Chapter Five: The Broker's Network

                                    

                                          
Everest awoke to the sound of the birds starting to sing, and sat up. She pushed her covers off and stood, stretching. 
She then spent time to get ready for the day.
After Everest finished, she walked outside of her door, Cypher's key in her pocket, and walked through to the hallway where Cypher's office was. She put the key in the lock and turned it, and pushed the door gently aside. 
Cypher was already inside, holding a cup of warm tea in his hands as he watched the monitors in front of him. He turned around.
"Greetings. We may go in a few hours to set up, yes?"
"I'm happy with that," replied Everest.
"Would you like to perhaps go out and meet the others as they awake? Or would you rather stay here, in my office?"
"I'd like to stay, for now. If thats okay, of course."
"Alright then. Make yourself at home."
Everest took a chair and sat down at another one of the desks, which had yet another monitor setup on it, and sat there quietly, watching the feed. Every so often, she would see a few of the agents move around the compound, and civilians move around those feeds that were around other areas. There were strangely two extra monitors with nothing on it, presumably meant for later cameras. 
A sharp buzz startled Everest, who looked up at the ceiling where it came from. 
"Cypher, the Vulture is good to go for your departure," came the voice of Brimstone. "Leave when you want." 
Cypher nodded and placed his cup down as he turned towards Everest. "Ready?''
Everest nodded and stood up, following Cypher out the door and moving through into the common room on their way to the armoury. 
*
Cypher pushed open another reinforced door to enter into a large room. Guns of different sizes and shapes hung from the wall, creating a tense air. Name tags hung above every rack, showing what they were. 
There were a few rifles; phantoms, vandals, bulldogs, and guardians. They seemed to be the main weapons, with spectres, judges, and assorted machine guns lined the other side of the rack. 
Everest looked around while Cypher made his way towards an extra rack housing what seemed to be personalised sidearms, and picked up a brown and white ghost. He also holstered a phantom, and turned to Everest. "Pick what you want. Best case scenario, we don't have to use them. Worst case, you can guess."
Everest stepped towards the larger rack and picked up a vandal, and chose a plain classic pistol along with it. She'd had zero firearm training, so she didn't know how well it would go should she have to use them. 
They exited the armoury to see the jet prepared for departure. She noticed another man standing next to it, waiting for them.
Sova. He was carrying an Operator in his hands, and he looked like he knew how to use it. 
His eyebrows raised in confusion as he saw her with Cypher, then set into a hard expression as he motioned them towards the entrance. "Come on. We're ready to leave."
Everest climbed in with Cypher as Sova made his way to sit down with them, after calling to the pilot they were good to go. 
The Vulture whined before lifting off, and it lurched slightly, settling down quickly however. The three in the back looked at each other as the jet started the journey. 
Sova was being his weird self again; staring at Everest for what seemed to be an undeterminable amount of time. Cypher nudged him and he looked away, muttering something under his breath. 
Everest was surprised as the feeling of descent hit her; it hadn't been too long since they left.
The trio jumped out as soon as the door was opened, landing softly in a pile of snow. 
"We are at site S-22, Icebox. No sign of hostiles, we are clear to begin network," said Sova over the intercom. 
Everest went with Sova while Cypher peeled off to go and set up his own way, while he asked Everest to try and set up hers on the other site. 
Sova and Everest walked in silence for a while, before Sova spoke up. "Everest, it seems you have experience in cold weather?" 
"I mean, yeah. I'm a mountaineer. The cold places of the world are my favourite place to be," replied Everest.
"I see...I used to hunt in my homeland's mountains. The best prey are often found there."
Everest was silent for a few minutes, thinking.
***
Sova POV
Sova held his sniper tight in his hands. I was right, he thought to himself. She does know the mountains.
"I've never been hunting before," said Everest, who was right beside him. 
Sova replied, "Perhaps I should show you sometime?"
He looked at her, and noticed her sharp features. She's quite pleasing to look at. Plus, she seems to be a nice person to be around. Quiet, but nice. She brings a good air to the team, I hope she stays.
She nodded as they walked through a tight space of shipping containers, before arriving where they were supposed to be. Sova watched Everest install her camera like Cypher showed her.
A while passed as she did her best. When she finished setting up, Sova looked around then started moving the both of them back to extraction.
They waited for Cypher, who arrived a few minutes later, and they all climbed back into the Vulture as it came down.
The journey back was spent much like the journey to s-22. 
While the jet was high in the air, he noticed Everest decided to speak up. "Cypher, how far does your network go?"
"Very far. Nothing goes on without me knowing about it," answered Cypher. "Secrets are often protected, but they can be found easily when you know what you're doing and the other person hasn't taken care of them. That's why mine are very well hidden. That's why you should hold onto yours; you never know who might use them."
"Honesty is better," said Sova. "How can you work well if all you do is keep things hidden from others?"
Cypher just chuckled and went silent. 
***
Everest
After listening to the two of them talk about his network, Everest came to a conclusion.
It was obvious that Cypher held his secrets and privacy very dear to his heart, allowing nobody to find them out.
Whereas Sova kept himself open, keeping honesty close to his heart. 
The two seemed to often be conflicted about their differences. 
Everest stole another look  onto Sova, and smiled slightly as she realized  he was looking back towards her as well. His mouth curved upwards into his own small smile as he laughed softly and looked away.
She looked down onto the ground, and brushed her loose hair behind her hair, a spark lighting in her eyes.