making progress, and I've actually channeled some of my work stress into the force behind my movements. Simon comments on how motivated I am.
"And that stupid motherfucker," I say, "hovers every chance he gets."
"Weird," Simon agrees, and we don't say anything else about it.
The night before the mission, we're all gathered, as we were before. We run through everything twice, and I have made sure to make accomodations for each person's ability.
"Farah and Simon, it's looking like you'll be able to take the east entrance and should hopefully make it straight to the hostage location. Soap and Price, the south entrance has the most guards, but the hallway following should be fairly empty." I sigh. "König, there's ten guards at the main entrance. If you're wanting to do what you did last time, this will be the most efficient way to take out as many at once."
"Then I'll do it," he says.
I wish them luck. I'm confident enough that I don't say goodbyes, but I do come in several hours later to watch the feed.
König is a fucking powerhouse. The ten guards take exactly twelve seconds to all hit the ground. Three of them, König has killed with his bare hands.
I watch as the other four make it to the hostage location. In addition to the guards, there's an electronic entry that cyber guy has to remote in and disarm.
There's a time limit, though. Exactly two minutes before a notification will be sent that the door is open. The hostages, up until this point, are either recieving food and being left, or taken out for interrogation.
As the others nimbly grab the hostages, and make their way out, I watch König walk down the hallways.
One guy comes up behind him, and I grip the table as I realize I can't communicate with him to tell him what I see.
As soon as the guy reaches around, locking his gun around König's neck, he flips him over, hard.
König leaves the body behind him, and follows the others.
I leave and come back for the debrief. König, apparently, is running behind. He offered to unload the equipment, which, based on how the others look at each other, means he needs to blow off some steam and be alone for a little bit.
The debrief goes similarly to the last one, without the comments on König. There is one more hostage situation that will be the next mission, and then after that, they'll be trying to strangle off the entire enemy organization. This has been easy work. What's coming won't be.
"Dismissed," Price says. "We'll fill König in later."
They all leave, Simon telling me goodbye as I head back to my desk to type up notes on what we just went over for my personal reference.
The door bangs open, then. Already annoyed, I get up loudly, grabbing the report from the printer. I take it back to my desk, and look in the direction of the locker room, where König is banging around.
I've had enough. I walk towards the locker room.
"Shut the fuck up," I say as I near the door.
There's a silence.
And then König gets mad.
YOU ARE READING
Quiet Hate
RomanceKönig, insertion specialist, is good at his job. Special warfare isn't an easy task, but König makes it seem that way. He doesn't have many friends, doesn't socialize, and he never shows his face. Certainly not to some random new girl that shows up...
