Wolf

Chapter 4 - Operation Titan

We touched down on a foreign country's airport at noon. Immigration was a breeze and we met up with a mercenary who's been waiting for us at the airport tarmac. Piling into two trucks, we hit the country's roads and he led us to a covert base filled with intelligence officers and other armed mercenaries called the Annex.

We were on a mission to locate a known terrorist cell there and dismantle it if necessary, and Scott had mentioned that there was a base that we could bunk in as there is no known army base in this country. Liaising with our management, we were allowed to stay in with them.

It has been fourteen days here. The weather is terribly hot and humid, so you're either always perspiring or parched. With the fact that everything else is dusty, we stripped down to our barest layers and made ourselves comfortable as we worked.

Suddenly, a problem came in.

Yesterday, an ambassador came to visit in an attempt to ease the border tensions between the neighbouring countries and he bunked in the compound not too far away from the Annex.

The ambassador had recruited a group of mercenaries called Black Forest but one look at them, and we all knew they were ill-equipped and lacked the experience.

Thanks to his arrival, tension rose in the state and locals were not happy with the intervention. News and radio reports were monitored, and they were all saying the same. The local people wanted to solve their nation's problems their own way, but foreigners were interrupting their effort.

It was a desperate plea to stop.

So, we were all ordered to remain in the Annex as we didn't want to intentionally cause more problems if we were to prowl around the area. We've been barred in since nine in the morning and the boys were restless. They were so used to moving about that they didn't know what to do when they were given the time to do it.

I used the time to laze around reading a book I had brought along and laid down on the sofa – making myself comfortable as I read.

"Hey, I heard you cried when I got injured in the bomb blast."

I glanced to my left to see Keith who had squatted down next to me. He had recovered in time to join this mission and he was looking at me rather expectantly as he waited for my answer.

"Who the fuck told you that?" I asked flatly.

He burst into laughter at my brusque statement and he got up to ruffle my hair before he left me to my own devices. Knowing who was the tattletale, I resumed my reading with a frown as I realised that even boys do gossip amongst each other.

My moment of weakness has been the topic of gossip. It was so embarrassing.

11:02pm

Scared voices could be heard from the walkie-talkie I had set on the table earlier in the day.

"Can you hear us? This is Black Forest from the compound! We're under attack!"

I glanced at the walkie-talkie sharply. "Can anybody hear us? We need back-up ASAP! We've barricaded ourselves in and we're outnumbered!"

I sat up quickly. "Frank!" I yelled.

"I hear ya!" his voice could be heard from inside.

Knowing that I'd be sent there for recon, I kept my book and got my gear on. I pulled on a shirt before strapping on my gloves, and vest. Lastly, I wore the earpiece and made sure it went through

As I was tightening the strap on my helmet, Frank entered the room followed by Lucas and Tom. The trio looked grim and I wondered what had happened. It must've been worse than I expected it to be because I had never seen them hold that expression before in my life.