skeleton but ghost

Laswell wasn’t exaggerating—you might really be the only person able to pull this mission off.

You get debriefed on the way there—Mexico again—on comms with Laswell while the heli flies you to the mission.

“Consider it Fort Knox,” Laswell says, her voice slightly staticky on the other end. You flip through your tablet, studying blueprints and specifications while you listen. “Five doors with difficult encryptions. They all have to be opened within three minutes or the server shuts down and the data is erased. Remember, you have the source code—we’re relying on your speed here.”

“Understood,” you nod, your mouth going dry. Three minutes…that would be tight. You’re already going over code in your head, strategizing on the fastest way to input commands and hack like you need to. “I have my insertion point here. Just have to make it through the building and hope they don’t send in their reinforcements too fast.”

“Don’t worry about the battle, the joint op will take care of everything. You just focus on the hack…and do what you do best.”

You sigh, muttering a silent prayer. The pilot’s voice breaks through the headset, a heads-up on how much time you have until insertion.

“Go time. Take care, Las. I’ll call you back with good news.”

You put your tablet away along with the rest of your gear and stand up, feeling the heli drop in your gut. You nod to the other soldiers, their rifles at the ready.

The door slides open and as soon as they’re close enough to the roof, the men begin filing out, securing the area. You check your own rifle briefly before following them.

“Bravo team, asset has landed. Heading to target now; keep it locked down.” Comms are still staticky and distorted slightly—you’ll have to check out your headset later.

“Copy, Charlie,” Bravo team replies, and soon after the roof’s door is being kicked down and you rush inside with the soldiers.

Clearing the building is easy. A little nerve wrecking, but you attribute that to being away for so long. Anxiety pools hot in your stomach but you tamp it down, keeping your head on a swivel for any hidden threats.

All you find are already dead enemies surrounded in spent shell casings and ricoheted bullets. Alpha and Bravo teams did an excellent job cleaning house.

It’s not long before you reach your destination. In the basement is a server room, locked behind the aforementioned steel doors. They’re tamper proof but not unhackable, apparently.

You jack into the interface next to the door; instantly, a countdown program starts on your computer. Three minutes—two fifty-nine, two fifty-eight…

Easy isn’t the word you’re looking for. Easy would be a knife through butter. This is more like a chainsaw through a redwood—doable, an eventuality, even—but time consuming.

Your fingers dance across the keyboard, no room for typos as you input line after line of code. You have goals, benchmarks—if you can get each door unlocked in 30 seconds—

The first door buzzes, mechanical locks disengaging as it creaks open. The men behind you celebrate but you can’t bring yourself to do the same.

The second is a little more time consuming than the first, but it swings open just the same. Two minutes left.

The sound of distant gunfire starting up is just an afterthought. It may as well be the playlist you listened to in the background while you studied in college.

The third door is trying to be difficult. You find redundancies in its code, however it takes ten seconds longer than you wanted it to, eating into a very limited amount of extra time you had.

You can hear a grenade going off upstairs as you start on the fourth. Hell, you can feel it vibrate down to your feet.

“Reinforcements incoming! Keep ‘em away from the building!” Someone shouts over comms, a Texan accent registering in the back of your head.

You’ve already eaten up twenty seconds of the allotted thirty on door four, panic starting to creep up the back of your neck. You can’t think of that. You don’t have time for it.

It feels like a little weight is lifted from your shoulders when the fourth door groans open. Some of the soldiers behind you head upstairs to guard the basement entrance.

The fifth door feels like a trick. It is a trick, you realize, as it lulls you into a false sense of security before upping the difficulty exponentially. You only have fifteen seconds left.

That’s when something clicks in your head. It’s like a revelation, dawning on you like, well, the dawn. Your fingers fly so fast on the keyboard that you should be making mistakes but you don’t.

With five seconds remaining, the door creaks open and your hands finally stop. Sweat drips down your back and from your brow but you’ve done it.

“Backdoor’s unlocked,” you smile as you speak into the comms. “Proceeding with copy and paste.”

A bit cocky, you turn to the soldiers behind you. “You fellas got it locked down?”

Charlie Leader turns to you, curtly nodding before he hesitates. “You…never mind. Yes, ma’am, you’re a go.”

The battle dies down to nothing by the time you have the servers straightened out. You scan them and upload a few spyware viruses for monitoring before leaving.

Exfil is inbound, the site secure, and you don’t want to stay in a stingy basement while you wait. The air outside is cool and fresh, stars dotting the sky.

You crinkle your nose at the scent of metallic blood and the remnants of gunpowder. It’s been stupidly sharp and sensitive since you got back from Mexico, picking up on the smallest things.

You’re too lost in your thoughts to notice the sound of bootsteps crunching in gravel, rapidly approaching, not until you hear your name.

“(Y/N)!”

You nearly stumble back in shock as you turn to see them, your team—mostly König for all of three seconds before you squeak as he engulfs you in a hug.

He’s muttering something in German, too muffled to make out, not that you know a lot of the language. His scent of basalm and cedar (and a little bit of blood) fills your head and you smile.

König pulls back, hands framing your face as his sapphire blues take you in with concern. “You’re alright? You are not hurt? And you’re back—tell me you’re staying, schatz. Why didn’t we know—“

“König, breathe,” a familiar voice grumbles, Price stepping into view from behind the giant man. A smirk graces his face as your eyes meet.

“Agent (L/N), long time no see,” he says.

You chuckle, “Captain Price. Still in one piece?”

“(Y/N)! Hey!”

You turn your head in the opposite direction to see Johnny and Gaz jog over, Ghost trailing behind.

Johnny hugs you tightly, picki no you up and spinning you around briefly before setting you back down on your feet. He’s practically buzzing with excitement.

“Ah knew you’d be back, bonnie. Kept trying to tell these bastards,” he grins, squeezing your shoulders.

Did they really think you’d stay away forever?

“I was starting to get a little stir crazy back home,” you explain. “Nice to see my folks an’ all, but I was running out of things to keep my mind occupied.”

“Well, it’s a relief to see you, (Y/N),” Gaz nods. “Are you coming back with us?”

You think for a moment. “Mm, I dunno. Haven’t discussed it with Laswell—they rushed me here real last minute.”

König scoffs. “Of course she’s coming back with us, Sergeant. You’re back on active duty, right, schatz?”

Another question you don’t know the answer to. “Like I said, I haven’t discussed it with Las yet—“

“Give the poor thing a break, lads,” Price steps in. “They’ve just been worried sick about you, love,” he tells you, the hint of affection in his voice making your heart flutter.

“Oi, like you haven’t been the same—“

“Bravo, Charlie, your exfil is inbound, five minutes. Start making your way to the LZ,” command crackles on the comms, halting their conversation.

“Copy for Bravo,” Price speaks into his radio. “Charlie, we’re taking your asset with us.”

“Charlie copies.”

“I’m starved,” Soap groans as you all begin to walk towards the LZ. “We should go pub crawling.”

“Bar crawling,” you correct, smirking. “It’s four in the morning, ‘Tavish, everyone’s closed.”

“I know a good breakfast spot,” Ghost chimes in, the first time you’ve heard him so far. He’s been sticking to the back of the group, silent.

“Debrief first, gentlemen,” Price chuckles. “Then you can start thinking with your stomachs.”

—

A/N: Hi! First update in like a year and a half. Been busy with life stuff, but my brain worm for this fic has shown up again. I do want to note that I’ve decided to make the reader character more capable, as in not just a hackergirl—we got some combat training too, so we can keep up with our boys.

Feel free to message me with stuff, I’m not taking fic requests or anything but I’m planning on MAYBE adding more of my works on here.