A Ghost's End

I thought the building would have been a good excuse to start shooting up the place because of all the hostiles in there, turns out I shouldn't have bothered. Nick had enough cover and assets to be able to get through it on his own with minimal detection. I say minimal, cause he tends to be a little theatrical with his kills. As entertaining as it was gruesome, the man could have a little respect for the dead.

"Respect?!" Nick quietly shouted over the comms. "These assholes are out to destroy the livelihoods of people just cause it's necessary to their fucked up cause." he explained slightly annoyed. "Never took you to be a zealous type, Nick." he scoffed at my comment. "Hell no, they're hostiles, therefore, they are enemies, and if they're enemies I have the right and the obligation to shoot them." he paused for a while to slit an enemies throat from a dark corner and pulled him back to hide the body. "Or in this particular case, mutilate them. Plain and simple."

"Guess you weren't loved as a child then, were you?" I asked. "I grew up to be a sadistic, government sanctioned, psycho, what the fuck do you think?" Guess I shouldn't have asked. As a little time passed, Nick had managed to pass most of the building undetected and was unbearably bored by the fact.

"Y'know, I think we should make things interesting." Nick proposed. "How so?" I asked. "I bet I could clear the room. No support. Zero detection." The next room he had to go through was the last one he needed to pass before his target point. About ten hostile, all armed. I only had a clear shot of about three of them. His odds of winning his own bet is impossible, then again we wouldn't be ghosts if it weren't.

"Just don't make me clean up your shit." I responded. He scoffed, I knew he was arrogantly smiling on his end. "Winner gets to flip the switch." he said. That was when I realized.... Again, we are fucked up. "Only you would see that as a win, sadistic bastard." Before I could say more, Nick threw a smoke grenade in the room, and filled the room with smoke almost instantly. Bastard really didn't want me to win. As soon as the room was covered, he went in.

I kept my scope on the room, and to my surprise, I didn't see any flashes nor could I see any of the men rushing towards the scene, he must really be doing it. It took a few more minutes before I could see even just a little bit of the room. And I'll be damned, the guy was able to clear the room on his own, I saw about five men down on the ground bleeding out, immobile. The other five were on their last breaths, like that even matters at this point. I focus over to him and see him boasting, and for the final touch, the middle finger. Cocky prick.

As he was reveling in his success, in the corner of my scope I saw one of the wounded men go for the wall. On the wall I saw a rusted button, which must have been an alarm. He was right in my sights, and without hesitation, I took it, startling Nick in the process. "What the hell was that for?" he said, infuriated. "You missed one." I told him. "Bitch was gonna die anyway." "He was going for an alarm, genius." he stood speechless when he saw the button I did. "Looks like I get to blow shit up now huh?" I said, smirking. I swear I can hear Nick silently murmuring every curse in the book.

We proceeded our mission as planned, and the next room is our target point. I had no visual of the room so I had to rely on Nick's eyes. "What do you see?" I asked. "Documents, photos, laptops...." he pauses for a moment. "What else?" I asked anxiously. "What the fuck....." he whispered on comms. His voice sounded shocked, and horrified. He isn't usually like this, in fact he's never like this. What the fuck did he see? "Hey what's there?" More silence followed my question. This is starting to get annoying. "Who.... Why the fuck..." he kept saying. "For fuck's sake, Nick!" I yelled with anxiety and frustration in my voice. Then I heard a laugh on the other end of comms.

"Jesus calm down, it's just a creepy ass bullet board." I fucking knew it. "Were you scared?" I can almost here a cocky laugh on the other end, fucking prick. "Awww you were worried about me. I'm touched." Nick gloats in amusement. "Shut the fuck up and tell me what you see, damn bastard." I quietly urged him to do it. He tried his best to hold in his laughter, I emphasize "tried". A few moments of silence followed, I assumed he was being thorough in inspecting the rest of the room.

"It looks like someone's been targeting specific operatives and operations..... Keeping track of progress......" His voice seemed to become more grim. "Who were they targeting?" "I can't tell, most of the targets here seem random, but safe to say they're targeting US personnel." Nothing new there, I guess. "Alright grab what evidence you can then get the hell outta there." "Copy." He responded. I kept my scope on Nick's position until I noticed that a few of the hostiles started to move, as if they had been commended to. I noticed they started to gather at the entrance of the center building, where Nick is right now. "Hold up, Nick. You got a commotion brewing up out the front." I notified Nick as soon as I could, however instead of hearing his response all I heard was static. I tried multiple times to hail Nick, but static was the only thing I could hear on my headset.

Before I knew it, I heard footsteps and rustling behind me. Before I could see who or what it was, I felt an instant pain behind my neck and I felt my body fail and my head lighten. My vision became nothing but dark as I lose my vision in no time, I've been compromised.