Perifidy

Chapter 27: Double Edged Swords

1100 Hours

March 20th, 2018

Herefordshire, England

Center of Operations, Hereford Base

          Dokkaebi stood at the head of the meeting table, fighting the urge to neaten the stacks of paper laying in front of empty seats. This was her first time fully taking point on an operation and she had underestimated how heavy the mantle of responsibility felt. Not only was she responsible for planning their approach on the operation, but also their lives. The decisions she made both on and off the field would decide if her squad made it home or not. This was the part of leadership Thatcher had been trying to teach her that she had willfully ignored. The operators slated for the mission were, her, William, Maverick, Nokk, Ela, Caveira, and Nomad. There was some comfort in having the collective experience in intelligence gathering that came with Maverick, Nokk and Caveira but she wasn't sure she knew how to correctly utilize Ela, William and Nomad. Ela and William would always be good in a pinch, but she didn't want them penciled in purely on the principal that things might go to shit. A realization suddenly hit her that caused her to cease her fidgeting. She'd been looking at the whole thing backwards. The essence of being a team leader wasn't doing everything perfectly and shouldering the entire burden by oneself. Like she'd seen Kade and Thatcher do time and time again, all she needed to do was trust her team and be honest about her own limitations. The door suddenly opened as all the operators slated for the mission entered. She smiled at Will, who tipped his hat with a somewhat embarrassed smile. Ela, Maverick and Nomad were having a conversation while Nokk and Caveira followed silently behind them. Will stared up at her expectantly, almost as if he were a student in a classroom. Others began thumbing through the dockets she'd left out. Dokkaebi cleared her throat before speaking.

"Hello, everyone. This mission's priority is intelligence gathering. Our scout teams have found a villa in Sweden where a high value target and intel are being kept. There's a lot of manpower at the location, along with plenty of security measures. I am confident in the countermeasures for the tech. I'm also not ignorant that, sitting in this room, I have some of the least combat experience. In terms of how we'd get in and seize the data, I want to hear what you guys think," she said, watching anxiously to see if her delivery was effective or not. Maverick looked at Nokk, who looked at Ela, who looked at Caveira. Caveira looked at Dokkaebi, shrugging her shoulders.

"Good choice. This is your kind of rodeo, Erik. Whaddya got?" she said. Erik got up, scratching at his beard as he headed towards a whiteboard on wheels. He did a quick rough sketch of the floorplan that Dokkaebi had put in the docket. She was amazed at how quickly he'd already memorized it.

"I think we can do this with three teams. Grace and I will provide overwatch here and here," he said, marking two points on a nearby cliffside. "I'll be watching backs with a rifle while Grace focuses on disabling the tech. We'll keep a direct comms line and hold an exit point. Then, we'll clear room by room. Entry team with Q and Taina will start clearing room by room, then we have the cleanup crew follow up with Will, Ela and Sanaa. Thoughts?" he said. Nokk was flipping through the docket, stopping on a page where the floor plan was broken down into more specific parts. She got up and stole Maverick's marker, circling a window on the second floor.

"This makes for a good point of entry. I suggest the clean-up crew breaches in through here," she said, circling a side-door on the first floor.

"We could go in loud. The small museum that door leads to is a good place to dig in. If we set up some traps and, uh, 'ring the dinner bell' we could give Q and Taina a chance to intercept and get behind them," Ela proposed. Maverick looked to Dokkaebi, who was looking at Nomad. Nomad had been entirely silent, writing something on a notepad.