Splinter Cell: Target Lost

Harper watched as the two made their way across the room, searching for targets.

"Kestrel, get him out of there," the one with green goggle said.  The one with the red goggles cut Harper out of his restraints.

"Oh my god..." Harper laughed. "You're Archer and Kestrel, right?  The legendary duo from Third Echelon?"

"That's right," Kestrel said. "C'mon now, on your feet."

He helped Harper up out of the chair and passed him a gun.

"Found this in the forest."

"Thanks," he replied.  He checked the slide and the clip.  This was most definitely the one he had lost, and it felt great to have it back.  He reached down and picked his knife, replacing it in its sheath.

"Thought you two were dead."

"You too, huh?" Archer asked. "A lot of agents thought that.  They tried to turn Kestrel and I against each other after we dealt with some serious work in Russia, but it didn't work.  Instead, we ran, cross-hacking our devices so that we couldn't be tracked.  It worked well.  Did some small work after that: some hits, some retrievals, a bit of sabotage.  We were going to try to get back in business after Fischer took down Third Echelon, but then the Blacklist happened.  We tried to help, but without any information, we couldn't.  After that was all over, O'Malley shows up with his banner and horns.  An easy target to find.  We went after him, hoping that if we took out O'Malley, we'd be accepted into Fourth Echelon."

As he explained this, they snuck out of the building, hiding in what little shadows they could find.  Harper was thankful for the lowered light, and he even fault his migraine fade down to nothing more than a slight pain in his pain.

"So you guys are stuck int he same dilemma as I am?" Harper asked.

"Just about," Kestrel replied simply. "Don't get too comfortable now that we're here, though.  Masters tried to spring a trap on us in the forest."

"Almost got blown straight to hell if it wasn't for Kestrel," Archer said. "A tripwire frag.  Masters be damned..."

"Anyway, you seem to have the same goal as us.  We should stick together," Kestrel suggested.

"Of course," Harper replied.

"Glad to hear that we're still considered legends back in Fourth," Archer said.

"You're also considered dead there," Harper replied

"You know, Lazarus was considered dead, too," Archer countered.

"When did you find religion?" Kestrel asked him, surprised.

"I didn't.  I just know the famous ones."

"Figures," Harper said.

Kestrel laughed and started to say, "Yeah, you wouldn't know--"

"No," Harper said, pointing his finger forward. "Figures. Up ahead."

They saw the shadows of ponies walk by as they hid behind a corner.

"Find the human!  He could not have gone far!"

The ponies ran by their hiding spot.

"They don't know you two are here?"

"Legends, remember?" Archer said.  He peered around the corner. "Five ponies that way... four the other."

"We still have some flash-bangs." Kestrel offered. "It might buy us enough time to get through to the forest."

"No, we don't need something to stun them, just something to distract them," Archer said, thinking for a moment. "Gimme a frag."

Kestrel passed him one, and he lobbed it high into the air.  Many ponies noticed the red light flashing on it and watched as it went down a chimney nearby.  A small explosion and a shriek could be heard from inside the house.  The ponies stood in shock for a moment, then rushed into the house to help who might be hurt.  It was in this time that the three humans escaped.

"Was that really necessary?" Harper asked.

"It got their attention, didn't it?" Kestrel asked him. "That's all the matters.  Let's keep moving."

They ducked into the forest, letting the shade of the trees mask them.

***

"This is all your fault, Masters."

"My fault?  Your the one who couldn't even count right!"

The two argued as they set raps around their camp.  They both did not like the outcome of what had happened.

"You said that teleporter would take us straight to Tehran so that we could pick up the four hundred soldiers we had, and now.... I've lost all faith in you, Masters."

"I'm telling you, had the operative not intervened, we would be safe in Tehran, rounding up our troops for a mass invasion."

Yes, the plan was perfect.  Gather as many military simpletons into one spot where they were "hiding" so that a manslaughter could take place, but noooooo!  That damned spy had to ruin it all!  He had no business in their affairs!

O'Malley cursed his luck as he set down the proximity mine.  Any idiot unlucky enough to go this far into the woods would get blown straight to hell as soon as they touched it.

"At least we agree on that much.  That little bastard is going to die!" he shouted.

"But how, sir?  We hardly have any firepower..."

O'Malley's eye twitched. "No, Masters.  You have hardly any firepower."

"What do you mean?"

Masters placed his tripwire frag ever so carefully as the mad eyes of O'Malley covered him.

"Sir?" he asked.  Then he felt the cold steel puncture his spine and run down through his heart.

"You're a failure, Masters.  You've let me down when I needed you most.  So now... "

He leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "I don't need you anymore."

The knife was removed and Masters fell to the ground, writhing in pain for a moment.  But then there was no pain...

For how can a dead man feel pain?

***

"What?!  How did he escape?!"

Twilight was infuriated.  The human she had just captured had also just escaped?  These humans were so annoying to deal with...

"We're not sure, but he did have some explosives with him.  He even tried to kill Mrs. Cake with one!  She's still suffering from the shock of the explosion."  The guard stood saluting, his face never changing expression.

Twilight grit her teeth. "And you didn't even try to go after him?!"

"We had to keep the townsfolk safe!" The guard shouted in his defense.

Twilight looked at him with deep conviction, but then sighed into a reluctant calm state. "It's all right.  You slipped up just once, and I won't blame you for it.  However, if you see the human again, contact me immediately."

"Yes ma'am!  As soon as we find it, we'll inform you immediately, ma'am!" the guard shouted.

"You're free to go," Twilight said, but the guard only dropped his salute.

"Ma'am, if I may?" he asked.

Twilight nodded in approval for his next words.

"If we find the human and we cannot contact you, then what?"

"Then you shall capture him yourselves, and by Celestia's name I wish you luck in doing so."

"Very well.  That's all I had to ask."

The guard left, and the room fell silent.  Twilight didn't know what to do other than order these guards around to find the human.  Even when she did order them around, something inside her was screaming at her to stop, telling her that she did not have the authority.  It was still so unusual.  She decided to go home, until she realized the castle was her home.  She hadn't gotten used to that either.

However, none of this mattered to the prying eyes watching her.  Those eyes belonged to O'Malley.

So even these ponies are after Harper... if I could just make some kind of alliance with them, then I would have numbers on my side... but how? he wondered.  He thought for a second, but got sick of thinking.  It just made his head hurt.  Then a mad thought came to mind...

He liked this mad thought.  A crazed smile stretched across his face.  He prepared his "convincing story" and waited until the time was right.

***

Fischer paced around on the jet.  Back and forth and back forth...

Eventually, the perpetual motion drew curiosity from the rest of the crew.

"Something wrong?" Briggs asked at last.

"I read over Carson had to say about his teleporter.  There's no way to reverse the flow to retrieve Harper."

There was a a second of silence.  Briggs lowered his head and looked at the ground.

"I'm sorry, Fischer."

"For what?" he asked.

"For your, no, our loss."

Nobody said anything for a few seconds.

"Thanks."

The one word echoed in everybody's ears.  Fischer never thanked anybody for anything.  This would be the first time in a long time.

"Charlie, gimme an update on that teleporter."

"Yes, sir," he said, turning to his computer screen. "We've determined a few things about it.  One, it runs off of nuclear power, tons of it.  If it was ever to be used again, then it would have to be relocated to another power plant.  Two, the timing of the teleportation is vital to the destination.  If the timing was ever off, the target location would be... very far off, to say the least."

"And Harper?  Do we know anything about his location?"

Charlie hesitated for a second. "No, sir.  Nothing.  He's stil considered MIA at this point, as you ordered."

"I want everybody working on finding him.  You heard me!  If you find anything, and I mean anything about where Harper went, I want to know immediately!  And if you don't know where he is, at least report on where he isn't.  We'll find him through the process of elimination."

Fischer left the room, shouting behind him. "I want all chopper crew ready in ten!  Got some business down on the ground!"

"For what, sir?" one of them called.  There was no response.  The pilot and copilot rushed to get the chopper prepped.

Charlie exhaled deeply as the rest of the tech guys got back to work, the sound of clacking keyboards loud enough to drown out any noise.  He spoke into his earpiece.

"Harper?  You still there?"

"Fine timing, Charlie," he said sarcastically.

"I had some business to take care of."

"'Cause you're just always busy, aren't you?"

Charlie sighed. "Did you connect up with Archer and Kestrel?"

"Right here," he heard Archer reply.

"Good.  Look, I'm doing what I can from here to get you guys back home, alright?  For the time being, you may just want to find a place to spend the night.  Darkness is gonna be upon you in only a few minutes, and as soon as the sun rises, you'll be in some big trouble."

"What do you mean?" Harper asked.

"Thermal signatures show signs of life other then you... a lot more than we ever could've imagined.  These guys aren't nocturnal, so they'll most likely be asleep then, but that sun is only half the age of ours.  It's gonna be glowing a lot brighter.  You may have noticed how things seema lot brighter over there.  Sending you a visual interpretation."

"So that's why I keep gettin' headaches." Harper said, examining the info.

"What, you want me to teleport some Advil to you?  Your just gonna need some rest.  Your eyes will adjust."

"Oh, hey!  Before I forget, could you send the goggle schematics to my OPSAT?  The things got busted when I teleported here."

"Yeah, but do you know how to fix 'em?"

"I was a technician for a bit..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... you're tellin' me you were a techie before this gig, Harper?"

"Just about.  I was in training to be a field operative for years.  The only reason I never got out on the actual field was because I kept digging up personal secrets of my colleagues."  He took a moment to laugh. "Poor Irene... she never really did get over that affair with my old boss."

"Right, right..." Charlie said. "Ever heard of 'too much information'?"

"Ever heard of 'not enough information'?  I'd like those files sometime today."

"Too late, it's nighttime.  Guess I let you down.  Here ya go," Charlie tapped a button on his computer and sent the files. "I would suggest working on it in the morning.  Fixing things at night with no night vision might get a little tricky."

"Alright.  Thanks for the help, Charlie.  Talk to you in the morning."

The connection cut for a second.  Suddenly, Kestrel's voice spoke up.

"I'll pass on the Advil, but could you send some rations over here?  I'm starving!" he joked.

"Oh, shut up," Charlie replied, shutting off the TACCOM connection.

***

"All right, up ahead looks like a good spot to camp out for the night," Archer said.

The spot ahead was an empty place.  A castle, to be exact.

"Are you sure?" Kestrel asked. "It looks like that place would crumble and fall on our heads in our sleep."

"You underestimate the place.  It could probably still have occupants if there wasn't a huge hole in the roof," Harper noted.

"What, you were an architect before this as well?" Archer asked. "Never mind that. This is the only suitable and safe place for us to stay.  Unless you want to stay with those ponies back there?"

They shook their heads, but followed Archer into the castle.  They gathered what they could to find comfort, and they went to sleep.