As Christian got settled into the back of the truck, I asked, “All set?”

“Yeah,” he responded. “All set. You?”

“Yeah. Christian, this is Brianna Sanchez. Brianna, Christian.”

Christian snorted. “Are we that desperate for backup that we're resorting to old acquaintances that clearly cannot handle themselves up against our opponent? If so, Jon, I'm sure I could make a few calls and get tons of canon fodder down here,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He turned his gaze to her disdainfully, and scowled slightly returning his focus to me. “That is her purpose, right? Just another body between us and the enemy?”

“Christian,” I half-barked at him, immediately feeling embarrassed for having scolded him like a child who was impolite at the dinner table. “She’s an old friend, and I believe – given her background as a professional assassin – that she could be a valuable asset to us. Besides, meeting her where I did taught me something…interesting.”

“What’s that?”

“She was, until recently, under the control of some kind of device the North Koreans thought up – a device that can alter one’s motivations, make them serve a different cause than they’d normally choose. I learned about someone else being manipulated by the same thing, as well.”

“Well, Jon,” he said, again as sarcastic as can be, “You’re just making all kinds of wonderful friends. Who is it?”

I hesitated. Should I tell him? I didn’t want him going after Sarah, not before I got to her. Finally, I sighed and said, “It’s Sarah, alright? It can be reversed…”

By the time I’d gotten that far, Christian was talking over me. “Are you kidding me? She needs to be taken care of. We can’t afford to have obstacles in our own group.”

I was adamant – I would not let Christian kill the woman simply because of his ignorance. “I won’t make that decision,” I said. “It…”

Again, I got cut off. “Well,” he said, his voice dangerously low, even when he was raising his voice to be heard over the hum of the truck’s engine, “Maybe you shouldn’t be leading this group, then.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t, Christian,” I said, lowering my voice in turn. “Maybe you, being so infinitely perfect, should take over and take responsibility for this mission yourself.”

"Pretty much been carrying the weight the last week anyway, boss. At least now I can get it done." With that, Christian hopped off the truck bed and watched us drive away.

“Hey," Brianna said a short while later. I thought of something. That Christian guy - he’s kind of an ass.”

I snorted – I really hoped she knew how ridiculous it was that she was making this discovery now. “Really? I never imagined.”

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Author guidance for This exercise

A group of special operatives fight to defend the United States and its allies form foreign threats in the year 2017.

Maybe it would have been better placed elsewhere, but...too late now, I guess.

Characters

Full Name: Jonathan Paul Petrov
Goes By:Jon, Paul, Johnny Reede, Timothy Browning
Age:34
Preferred Weapons: M40 rifle, Desert Eagle, M16 with AR-57 receiver, HK MP7, KA-BAR knife, Serbu Super-Shorty sawed-off shotgun, crossbow pistols loaded with fiberglass darts
Preferred Equipment: several different explosive devices, a small computer, cheekpad ammo carrier used with his M40, shoulder holster for desert eagle, shoulder sling for MP7, a bandolier (in combat only), various grenades - incendiary, smoke, gas, frag, etc.
Personality: Jonathan is the type of person who is emotionally isolated. He never really connects with others on a very deep level, which makes it easy for him to cut his losses after a squadmate dies. However, he finds it relatively easy to fall into a state of friendly camaraderie with his teammates. He gets standoffish and guarded when asked of his past and/or childhood. He has a habit of toying with anything that could be weaponized when under stress. Appearance: Jon has medium-length blond hair. He is very heavy, weighing easily 200 pounds, but most of his weight is muscle mass. His skin is very tan. His eyes are a strange shade of orange, due to a genetic quirk, but they can appear to be any color under the sun at any given time, because he often disguises them with colored contacts. He also has a scar from his right eye down to his upper lip, which is partially split because of the wound.
General Skills/Specialties: Infiltration/assassination expert, good with explosives, can read people well, can deliver emergency medical attention when medical professionals are unreachable.
Background: When Jon was a child, he was always pushed around, and as a result he got into a lot of fights. He grew up dreaming of revenge and, in a way, he got it when he joined the Navy SEALs - or, at least, he got an outlet for his pent-up anger. His parents died in an unfortunate fire, which was started by a school rival in the hopes of killing Jon. Jon rescued his four-year old sister, and he had to support her growing up. When he got married, his wife Allison's brother disapproved. He came and assaulted Jonathan in the parking lot, but Jonathan threw the man off of himself and unintentionally pushed him into traffic. Guilt-ridden, Jon spent the next few days considering his train wreck of a life with jaded eyes. His wife left him, because he was no longer the man she'd loved. Jon was involved with a hired assassin named Brianna Sanchez, who he covered for after the assassination of a high-ranking government official named Nicholas Moquin in Paris, France. Jonathan joined the SEALs and spent ten long years climbing the ranks until, one day, an offer was proposed to him by the government. He was asked to lead a team that would not be officially recognized by the United States government. This team, serving under the Directorate for International Security, would carry out espionage and assassination missions all over the world. They would be allowed to use any means necessary to achieve their goals. And the rest, so the song goes, is history.


Full Name: Christian Leon Aden

Goes by: Aden, Christian.

Age: 27

Appearance: Greek. 6-foot-even, brownish black hair that he keeps mostly short (just a few inches long), hazel eyes, hockey player build. Scarred, tattooed.

Personality: Stoic, tempermental. Quiet, prone to outbursts. Shoots first, asks questions later. Skewed, but moral. Impulsive, unsympathetic. Nearly always in a bad mood. Gritty, reckless, unruly. Lionhearted. Intrepid, to a fault.

General skills/specialties: Recon expert, hand-to-hand combat expert. Generally knowledgeable, experienced.

Preferred weapons:
GOL Sniper Magnum; Micro Uzi; Dual Glock 17Cs,
12" Gurkha Kukri, 7" ODA San Mai III, G.I. Tanto, [4] 9" Cold Steel Sure Balance throwing knives

Preferred Equipment: various custom smoke bombs. Dapples in cross-bow.

Background:Christian grew up bouncing from military academy to military academy, eventually graduating summa cum laude from West Point. During his time in school, he studied every available form of combat and warfare, including recon and strategy. Midway through year 11, he received word that his father died during a S.W.A.T. mission; his mother having already passed when he was too young to remember her. Two years after graduation, he turned to body guard work for high-profile court cases (witnesses against dangerous criminals, attempted murder survivors, etc) and the occasional mercenary gigs. When the covert war broke out in 2015, he was drafted (very, very quietly) and deployed to Seoul, where he was captured and tortured for six months before escaping. Upon escape and return to a military base, he is given a month's leave before being assigned to Aegis Unit Alpha.

updated May 9 '11 by Ty694