Chapter Text
DATE: DEC 2, 2022
Location: [REDACTED]
Ghost’s radio crackled.“Watcher-1 to Bravo 0-7, what’s your position?”
“Nearly there, ETA less than 10”
“That is if the bugs don’t take us out” Soap mumbled as he followed behind his Lieutenant, eyes on the trees around them in the dark.
“Ever been out this way before, LT?”
“Once. Long time ago. Not much need to be out here now with the rebel groups.”
“Wonder what the HVT was doing when they were captured. Laswell didn't say much on what happened, just that they need them back. Intel work y’think?”
“That’s exactly what she does…" Ghost spoke quietly adding a second statement that Soap couldn't make out.
“What was that?”
“ Shhh , We’re approaching a cliff ledge” Ghost whispered harshly. Fully aware it wasn’t his Sergeant's fault he was on edge.
The two slowly made their way to the edge of a small cliff on the edge of the jungle in the dark. The two crouched to survey the area.
“Bravo 7-1 to Watcher-1, we have eyes on the camp”
“What do you see, boys?”
Looking through his scope, Soap did a quick observation.
"Six tents, varying sizes. Armed personnel all over the place, equipment-crates, boxes in various places”
“Eyes on the HVT?”
“Not yet.”
Ghost nudged him “Middle Tent, South edge.”
Soap readjusted his scope. “HVT in sight. Back of the tent looks open a bit. Looks like she’s with armed personnel. Wrists cuffed, they’ve got her hands hooked on the rafter.”
“Is she alive?” Laswell was doing a poor job of hiding her concern.
Ghost and Soap watched through their scopes. The HVT was a slender, red headed woman. She was currently being interrogated by three guards as she hung by her handcuffs from a rafter in the tent, feet dangling mere inches off the dirt ground. Her clothes were holey and dirty. One of the guards approached her, pointed a knife at her and appeared to be threatening her. The two of them watched as the red head proceeded to spit in the guard's face, earning her a backhand to the cheek with enough force to spin her around.
As she spun they could see her shake her head then saw her body go limp, head slumping down. The woman’s face was dirty, bruised and had a few cuts. The guards laughed, the interrogating guard said something to the others before leaving the tent all together.
Soap gave Ghost a sideways glance “Bloody hell. Affirm Watcher - Seems like she’s got some fight left in her too”
“Sounds like her…She wouldn’t go down without a fight. You two are cleared to approach, you have authority to take out whoever is needed to get her back BUT if possible I want you in and out as quietly as possible. We shouldn’t be here. Copy?” She was stern with her orders. In and out with the HVT.
“Copy. Out here” Ghost spoke up. He motioned to Soap “We’ll approach from the South, NODS down, stay out of sight. We’ll cut her down, and then backtrack through the jungle to evac."
Soap nodded confirming his understanding “Roger, LT”
The two started making their way down the tree’d cliff side and surrounding jungle. Keeping an eye on their surroundings in the trees.
“She looked like she’d been through the ringer, eh Ghost?”
“She missed the check in four weeks ago. Not exactly a vacation.”
“Must have some good info for them to not gut her immediately.”
Ghost responded with sarcasm “Lucky her.”
Four weeks. It had been four weeks since Thea had been captured. She had been gathering intel on a location and people that their satellites weren’t capturing clearly. She vividly remembered telling Kate not to worry. Getting in and out without being seen is what she does. Thankfully being a CIA asset meant going through a considerable amount of training when it came to being the one interrogated. Although, four weeks in and she wasn’t too thankful for it, it would have been easier to be offed at this point.
She’d been given barely enough food to stay alive, definitely not enough water to. But it was the rainy season after all - and that she was thankful for. She was covered in bruises, on the surface of her skin as she knew for sure internally from where she had taken a boot to the stomach the day before. Her muscles were sore and weak. They’d switch her from the floor to hanging from the rafter. The floor was often during the day so they could taunt her with food, abuse her or threaten to rape her. Hanging from the rafter was more for the night time - or if she’d been fighting back more than normal.
“Where is it!? Where are the plans?!” she could feel the guard’s hot breath on her face as he yelled at her. He had taken out his knife and pointed it to her chin while hissing the threat.
Thea spit in his face as her answer. “ Fuck y-.”. The back of his hand connected with her cheek mid sentence, the force of it caused her to spin from where she hung. Thea squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head a few times in an attempt to will the stinging pain to subside. As her spinning slowed she heard the guard’s steps get further away from her. She heard him speak to the others.
“She has twelve hours. If she doesn’t give us anything by then, I’m done. I want her head on a stake.”
Thea closed her eyes and made herself look as if she'd lost consciousness, using it as cover while she thought about the ticking time. She had twelve hours to figure something out. If she could make herself seem as helpless as possible in this time, she could try to gain pity or at least an element of surprise.
Some time had passed while she was taking in her options. She could still hear the two guards talking periodically, talking about what she’d been through already, the slap, if their boss would let them have some fun with her before they killed her. She could think of two things, one being how she needed to get out of there and two, if possible she was going to make those two hurt. Not sure how, since she was starving and weak at this point- but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Hearing footsteps she opened her eyes slightly, A guard was starting to walk around in the tent. While the other stood watch outside. The guard roughly grabbed her chin and forced her head up to look at him, she stared at him with half lidded eyes. While he looked over her face she took a moment to look around behind him, seeing what she could use to her advantage. She saw the outside guard’s attention snap to the side suddenly, he started walking to investigate. With a whistle of wind and a small blood splatter, his body landed with a thumb.
She was getting out of here, the guard in front of her started to turn as an alarm started ringing through the camp. Thea used all her strength - swinging her legs backwards to get enough force and height to wrap them around the guard. The camp started to light up from spot lights, and gunfire.
She managed to get her legs wrapped around his neck, she locked her ankles around each other and squeezed her legs together with as much force as she could muster, the guard’s body went limp and Thea released him as he passed out. She used her remaining strength to pull her body towards her hand restraints that were on a hanging hook on the rafter, with a final shimmy she was able to get them up and over the edge of the rafter.
Her body fell hard against the rocky ground, knocking the wind out of her, and scaping her arms. As she looked around she could see they had left the back of the tent open slightly. Thea tried to push herself to stand but her legs felt like they were made out of cement. She started to drag her beaten and bruised body towards the back of the tent. Steps behind her came up quickly, as she turned she looked in the eyes of the guard who slapped her earlier, he was yelling at her as he grabbed her foot and started dragged her back.
His body abruptly fell backwards. Dead. A knife in his neck. A sprinkle of dirt dusted her knuckles as she heard quiet yet heavy footsteps stop in front of her. Turning towards the back of the tent, she was face to face with two dark boots, fitted under navy blue combat pants. Her vision was starting to go black, as she looked up she was met with the skull balaclava, black face paint and a familiar set of dark eyes.
“I'm, l-I'm still…mad at you, Simon" she was barely able to whisper before passing out.
Ghost kneeled down to the now unconscious woman. A quiet “I know” as he reached for his radio. “Soap - HVT is secure. We need to move. Now. ”
“Roger that, LT” within seconds of Soap’s reply, he was entering the tent, after throwing a smoke grenade behind him. “Little cover for us”
Ghost nodded as he positioned the unconscious woman over his shoulder, wrapping his arm over her legs and securing the hold by grasping her other arm. He pulled out his pistol with his free hand.
“Time to go.”