The Ghost and the Shadow

Chapter 8 - Amsterdam

The plane touches down in Amsterdam and I make my way across the runway to where Gaz is waiting. I wave at him excitedly and he does the same.

When I reach him, we embrace, "Gazman, I missed you so much!"

He chuckles, "You literally saw me a couple of days ago."

"Yes, but before that I saw you two years ago," I say as we let go of each other.

"That's true, but who's fault was that? I invited you to come visit in England a couple of times."

"I know, I'm sorry, I really wanted to, but I couldn't get leave most of the time," I respond and push out my bottom lip, to show I'm sad.

"And the rest of the time?" he asks, with his arms still crossed.

"I signed NDA'S," I respond and smile teasingly.

"All right then, you're off the hook for now, but once this mission is over, you're coming to visit me straight after and that's settled."

"Yes, it's settled," I say and hold up my pinkie to him. We pinkie promise and talk a bit more while walking to the car.

During the drive to the hotel, we update each other on everything that happened since he and Price left a couple of days ago. I take care to not mention my little "altercation" with Ghost. I don't want to talk about that obnoxious man now.

When we reach the hotel, it's already afternoon and we make our way up to the second floor. 

As we reach the room, Gaz unlocks it, and we step inside. Price is pacing up and down in the little living room. He's on the phone and when he spots us, he nods to greet me. I respond with a smile, and he goes back to his discussion. 

"Come, I'll show you to your room," Gaz whispers and leads me down the hallway.

There are three rooms, and he leads me to the open one. I step inside, it's really pretty and the window overlooks the canal, "This is gorgeous," I say in amazement.

"Right," he snickers, "We don't get spoiled like this often, eh?"

"Nope, the last place I slept in on mission was a garden shed, and I thought that was a spoil."

Price appears next to him in the doorway, "Shadow, happy to see you could get here so soon. Laswell is still a couple of hours out."

"Hey old man, happy to help," I respond. I get funny looks from the other soldiers when calling him that sometimes, but he's never complained. I haven't seen anyone else try it though.

"Good, we're going for a little swim tomorrow morning. I hope you're prepared."

I slap my bag, "Always Sir!"

We spend the rest of the afternoon in the hotel room going through the intel Price has gathered. He was tipped off that an Al Qatala barge is set to pass by us on the canal early tomorrow morning.

For dinner, we order some food from the little café across the street.

"I heard you gave our Lieutenant some lip, eh Shadow?" Gaz asks while we eat our sandwiches.

I roll my eyes, ugh, I don't even want to think about him, "Wow, word travels fast. I just suggested that we take a different route, you know, to help potentially capture Hassan, but apparently that was a big deal. He threw a tantrum when we got back to base. Such a drama queen."

They laugh and raise their eyebrows. I don't think anyone ever speaks about Ghost like this.

"Yeah, Ghost isn't really one for listening to ideas from others. He's a good leader though and I'm sure he acted in the best interest of the mission," Price comes to his defense.