AN: Just Another Patriotic Guy comes from the 300th episode of NCIS (of which I was an avid fan for years, and for which I blame for my love of Team as Family as a theme/idea), from a song sung by members of MusiCorps in the episode. In keeping with the musical inspiration of this piece, each chapter has a 'theme song', which I will reveal at the end of each chapter (for the sake of no spoilers!).
AUGUST 2015
US MILITARY BASE
KUNDUZ
AFGHANISTAN
CIA agent Jack Dalton sat in the Mess, talking with several Delta Force commandoes he'd worked with back in the day. Seated opposite him were Senior EOD technicians, Staff Sergeants Charlie Robinson and Angus MacGyver. The group of men made up a special taskforce that he (officially) led.
Thomas Davies, the most senior of the commandoes, was talking about the state of the country they were trying to help.
'This place has been screwed over too many times…ever since the Soviets…'
The blonde EOD tech nodded.
'The Afghanis have seen too many years of suffering.'
Jack nodded solemnly, then grinned and leaned over to punch Mac lightly in the arm.
'You sound far too old for your years, kid.' He paused and considered for a moment. 'You weren't even born when the Soviet-Afghan war ended, were you?'
That earned him a chuckle from the other men, while Mac shook his head at them with a smile. The newly-promoted Staff Sergeant was the youngest man in the taskforce, and while after six years serving together, all the older men respected his skill, intellect, courage and dedication, they still enjoyed teasing him every chance they got.
The sat-phone that Jack, as the technical leader of their taskforce, kept with him at all times, rang.
He picked up and listened, stony-faced, then hung up and turned to his team, who had instantly grown serious.
'Intel suggests that he's planning to strike.'
Jack didn't have to elaborate on who the he was. They all knew. The Ghost. They'd been chasing the bombmaker all though Afghanistan for the last six years and he had truly earned the moniker. Only in the last four months had they finally managed to get a physical description of the man, and only last month had they finally acquired a DNA sample.
It was Mac who spoke up.
'Target?'
Jack shook his head, mouth set in a grim line.
'MSF hospital about forty clicks from here.'
His men's eyes grew colder and their expressions more set.
A Doctors Without Borders hospital was a target that only the worst of humanity would choose.
As they set off in the Humvee, Jack glanced over at the younger man who'd become like a brother to him.
Mac looked older than his twenty-five years at that moment, blonde hair covered with a bandana, face set in grim lines, but sometimes Jack still saw him as a kid, as much as he knew he really wasn't.
No kid could do what Mac could.
No kid had been though what Mac had been through.
The CIA agent was well aware of Mac's personal vendetta against The Ghost.
He remembered all too clearly meeting the nineteen-year-old EOD tech, full of grief and anger after losing his C.O, his trainer, his mentor, Alfred Pena, to the bombmaker.
Pena had been about to go on leave to see his daughter's birth. The little girl would be about six by now.
Jack reached over and clasped Mac's shoulder briefly.
They'd get the bastard.
They had to.
MSF HOSPITAL
KUNDUZ
AFGHANISTAN
The evacuation of the hospital was well underway.
Mac negotiated the crowded corridor as best as he could; there were people buzzing around everywhere; patients, relatives, nurses, doctors.
He made his way to the hospital's ICU, where Davies had radioed in that he needed some assistance.
'Sir, ma'am, you're going to have to leave.'
Davies was addressing an older man and a young woman, both doctors.
The young woman stepped forward and shook her head at the commando.
'We can't just leave our patients.' She gestured at the life support machines keeping the four patients alive. 'And they can't leave the hospital.' She swallowed, crossed her arms and stared down both soldiers.
Mac and Davies exchanged a glance. They could both tell that she was definitely afraid, but pushing it aside to do her duty. It was a look that all soldiers were intimately familiar with, and the look of pretty much all the medical personnel in the building.
I've always had a lot of respect for the MSF personnel.
Who doesn't?
They volunteer their skills, for which they've studied long and hard, which typically could make them very good money back home, leave their loved ones and comfortable lives, and often put themselves in danger to boot, just to help other people.
The older male doctor put a hand on his younger colleague's shoulder.
'Beth…'
She turned to the other doctor, eyes fierce with determination.
'I know we can't save everyone. You're always telling me that, Chris, and I know. But we have to try. We can't just leave them here to...'
Davies shifted awkwardly, keenly aware, as was Mac, that they only had a very limited amount of time to evacuate the hospital and catch and stop The Ghost.
'Ma'am, I hate to tell you this, but you'll save more people in the end if you get out of here than if you stay with your patients.'
Mac glanced around the room, then at the young doctor. She looked resolute; understanding the truth that Davies spoke, but not willing to abandon her patients, determined to try and do something, even if she had no idea what the something was yet. Or if it could be done.
That was a feeling Mac understood well.
Leave no-one behind.
Zero is the only acceptable casualty rate.
He glanced around the room again.
Life support equipment, beds…there was a storage room, door ajar, off the ICU, and he could see what looked like a broken generator in there…he'd passed some cars, doubtlessly belonging to the MSF, on the way in…
Davies looked at the younger man, recognized the look in his eyes, nodded at him in acknowledgement and radioed the rest of the team.
'Robinson, you're going to have to cover for MacGyver. He's got to help with the evacuation.'
With a nod of acknowledgement at Davies, grateful for a team that understood him and how he worked, Mac started doing what he did best.
As the last of the ICU patients was transported out, the young female doctor grabbed Mac's arm as he hurried out of the ward to help his team, and looked up into his eyes for a moment.
'Thanks.'
He gave her a very small smile, and nodded, before running back down the corridor, which was still buzzing with activity.
'We're not going to get him; he'll have seen all the activity, realized that we got his bomb, and disappeared.'
Charlie had found and disarmed a bomb positioned near the back of the hospital, just outside its perimeter, earlier. There'd been almost an hour on its clock, plenty of time to evacuate the hospital with the forewarning they'd gotten. The last few civilians were currently evacuating and a few MSF staff were still running around, downloading patient records and the like, but in a few minutes, the hospital would be empty. They'd already swept most of the building, and it was clear so far.
But none of the taskforce were able to shake the feeling of unease they all felt.
It was too easy.
He's good, and it's never this easy.
He never uses only one bomb. He has to know that we know that by now.
He had to know that we'd find that one, and that we'd evacuate the hospital and search it thoroughly for a second.
And he's never so sloppy that we get this much warning…
…There was so much chaos, earlier, there really still is, MSF staff running around saving medical records…
Mac paused in his pacing and swore.
'He wanted us to evacuate the hospital. They're not the target; we are.' Jack, Davies and Charlie, who were all in the room with him, looked up at him, realization dawning on their faces. 'He's using the chaos of the evacuation as cover to plant the second bomb after we started sweeping the hospital. He doesn't care about the civilians, he wants us caught in here when the second bomb goes off!'
Davies grabbed his radio.
'You heard MacGyver, get the rest of the civilians out of here! Keep an eye out for him or any of his devices!'
Mac and Jack ran through the corridors of the hospital. They were searching the east side. Charlie and Davies had the west, while the rest of the commandos finished the evacuation and searched the grounds and the basement. Chances are, the bomb would be in an area they'd already swept.
'MacGyver, we need you over here now, Room 31. Ground floor, west side.'
Davies' voice sounded over the radio.
Mac and Jack exchanged a glance, and ran.
They burst into the room.
Davies was cuffing an unconscious man, who was bleeding profusely from the knee.
Mac and Jack recognized him in an instant.
The man they'd spent six years chasing.
The Ghost.
At long last.
But it wasn't all good news.
In the centre of the room, Charlie was dealing with the bombmaker's last gift to them.
Without a word, Davies hefted The Ghost onto his shoulder, none too gently, and left the room, while Mac rushed over to help Charlie.
'Jack, you need to keep searching. We know he always uses more than one bomb. Maybe this time he used three.'
The older man nodded and ran out of the room.
Mac and Charlie exchanged a horrified glance.
A bomb within a bomb.
They'd disarmed the first one…but inside, there was a second one.
1:23
1:22
1:21
There's no time…
We'll never get clear…
Unless…
Dumbwaiter, probably used to transport things to and from the basement…
'Guys, get out of here! Now!'
Mac seized the bomb and tossed it down the dumbwaiter shaft. He shoved a bed against the opening and ran after Charlie.
Thank God we're on the ground floor…
We just might have a chance…
'BOOM!'
Mac had a brief moment of awareness.
His head ached.
His ears rang.
There was something heavy lying across his legs, but it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would.
He knew, intellectually, that he should be in terrible pain, but he wasn't.
Was he just in shock?
Or was this what dying was like?
He struggled to raise his head, but all he could see around him was darkness and rubble.
He could feel his consciousness growing weaker and weaker as he struggled to stay awake.
Unbidden, he thought of Nikki and the diamond ring he had sitting in his sock drawer back home in their apartment for her.
Well, at least Jack and Bozer knew.
Even if Jack hadn't made it out either, Bozer would make sure she got it.
The darkness took him again.
'Hang in there, Staff Sergeant! Agent Dalton, what is the ETA on that med-evac?'
That voice sounded vaguely familiar, a lot like that fierce young female doctor from earlier…
'Come on, brother, you gotta pull through! We got him, and zero casualties to boot! I owe you at least half a dozen drinks, come on, brother…'
Jack.
Mac slipped under again.
'Sein rechtes Bein ist zu schwer verletzt; wir müssen...'
The air seemed cleaner here.
Less dust.
Mac tried to open his eyes, but he was too weak, and they felt too heavy…
He lapsed back into unconsciousness again.
Chapter song: Skyfall, Adele.
