Lance: Wolves

Blackwolf Base camp, Mt. Elberus, UAC

***

Lance looked downwards through a circular window of the helicopter's door watching the expanse of the base's top view. Gooseflesh had crawled up on his skin witnessing a wide military base secretly built on the mountain.

Lance felt melancholic at the moment. He had a lot of feelings rushing inside his thoughts, but what stood out the most, apart from his memories of Angela, was the feeling of excitement to be in service again for the country.

To be a hero again.

The base camp had a small airstrip, 2 helicopters lined near the heliport, and 3 predators parked at the start of the strip. There were 3 large bunkers formed like domes and painted with brown and green camouflage all over them.

"These bunkers are made of 30-inch steel designed to withstand missile or even nuclear blasts," Elaine explained to Lance from the helicopter's headphone speaker. "The Facility is fenced with electrified optic wires on top of the solid concrete 100-meter-high square fence. There are 6 towers strategically placed around the facility and each tower manned two black-clad operatives with a sniper and a mounted heavy machine gun."

"This is some base huh!" Lance watched the Commander but he received only a smile.

"We prioritize safety from external threats." Kate responded.

"It seemed that you are not only fighting AK47s here."

"You can never be so sure, Lieutenant."

There were armored vehicles, ATVs, and road bikes, parked in the parking lot of the facility. All the grounds covered inside the facility were concretized and vastly colored with lines for safety precautions. The whole facility-covered area was at least 20 hectares wide and the bunkers consumed a quarter of the large patch of the covered land.

"We are packing heavy here. It's like we are prepping for war!" Lance said but Kate did not respond.

As they descended towards the helipad, the helicopter pilot spoke to his head-mounted microphone.

"Sir, LZ on 60 seconds." The Commander affirmed with the pilot.

"I expect a lot from you, soldier. Always remember, what you are doing here today is for your country and your family." James reminded. For the rest of the flight, the Commander was quiet.

'Family. This is for you, Angela.' Lance thought.

As they landed, they all went out of the helicopter with their heads slightly bent to prevent their heads to be sucked up by the decreasing whirring helicopter's blades. Lance noticed a black-clad operative with a logo of a black wolf stenciled in his vest running towards them. The operative addressed the Commander and saluted,

"Sir, the men are ready for briefing. They are in the Mission Center." The young operative saluted.

They walked past the landing zone towards the bunker. They were escorted by the officer.

"What are these bunkers?" Lance asked Kate.

"The largest bunker is the Mission Center where the Armory, R&D, and major Black operations' mission briefings happens," Kate explained. "The 2nd bunker is where the operatives are housed, with a pantry, gym, barracks, and training division. The third one is said to be a warehouse. I am not really sure."

Lance's melancholic feeling was now totally replaced with enthusiasm and eagerness. He was moved by the military atmosphere that enveloped this facility. The scenery for him was motivating, armed vehicles running, military operatives training, loud unison chants by the agents jogging around the base, and test flights of predators and drones. It was very alive inside these walls that it can be hardly noticed if you are outside the fence.

As they reached the biggest bunker, the operative with them swiped his ID card to a touchpad panel at breast level located at the right side of the door panel. About a second, green-colored light bulbs on the top of the panel lit up and the two large panels slid to the right and the other to the opposite until it was opened.

As they enter, 2 operatives standing in front of them carrying assault rifles supposedly for inspection, but they recognized the Commander thus they immediately permit them to pass thru without further scrutiny.

Lance was flabbergasted by what was inside the bunker. There were two floors but hollow in the center where you can see the second floor looking from the ground. The first floor was composed of several divisions divided between thick transparent fiberglass walls.

Inside these rooms were several monitors and military personnel and some researchers in front of wide flat computer monitors. These divisions were composed of the weapons research division, the drones and spy devices division, and the Reconnaissance Division.

The Commander, Agent Kate, and Lance went inside an elevator to access the second floor. They directly headed to a covered conference room. As they went inside, the Elite squad members were sitting down on their chairs talking, bickering, and laughing. As Captain Luke recognized them arriving, he then ordered his men,

"Officer on deck!". Then they all snappily stood up and saluted and the room grew silent.

The Commander saluted them back.

"At ease boys." He continued, "This is Lieutenant Lance Davis, and as you all know this is Agent Katherine "aka Kate" Brown from the recon division."

Captain Luke smiled when he saw Lance and said to him, "So the rumors are true. You have gained weight." Luke chuckled after a sarcasm. Lance, even though was a six footer, he had thin features and an unintimidating aura. Unlike the Elite squad members were like made by nails and steel.

"It is good to have you here."

"I see you are not dead. It's like I am seeing a ghost." The Lieutenant smiled back. "It is great to see you again, brother." They shook hands.

"Enough with the bromance," The Commander addressed the whole team in the room.

"Soldiers, the Lieutenant here will join the Kill squad. He will go protocols as all recruits have undergone and the training for each squad will be supervised by Captain Luke, Agent Kate, and for the SRS squad is Agent Ken."

"Kill squad?" Lance asked the Commander but the Captain was the one who replied, "There are three highly trained elite squads in Blackwolf. One is the Recon squad which is agent Kate here is affiliated. The other is the Kill squad – the best of the best of course", a gentle cheer from the team and Luke continued, "we are the ones who are assigned in assassination missions, extractions, and the like."

"Sounds boastful." Lance reacted.

"We have succeeded in 55 missions," Luke continued. "And last but not least is the SRS squad or the Search, Rescue, and Sweep. They are the ones who cleaned our messes after the Kill squad missions because we are covert. What happened never happened. No records."

"Thanks, Captain!" The Commander said.

The Commander asked Agent Kate for her to tell a little about the Recon squad.

"The Recon squad does the espionage work and intel before the kill squad goes into a mission," Kate explained. "We do most of the enemy monitoring, perimeter scouting, hacking into systems and all works that require high cognitive functions.

All others not members of the 3 squads, were tier 1 and 2 Blackwolf operatives, depending on where they are assigned. They have to excel in their assessments for them to enter tier 3 or the elite squads."

The Agent at the back end, one of the youngest Kill squad members, Agent Joseph Neil, raised his hand and stood up. He was recognized by the Commander.

"What happened to the mission Blacksweep, Commander?" Joseph asked sheepishly, "Why were our squad members ambushed and slaughtered by our enemy? It sounds to me that the Recon squad did not do their jobs." Silence engulfed the room.

Agent Kate started to retort for that unpredictable question but she was interrupted by the Commander.

"Kate, let me handle this." The Commander took a few steps forward, nearing the crowd.

"Agent Neil, you are young and dumb raising that question." The Commander had a sharp stare upon the young agent as the latter sat back down.

"Every unit did their jobs no doubt. We were caught off guard by our enemy. We do not know how but we are looking into that matter. Personally, I have a gut feeling that there is a mole in BlackWolf and I will eventually know." The Commander took a few steps more in front of the crowd while he gazed at Agent Neil and stared at him with the famous death stare,

"Maybe you are the Mole, Agent Neil?"

Agent Joseph suddenly was perspiring and immediately responded.

"I am a true patriot sir. Loyal to our cause and UAC, sir! I can assure you that it is not me, sir!"

Everyone in the room was looking at him and remained silent about the idea. The Commander turned his back away from the crowd took a few steps back to his original position, and turned to them again.

"You better not be Agent Neil, you better not be."

"Any more questions, Lieutenant?" Kate changed the topic.

"Black Wolf?" Lance replied.

"We are a unit, a pack of wolves. We are the predators and we hunt, we are deadly creatures and unstoppable as a pack. Our Alpha male is Commander James." One agent, on his late thirties, answered.

"Yeah, that's right." Several agents affirmed.

"Settle down boys. I expect you to mold Lieutenant Lance here to become one of the elites. He is already tagged as tier 3 based on his experience but I know we do things differently here. So you boys, should ponder him the ways of the elite squads."

The Commander gave the team a faint smile and left the room. Agent Kate introduced the recruit one by one and they responded positively and were happy to see Lance joining the team. Lance was very well known by almost all military operatives because of his heroism and bravery.

Lance exchanged smiles with them as he was introduced informally.

"Rest good, Lieutenant. Tomorrow is the start of your training. It won't be easy, I assure you. I won't be easy with you." Kate said as she dismissed the introductions.

"She's right. Your training will be very hard." Luke interjected. "Far worse than our military days. This is some sort of an initiation of a new brand of brotherhood."

Lance did not say a word but instead, he nodded. He looked to both Kate and Luke, showing confidence that he could take whatever was in store for him.

"If you can do it. I can too." Lance convinced.