Proving Myself To Ghost

The Confrontation

The ride felt longer than it was and it was equally quiet and tense. I rode in the passenger seat with Rodolfo driving. Ghost was in a separate vehicle, fortunately, with Soap and the rest of the men assigned to his team. It is better this way I reassure myself. When this day is over and we have Valeria again we will get the location of the final missile and end all of this and I can go home, back to what I know and what is comfortable for me. The comfort that comes with the routines I established with my Kortac team members, we might not have a close bond but I know what to expect and what's expected of me.

My nerves heighten when the vehicle comes to a stop. There's no going back now, we have to finish this. I exit the vehicle and make eye contact with Rodolfo over the hood of it,

"Be safe," I tell him with a nod.

"Don't be a hero, LT," he answers back with a weak smile that I return. The mood is heavy and I don't think it is going to lighten up anytime soon.

I turn as I hear the second vehicle pull up behind us and Soap jumps out of the passenger seat and reaches me with a serious look with Ghost following shortly behind him,

"Everyone ready?" I ask when we all reach one another.

"Affirmative Lieutenant," Ghost responds with a nod.

I meet his eyes and I can see the fatigue around them. I realize in this moment that I will miss his face, his eyes, and the hidden wrinkles and scars that tell stories without words. Our moments alone are memories I will hold forever, he helped me grow and realize my own skills and to be more confident in myself and I will always be grateful for that. I silently remind myself that when this is all over that I need to sit down and talk with him, I do care for him and don't want to end everything on this note with what feels like a giant void stretching between us.

I gather my thoughts and tuck them away where they belong for now. There is a mission that needs finishing and personal feelings have no place here now. We all set off towards the base in silence, no need for words right now as we all have our battle plans memorized and we all know what we need to do and where to go. My team splits off from Ghost's when we reach the first building and we move to the next one to clear it as I turn and cast one final look at Ghost's back as he enters his own assigned building.

I enter the building and silently gesture to my team to split off to both go opposite ways to clear the room. Moving like phantoms we move forward behind two Shadows who were unaware of our presence. I look at Rodolfo, nod, and we both move together as a unit and wrap our arms around the necks of the men and jerk knives into their throats. Blood spurts forward from the wound and down my wrist as the man jerks to no avail before he goes limp and I lower him to the ground, removing my knife with a quick movement, more blood spilling from it and spreading across the ground at my feet. I take a step back as the blood reaches the toe of my boot and I wipe my blade and hand off on the man's pants before resheathing it and pulling my gun around from my back.

I turn as the rest of my team come around the corner, one of them having a very fine mist of red on their hands and chest, obvious that they had used their silenced firearms for a very close execution. They nod to me and move towards the door, me on their heels. We exit the building and move to the next, repeating the same process over again. We continue this rhythm until we finally can see the main building in our sights just as the corner of it explodes into pieces of concrete. Captain Price has officially announced our arrival from his helicopter.

Soon, Ghost's team is coming up on our side and we move as a complete unit towards the building,

"No sight of Valeria, she must be at the rear of the compound," Soap says to me, answering my silent question.