9:00 PM
Laswell and I reached Diego's production factory without any trouble.
Parking a few miles back, Laswell and I stealthily make our way, moving through trees and bushes, to the factory. No more than fifty feet away, we're stationed behind a large tree, spying to see who goes in and out of the building.
9:15 PM
There's been no movement.
"Did we get the date wrong?" I whisper, finding myself growing impatient.
She shakes her head to say, No. "Maybe we got the time wrong," Laswell whispers.
"Or maybe they're running late," I sigh frustratedly.
"We keep waiting," she says confidently. "I'm sure Diego and his men will be here any minute now."
9:35 PM
"Jesus fucking Christ," I huff, growling. "Where the fuck is the bloke?"
"Shh." Laswell quickly places her hand on my shoulder to grab my attention. "Look." She nods her head in the direction of a truck pulling up to the factory.
The truck parks and several men exit. A young man—I'd be surprised if he was older than 18—comes out of the truck carrying a couple of boxes. Two middle-aged men walk out after him holding guns.
Last but certainly not least, Diego Delgado exits the truck.
"I've got a positive ID on Diego." I drop my night vision binoculars from my face and look at Laswell.
"Copy that, Lieutenant," she says, smirking. "We wait until they all enter the factory building. Remember, we're only here to gather intel, we do not have clearance to engage."
"Yes, Commander," I reply.
After a few moments, Diego and his men enter the factory.
"You ready, Ghost?" Laswell asks, her anticipation palpable.
"Always ready." I nod my head and the two of us start closing in on the building.
Closing the gap, we're about ten feet from the building now, taking cover behind Diego's truck.
"We need to get closer," Laswell says.
We check our surroundings quickly and then run up to the side of the factory building where there's a window. The building is fairly small and only one story.
Crouched directly underneath the window, we can see the light peering out from inside the building. Muffled sounds are also audible.
"I'm going to try and take a look," Laswell tells me and stands a bit from her crouch.
My gaze is fixed on Laswell, and after she peers into the window I can see her facial expression shift direly.
"What is it?"
"El Sin Nombre," she responds breathlessly. "Valeria Garza is here."
Shit.
"What's your call, Laswell? Continue as planned or go engage for capture despite not having the clearance," I ask carefully.
She stays silent for a moment, pondering, and then says, "We have clearance to capture Valeria, just not here and now," she sighs deeply. "There are twelve people in the building."
"We can handle that..." I say confidently. "Your call."
"We need to do this carefully." She crouches back down from the window, her eyes full of worry. "We need a concrete plan."
"Do you have any frags on you?" I ask, already forming a course of action in my mind.
"Only two." She raises the same number of fingers.
"We can work with that." I take a peek into my pouch. "I have some smoke grenades."
"So what's the plan then?" Laswell asks impatiently.
"Surprise attack." I wink at her. "We'll smoke them out, use the smoke as coverage, and dwindle their numbers."
"Alright." She nods. "But if this goes South then we back off," she says seriously, sternly. "If they find out who we are or capture us then we're dead and it will only raise more alarm for Valeria. She might even go into hiding. We have to do this right."
"Trust me." I level with her.
A nod is her only response and she hands me the frag grenades.
Please let this work...
I stand from my crouch and rise near the window. "On the count of three, I'm going to break the glass and throw the frag in. After that, we make a run back into the tree line."
"Copy that," she replies.
I take a deep breath, hoping for the best, expecting the worst. "One. Two..." I pull the pin from the frag. "Three!" I break the glass of the window with my elbow and chuck the frag in.
"Run!" I turn on my heel, grab Laswell up by her elbow, and we sprint for coverage.
BOOM!
Screams and smoke pour out of the building.
From the sidelines, we see Diego and Valeria's men exit from the front door of the building. A head count of six.
Did we manage to take out half of their men?
I'm hidden behind a bush—prone—and ready my rifle. Laswell is virtually doing the same but up in a tree that's near me.
One of the men yells out in Spanish as he holds his bleeding arm, "Mother fuckers!"
Another one of their men yells, "Stop hiding, bitches!"
I aim my sights on the man with the bleeding arm. "I have my sights on the man to the left. Same time, yeah?" I ask Laswell over our comms and look up at the tree she's in.
"Alright on the count of three," she replies. "One. Two. Three!"
We both hit our marks. Two men down, four more to go—outside, at least.
"They're over there!" Another one of the cartel members yells in Spanish and the four of them head in our direction.
"I'm coming down!" Laswell yells to me below and drops from the tree.
The four men know the general direction we're in but not specifically. Laswell looks at me with understanding in her eyes. We both crouch and separate into the bushes.
As the four men approach the tree Laswell was in, I look to see where my Commander is now, and I spot her a good forty feet away in the opposite direction.
I grab the second and last frag, pull the pin, and throw it directly in front of the group of four.
BOOM!
Blood and limbs rain down before us, creating quite the spectacle. Six men down.
"Nice job," Laswell praises over the comms. "I'm making my way to you now."
"Copy that," I respond and wait for her to be by my side.
Within a few minutes, Laswell approaches me where I'm hidden and says, "That was only six men. They had twelve."
Before I can respond more voices and rustling catch our attention. Two more cartel members come out of the factory.
"Diego and Valeria are staying inside," I growl, frustrated at their cowardice. "I have an idea."
"Shoot."
"You stay here and take care of those two." I nod my head in the direction of the cartel members. "I'll make my way inside."
Laswell stays silent for a beat, contemplating our odds. Placing a gentle hand on my shoulder, she says, "Be careful."
"I will be," I say with confidence. "We'll meet back up in this exact spot when we're done."
"Alright. Good luck," she tells me.
And with that, I stealthily make my way through the tree line and in the direction of the factory.
The two cartel members crept their way to Laswell, unsuspecting of me.
Once I'm out of their sight, I approach the door to the building. Without hesitation, I pull the pin on the smoke grenade, crack open the door, and throw it in.
BOOM!
I rush through the door with my rifle up. Once the smoke clears, I'm presented with the young man from earlier—staring at me with rage and fear in his eyes—and three dead cartel members.
Seems the frag grenade did its job, but no signs of Diego or Valeria.
The young man has a knife in his hand. Only a knife.
Scared, the young man says shakily, "Stay back!"
I shoot my gaze downward, still readying my rifle on him, and see a puddle of piss.
"How old are you?" I bark out.
"I'm warning you!" He holds the knife out to me, hands trembling.
"Where did your friends go?" I take a few steps closer to him.
"They'll kill you all!" he cries out.
I let loose a deep sigh, "Help me help you." I take a few more steps. "Tell me your name."
The young man contemplates, takes a deep breath, and says, "Roberto."
"How old are you, Roberto?" We're about ten feet from each other now.
"Sixteen." I can see the tears falling from his eyes clearly now.
Who the hell recruits children to play soldiers? Fucking monsters.
"Put the knife down," I ask softly, hoping to disarm him. "No one has to get hurt."
Ignoring me, the kid shuts his eyes tight and starts praying in Spanish.
"Put the knife down. Now," I say more sternly.
The boy opens his eyes which went from holding rage and fear to now displaying a steel-like calmness.
Without a second thought, the kid tightly grips his knife and rushes me.
CRACK!
Roberto's body hits the floor. The bullet pierced his side.
"Fuck!" I yell as I feel my heart racing, my palms sweating, and my stomach dropping.
Another child dead on my behalf.
My fault.
My fault.
My fa-
Focus, Simon. I don't have the luxury to think about this right now.
I lock the thoughts and feelings away, deep down inside me, as I always do.
With a new sense of clarity, I look to the back of the room and see another door. It must be a back exit and Diego and Valeria must have slipped out through it.
Walking up to the door, about to turn the nob, I'm stopped by the sound of grunting. I turn to find Roberto with a remote in his hand.
"Boom," he grunts and pushes the button on the remote.
Commander Laswell's Point of View (POV)
BOOM!
I see an explosion coming from the factory—the building completely ablaze.
"Simon!" I wail out into the night sky, desperate that my cries will reach him.
Before I even have time to act, I'm surrounded by the two lingering cartel members, Diego, and Valeria: all pointing their guns at me.
Without much choice, I lower my weapon.
"Sorry about your friend," Valeria smirks smugly. "I'm disappointed though..." The viper walks up to me. "I thought he'd be more of a challenge."
"Fuck you," I seethe and she pistol-whips me.
"Tie her up," Valeria orders her last two standing men.
Looking behind Diego and Valeria, out by the burning factory, I see a limping figure. The light from the blazing fire reveals the figure: Simon "Ghost" Riley.
My heart nearly sinks to my ass as I'm overcome with relief, but I can't let Diego or Valeria see that. So I keep up the appearance of an angry and grieving soldier.
Diego approaches me next, growling, "You killed my men." He grabs my chin with his hand. "So I'm going to torture you, slowly," he grins wickedly.
Diego releases his grip, taking a few steps back. Ordering his men, Diego says, "After you confine her throw her in the truck!"
Diego and Valeria trek their way back to Diego's truck.
As their men try and confine me, I make my move. I throw my head back and smash into the nose of the man behind me, sending him to the ground. I kick my leg right into the man in front of me, perfectly landing on his groin.
Diego and Valeria are at the truck now but turn in my direction after hearing me shoot two bullets into their men.
Although exhausted, with all my might, I sprint to the truck Ghost and I came in, hoping he had the same idea.
"Don't let her get away!" Valeria yells and gets into the driver's seat of the truck. Diego starts sprinting after me.
I lay low but continue my sprint. I throw rocks behind me to throw Diego off my trail, which works.
Valeria counties straight for my path but I bank left in the direction of the truck. I knew if I ran left right away they'd find us instantly and we'd be captured.
Approaching the truck, I find Ghost leaning on the hood.
"Simon!" I run up to him and find him bloodied. Panic sets in. "Where are you hurt?"
"I'm alright," he pants. "We need to go. Now!"
We both hop inside the truck—me in the driver's seat—and speed away.
After driving for about fifteen minutes I say through a deep sigh, "We're fucked. This didn't go smoothly. We'll be booted out of the country by the Mexican government."
Ghost stays silent. I look over at him and find him pondering.
"The story is this..." Ghost starts. "I died. Valeria and Diego believe I'm dead. They need to believe we're no longer a threat or they'll go into hiding. Alejandro and Rodolfo work side-by-side with the Mexican government. We'll convince them that we had no choice but to engage, use the loophole that we've always had clearance to capture Valeria, and have them aid us in corroborating our story: you were deported from the country for acting without clearance and I died in the blast." Ghost swallows hard. "They'll believe that the rest of our team was kicked out of the country and that no one will be coming after them. That's when we strike."
It's a damn good idea but...
"What do we tell the rest of the Task Force?" I ask him.
"We only tell Price the truth. Everyone else needs to believe I'm dead. We'll have them throw a funeral for me and make it public news for all of the Las Almas cartel to see."
"Ghost..." I say with concern, considering Breanna is the first thing that pops into my mind.
"I know what you're going to say," Ghost nearly growls, defensive. "Not even she can know." He shakes his head. "If word gets out that I'm still alive, or that we're still in Las Almas, then we'll have ruined our chance to have the upper hand on Valeria. We'll have failed the mission."
"Okay." I nod my head. I trust Ghost with all my heart. "I'll inform Price after we get back to the Los Vaqueros base. And after we fill in Alejandro and Rodolfo."
Ghost says nothing but I can feel a darkness emanating from him.
"She'll forgive you," I say quietly, hoping to comfort him.
"But she'll never be with me again." His voice breaks and he takes a deep breath.
I stand there silently as I witness Simon Riley—opposed to Ghost—for the second time. The first being when he asked me if I thought it possible for him to live a normal life with Breanna.
I'm utterly awestruck.
After a few moments of silent processing, Ghost says, "For the sake of the mission." He holds out a fist to me.
Bumping my fist with his I say, "For the sake of the mission."