Chapter 31

So, they moved the premiere of SEAL Team to 12/2 but we get a 2-hour premiere now! Super excited to see what is in store. AND WE GOT A PROMO! I will continue to write this story regardless. I'm excited that starting this week I have some shows coming back. Hope you all enjoy this update.

Mandy was sound asleep. The slight shine of the moon was coming through her window in her quarters on to her. Jason however was awake and staring. They were both naked under the sheets and laying on their side facing each other. Jason using that night to memorize every inch of her body. He couldn't lose her when he'd just gotten her. She promised to come back to him despite knowing she shouldn't be promising that.

He was used to going out into the field and worrying about the team. This was different though. In Yemen and Caracas, sure he was worried, but he also had faith that they'd make it. She had people to back her up but now she wouldn't. Mandy would be entering enemy's territory without any back up. He gone over the plan a million times and then some after Mandy left him and the guys and the gear bunk. He'd probably annoyed all of HAVOC with his pestering, but he had to make sure there wasn't anything else that could be done. Mandy would go out in the morning and they'd probably make their way late night early morning. She'd be ahead by almost a half day.

"You really should be sleeping," Mandy said not opening her eyes.

"So should you," Jason sighed as he pulled her closer.

Mandy opened her eyes, "Kind of hard to when I have someone staring at me."

"How long have you been awake?" Jason asked running his hand along her hip.

"Not long," Mandy replied. "Heard you were annoying HAVOC this afternoon," Mandy smirked.

"Nothing gets past you," Jason smiled. "Just double-checking things."

Mandy leaned in to kiss him, "It's gonna be okay. I just have a feeling."

"A feeling?" Jason asked has he moved to hover over her. "One of your famous gut feelings?"

"Yes," Mandy panted as Jason kissed her neckline. "Have I ever been wrong?"

Jason stopped and looked at her, "No."

"Then don't start doubting now," Mandy said.

"You're right," Jason replied. "We should start something else though," Jason smirked and then continued showing how much she meant to him.

The following morning Mandy and Jason woke up and got ready. The plan was to release the mother and daughter late morning and then Mandy would leave soon after. She'd go into a town and slip her way onto the truck that would be taking them. The driver was an undercover agent who had recently joined the Tahara regime. That would be the only back Mandy would technically have.

Seemed the team was around her constantly for the whole morning. Jason hadn't left her side and the rest of the team seemed to continue to engage her in one conversation or another. She knew Jason was worried and on edge but seeing the rest of the team in the same state touched her. After everything that had happened with Roman, she'd shut herself off from getting close to people. She had vowed to herself she'd never be betrayed like she had been. Of course, in this line of work that was a tough promise to keep.

She was slightly annoyed at all the attention yet at the same time she welcomed it. Bravo team was different. She'd worked with many other teams but this team, they were one of the few to fully trust her and let her be a part of something more. Them wanting to see her off said it all.

Mandy's Dad would see off the mother and daughter. They had gone over the plan with the sister the afternoon before and so far, she was still on board. Mandy could see she wanted to get out of this life. She could see that the sister wanted to do more with her life and stop living in the shadow of her family. Mandy told herself she'd do whatever she needed to do to give this woman a chance at truly living life. Mandy looked over at Jason, she was lucky that she was getting her chance now.

"Alright, they're off," Director Thomson said approaching the group at the makeshift bar on base. "Time to get our next part in motion," he added looking at Mandy.

Suddenly, the group had become serious and quiet. It was time to see Mandy off. In just over half a day hopefully they'd be on their way to where she was, and everyone would return safely. The guys lined up and started hugging her. They gave her advice and made her laugh saying she had to buy the beer at the end of this. Jason was last but he was going to walk with her to get ready. No one was going to pull him away from her until the last possible moment.

"You're coming back," Ray said as he hugged her. "Can't leave me alone to handle this guy."

"What if I'm tired of him already?" Mandy joked as everyone laughed.

"Ha-ha, what a comedian," Jason replied as Mandy hooked her arm in his and they began to walk away. The walk was quiet and the two enjoyed the silence. There wasn't more to say that hadn't already been said or shown last night.

Mandy walked into the bunk room where Lisa was waiting for her. Jason, her Dad, and Blackburn stood outside talking while waiting for Mandy to change. Once she was done the guys walked in and went over the ground rules again. Mandy had a light vest over the white camouflaged uniform she had on. It was a gamble to wear the uniform if things went south before she got to Junior's hideout, but she'd need some camouflage if she made it. She'd take a side arm and some other small knives for weapons, but she couldn't have too much. If things went well, she wouldn't need any of it.

"Alright, I think we got this," Mandy's Dad concluded. He then went to hug her. "Be safe," he murmured into her ear with a light kiss to her head.

Lisa was next, "You better bring your ass back here cuz I'm not gonna be able to rein these guys in all by myself."

"You do your job and that's it, got it," Blackburn said trying to be stern.

The three left the bunk and it was just Jason and Mandy. Jason walked up to her and started checking her vest once again and going over the check list of things she had. He finally took a deep breath.

"Hey," Mandy said softly putting both hands on his face causing them to touch foreheads. "It's gonna be okay."

Jason nodded back and leaned all the way in to kiss her for a few moments.

"Now or never," Jason murmured as he hugged her tight.

They started walking out of the bunk towards the van that would take her into town.

Before she got into the car Jason pulled her back towards him and looked in her eye, "If it comes down to you or anyone else, promise me you'll save yourself."

Mandy paused and looked at him, "I promise. You owe me breakfast anyways."

Jason chuckled and shut the door once she was in. He watched the car leave the base and head into the desert. He prayed to every higher being to bring her back to me safe and sound.

As the car got further and further away from base Mandy let out a breath. In front of everyone she showed confidence and optimism but deep down she was nervous. It'd been a while since she'd gone directly out in the field like this. Ever since saving Ray, she was banished from most field work for a while. Sure, she'd been sent into some hot zones but going out like this, it'd been a while.

She knew she could do this. She knew making promises probably wasn't the best thing to do but she really did have a good feeling about all this. Once they had Al-Hazred in custody, she felt like she'd crack him and get a lead on Roman. Nine, almost ten years, she'd been hunting down someone she once thought of as a friend. In the past, her and Roman were always one step behind or ahead. She knew this had to end once and for all.

"You good," the driver said looking over at her.

"Yeah," Mandy said turning away from the window. "Ready to get this over with."

"The car that took them isn't too far ahead of us. Once we get closer to town, you'll need to hunker down and make sure no one sees you," the driver continued on.

"Transportation to the target?" Mandy asked.

"So far everything is set to go. Our guy is ready for transport once we get you on and give the signal," the driver answered as Mandy shook her head in acknowledgement. They had this. She could feel it.

After Mandy left, Jason couldn't sit still. He went back to the weapons bunk and re-checked his gear. For the most part, the guys seemed to leave him alone, but they hung around to keep an eye on her. Finally, after an hour or so he decided to go to HAVOC and watch the ISR footage. She would be hitting the city right about now and about to switch vehicles.

He walked into HAVOC and saw Lisa, Blackburn, and Thomson all in the room as well. Lisa was watching the screen on the wall with the ISR footage. Blackburn was busy on the horn and watching the screen. Surprisingly, Thomson was the only one not really watching the screen like a Hawk. He had files out in front of him and seemed focused on the intel in front of him. His assistant was at his side making notes.

"Jason, take a seat," Thomson said without looking up.

"You seem pretty calm for someone who just sent his daughter deep into enemy territory without much backup," Jason said as he sat down and watched the screen.

Mandy's Dad looked up, "Not my first rodeo." Thomson turned from the screen and looked at Jason, "It's not easy watching her go into the field. There have been far too many near death experiences."

Jason looked away from the screen to Mandy's Dad. Now he saw a concerned father who had the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Not sure how you do it," Jason sighed.

"Neither do I," Thomson replied. "She'll be okay."

"You don't know that," Jason said bouncing his leg as he watched the screen again.

"She's got a reason to come back," Thomson smiled as he went back to his files.

"What?" Jason asked confused.

"I mean, sure she had my wife and I but you, you're the reason she'll fight like hell to come back," Thomson replied. "You care about her. It's nice to see her letting someone in. She's built such tall strong walls over the last nine years."

"There's never been walls between us," Jason said thinking back to their stroll in Siberia.

"You know I was so damn proud when the CIA recruited her. Her mom not so much," Thomson reminisced. "See my wife comes from old money and took over the family business. I think she always envisioned Mandy following her."

"But that didn't happen," Jason said. "When Mandy puts her mind to something she doesn't let go," Jason smiled.

"Yeah," Thomson chuckled. "My wife didn't want Mandy in the CIA. Between me serving as SEAL and then turning to the CIA, she'd said we'd done our time in serving. Mandy of course disagreed which lead to the two having a fall out. They barely spoke to each other for a year."

"What happened? I heard Mandy on the phone with your wife a few days ago. Sounds like they made up," Jason asked.

"Honestly, I'm not completely sure. After being with the agency for just over a year she went out on an op and it got hairy. At the time, she was working with Roman as well and he convinced Mandy to try and make amends with my wife," Thomson answered.

"Roman, were she and him," Jason wondered.

"Together? Never. Roman was in love with Mandy's best friend and daughter of a now congressman," Thomson answered looking straight at Jason. "He proposed to Mandy's best friend a few months before the op that changed everything."

"Why hasn't the CIA caught him yet?" Jason asked turning back to the screen.

Thomson sighed, "Roman is good. He knows what agencies do and look for. Sometimes I think he purposely puts together a riddle just for Mandy to figure out. I also think Mandy feels if she just had one moment, she'd see her old friend in there somewhere. She's spent about nine going on ten soon years hunting him down. It's not easy hunting someone down that you once thought of as family."

"We'll get him," Jason said confidently.

"We?" Thomson asked with a smile in her eyes.

"Yeah, she's got Bravo team now," Jason smiled as Thomson nodded his approval.

It was early afternoon and Mandy's convoy had gotten into the city. They parked the car in a discreet location nearby where the next vehicle of transportation would be. Back at HAVOC everyone was gathered around waiting to see the transition happen on ISR. Doing the switch in broad daylight was risky, but they didn't have many other options.

"Here we go," Lisa muttered as Sonny came to stand next to her.

The whole room seemed to take a deep breath and was holding it in to see if everything went smoothly.

Back in the car the driver asked, "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Mandy replied from the floor of the van underneath the blanket.

"Wait for my signal. We're pretty well hidden and doesn't seem like we have much company above us in the buildings," the driver observed.

"Got it," Mandy replied.

The driver got out and surveyed the area around them. The vehicle they needed to get to was in the garage of one of the buildings. The occupants had all gone inside the building and the garage was facing away from the busy street. The driver figured the area was clear and knocked three times along the side of the car as he went to open the back door to the van.

At HAVOC everyone watched on anxiously as they saw them making their way. They were watching the building and seeing if any heat signatures were headed back towards the garage. Inside the car, Mandy sat up and looked around. She put the tiny comms piece into her ear so she could at least hear from command but figured comms would be spotty. She'd be able to communicate back if needed as well.

"Now's our shot," the driver said as he helped Mandy out of the car.

She was dressed as a Muslim woman to hide her fatigues. She got out of the car and looked around as well and quickly made her way to the side door of the garage. She carefully opened it so she wouldn't let anyone inside know she was coming. She slipped through just as someone walked by the alley. The unknown person looked over but only saw Mandy's driver, but they continued on their way. HAVOC breathed out on sigh of relief.

Jason was anxious watching the footage. Anything could go wrong at any second. Even if Mandy made it out if things went south it would be tough being a western woman in the city. He didn't want to think what would happen should she get captured.

Inside the garage Mandy made her way to the truck that was supposed to take the mother and daughter to Al-Hazred. There was a section hidden beneath the bed of the truck where Mandy would be. They had tried to insulate it as much as possible to keep her from freezing to death and Mandy had layers on as well.

"We're in," the driver reported back. "On the truck and getting ready to be in position."

Mandy and the driver lifted the floorboard of the truck as quietly as possible and Mandy stepped down into the hidden compartment.

"Flyer two this is HAVOC, be advised there's movement inside the building and may be headed your way," Blackburn called over the comms.

"Flyer?" Jason asked looking at Blackburn.

"Mandy's idea," Blackburn smirked as Jason shook his head at Mandy using the Philadelphia Flyers as her code name. "Mandy is Flyer one of course."

"Cuz she already took Bravo one," Full Metal muttered as the rest of team chuckled.

"Flyer one set," the driver called out. "Good luck," the driver said to Mandy and then put the boards back in place.

Suddenly, Mandy was in darkness and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Here we go," Mandy muttered. She could do this, and it'd work out in the end. At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

Back at HAVOC, everyone let out a breath at part one of the plan going smoothly. Now they just hoped everything that followed would run as smoothly too.