Chapter Four : A Mighty Fine Idea
The plan was to drop on the General's compound with helicopters. The flight to their destination, Monorovia, Liberia, is going to be 22 hours long. Oh the joy. Confinded into a restricted space with nothing to do for almost a day. Eh, she was used to it. Doesn't mean she likes it. Theresa walked to the plane with Jason and Lisa. She spotted Ray and Sonny at the bottom of the ramp and saw Cerberus inside, which meant that Brock was already on board.
"So the ISUs are all loaded and I just got off with the advance team." Lisa said as Theresa only listened with half an ear, holding her dufflebag with one hand and nursing a cup of coffee with the other.
"Great." Jason said as the three arrived at the plane. "TOC up and ready?"
"Oh, yeah." Lisa confirmed as Theresa finally looked up from her cup of coffee.
"What do you say, Jedi, ready?" He tossed Ray his backpack and Theresa noticed a familiar blonde sitting inside the plane on a crate. "Let's go brother, huh?" Jason still hadn't noticed him, but Theresa knew it was a matter of seconds. "Come on, man." He smacked Sonny on the shoulder and walked up the ramp, coming face to face with Spenser.
"Clay Spenser, Jason Hayes." Lisa said and the female SEAL's eyes widened as she put the pieces together before Davis even said the words. "Meet your strap."
Theresa threw her head back and laughed heartily. "This is gonna go great." She said with a wide smile as she made her way into the plane. Bringing her coffee cup to her mouth, she dropped her bag down next to Brock, who frowned at her.
"You're evil, you know that." He said as Cerberus trotted over to her.
"What?" Theresa gasped in mock-offence as she crouched down to scratch behind Cerberus' ears and give him a kiss on the snout. "I am not capable of being evil with my halo." The female SEAL gestured with her free hand to the top of her head while she downed the rest of her coffee, shooting him an innocent smile.
Brock snorted as Theresa pulled her bag closer to her. She opened it and pulled out her hammock before she pushed herself to her feet. "You mean the one you broke into two pieces and craved into horns?" He raised a brow as he took the one side of the hammock.
"That is really mean." Theresa noted with a pout. Together they quickly secured the material to the aircraft.
"Doesn't make it anyless true." He shrugged, eyes teasing and laughing at her.
"I don't know why you are my best friend sometimes." Theresa huffed and Brock chuckled lowly.
"Now, that, is mean." He retorted and they both looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.
"Care to share the joke with the class?" Sonny drawled as he walked up from behind the two. Casting a glance over her shoulder she saw that Ray and Jason is with him and smiled lightly at them.
"Brock's calling me evil because I laughed at Jason when he heard who our strap is." She shrugged matter-of-factly.
"Who's our strap?" Trent's voice asked from behind her.
"Clay Spenser." Sonny answered as he started with his hammock.
"We've had worse straps." Ray said as he took out his water resistant sleeping bag. God bless Lisa Davis.
"Remember Captain What's-his-name, froze on a HAHO ramp?" Sonny asked, casting a glace at Theresa before hooking the last side of his hammock. "At least this kid's a Team guy."
"Captain Garvey." The female answered Quinn's unasked question. She is good with names.
"Team guy? That's Ash Spenser's kid. You realize that, right?" Jason asked and Theresa rolled her eyes.
"We're gonna hold it against him 'cause his dad got PNG'd?" Sonny asked as he took a seat next to Ray and adjusted his cap.
"That's exactly what I said." Theresa noted as sat down inbetween Ray and Brock. She tilted her head thoughtfully as she remembered her conversation with Ray and Jason earlier, "Well, more or less."
"His dad's only persona non grata because he had the bad manners to write a book without being an officer." Ray informed the two SEAL's on either side of him. Then he looked at Jason. "Big Chief already signed off. It's one mission."
"One mission. I don't want to get it in this kid's head like this is some kind of an audition." He looked throughly disturbed at the mere thought of the Spenser kid on his team. "One mission." He shoved the laptop at Ray. "Here."
Theresa sat forward, resting her elbows on her knees, looking up at the Master Chief with a grin, "Hypothetically speaking, if it was an audition-"
"Don't even go there, Tessa, alright?" Jason cut her off with a slight glare.
She held her hands up in the universal sign of surrender, knowing smile on her lips, "Okay."
It couldn't have been five minutes later when the female SEAL jumped up from her seat, declaring quite loudly, "I'm bored." Then she started skipping to the front of the plane.
"Where are you going?" Jason shouted after her.
"To go look for entertainment." She shouted back.
Sonny snorted, "Other words, she's gonna go bother Blackburn 'till he gets fed up and chases her back here."
"Like I said, pain in the ass." Ray remarked as he closed the laptop and handed it back to Jason.
"Wouldn't trade her for anything though." Brock said and all of them nodded in agreement, doing their best to hide the fond grins that threatened to bloom on their faces. It wouldn't do good for the rest of the plane to see the macho and fearless Bravo team - minus one - sitting with silly smiles on their faces.
SEAL TEAM
Between talking Eric's ear off for a good two hours, two eight hour naps, Theresa Kane only had four hours left to keep herself busy. All of which passed slowly. When the plane finally touched down, she quickly snatched her bag and was the first one out the plane, practically bouncing with excitement. Brock took Cerberus' cage and put him on a leash before handing him to Sonny, who decided to scare the CIA straps.
Their temporary Base of Operations was great in comparison to some of the bases they've been at. Theresa eyed the helicopter with glee filled eyes, longing in her glance.
"Someone better tell the guy in charge to hide the keys to the helo." Sonny's teasing voice snapped her out of her admiring reverie. Bravo, who was the only ones who knew what the inside joke was, laughed at the comment.
She glared at him. "Oh, piss off, Quinn."
"Aw, come now, little lady, don't be like that." He said as the CIA techs worked on pulling up the feeds on the monitors.
"I don't get it." Mandy said, looking at Theresa and Sonny in confusion. She's only been Bravo's CIA liason for a year, while Theresa's been on the team since she was twenty one, which was three years. Amanda Ellis has memorised every detail in Theresa's file. Creepy, she knows, but the female SEAL is like a never ending mystery.
"Bout two years ago, Tessa thought it was a mighty fine idea to steal, sorry, borrow-" Sonny quickly corrected when he saw her sharp glare. "a helo from an airbase in Russia to go and do some sightseeing."
"I was bored." Theresa defended, crossing her arms over her chest.
"You could pilot a military helicopter at 21?" Mandy's jaw was slightly agape, not doing a very good job of hiding her awe.
"At twenty actually, but I borrowed the one in Russia when I was 22." At least Theresa had the decency to look somewhat sheepish.
"Wouldn't it be a year instead of two then?" The CIA liason frowned, because Theresa was 23.
"I'm turning 24 in a few months." She shrugged and Mandy nodded in realisation.
"Jason was so mad, he had her running hills for three months." Ray grinned fondly at the memory.
"And Blackburn," Sonny chortled. "He had to please and explain and apologize to the Commander of the base 'till he was blue in the face."
"It's been two years, guys, let it go already." Theresa huffed in exasperation as she propped herself up on a table near the monitors.
"Not happening." Trent said with a grin and Theresa decided to ignored them, diverting her attention to the monitor's that showed an ugly brown cloud-like substance obscuring their view of the Compound.
"Those aren't clouds." Mandy stated the obvious.
"Smoke." Tim, one of the CIA's techs, told them. "City's in the middle of burning time."
"People are such retards." Theresa remarked and her team looked at her. "What? Just look at that." She thrust her hands to the screens. "Causing all that air pollution just to hide a criminal."
"There's no way we get a green light unless we can confirm Samir's presence." Mandy said, clearly upset.
"Up till a few hours ago, we were having no problem finding holes in the smog." Tim said and Theresa frowned at the screen.
"Finding holes?" Jason repeated. "I'm not seeing any holes in here."
"That's because now, Lionheart's guys have joined in the burning." Tim explained to them.
"Right and you failed to mention that to us because why?" Jason asked, somewhat pissed because he didn't have all of the information.
"I told you, till a couple of hours ago, our optics weren't compromised." Tim explained once again, starting to feel nervous with Jason looking like he wants to punch something.
"He means about the guys in the compound starting to burn." Ray said before his boss or, God forbid, Theresa could snap at the poor techie.
"You think they're using the fires to cover Samir's arrival." Mandy suggested, squinting slightly at the screens.
"They certainly aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts to help the people." Theresa snarked as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I say we do a little sneak and peak." Jason suggested as he turned around from insepecting the maps on the screen with Ray.
"Hell yeah." Theresa agreed immediately, jumping of the table she was sitting on. "I'm so bored, I could start counting my fingers and toes."
"Not gonna get any further than twenty." Brock quipped, making Jason, Trent, Sonny and Ray snort in amusement as Theresa glared half heartedly at him.
"A ground recon? You want to go out into the city on foot?" Mandy asked, clearly unhappy and definitely not on board with this idea.
"Yeah, we'll take the Scooby Van." Jason said, hands on his hips. He pointed to Lisa, "Davis?" She nodded with a smile.
"Seriously, guys, I know Monrovia's supposed to have gotten better the last couple of years, but it's still kind of Mad Max out there. Not to mention, they aren't very receptive of women." Tim said and Theresa's head whipped to him as Lisa and the rest of Bravo sent a prayer up for the man.
Theresa narrowed her eyes, "What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that they could beat you. Or kill you." Tim said and he took a step back when she started to glare that him, stumbling into his chair.
She scoffed, "They are more than welcome to try." The female SEAL said, her tone dark. Then she went back to glaring at the techie. How come no one seemed to realise that in order to be on this team, she had to go through all the trails and training and pain and sometimes humiliation that the rest of the SEAL's did?
"Wow, now, that was racist and insulting to Tessa. That sounded racist to me?" He turned to Ray. "How about you?"
"Mad Max is wall-to-wall white folks." Ray answered, looking at Jason. "Definitely racist to ask the black guy to rule if something's racist or not. Just FYI."
"Okay, mocha latte." Jason retorted and Theresa huffed a chuckle.
"Guys-" Mandy called out.
"See? Now that's racist." Ray said to Jason, his eyes sparkling with mirth.
"How about hot chocolate, that better?" Theresa asked with a playful smirk and Ray rolled his eyes at her good naturedly.
"Guys! You're punking us, right? You're not actually considering going out there?" Amanda asked, looking at them in disbelief.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Theresa asked with a grin.
SEAL TEAM
"Good God, I'm boiling." Theresa said, sighing in relief when she took of the piece of black clothing that was masking her identity as both a woman and an American. Her eyes looked around the balcony she was standing on with Ray and Jason. She couldn't see much in the dark, but did so out of habit to always scan her surroundings for a threat. It was something that is engrained into her heart and soul, like a sixth sense that was always active.
"Yeah, me too." Jason muttered as they both took off their bags and dropped it to the floor. He looked at Ray, "Set up the camera. I'll get first watch. You guys get some sleep."
"I slept 16 hours on the plane." Theresa informed him. "How about I go to the roof and check out the neighbours?"
"Okay, but you need to cover up." Jason agreed and she nodded. "Be careful and come down at the first sign of daylight."
"Roger that." She smiled at him, taking her rifle she walked back into the building where Sonny, Trent, Brock and Spenser were.
"Hey Tessa, where you going?" Brock asked, looking over at his best friend. Spenser frowned at the name he called her. Didn't she say that everyone calls her Four?
"Up top," She pointed to the roof. "Scope out the perimeter."
"Kay, be careful." Brock nodded before picking up his bag, heading to the balcony.
She rolled her eyes, "You do realise I'm not a baby, right?"
Brock's only answer was a low chuckle as she made her way upto the roof. She laid flat on her belly, and positioned her rifle. Slowly, she looked through her night vision scope for any movements on the surrounding roof's. After an hour of nothing, the sounds of footsteps and breathing approaching caught her attention.
Theresa immediately knew who it was. And, although he was trying to be silent, she has been with Bravo for three years and has learned a lot, so she always made sure to be extra vigilant. She gave him points for effort though. Besides, her brothers would have radioed her if they were going to come up.
"If you're going to sneak up on some one, might I suggest, controlling your breathing and stepping silently?" Theresa spoke softly, yet loud enough for him to hear her. She didn't look up at him, just kept her eyes on her scope and looking around for trouble.
"I wasn't trying to sneak up on you." Spenser defended in a whisper as he laid down next to her, taking out his own rifle to look around. Good as Theresa may be, an extra pair of eyes never hurt. At least, that was what he was telling himself as came up here.
Finally, she looked at him. "If you say so." She shrugged and went back to looking through her scope.
"Are you Bravo's sniper?" Spenser whispered to her after not even ten minutes of silence.
"We're all snipers." Theresa informed him matter-of-factly. "But, no, that's Ray's job."
"What's your job then?"
"To kill the enemy." She deadpanned. Then she looked over at him and saw him looking kind of dejected. Her heart squeezed and she rolled her eyes. "What Ray can do with a bullet, I can do with a knife. I can kick anyone on all the Tier One teams' ass - we once held a spesific training session for me to go one-on-one with everyone. Oh, and I can pilot any aircraft."
"Basically, your a knife wielding, ass kicking, pilot?" He asked, looking over at her with a boyish grin.
"You don't wield a knife, but yeah, basically." Theresa nodded before going back to looking at her scope.
It was silent for a while, with the blonde gathering all of his courage to ask the question and hope that he wouldn't get punched in the face.
"So, you and curly haired dude-" Theresa snorted in amusement at his discription for Brock, no matter how accurate it may be. "-are you guys a thing?"
"His name is Brock." Theresa informed him, glancing at him and Spenser nodded. "And how did you come to that conclusion?" She asked, her tone one of pure amusement instead of anger, like he suspected it would be. Considering her famous short temper.
"You said that everyone calls you Four, but just now he called you Tessa." Spenser whispered back his answer.
"Well, if you paid a little more attention, you'd hear that all of Bravo calls me Tessa." Theresa finally told him.
Suffice to say, Clay felt more than a little stupid. Ignoring his burning cheeks, he asked her another question. "Is it a team thing?"
She rolled her eyes at the blonde, but answered anyways. "No, it's a friend thing."
"So, only your friends get to call you Tessa and the rest call you Four?" Spenser asked to make sure that he had it right.
"Or they just call me Kane." She shrugged. She didn't really care what people outside of Bravo - Lisa included - called her, because really, they are her only friends. As long as they don't call her Tessa.
"So, are we friends?" He asked, some of that cocky personality shining through.
"You do realise that I'm a Lieutenant Commander and that you're a Greenie, right?" She turned to him, a perfect eyebrow raised and her face void of any emotion.
"Are you saying that because of that, we can never be friends?" Spenser retorted.
"Tell you what," She started looking away, sweeping over the buildings once again. That feeling of relief going through her just like everytime she checks the perimeter and finds no danger. "You make it into Bravo, I'll give you the answer. See it as a reward waiting for you at the finish line."
"Well, in that case, I'm never getting my answer." His voice sounded resigned.
"Why would you think that?"
"Chief Hayes hates me." He answered in a duh tone as he looked through his scope as well.
Theresa sighed gently, "Take it from someone who's almost known him a decade, Jason doesn't hate you. He hates what your dad did. Part of him thinks you're gonna do the same."
"I would never." Spenser said instantly, his voice honest and open and sincere.
"Course you wouldn't. I'd personally kick your ass if you did."
For a few minutes it was silent, before Clay broke it again. "I'm not my dad."
For some reason, those words broke her bitch facade completely. She made sure to hide her face as she answered, "I know. I'm trying to make him see that."
"You want me on Bravo?" Spenser asked, clearly surprised.
"Yeah," She nodded. "I've seen you in training. You have a tactical mind, you're a great shot, might even be better than Ray. Problem is, you're a cocky asshole."
"Wow, you don't ever sugar coat anything, do you?"
"I believe that honesty is the best policy. Especially in our line of work. If we don't have all of the intel for an op, we could get not only ourselves killed, but also innocent civillians." Theresa answered him simply.
As they fell into a companionable silence, Clay wondered what made Theresa Kane join the Navy?
SEAL TEAM
At the first ray's of sunlight, Theresa and Spenser made their way off the roof and into the house. The female SEAL saw Brock and Trent asleep inside the house instead of on the balcony. She set her rifle down before going to the bathroom and doing her bussiness. Coming back out, she dug into her backpack and took out a bag of raisins. She swore when she saw it was peanuts and raisins, instead of plain raisins. That's what happens when she shops for snacks in a hurry.
Walking to the balcony, she crouched down in the doorway before speaking - it was daylight and much easier to be spotted. "Which one of you has clean raisins?" Because all of Bravo team loves peanuts and raisins as chew food.
"I got some, wasn't feeling like peanuts when I bought 'em." Sonny quipped from where he was busy carving a piece of wood. He dug into his backpack before he tossed her the plastic baggie of raisins and she tossed him the peanuts and raisins.
"Thanks and sorry." She said softly, grinning as she ripped the packet open. She knew that he wouldn't give them to her unless they were safe.
"Is cool, little lady, I can pick the raisins out and leave the peanuts. You can't." Sonny shrugged without looking up from his craving job.
"Do you hate peanuts or something?" Spenser asked with furrowed brows.
"Allergic." Theresa, Jason and Sonny answered as one. Had Ray been fully awake, she was sure that he would have said the same. Every one on Bravo knew about her allergy and she also knew that every one of them carried an Eppie pen in their backpacks like she did. After she went into anaphylactic shock because Alana baked cookies using nut extract and Theresa forgot to tell them about her allergy, Jason never left his house without one. She saw one in the cabbie of his truck every time she opened it.
At first, she didn't even know that Jason had told the team about her allergy. She had her medical alert tag roped on the chain along with her dog tags, incase she ever ends up at a hospital because of her allergy and she wasn't near the team. She was under that impression until they went out to a bar one night with Alpha team. One of them offered her peanuts from the bar and Sonny almost tackled the poor dude.
"Oh." Spenser snapped in realisation. He stored the information in the back of his mind, never knew when he might need it. Hopping over to Sonny, she took a seat next to him and quietly ate. Tuning out Jason and Clay's sort of conversation, she kept her eyes on Sonny's craving.
"You doing anything spesific?" She asked, looking at the wood in interest.
"Just passin' time." He answered, shrugging one shoulder.
"We got movement." Spenser's words caught her attention and she quickly made her way over there. "White kufi. Take a look."
"TOC, this is Bravo 1. Confirming you're seeing what we're seeing here." Jason radioed.
"Roger that, Bravo 1, we're seeing it. Positive I.D. on Abu Samir Al Masri." Mandy's voice came through the radio.
"Congratulations, TOC. He is exactly where you told us he was gonna be. I'll tell you what, we're gonna pack up, and then we're gonna exfil. How copy?" Master Chief asked.
"Strong copy, Bravo 1. Great work." Mandy answered and Theresa could hear the barely concealed joy in her tone.
"Let's go." Jason ordered and Theresa got up from her knees and ontop her feet, about to push herself upright.
"I don't get it." Spenser said, keeping his eye on the scope and making no move to get up.
Jason didn't understand, "What do you mean you don't get it?"
"I mean, Samir's legendary for his tradecraft. Kept him alive all these years, while his friends were getting turned into pink mist. Why is he coming out in the open now?" Spenser paused briefly while Theresa frowned as she began to think about his words. "We don't know that it's khat they're selling."
Theresa looked at Jason, her expression blank. Something wasn't right here. "Jase, he's got a point."
"Bravo 1, this is TOC." Mandy said at the same time that Spenser's suspision's was proven to be right and the men brought out a prisoner. "Current video feed appears to show subjects unloading a hooded prisoner. Can you confirm?"
"Affirmative." Jason answered and dread pulled at everyone's stomach as they watched the woman, who was clearly an American.
"Fuck." Theresa swore.
A/N: that conversation on the roof was so much fun to write.