Early Birds

Thoughts of the End

The compound became a hive of activity with new reports of intel from a major breakthrough in a high profile weapon smuggling operation. Laswell and Shepherd were in regular communication with the Task Force in the compound and their colleagues in South America.

This operation was big league, smuggling and transporting millions of dollars of high grade weaponry, from automatic weapons to ground to air missiles and anti tank missiles. The suspects were linked to two outfits in Argentina and in Ecuador, with suspected black market deals with terrorist forces in the middle east. 

One team was working to track shipments and monitor the gang, another was monitoring their customers, whilst Price's team were tasked with tracing the origin of the weapon supplies. With one possible American lead and a Brazilian smuggling group, being the main suspects.

Worm along with the team searched through reams of intel paperwork, surveillance footage and lists of serial numbers obtained from one cache that was intercepted in an earlier raid. Worm was pleased to have the opportunity to work again with Ghost. He had such a sharp attention to detail that he was an expert at pulling relevant information from the pile, giving them a narrower pool of info to follow up. Their interactions were friendly and comfortable, but there was a clear air of professionalism with the work taking priority. 

Just as they'd identified leads, names and manufacturers, the info would be run through their existing files and against known serial number batches. Their hard work paid off with them managing to identify a South American manufacturer. So Price sent out Ghost and Boss to Argentina to meet with a small task force to scope out the factory and warehouses for any leads.

Worm was finding that the American leads were often dead ends. Whoever was responsible for the supply of the weapons to the gangs was extremely good at hiding their tracks. Whilst waiting for further instructions from Laswell and Shepherd, Worm gave all the information she'd gathered to Price and went back to working on the last aspects of the database. 

Worm reflected on just how much intel she and Ghost had managed to plough through and she felt a real sense of accomplishment in the task that she'd been given and expected to complete successfully in the next week.

With the final items coded and uploaded to her satisfaction, Worm started setting up different system diagnostics and search parameters, to ensure that the database was fully functional and would operate as efficiently as possible. Once done, the only task left would be to do a tutorial with Ghost so that he could train any task force members fully. 

Apart from Price asking her to pull out the source files for some of the American supplier research, Worm was essentially finished with the arms case. Ghost and Boss returned to the compound with some compelling intel that was sent straight to Laswell for processing. She would get in touch if she had any further action for them to take.

With only a couple of weeks left of her contract, Worm was feeling conflicted. She was so looking forward to getting back to her cabin, planning her garden, longing for the ability to exist full time in her own natural heaven. But at the same time, she reflected over her time with the task force and especially with Ghost. 

She was so going to miss Price, he had been such a supportive, paternal influence, reminding her so much of her father in his humour, confident authority and his genuine care for the people in his team. 

When she thought of Ghost, she felt such happiness at getting to know and work with the mysterious man. It had been such a long time since she'd felt any attraction to a man, never mind to have this attraction grow so quickly into something deeper. Her solitary life and work hadn't really given her any opportunity to meet anyone who captured her attention.

Although on the surface he was a professional soldier with razor sharp focus which could be seen as cold and uncompromising, his dedication to his team and his work was exemplary. But it was the contradictory softness, kindness, humorous, fascinating man that Worm had become attracted to and had fallen in love with. 

Getting to know him had shown her a man with so much depth to his character. She had been so shocked at her realisation that she found him attractive and had developed such a strong heart connection.

Despite never having seen his full face, she wondered about his hair colour, what his smile was like. She had pictured a cheeky, mischievous grin. She'd thought about it often, especially as his eyes would sparkle and crinkle at the edges when he was making jokes. She loved thinking about his eyes and how expressive they were. Then there was his voice, low, deep and soothing.

Worm had to shake herself out of her reverie, before she fell further down the rabbit hole. Even though she couldn't envision any future where Ghost would feel the same way and that they would even have some chance of building a relationship, she held no regrets. She was grateful for her time, being able to experience such a unique opportunity to have known him.

Worm bumped into Ghost, literally, when she went into the mess hall to pick up some food and a hot drink. 

Ghost actually chuckled at her absent mindedness 'You need to get your head out the clouds, little Worm' he said quietly, that voice causing a slight blush on her cheeks. 

'Sorry Ghost, had a busy day and thinking about checking on my truck', she explained trying to distract herself. 

'Got some time this afternoon, you want me to take a look at your truck, just check it over, make sure it's running okay?' Ghost asked. 

Worm was so touched by his offer, so she headed to her room bringing him back the keys. Ghost took the keys before he almost whispered 'gotta make sure you're safe on the road home, eh?. Worm felt a blush rising again and excused herself with the excuse of a scan running.

Worm quickly closed the door of the IT room, letting out the breath she had been holding, cursing her feelings. Gathering herself, she sat down and got back to work, hoping to distract herself. 

After a couple of hours, Worm had made great progress when a buzzing sound interrupted her. Looking around, she located the sound coming from the back of the PC. Leaning down to get a better look, there was a loud pop, a flash and a cloud of black smoke shot out of the back of the PC, the screen going black. 

Worm screamed before falling back, and tripping over the chair leg, landing on her ass. 'Shit' she shouted loudly, scrambling under the desk to shut off the power and pull out the plugs.