Chapter 61
Joe rustled through his supplies and borrowed Clay's tin kettle to boil up some water to make some strong coffee. Steve roused the sleeping man and managed to get some sense out of him after a couple of cups of Joe's coffee. Clay opened up about his paranoia that his wife was cheating on him and how it was destroying his marriage. Steve told him about his positive experience with the Tripler-based psychologist and how she was helping him come to terms with some of the horrific things that he had seen during his SEAL missions. The other man listened and nodded, agreeing that maybe it would help him and perhaps even give him the chance to try and save his marriage if he could get his head on straight again. He sobered up when they told him why they were there, shocked that the Alvaro Cartel was back in business so soon after the SEAL Team 9 raid. They cooked up the food that Joe had brought and went through different options until they arrived at a plan that had the least risk and most chance of success.
Steve received a call on the sat phone that he had packed, having anticipated the lack of cell reception in their remote spot. Mrs. Garcia had just been contacted by an old Navy 'buddy' wanting to meet up with Clay. She had duly shared everything she knew about her husband's current whereabouts, including her concerns about his distressed state of mind, asking the friend to try and talk him into coming home. They figured that this concerned so-called friend would be showing up before too long.
Steve set off down the trail to leave the hitman a few clues, he shouldn't get suspicious that it was too easy to find the SEAL as his wife had done a good job of expressing her worries about her husband's fragile state of mind. Steve then camouflaged himself in a tree that overlooked the main trail and settled down to wait. Clay was back in his spot leant up against the rock, the half-empty whiskey bottle propped up next to him. Joe was well-hidden from view, with eyes on Clay. Patience was something that was instilled into every SEAL and the men waited with a sense of unhurried calm, ready to react when the time came and not expending any unnecessary energy in the intervening period.
Steve heard the man long before he laid eyes on him. A visual check confirmed that it was Hector Ruiz. He was panting a bit from the exertion, the trail was fairly challenging unless you were an experienced hiker. Steve had left a clue on the trail near his location and the hitman paused when he saw the broken branches and trampled vegetation leading off the main trail and up a side path. The man obligingly followed it and Steve gave him a few minutes and then silently slipped down from the tree and started tracking him from the rear. He kept his distance and trailed Ruiz all the way back to Garcia's camp. Joe no doubt had eyes on him as well at this point.
Hector cautiously made his way across to the snoring man, not wanting to be taken by surprise – he was fully aware of the skills that even a drink-impaired SEAL possessed. He just watched the prone man for a minute and twitched his lips up in a nasty little smile to himself - this was going to be very easy indeed, the man's wife hadn't been exaggerating when she said that her husband was in a bad place. He took a vial from his backpack and emptied the contents into the half-empty whiskey bottle. He swilled it around to get it to mix into the liquid and then very carefully started to make his way back the way he had come. Steve popped up from behind a bush with a gun trained on the surprised man. He looked back to see the 'comatose' SEAL suddenly very much awake, also holding a weapon in his direction.
Joe came out from behind a tree and walked over to Ruiz. He kept a safe distance as he spoke to the man, "I'd like a little word Mr. Ruiz. You're going to tell me all about Juan Alvaro and how he paid you for this revenge mission against SEAL Team 9. Then you're going to tell me exactly where the Alvaro Cartel is conducting its business these days." The hitman recovered from his initial shock and just sneered at Joe,
"I don't think so. You're an American on U.S. soil, you can't do anything other than arrest me." Joe smirked at Steve and then turned his attention back to Ruiz,
"Oh, bless him. He thinks we're going to follow due process." Steve chuckled darkly, no mirth in his laughter. Then Joe spoke again, "Did you know that this forest is teaming with wild boar . . . nasty little critters they are, they've been known to gore a man to death. They use their tusks to disembowel you and will eat you as your flesh starts to rot. Do you know what their favorite food is?" He paused, but it was a rhetorical question and so he wasn't expecting a response. He obligingly provided the correct answer for his prisoner, "Peanut butter . . . they'd literally kill to get to the stuff, they can sniff it out from about half a mile away if the wind is just right." Joe looked at Garcia, "You know these woods, how many wild boar do you reckon are within striking distance of this camp at this moment in time?" Clay pondered the question,
"I've seen plenty of evidence that they are in the area since I arrived. They don't like the fire, so that will keep them away for now. I'd estimate that there are several within a half mile radius of our position." Joe nodded in satisfaction,
"Excellent, we won't have to wait too long then. Garcia, extinguish that fire would you?" He dropped his backpack and retrieved a full pot of peanut butter. Steve moved closer and swiftly took the hitman down. He immobilized him with zip ties and roughly sliced open the hitman's shirt, nicking his chest slightly in the process,
"Oops, sorry about that. Boar quite like the smell of blood too." Joe used a spatula to scoop out large heaps of peanut butter and started to smear it liberally all over Ruiz's chest. He kept spooning it out until the jar was empty. Hector had kept quiet during all of this but was starting to inwardly panic. The other men abruptly walked away, leaving the bound man all alone in the clearing. When they first arrived, they had left out some corn that had started to sour just behind the camp. The strong smell attracted the boar but deterred other animals such as deer.
Sure enough, there was ample evidence that the corn was having the desired effect with boar scat in evidence around the mostly-eaten corn. Garcia carefully laid a trail of corn back to the camp and the men settled down to wait. After a few more hours, a boar came into view and greedily followed the trail of corn. The wild animal froze as it became aware of the man on the ground but was finding the smell of peanut butter very attractive. It tentatively came a little closer to Ruiz, which was when the man saw the boar. He started to scream, fear overcoming him, "Help, help! I'll tell you what you want to know . . . just get this thing away from me! Please, I'm begging you!"
Steve smirked, that had been easier than he thought it would be. He jogged out of his hiding place, keeping a wary eye on the boar. Joe and Clay were right behind him and the extra movement was enough to spook the animal, which took off into the forest. Ruiz was hyperventilating by this point and it took a swift slap to his face to focus his attention back onto Steve. He blurted out how Juan Alvaro had contracted him to take out the SEAL Team as payback for killing Rafael and the other members of the cartel. Joe made a note of the bank account number, so they could trace the payment back to the cartel as evidence. Hector gave them all the details of the compound including its location and the layout and how many men would be in residence. Juan was staying there while he awaited news from the hitman, wanting photo confirmation of each and every kill. Ruiz also confirmed that the list was in Juan's possession and had only been shared with himself, the drug lord not wanting to risk the exposure that would come from taking out multiple contracts at once.
Joe bent down next to the panicked man and scraped off the peanut butter. He sliced through the man's ankle ties and pulled him to his feet. He asked Clay if he was coming with them but the SEAL declined; he wanted to take a few more days and have the solitude of the forest to himself. Steve nodded, understanding completely. They repacked their bags for the return journey, Steve calling his team to update them on what they had discovered from the hitman. It took quite a while to make their way back down and by the time they had completed their trek Danny and Kono were waiting for them in the trail parking area, along with CIA Agent Kendricks. He gladly took Hector Ruiz off Steve's hands – they had been hunting him for years. Another agent bundled him into the back of an unmarked van and they took off to an undisclosed destination. Steve didn't care, the hitman would be off U.S soil before nightfall and facing an unpleasant future in a CIA Black Site before going on trial for the murder of a Mexico City Police Captain.
Joe had taken the sat phone from Steve and was making a call back to base. They had the confession on tape and Chin had already traced the bank account and would send this across to Naval Intelligence. Commander Gutches had taken point in the Naval command center and was well on with the preparations for a strike on the compound, codenamed Operation Payback. SEAL Team 4 was en route and would breach the perimeter and then take out everyone in the compound. They knew that the vengeful brother would be there, so this time the cartel would be shut down for good.
Joe had finished his phone call and addressed Steve directly, "Commander Gutches wanted me to pass on a message to you . . ." He took Steve's hand and shook it, "Outstanding work, Commander. He's cleared it for your entire team to come onto base at Pearl to watch the live takedown for yourselves. It's scheduled for 5 hours from now." Steve replied,
"Thank you, Sir. As you know, there were plenty of other people involved in pulling this off and we wouldn't have known a thing about it without Lt. Brown's new software. It had been on my mind ever since Wo Fat revealed his personal intelligence operation to me. The combined power of people like that is truly terrifying." Joe was in full agreement and had an update for Steve from the Navy techs,
"They're not quite as clever as they think they are though. The new software not only detected the breach in the first place, but it gave us the means to track the hack back to its source. It came from a warehouse in Iceland, the country's a known hotspot for dark web hackers. We have people apprehending them now and then we will be able to trace back to other people in their nasty little network. ONI are all over it, this will be the biggest lead they've had for years."
Steve let himself have a satisfied smile at the news, "Well, that might stop another attack of this nature in the future if we can catch the worst of the hackers - there can only be so many people in the world who have this level of capability." Danny and Kono joined in the conversation, Danny speaking up first,
"That's good news, I wouldn't want someone else being able to get their hands on Seal Team contact details. We have these guys to thank for bringing you home safely from North Korea - I'm glad we were able to return the favor."
Kono chipped in, "You got that right, Brah!"