"Hey, boss, I got something," said Clay, leaning over a laptop. This whole thing was a longshot but if they found what they were looking for then they would finally get the people responsible for Echo team's death. The only reason this mission got greenlit in the first place was because a potential Taliban courier, who could lead them to even bigger targets, lived here.
"What is it?" Asked Jason, walking around the corner. He looked at the laptop and immediately keyed his radio. "TOC, this is Bravo 1, we got 'em."
"Copy, Bravo one. Nice work."
"All right, let's pack it up. All call signs move to exfil." Jason attempted to call to his team, but all he got in return was static. He tried again, "I repeat, all call signs move to exfil." Still nothing.
"Something's not right, Clay."
"Yeah." As soon as the words left his mouth, something was thrown into the room.
"Grenade ! Get down!" Yelled Clay as he kicked the grenade and pushed Jason out of the room. It went off, and everything went white.
…...
Jason slowly opened his eyes and tried to stand up, but there was a ringing in his ears that wouldn't stop. He heard muffled voices calling out to him and suddenly he was being helped up by Ray, who leaned him against the wall. "Hey, man, are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, but where's the kid?" Jason said still disoriented. "I think he pushed me out of the room before the grenade went off, but that was the last I saw of him." Jason radioed to base. "TOC, this is Bravo 1, do you have eyes on Bravo 6?"
"Negative, Bravo 1."
"Bravo 6, this is Bravo 1, do you copy? Bravo 6, this is Bravo 1, do you copy?" Again, nothing but silence.
"All call signs, you have movement outside. It looks like they're carrying a body," Davis said over the Radio.
"Let's check it out," Jason said.
They quickly made their way outside in time to see an unconscious Clay being loaded into a van. They began firing rapidly, hoping they would hit something, but it was too late. They were already driving away with Clay in the back.
"TOC, this is Bravo 1, they took Bravo 6. I repeat, they took Bravo six!"
…
Clay's eyes cracked open as he regained consciousness. He couldn't remember anything that happened. All he knew was that his team was nowhere in sight, his arms were chained up, and his head hurt like crazy. He heard the door open, and looked up to see three men entering the room. They walked over to him and did nothing but stare.
"What do you want from me?" asked Clay, hoping they spoke English, because although he wanted to know what the hell they wanted from him, he wasn't eager for them to know he spoke their language, which was the only advantage he had in the situation. "We want to know about your team."
"You and I both know that's not going to happen."
"We'll see about that." The mysterious man walked closer to Clay. Clay stared him straight in the eyes before getting a hard punch right in the ribs.
He groaned, but didn't say a word.
"I know you were trained for this, but there's only so much pain a man can take before he either breaks or dies."
"Well I guess you're just going to have to kill me then," he retorted, earning himself a punch to the face.
"We'll see about that," said the man, grabbing a long-jagged knife from one of the other men in the room.
…...
The rest of Bravo team landed at the base and immediately stormed into TOC.
"How the hell did this happen?!" Jason screamed as he slammed his gun down on the table.
"We're not entirely sure, but you need to calm down," said Blackburn. "What we do know is that this was a set-up and they had every intent to capture one of you guys. You're all lucky to be alive."
"Lucky?! I'd rather be dead than sitting here, knowing Clay is out there somewhere, probably getting tortured as we speak." Jason's voice softened, as he scrubbed a hand down his face, "he's just a kid."
The room went silent, then Blackburn's voice broke through. "Standing around here isn't going to help him. No one is going anywhere until we find him so let's get to work."
…...
The man twirled the bloody knife in his hand, "Are you ready to tell me about your team?"
"Over my dead b-body." Clay hated how shaky his voice was and how defenseless he was. All he wanted to do was give this guy a good punch to the face.
"That can be arranged."
"I-If you k-kill me you won't g-get what you n-need." Clay tried to make his sentences as coherent as possible, but he could barely focus and he was getting cold.
"I have other methods." He walked back to Clay and drew a long, deep cut down Clay's chest.
"Gah!" Clay's s body betrayed him, and he let out a stifled scream. Yet, he still refused to talk.
"Well if you're not going to talk, then let's see if your team will. As a matter of fact, I could get something much more useful out of this." He grabbed a video camera and set it up in front of Clay.
…...
"It's been 36 hours and we still have absolutely nothing!" Jason had been pacing around the room for hours trying to wrap his head around everything. Everyone walked on their tiptoes around him because even the littlest thing could set him off.
"We'll find him, Jason. We have to," said Mandy.
"Hey, guys, we got something!" Yelled Davis from the corner where she was working.
Everyone ran over to Davis and her computer. "Someone sent a video file to us from an unknown number."
"Play it," ordered Blackburn.
Davis opened the video and the room went dead silent. There on the computer screen was Clay, hanging from his wrists, bruised and bloody.
"Oh my god." Ray could barely stand to look at the poor kid.
Davis hit play, and everyone looked on in complete horror as the strange man drew long cuts all over Clay's torso. Clay tried his best not to make any noise but, occasionally, they heard him cry out.
"Hello, Bravo team," the man said. "Your boy is refusing to talk. So, unless you want to get him back in a body bag, I suggest you tell me a few things about what you're doing in this country. You also have something of mine. I would like it back. If not, well, " he trailed off, then picked up a cattle prod and held it to Clay's stomach. Clay groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, but refused to scream. He didn't want his team to see him so weak. "Details are enclosed in the email. I'd hurry if I were you, I don't think he has much time left."
The video screen went black and no one knew what to do. They all just stood there like statues, frozen in disbelief. "Son of a bitch!" Sonny slammed his hand down on the table and nearly punched a hole right through it.
"Easy, Sonny. You're no use to Clay with a broken hand." Trent said as he walked over to give the bruised hand a look.
"This guy wants to do an exchange," Mandy quickly interrupted the small lecture.
"What does he want?" Hayes asked.
"Nouri Halani."
"Who the is this guy and why the hell does he want Nouri Halani?" Jason was just as confused as the rest of the team.
"I don't know yet but I'm going to find out."
…...
"You're pretty tough," said the man.
Clay just stared at him with hate filled eyes. He decided not talking was a better bet since every time he did talk, he got a punch to the gut.
"Fine, don't talk, but know that's not going to stop me," he held the cattle prod to Clay's stomach again and again until he finally got what he wanted.
"AHHHH!" Clay let the scream be ripped from his mouth. The truth was that he didn't care anymore. He wasn't going to give this man any information that would endanger his team and that's all that mattered.
"Ooh, finally! We get a scream from the big tough SEAL. You could stop this all right now with just a few words."
"Screw...y-you," he said breathlessly.
"Yeah, that was expected. Let's see how you feel after this." He grabbed a syringe and walked over to Clay. He put the needle in Clay's neck, but before he administered the drug, he gave one final warning. "You should know that this very well could kill you and if it doesn't...well, you'll wish it would." He pushed the liquid into Clay's neck and within seconds, his vision began to go dark.
Everyone was sitting in silence, thinking about what they'd just seen. No one knew what to talk about, so they decided it was better to keep their thoughts to themselves.
Suddenly, Mandy jumped up from her chair. "Guys, I got something!" Everyone ran over and crowded around her.
"What is it?" Blackburn asked.
"This guy's name is Abd Al Hakim and as it turns out, he's Nouri Halani's son."
"You're kidding," remarked Jason.
"No, I'm not kidding but that doesn't matter. He's never going to see his father again because I got a location." Before she could even finish, the whole team was almost out the door. "Hang on, guys, it's not that simple. This house is in an insanely populated area, so we can't provide overwatch, and the nearest place we can exfil is at least 15 minutes away."
"It doesn't matter. We're going to get our boy back." Jason said as he and the team began to walk out of the room to suit up.
"Guys," Mandy stopped them, "bring him home." Everyone silently nodded and walked out.
…...
"ETA is 2 minutes." Davis spoke over the comms
"Roger." Jason turned to his team, "Alright Bravo, let's go get our boy back. Trent, I need you standing by with the med kit."
"You got it, boss."
The van stopped, and their heartbeats jumped through the roof. None of them were prepared to see the condition the kid was in, but they wanted him home.
"GO!" yelled Bravo one. In a flash, all of them were out of the van and inside, clearing rooms.
They cleared almost every room and took down multiple hostiles before finally reaching the room Clay was in.
"This is the last room. If Clay's not here, then we're screwed," said Sonny over the comms.
They kicked in the door and immediately were met with three hostiles, including Abd Al Hakim. They quickly took down two of them, grabbed Hakim and were left to take in what was in front of them. Clay was chained to the ceiling by his wrists, and he looked worse than they had imagined.
"Damn." Brock had never thought hd see the youngest member of Bravo like this.
"TOC, we have Bravo six. I repeat, we have Bravo six." Jason was so relieved to utter those words that tears started to form in his eyes as he looked at the kid. Their kid.
"We have to get him out of here right now!" Yelled Trent who was currently taking in all of Clays injuries.
"Clay? Clay can you hear me, bud?" Asked Sonny, but he was only met with a small groan. "We gotta get you out of here, kid, so we have to bring you down now. This might hurt a bit, but I need you to stay calm, okay? " Clay was completely silent. "I think he's down for the count. It's probably for the best, though. Now, let's get our boy back home."
They untied Clay and slowly made their way to the van, Trent and Sonny carrying Clay.
"Guys, we needed to reach exfil yesterday. He's not doing so hot," said Trent.
Brock was driving, with Ray in the front providing cover. The rest of the team was in the back of the van with Clay. Trent was doing the best he could to make sure Clay made it back to base. They had yet to find out about the drug until Clay opened his eyes and began to try and move away from them.
"Woah, Clay! Calm down!" Jason yelled, but Clay really wasn't in a listening mood. He continued to move underneath his teammate's arms. They did the best they could to hold him down, but they couldn't get control of him. "Trent, what's happening?! Why won't he listen to us or stop moving?" Asked Jason.
"Shit! I think he was drugged," he told the team. "Hey, Brock, any chance you can speed it up?"
"I'm going as fast as I can. I'm sorry!"
Clay got an arm loose and launched his fist straight at Sonny's face. "What the hell, Spense?! Does he not recognize us?"
"I don't think so."
Clay's movements became sluggish and he stopped fighting. "No, no come on Clay! I need you to stay awake for me, buddy, okay?" said Jason frantically.
"We're 2 minutes out" said Ray.
"Thank god," said Jason as he and the others continued to try and keep Clay awake. It was going to be a long day.
…...
As soon as they pulled up, there were medics ready to take Clay to the infirmary. The team pulled Clay out of the van and moved him onto a stretcher.
"Strap him down." Jason told the medics. He didn't want Clay to wake up and jostle his injuries anymore than he already has.
"What?" They questioned.
"Just do it! Trust me" Jason commanded the medics.
They quickly complied at the change of tone and strapped Clay to the bed before rushing him to the infirmary. As soon as they entered the doors, they were taking Clay back to the OR.
Two hours later and they still hadn't heard a word about his condition.
"How long is this going to take?!" Jason was slowly losing his temper as he thought of every worse case scenario.
"Calm down, Jace. We're all stressed out, and yelling isn't going to do anything."
"Except givin' us a headache," Sonny muttered under his breath.
"Well what else am I supposed to do, Huh?! Clay just got tortured, Ray! You saw him! You saw what they did to him! He got taken because we were sent straight into a trap and they knew about it! So, forgive me if I'm a little angry!"
"Jason, we're all pissed off at what happened, but we can't focus on it right now. We need to focus on Clay. He's going to need us after what he went though."
Jason let out a soft sigh. He always hated when Ray was right. "Yeah. Yeah, I know." With that they all sat back down again and silently waited for news on Clays condition.
…...
Another hour passed and finally, the doctor came into the waiting room. "Family of Clay Spenser?" She asked.
The entire team stood up and surrounded the doctor as they waited to hear news of their brother.
"How is he, doc?" asked Sonny.
"Well, I'll start out by saying that he should be fine." You could hear the sighs relief coming from the team. "But, you should know that it was a tough surgery and he's got a long road ahead of him."
"Anything else you can tell us?" Ray asked.
"Yes. He has more injuries than any one person should be able to endure. He has two broken ribs and several cracked ones, he has deep gashes all over his abdomen, multiple burns, and as you know, he was also drugged. The drug was a form of a paralytic and if you guys hadn't gotten to him when you did, then it would've paralyzed his respiratory system and he would've suffocated."
"Jesus." Jason had to sit down when he heard all this information. How the hell did he let this happen to Clay?
The doctor continued, "the surgery took so long because we needed to find what they drugged him with before we could safely operate. We would like to keep him here for a few days just to make sure he is recovering nicely but after that he should be fine to fly back to the states. I know this is a lot of information to handle at once but just take a minute to process and then you all can go see him in room 426 just down the hall. He'll be out for another hour or so, but you're welcome to wait with him."
"Thanks, doc," Sonny said as he shook her hand.
They all started down the hall towards Clay's room. None of them were really prepared to see him after what they had heard from the doctor. But at the same time, they all needed to see him alive and breathing. They rounded the corner to Clay's room and filed in one by one.
"Damn." Sonny breathed out as he took in Clay's appearance. He looked like had been thrown off a building. He had a bandage wrapped around his abdomen and an oxygen mask on his face. He was breathing slow and steady breaths as the heart monitor beeped rhythmically beside him.
"Well, we've got about 45 minutes before doc said the meds would wear off, but we all know that it's going to take a lot longer than that. Clay never does anything half assed now, does he?" Smirked Jason. "You all are welcome to go back to the bunks and get some rest, eat, change, do whatever. It's going to be a long night, so I'll stay with the kid."
"Boss, I think you know none of us are leaving until he opens his eyes." Ray responded to Jason's offer.
Jason just smiled at his team while they all pulled chairs up to Clay's bed and made themselves comfortable.