A/N: This picks up the day after the last chapter.
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Mike closed the door to the ship's office and started to address his crews. "Now that everyone is here, we can start the briefing." He then nodded to Madelaine who was standing on the other side. "Ms Cruise, go ahead."
"Thank you, Commander." Madelaine pulled out a coloured photo of a long-haired Asian man. "This is Mirhad Moshir. He is a leader of a terrorist cell we have been trying to shut down in the last few months." She then handed the photo to Mike to be passed around among the crews in the room.
"ASIO has just decrypted the latest intel from Captain Roth which contains the suspected location of Moshir's terrorist training camp, which is in one of the small islands in Samjung Island's territory. Navcom should have sent the coordinates straight to your RO already."
Mike nodded and made a mental note to approach RO about it later.
"Our mission is simple. We are to gather intel on the training camp, the exact location, how many people are there, what sort of training that they do and so forth. Bonus point if we can confirm Moshir's involvement in this camp."
"Ms Cruise, out of curiosity, why don't ASIO aim for apprehension at the same time?" Kate looked at Madelaine questioningly.
"Because my superior needs undisputable proof before they can authorise further covert operation in foreign soil, Lieutenant." Madelaine then continued, "and frankly, the SAS would be the better team for that kind of operation."
Awkward silence greeted Madelaine's last statement. Kate could only raise her eyebrows at the agent's odd decision to offend the people that she was about to do a mission with.
"How many people do you think you need Ms Cruise?" Mike broke the stalemate.
"I would say no more than 6, including myself. We need to have enough people to canvass the island but not too many to avoid being detected."
"OK. So, one RHIB is enough to transport all of us then." Kate then looked to Dylan for input. "Two teams, I will lead one and take Ms Cruise and Charge with me while you lead the other one with Swain and 2Dads?"
Dylan nodded, "I'll approach from the east while you'll go from the west and we'll meet in the middle?"
Kate nodded back curtly before addressing the agent once more. "Does that suit your requirement Ms Cruise?"
"Fine by me. Obviously, it goes without saying that we need a recording equipment for this, do you have any?"
"I think we can find one that fit the bill for this. I will ask RO to grab one from Comcen." Mike then looked at all the people in the room. "Let's get this done everyone."
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"Hey, Swaino, no hard feelings on the whole bad cop thing yeah?" 2Dads started the conversation as Dylan's team traipsing along in a dense jungle, trying to look for Moshir and the training camp.
They had been walking for close to 30 minutes now and there was still no sign of anyone or any visible foot traffic along the jungle floor. The humidity also made things even more uncomfortable especially alongside the full Kevlar and extra plates that they were wearing. Thankfully, Kate had instructed them to just wear their ball caps and not the bulky helmet as they got off the RHIB.
"No, of course not." Swain replied absentmindedly, mainly because he was being extra vigilant of any unseen snakes and other possible poisonous animals.
"It's just that I've had too many bad experiences with them." 2Dads shuddered, "they just automatically assume that I'm guilty of something."
"Why do you think that is, 2Dads?" Swain asked sarcastically.
"I don't know. Maybe they are just incompetent." 2Dads shrugged, "So we're definitely good yeah?"
Swain rolled his eyes at 2Dads's comment, "only if you do extra cleaning duty for a week."
"What?" 2Dads raised his voice. "You serious?"
"I will make it a month 2Dads, if you don't shut up!" Dylan glared at the younger man, annoyed at his lack of focus. Then his radio crackled and Kate's voice filled his ears.
"Dutchy, sit rep."
"Nothing so far from our end, X." Dylan replied. "What about you?"
"Nothing. Just plenty of mozzies as huge as a small dog."
Dylan smiled at her sarcastic joke as he could hear the slapping sounds from 2Dads behind him due to said mozzies.
"Stand-by Dutchy. We might have something."
Dylan looked at Swain, both men were now on alert.
"We have visual. Converge to our position."
"Copy that X."
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Kate, Charge and Madelaine all crouched down behind a tall foliage, observing the scenes a few hundred meters in front of them.
They counted at least 5 people doing all sort of training in the open ground, from distance target shooting, knife throwing, archery to hand-to-hand combat. There were also a few huts surrounding the training ground with more people coming and going from them including a long-haired man that could be Moshir.
Madelaine tried to record some footage using the video camera that RO had supplied them with, but from their distance, their footage would be grainy at best. "This camera is useless for long distance; we need to move closer."
Kate looked at the footage from the camera and had to agree with Madelaine's assessment. "Give the camera to me. I'll move closer."
"X, are you sure?" Charge whispered in alarm.
"I'm the smallest out of all of us." Kate whispered back. "Less chance of detection. We're not coming all the way here for nothing. Just cover me."
Kate then holstered her browning and took the camera from Madelaine's hand before carefully moving forward a few metres to the next available shrubbery for cover. This time, she could capture the open ground footage, with the pictures and videos clearly showing the faces of all the participants and all the weapons they used.
Once she's happy with those footages, she then moved her camera to capture the surrounding huts. She saw the long-haired man again and tried to get clear video of him, but the trees were blocking her angle. So, she moved forward again onto the group of trees to her left, hoping that the angle would be better this time around. However, as she felt the pressure of a gun muzzle on the back of her head, she instantly regretted her move.
"Up!"
An unknown man yanked Kate up to her feet before pushing her to move in front of him. The other man took her camera and her browning from her holster before pushing her forward as well.
She moved forward carefully while in her head she calculated her likelihood of getting out of this situation. It didn't look good. In her perseverance to get quality footage, she had forgotten the key element of a camp like this, that there would always be someone that guard the perimeter. She cursed inwardly at her carelessness and hoped that she and her team could get out of this alive.
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Dylan, Swain and 2Dads moved as quickly as they could to the west, to the direction of the sound of weapons discharging in the distance. As they got closer, they started to hear voices too, that's when Dylan signalled them to stop and crouch behind a bush while he touched base with the other team.
"Team Bravo to team X-Ray. Do you copy?"
Silence greeted his words. "X, can you hear me?" He tried again.
"Dutchy, it's Charge."
Dylan's heart dropped as it was Charge who answered his hail. "Charge, where is the X?"
"They got her."
Dylan closed his eyes at the answer. He then took a deep breath to focus before replying. "We are almost to your position. We can hear voices in the distance. Wait for us."
"Copy that. Hurry Dutchy…"
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"Well… well… well…. Who do we have here?" The long-haired man, who had been the object of this mission, stood in front of Kate and looked at her with a mocking smile.
"A bloody Australian Navy. Trying to spy on us." The man said after scrutinising Kate's uniform and insignia. "We got a high-ranking one too." He then moved closer to her and yanked her chin up so that she was forced to look at him. "The Navy is not known to be a lone-wolf. So, when there is one of you, there should be more around here. Where is your team?"
Kate stayed silent, refusing to say anything. She was then rewarded with a hard slap across her cheek. And then a couple more slaps and finally a hit across her temple which forced a grunt from her lips. But she kept her silence.
Moshir then took the camera and scrolled through the footage she had taken before throwing the camera to the ground and crushing it with his boot. "Search the perimeters, find her team. You guys can have fun with her. Once you had enough, kill her!"
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Charge cringed at the sound of pain that reverberated around the jungle and the sight of his XO went down to her knees and eventually the ground in agony as the men took turns punching and kicking her body after taking her Kevlar off. He gripped his weapon tighter, itching to break cover and just ended this torture but he was waiting for Dylan's team for reinforcement.
He then saw one of the men moved on top of his XO. At this point, he really didn't care anymore and raised his weapon, but a hand shot out and pushed his weapon down firmly. He then glared at the agent. "Ms Cruise, let go!"
Madelaine stared back at Charge coldly, "we can't break cover. Our intel will be ruined."
A pained grunt took Charge's attention away from the agent and back to the sight of his XO kneeing her attacker's groin and spitting on him. He almost cheered in response before sobering up as another man then pulled her up to her knees and aimed his weapon at the back of her head and took the safety off.
Charge then wrestled away his weapon from the agent's firm grip and readied himself to push the trigger of his own shotgun when he heard a sharp sound of an Austeyr rifle blowing the wannabe executor's head and his dead body went down to the ground behind his XO.
A few seconds silence followed before a gun battle erupted.
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Dylan and 2Dads pushed forward and kept shooting their rifles in response to the chaos around them. Their mission was now clear, getting their XO to safety and away from all these people. Swain meanwhile covered their back just in case someone was sneaking behind them.
In the distance, Dylan could also see Charge emerging from the other side while discharging his own shotgun. The agent followed closely behind Charge with her own browning.
All the people in the camp were now moving all over the place, a few were returning fire, a few were lying on the ground after being hit and a few were running towards a truck on the other side of the camp, including Moshir.
2Dads tried to take out the tyres of the truck to prevent their getaway, but his shot missed the target and only hit the lower side of the moving truck. They could only watch as Moshir got away with another one of his men. Meanwhile Dylan took care of the last few remaining resistance while Swain made a beeline to Kate's position.
The medic carefully turned Kate's body from her slump position on the ground to try to assess her. "X, how are you feeling?"
Kate could only groan in reply. One of her eyes was swollen shut due to the beating, her jaw ached and her lips split open, causing blood to ooze out from the wound.
"Where does it hurt the most?" Swain poked and prodded her body starting from her head, her jaw, her neck, her shoulder and continued down to her chest and abdomen. That's when she groaned in agony at his touch. "Your ribs?"
"Yes." She whispered weakly, too weak to even swatted Swain's hand when he checked her sides.
"Anywhere else?" Swain continued down to her thigh and legs then her arms for thoroughness. He saw some cuts and felt tenderness on her limbs, but he didn't see any bones sticking out or anything out of position.
"Head."
Swain then pay attention to her head once more, lifting her head gently and felt for any open wounds and checking for blood. Found nothing, he continued his questioning, "do you feel nauseous?"
"Hu-uh."
"Ok, you might have concussion from the repeated blows to your head just now." Swain then looked at her in concern. "Just rest X and close your eyes, but don't fall asleep, OK? Just keep listening to our voices. We'll get you back to the ship soon."
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Mike walked down from the bridge as soon as he heard the two RHIBs had successfully being docked. His steps halted briefly as he saw Swain with Kevlar still on, hurrying away from the back deck to the wardroom to clear the hallway for Dutchy and 2Dads who were carrying the stretcher between them.
The glimpse of Kate's small body on that stretcher as the guys went into the wardroom restarted his steps and before long, he could hear Swain barking orders at everyone.
"Bird, have you prepared everything that I asked for?" At Bird's nod, Swain then said, 'Good, can you also get spare grey tee for the X please." Hearing the order, Bird hurried along to the laundry room where some spare shirts were kept.
"2Dads, help me take off my Kevlar and weapons please and stow them away at the locker." 2Dads quickly did as ordered and took off to the direction of the locker room.
"Dutchy, help me move the stretcher away from under her body. Sir, can you help with her head and keep it still while I held her abdomen please?" Swain didn't hesitate to enlist his CO's help when he saw him hovering just inside the door.
Once his CO took the assigned position, Swain then readied his position in the middle, before lifting Kate's body slightly as Dylan gently pulled the stretcher away. The resounding groan from their XO as her ribs were jolted by their movement was the only indication that she was still conscious.
"OK, Dutchy, go and stow away your gear and the stretcher please."
"Swain…" Dylan didn't really want to leave. He needed to keep an eye on her. He needed to ensure that she was fine.
"Mate, there is nothing you can do here right now. Stow away your gear, refresh yourself and come back here after." Swain then turned to the direction of his CO again. "Sir, once Bird came back, I need you to step away as well please. We will need privacy."
Bird walked back into the wardroom as Swain finished his explanation, leaving Mike and Dylan with no choice but to leave the room and close the door behind them.
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"What happened out there?" Mike looked at all the faces of his landing crews except Swain, plus Ms Cruise. They were doing a post-mission briefing while things were still fresh.
"I can tell you what happened, Commander," Madelaine gave a side eye to Dylan before continuing, "your trigger-happy bosun ruined my mission once more."
"Excuse me?" Dylan's self-control was at the lowest as he felt so drained from what he had seen and experienced just a few hours ago. He could never have forgotten the scenes of Kate being thrown around, kicked and punched like a ragdoll while he had crouched like a coward behind some bushes waiting for the right moment to strike. "Our XO was about to be executed in front of our eyes. Are you seriously questioning my decision to fire my weapon to save her?"
"A matter of national security has to outweigh the life of one person." Madelaine continued coldly. "Now the training camp was no more and Moshir got away. I have nothing to report beside disaster to my superior and poor Captain Roth had his hard-earned intel rendered useless by your crews' incompetence!"
"Are you for real?" Dylan could not hold back anymore. "What is wrong with you? Someone's life was almost cut short before and you're here worrying about your precious intel?"
"Dutchy, calm down please." Mike had to interfere as he saw the other man was truly shaken. "Ms Cruise, can you just have a bit more compassion to the situation please?"
"Commander, do you think we are dealing with compassionate people here? Terrorists like Moshir have none! They would not hesitate to kill hundreds, thousands or even millions of Australians! My job is to protect the greater good. There is no room for personal feelings in this situation. I am sure Lieutenant McGregor understands her duty to the country and that was why she was the one brave enough to volunteer herself to move closer to the camp to get some good footage for us."
Mike could feel a headache coming up as he slowly got the full picture of what had happened. Kate, the responsible officer that she had always been, had tried to ensure a successful mission and had taken the responsibility herself to make it happen. Somehow, she had been captured and her bosun had then saved her life. A move that pissed the ASIO agent in front of him who was not yet finished airing her grievance.
"Now her bravery was also wasted by her own bosun." Madelaine then looked at Dylan mockingly, "Do you think your little stunt will impress her? And that she will be grateful and fall to bed with you? Your personal goal once again interferes with my mission Dutchy!"
Dylan was now shaking with rage, "you are goddamn right it's personal for me!"
Mike, 2Dads and Charge were surprised at Dylan's words. Although they held curiosity about the nature of their XO and bosun's close friendship, they never thought the man would use the word 'personal' in reference to them. They waited with bated breath at what he had to say.
"You have read my file. You knew about what happened in the gulf. You knew that I lost my boarding officer that day. A close friend of mine actually." Dylan's eyes turned cloudy at the reminder. "I have vowed since that day that I am not going to lose another boarding officer under my watch. And today, I made a choice to save my boarding officer, who is also a good friend and an all-round great person. So yes, it is personal for me. And if that makes me the bad guy in your books, then so be it!"
Silence greeted his words for a few minutes before Madelaine shook her head and moved towards the door. But before she pushed the handle down, she turned once more to face the men. "Just remember Dutchy, when Moshir built his camp again and eventually made his move to attack, every potential loss of lives would be your responsibility. Their death would be on you. Do you think your Lieutenant would still look at you favourably when that happened?"
She then turned her stare to Mike. "I will not hold back in my report of this mission Commander, about its total failure and of course the part that your crews played in it. I am sure you will hear more from your superior about this."
She proceeded to open the door and closed it behind her, leaving the men speechless and drained.
Mike shook his head at the situation that they found themselves in. Not only was his XO laying almost unconscious with possible severe injuries, but his bosun was also shaken and struggling with his composure while all of them possibly faced reprimand from the higher-ups.
"Alright. We still need to finish this patrol." Mike looked at Charge and 2Dads' direction. "Charge, go up and take the ship. Prepare to sail full steam back to Cairns. 2Dads, you are at the helm for this while Swain is busy."
The two men acknowledged their orders before going out of the office, leaving Mike and Dylan alone.
"Sir…"
Mike held his hand up to stop the other man. "I'm on your side Dutchy."
Dylan looked up to meet his CO's eyes. An understanding passed between them at that moment. An understanding that the men could only reach because of the importance of the woman currently laying in the next room to their lives, past and present.
"We'll deal with the fall out as a team. I will not throw you under the bus. Understood?"
"Understood." Dylan nodded. "Thank you, Sir."
"Let's go home then."
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Dylan knocked on the door to the wardroom after finally finishing his watch that night. He then slowly opened the door when he heard a muffled 'come in' from the inside.
He walked in to find Swain sitting on the chair next to Kate's bed while typing on his laptop. The other man looked up and greeted him quietly before gesturing to him to grab another chair in the room and sit next to the medic.
"How is she?"
"She's alright under the circumstances." Swain then sighed, "she is still under concussion watch right now. We'll have to wake her up every 2 hours just to make sure that she could wake up properly and not slipping into deep unconsciousness."
"You mean like a coma?" Dylan didn't like the sound of it.
"Yes. Because we don't know the depth of her head injury as yet. It could be just a concussion, but it could also be a bleed in the brain or subdural haematoma. Once we reached home port in the morning, I'm sending her straight to the hospital with a full order of CT and MRI. I also don't know whether her ribs are fully broken or just badly bruised. And if it is broken, I hope it's not nicking her lungs or any other internal organ. All I could do right now is keeping her stable and comfortable really."
Dylan closed his eyes at the explanation. It had been too much of a close call. He had almost failed today. If he had been a few seconds too late or had missed his intended target altogether, he could have been looking at the lifeless body of his girlfriend right now.
"Hey, you did the right thing mate. She is alive because you pulled that trigger."
"I presume you heard the shouting match a few hours ago?" Dylan shook his head at the memory.
Swain smiled sympathetically, "it was hard to ignore with the office being next door."
Dylan nodded. "If you want to take a break, I can keep her company here. I just finished my watch."
"Thanks, that would be great actually. I haven't had dinner yet." Swain then checked his watch before continuing, "you should wake her up in the next 15 minutes. Make sure her ribs are not moving too much when she is conscious. Also, keep an eye on her temperature and her breathing. If it seems shallow, then you need to get me straight away because that could mean her lungs are compromised. Did you get all that?"
Dylan nodded, "Yes, I'll be fine."
"Alright then. I'll be in the senior mess if you need me."
"Thanks Swain." Dylan waited until the other man closed the door behind him before leaning forward, held her hand in both of his and closed his eyes once more.
The last few hours had been weighing on his mind. He had no regrets about his action earlier. He would do it all over again just to have her in his life for much longer. But his sense of guilt had also kicked in strongly as Ms Cruise had said her parting shot in that briefing. Was he being selfish in putting one person's life above his duty to his fellow countrymen? Did he just disgrace his uniform? Would Kate be disappointed in him?
He opened his eyes and took notice of the time before kissing her knuckles softly and got up from his seat to move closer to her bed to wake her up. "Kate… sweetheart, wake up please?"
Seeing no reaction, he then leaned forward to cup her cheek and kissed her forehead before whispering the same plea to her ear.
This time, she moved her head a little bit and started to groan softly before slowly opening her eyes. "Dylan…"
He smiled at her recognition. "Hey…. How are you feeling?"
She grimaced as she was becoming more conscious. "Everything hurts.…"
He frowned, "more than before?"
"No. The same."
Their eyes then met for the first time since they had parted into their respective teams at the start of their jungle mission before.
"Why do you look so guilty?" Kate raised her hand to cup his cheek.
He chuckled sadly, "I messed up again."
"How so?" she frowned at his answer.
"I let the terrorists got away."
"Hmm..." Her eyes then turned serious. "Sit rep with me then."
He shook his head, "you are hurt. You need to rest."
"Dylan, I am fine. Swain gave me some good drugs before." Seeing his worried expression, her hand moved to grab his hand and held on tight. "I think you won't listen to placation right now. You need hard facts."
He chuckled at her knowledge of his psyche. "Ok. But you need to tell me if you are tired."
She nodded in agreement before starting her questions. "Did we get Moshir?"
"No. He got away with one other person."
"And the remaining people in that camp?"
"4 dead. 3 in austere."
"Their weapons?"
"We confiscated some."
"Electronics?"
"We took 2 sat phones and 2 laptops."
"Papers, drawings, schematics?"
His lips started to curve up as he could see where she was going with this. "Took all that too."
"Tell me how you supposedly let Moshir got away?"
"I focused on saving you and started the gun battle instead of preserving the intel."
"OK, but did you hear what Moshir said to me before he ordered his men to have fun with me?"
"No." Dylan shook his head. "When I arrived from the other side, they've started to beat you."
Kate squeezed his hand tighter as she could see he was struggling with the memory. "He said that it was impossible for me to be alone, there must be other Navy in the island."
Understanding dawn on Dylan's feature, "He knew that he was compromised. He must have decided to move camp already at that point."
Kate nodded, "Jim's intel was already a waste, regardless of whether you decided to save me or not. In fact, I would argue that your decision was the correct one at that point. You prevented them to destroy evidence. We could confiscate all those items because you didn't waste time and took them by surprise."
"Your incredibly smart brain is such a turn on." He caressed her hair fondly, feeling the vice in his heart started to loosen.
She smiled, "well, let me impress you with my last important point." She paused for dramatic effect before continuing, "you have preserved the most important evidence of all, living and breathing witnesses."
His throat went dry at the reminder of her close call.
"All of us are alive and able to provide concrete evidence of the existence of the training camp and Moshir's involvement because you took that decisive action. Isn't that the original goal of the mission? To gather undisputable proof?" She waited until he nodded before continuing. "Ok, Moshir got away but we still disrupted his operations yeah? It would take time for him to rebuild the camp and recruit more people to join his cause."
"Ms Cruise argued that all future death caused by Moshir's attack when he regrouped again would be my fault because of my action today."
"Bullshit." Kate said strongly, she felt anger now at the woman for messing with her man once more. "If that was her logic, then maybe by forcing him to run away today, we have prevented an attack that was meant for tomorrow. Maybe you have unknowingly spared many people's lives today because you chose to pull the trigger to save me. Do you see how flawed her logic was? She thinks actions and consequences are linear and finite. But we both know that there are too many variables out there. Nothing in the future is certain. She can't know what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone what's going to happen if or when Moshir regroups."
He couldn't help but closing his lips to hers softly after her words, while still trying to be careful with her wounds. He then moved his lips to her cheeks and eventually her forehead where it stayed for seconds. "I love you."
She exhaled shakily as she heard his words. She knew that he was telling the truth. She could see it in his eyes now. "Dylan…"
"Ssshhh, it's OK. You don't have to say it back." He kissed her knuckles softly. "I just want you to know."
She reached for his cheek again and caressed it softly, tracing the lines around his eyes. "I adore you too..." She smiled as she could see the cloud that had been hanging in his eyes was now gone. "Thank you for saving my life today."
"Anytime sweetheart."
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To be continued….