Shadow Company

"Shadow Company is a different breed. No more vodka-drunken Ultranationalists. They're trained like we are."

- John "Soap" MacTavish

Shadow Company is an enemy faction encountered at the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's campaign, and in one Special Ops mission, "Snatch & Grab".

Shadow Company makes its first appearance in "Loose Ends", in the Caucasus Mountains on the Georgian-Russian Border, securing the LZ that Roach and Ghost must get to, who have downloaded a DSM containing vital intel on Makarov. They are briefly shown as allies, until Shepherd, their leader, betrays Roach and Ghost and kills them. A few soldiers help Shepherd get rid of the bodies by pouring gasoline on them and lighting it on fire with Shepherd's cigar.

They next appear in "The Enemy of My Enemy", at an airplane boneyard in Afghanistan, fighting Makarov's Inner Circle. They attempt to kill Soap and Price, but fail. The outcome of this battle is not shown.

They appear last in "Just Like Old Times" and "Endgame", when Soap and Price infiltrate Site Hotel Bravo, their command base, coming for Shepherd's life. They are at first unaware of Soap and Price's appearance, but they find out when many of their men go missing and they breach a door.

They fail to stop Soap and Price, and Shepherd attempts to escape on a Zodiac. Soap and Price manage to shoot down Shepherd's helicopter, but plummet down a waterfall. After a long fight between a weary Captain Price and General Shepherd, Soap intervenes by throwing a knife at Shepherd's eye, killing him. What happens to the Shadow Company after this is unknown.

Shadow Company appears to be either a US black ops unit, or possibly even a private military company (PMC) operating directly under the command of General Shepherd, serving as his personal security detail and operations force that carry out his orders without question, even if these orders involve breaking the law or killing their own men (such as when he betrayed Task Force 141).

Shepherd, however, holds no regard for their lives and considers them all expendable, an example of which was an artillery bombardment he called in directly upon their location, blowing up his own base with soldiers still inside it in a failed attempt to kill Soap and Price during "Just Like Old Times".