"Where's Bookworm disappeared to now" Sonny asked entering the hospital room that Jess had been assigned while she recovered from her last surgery, it had taken place that morning, she was done with it all, which meant that the official countdown could begin. Her dislike of hospitals had become quite obvious to the rest of the team and she wouldn't spend any more time in one than she had to
"The head" Ray asked following him into the room carrying a big package of toilet paper they had stopped to buy on the way to the hospital to see her as a joke. They had even put a big bow on it with a list of instructions on how to use it, just in case she had forgotten, he sat it up on the bench in her room
"Definitely the head" Jason replied hearing the toilet flush as he followed behind with a second package that they had decorated in the same fashion following Ray in, placing the second pack next to it, Clay, Brock, Cerbs and Trent followed closely behind with a gift bag as well filled with different things like air freshners
"Ooh gelato" Brock said noticing the bowl on the tray table and immediately picked it up to help himself
"Na-ahh you got the last lot" Clay said in protest trying to get it of him
"Finders keepers" Brock said with a grin turning his back to Clay so he couldn't get to the bowl as they tussled over the bowl dragging the attention of the rest of the team
"Here's an idea, grab an extra spoon and share" Jess said exiting the toilet and hobbling back to her bed
"How's it feel to be able to use the toilet again" Trent asked moving the blankets so it was easier for Jess to get back in, she still was using a brace and cane on her leg for support but it was obvious to everyone on the team it wasn't going to be for much longer, the current brace she had just been given was extremely light and flexible, providing just enough support to allow full gait training and begin to restrengthen the leg
"What makes you think that I've actually been able to use it yet" Jess asked sliding herself back into the bed
"No luck" Jason asked
"Nope, and that doesn't mean you can get there and stand in front of the door to it Sonny" Jess said making it quite clear that she wanted him to move
"Sorry" Sonny responded quickly moving out of the way so Jess could quickly and easily access the head if she needed it
"You're not even back on duty and you're already telling us what to do" Clay said with a laugh
"You lot try and pull any mother hen stuff or something like that once I get back in the field and I'll be telling you where to go as well" Jess said pointing to the packages of toilet paper they had placed on the bench
"Will be back soon enough" Doctor Masterson said entering the room hearing part of the conversation
"Doctor Masterson" Trent said acknowledging his presence in the room
"You can have her back in 8 weeks from today, providing Doctor Keeling is happy with her leg" Doctor Masterson said giving the group the good news
"Is that full duty" Brock asked as Cerbs hopped up on Jess's bed and gave the doctor the puppy dog eyes, he could sense the team was waiting for the Doctor to tell them good news, so Cerbs thought that the puppy dog eyes would help the situation
"Full duty, with a graded fitness return program, your priority for the next 12 months will not be showing your whole team up, you keep your fitness scores at the standard to remain operational and keep your priority on maintaining your weight and managing your energy levels. Just because everyone else is doing a 2 hour gym session does not mean you have to as well" Doctor Masterson said laying down the rules as the whole team breathed a sigh of relief
"I'll make sure that she follows the rules Doctor Masterson" Jason immediately said after the doctor had said them, whatever rules they were it didn't matter and he would have Trent sedate her if she tried to break them, anything it took to keep Jess in the field with them
"Trent save me" Jess pleaded jokingly with him, she already knew that providing she was following his guidelines that he would keep Jason at bay if the situation warranted it
"Don't worry I'll make sure he will give you 10 seconds of peace and quiet each day" Trent said joining in on the joke, it may have been Jason's role to make sure the team was ready to go into the field but it was Trent's role to get them there
"You'll save me won't you Cerbs" Jess said giving him a good scratch around the ears as he immediately moved himself into a position so he could guard Jess
Jess felt like that 8 week mark would never turn up, it felt like it was taking forever, sure she had had some final appointments to get everything finalised but it still felt slow. She had made so much progress with the investigation Lindell and Eric had asked her to do and tomorrow they would be back in the action going after those responsible. Jess had turned up with the last parts of her results from the investigation for Lindell and Eric to review, as well as taking them through the plan of action, after they were finished Jess went into the team room to get her gear unpacked and get her cage set back up. Her weapons had been moved to storage on base and her personal belongings had been packed and sent to her house why she was of as was procedure, and her dad had made sure she had plenty of brand new personal belongings to bring with her when she came back like he always did, she usually ended up with new personal belongings every two months or so. Eric had decided to join her while she worked, he wanted to have a personal chat before Jess officially returned the next day, making sure she was mentally prepared for the situation
"Ready for the big day tomorrow" Eric asked, Jess as she was unpacking her supplies back in her cage, she wanted to get her deployment gear packed and ready to go to storage, she also had to get the supplies she needed for the feeding tube organised as well for storage and have another supply set up in the team room for use on base. Bravo had done some remodelling of the team room while Jess had been of, they had converted 2 of the extra cages into their own storage facility, one housed the teams extra medical supplies and Jess's stuff for the tube, all set up so it could be easily accessed without searching the whole cage, and it freed up space in both Trent and Jess's cages, then the other they had used to hold general team supplies, extra food, batteries, supplies for Cerbs, pens, stuff for their shower packs, socks. They all also had emergency bags packed to go in their regular deployment bags, they ended up with a unexpected layover or someone ended up in the hospital again then those smaller bags could be simply removed from their normal deployment bags so they wouldn't have to unpack the full bag to get what was needed, they were all low vis as well so could be used in any situation
"Yes sir, hard to believe it's finally here, its been a long time, nearly 6 months" Jess responded looking at Eric
"You do remember what Doctor Masterson said, it will take time for you to fully adapt, you've had to make a lot of changes and you're not going to be able to just jump right back in and be like you were before Djibouti" Eric said cautioning her that it would take her time to settle back in
"Honestly sir, I can't get back to that version of my life no matter how much I try, it will never be exactly the same, but then I'm also not the same person I was when I first arrived from Australia either" Jess said calmly, this was going to be a whole new thing for her to deal with, but she'd done it before so she knew she could do it again
"Heavens no, I don't think Jason and I would handle dealing with that Jess again with everything else that's happened, though I seriously doubt that that Jess would be standing here right now preparing to return to duty after a profound injury that completely changed their life and still have a smile on her face all while talking to her CO" Eric said with a laugh
"Probably not, I was pretty messed up in the head back then" Jess said with her normal happy smile across her face
"Understandable considering everything, had any updates from Australia" Eric asked curiously
"Yes sir, Samuels got 100 years with no eligibility for parole, dishonourable discharge with loss of all benefits, lifetime registration as a sex offender, and his wife took the kids and left him and she's taken everything else as well, house, finances I mean everything, Logan on the other hand is serving 161 years for multiple accounts of murder, involuntary manslaughter through willfull negligence, perjury, assault" Jess said with the same smile across her face, she still had never mentioned any of the details in the file but she was definitely more relaxed talking about that part of her life
"Well I think that's pretty safe to say we won't be coming across either of them again in the field in future" Eric responded happy to hear the good news
"Highly doubt it" Jess responded
"What's that for" Eric asked noticing the boxes on the table Jess hadn't touched yet
"That's from my dietitian, but I don't like the flavours so whoever wants them can have them, and that is a little welcome back present for the rest of the team, though would you mind storing it in your office until tomorrow morning" Jess asked indicating what the packages were for
"You've got something up your sleeve" Eric asked noticing how her smile had changed from her happy self to a childish grin meaning she was up to something
"Yes sir, just to make them realise I'm still me, well personality wise anyway, I've got to check in with Doctor Shah first up in the morning so I'll be here right on time for the morning briefing and I want that out of sight" Jess said still not giving anything away
"Got it" Eric said
The team slowly made their way into the TOC for their briefing, they were all aware that Jess was going to be a few minutes late, she had had to check in with medical to confirm that she was officially clear to return to duty despite Doctor Masterson already having signed it of. The joys of returning to DEVGRU after injury, getting base medical to tick a box saying that you were clear to return
"Well look who's finally ready to stop goldbricking and get back to work, I'd say that's a case of beer" Jason said as soon as Jess entered the briefing room and took a seat
"Case of beer" the rest of the team said in response
"Already got 6 cases with me" Jess said without even cracking a smile, it was what she had asked Eric to hide in his office last night, the 6 boxes she had placed in the team room on the table were something else completely different, but she knew they would go straight for it thinking that it was beer
"No microbrew hippy stuff" Jason asked looking her in the eye, Jess knew first hand that he hated that stuff with a passion
"No, just plain" Jess said her face as straight as possible
"Good" Jason said as he relaxed and turned his focus on the briefing
"Right now as we all know we have been working on tracking down who was responsible for Yemen with little success" Lisa said beginning the briefing with Bravo and a few members from the intelligence department
"Little success, you mean nada don't you" Sonny asked
"Not exactly, I had Jess here use her time of while she was recovering do a bit of digging for us to see what she could find out" Lindell said to everyone in the room
"Which I'm hoping you did" Ray asked looking at Jess
"Just a little bit" Jess said
"Understatement, turns out that we have a new player in the field, Ziauddin Al-Tabari, Iranian national, he owns a shipping company Bahar Nakhba based in Dubai, now apart from his own company, he also owns smaller companies around the world, this is how the intell is getting to different locations" Lisa said dragging the attention back to her
"So the intell is fake" Brock asked
"Yes, we're being played and we've been being played for the last two years" Lisa said in response
"This has been going on for 2 years and we've only just found out, how is that even possible" Jason asked annoyed at what he had just heard
"The reason they've been under the radar is because they haven't openly done anything, we don't even know if Al-Tabari is the head of this organisation or whether he's just helping to fund it. He has no outwards indication that he's radicalised, however his wife is, I'm sure you all remember the Al-Asiri family" Jess asked
"What's the tally 5 suicide bombers, 8 lieutenants, 3 commanders with one being a high level" Clay asked
"Not to mention drug and weapons trafficking, a couple of assassinations all linked to the same family" Trent added
"Ziauddin's wife is Naila Al-Asiri, now we believe that she is the daughter of Hassan Al-Asiri who was one of the commanders that was killed in 2001 in a airstrike during the early stages of our conflict in Afghanistan against the Taliban" Lisa said bringing the teams focus back to her
"Are we positive that this Naila is actually a member of the Al-Asiri clan" Ray asked
"Yes, however as females aren't praised as much as the males and it is common practice that when the father of a child dies the children go into custody of the oldest male relative in the family it has been hard to track down where she actually fits in, she was only 2 months old at the time the Afghanistan conflict started, she lived with 16 different members of her family since she was born, as Hassan was the only member of the family that we are aware of that was killed at that time we are operating on the theory that she was in fact Hassan's daughter" Jess said explaining the cultural significance to this situation
"Good enough reason for me, if she's Al-Asiri then she's likely trouble" Jason said
"Agreed, so how are they connected to Yemen" Ray said agreeing with him
"Not directly, it took a fair bit of digging and will get to that, it turns out that the boat that the Australians gathered their intell of for Yemen was from one of Al-Tabari's smaller companies, he buys out struggling businesses as a silent owner, leaves the original owners in place as managers and hire a security team to watch the place and enforce loyalty. The actual staff of the company usually have zero idea that they're working for Al-Tabari" Jess said explaining the situation
"And obviously Al-Tabari's men have access to the transport system, boats and that to get evidence on board, if they're there to enforce loyalty they would respond differently to him and not have to explain themselves to the company managers" Clay added understanding the situation a little better now
"Not to mention that they get put on the company payroll, as a cleaner, watchman, warehouse, things like that" Lisa said providing more intell
"So these people have zero idea that they could be getting set up" Brock asked
"Boat sets sail, a vague tip of is made to local security authorities, someone's seen something or heard someone say something, they get intercepted and searched, evidence is found, crew obviously denies it, managers can't explain how it got on board, it gets passed over to the various intelligence agencies and eventually gets to someone like DEVGRU, they knew that the Australians wouldn't have the resources to do something like Yemen, as they indicated the US and her allies in their plans, it would be DEVGRU sent in to handle the situation, kill a few operators in a operation that involves two waring factions" Lisa said
"It would be all out war with us chasing down both sides to find out who was responsible" Trent said
"Not to mention that the Bukhari's and Tirmizi's would have uped their game with each other in response to setting them up so the US are now after them" Clay said
"And I thought the middle east was already a explosive powder keg" Sonny added to the conversation
"So what they owned the villa" Jason asked
"No, the villa is owned by another business man Sharaf al-Din Al-Shehhi and his wife Latifa, Sharaf and Naila both grew up in the same town in Saudi Arabia, Sharaf even went to the same school as Naila's brothers who were all radicalised, both families now reside in Dubai and are regular business partners" Lisa said in response
"So the villa, do we know if this was planned in advance" Clay asked
"How does 18 months sound far enough in advance, thats when Sharaf and Latifa brought the residence, reports are it needed a lot of work done to it, records show the place was basically gutted and the interior was rebuilt. When I managed to analyse the footage, do a debris analysis and my measurements, the explosion was of equal proportions and the house was the focal point, not the room where the bombers were, not to mention that the gate was pre-wired as well" Jess said in response to Clay's question
"But Cerbs checked the gates" Brock said looking at the dog
"He was detecting something" Sonny said
"But we couldn't find anything meaning, that it would have been fairly well concealed, to confuse Cerbs sense of smell" Brock said
"Encased in the cement" Jess answered Brocks question
"Cement" Ray asked
"The interior of that gate was filled with explosives and then encased with cement, even if they hadn't blown the villa, all that charge of mine would have done was set the gate of anyway" Jess said to the group
"Hey Jess listen, you didn't know okay" Jason said suddenly looking at her, not wanting her to blame herself
"What makes you think I'm upset about that, I would have been killed and wouldn't be sitting here pissed with a chance to nail these people for thinking they can out smart me" Jess said in response
"That's our girl" Eric said to the team with a smile, as she had said to him in the team room last night, she wasn't the same girl who had turned up from Australia nor was she the same girl who had stepped on that plane to go to Djibouti
"This whole villa was a set-up bomb, everything was built in when the renovation was done, all it would have needed was someone to connect the wires and press a trigger" Jess said explaining why it hadn't gone previously, this bomb maker was extremely good with his craft, but then again Jess was extremely good at hers as well
"So for all we know there could be dozens of other houses out there ready to go" Trent asked worried, until this bomb maker was caught, each breech they done could be the last one they would do
"Yep" Jess said
"So what's our mission" Jason asked looking at Lisa
"We have made contact with this gentlemanSafiullah Shahid, he works for Al-Tabari and is willing to offer us information on Al-Tabari and his organisation in exchange for protection from the United States Government, he works with a company in Denpasar that Al-Tabari owns, our job will be to go in and pick him up" Lisa said to the group as she flashed a gentlemans photo on the screen
"We're wheels up in 4 hours" Eric said to the rest of Bravo, he normally would have been more involved with a briefing but as he already had received a full report from Jess beforehand he kept quiet, there was one big chunk of the briefing that hadn't been mentioned yet