"You alright there?" Price asked her.

She blinked and looked away from him. "Yeah, I'm fine, why?"

"You look a little worried."

"No, I'm alright." She turned further away from him to look at the other end of the bookshelf. Her eyes landed on the empty glass in his hand. "Here, let me fill that for you."

"Oh, no, it's-" He almost finished his statement, but when she reached for it, he sighed. "Alright; but only a little more."

She dipped her head. "Sounds good. I'll be right back."

When she returned to the room with his drink, Jessica noticed Price looking at a small table at the end of one of the sofas. He was very still, barely even breathing it seemed as he stood there.

"What're you looking at?" she asked.

After a beat of silence, he hummed nonchalantly, and took the glass. "Just looking at your pistol." he said. "Gaz's if I'm not mistaken."

The blood in her veins almost ran cold. "... Oh, yeah... What about it?" she asked.

"It looks like it has a new inscription on it."

She looked away form him with a stony expression on her face. "I know you've seen it before, sir." she said. "No need to act surprised by it. Not even sure why you're interested."

He was quiet again, and his voice softened. "You still miss him, don't you?"

Jess shrugged. "Who wouldn't? It hasn't been that long, Price."

The Captain nodded and looked out the window ahead of him. "No, it hasn't." He looked at his drink and sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

"It's alright. I can't let it weigh me down." Her fingers worked in her palms. "Every time I wake up, I have to live without him, and if that's the case, I have to actually live without him."

He looked at her. "I'm glad you've been able to thrive as well as you have; you take good care of yourself."

"I can't afford not to." she replied. "Besides, what would you do without me?" 

Price grinned at her, challenge gleaming in his eye. He opened his mouth to reply, when the clock on the wall chimed 22:00. "Ah." he mused. "I should probably get to sleep. But, good news," He patted her on the shoulder as he walked by. "We get to sleep a little longer."

She smiled. "What time do you want me to be there tomorrow?"

"No later than 08:30." 

Roach was stiff as a board as he crept through the tall grass behind Ghost. His eyes were darting all around, certain he would see Ultranationalists lurking in the dark. He jerked his rifle up at something moving a few yards away up on a rock ledge; an axis deer was mindlessly chewing on a mouthful of weeds and grass when he took aim at it, and it's sensitive ears pricked and its body went rigid.

"Don't make any sudden moves, Roach," warned Jessica. "If it runs or makes an alarm, you'll give us away; if we do have a potential threat on our hands, they might look for that."

"There are other predators out here with us, Gal; no need to be that wary." said Soap.

Price held up a fist and everyone stopped, peering ahead at whatever had halted them. The Captain motioned them to get down, and slowly moved up. 

"What are we lookin' at, sir?" asked Ghost over the com.

"Looks like a convoy," he replied, looking through a pair of binoculars. "And they're going right into the village."

Soap took the binoculars and looked as well. "Not bein' very stealthy about their presence, are they?" he scoffed. "That's a lot o' lorries." 

"They've been here a little while, they're probably feeling confident, now."

Jess cocked a brow. "Anyone else suspicious that there aren't any villagers down there?"

Ghost didn't seem terribly phased. "More than likely, they have curfews in place, we're not going to see anyone out at this hour."

"No," she said. "Look inside the nearest house; there aren't any civilians inside."

Wolcroft furrowed his brow and looked in. "It could just be that house," he said.

"No, she's right," said Stevens. "Look inside the house across from it, and the one two doors up. Price... I don't see any civilians..." 

The Captain shook his head. "That doesn't mean there aren't any, it just means we can't see them from here." He tapped into the com link. "Echo One-Five, this is Bravo Six," he said. "Do you have a visual on the village, over?"

Silence.

His eyes were darting back and forth, and Jessica could sense worry. "Echo One-Five, do you copy?"

Nearly ten seconds of crippling silence passed before finally, "Bravo Six, this is Echo One-Five, I copy and do have a visual on the village, over."

He let out a breathless chuckle. "Bloody hell, mate, what kept you?" he asked.

"Sorry, sir, wasn't in a place to respond."

"Damn Yank..." muttered Price. "Echo One-Five, give me a sitrep, over."

"Captain Price, the Russians had a small force holding the village last night, and they've got reinforcements moving in now, over."

"Copy that," he replied. "What is the civilian situation, over?"

Echo One-Five was quiet again. "We haven't seen a single civilian since we've been here. There's a possibility they're all being held hostage, but tapping into their com links, we haven't gotten any information about them, over."

Price set his jaw. "Copy that," he said. "We see the convoy stopping now in the village center; how many troops do you see in the village, over?"

"Hang on, Bravo Six, we've got a Global Hawk going over head, we'll know how many there are in just a moment." Echo went silent again. "Alright, looks like we have 30 plus foot mobiles inside the village; there could be more inside the houses, over."

Jess huffed. "We should go down there and get a real look at this."

Price nodded. "Copy, Echo One-Five. We're going to move in and get a better look; cover us and keep us posted if you see anything. Out." He rose slowly and descended down the hill, Soap, Ghost, and then the rest of the team falling in behind him.

She shifted at the bottom of the hill, tilting her nose up to catch the different scents. Price gave her an inquisitive expression.

"A lot of guys in there, couple of dogs... I can't tell if the female scent I'm getting is old, or overpowered by the men in the village." she whispered.

Roach cocked a brow and a grin stretched across his mouth. "You can smell all that?"

Gal nodded, and then her attention snapped to Price giving the order to fan out. Before she could take off, Price grabbed her scruff. "I want you with me for right now." She dipped her head and walked around the outside of the village with him, ears twitching at every sound.

They made it to the back of a house and carefully peered through the window. Inside was plain- just a simple bed, a small table, and a pillow laying in a sad heap in the corner- and there was evidence of a soldier moving in, with a pile of clothes and a box of ammunition near the bed. But there didn't seem to be any civilians. 

Price pursed his lips. "No one here, let's check the next house." he said.

The next house was like the last, furnished simply and newly decorated with soldier's gear, but no villagers. House after house they checked along the perimeter, but every time, the houses were empty. It wasn't until the last house that Galaxy began to swivel her head around to catch a scent.

"What is it?" asked the Captain.

She shook her head. "I smell blood, but I don't smell death... And weirder yet, I don't see any blood either, but the scent isn't that old."

He tilted his head. "How old would you say it is?"

"I don't know... Between 24 and 48 hours?" she said.

"Price," said Soap. "There's no villagers out here."

He almost responded when Ghost cut in. "There's no villagers there, but there aren't any soldiers, either, did you notice?" 

Price looked around. "Yeah, I thought that was strange..."

"Looks like they're all in the center of the village at the larger building."

"Larger building, Ghost?" asked Soap. "They all kinda look the same..."

"See where the convoy stopped, there's a building straight back form it, it looks like a couple of houses all connected together." he replied. 

Gal looked at the building and laid an ear back. "Oh, yeah, look at that," she whispered. "I wonder what that is..."

The Captain crouched, eyes still locked on it. "Probably just another house," he replied. "We ought to see if there's a way to get closer." He jerked his head and she followed him up. "Copy, Ghost, good eye. Gal and I are heading in to get a better look, keep an eye out for any civilians, over and out."

She slunk after him, keeping low as the mild glow of firelight paved the path before them. Her hide bristled when she noticed a dog abruptly raise its head and look around. 

"Easy..." Price murmured, running his hand between her ears and down to her shoulders. 

Gal nodded, but didn't take her eyes off the dog and its handler standing guard in front of the convoy. Price led her through the paths to the house, and signaled for her to stand watch while he looked inside. She stood stock still, watching the guards. She held her breath every time they looked her way, but each time, they didn't notice her. It was several minutes before Captain Price knelt at her side again.

"C'mon, we need to get out of here." he whispered.

The urgency of his statement sent a pang of alarm through her veins. "What's going on?" she whispered back as they made their way out of the village.

He stopped her once they were a decent distance from the convoy and tapped into the com. "Soap, do you copy?"

"Right here, sir, what's going on, over?"

Price sighed. "There are no civilians in the village, and there's a shit ton of Ultranationalist soldiers inside that building. Sounds like they're trying to convert it into a base of some kind, possibly even a munitions plant or an arms trading centre, but I couldn't make out everything they were saying." He paused, as if taking a breath. "We're on the north side of the village, what's your location, over?"

Soap didn't respond for a few moments. "... We're about a half-klick east of the village... Umm, Price, we may have found at least some of the villagers."

"Oh..?" he asked.

"There's eight men layin' out here in a ditch; might've been executed before any of us got here, but there's not much left of 'em. The animals have made meals of 'em."

Gal snarled up her snout. "Nasty... What about the rest of the villagers? There's certainly more than just eight men living here..?"

Price nodded. "Copy. Soap, by any chance are there women or children out there, over?"

Ghost responded first. "Negative, sir. It's just these eight men; no one else, over."

He swore under his breath. "Copy that. They may have moved the other villagers somewhere else." Price turned to look around. "Echo One-Five, do you have any idea if the Russians have moved any civilians and where that might be, over?"

Echo One-Five was no more positive than Ghost. "Negative, Bravo Six. Since we've been here, there's been no talk of civilians."

"Shit..." Price rubbed his forehead. "Alright, Gal, come on, we're going back to our perch." he said. "Copy that, Echo One-Five. Keep us posted if you hear anything. Bravo Team, regroup on me at the top of the hill, out."

Gal shifted. "So, they've killed people, what do we do now?"

He shook his head once they crested the hill. "We can't do anything about the villagers; we don't even know what happened to the rest of them, and quite frankly, the situation with the Ultranationalists is more pressing; we don't know why they took over the village, and we don't have authorization to launch an attack yet."

"So?"

"Without authorization, it's a crime, Jessica." he said.

She cast a glance down to her feet. "Gotcha... So that means we have to wait for them to actually do something?"

He pulled a cigar out of a box in one of his pockets. "Pretty much..." he groaned, flicking his lighter and touching the end of the cigar to the tiny flame. He breathed out a cloud of smoke and lowered himself to sit on the grass. "Well, get comfortable, and let's hope they start doing something that warrants action."