Chapter 5:

As the Night Falls

Ashes of War

"You can not be serious." said Gina. Air in the room became heavier. She was slightly losing her calmness.

"I-I mean why should my b-brother join them? He has nothing to do with them, right?" asked Gina. She was smiling a bit with hope. But Takahiro saw her eyes filled with tears.

"We uh, we have no clue if it's your brother. It's just.. what it is. There is a man named Scarface and that's all."

"What are the possibilities of having someone with a scar in his face in this small city other than my brother?"

"Not much, but we don't know that yet. What makes it possible is the fact, that your brother went missing."

Takahiro realised that he made it worse, as Gina started crying.

"Look I know how important is your brother to you, but we talked about possibilities all this time."

"And now you're saying there's a possibility that I might find myself in a situation, where I can put a bullet into my brother's head!"

"Could you do it if we confirm it's your brother?" asked Takahiro. He wasn't happy to ask, but he couldn't risk the operation.

Gina became silent for the moment.

"I will be honest, Gina. The world we are living is ruthless. Especially the work we're doing, it's extremely cruel. You can not imagine how many times I sweared the god for it. It's unfair, painful, and sometimes you don't even have a right to make a choice. And it's a time, that you can not avoid the inevitable. I'm asking you again, could you pull the trigger if it's your brother?"

"Have you ever done it before?"

"I've done something similar on my last mission. I killed my brothers in arms, after working with them more than 7 years. We were a 6-man squad. I thought it was an easy mission, without any threats. We were drinking, singing, playing games, dancing and laughing together. I didn't check the map when we were about to secure an area. Then, we found ourselves in the middle of an ambush. Only two of us were lucky enough to be alive that day." Takahiro stopped for a moment. It was hard to tell his past to someone else.

"What I did that day, caused my brothers death. You can say it's not the same, but what I felt that day.. what you might feel soon, they are not different. Someone you care.. looking into your eyes before its death... It never been easy, even for the most heartless person in the world."

Gina stopped crying, but tears kept dropping to the floor.

"I will pull the trigger. For the sake of the world peace."

"It's good to know. If I do it for you, you gonna just hate me."

"And I'll hate myself after pulling that trigger."

"Just for a while. Then you'll start swearing to god for the world it built."

After that, they didn't talk anymore. They both needed some time and rest. As it gets darker, they went back to normal a bit.

"So, what's the plan?" asked Gina. She prepared herself for all possibilities.

"We know that Scarface is responsible from Mohe. If we neutralise the target we can delay their plans."

"And how we gonna do it, do we even know his location?"

"It seems he's at the factory. The guys we found this morning said that Scarface gonna be mad at them. As they started leaving they headed south, towards to city. But as we go after him, I also want to find that bunker."

"Didn't JGSA find anything?"

"Not yet. But I don't think we have enough time. Maybe few more deliveries and they'll be ready."

"Your instincts again?"

"Do you have any doubts?"

"It just sounds unreal."

"You have doubts. It's breaking my heart."

"Just focus on the mission, Lieutenant."

Takahiro was just trying to relax her. But it made him happy to see her all prepared. Any mistake could lead their way to their death.

"Wait did you just give me an order?"

After a while, they made a plan. JGSA kept an eye on both tracker and sensor and Shin was ready at the otherside of the line.

"We'll start hitting their factory and clear them one by one. I don't know how many of them are inside but they shouldn't be experienced in combat, at least we know they're not professionals. As the watchman's change their shift, we'll neutralise the one waiting outside. That'll give us roughly 10 minutes." explained Takahiro.

"Then we'll be able to enter the factory."

"Exactly. You'll sneak inside through the basement windows and I'll climb through the pipes to reach roof top. There's a door, which leads inside. And then I think we'll have around 9 minutes to search and destroy."

"As silent as we can.. what if we can't find Scarface in there?"

"The truck we saw at the sawmill this morning should leave the factory soon. We detected voices at the sawmill two times today, there's a 6 hours gap between them. They are probably gathering the guns in few different places for security, and trucks are transporting the guns between the factories and warehouses. When they finish the job they'll be transporting the guns to the Russian border with bigger trucks, not with the pickup ones we saw. All we have to do is somehow drag that truck to the bunker."

"Seems like very luck-based plan."

"That's the best I could do with our current intel. There might be lot of miscalculations in that plan. We just observed and hypothesized. We still don't know anything about their routes and how they really pass the border with the guns."

"Well, nothing to do I guess."

"Are you ready, Gina?"

"I am ready, Lieutenant. I'll do what has to be done."

They got their positions at opposite directions, as the night falls.

"Hey, Takahiro."

"What is it, Shin?"

"I just wonder, why did you accept her with you?"

"We're about to start an operation and is that what you're asking?"

"We still have few minutes, right?"

Takahiro sighed.

"She had her reasons."

"Is that all? She didn't use her charm on you, did she?"