Hector went through the documents carefully, unscrewing the water bottle and drinking from it as he went from picture
to drawing to map over and over again. "The Israeli is probably Mossad, we heard they were sticking their nose in it.
Problem with them, they like to be public and noticed. At least SAS and US Special Operations keep it quiet." He
shook his head at that, almost in disgust. He was, after all, a man who lived his professional life in shadows and
secrets.
He paced a bit. He was a pacer when he was thinking hard and fast. Even if it was just shifting his weight a bit, but he
was all out pacing now. "Okay. One theory. They needed a captive for barter. That's out because no demands have
been made." He said. "Second theory, they wanted a woman. Then why go to all that trouble? Doesn't add up. Third
theory...they needed a doctor." He stopped and looked at Mike.
"When there was that attempted raid, remember? You said the handwriting on the list, the way the list was set up, the
terminology...sounded like a doctor. The fact that they only snatched one is the only thing that's missing. Maybe they
were grabbing the unattended, and Andi was the one who wandered off. Because we know Andi, she would with no
concern for personal safety." Hector said. "I need to talk to this Baker, or knock his block off, something."
"Yeah." Mike agreed about the list and the supplies. "It was. Exactly the things I'd want if I was setting up a clinic.
Exactly the terms I'd use to describe it to people who didn't know what they were doing too. If it was a doctor, and they
grabbed Andi because she's one too, then they've got more than one. Or needed to replace the one they had." He
stood up. "I'll do some digging. See if anyone's lost their medic in the past couple years. Baker - " he shook his head.
"Come on. I'll intro you to Jet. He's one of mine. Give you someone with charm to meet before you hit English
territory." He paused. "You gonna wear all that gear or drop it somewhere?"
"Wear it." Hector said, adjusting the shoulder strap on his gun. "If nothing else, Baker's probably a pompous ass and
hopefully I'll scare him. And Ahmed is quite the little thief. This is all my gear, as in everything. And I'll need every
piece of it." He wasn't being mean about that statement, it was true.
But his mind for the moment was else where. Wherever Andi was, sending out a silent prayer that she better not be
hurt, or whoever hurt her...their god better be a merciful god, because Hector wouldn't be.
Mike chuckled. Dry and coughing.
"Baker's old school." He walked over to join Hector and they stepped out of the tent together. "Thinks he's the only
one that's fully capable of dealing with what's going on. Doesn't even seem to think he really needs anyone but his
SAS. And he's good. Does know what he's doing. Just - not willing to share with the other players. He wants her back
too. Bad." He left it open as to whether that was a good or bad thing. "Jet!" He flagged over a lanky dark skinned man
who looped over in an almost animalistic smoothness.
"Hey, man!" The voice was low and smooth. He and Mike exchanged a confusing hand clasp. "Who's the DB?"
"Hector, Jet. Jet, Hector." Mike made the introductions and Jet offered his hand. "This is the guy I told about." Mike
told Jet. "The one that's going to take Africa apart to find our missing doctor."
"Bout time you showed up." Jet grinned.
"Well, I wasn't exactly local." Hector said with a shrug. He was definitely going to take some leave after this one. He
was bone tired from the official op, but he had too much adrenaline going right now to slow down. He had to find Andi.
He nodded over to where Baker was gathering communication.
"It’s a bad thing, SAS just wants her back, dead or alive. Once she's in their hands, whether she's got a pulse or not,
its considered a success." He said and looked at Jet and Mike. "Which means we're in this alone. You two with me?
And got any friends? I want to run as full scale an op as I can."
Mike turned his head to hide the smile. It was tired but it was probably the first smile he'd had in the past 48 hours. Jet
let out a rolling chuckling laugh.
"Holy, man. Holy. Snatching the best right out from under English's nose." He shot Mike a look and the doctor simply
raised his eyebrows and managed a surprisingly innocent expression.
"You're crazy, you know." Jet informed Hector and then his face went serious and his eyes softened as his voice
mellowed even more. "Yeah, man, count me in the boat. I'm assigned official to the rescue team. Time comes, I might
have to part ways with the official group to do some of my 'own' work."
"Welcome committee." Mike commented mildly, face losing expression. No way Baker could miss someone dressed
like Hector within his vicinity for more than a second or two after all. While the SAS officer approached, Jet ignored
him.
"I can pick up Billy if you want the two best. You want the Delts you better recruit yourself. Unless you don't care if
double teaming slips to our overseas friends." Then he shifted to face the approaching clean cut Brit who was being
trailed by another scruffier looking taller man.
"Mornin' English." Mike greeted for all of them.
"Morning." Baker agreed with a nod. But his sharp eyes never left Hector. "You must be the boyfriend." He stated flatly.
Hector nodded to Jet, he'd take care of the Deltas. It ingrained into them that they were brothers after all. He looked at
Baker, looking back at him with impenetrable dark eyes, just as sharp and wary.
"Yeah, I'm the boyfriend. I take it you were expecting me?" Hector said. "There are two ways this could go. You go
along with me, or I'll beat the shit out of you. I don't have any patience, I've been traveling all night, and I don't like
SAS methods."
Baker nearly smirked. "Listen cowboy." He said in his crisp British accent. "You have it backward. She's a British
citizen, which makes this my operation. You're free to sit on the sidelines and fill my coffee cup though. Other than
that, go back to your base, we don't need you." Then he turned around and dismissed Hector.
Hector's eyes narrowed and Mike and Jet took a step back as Hector grabbed Baker and threw him on a near by
table. "Listen you little British prick, you can't get the job done. Not to my satisfaction. And if anything....anything..." he
emphasized that by putting pressure on Baker's neck. "Happens to Andi, I will kill you. And get away with it because
they will never know I did it. So this is MY op. You can play along, or you can crawl back to the UK, I don't care." He
released Baker with a hard shove and stepped back. "I'm done." He said and walked over to the command post to see
what they had so far, if anything new had come in.
Baker was on his feet again in an instant, eyes blazing. The leaner, scruffy fellow braced an arm against his chest.
"Nah, mate." He warned, his English accent rougher and less clipped. Voice relaxed and calm. "Not now. Let the bloke
blow. It’s his bird, yeah? He's got ta sleep sometime."
"I'll kill him." Baker stated. Not minding in the least that Mike and Jet were still there. His companion nodded.
"Too right. Just not today." He corrected mildly. Clapped Baker on the back. "Start the gears, right? I'm goin' to go
introduce myself to the Yank."
"I hate it when they speak in a foreign language." Mike mentioned to Jet. Who chuckled and shrugged.
"Murder most foul.” He agreed before nodding. "Gonna get Billy. He's gonna hate that he missed this."
The second English soldier sauntered over to the tent. Stood silently for a minute and watched Hector going over the
spread which was a more detailed and organized collection of the facts Mike already had, plus a few tips they'd picked
up from their own network of ears. He rubbed fingers across the stubble on his lean chin and finally commented mildly:
"Goin' to have to kick your arse for that crack on SAS, yeah? You know that of course. But before I do, you got any
questions about what we've done so far?"
Hector spared the man a brief glance before going back to the charts and maps. "If you don't like my crack on SAS
methods, then prove me wrong. The first thing is get rid of Mr Mossad. I think we can agree on that. Send him on a
wild goose chase the opposite direction. I don't want him turning this into a political statement." He said.
"Looks to me like they doubled backed then headed into an opposite direction." He said going over the photos of the
tread marks. "You got a name? Because I already named one of you Asshole. Bastard is still up for grabs though."
"William Pettyworth." He said. "And yeah, we think we got a hit on them two hundred miles away."
"Nice British name." Hector commented and looked at the map. "Two hundred miles...takes us into enemy territory."
He sighed. "Okay, Asshole was properly named. He'll get everyone killed. He's a glory hound and I'm not taking risks.
Now are you with me or are you going to try to double play me? I'm really not in the mood so choose your words
wisely, because my mood isn't bound to improve."
"Don't remember givin' a damn on your mood or your opinon of how we do our job." William stated calmly. "And I'm on
her team. Rest of you cocks can spar it out all you like as long as it doesn't get in the way. She's one of mine and I
intend to get her back and rethinkin' her philosophy about hitchin' rides with strangers. Though - looks of you - she
already had questionable taste in company."
He walked over to where Hector was with that statement and pointed to the large plastic coated map up on the main
board.
"Dab of enemy territory and you don't know the half of it. That truck we heard about is the one we're huntin', she's not
in the middle of this conflict anymore." He tapped the map with a crooked finger. "That puts her here. That's a
different 'country' entirely. One right smack in the middle of another of those 'revolutions' they all just use as an
excuse to break off into rebel forces and kill and maim each other over. And if that's where she's gone, we've got
three really mean blokes to chose from on which camp might have taken her."
"And I'm not on her team?" Hector snapped. "I just traveled all night after convincing my superior to give me the time,
which isn't official by the way. Came right back to militant central for what? You think I like busting your balls? I do
have better things to do, like find Dr. White." He shook his head. "You all make it about territory. I just want her back."
He looked at the maps again. "Three." Then he looked at the men around the command central. "We've got enough
for three strike teams." He said and looked back at William. "If we hit them at once, they won't have time to co ordinate
a move."
It was still risky, but it wasn't like they had a lot of options. The longer they had her, the colder and fainter the trail
would get.
“You need to take a knock out pill or three, Yank." William commented. "You came in here lookin' for a fight because
you can't beat on the blokes you really want to get your hands on. So give us some credit, yeah? We're already callin'
in to get the intel on those three. Less there's been an alliance since I came out of there yesterday, our three don't
like each other enough to work together. So we're goin' to find out if that's changed. Also goin' to happen to check out
that truck and make sure it’s the one we really want instead of heading off in the wrong direction and missin'
something here. Meantime we're huntin' down the locals that played torch in the first place. While we're sittin' on our
thumbs and all. You can't find these camps without a guide and I've got someone on that already. I'm not goin' in
without recon. Which we will handle ourselves since I want just us on every inch of this. But first we're going to sit tight,
go through what we already do have and put it together, dredge the area here for our two torches so they don't slip
away while we're off goose chasin' and wait to make sure that's really the right truck before we pack up camp and
head out. Should hear back on that in the hour because we're doing the check covert so we don't tip anyone if it is
the one we want. I'm not rushin' in and missing something or getting her killed. You want me to explain to you that
anything that's going to happen to her nasty already has, Sergeant, or you want to calm down long enough to sit
somewhere and listen to the rest of the intel we've got?"
Hector looked at William. "Sergeant Hector Garrett, United States Operation Delta Force. They don't get better than
me. I'm from Victor Company. Go ask the Deltas you already got here about Victor Company. We're the elite of the
elite and I know this terrain. I've already spent a year here. I also speak the language. And, if need be, I can kill a man
with a rolled up newspaper. Now...if you think there's someone better than me to be on your team, go ahead and get
him. But I tell you right now, he doesn't exist."
He poured himself a cup of coffee, going for caffeine rather than a 'knock out pill.' "She's alive." He said confidently,
looking at William with a steady gaze. "I would know if she wasn't, and she's alive. Trust me on that even if you think
I'm an incompetent colonial or whatever. But you've got a choice...either I'm on the team or I'll track you anyway."
Men went crazy over a lot of things. And there hadn't been a lot of sanity in the Yank's eyes up until a moment ago.
Not a good thing in a man that really could kill you with a rolled up newspaper. But bloody hell, he wanted a man like
that on his team. Which is why bringing the sanity back, even if it was only thin and on the surface, had been so
important.
"Yeah." He nodded, just the edge of his lips twisting upward. "Heard you Colonials were good at the trackin' thing. You
say she's alive, she is." Who was he to question? After all, his wife claimed she had the same thing going on with him.
And he knew better than to argue with her. "So we find her. And we get her out safe. Something gets in our way in the
meantime - " he shrugged. Seriously doubting the world would be worse off if certain elements were 'removed' from it.
"You promise to use your head - and not kill Baker - and yeah - I want you along. But I want you the way you are right
now. Cold and hard. Heads don't want you along 'cause they think you can't keep your personal out of this. I'm
countin' on them bein' wrong because I want you along." He met Hector's eyes with his own. Knowing, if it were him,
he'd kill anyone that tried to stop him from going along. And he'd force himself to hold it together despite the desire to
do the opposite too. The Delta's black eyes... they said pretty much the same thing. "You want your fifteen minutes
alone with whoever did this - you wait for it, yeah?"
"I haven't killed Baker yet." Hector pointed out, drinking his coffee. "And I had plenty chance. His blood would have
been all over the sand back there before you guys could even start to come near me." He drained the coffee and
motioned for someone to get him more, since he finished off the pot. He looked at William.
"I've been on the road for eighteen hours. I've gotten a total of two hours of sleep in the last eight days. If I lay down
for a nap...and you don't wake me up when we head out...I will kill you. And enjoy it. Got it?" He said, his dark eyes
colder (if possible) than they had been a moment before, his posture tense and ready at the slightest aggravation to
spring. But not insane. Controlled. Like a coiled cobra waiting to strike. He was hoping to save it for the head guy who
took his Andi though.
"Chuck, I'd kill me myself I tried a low trick like that on you." William stated, steady eyes meeting Hector's. Buggar all,
but he didn't envy whoever had taken the lady doctor. "Bunk down. I'll be sure you're awake in time to help us move.
You got a cot or I need to point you to one?"
"I know where there's an empty one." Hector said. "I'll be in the staff tent." He said and walked away from the
command post to go lay down. He had over extended himself getting here, even for him.