Shadowbound

Chapter One

"It has often been said that the efficiency and ruthless speed of the operator known as Shadow was their greatest weapon, when they were recruited into the Rainbow Counter Terrorist Organisation, they were already one of the most decorated and celebrated SAS Field Operatives there was." - An extract from Rainbow, CTU Prime written by Chris Greyfield in 2037.

The plane was small and compact, made to carry as many recruits as possible. By my estimation, roughly three dozen of us sat shoulder to shoulder. I tried not to think about anything in particular and stared coldly at the seat in front of me.
"Closing in on Hereford now ladies, get ready to pack up." The voice from the speaker system said, it was distinctly British and with some thought I pinned it to London. 

I felt a jolt go through my spine as we landed and heard the man next to me mutter angrily "idiota." Pulling my bag out from under the chair I collected myself, it should be an honour, the highlight of everything I've done to join the ranks of Rainbow Operatives. But it didn't. 

We were given a tour of the base by a man who introduced himself as James, it was interesting to see how differently it was laid out from any of the other military headquarters I had seen. We walked around for roughly half an hour until James dismissed us and it was time for lunch. I didn't quite care to be bothered so I picked out my food and found an empty table for myself. 

More and more people were piling into the hall for their lunch and so, it only got louder and louder to the point where an old and scruffy-looking man shouted for quiet. It was then that I looked up and around the room, there was a large mass of men sitting together on a long table, roughly 60 of them, dressed in black. I eventually recognised these to be the normal recruits; on the outreaches of the large table were short tables where I assumed each CTU sat with themselves.

Nothing more specifically happened until the end of lunch when a short-ish man with glasses entered and the room got quiet. 
"Welcome everyone, new and old, we have some announcements! We have recruited 30 new, well...recruits," he chuckled " and one new operator." Immediately a buzz started around the room about the new operator and what they might do. The man glanced in my direction and I understood that he was the Harry I spoke to on the phone, with a slight tilt of the head I silently asked the question to him. He nodded in reply. Sighing to myself I stood up; feeling my knees pop.
 "QUIET" I shouted with clear authority, and the hall fell into a state of silence, "I AM THE NEW OPERATOR," Bringing down my volume as I went along, "YOU MAY HAVE HEARD STORIES ABOUT ME, OLD WIVES TALES OF THE DARKNESS KILLING, TAKING OUT A HUNDRED MEN IN A NIGHT, SHOWING NO MERCY" (I'm not a theatrical person at heart, but I know how to put on a show) "Most of them are just tales, myths. Some are true. Codename Shadow, and there isn't much more you need to know about me." I sat down. 

And suddenly I was the most popular person in the room.

The recruits kept their distance, eyeing me enviously, but the operators swarmed me like a pack of rabid dogs. Every question that could've been asked was said eight times. Through all of the commotion, I saw the Korean girl mouth the words to her friend, a redhead with a long plait, "He's handsome" and the redhead blushed and slapped her across the face. Finally, the noise was getting too loud so I bashed the back of my fist on the table three times. Again silence fell on the operators. Harry then took the opportunity to call me out of the crowd and lead me out of the hall.

We talked as we were walking.
"It seems you're quite the popular one" he retorted with humour in his voice.
"It does indeed" replying professionally.
"I have no doubt that you will fit in and work well here" he paused and looked at the ceiling around us, "but Ethan, you've got to remember, not everyone will approve of you if you reveal your past."
"I know sir, I plan on keeping it hidden, if not permanently then for as long as possible."
"good" was his simple reply "This is your dorm room" he said as he opened the door and passed me a key, "And please, call me Harry." the door slammed shut and I was in a modest room. fairly neutral colours and two large beds.  In the corner was a place to safely store firearms and checking inside the cases, I smiled. I pulled out a familiar custom AR15 that my old friend, Eric, and I had made. In another was my shotgun, a beauty of a gun. I've heard of arguments about what shotgun is truly the best for CQB engagements, and my heart belonged to the M590a1. 

I heard a knock at the door, and heard a male voice shout through it "Shadow open the door, I left my key on the coffee table." A glance at the piece of furniture confirmed his claim. I unlocked it for him and saw the tour guide from earlier, James, in front of me. "How's it going shadow" he nonchalantly asked as he made his way into the room. "Been better...Been worse" being my cautious reply. He seemed so...calm and undeterred by me. It was almost jarring. "Look I get it if you don't like talking much, trust me Mark is terrible for it, there's a reason we all call him Mute. But there's no need to be so cold about it." He joked, but I saw his game plan, get me to relax and then I'd be more susceptible to manipulation and revealing information about me. "Yeah, I'm just tired I reckon," I responded with artificial comfort in my voice. 
"Not to worry mate, you have free roam of Hereford as you're off-timetable for now. As for me, it's my free day. Nothing and nobody can tell me where to be," He smiled to himself kicking his feet on top of the coffee table and reclining in his seat, "You'll learn to live for these days, trust me." Very quickly he dozed off to sleep and I was sat feeling lost on what I should do. 

Eventually, I felt a bit of target practice would do, and I had spent several hours in the firing range. Every type of gun I tested, seeing what guns I would have to work with. I made a mental note of strengths, weaknesses, range, recoil and calibre in my head for each one. by the end of it all, my shoulder and my brain were exhausted.

It was around 7 by then and I decided I would hit up the food hall for something to eat, I pushed through the double doors to see the longest line for food in my life. everyone looked miserable in the knowledge that they wouldn't be served for a while to come, but nobody dared try and push in as you could cut the tension with a knife. considering that I wasn't that hungry I went to the front of the line to grab a bread roll and a pastry. Then someone decided to punch me in the lower back. Swivelling around at a pace of knots, I saw my attacker. he wore a black hoodie with yellow stripes on the arms, he was an inch or so shorter than me and he looked like a twig.

I merely turned away from him to go sit down somewhere. Angered by this he started shouting in German at me. Then I felt a heavy slug to the back of my head; Now it was game time. I put down my food on a table and turned to see him in my face breathing aggressively. "Rule One, Do Not Push In The Line" he said each word forcefully. I pushed him away from me "You don't want this my guy, hell, I don't want this." he threw a jab at me but I parried it and sent a right uppercut to his side which caused him to stumble backwards slightly. I took the moment to look around and see everyone watching, nobody moved a muscle, they just observed the scene before them. The German threw another strike at my face to which I spun out of the way and into a backhand which caught him in the jaw. "It's not too late to stop, Hans." the third strike came and this time I didn't hold back, ducking underneath the punch I closed the distance between us and performed a rising uppercut. He fell to the floor cold. 

I took my seat and started eating my food, and one person started clapping, then two, then three, then a dozen. But no more, I saw that it was only James's group, the group with the redhead, a few recruits and the Korean girl was practically bouncing whilst clapping. Everyone else looked sour. One large man grabbed the German and dragged him out of the hall cursing in French. And just as quickly as the whole thing started, everyone returned to their normal course of action.

I was slowly making my way back to my shared dorm, dragging my feet from a long day of having to be nice to people. I let my face relax and reminded myself I was a cold-blooded killer. None of these people could ever know though, I wouldn't let it happen. I lazily opened the door to my room and saw James sitting on the couch watching TV, "Evening" I grunted. He nodded in acknowledgement. I decided I would join in him and took a seat to his left, he was watching some comedian making political arguments through jokes. "Its amazing how much power the celebrities have, if you're funny or good looking or good at sports, you'd have a whole population kneeling at your feet," James noted, "because you just know that they're being told by the government what views to push, what to joke about and what topics they should bring up." I gave him a long hard look as he continued his gaze on the TV. 
"Tell me James, is what we do any better, instead of pushing political agendas through jokes, we force them using guns." He didn't say anything for a while after that.

It was pushing the late hours of the day and I had decided that sleep was needed but James stopped me as I was about to climb into my bed; "We haven't met properly yet, the name is James Porter. Codename 'Smoke'. " He then gave me an expectant look, rolling my eyes and sighing "Shadow is the name, no-one knows anything more," I decided I would lie a bit and confuse him and followed with "Not even Harry knows my identity." Porter looked at me with wide eyes and I turned away from him. "Good night James," I said dismissively. I didn't want to push him away so quickly, but the last time anyone got close to me, it ended in pain.