The man who definitely played a role in my family’s demise is the captain’s father.
Why did he have to be his father?
But most importantly, what am I supposed to do with this information now?
* * *
At the startof the mission, everyone is on high alert.
Since I’m backup, I remain where the captain ordered us to—near him. We’re all the new additions to the unit, and even though some have more combat experience than me, I’m consoled by the fact that they’re also kept on backup.
Our mission today is to infiltrate a warehouse where illegal weapons are stored, apprehend or kill the terrorists, and then report our findings back to base.
We’ve landed near the warehouse that’s strategically located in a cave under a dome of snow. As per the training we’ve been repeating for weeks, we have successfully crawled to the warehouse.
Captain raises his fist, stopping all of us in our tracks behind some large trees. He motions at the snipers to take their positions. Three soldiers crawl away to find the preapproved locations that offer a clean shot.
The rest are divided into Team A, led by Rulan; Team B, led by Viktor; and Team C, aka the stupid backup, led by the captain himself.
Captain Kirill motions at us to stand, using the trees as camouflage.
According to the mission map, Rulan and company should’ve been out already. It’s not wise to delay these types of encounters any longer than needed, considering their volatile nature.
However, the captain has been looking at the barely visible windows of the warehouse for the past five minutes, unmoving, like a wall of muscles.
He’s wearing his helmet and is turned away from me, so I can’t see his expression, but I can see the stiffness that mounts from his legs to his back.
If it were any other time, I’d probably be attuned to the changes in him, but after finding out the identity of his father, I’m not sure how to act around the captain anymore.
I can’t use him to get to his father since Maksim mentioned they have a muddied relationship. But at the same time, I can’t just forget that he’s a product of that man.
Maybe my initial apprehension about the captain was correct, after all.
He’s bad news and dangerous.
Rulan cuts off my hyperfocus on him when he advances forward. “Permission to go in, Captain?”
“Not yet.” He stares up, then down, as if searching for an invisible needle in the snow.
“Is something the matter?” Viktor whispers so low, I wouldn’t have been able to hear him if I were in the back.
“Something’s off.” Kirill tilts his head to the side. “No one is around.”
“It was snowing just now. They’re probably hiding,” Rulan says, to which Kirill shakes his head once.
“Storms and snow don’t scare these people. They’d have patrols to secure the premises and watch out for intruders. Unless…they knew we were coming.”
“That’s impossible,” Viktor interjects. “Only the base knows about this mission. Our intelligence has no leaks to warrant this suspicion.”
“Yeah, Captain. We trained so hard for this mission that we can do it with our eyes closed,” Rulan says, and the others nod in agreement.
Heavy silence falls over the team. No one talks as we wait for Captain’s decision.
He doesn’t look convinced. If anything, he’s surveying the premises harder than before.
But since he’s the leader of this operation, he has to make a decision.
He slides his gloved fingers up and down his rifle in a methodical, controlled rhythm. Everything he does oozes authoritativeness. I’ve been in the army long enough to meet men who idolize control, but they soon revert back to their old selves once no one is there.