Chapter 16 #2
The Black Scroll Society. Alexei Mori. The industrialized Shinobi doctrine. The den, an underground facility, a former mining operation, with an estimated thirty to fifty hostiles onsite. Shinobi-trained operatives plus support staff.
She laid out the tactical plan. Entry points. Team assignments. Rules of engagement. The objective was simple. Eliminate Alexei Mori, dismantle the training operation, and compromise the facility beyond repair.
When she finished, the silence in the cargo bay was absolute.
Then Demon spoke. "So, we're going into an underground facility in hostile terrain against an unknown number of Shinobi-trained assassins."
"Yes," Raven said.
Phantom snorted. "Brilliant. Love it. Did anyone update their will recently?"
"You don't have anything to update, fool," Viper said.
"I have my dignity, fuck you very much."
Berserker laughed. "No, you don't, asshole."
Phantom shrugged. "Fair point."
Jinx leaned back against the bulkhead. "This is going to be a shitshow."
"Probably," Raven agreed.
The man smiled at her. "Good. I was worried it would be boring."
Specter hadn't spoken during the entire brief. Just listened with the kind of intensity that suggested he was building a tactical map in his head and wouldn't speak until he'd finished.
Rook looked at Dan. "You've been tracking these people for how long?"
"Seven years."
"What are we walking into? Really."
Dan considered the question and the team looking at him with varying degrees of expectation.
"A pit of vipers," he glanced at Viper. “No pun intended.”
Berserker punched Viper in the arm. “I like him. Did I tell you that?”
Viper frowned. “Yeah, stop punching me, fuckwad. Not everyone is built like a brick shithouse.”
Dan spoke over the rumble of the jet engines. "Usually, vipers have predictable behavior. These people were trained to be unpredictable, adaptive, and lethal. They'll know the terrain. They'll have contingencies. And they'll be fighting on their ground."
"Cheerful dude, aren’t you?" Demon said.
"Honest," Dan corrected.
"Also acceptable," Viper said.
Z leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "And the facility itself? Underground tunnels, yeah? What's the structural integrity like?"
"Unknown," Dan admitted. "It was an abandoned mining operation. Could be stable. Could be compromised. We won't know until we're inside."
"So, when I bring the whole thing down, I need to make sure we're clear first."
Raven snorted, "Ideally, yes. I don’t need or want a dirt bath."
Z grinned. "Ideally. I like the flexibility."
Raven looked at the team. At the people who would be going into the dark with her and Dan to end something that should’ve ended years ago.
"Questions?" she asked.
Specter spoke for the first time since boarding. His voice was quiet, precise. "Rules of engagement for non-combatants. The trainees in that facility … Some of them might not be there willingly."
"Anyone who surrenders lives," Raven said. "Anyone who fights gets put down. We don't have the luxury of lengthy threat assessments underground. You have seconds to make the call."
"Understood."
Phantom looked at Dan. "You good with that?"
"Yes, I am."
"Even though some of them might have trained under the same master you did?"
Dan met his eyes. “Kuro's doctrine was corrupted long before Alexei decided to turn it into a business. Anyone in that facility serving the Scroll made their choice. I'm comfortable with mine."
Phantom studied him for a moment. Then nodded. "Good enough for me."
The brief continued for another hour. Contingencies. Exfiltration plans. Medical protocols. Communication procedures. The architecture of a high-risk operation built by people who'd done this before and knew exactly how quickly things could go wrong.
When it finally ended, the team dispersed to their equipment checks, rest cycles, and the pre-mission routines that everyone had developed over years of doing this work.
Dan stayed near Raven.
She looked at him. "You did well."
He shrugged. "They're still deciding what they think of me."
"That's their job. They'll decide you're trustworthy about halfway through the assault when you save someone's life, or they save yours. That's how it works."
"Is that how it worked with you?"
She considered that. "No. I decided you were trustworthy when you were thirteen years old and shared your rice with me when I'd forgotten mine."
He smiled. The memory of something so small it shouldn't have mattered yet somehow mattered more than anything.
"That was a long time ago," he said.
She dropped her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. "Some things don't change."
* * *
Hawaii was, as always, beautiful. With green mountains rising from brilliant blue water, it was the kind of landscape that existed to remind people that beauty was real and persistent despite everything humans did to complicate it.
Willow brought them down at a private airfield on Oahu's north shore with a precision that suggested she could land the aircraft on a postage stamp if asked. The wheels touched down smoothly, and the team began the practiced dance of securing gear and preparing for the twenty-four-hour crew rest.
Crew rest.
The thing that kept people alive when exhaustion made mistakes inevitable. Dan had been operating alone for so long, he'd forgotten what it felt like to have enforced downtime built into an operation. Guardian's protocols were thorough.
Once again, they cleared security through a process that involved credentials Dan didn't have and paperwork that materialized and disappeared with bureaucratic magic. Within ninety minutes of landing, they were in vehicles heading toward Honolulu.
Their hotel was on Waikiki Beach. It was a tower of glass and steel that rose thirty stories above the sand, all elegant minimalism and understated luxury. It was the kind of place where travelers stayed, and nobody asked questions about groups checking in with minimal luggage and tired eyes.
Guardian had reserved an entire floor for them. An entire floor. Dan shook his head in awe.
Z and Willow took the first room. Phantom took the second. Demon and Specter shared the third. Rook and Viper took the fourth and fifth. Jinx, who'd been sleeping through most of the flight, took the sixth.
Raven took the seventh.
Dan took the eighth.
Right next to each other, adjoining door between them.
Subtle, Dan thought.
Raven caught his eye and almost smiled. They dropped their bags off and regrouped in the lobby twenty minutes later to head out as a group.
* * *
The restaurant was Raven's choice. It was a place on the north side of Waikiki that served fresh fish and cold beer and had outdoor seating that looked over the water. It wasn’t fancy and wasn’t trying to be anything other than what it was.
The team took over a large table at the farthest corner of the outside patio.
There was no one near them. Within ten minutes, the easy banter from the aircraft had returned.
Z told a story about an operation in Johannesburg that had gone sideways in the best possible way.
Willow corrected his details while smiling.
Phantom argued with Demon about the proper way to breach a reinforced door.
Viper and Jinx discussed sniper positions like other people discussed weather.
Everyone was cognizant of their location.
Voices were low, and eyes were always moving to ensure no one heard anything they shouldn’t.
Dan sat beside Raven and listened.
Rook looked across the table at him. "You're quiet."
"Not really. I’m observing your dynamics." Which was the truth. He was gauging each of the men. His respect had grown. They weren’t what he’d expected; they were a family.
"Good answer." Demon took a drink. "You're going to do fine tomorrow. Raven wouldn't have brought you if you weren't up to our standards."
He lifted his beer. "I appreciate that."
Specter cocked his head. "Don't appreciate it. Earn it."
Dan almost smiled when Raven rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, he will.”
Specter leaned forward slightly looking directly at Dan. "I have a question for you.”
"Go for it." Dan gave him his full attention.
"You've been hunting the Scroll for seven years. Alone. Why now? Why bring Guardian in instead of continuing solo?"
The table went quiet.
It was a fair question. The kind that deserved an honest answer.
Dan looked at Raven, then back at Specter.
"Because I couldn't finish it alone," he said.
"I could track them. Disrupt them. Take out individual cells.
But I couldn't dismantle the network. I didn't have the resources, the intelligence architecture, or the team.
" He paused. "And because going after Alexei Mori solo in an underground nest filled with assassins would’ve been suicide. This isn't a one-person operation."
"But you were willing to try," Specter said.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because what the Scroll is doing is wrong. And someone needed to stop it. That and they’d formulated an opinion that Raven was the person disrupting their missions."
“What the fuck?” Z sat up straight. “How the hell did that happen?”
“I was the only one unaccounted for. The only one they knew was alive somewhere and trained like they were. They’d made contact with the others.
Found them and approached them or written them off.
” She pointed to Dan. “He was dead, or so they thought. That left me. Dan came out of the dark as soon as he found out. His intent has only ever been to protect me.” She glanced at all the men. “I believe that with all my heart.”
Specter studied him for a long moment. Then nodded. "Good enough."
The conversation moved on. Demon launched into a story about a mission in Prague that had involved a car chase, three different intelligence agencies, and what he described as "the worst pierogi I've ever tasted.
" The table laughed. Z topped the story with one involving a helicopter and a very angry kangaroo.
Dan felt Raven's hand find his under the table and looked at her.