Ghosts Broken Mask

66 - SRGT RUSS & ROOK

"Did Ghost tell you about his recent mission?" you ask, opening a draw and getting yourself a fork as he grabs yet another energy drink from the fridge. "You know there's such thing as water." you say as the slight fizzle sounds from the open can. 

"Might try it next time." he says with a light laugh, leaning against the counter with his drink as you hoist yourself up. "What about the mission?" he asks, looking at you as you adjust yourself. 

"Could be a small break through for us, at least I'm hoping so the past months have been killing me." you sigh, impaling a fruit chunk with the fork. 

He hums a thoughtful response. "Been hard on us all, don't you think it's strange that this base is somehow always a head in some step?" he says, glancing at you with a slight hint of nerve behind his icy eyes. 

You look at the door, you knew better than to answer but it was as if you'd finally found someone with the same interests as you and you were about to go into a deep conversation about lore and conspiracies. 

You lean closer ducking your head as you nod slowly. The rumors about a supposed 'spy' were shut down harshly by everyone else on the force. Said it wasn't to be discussed within the walls of base, that it was childish and only distracting. 

"Mm" you hum, ".. I know we shouldn't be talking about it but there's no other explanation other than them seeing the future or being extremely smart." you add, sitting back up as you continue eating the fruit salad.

"I agree ... I've noticed that it's not necessarily us, you know as a group - It seems that most intercepted and failed missions are the lower ranks .. see, the majors will blame their skills, but I think the possibility if there is a spy, is that they're a lower rank." he says, speaking in a hushed tone. 

You nod, frowning slightly as you contemplate his words. "That makes sense .." you say half in thought. "I wish Price would look more into it instead of leaving it, this could be dangerous for us and all other base locations." 

"I reckon he is .. him and the other majors are just trying not to get the soldiers all distracted, keep us sharp while they work on it behind the scenes. He had a stack of low rank files from a one star general group last week." he whispers.

It almost feels like your shit talker peers in high school the way you both drop your voices and check the coast is clear before continuing. "Price is always doing what's best, but it's been a long time, this supposed 'spy' is a smart cookie." you note with a firm nod. 

"I was going to say skilled but 'smart cookie' does the trick." he says with a chuckle and shrug. You glance at him from the corner of your eye as he sets his drink down. "How's that scratch?" he asks, nodding at your arm. 

You roll your sleeve up, glad to find the bandage wrap still white, no blood in sight. "Seems to be doing well." you say. You check your watch, hopping off the counter, "I have a shitload of work to get done." you sigh. 

"Need company?" he asks, following you out the room. 

"Preferably not yours." you mutter, a smile on your lips that he can't see from behind you. 

***

You inhaled deeply, your pen scribbling across the paper before you exhaled with a relieved, "And done."

You lean back in the booth, glancing at Keegan who cranes his neck to look over at the paper with a nod. He finishes his mouthful, "Only took six hours." he chuckled. 

You groan, folding your arms as you rest your head in them, blocking the light as you stare down at the dark table. You hear Keegan chuckle before a pat on your head is felt, you grab his wrist sitting up with a scowl. 

He grins, pulling his wrist away with ease. "You should eat something." he says nodding at your tray of untouched food. "I told you it was a bad idea to bring your paperwork here." he adds. 

"All that matters is it's done." you say, pushing it to the side as you bring your tray closer. You and Keegan both eat, chatting between bites. The day had been slow, but Keegans work was done, and no unsuspecting missions had managed to grab at you. 

Although he was talkative, it didn't slow you from your pace of work, finishing within several hours. You hadn't seen Soap or Ghost all day since this morning, but your mind didn't have time to linger on them. 

"Want me to look those over now?" Keegan offers, nodding at the papers. You agree with a thankful hum, passing them over as his eyes start to flick back and forth. You continue to eat in a comfortable silence accompanied by the others in the cafeteria. 

Your eye catches something over Keegans shoulder, a soldier about your height who seems rather interested in what Keegan is reading. He seems too far to be able to read what you had wrote but the bold titles would be easy to catch. 

You take the papers from Keegan, setting them down and looking back over at the soldier who has his attention turned elsewhere for now, you narrow your eyes trying to study his body language. "What?" Keegan asks looking over his shoulder.

"Nothing." you shrug it off, "Just a nosey soldier is all." you add, "Look at them when we head back."

After ten or so more minutes of eating and light conversation you both stand up, as you walk towards the exit you stop. "Gaz is in the office, no?" you ask Keegan. 

He thinks for a moment, a glassy look making his eyes look blank before he nods once. "Yeah, think so." he says.

You walk up to the counter, grabbing a takeaway container before feeling the hair on your neck stand up, a slight pinging in your brain as you turn towards the exact direction your head takes you. Seeing the same soldier, staring at you, his face with a smile as he gives a respectful nod. 

"Let's go." you say to Keegan with an uneasy feeling. The soldiers looks were undeniably uncanny. His hair looked greasy even from afar, strands of jet-black hair hanging over his face. He was pale, a sickly-looking pale. 

Making the bags under his eyes darker, his cheeks were sunken. Maybe it was a unique facial structure but how he smiled was wide, stretching across his face as his dark eyes bore into you. He appeared rather boney, even for a soldier.

You shook him out of your mind as Keegan began talking on the way back to the offices. You were both walking across the courtyard when you were called. "You two-" came from behind you both, naturally you both turned, unsure if it was you or not. 

Captain SRG Cooper, looking rather stressed hurriedly walk towards you both with papers in his right hand while his other was in his hair. His usual clean-shaven face had grown a dark stubble. "Sir?" you say, walking towards him with Keegan in tow. 

"You two, perfect - uh, Soap up there?" he said looking up at the building. 

You shook your head, "No sir, apologies he's busy currently." you explain.

He brushes his hand over dismissively muttering something as he flicked trough the papers. "It's fine, you two can handle yourselves right? we have no captains on standby but assuming you force you'll be capable." he said, his words were fast paced. 

"Of course sir, whatever you need." Keegan spoke up, stepping in beside you as Cooper nodded, glancing at him. 

"Sargent Russ, I'll leave this mission in your hands." he said, shoving some papers into Keegans chest as he took them. Keegan glanced down at the papers with a firm nod while Cooper dug about in his pocket. 

He ran a hand through his hair, "Uh armories unlocked, - vehicle on standby, catch you when you return." he said, pushing past you both in an urgent manner. "Comms will connect to the office crew." he called out before leaving inside. 

You looked at Keegan who turned back from Cooper, he frowned slightly before shrugging. You raised your eyebrows, walking towards the armory with Keegan. He read out the mission conditions as you both walked. 

"A hostage mission?" you repeated looking across at Keegan from the papers who nodded.