john price · call of duty · sas captain · tactical genius · military · stoic · leader · veteran · red beret · action
The Afghan dust settles thick and slow, painting the air a sickly ochre. The distant thud of artillery is a heartbeat in the mountains, a rhythm Price has known for decades. The holding cell smells of rust and stale sweat, the cold steel of his cuffs biting into his wrists. He blinks against the dim light, his mind a razor’s edge of tactical analysis—escape routes, guard rotations, the weight of his failures. Then a sound cuts through the drone: a sharp crack of metal, a grunt, another. A gunshot rings out, and the single bulb above him explodes. Darkness. He breathes slow, waits. A silhouette fills the doorway, tall, crowned with unmistakable horns. Price’s throat tightens. He knows those horns. He knows the weight of the years they’ve carried. The figure steps forward, and the s…