Jet searched the bodies to make sure no one was hiding anything nasty. Or useful. He came up with a couple sets of
keys from one of the suits and an address book/day planner. His faith on those things were mixed. Some people really
were arrogant or dumb enough to write down the important things in there. He got wallets for the IDs and proceeded
to haul the two live prisoners back toward the house. Tossing them through the windows as Mike and Swanson came
into the room. The Delta covered out into the main room from the doorway and Mike went into the kitchen to start
hauling in the people he'd tied up in the kitchen.
"We get anything?" Mike asked Hector as he dragged the second one in.
"We got something." Hector said, handing Mike the fax as he took out the radio and brought the home camp up on the
line. "This is Garrett. I need a tech crew here..." he gave the location swiftly, not leaving time for questions on how he
had started out in one place and gone to another. "We've got a fax from Dr White and I need it traced." He paused
and rephrased. "We need it traced to pinpoint her location."
"Any hostiles where you are?" Baker's voice, all business, came over the line.
Hector nearly grinned mirthlessly at that. "Not anymore."
"This is going to be a diplomatic nightmare."
"I don't do diplomats or politics." Hector shot back. "Can I get the tech crew?"
"Hold tight, keep it secure, we'll airlift to your location."
Mike let Jet handle the prisoners and took the fax from Hector. For an instant, as he saw that familiar, fluid handwriting
his blue eyes changed. And then he was sitting down on a nearby counter top and reading over the list carefully. He
did it twice and his lips started to shift at the edges. Walking over to the desk he spread the sheets out and gestured
Hector over.
"It’s a lot like that list we got last time. Some differences, its Andi after all and she knows what Red Cross camps carry.
But this - sodium pentothal? And right under it - " he pointed. "We don't carry a lot of that. Because it’s a main
ingredient in embalming fluid."
Hector chuckled. "Maybe she's planning on embalming them, saving us the trouble of killing them." He said. "The
chopper should be here with a tech crew." He pointed at the time on the fax. "We know, at least, at about this time,
wherever this fax was sent, that's where she was. And it was only twenty minutes ago. They're not techno enough to
have her in one place, and transport a message to another place...too much chance of the messenger getting killed or
intercepted, so she's by a fax machine." He grinned at the sodium pentothal part.
"She thinks all men should have a continuous infusion of the stuff....don't ask."
Jet trotted out of the room to head upstairs and toss an infra-red strobe on the roof to mark their position to the
incoming chopper. Mike settled down on the counter top next to the fax. Because it felt close to Andi. She was, or had
been, just on the other side of that thin, frail line. Frowning he went over the list again. Especially the two anomalies.
Andi never did anything by accident and he couldn't see her putting anything useless down in the situation she knew
she was in. Since Swan was keeping an eye on possible incomings, and no one in the neighborhood had so much as
shouted a 'keep it down', Mike applied himself to what was in front of him while they waited for their pick up.
"We've got three groups. The businessman, the politician, and the nut job." He thought out loud. He looked over at the
small group of prisoners they'd managed to take down. As far as he could tell, they had three leads now. A fax they
might be able to trace. Prisoners that knew all too much about who they were hunting for. And Andi's fax. Where she
was trying to tell them something and it wasn't that all men needed to run off at the mouth on a regular basis.
Though he really did want to ask Hector about that last one.
"Tell me about the three groups?" He asked Hector while they waited. "Distinguishing locations, symbols, names,
methods. Anything that would stand out for us that you heard about."
"Politician, just like it sounds." Hector said, drinking a bottle of water. "He's also the businessman. He looks on two
fronts, seeing which is the most profitable and politically well appearing. The nut job is a psycho, he doesn't care, he
just wants what he wants. Then there's the extremist, who's into the occult. He's like a voodoo hoodoo priest or
something, or so closely aligned with them t hat you can't tell the difference." Hector stretched and cracked his joints
briefly.
"If It’s the businessman, maybe we can negotiate. Everyone else we'll have to take out with firepower." Hector said.
"The nut job or the politician might be involved in interrogation...think that’s why she wants the sodium pentothal?"
Mike shrugged, still looking at the pages.
"Might be. Though that doesn't explain the embalming fluid. Don't know that they wouldn't have more - rugged ways of
getting information out of someone though." He rubbed at his jaw as Jet whispered and slipped back into the room.
"All quiet outside." He reported before moving to take up a position near the broken door that led back into the
kitchen. He gestured and Swanson tossed him a water bottle since he'd shucked his own, along with most of his gear
to make it through the window at the start of all this.
"So what's up with you and sodium pentothal?" Mike asked Hector curiously.
"Who said there's anything up with me specifically and sodium pentothal?" Hector said with a chuckle, keeping an eye
on the sky. "I don't know much at all about medicines, and nothing about embalming fluid, so I won't be much help with
theories." He rubbed his face, he really needed a shave. But it, like other things (like rest and a good meal) could wait.
He was actually holding out for Andi to tell him to. That familiar good natured nagging and ribbing.
Mike grunted at Hector's avoidance but gave a tired smile.
"She's a good girl. Wrote it for a reason. We'll figure it out." Then he sighed and tipped his head back to rest against
the wall behind him. After a minute, without moving, he asked:
"Think they've got any real food in the kitchen, Jet?"
The dark skinned SEAL chuckled and moved in to investigate.
By the time the choppers landed in the yard, the makeshift Delta/SEAL team had managed a meal that had consisted
of a much higher fare than their usual MREs.
Hector finished the soda they had found in the kitchen, unopened and still sealed, therefore safe, when the choppers
came. "Took you long enough." He said to Baker flatly.
"Well, we don't march on an American's orders." Baker said just as flatly and nodded at the tech people to go into the
house. Hector just looked at Baker and walked away.
"Wouldn't hurt you to at least pretend to get along with them." Swanson remarked.
"Sure it would." Hector said as he waited for the tech people to make their decision.
Mike made it a point of not hovering as the techs went to work on the fax machine. Not hovering but he was close
enough to see everything. 'Everything' which included lots of wires and black boxes with keypads and screens on
them. He thought about making a comment about hitting redial but stopped himself before he got annoying. Still
holding the faxes in his hand.
Baker stayed near a radio and had a back and forth conversation that came and went as new information relayed in.
Twice he asked Mike if he was sure it was Dr. White's handwriting and after the second glare, confirmed that it was
over the radio. Hector, and the rest of the squad, he ignored. Jet, kicking back in a comfortable chair now that the
area was secured, seemed to go to sleep in his loose limbed, boneless way. The prisoners were rounded up and
some ground transportation was arranged to come pick them up.
Finally the tech team finished their work up. Gave Baker a nod.
"We've got the GPS." One of them stated with a pleased smile. "Matches up with a small village in the mountains a
couple hundred miles from here."
Hector heard that and looked at Baker.
"Good job. I want the recon on it, and drop us as close as you can without being seen." He said.
Baker looked down right amused. "You've done your job. We've had no intention of involving anyone besides SAS in
this in the end."
"This isn't about territory." Hector said. "This is about getting Andi back alive. I'm going with the team."
"Sorry, old chap. It’s a no go." Baker said, down right smirking haughtily.
Hector shoved him so he hit the floor and grabbed the radio. "Pettyworth, its Garrett. We had an agreement."
"Garrett, what are you talking about?" William's voice said, knowing it was a bad idea to send Baker, but if anyone
could quickly make out the techno babble, it would be him.
"You're not cutting me out. Not now." Hector growled into the radio.
"We're not cutting you out."
"Then I'm going with the team to the location."
"Everyone's holding tight until we all rendezvous there." William said, bordering on annoyed himself. "We need a
bigger force if we're to do this."
Mike waited until the dust had settled, or at least Hector and Pettyworth had gotten done trying to keep from yelling
over the radio. Then, while Baker hauled himself upright, Mike rested a hand on the Delta's shoulder and hauled him
to the side.
"Get me the maps out of my pack near the door and meet me outside." His voice was low. "If you're hiding in the jungle
you don't have fax machines running their telephone wires through the trees. The village isn't where they are. It’s just
close and probably sympathetic. Or terrified. I marked off all three territories and now I know the GPS. We need to see
which group has her."