Chapter 1: Interrogation

                                    

                                          
Y/n's POV

Blood was slowly covering the old rug in the rundown house, with the occasional bone crack followed by a scream. The night was cool and the sand outside gently drifted past the window. Al Mazrah, where every soldier found themselves at least once in their career thanks to AQ completely overwhelming the Adal government and taking over. My ribs were killing me due to my position and the mountain of a man towering over me was certainly a sight to behold. I was getting tired and the ride in the LTV wasn't exactly comfortable, plus the Adal heat alone could make someone overheat and pass out if you weren't careful. The large boot came down hard as I gently rubbed my ribs. This whole situation had been going on longer than I wanted it to, even though König had been trying his best to get a word out for the last hour.

"Alright König "I'm out of patience." I sighed and slowly stood up from the metal chair that my ribs had been uncomfortably pressed against standing and walking up behind him into the prisoners view.

"I am sorry, captain I am trying my best." The Austrian stepped aside and immediately looked down at his boots like a kid who had just been yelled at. I just walked past him, lightly patting him on the shoulder he was much larger than me along with the rest of my team. I knelt down to the blood-soaked man on the carpet.

"See what happens when we get off to a bad start? Now let's try to have a nice conversation this time, okay?" I smiled at the bruised Russian.

"Fuck you..." He gasped clearly in pain. I just smiled and sat cross-legged in front of him.

"I think you've said that already friend, all you have to do is answer my questions and this stops, you having my word." 
 The Russian looked to each figure in the room. König was standing above, seemingly dissatisfied with his failure to break the Russian PMC sooner, as Reyes and Nova just leaned against the wall.

"Ok." The Russian finally spoke. I couldn't help but smile a bit at the progress since I was exhausted from the full day of fighting, running, falling and driving.

"Great! So first question, why are you Russians here in Al Mazrah or more specifically, what are you transporting?" 
About a week earlier my team and I had been tasked by Kate Laswell with uncovering why Russian PMCs had been moving through the outskirts of Al Mazrah. We had tracked down a convoy and ambushed the rear guard taking a few prisoners but failing to figure out what was in the trucks. Unfortunately, the other captured soldiers didn't crack, so we were down to the last one.

"Food." He was clearly lying and my face immediately turned from friendly to irritated underneath my mask. I slowly reached down and pressed my hand against where the ribs had once been whole. The man screamed and gasped as I pressed harder.

"Try again sunshine." I said, coldly removing my hand.

"Bombs!" He cried, struggling to breathe. Reyes pushed off the wall and walked over, coming into the dim light above.

"What kind?" He was visibly exhausted from the day's work.

"Big bomb."

I just rolled my eyes at the answer since that really didn't help at all, Reyes just groaned as König shuffled nervously in place. Hunger and fatigue were all getting to us and the longer we sat there with this guy the worse my temper got. I violently grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer.

"Second question, where is he?" I growled at the terrified man.

"W-who?" He stuttered, trying not to break.

"Where is your leader?" We had no idea who he was, but the intelligence we did have suggested he was somewhere in southern Russia, not far from the Adal-Urzikstan border. The man just violently shook his head and said nothing and that was the last straw. In one swift move, I threw him back down with a crack, swiping König's side arm and shooting the prisoner.

"Bloody hell, y/n!" Nova exclaimed getting off the wall and walking over.

"He wasn't going to say anything and we are running out of time. AQ has more forces moving in every day and we can't afford to stay here much longer." I rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes trying to focus.

"We could get more!" König suggested taking the gun back and pulling it back into its holster. I just stood there, walking past Nova and König out into the night, followed closely by Reyes.

"What now?" he asked.

"I'm not sure the Russians are long gone and this place will be overrun by AQ by tomorrow night; let's just get some sleep and be ready to cross back over the Georgia border." He nodded but excused himself as he got an alert that someone was trying to make contact with us. I watched him jog over to the other run down building that held our communications equipment while König dragged the body around to the back as Nova opened the back door to the LTV and got comfortable. I was irritated with the lack of progress but it wasn't our fault, whoever these guys worked for had made it clear to them that they should die rather than give up any information.

"Captain?" König walked over also with exhausted eyes, which were the only visible part of his face under the helmet and sniper hood.

"You okay big guy?"

"I wanted to ask for vergebung." He once again moved his eyes back down to the sandy ground, nervously shuffling in place.

"What why?"

"I didn't get the prisoner to talk..."
I couldn't help but feel a bit bad. König was a great soldier, holding his own while supporting the team well but despite his massive and sometimes scary appearance, he often stopped in the streets to pet the local stray dogs or cats even sometimes sketching the local landscape in his little book he carried. König was one big shy mess even holding onto my sleeve or vest when he got nervous around other people but he was a good teammate and friend so I did my best to make him feel comfortable. 

"König it's okay, I am just tired and from the looks of it so are you just try and get some sleep while Reyes and I take the first watch  okay?" He nodded and walked off getting into the passenger seat and immediately closing his eyes. I made my way over to the cliff side wall looking off towards the dark city of Al Mazrah. With AQ in control the city was mostly abandoned with no power available. The one nice thing was the stars overhead that covered the entire sky above. Being on a base often meant I couldn't see them, but when I could I always took a moment to stare up at them.

I heard a set of footsteps coming over and turned to see Reyes walking over with a radio in hand. I was confused since I didn't expect anything important that would need to be relayed to me but judging by his facial expression whoever was on the other end needed to talk to me right away. I took the radio as he moved to my side, leaning against the brick wall and lighting a cigarette. I made a disguised face since the smell made my head hurt even with my mask covering my nose.

"Apex 0-1 here, send traffic." I answered with a casual tone just wanting to finally get some rest.

"Apex 0-1; this is Watcher-1." Fuck. 

"Kate..." I replied. 

"Captain Y/L/N"

"Using my last name, this must be important."

"It is. I need your help." She sounded anxious, but I couldn't blame her. It had been 3 years since I had seen her in person with scattered letters and photos from my missions being the only contact we had. We had been very close when I joined the military since I had a hard time being physically smaller and having different "interests" when it came to people, but Kate had helped me along the way and I eventually saw her as a parental figure. During one assignment, I accidentally called her "mom" and I never heard the end of it, after that she only let me call her mom or Kate.

"Are you okay?" I asked now, nervous that she was in danger.

"I'm okay, but I need you and your team to come back to the UK; there is more to your mission than we originally thought." Reyes just raised an eyebrow at me and blew another cloud of smoke into the air.

"When?" I asked.

"By tomorrow night, if you can, I know you are still in Al Mazrah."

"We'll be there." I said I nodding toward the communication building as Reyes put out the cigarette out and headed back over to pack up once the conversation was over.

"Y/n?" Her tone was now much softer and less professional.

"Yeah?"

"He will be there...it's his base you are going to be staying at." She sighed. I knew exactly who she was talking about and a smirk formed on my lips despite my heart now racing from nerves.

"I'll make sure to not spoil the surprise as long as you can keep a secret." I chuckled. I heard her laugh back, knowing that she could keep any secret I asked her to.

"You know I can and don't bring up that time you brought a boy on base and "he" threw him out." I just groaned but remembered that night it was super embarrassing getting caught with company on base.

"I'll see you soon, okay?" She said knowing I would need sleep to make the journey back in time.

"Yeah, I'll be there. I'll see you both soon." The connection went dead as I raised a hand and Reyes began to take down all the various pieces of equipment on the old wooden table. I turned back to the dark city and widening my grin as the thought of seeing him again played in my head. I could only imagine his reaction, but for now we would have to wake up the others and head back across the border if we were going to make it to the UK in time. I could only wonder what mess we would get into this time.

Message from the author:
Hello again! Just wanted to say a quick word regarding this story. I plan to make this one much longer and more detailed than "My Shadow" as well as including characters who are not in the spotlight as much. Also in case it wasn't already mentioned this character is a guy so yeah heads up, anyway I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 and I'll see you all around!
-Roo