The drive back to the safe house was silent, save for the hum of the engine. No one spoke. The failure was a physical presence in the car, suffocating and heavy.
Godwin stared out the window, the passing streetlights streaking across his stony face. He replayed every step, every piece of intel. It was all a lie. A setup.
So... anyone hungry tonight? Stephanie asked breaking the silence.
No one answered.
"Guys don't feel down it was bad Intel , our suspect probably didn't know that they were moving him." Stephanie said trying to ease the tension in the car
"Bad Intel will get you killed no matter how you try to sugar coat it." Godwin said with annoyed expression
He's right David agreed with Godwin taking of his helmet and setting it aside.
"weeks worth of recon down the drain".
From the shadowed back seat, Makarov turned his head slowly. His voice was a low, cold blade in the dark.
"This was not a mistake," he said. "This was an insult. And I do not like to be insulted."
Godwin couldn't also help but agree that tonight was an insult on this team's ability since it's founding.
"How long till we get to the airport?" Godwin asked
"30 minutes Stephanie responded"
"Tell Jenkins to get ready for us"
"Done"
The car lapsed back into a heavy silence, broken only by the hum of the engine and the weight of Makarov's words. An insult.
A sharp, priority alert chimed from Stephanie's laptop.
"Whoa, hold on," she said, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "We're getting a high-priority flash message. It's from Linda. It's flagged 'Cerberus'."
Godwin's jaw tightened. "Cerberus" was the codename for the official joint op—the mole extraction. The one that came with political baggage and a chain of command. The exact opposite of their clean, private kidnapping job that had just blown up in their faces.
"Her timing is impeccable," David muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Put her through," Godwin ordered.
Linda's voice, crackling with urgency, filled the car. "141, I see your private venture in Mexico has concluded. I hope you got what you paid for, because your vacation is over. The Cerberus asset is compromised. You are the closest team. This is now your primary objective."
Godwin seethed. She'd known what they were doing. She'd been watching. "Our private venture just failed because of bad intel, Linda. We're not in the mood for another one of your games."
"This isn't a game!" Linda's voice was sharp, final. "This is a direct order under the terms of our joint operations contract. Your commercial activities are suspended. The asset will be executed in six hours if you fail. Your new extraction point and mission parameters are being uploaded now. The clock is ticking."
The line went dead.
The silence in the car was now charged with a new kind of tension.
"They use our failure to force our hand," Makarov growled from the back. "Now we work for them to clean our name."
"Worse," Stephanie said, looking up from her screen. "They're consigning us. We have no choice. If we refuse, we breach our contract with the US government. We'd be blacklisted. We'd never work again."
Godwin looked at his team. The private mission was a bust, they'd lost the client's money, and now their governmental overseer was commandeering them for a suicide mission as punishment.
"Change of plans," Godwin said, his voice a low rumble. "Steph, send the new coordinates to Jenkins. Tell him we need a new bird and a new flight plan, now."
He turned to look out the windshield at the dark road ahead.
"Our payday's gone. Now we're working for our survival."
Somewhere in the darkness, a Scorpion waited.