Reliant ~ [John Soap MacTavish]

XXVI. A New Approach

When I get to the meeting room, the entire thing is empty, so I take one of the chairs in the back, located near the floor-to-ceiling window. I stretch my back, thankful for the moment of silence when Ghost appears in the door frame.

"Morning princess," I breathe out sarcastically, finishing the stretching of my back.

"Shut up," he mumbles, placing down some paperwork on the head of the table where Price will sit.

"Didn't sleep well?" I chuckle, leaning back in my chair and crossing one of my legs over the other.

He scoffs. "At least we both know that you did..."

I press my lips together, suppressing a smile. "Hypocrite."

"Wanna talk about hypocrites?" he grumbles, leaning forward over the table.

I shrug nonchalantly, unbothered by his attempts of trying to come back at me. "Too late," I say with a smirk as Soap walks into the room.

"Morning guys," he says happily, his gaze falling onto the two of us only a moment later. "All good..?"

"Yeah, perfect," I say, my eyes still on Ghost who has kept the same pose leaning forward on the table. "Slept well, Soap?" I ask.

He lets out a low and lazy laugh, "Yeah, about that... Couldn't have slept better, I think."

"Good," I look at him with a smile. "I'm glad."

"Morning kids," Price comes in with his laptop tucked underneath his arm and he immediately sits down at the spot where Ghost just laid down some paperwork. "Ready to come up with some impossible ideas?"

"Really, Price? Impossible?" I ask.

"Practically," he sighs, obviously not very relaxed.

"It's fine. We'll find a solution."

Right as he wants to respond, the rest of the group walks in together. Ace sits down beside Ghost. König and Keegan sit on the opposite side of the table, and the rest of them sit down on the few chairs left.

"Morning team" Price grumbles low, his hand reaching over to open up his laptop to the side.

"Morning Cap," Gaz chimes with an observing smile. "You look rather fresh today."

"We have..." Price trails off, his expression grave. "Some important stuff to go through today."

The room falls silent, and Price's gaze lingers on the laptop screen as he collects his thoughts. After a moment, he addresses the rest of us again. "Now, I know some of you have already seen them... Others may have not... But we've recently acquired some of the newer chips. The technology has advanced rapidly."

The rest of the room doesn't respond. Complete silence takes over as we all wait for Price to continue.

"As you know, our primary objective is to find ways to disable or destroy them."

More silence.

"Now... I've been getting headaches trying to come up with solutions," Price leans back in his chair, a weary look in his eyes. "So, let's hear your thoughts. What's the best way to disable or destroy these chips and ensure they don't pose a threat to us or anyone else?"

The room falls silent after Price's call for ideas, and every pair of eyes in the room turns to me as if I hold the answer to their most pressing question.

I let out a deep sigh, understanding that I need to provide some direction. "Look," I begin, meeting Price's eyes and then turning to the rest of them, "I can tell you about how we went about making these chips and the production process... or how I experienced it. It's a start, at least?"