Chapter 17

 September 22nd, 2222. A week has passed as Jade waited patiently. However, the other four of team Gumiho hadn't interacted much outside of their rooms. The sight of all of those people dying in the blink of an eye weighed down on all of them. Luckily, it seemed Carl was stronger than Jade expected based on their first meeting. She went through the halls and noticed Carl already consoling Dana and letting her lean against him as he tried to keep her together as her husband. Jade went to check on Garcia, and noticed there were already a few people in her room from the Ly'Lum military. Psychiatrists and military officers taking down notes of the event that happened. When Jade discreetly closed the door to Garcia's room, she turned to the only place she hadn't checked yet. She knocked on Silas' room and waited for an answer. After a while of no answer, she began to turn around until suddenly the door came open. When Silas' white left eye peered through the crack of the door, it nearly caught Jade off guard. "Silas?" Jade asks, almost a little shaken. "Are you alright? I know we haven't exactly been on the best terms, but... you four have been locked up in your rooms for a week now. I... I'm not the best person for this, but... if you need some help..."

 The door slowly opens as Silas stands in the doorway. His one white eye and his one black eye both looking weary and tired, as if he hasn't slept much over the past few days. "Sorry, I'm supposed to be the leader, but I suppose I let everyone down."

 "What about you?" Jade asks.

 "Me?" Silas asks.

 "Everyone else seems to have someone else to lean on." Jade asks. "Have you been refusing to see everyone because of what happened?" Silas looks down without answering. "Come on" Jade says as she enters the room and closes the door behind her. "I'm not about to embarrass myself in the hallway trying to help pull your shit together. Now, with the whole disappointing everyone thing. I can tell as a leader you hold yourself to a high standard. That's good, because if you didn't, I'd have to push you aside and take over as leader 'round here. I am not accepting some self-pitying, wishy-washy, no-good jackass as my leader. So, let's address the root of the problem. What has you still sulking?"

 "I failed and got tons of people killed..." Silas answers.

 "Did you kill them?" Jade asks.

 "Well, no but-"

 "Well, no but what?" Jade interrupts. "But you're gonna let every bump in the road stop you? Look, we all fuck up sometimes. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Sometimes, we don't fuck up at all and we do everything just right with absolutely no mistakes whatsoever and still fail. That's not a matter of being a failure, it's just life. So, which part of it was your fault?" Silas was silent and refused to answer. "The way I see it, and I hate to say this seeing as I am a federal agent... but I've had it with America's bullshit lately. If there's gonna be anyway to protect my family back home, it's gonna have to be done through me. That's what a leader does. Are you going to be letting me down by forgetting that, or are you willing to accept another failure?" Jade stops and stares at Silas as he looks up at her in shock, the stares back down as his hands and feet as he sits on the bed. "Give your answer soon, Silas." Jade says as she answers the door. "I won't wait around for long. Whether I like it or not, I still need you on this team. It's up to you if you're going to remain a leader or not."

 "Wait!" Silas says as he stands up and grabs the door just before it closes. Silas forces the door open, his darkened eyes now wider opened. "You're right... I already knew that. I'm sorry for losing my grip."

 "Now that's more like it." Jade says with her arms crossed. "The Gumiho Unit is young... so we're going to need to ramp up the ante if we're going to make any impact at all. Now, clean yourself up. You look like shit." As Jade walks away, Silas looks down as he pulls on his shirt and inspects himself briefly.

 The next day, September 23rd, 2222. The whole team has shown up for an emergency meeting. "Are we getting our first mission already?" Silas asks as they all show up. 

 "I wish it could have been good news." Haru says as she places some files down on the large round table. "We have some very important business to discuss and I'm afraid this will be the first real test of the Gumiho Unit. First and foremost, we have identified the nature of which the weapon was directed. This weapon that struck Brazil was the first of its kind. Likely used Brazil as a test. The weapons system was mostly endo in nature and it's likely the explosives development was a distraction leading up to this. Unfortunately, there is more to it. We couldn't find any trace of any sort of guidance system used in the wreckage. Top researchers believe this to be a satellite guided weapon. Seeing as how Russia, China and the US are the only three countries still with working satellites in space right now, that narrows the possibility to a solid three. Considering all events taken place recently, we can find no reason Russia nor China to have any involvement. By reason of deduction, we're following the assumption that America is in fact the ones who fired this weapon."

 "So, my people died for a test!?" Garcia yells.

 "It's likely they had more goals in Brazil than just the test." Holly replies. "We can't say for sure, but they did have agents deployed in Brazil. It's likely they had more than one goal here, and learned one of their goals were compromised. So, to create plausible deniability, they wiped the evidence and everything else along with it."

 "Sounds like they had plans to influence a foreign government." Carl says.

 "Not the first time that's happened." Dana adds.

 "Indeed." Holly replies. "With tilting the balance of powers in Brazil just a little, it's likely they could've used that to insert their influence by funding the bad guys and then deploying people to fight said bad guys."

 "There's a rumor about said operation." Haru says. "One murmured about a very long time ago. It was called Operation Gladio. An operation that began following the second world war. In the late 1950's."

 "What is Operation Gladio and why does some old operation from before the Naris Catastrophe even matter?" Silas asks.

 "Because it hasn't stopped." Haru says. "Operation Gladio is an operation for a stay behind guerilla warfare army. It started by funding secret militaries to remain behind to fight threats that remained following the second world war. A secret army to scope out potential danger and remove threats before they expand."

 "Sounds similar to a counter terrorist unit." Carl adds.

 "Problem is, such a thing wound up funding terrorists themselves as they used drug money to fund wars to put pressure on anything that in any way opposed the ideals of whoever it is at the time that gives the commands." Holly says.

 "So, who gives the commands?" Jade asks.

 "I wish we could tell." Holly replies. "As far as we can assume, they may or may not be American."

 "May or may not be American?" Jade asks.

 "Operation Gladio seems to stand as its own self preserving and self-driven force." Haru adds. "I wish we could slap a simple label on it and direct our focus to a common enemy... but it seems they don't have the best interests of America in mind. With that being said, it's highly likely to be controlled either by a rogue group, or worse."

 "Worse?" Carl asks.

 "You mean... a shadow organization?" Jade asks skeptically.

 "Can't say for sure." Haru replies. "Of course, there's much we need to confirm. And if it is in fact some 3rd party calling the shots within America, we want them brought down. So we're going to have to play our hands more than careful. We are not moving forward as if America is the enemy. We are hosting an investigation. Last thing we need is yet another war against the US."

 "Of course, there's more bad news." Holly says. "We got word from America... Jade, it's about your family."

 "What do you mean?" Jade asks.

 "Jade, we got word delivered this morning that your family was targeted by Skell." Holly replies. "Your family... has been killed in a terrorist strike."

 "You're kidding!" Jade shouts as she stands up, visibly angry.

 "Jade! I know this sounds off, but just let us say that-" Haru tries to speak up.

 "If I wasn't camping around and waiting here for you all, I could've been home and I could've saved them!" Jade yells as she starts to stomp out of the control room.

 "Jade! Wait!" Silas yells as he stands up and chases her out of the door. "Jade!" Silas says as he grabs her arm.

 "They're dead because of me..." Jade says while trembling, refusing to look back at Silas. "Because I wasn't there for them."

 "Jade, this isn't your fault." Silas says.

 "Then whose fault is it!?" Jade yells.

 Silas pauses for a moment and sees several tears roll off of her chin as she yells. "Did... you kill them?" Silas asks. Jade freezes as he continues to say "Sometimes we do nothing wrong and still fail. But that isn't your fault... that's Skell's. Do you think we're really going to just let them get away with it?" Jade slowly looks back at Silas as he says "We're going to find that bastard, if it's the last thing I do. I promise. But I am not going to let you do that alone. There's no way we could've known about this coming. If you want to blame someone, blame Skell. We'll find him, but we're not doing this without you either. We need you on this team, Jade. Deal?"

 Jade yanks her arm out of Silas' grip and stands still for a moment. then she starts walking away without answering. "When we find him..." she suddenly says as she walks away, "I get the first swing at him."