Wolf glanced expectantly at his unit. None of them had been expecting the sergeant to announce this type of news, but there the man was, glaring at each and every one of them with a snarl on his face. He supposed the sergeant wasn't too happy, considering the SIS had forced the man to agree. It was his pride on the line, no doubt.
"Cub will stay with you in your cabin until further notice," the sergeant barked. "You'll get a new recruit once he's out, to replace Fox." No one mentioned that Fox had left the SAS for MI6. It didn't seem like a reasonable time to point out the nitpicky details. "I expect all of you to complete your brush-up training in the meantime. I don't care what Cub does, as long as he's with you training. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!" Wolf ground his teeth but it didn't matter. The sergeant was of the highest authority here, and he wasn't about to lose his job on account of one annoying teenager. Cub. What a surprise. Technically, Wolf supposed, the annoying brat was a part of K-unit but not by choice or even reason. At first, Wolf had believed Cub as a son to some rich man. Then he was called for active duty at Point Blank. There he had learned the truth about Cub's training. He was working for MI6, the same bloody organization that had recruited Fox.
K-unit was simply a test for the kid. Cub was surprisingly good for a teenager, keeping out far longer than Wolf first expected, even ending with seventeen and a half minutes on the obstacle course. Though Wolf had received the same time his first time, he wasn't about to dish out that information any time soon. The brat may as well be—
The sergeant's voice broke Wolf's thoughts, although this time his voice was considerably softer like he didn't want others to hear despite the fact that the room only held its four occupants. "SIS called ahead of time. Cub's having some physical and psychological issues," he said, frowning for a briefest of moments. Wolf took this moment to wonder what had happened, especially since it had been nearly a year last seeing the teen. "I don't want you to entirely treat him like SAS because he's not. However, he needs help and familiar faces might do him some good. He's mute, now."
Mute? The word froze Wolf in an instant. The last time he had seen Cub, he was admittedly silent, but only because he had just slammed into a barbed wire fence and a train. Barely conscious even. And the time before, he seemed to be a little out of place in the SAS training camp with his youth yet he still spoke to answer orders. That, and to show his ability to pickpocket the sergeant for matches.
From the look on his unit's faces, they hadn't been expecting an even greater surprise than Cub's return. Eagle looked as though someone was preparing to throw a pie in his face, squeamish at the news. Snake, on the other hand, looked stoic. To an outsider, it would have seemed like he was indifferent, but after a few years of training with the man, Wolf knew the cogs in his head were reeling at the possibilities. The man's medic mode was in overdrive in thinking up ways to fix up Cub.
Then he thought of something else. "Sir?" Wolf questioned. "How do we know if he needs something?" Not that Wolf actually cared. Teenagers were bound to be annoying, mute or no. It was, however, Wolf's job to keep the unit together, and that meant the kid's necessities needed to kept in account as well.
The sergeant didn't blink. "You'll just have to find out," he stated. "Now get out of here! Cub should already be at the cabin."
K-unit simply nodded and walked their way out. It was silent as they trudged their way up the hill to the unit's cabin. Wolf personally would have thought this as a welcome change, considering Eagle's loud mouth, if it weren't for the gnawing dread growing in his stomach.
"What the hell do you think happened?" Eagle suddenly burst out. Snake looked at Eagle with an eyebrow raised but didn't reply. Inwardly, Wolf sighed. Team leader or no, it would be better to shut Eagle up now instead of in front of the boy's presence.
"I don't know," Wolf replied shortly. "MI6's not going to just hand out the kid's file and we didn't get any information from the sergeant. We don't need to know."
"But the sergeant said—"
"The sergeant didn't give us any information about the kid because we don't need to know," Wolf said, exasperated. "We just need to get him a bit familiar with all of us, maybe get him to like our company."
Eagle's mouth opened and closed as he attempted to think of another reason. Privately, Wolf thought he looked like a fish, with its mouth hanging wide open. It was a good look for his teammate, considering his lack of sense in the field.
"We're here." Snake's voice cut between Eagle and Wolf. Wolf glanced up at his cabin with a sudden sense of foreboding. Cub was back at Brecon Beacons.