Chapter 24- The Vents

I hadn't seen or heard from Ghost since he slipped out of my room yesterday evening. In fact, I had fallen asleep listening to see if I could hear him going back into his room. The nasty feeling in my gut hadn't let up over night, if anything, it was looming in the back of my mind now too. So many 'what if's' playing in my head.

I had to focus though, I was currently crawling my way through a series of ventilation shafts inside an enemy building. Literally the worst possible place to be thinking about anything but the mission.

As I moved to shift my weight into my hand, I winced and clenched my teeth as the metal groaned. When I was sure no one was beneath me, I continued crawling, paying close attention to my movements, especially by vents. I came to a stop at the next junction, confused.

I had studied the route for over two hours this morning, it was supposed to be two more lefts than a right but there was no junction on the blueprints. Fuck.

In barely an audible whisper I called out to my team. "Gaz, how copy?"

He answered almost immediately, but it felt like an eternity. "Copy, Siren, are you in?"

"I wish. I'm at a junction and it definitely wasn't on the blueprints."

"Fuck."

"Yeah, my sentiments exactly."

I heard him chuckle. "You're positive you followed the correct path?"

"100%. Now please tell me where the hell do I go?" I whispered, praying my voice wouldn't carry. "I'm what we thought were three turns from my exit vent."

I frustrated grunt came from Gaz before he finally responded again. "There's not even a junction on this god forsaken blueprint. Hold tight."

"Not like I have much of a choice." I gently lifted my hand to my brow, wiping the sweat beading there while I waited. I desperately wished I had my mask right now, I felt exposed and vulnerable running another mission without it.

Finally, Gaz came through on comms again. "Stick to the plan. Two lefts then a right and hope to god we got it right. I'll alert Price that the distraction is a-go."

"Copy." I whispered and continued to silently creep along.

I was nearing my exit vent when I nearly jumped out of my skin as an alarm started blaring down the hall. Ghost and König must've started the distraction. I had to move fast.

I laced my finders through the slits in the vent and gently tugged. It popped out with a soft click and I set it aside. Thankfully for me, the vent was positioned directly above the desk in the office, so I easily slipped down and out without much of a drop. It also meant I could easily jump and pull myself back into the vent without much evidence.

I crouched on the desk as I dumped out a cup of pens onto it. I then pulled the wireless bug out of my cargo pocket and peeled off the sticker covering the adhesive. I stuck it to the bottom of the inside of the pen cup and replaced the pens. Good hiding spot of I do say so myself. How often do you check the bottom of your pen cups?

Hopping off the desk, I retrieved a USB from my other pocket and slipped it into the laptop on the desk. "Gaz, I'm in. Get it quickly please. I don't like being in here."

"On it. Just hold tight." He replied.

I crouched behind the desk, just in case, a bad feeling settling in my gut. Come on, Gaz. I shifted my weight, tipping slightly and put my hand against the desk for support only for it to slide open a hidden compartment.

I gasped and slid it open more. There wasn't much inside, but there was a file. My gut told me it was important.

I jumped as Gaz's voice came over my comm. "We got it, get out of there."

I snatched the file out of the compartment and slid the panel shut again.

"Copy." I instantly sprung up, pulling the USB from the port and securing it in my pocket. I climbed up on the desk and jumped up, pulling myself into the vents again. As I popped the vent back into place the door of the office I was just in slammed open.

I backed my face away from the vent as slow as possible and then froze. The last thing I needed was the vent to creak and expose me. I barely breathed, scared it may attract attention.

Ibrahim had rushed into the room, his face red, a walkie in his hand, and his pistol drawn. He threw open the closet door, looking inside before checking behind the curtains on the far wall. He moved to his desk, fiddling with the laptop before running his hand under the desk.

To my utter relief, he didn't check for the file. He must've been checking for a bug. When he didn't find anything, he muttered into the walkie he was holding in Arabic. I waited for him to leave, expecting that once he found nothing astray, he would move on to another room in the building.

He continued to fumble around for another few minutes and I was about ready to kill Gaz for the amount of times he scared me today. Thankfully, this time, I was on high alert and didn't move a muscle, despite it scaring me.

"Siren, how copy?" I heard through my ear piece. I cursed in my head knowing I couldn't respond and that because I couldn't respond, Gaz and the rest of the team would be blowing up my comms.

I watched with bated breath as Ibrahim angrily shouted in reply to whatever response came through his walkie. He was absolutely feral at this point, it was almost comedic.

"Siren, how copy?" Gaz called out to me again. It was in this moment, I wondered why we didn't have a way of communicating nonverbally through comms. It would save a lot of stress.

A string of curses came from Ibrahim before he hurled a whiskey glass from his desk at the wall. The glass shattering startling me back to reality.

"Siren, how fucking copy?" Gaz called out once more, panic beginning to lace his words. I needed to respond soon before the team reacted thinking I'd been captured. Surely they'd have other signs, right? Again, nonverbal comms would be great right now. One click for fine, two clicks for not fine.

Suddenly, Ghost's voice came through the comms. "Y/N, bloody hell, where the fuck are you?"

I continued to sit in the vent with my eyes squeezed shut, silently begging for Ibrahim to be drawn away for something else. I heard a gun go off, my eyes instantly flying open to see Ibrahim dashing out the door.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. I quickly tucked the file between my chest and my vest then started crawling away from Ibrahim's office. "I copy," I finally whispered once I was far enough away.

"What happened?" I heard König ask.

I debated replying but thought better of it. "I'm going ghost." I replied before focusing on keeping as silent as possible.

Gun shots rang out from different areas of the building and I questioned what was happening. That wasn't the plan? A distraction out front was the plan, not all over.

"Siren, forget being quiet, you need to move. Now." Gaz emphasized. "The Russian's are here."

I didn't stop to think twice, I crawled as fast as I could through the vents. I needed out of these metal death traps before I became collateral damage in the form of Swiss cheese.

I stopped to turn so I could kick out the vent and practically threw myself out of it, tumbling onto the ground. I laid there flat on the ground staring at the sky for a moment before scrambling to my feet. Gaz was stationed in a van in the woods not far from here.

"Hey!" A foreign masculine voice yelled. I didn't even stop to look at the man before I broke out into a dead sprint, lacking in the weapons department due to the nature of this mission. Run, Y/N.

I bobbed and weaved around the trees and dove through the bushes. "Gaz, get ready to get us the fuck out of here." I yelled out in a panic, panting heavily.

I could hear the man gaining on me. I pushed my legs to move faster. Today was not my time, it was not my day to die.

I heard the back door of the van slide open as I approached and I dove into it, rolling into the far side, snatching up a pistol as I did. I took one look at the man chasing me to notice he wasn't one of ours and fired one shot directly between his eyes.

I collapsed onto the floor of the van, sucking in desperate gasps of air as Roach slammed the door shut and Gaz stepped on the gas.