JasperPOV
"Gentlemen, we have an odd situation." The General said from his plush leather chair in the ready room at our base at Little Creek.
"What's happened sir?" I asked.
"As at 2200 hours local time in Spetses Greece a concealed equipment cache was opened and the beacon acknowledging this was activated. I don't need to tell you gentlemen that there are very few people who know of this cache. In fact I can account for all of them, as they are all currently sitting pretty on this base."
"So do you think someone has stumbled over it?"
"I'm open minded Lieutenant. What concerns me is that the equipment found in that cache may now be in the hands of a civilian or other. We need to find them and retrieve it." The General grumbled.
"Surely we have people local who can do this." I stated. I was pissed, are we only good for cleaning up miss-placed toys now?
"That's the thing Lieutenant, the cache can only be opened using specific Seal encryptions and seeing as I've accounted for all of you, this needs further investigation. We are all aware that we've lost a man recently, and if somehow this information has been removed from him, then we need to lock it down and fast."
"With respect sir, but Cullen was blown up, there was no body to get information from." I spat.
"Either way Lieutenant, have your team ready to depart in an hour."
"Yes sir." We replied in unison.
The General stood and left the room. Emmett sat across the table from me, he didn't need to say anything, and we were both well aware that his leave could no longer continue. He needed to be back and we needed him. I nodded at him and he lifted his head up in response to our unspoken conversation.
"Okay guys, head back to the crew room, collect what you need and meet in the parking lot in 45 minutes. If you need to call family, now is the time, make it quick. Pete, stick to Jake, he knows the score and will lead you right." I nodded to each of them in turn before gathering my phone and heading out.
Lifting my phone I hit 1 on speed dial and held it to my ear.
"Hi baby, what time will you be home?" Alice said on answering.
"Sorry sweetheart, we're heading out in an hour." I answered.
"Jasper..."
"Baby you knew it would come round sometime, it's just a little sooner than expected. I'll try to be safe baby."
"You better damned well be Jasper Whitlock, or so help me, I'll come kick your ass myself." She growled.
"I promise baby, I love you Ali."
"I love you to Jasper, you come home to me."
"I'll call you as soon as I can baby. Love you."
"I'll be waiting. Love you too." She replied before hanging up.
It was always hard to tell Alice when we'd been called out, even more so since Edward had been killed. When we were apart we missed each other more, when we were back together we held each other a bit tighter. It was as if the world was conspiring against us and all we could do to beat it was to hold on tighter.
"I'll be home soon baby." I said to the air.
After calling Alice, I headed back to the crew room; most of the guys were in the middle of changing and grabbing kit, or talking to wives and girlfriends. I headed to my locker and removed my fatigues, dressing in civvies and donning a kevlar vest. Emmett was already dressed and in deep conversation with Rose on his cell. His pack was at his feet in readiness to move out.
"5 minutes Gentlemen, leave any personal effects in your lockers, no wallets, no pictures, no phones." I called and headed out to the parking lot where two Humvees had arrived to take us to Andrews AFB.
We boarded the lear jet, that would fly us to Porto Kheli Alexion Airport, from there we would meet our contact who would drive us to the coast and a boat, and we would cruise across to Spetses, while trying to remain inconspicuous. Well as inconspicuous as eight big men can be. The jet was comfortable and we spent our time talking and playing cards. It was nearly 10 hours later that we landed in Porto Kheli, a little weary, but we'd each taken naps in flight.
I soon spotted our contact Zico across the tarmac; he stood beside a large minibus, resplendent in cargo shorts and a brash Hawaiian shirt. His dark hair stuck to his sweaty head and the fluorescent lamps glinted off the various gold trinkets around his neck.
"Zico, good to see you, you have organised a boat for us?" I said in greeting, tapping his shoulder and smiling wildly.
"Ah Hasper, professional as always, one day I will be able to tempt you to come see my daughter dance, no?" He laughed loudly.
"The boat Zico?" I spoke through my grin.
"Yes yes, I have a large boat for you at the marina, perfect for your cover. Only thing missing... dancing girls, if not for you perhaps for your friends."
"No dancing girls Zico, we're here on business." I nodded.
"Maybe next time Hasper. If you will follow me, I'll get you to the marina."
"That would be excellent Zico, thank you." I gestured for the team to follow.
We squeezed into the mini bus, a rickety old vehicle that had clearly seen better days, but it drew less attention this way.
The drive to the marina was thankfully short. I was pleased to see that Zico had chartered a 30ft Flybridge yacht; it was perfect for the trip to Spetses and comfortable too. I'd spent too many hours balanced in zodiacs with wet kit to last a life time.
"Woah, would you look at that," Emmett nudged my rib.
"Better than our usual eh Em."
"Definitely." he murmured while looking at the yacht with a mixture of awe and longing.
"Let’s get underway, and then I'll brief everyone. Jake you've got the helm." Like I needed to tell him.
"Awesome!" he responded with enthusiasm. While heading up to the helm station.
The boat roared to life and the guys cast off from the dock. Zico waved us off as we left the marina for open water.
"Okay guys take a seat. Jake there's a small cove near to the cache, head towards it; we'll take the tender to land."
"Sure thing Jazz."
"The cache was situated here just over a year ago." I pointed to a chart that was covering the nav table beside the helm. "Our team had been sent to retrieve a CNN news crew from the Carpathians, and it was suggested that Spetses would be the perfect rally point should we be divided. Needless to say we didn't need it."
"The cache was set up with a seal encryption, so that only we could access it; it was also fitted with a beacon that activates on opening. Which is great if we're unable to use radio equipment."
"So who had the encryption's?" said Pete.
"We all had them, plus teams four, eight and ten. General Garrett and of course the team that put it there."
"That's a lot of people," he replied.
"All of which are accounted for when it was opened. They are all based at NAB. So it's our job to find out who opened it, where they are now and get our gear back."
After the quick brief we broke and everyone drifted off to take care of gear and ready themselves for a beach landing. After changing into urban fatigues I relieved Jake so he could get ready. The yacht moved smoothly through the dark water, only the moon above us lighting our way. The radar on the helm station flickered with blips from ferries and pleasure yachts in the vicinity. As we neared Spetses, it rose out of the water, a dark shape looming on the horizon, mysterious and foreboding. Jake soon joined me at the helm station, his eyes casting an even path across the choppy ocean ahead of us.
"Would you look at that, not seen one of those since boat school. Tell me I'm not seeing things, it's a Grumman right?" he quipped excitedly.
"Sure looks like one Jake, but why's it beached and where's the support vessel?" I responded.
The night air cracked and fizzled around us as we slowed into the cove. It was electric, like something was waiting for us. Or someone.
'Rat a tat, rat a tat, rat a tat'
We both looked across to the island, the tell tale sound of gunfire in the distance. Jake looked to me for confirmation, I nodded, not moving from the helm as I pulled the throttle back and drew us to a stop.
"Drop the anchor Jake." I said before heading below to the rest of the team, who had all heard the noise from ashore and come out on deck.
"Sounds hot Jasper." Em muttered.
"Let’s get this show on the road, sooner we're in, the sooner we go home. Keep eyes on and only fire if fired upon. Standard rules of engagement." I said.
Jake had already moved towards the rear of the boat and released the tender, "Oh well, I guess we had to have a zodiac sometime." I groaned.
"Embry and Seth, when we hit land I need you to take to the headland and provide cover on our rear, radio silence, so we'll click our comms on approach."
They nodded in response.
"Sam, and Quil, you guys will take the right flank, the callsign for friendlies is thunder, answer only with flash."
"Jake, you and Pete will take the left flank, you know the rest. Pete, stick to him like glue."
"Gotcha Jasper."
"Like glue, no accidents on this one." I said pointedly.
"Em, you and me, straight down the middle."
"Just how I like it." he replied clashing his fist into his palm.
"Okay guys buddy up and hit the boat." I said determinedly.
Stowing our gear into the zodiac, we all boarded, grabbing onto the sides to hold us steady, Jake turned the throttle and we sped across the water towards a darkened area of beach. As we got closer to shore, we spotted four more Zodiacs beached alongside. I nodded to Seth and Embry and they dropped over the side, sniper rifles in hand and disappeared into the night. As we hit the beach we sprung from the zodiac and spread out and slowly headed inland. The cache was only a kilometre inland, so it wouldn't take us long to get to it, but having heard the gunfire and now found the other boats on the beach, we were on high alert and took a circuitous route inland. It was 10 minutes later that we found the first body.
He was of average height, muscular build and decked out in black, head to toe. An AK47 lay to his side and a silenced pistol sat in a holster on his hip. His neck was broken; from the direction his body was in he was attacked from behind. No other wounds were present. A professional, stealth kill. This was disconcerting. We found the next two minutes later, impaled on his own gun. This was beginning to look seriously strange. We were the only team sent in, yet we had already we had found two professional looking dead men. They weren't Seals; there was nothing to tell us who they were.
Emmett shrugged and continued on. We made a steady pace as we moved through the rocky and slightly hilly terrain. Tree cover in the area was at a premium, we were constantly on the lookout for any sign of ambush. Emmett slowed, and then stopped between two trees. A trip wire was stretched between them, with a grenade and coloured smoke canister primed to go. Who ever put it here was good, very good; it was the direct route to the cache and would be the perfect choke point.
Fuck radio silence, I bleeped the comm twice before whispering, "Look close for trip wires, the area is booby trapped."
"Jazz, we've got bodies here, six of them, armed to the teeth." Jake responded quietly.
"Same over here." said Sam.
Well shit, that's 14 bodies so far, whoever killed them is good, I mean scary good.
"Eyes on guys, I don't want any of you being added to the body count." I whispered through the radio.
I nodded to Em to move on, he stepped to the side of the trees, and resituated the pins in the grenade and smoke canister, before cutting the trip wire.
"Don't want any accidents on the way out." He said quietly.
The darkness as we moved forwards pushed in around us, our NVG's thankfully cut through it, casting an unnatural green hue at the surroundings. The going was slow, but it was better than dying. We found two more black clad bodies as we neared the clearing the cache had been hidden. The kills were different from the others. It's almost as if they'd had to fight hand to hand, limbs were at uneven angles, the faces swollen with bruises and cuts, blood pooled beneath one from a wound to the stomach. He was still warm, must've bled out. The other had a gunshot wound to his throat. No weapons were left with them. Who ever had killed them had disarmed them and taken the weapons along.
The clearing came into view; it was marked with a peach tree at the centre. A small seal insignia had been carved into the bow, much like lovers would. A shadowy lump was at the base of the tree, we approached slowly, it was either the equipment or the person responsible for the carnage we had passed.
As we reached the tree a feminine groan sounded, followed by shallow breathes.
"Holy shit." Quil said as we looked down on the dark lump. I nodded to him to continue.
Quil gently lifted the camouflage netting from the lump, gasping at the tangled mess of limbs below it.
"Is that...?" he started.
"What?" Emmett started moving towards the covered bodies.
Quil pulled the netting off completely, revealing the two bodies beneath. They were both in dark wetsuits, armed with spear guns and Ak47's, bruised and bloody.
The woman groaned out in pain once more, Emmett immediately switched to medic mode. "Miss, where does it hurt?" he said sweeping her hair from her dirt and blood covered face. She grimaced at his touch, her breathing raspy. He looked at her companion and froze.
"Em?" I started as he fell back on his ass and pointed at the seemingly unconscious companion.
"Tell me I'm seeing things Jazz, tell me I've finally cracked." he whisper yelled while shaking his head.
I looked at the body in front of me and pulled my torch from my belt, flicking it on I gasped in shock. "Holy shit! Edward?"
The woman was slumped over him protectively; it looked like they'd made their stand here and only succumbed to their injuries once they were safe. I looked down at her, with her hair brushed away from her face I realised who she was. "Isabella Swan. Well shit that is a huge surprise."
"The analyst chick?" Jake spoke suddenly.
"Yeah, looks like they've been through the ringer, what's the bet they came in the sub?"
"Okay guys let’s get a perimeter set up, don't need any surprises do we."
They didn't respond, just sprung into action and secured the clearing.
Em suddenly got his shit together and with the help of the guys moved the two of them apart so he could assess their injuries and stabilise them. Isabella appeared to have been tortured, extensively; she'd been patched up recently, probably by Edward if I had to guess. She been shot in the thigh, through and through and had a stab wound to her left bicep. Broken ribs, broken nose, two broken fingers, a fractured wrist and more bruises than I ever wished to see. Yet still she'd tried to hold on to protect Edward. Incredible.
Edward was just as bad, although he didn't appear to have been tortured as badly, a broken arm, multiple broken ribs, stab wounds to his shoulders, stomach and thigh, as well as a bullet wound in his upper chest. He was equally bruised and add to that a head wound, he was now unconscious from the trauma. Emmett worked like a trojan to stabilise them, inserting canulas and running drips. They were wounded and undernourished; it would be a heck of a recovery for them. He splinted and bandaged what he could before looking at me finally.
"I can't do anything else here, perhaps once we're on the boat I can get a better idea of what I'm up against. Either way, we can't stay here; they won't make it if we do."
"No worries Em, we'll get them out." I responded with a hand to his shoulder.
"Jake, Quil, I need you to resituate the cache, and deactivate the beacon to ready. Sam, Pete, we need to clear a path back to the beach, booby traps need to be cleared, the most direct route as possible. Go!"
I turned back to Emmett, "Okay bro, what do you need me to do, you're the medic, so you're the boss."
"I have one stretcher; I think Pete will have the other in his pack as he's my second. We need to get them situated and ready to leave."
"Okay, I'll get Pete's kit and we'll take it from there."
Emmett returned to pulling equipment from his kit, I likened it to Mary Poppins bag once in training, some of the stuff he would pull from it, made you wonder how it fit in. He pulled out the stretcher and unfolded it clicking pins into place to keep it rigid.
"Jasper can you help me move Swan, I don't want to jostle anything."
"Sure thing Em," I said crouching beside her head.
"Lift from the shoulders, try not to move her neck too much."
With a bit of effort to keep her as straight as possible we finally got Swan on the stretcher, her IV bag nestled on her chest, Emmett strapped her in tucking a foil blanket around her. I pulled the second stretcher from Pete's bag, set it up as I'd seen Emmett do.
"Ok Jazz, same again, careful of his head."
Once again Emmett nestled the IV on Edwards’ chest, strapped him to the stretcher and tucked a foil blanket around him. Any other time we would've joked that he looked like an oven ready chicken, now was not the time.
"You did good Em." I said patting him on the shoulder.
He shrugged and took up position between his two patients. This was a side of Emmett few rarely saw, if ever. The focused, caring, scary as all hell in charge kind.
"Jazz, the road is clear, we're heading back." Jake called over the comm.
"See you in a few." I acknowledged.
Em looked up from his position, I've only ever seen him cry once and that was when he had to tell mama Cullen her boy wasn't coming home, right now, he looked like he'd won the moon and the stars. Jake and the guys emerged from the woodland soon after and headed towards us.
"The path is clear all the way to the beach." he said.
"Excellent, Em and Quil you take Edwards stretcher, Pete, Sam, you've got Miss Swan. Jake you've got point and I'll take rear guard. Let’s get out of here." I said eagerly.
"Seth, Embry, we're coming down, don't shoot us." Jake called over the comm.
"Ha!" Seth guffawed over the comm.
"Might want to pick it up a bit, lots of traffic on the water out here." Embry added.
"Keep eyes on Embry; let us know if we need to deviate our course." I replied.
"No worries, you're clear for now."
The ten minutes it took to hike back down to the beach were the longest in my life, we quickly loaded up two zodiacs, we'd cast the second adrift when we were loaded back on the yacht. Seth and Embry joined us as we took to the water, both pointed out to the open ocean and the three large looking boats heading inland.
"Well spotted, let’s get on the yacht and play at being tourists for a bit." I said motioning for Jake and Quil to open up the throttle on the zodiacs.
We headed to the yacht as fast as the small inflatables could carry us, jumping on the back deck and hoisting the tender complete with stretcher still, on board. The second we emptied at the footplate, carrying the stretcher into the salon, before scuppering the craft and watching it sink.
"Okay guys, get Edward out of the tender and into the Salon with Miss Swan, Pete and Jake, you're playing at tourist, turn on the lights on the fore deck, there's fishing rods already set up, load a cooler with beer and shoot the shit for any passing boat to see."
They ran ahead, to grab some shorts to change into, eager to play their parts. Sam and Quil carried Edward into the saloon and placed him next to Miss Swan, even unconscious; they gravitated towards each other on the stretchers. I guess they'd gotten close during whatever hell they'd been through.
"Okay Em, what do you need us to do?" I asked.
"I think we need to get them into the master cabin, the bed there is big enough for both of them and for any equipment I need to set up between them. It's also out of sight of any windows, just in case anyone gets nosy."
"You heard the man, let’s get them downstairs." I said to the assembled men.
It didn't take long for us to situate them in the master cabin, Emmett assured me that he was fine and to head on out, he'd call over the comm if he needed any help. He set to pottering around his two patients, cleaning and bandaging, fixing electrodes and all manner of hardware to them. It was like some science experiment. He hung the IV's from the bedside light fittings, tapping the drip feed to ensure they were set to go.
While Emmett worked we each quickly changed and headed up to the salon and took up stations around the yacht. For all intents and purposes, we were tourists, so we needed to look the part, Embry took up position on one of the large sofas in the salon, switching on a small lamp beside him, and grabbing a book on fishing from a stack on a nearby table. Sam grabbed a guitar from its stand in the dining room and headed back to the aft deck where he sat on the footplate strumming aimlessly, while watching the approaching boats. Quil and Seth appeared to be engaged in a game of chess on the opposite side of the salon, appearing to talk heatedly for anyone looking. I strolled casually around the deck, a bottle of beer in my hand, untouched of course, enjoying the night time breeze. We all had guns within easy reach.
One of the boats drew near, the crew didn't even hide that they were giving us extra attention. Jake and Pete appeared to be in a heated and somewhat drunken discussion about the lack of fish.
"Ahoy over there, how are they biting tonight." One of the attentive crew men shouted over.
Jake waved drunkenly back at him, tilting slightly on his legs and grasping the rail. "Not at all, I reckon the sharks have eaten them all... fuckers!" he called back.
The man laughed and waved him off, "seen anyone else about, a few of our crew are missing." he called.
"Nope, only got here about 20 minutes ago, spent the evening in Lingoneri with a few lovely local ladies." Jake replied waggling his eyebrows and gesturing rudely.
The man laughed some more, "Perhaps you should've stayed there my friend, maybe you would've had better luck than you have with the fish."
Jake waved him off, hamming up his 'drunkeness' by falling on his ass, Pete laughed loudly at him, doubling over and spilling his beer in the process.
Don't overdo it guys.
"Have a good night!" The man called as the ship continued past. The crew continued to keep their eyes on us, until it disappeared in the darkness.
I strolled over to Jake and Pete, "Keep it up, they'll likely turn back and come about soon. We just need to keep up the charade until daylight, and then we can cast off and get out of here." I said, before strolling across the deck and continuing around the side of the yacht.
The other two ships had stopped and dropped anchor on the other side of the cove, there's nothing we could do about that, unless they caused us trouble. We just need to keep the charade going, it would be dawn in 2 hours and then we could legitimately move on.
We still had the comms on, so I clicked mine and asked Embry to check on Emmett, make it look like he was turning in. I continued walking till I reached Sam and sat beside him on the Aft deck, appearing to listen to him strumming on his guitar. We both chatted casually while watching the two ships behind. Every movement was noted and responded to in kind. Whether it was through a swig from the bottle, a jokey gesture or a bum note on the guitar. Shortly before dawn I headed up to the Helm station, and started the engine, pulling a baseball cap on my head and I prepared to raise anchor and push away from the cove. Jake came over the comm, the first ship was returning just as expected. He and Pete had taken to a pair of sports chairs beside the rods and appeared to have passed out from over indulging , of course I knew better, but to anyone looking in, they were a couple of drunks sleeping it off. Sam moved from the aft deck and joined me up on the helm, "Clear on the rear." he stated calmly.
"Coffee, black, make it a large one bro." I said in response in case anyone was listening in, he nodded and headed down to the salon, where Seth had coffee going.
I hit the lever that raised the anchor and slowly edged the throttle forwards, guiding the yacht towards open water. Sounding our horn and waving as the larger shipped passed by. Their horn sounded in response and Jake appeared to groan from the apparent noise, making a show of covering his ears.
Once we hit open water I asked Quil to take the helm, Jake needed to keep his charade going; on the off chance we had company. I headed back down to the master cabin, there was a comm station in there and I intended to use it. Sam joined me shortly after, with a large travel mug of coffee in his hand. He passed it to me before taking his position at the comm.
"Make it quick Sam, don't know who may be listening. Need to send a message to SOCOM, so that Garrett gets it. Tell them that the Shepherd has rounded up two lost, sick sheep. Nothing more. They'll have everything ready for us when we get home."
He quickly set to work on the comm equipment, dials and buttons turning and flicking. We never wait for a received status, time doesn't often allow, and now we had other things to concentrate on. I patted him on the shoulder before I strolled over to the bed and Emmett.
"How they doing Em?"
"Stable, for now." he responded.
"Okay, once we get closer to port, I'll call Zico, we'll play it as a diving injury, the bends perhaps, either way, we'll roll them out in plain sight, I'll get him to set up a 'mercy flight' to a hyperbaric chamber. We'll need to keep oxygen masks on to cover facial bruising."
Emmett nodded in agreement; it would be the safest and most manageable option. I had no doubt that Zico could procure an ambulance that we could follow in the minibus, back to the airport.
As we neared the marina, I set the plan into motion; I picked up the operational cell and dialed Zico's number.
He answered on the third ring. As always. "Hey Flash what's the fuss?" he said, cleverly incorporating his codeword.
"Only thing that would make this day worse would be 'thunder' and lightening." I stated in a panicked voice.
"Was the boat not stocked well enough, I did say you should've had the dancing girls." he continued.
"Shut up! There’s been an accident, two of the guys were diving, something spooked them and they came up much much too fast, it's the bends man, Oh shit they're going to die." Ok so I was being dramatic, but if anyone was listening all they'd get was some stupid yank panicking.
"Okay, okay, I'll call an ambulance, you have money yes? You need a flight to one of those chambers, I'll book one, you pay me good Flash, I'll take care of you." Zico continued as if reading from a script.
"Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, we'll be there shortly." I said as if I was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Emmett glanced at me, raising an eyebrow.
I hung up the cell and sat down in the chair beside the bed.
"And the Oscar for most cheese goes too..." Emmett said.
"Ha bloody Ha!" I retorted.
"We good?" he asked.
"Yep, we're good; prepare to get out of here soon as we dock."
Emmett sprung into action grabbing bandages and medical tools and fitting them into his bag, soon all that was left out were what were physically attached to Isabella and Edward. He slumped in a chair beside the bed and gulped down his own coffee. The hours without sleep taking their toll.
I left him to rest and prepare for the next stage and headed up on deck, telling the guys the plan and clearing up our gear. I was more than ready to go home.
As we approached the dock, I saw the flashing lights of an ambulance waiting near to our mooring, the rickety old minibus parked nearby. There were two stretchers prepped and waiting for us to arrive. Zico was stood beside one of his guys, they were both dressed as medics. I chuckled thinking of how he managed to do this stuff at short notice. I knew I would never ask.
Quil slid the yacht into the mooring and we tied the lines to the cleats on the side. I sighed in relief, phase one was over. We're nearly home.
Embry and Seth came up the stairs carrying Edward on a stretcher, his crazy hair hidden under a bandage, they lowered him onto the trolley and stood to the side and Zico's guy strapped him on. Sam and Emmett followed with Isabella, strapping her onto the second trolley and following as they were wheeled to the ambulance. Emmett climbed in with them. At least one of us will be with them at all stages of the trip home. I handed the key to the yacht to Zico, who exchanged it for those to the minibus, we all bundled in swiftly, in order to follow the ambulance to meet it's 'mercy' flight at the airport. Jake at the wheel, pushing everything he could out of the aged vehicle.
On arrival, we thanked Zico for all of his help and loaded up the plane, this was the home stretch. I climbed on last, closing the hatch behind me; I looked at the guys in their seats, and smiled, my first genuine smile in what seemed like ages. "Let’s go home." I said, taking my seat and buckling in.
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