It Goes On - Book l

Realization

Simon's Point of View:

"Ghost, Soap – give me an update." Price announced through our comms after he was notified of another successful mission. Laswell wanted to brief us before we all turned in for the night, and I thought it was awful timing considering both Kiera and I reeked of lust. Her appearance alone made it obvious that I had railed her into oblivion not even three hours ago, but this assignment came with no time frame. I was eager to hear what the new intel on Makarov was, and I knew that Laswell was expecting Kiera to be right there alongside her for whenever she needed her to be.

Johnny and I sat with Laswell and Kiera around an old table that was in the main quarters of the base. It was technically a safehouse – once being a family home before the previous tenants abandoned it due to the major threat of nuclear war power. It sat snug against a Russian hillside, and the cold air was more than what we were used to in our new home state of Wyoming. It was clearly run down, but still served its purpose with the regularly occupying military personnel using it for whenever they needed it.

Both Price and Kyle were stationed a few hours north of us, running a security outpost near the border of Urzikstan while they collected intel from Farah and Alex while waiting for Graves and his Shadows to regroup with them for their next mission. I was surprised to understand that Graves and Ben cowered under Kiera's own shadow – whatever she information she threatened them with must have scared them out of their own hides, and I was proud of it. So far, things were going to plan – but not as fast as I'd like it to be. I wanted fresh intel, something that I could use to get one step closer to wasting a bullet on Makarov himself, but I knew I had to be patient and let Laswell and Kiera do their jobs, knowing that without them, or even without one of them, things would have taken much longer for sure.

I could tell from across the table that Kiera's mind was racing. She was in the process of not only helping Laswell but ensuring that she would execute her plan of using Graves and Ben to her advantage. She was far smarter than me, that's for sure.

"We broke Romanova," Johnny answered our Captain, chewing his gum religiously as it was another nervous tick that he would do while he was impatient.

"How?"

"Enhanced financial interrogation." Laswell informed him, a proud grin on her face.

"Graves' intel paid off." Kyle commented.

"Well, it's our intel now." Kiera scoffed. We all hated the fact that we had to rely on Graves' intelligence given what all he had done to us both on the field and personally, but I was sure that he and Ben both were getting what was coming to them.

"What do we have that's actionable?"

"One of Romanova's many shell companies purchased an abandoned apartment complex in St. Petersburg for the Konni Group."

"When?"

"Recently."

"Probably a Konni outpost."

"That'd be my bet, Captain." I was eager with anticipation, ready to call in an airstrike and kill them all at once.

"Kate and I located the building. Recent satellite imagery shows a recovery balloon on the roof."

"Only reason for that is quick removal of something you don't want found..." Kyle sighed.

"Or someone."

"We found that the complex is a maze."

"Copy that. Gaz'll sweep from the bottom up. I'll overwatch the rooftop with fire support."

"Understood. How do we extract?"

"Helo's too risky. If you boys catch anything worth bringing home, Nikolai will pull you out via fixed wing."