The entire ride home was spent with an eerie silence amongst the team, including myself. The only sound to be heard was our target's frightened and somewhat strained screams. At first it was annoying to hear her constantly making noise, almost begging to be granted her freedom, but then I actually found myself pitying the poor girl. My expression softened considerably and I obviously hadn't bothered to hide these feelings from my expression as Kev kept glancing in my direction, then back at the road. I avoided eye contact and kept mine focussing the area surrounding the van. We were drawing closer to the base. There was a light frown sitting on his expression and I was trying my best not to focus on that. He knew me all too well.
In all honesty, I felt guilty. It had been fun capturing her, but that's the point where the thrill died down and the sense kicked in. I'd just kidnapped another girl, who was going through the exact same emotional ups and downs that I'd been going through when I had been taken. Sure, it wasn't my first time doing such a thing but this was by far the worst reaction I'd received from any girl. They'd always just been subdued as soon as they were placed in the van, but I hadn't bothered with this one... Such a terrible mistake. I had also made the mistake of turning my head in the direction of the girl who was now sat upright. I could see the wet patches caused by her tears and my heart kind of sunk at that moment.
I stood up, only to feel a strong hand gripping onto my arm. I turned to look at Kev, though he still had his eyes glued to the road. "I wouldn't," he said warningly and I shook my head. "She needs to be reassured... She's scared and has no clue where the Hell she is. You know as well as I do how that feels, Kev. I would have killed for someone to tell me that everything was okay that day," I muttered in response and that shut him up, so he finally let go of my arm and I walked down the van until I reached the girl. I took a few seconds to prepare myself, and I kneeled down in front of her. My lips held a sort of soft smile, despite the girl's vision being blocked by a sack. "Hey," I greeted her softly, my hand finding her shoulder. "I want to apologise for being so rough with you earlier; the thrill of a chase an' all... I also wanna let you know that nothing bad is going to happen to you," I continued, "you're going to be under my protection and care for the next few days, so don't you worry about a thing." With that, I stood and returned to my seat.
The rest of the ride was complete silence, so much so that we could quite easily hear the tires rolling against the road. We arrived at the base around 20 minutes after I'd attempted to calm the girl down a bit. The van pulled to a stop and Kev left through the driver door without so much as a word left to me or the rest of the team. I frowned a bit but tried to pass it off as if it was nothing. He always was the least emotional yet the most dramatic out of the two of us, which I never really understood but I'd gotten used to his mild mood swings. Years of training we'd been through together, Kev and I, and it had been drilled into our brain from such an early age that we were to feel nothing for our targets, even something as small as a friendship bond. They were merely just missions. It was clear to see that something about the girl had gotten through to me and Kev, still stuck in training mode, was having a hard time accepting that fact. He was looking out for me and knew only what was in my best interest, since I was team captain, and he quite obviously just didn't want to see me fall under punishment for pitying the girl.
I left the van as the team did as they were told and drugged the girl so that they were able to easily lift her out of the van and into her room, where they then proceeded to remove the blindfold, cuffs and place her down in bed until she woke up. Two of them guarded the door whilst the other couple returned to their usual duties. I, on the other hand, made a line for my boss' office. I knocked lightly on the large wooden doors and waited for a fair few seconds before they opened. The room was extremely large and fancy; I needn't go into the details on this one. It had what most basic offices require; a desk, some shelves and an unusually large amount of self-portraits. The rest of the room was empty.
"Sir," I greeted as I approached his desk. His lips held a lingering smile upon them, showing the emotion that his eyes did not, that his eyes never did. "Michelle," he replied, and I fought the frown that had attempted to lower my brows. Nobody ever called me that, but he loved it. When I was first passed on to his watch, he'd told me that he thought the name was, and I quote, 'common yet beautiful'. A few seconds of silence passed as I made my way over to the chair on the opposite side of the desk to him. "I assume you have captured the girl; Kyla, was it?" he asked and I nodded in response, my eyes emptying themselves of all signs of pity. "Yes, sir," I said, my voice clear and confident as I held my chin high and leaned back in my chair some. "She's in my room as we speak." He paused for a couple of moments, brushing his fingers along his chin, almost as if he was thinking long and hard about something. "That will be all."
After awkwardly standing and leaving the room with my head held high but my gaze glued to the floor, I made my way up to my bedroom where I knew the girl would be. As I'd requested, she was in bed and looked peaceful as she slept, though her cheeks were glossy with tears from the car ride. I frowned sadly and took a seat at the end of my bed, letting out a huff. Hopefully, she'd wake up soon.