"You know I don't like the idea of doing a hit in such a built up area Jase" Sonny said as the Scooby van snaked its way through the streets of Nisanti towards the mansion where the party was being held
"I know, neither do I, but we can't leave Jess hanging solo in there" Jason said looking at Sonny, this was hardly ideal mission conditions for going low vis, but they had no choice
"Bravo 1 this is HAVOC, come in channel 2" came Eric's voice over the radio
"Copy HAVOC, Bravo 1 has you lima charlie" Jason said responding to Eric's signal
"Bravo 7 has confirmed that the hostages are on site, second floor South wing of house, there are 27 targets in that area of the house, and 15 in the bottom floor East wing of the house, including Bravo 7, second Scooby van is being prepped to help with exfil" Eric said giving Bravo an update on the situation in the house
"27 targets, so what 17 men and the hostages" Clay said doing the calculations briefly
"That would be my guess, Clay" Jason said
"So we taking all 17 out" Trent asked curiously
"What about Jess's friend Ilhan" Ray asked looking at the group
"We don't know where about's in the house he is, but he knows there's a takedown happening, as soon as guns start going of, he'll hopefully be smart and hit the ground" Jason said confirming that there was no way to guarantee Ilhan's safety completely, but he had prior knowledge of this evening's events, and should respond accordingly
"Hopefully, we got a way in without being seen" Brock asked looking at Jason
"Bravo 7 was able to leave a window open at the back of the house, you go through there, head straight upstairs, to the second floor, no sign of any security guards if you breech the perimeter nearest the open window" Lisa said jumping on the comms line after hearing Brock's question
"The window is in the south western part of the house, that area of the house is currently empty according to IR" Eric said confirming that the area was clear
"Right, so that puts the window in this area of the house, this will give us cover from the second floor if we breech the perimeter here we shouldn't be spotted" Ray said pulling out a aerial photos of the target property to identify the point of entry
"Tell Bravo 7 to get ready to get out of there as soon as she's told to move" Jason said into the radio, so far things were going smoothly, but he wanted Jess out of the way as soon as her role in this mission was completed
"She's already aware of the situation" Eric said explaining that Jess was all ready to get herself out of the house as soon as she received word
"She does have a way to get to exfil doesn't she" Trent asked curiously looking at the rest of the team, no one had asked Jess what her exfil plan was
"I assume she'd have something up her sleeve" Jason said hoping he was right about Jess having a way to reach the exfil location safely
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"Bravo 1 to HAVOC, any sign of movement" Jason asked calling into his radio as Bravo were positioning themselves to gain entry to the house
"Negative, you're still clear to charlie mike" Lisa said after a few seconds giving them the signal they were to proceed with the mission
"Right, we're going radio silent till we hit Ares, 7 get ready to move once we give the signal we're up the stairs" Jason said over the comms, he wasn't expecting a response from Jess by any means, it would have risked her cover to respond
"Sounds like they've already started upstairs" Clay said as there was suddenly a lot of screaming coming from inside the house
"Silencers at the ready, let's move out" Jason said letting everyone know they were ready to move in
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"1 this is HAVOC, get us a head count" Jason said over the comms quietly 10 minutes later so not to disturb the women downstairs
"Still confirming 27 targets in your immediate vicinity, and 14 in the other location" came the response from Eric over the radio
"14" Jason asked confused for a second
"7 is enroute to this location" said Eric explaining the reason there was 1 less person in the house
"How's she getting there" Clay asked confused, 12 of the targets had been killed by Bravo in the takedown, another 4 had been injured and were rendered unconscious currently in different rooms of the wing of the house
"Maybe he can tell us" Jason asked pointing to Ilhan who had immediately taken cover during the initial assault and was now speaking to the scared girl he'd been in the room with
"Idi sa ovim ljudima, oni će te odvesti na sigurno" Ilhan said softly to the young girl who had tears in her eyes
"Ilhan" Jason said getting the man's attention
"She's scared, I've told her she's safe with you, and to tell the other girls you'll get them to safety" Ilhan said explaining what he was telling the young girl, Valdovinos had wasted no time as soon as the men had gone upstairs, he'd told the men that the girls were a gift from him, to pick one and do what they wanted to teach the disobedient whores a lesson in submission and the superiority of men before dragging a woman into a room and closing the door, a few seconds later the girl was screaming in pain begging him to stop, the other girls were obviously now petrified of what was happening were dragged of to the other rooms to receive their fate from the men, Ilhan had taken the young girl on his own and locked himself in the room to keep her safe why he waited for help to arrive
"Ilhan, Jess" Jason said looking at the man
"I told my driver to take her back to the airport, she was to tell the other women she wasn't feeling well and that he would escort her home, so not to ruin my night, did she not leave" Ilhan asked concerned as he explained the extraction plan they had arranged, worried that she hadn't left and was still downstairs, Ilhan trusted his driver with his own life and was his closest confidant, he'd been vetted and approved by MIT personally
"She did, we just weren't sure how she was getting out" Jason said to Ilhan
"Scooby van is 3 mikes out, we need to move, Bravo 2, 4 and 5 are moving the other girls to the exfil location" Sonny said alerting Jason of the current status
"You must injure me, quickly, to make it believable, my driver will alert the local authorities when he returns that there has been an attack, I will tell them I remember men dressed in black from head to toe, nothing more" Ilhan said hurriedly pleading with Jason that they had to injure him as well before they left to keep their cover safe
"What if these people come after you, you took a big risk helping us" Clay said looking straight at the man
"I can look after myself, you need to move" Ilhan said confidently assuring Clay that he would be okay
"Keep in touch" Jason said to Ilhan shaking his hand, they wouldn't have succeeded this evening if it hadn't been for him, he wanted to be certain that he'd be okay at the end of this
"I will, now you must do your duty, quickly" Ilhan said assuring Jason he'd get word to them after the mission was done that he was okay, Jason then signalled to Clay to escort the woman out of the room so she didn't see what happened, Jason then struck Ilhan across the back of the head knocking him out cold and then shooting the man twice, the wounds were in locations that were not going to be immediately threatening to Ilhan's life, but would be enough to give Bravo a few days break to get out of the country before he would be talking to the authorities
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"Jess, you made it back in one piece" Eric said pleasantly surprised to see Jess walking up the plane upon her return alone
"Don't look so surprised, where's the rest of the team" Jess said brushing of the comment about being in one piece
"Enroute, some of the hostages had been injured already, CIA have granted us permission to transport all of the hostages to the nearest US medical facility for treatment and questioning" Eric said explaining the current status of the mission
"I hadn't realised how quickly they planned on starting there little fun" Jess said apologetically, she had hoped that the women could have been spared completely but it was obviously not the case as soon as she'd heard the screaming from upstairs, suprisingly none of the other wives had flinched at the sound
"You can't blame yourself, you did good to get us in there as efficiently as you did, things could have been a lot worse" Eric said making it clear that Jess had nothing to be sorry for this evening with her role, she had done everything asked of her and couldn't have done anything else without risking the safety of herself or the rest of her team
"What do you need me to do" Jess said now changing the subject from her own performance to making sure that the rest of the mission proceeded without a hitch and the hostages were evacuated safely
"Go and change, I want you to keep your distance now Jess, both you, Lisa, and Mattie this goes for you to, we'll get you if you're needed" Eric said issuing the order to all three women, Mattie Sandoval, their logistics specialist, had been busy overseeing the preparation of the plane to receive the injured hostages
"Sir" Lisa said protesting slightly, Jess just stood there looking at Eric uncertain as to why she was now being ordered to keep her distance from the women, Mattie simply continued with her work making sure the plane was ready
"It's not open for discussion from any of you, Jess, I know that most of your trauma was caused after Samuels had finished with you, that some of the divers held you down why Logan hurt you, deliberately, a lot like some of these girls have been hurt, please, keep your distance unless I ask you to help" Eric said firmly explaining that he wasn't going to be compromising with his order aiming it at the three women, when he focused his attention fully on Jess he took a softer tone as though he was pleading with her to keep her distance now because he was not wanting to take the risk of exposing her to this anymore than he had to in case it triggered her own memories from the past
"Yes sir" Jess said accepting Eric's decision, she quickly retrieved her shower kit and a change of clothes from her larger bag to go and freshen up and change ready for the flight stateside
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"Jess made it back in one piece" Clay asked looking around as soon as the Scooby vans made it back to the plane, she was no where to be seen on the plane
"She's cleaning up and getting changed, we've been given permission to transport our guests to the nearest US medical facility" Eric said explaining that Jess was getting changed and would be back as soon as possible, and that they were to take the hostages to the nearest US medical facility for treatment
"Which is" Jason asked curiously as he was helping Trent get the hostages settled on the litters ready to leave
"39th Medical group in Incirlik, it's around a 90 minute flight to the other side of Turkey" Eric said, he'd already confirmed the location with the flight crew
"Sir, that's a joint base with Turkish forces, surely we could at least get them out of the country" Ray said hesitant about the hostages being left in the country they were just tortured in
"I'm open to suggestions" Eric said looking around at the boys for suggestions
"Air force base Aviano in Italy, it's a 3 and a half hour flight, they have a full hospital" Trent said without dragging his attention away from the rescues hostage he was focused on, he was in the process of administering a sedative to each of the women to keep them calm and take the edge of whatever pain they were dealing with
"Alright, we'll head to Aviano, good timing Jess, rest of you can shower and change once we arrive in Italy" Eric said as he noticed Jess making her way back to the plane, she didn't say anything as she made her way to the back of the plane to put her stuff away and get ready to depart
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"Sir, she okay" Jason asked cornering Eric and indicating towards Jess's hammock which she was currently occupying her backpack hooked up next to it and the covers pulled over so she was in her own little coocoon, Jess hadn't spoken to any of the boys since they'd arrived back with the hostages
"Jess, she's fine, I've just asked her to keep her distance from our guests, for her own wellbeing" Eric said explaining the reason for Jess's isolating herself
"Why" Jason asked eager to know why Eric had asked Jess to do that
"It's not a topic that's open for discussion" Eric said firmly
"Because of what happened to her in Australia" Jason asked realising that it was the most likely situation, based on Eric's response
"She's got a fairly good idea what some of these girls have just been through, which is why I want her to distance herself now the mission is over, she doesn't need to be reliving this unless it's absolutely necessary, not with everything else she's been through these last 18 months, I don't know how men get off on doing stuff like this to women" Eric said confirming that Jason's suspicion about Jess's past being the reason for Eric isolating her from the case now as he looked briefly over the women and their various injuries, he felt that same feeling he'd felt when he'd first tried to read the file Jay had collected on the evidence of the abuse Jess had been put through in the past, and he'd been unable to find the strength to read the whole file because of how sick it had made him feel, and if he was struggling with the sight, he couldn't imagine how it would affect Jess who'd lived through the nightmare herself previously
"As Jess said, dominance, superiority complex, a need to feel powerful and in control of the situation, there's lots of reasons" Jason said surveying the sight himself, Eric had made the right call he realised by asking Jess to isolate herself
"Yeah well I can think of a better way to feel good about myself then doing stuff like this to women" Eric said softly before turning away to attempt to focus his attention on another task, he'd be making sure that the entire compliment on the plane would be talking to a specialist when they got back and before they were sent out again, himself included in that order
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"How are they doing Trent" Ray asked as he saw the medic finally retreat towards the back of the plane to take a quick break from the task of tending to the injured girls
"To soon to tell, physically they should all recover to be mostly functional, as far as the rest of the stuff, it will take time, there's no way to give that girl back her eyes that were gouged out, or" Trent said suddenly decompressing as he indicated to one of the girls that was laying on a litter motionless from the sedative and pain relief Trent had administered, a bandage was wrapped firmly around where her eye sockets were located, the bandage had traces of dried blood on it now, she also had a badly broken arm and leg, she was the poor girl they'd found in the room with Valdovinos, her eyes were completely gone by time Bravo had found her
"I know brother, how do girls end up in situations like this" Ray said reassuring Trent he understood what he was feeling, he didn't have to say anything else
"They were probably sold, by family, lovers, girls were tricked into thinking that they were going to work as domestic help, you'd be surprised how tempting people can make things sound" Jess said, her voice coming from behind Ray
"Thought you were asleep" Ray said looking at her
"I was trying to, you can guarantee that each of those girls who weren't kidnapped, have grown up experiencing poverty and probably neglect or abuse, once they were finished with, they'd probably be sold again, begging rings most likely pick up the crippled girls, children and young women seem to elicit more sympathy from wealthy foreigners, especially if the girl is visibly pregnant or has a baby or kid with her, even though the people who run those rings would take everything she earns" Jess said as she pulled out her spoonie bag and started looking through it
"Jess is right, it's quite prevalent in Africa with the child traffickers" Clay said coming up to join in the conversation
"And in places like Thailand, parents sell their children off thinking that they'll have a better life, instead this is what happens" Jess said explaining that this was not just an issue in 1 or 2 countries, it was done in multiple countries across the globe
"Like how Laura was telling me with the horses, she said that the kill buyers will take their kids along to trick people into thinking that the horse they're giving away or selling is going to a good home and will be well looked after, where in truth, it's being loaded up on the meat trucks and shipped to Mexico or Canada" Brock said now joining in the conversation, he'd asked Laura about a situation at an auction he went to, when Laura had told a kid that they couldn't buy the horse from her she was moving to another pen and the kid looked quite upset when Laura had refused and said to the kid that if they really wanted the horse, they had to apply to adopt through the rescue, even after the mother had turned up to try and talk Laura into selling the horse to them there, using the argument that the kid really wanted that particular horse, and that selling them now would save Happy Tails money and even accused Laura of being heartless by making her kid cry and taking the horse, when Brock asked her about it after they'd left, Laura explained about how kill buyers would use their wife and kids to convince people that the animal they were selling would go to a safe and loving home and be well looked after, when in fact they were being sent to slaughter
"Exactly, talk only goes so far at times" Jess said as she pulled out a container of her anti-nausea lollies and popped 2 in her mouth
"But to sell your kid to a fate like this" Ray said indicating towards the girls
"Some of them are extremely desperate Ray, they may have multiple children to look after, they may be farmers and their crops have failed or they've lost their job, face it, the economy sucks at time" Jess said looking at him, just because they'd never consider selling a child, not every parent in the world had the same luxury, and girls were often considered to be not as valuable to their parents, especially in certain areas where the parents were often not as educated, they would be the traffickers first target
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