Chapter 026: Shock

He hurriedly schooled his expression and looked around, content that neither the target of his emotions nor his men noticed anything.

"We will see when the time comes."

While she glance at him indifferently at that answer, he continued:

"Are you really not going to show your face? Doesn't it bother you to stay a specter, a phantom, not being able to enjoy all the glory you deserve? Everyone has always wanted to know what you looked like, to put a face on the legend of the intelligence world, the ace among many. We didn't even know that you were a woman till now."

With the cold treatment continuing, he kept talking anyway after a moment while his men became silent to listen:

"You know, "Specter", we are only aware of your achievements, the advantages you brought to your country through the information you stole, bought from improbable turncoats or faked to provoke some situations. Targets whose elimination were splendidly planned by you judging by the modus operandi, opposite countries you managed to frame for the destabilization of some countries and regions that were war zones or politically unstable and prone to external influences, benefiting your homeland directly or not and so on. Even your enemies respect you amidst their hatred and dread. You are like a star in the intelligence agencies of the big brother of the free world."

"A star they want to give a third eye to if and when they fail to break her."

This time he got a more pronounced reaction. She turned the spear around after her comment:

"I know what you are trying to do, just like what will happen if agents of enemy agencies meet: extracting information from me, trying to construct and perfect my personality matrix to complement your files at the CIA, get under my skin to destabilize me and, why not, see if I can be turned around and or exploited."

Fixing the man for a moment:

"But, let's talk about you, Marc Garretti aka "Hawk" for your belligerence and bloodthirstiness, the leader of a black ops team under some obscure program of the CIA. I also know you. You are sent by your brass to navigate the worst shit that none of them in their hypocrisy would want to be stained with so as no to taint their image. You have been to Africa, the Middle East, Balkans, Europe, India, Japan, Korea and even China. You were quite easy to track with your works always being rough and lacking in delicateness. Even your nanny can't sweep everything after you and that goes to show just how much of a bad shit stirrer you are. Or good depending on the perspective. I won't even talk about the dirty jobs we all know you were made to do in your own country."

Going back to ignoring him to give more weight to the indifferent words in this smokeless war:

"I just wonder, what could have made a former Delta force rising star like you forsake all the honor, glory and fame to take your present path, hiding in the shadows and the dirt and contributing to humans' filthy darkness? Maybe you are the one who should make yourself known to enjoy all the sun has to offer. What do you think?"

Marc "Hawk" Garretti was now sporting such an ugly look that even with his mask on, none doubted that he could explode at any moment and jump on the temporary ally of his team, causing his men to subtly get ready to hold him back at a moment's notice to avoid jeopardizing the mission.

However, contrary to what the ferocity shining in his eyes indicated, Marc, after a tense few seconds took a deep breath and looked away, to the astonishment of all.

Even if his mood evidently became terrible, he suppress his temper as a professional should during a job and turned to his men as he ordered:

"The small ridge 50 meters in front, a few degrees to the right, will be our last stop. Eat your delicious military rations and drink a few sips of water. Even if anyone wants to freeze his dick, it's now or never. 10 minutes everyone."

With the change of subject, everyone made a show of forgetting what just happened and upped the pace a little. Miss "Specter", the only woman in the group however, while she didn't say anything either, was frowning at the reaction she got.

Marc "Hawk" Garretti was quite the representative of the way of doing things of the "big brother of the free world", their style lacking finesse most of the time than not, so she knew about him. When she was told that he might be her contact for the joint operation this time, she made even more research about him.

She knew why he was almost dishonorably discharged from the Delta force before being recruited by a dark program: his temper made him beat a companion to the point of disability. He was almost court-martialed for a bigger punishment and that same man suppressed his temper when a person from the gender he generally considered inferior humiliated that much. And it can't be because of his empathy since only its lack made an ideal candidate out of him for his actual job.

They arrived at the rest point and, after a cursory sweep, everyone looked for a place to find some unlikely comfort in this world of snow and ice. While Mar Garretti and his men were still almost instinctively strategically positioned to cover each other and the surroundings, she went a little to the side where she could all of them in her sight as she kept analyzing what happened:

'The reports were not wrong, I saw the beastly ferocity in his eyes so he was prepared to act against me. What could make someone like him swallow his pride? Either the mission is so important that his superiors put some leash on him or he leashed himself since maybe, contrary to me, he knows what is about to be transacted, and it is valuable enough that the mission is made a priority.'

Keeping an eye on the men with more attention on their leader, she took out her compressed food that she ate in a few bites. She then took out her gourd to push the unpalatable food down with water.

'But that was only the positive possibilities. Another reason to suppress his temper would be because he knows I won't survive this mission or he is assured of another opportunity to get back at me. That implies that there is danger but when and where? After the mission is accomplished or a trap well before that?'

As she drank, she saw Marc smirk with a nefarious glint in the eyes as he looked at her.

Continuing her action indifferently, she seemed to get the confirmation that something would go down at some point of this trip.

Suddenly, she felt a brief spell of dizziness, almost making her shake her head to force it away, though she managed to stop herself fast enough to not give any indication to the people present.

She frowned even more and took her own pulse as she saw Marc smirk widened like he noticed what was happening.

Her pulse was abnormal. Going through possible health reasons, she eliminated them till she got an unlikely answer:

'I seem to have been drugged but I avoided any direct contact with them and my drug resistance was trained so they would need something strong to affect me. Unless they got me directly, they should also be affected.'

She saw no reaction from the men but the dizziness and disorientation was becoming stronger, almost unbearable.

Slowly, her heart plummeted as she looked on the ground, at the wrapping of the compressed food she just ate. When every possibility had been eliminated, the impossible became the only explanation. No wonder the food was more unpalatable than usual. In the water, that kind of weird taste would have been a dead give away.

'But I didn't feel anything while eating it...'

That meant that a trigger was needed for the drug to be effective, but her supplies had been meticulously prepared.

While denying the conclusion she came to, she slowly looked at the gourd she was still holding in her gloved hand. She could almost hear her heart breaking.

The shock she felt made her brain stall, before she lost control of her body and fell down with only one thought:

'How…?'