Part 1 – Member Down

U.S. Embassy, Berlin…

"Be careful right around here," Valkyrie said as she pointed to one of the doorways leading into the Ambassador's Office, "They could very well have booby-trapped that section, there are two sets of corners there where a trip-mine could have been easily hidden."

"Take a few jamming devices," Buck said as he fixed the M26 MASS underneath his Colt 933, "Maybe some cameras."

"Got it mate," Thatcher said as he slipped a few EMP grenades into his belt, "Ready for this?"

"You know I am," Buck said as he loaded the 30-round clip into his Colt 933 before looking up at Twitch who was adjusting one of her drones, "Twitch, you game?"

"Ready," she said as she looked up at Buck, "I should have enough charges to wipe out every mine that they put down."

"Good," Buck said as he jumped down onto the ground, "Let's get going."

It should be a simple mission, rappel to the second floor, disable the guards, break into the Ambassador's office, kill the tangos, save the Ambassador, and get out of there.

Prior planning prevents piss-poor performances, and that's exactly what they did when they brought Valkyrie in, she was one of the best in the business when it comes to defense, so she could help the team a lot when it comes to planning the assault.

Glaz had set up a sniper's nest in a building across the square that had a perfect view of the building, the sniper set up in the window right where the team would be moving in had yet to notice him.

The sniper didn't see Glaz or even realize that he was drawing a perfect bead right on the sniper's forehead.

The suppressor on the end of Glaz's Dragunov made an almost silent 'pong' as the bullet left the end of the gun, and emptied the contents of the sniper's head.

His friend didn't notice, and he certainly didn't notice when Glaz took him down.

"You're clear," Glaz said as he pressed two fingers to his earpiece.

"Let's go," Buck said as he signaled the team forward.

The team quickly moved up to the front of the embassy, and upon reaching the entrance, Buck pointed up at the roof, then at Twitch who hooked her FAMAS F2 around her waist, threw a line to the roof, and began climbing.

Twitch climbed up to the first window, and as she leaped through, she spotted two hostiles waiting by the windows.

Taking aim, she fired two bursts, and both slumped to the ground.

Twitch then signaled the rest of the team up, Thatcher went up first, his L85A2 was slapping against his leg as he made his way up the side of the building.

Next was Buck, and finally Sledge.

Sledge, of course, had to have buck hold the Caber as he swung himself into the building.

"Good work," Buck whispered as he slapped Twitch on the shoulder.

"Thanks," Twitch said as she set her drone down, "Let's see what's up ahead."

Twitch eased her drone forward toward the ambassador's office, when she crossed the corner Valkyrie told them to watch out for, but when she rounded the corner, there was nothing, as if the hostiles didn't know they were coming.

"We're clear," Twitch said as she closed her controller's tablet, and signaled the team forward.

As the team approached the door, they saw the hostiles had closed it with reinforced steel shutters.

"Thatcher," Buck whispered as he pointed at the door.

Thatcher approached the door with a breaching charge, but as he was reaching for the door, there was a buzzing sound coming from behind the shutter.

"What's that," Buck asked.

"Get down," Twitch said as she dove on top of Thatcher as the steel shutter exploded outwards, lodging a piece of 1095 High-Carbon steel six inches into her upper thigh.

As she screamed in pain, a volley of small arms fire came from the other side of the door.

Outside, the team heard the explosion, and Valkyrie instantly got on her radio, "Thatcher, what the fuck is going on?"

"Twitch is injured," Thatcher said as he clutched Twitch close against his chest with his left arm, and shielded her head with his right, "We're taking heavy fire!"

One of the hostiles was about to walk out right before Sledge swung out his Caber, and as the hostile walked out, the Caber cracked his sternum.

As the hostile fell back, Buck tore his P35 out of his side-arm holster and emptied the clip into the hostile.

Buck stood up, pulled the pin on two stun grenades, and lobbed them into the room.

As the grenades went off, the gunfire stopped, and Buck and Sledge busted into the room.

The hostile that was armed with the Light Machinegun was the first to go as Sledge shot him through the back with his M590A1.

The hostile behind the ambassador's desk stood up, only for Buck to mow him down with one burst from his Colt 933.

One of the hostile stood up with his P226 raised only for Sledge to blast him with his shotgun, pinning him to the wall.

Buck ran around behind the desk to see the Ambassador had taken cover underneath the desk, "Mr. Ambassador," Buck said as he knelt down to cut the Ambassador's twist-tie cuffs, "We're here to get you home. I need your clearance."

"Bravo Alpha One," the Ambassador said as he stood up.

"Good," Buck said, "Valkyrie, we have the principle, we're coming out."

Outside, Thatcher tore off his belt, and used it as a tourniquet on Twitch's leg, "Twitch is losing blood," Thatcher said as he threw the French operative on his shoulder, "Have Med-Evac standing by!"

"Let's go," Sledge said as he walked out in front of Buck.

As they approached the front door, Sledge quickly threw a grenade down the stairs which destroyed the barricade the hostiles had set up over the front entrance.

"We're coming out," Sledge said, "Cover us!"

As the team was leaving through the front entrance, Buck noticed that the hostiles that were set up next to the front were nothing more than mannequins set up to look like armed guards.

They scrambled out the front door, and as they did, Valkyrie ran up to Thatcher who was carrying Twitch, "We have Doc standing by," she said as she guided Thatcher over to the command truck.

The team jumped into the command truck where Doc had set up a make-shift hospital.

"Hand her here," Doc said as he reached out to Thatcher who handed Twitch over as the bullets from the remaining hostiles came rushing in.

Buck threw the ambassador inside and turned to return fire at the hostiles as Sledge and Valkyrie jumped into the command truck behind Thatcher.

Buck jumped in next, and slammed the doors shut, "We're in, let's go!" He exclaimed.

The driver slammed on the gas, and pulled away as Doc started working on Twitch's wound, "Shard missed the femoral artery," he said, "Thatcher, when I pull, you use the gauze to keep the wound from bleeding!"

"Ok, mate," Thatcher said as he readied the medical gauze right as Doc gripped the shard of metal lodged in Twitch's thigh.

"On three," Doc said, "One… two… three," as Doc pulled the shard out, Twitch screamed in pain while Thatcher quickly pressed the gauze onto the wound.

"Wound compressed," Thatcher said as Doc undid the tourniquet, and prepared a syringe of Clonazepam, he then looked at Twitch, "Alright, I'm gonna give you something to calm you down," he patted her vest, "You'll be fine."

As he injected the Clonazepam into Twitch's arm, her breathing became more stable.

The command truck came to a stop as they pulled up in front of the building Glaz, who came running down the stairs with his SVU in hand had set up in.

Glaz threw open the door to the command truck's passenger seat, and as he slammed the door, the driver slammed on the gas.

The C130 Hercules waiting for the team at the Berlin-Tegel Airport was fired up the second the Command Truck pulled onto the runway.

There were no sign of pursuers as the back-gate of the plane closed, and the plane began taxing down the runway.

The flight from Berlin back to Hereford took a little over two hours, but the wait for the debriefing by Six seemed like a few hours for Buck, Thatcher, and Sledge.

As soon as Six's receptionist called them in, they entered the briefing room to see that Six wasn't too thrilled.

Her black jacket was removed, the white shirt she wore was messed up, and by the amount left in the coffee pot she had had several cups prior to the meeting.

"Come in," she said as she ushered the team to sit down, "Now, I want to know what happened, and I want to know now."

"We had Glaz take down the snipers," Buck said, "As we entered, Twitch took down two hostiles at the front door which I later discovered were dummies set up to look like hostiles."

"We entered behind her, at which point Twitch deployed her drone to scout the area ahead we were going to enter," Thatcher said, "When she confirmed there were no booby traps in the area, we proceeded. As I went to plant a breaching charge on the door, we all heard a mysterious sound, and that's when Twitch dove on top of me which saved my life."

"When the shutter exploded we came under heavy fire by the hostiles inside," Sledge said, "As one of the hostiles rushed outside, I knocked him to the ground with the Caber, and that's when Buck threw several stun grenades into the room."

"Upon taking out the hostiles me and Sledge entered the room while Thatcher stayed behind to tend to Twitch," Buck said, "We took down the hostiles, and secured the principle."

"As we got the principle in the truck, we came under fire from the remaining hostiles as Doc discovered that Twitch's injuries were not life-threatening," Thatcher said, "Upon retrieving Glaz, we retreated to the airport."

"How's Twitch," Six asked.

"Doc finished the surgery an hour ago," Buck said, "She's sleeping off the anesthesia."

"She'll have to stay out of the field for a few weeks, but otherwise she'll be fine," Thatcher said.

Six grabbed Thatcher's hand, "I read Doc's report, you applied the tourniquet, and got her into the truck," she said, "Twitch is alive because of you."

"It should be me lying on that bed," Thatcher said, "Not her."

"Don't worry," Six said, "She's alive, you're alive, and that's all that matters right now," she then stood up, "Now onto more pressing matters," Six hit the button on her intercom, "Send them in."

As door opened, the rest of the team (minus Twitch) entered, Valkyrie sat on the side of Thatcher, and put her hand on his shoulder, "Don't beat yourself up, Mike," she said, "She's fine."

"Alright," Six said as she stood up, "Now onto pressing matters. The White Masks seem to know too much about us, and exactly how we're going to operate. The recent attack on the American Embassy in Berlin is proof of that. Now Intelligence believes that they have found out who's giving our operational details away, and you're not going to like it."

The screen behind Six came to life with the picture of a Rainbow Six personnel file. The man in the picture was six feet tall, half Polynesian, half Caucasian, he had brown eyes, and the vertically-combined silver stripes on his lapel identified him as a Captain. His name was listed as Mark Carpenter, codenamed, Ghost.

"Ghost," Blackbeard asked.

"Captain Mark Carpenter, former member of Seal Team Six," Six said, "Was recruited into the C.I.A.'s Black Ops Division before being asked to join Rainbow, and flourished in the unit. That was until it was temporarily shut down. When Rainbow was shut down, Carpenter begged NATO to reconsider, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, and Rainbow was shut down. After Rainbow was disbanded, he went underground, gathering contacts, and forming connections."

"Sir, if I may," Pulse said, "If he used to be one of us, how do we know he's working for the Masks?"

"Until recently we didn't know where he was," Six said as a picture of Carpenter sitting in a small café somewhere in the Middle East talking to an unidentified man appeared on the screen behind her, "But then this came up, and the man that Carpenter is talking to is non other than Amal Dunbar. A senior member of The White Masks."

The picture of the man Carpenter was talking to was then rapidly compared to multiple pictures before arriving at Dunbar's picture, and the facial features of the man in the picture were a 100% match to Dunbar's facial features.

"Shit," Castle said, "What's our next move then boss? Load up a plane, and track Carpenter down?"

"I wish that were an option," Six said, "Unfortunately, we have no idea where Carpenter is at this point, and we can't spend time hunting him down while these attacks keep happening."

"Then what are we supposed to do ma'am," Glaz asked, "We do nothing, and Carpenter can keep doing unprecedented damages to Rainbow. Twitch nearly lost her leg, and if we do nothing about Carpenter, we might lose a member next time."

"I know that," Six said, "Which is why I've found us an answer."

The picture that appeared in place of various pictures of Carpenter in action was of a young man about twenty-four to twenty-six years old, he was Caucasian, six-foot-two, had thick brown hair, and blue eyes. The stripes on his arms identified him as a Staff-Sergeant. His name was Ben Stevens Lovecraft. His codename: Wolf.

"Wolf," Thatcher asked.

"Staff Sergeant Benjamin Lovecraft, ex Green-Beret," Six said, "At the age of seventeen, he had his father sign him into the U.S. Army where he passed basic training at the head of his class, making sniper. After graduating college in just three years, he celebrated by signing up for the Green Berets, leaving at the head of his class, and stayed in for six years. At twenty-six he left the Green Berets to take a job at Academi to pay for his father's cancer treatments. At the age of twenty-nine, after his father's passing from cancer he left Academi to help his mother, sister, and brother-in-law run his family's ranch. To this day he has the highest confirmed kill count in the U.S. Military with two hundred and seventeen confirmed kills."

"He certainly has impressive credentials," Valkyrie said, "But why do we need the help of a former-Green-Beret-turned-mercenary-turned-farmer?"

"He served with Carpenter," Six said, "When he was with Academi, the company reached out to Rainbow to provide their members with additional training. While training the recruits, Carpenter served as Lovecraft's spotter, the two had a very active mentor-disciple relationship. Lovecraft knows how Carpenter works, how he thinks, and we could use his skills as a sniper."

"Where can we find him then," Thermite asked.

"Only one place to find him," Six said, "His family's ranch just outside of Waco, Texas."

Guess what happens next…