CHAPTER 19

1 year ago…

It was Miguel's first week as Chief Petty Officer in SEAL Team 2, and he already had a mission. Miguel was nervous to say the least. Although he had been on several missions before as a soldier, this was the first mission in which he would be leading his platoon.

Miguel entered the briefing room, and a platoon of new recruits, as well as his lieutenant, were already there. Miguel sat down at one of the chairs and listened intently to the lieutenant.

"OK, men. We have a high-priority mission. I'm sure all of you are familiar with this man," he said turning the projector on. Abu Bakar Bin Asif, one of the leaders of the Talaban's, face filled the screen. Miguel immediately tensed up. This was a huge mission, and one that they couldn't afford to screw up. As if reading his mind, the lieutenant turned to him.

"Diaz, if you want, you can pass the mission onto another platoon. It is your first week as Chief Petty Officer after all." He said. Miguel shook his head.

"No. I want to do this." He replied. "I've been training for these very situations for ages. So what's the game plan?"

"You are going to helicopter into the compound he's staying at. You're going to storm the compound and assassinate him. You are cleared for maximum engagement. Eliminate anyone who gets in the way, but try not to kill innocent people. He probably will be armed, and probably will have a child wearing a suicide vest. Make sure you take care of it. Miguel is the in-field leader, but you'll have us in your ear the whole time. All that matters in this mission is that you take out the target…"

Miguel left the room moments later to prepare for the mission, and he was quickly joined by his two best friends: Eli and Tyler.

"Hey, man. You ready for the mission?" Tyler, a 6'2 African-American man, asked. Miguel nodded and looked at his best friend.

"Hey, buddy, you sure you don't want to sit this one out?" Miguel asked Tyler. Tyler raised an eyebrow.

"Um… what?" He asked. Miguel sighed.

"Well, isn't Sarah 9 months pregnant?" Miguel said, referring to Tyler's wife. He knew that Tyler's wife was due to give birth really soon.

"Yeah, she is. Her due date's next Thursday." Tyler replied. Miguel nodded.

"Exactly. Don't you want to be with her?" Miguel remarked.

"Yeah, I do. And I'll be with her starting tomorrow. We've been tracking this bastard for years. We finally have him. I want to be there to end it. But I mean… you're the boss. If you force me to stay here, I'll stay here."

Miguel thought for several moments before looking back at his friend.

"Look, it's up to you, man. Are you sure you want to come? I won't judge you if you want to stay home." Miguel said. Tyler clenched his jaw in determination.

"I'm coming…"

Present day…

Miguel woke up and immediately groaned, pulling the covers over his face. It had been exactly 1 year since Tyler had died, and it wasn't getting any easier. In fact, today, when Miguel woke up, he immediately felt a block of lead cement around his heart. This block wasn't just made up of sadness and missing his friend; it was also primarily guilt. His best friend was dead, and it was all his fault.

Miguel eventually rolled out of bed and after taking a quick shower, he slowly trudged into the kitchen, where Johnny was sitting and drinking a cup of coffee. Johnny smiled at Miguel when he walked into the room, but his smile faded when he saw his son's troubled expression.

"Hey, what's up with you? I would've thought you'd be in a better mood after getting Larusso and I to see eye-to-eye." Johnny said.. Miguel looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?" Miguel asked. He was pretty out of it and hadn't really heard what Johnny said.

"You look like crap." Johnny stated. Miguel glared at him.

"Gee, thanks man." Miguel snapped, sarcastically. "Look, please today… just fuck off, alright? I don't need this today."

Johnny's eyes widened. Miguel was normally so passive, and it was weird and alarming to see him so aggressive.

"Dude, you okay?" Johnny asked, concerned. Miguel sighed and looked down.

"Look, I'm sorry. Just a lot on my mind today. A, um… a close friend of mine died a year ago today while on a mission I was leading." Miguel murmured. Johnny's eyes widened. He put a comforting hand on Miguel's shoulder.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, man." Johnny said. Miguel shrugged.

"It's fine. That's life, right. Never ceases to surprise." Miguel replied. "I just have to go to the service his wife is throwing today."

"Well, do you want me to come with you? Or at least call Sam so you aren't going alone." Johnny said. Miguel shook his head.

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks though. I'm going with a friend who also knew the guy well." Miguel said.

"Okay. See you soon." Johnny said. Miguel nodded at him and tied his tie on his Navy uniform, before putting on his jacket and coat and heading towards the door.

"See you…"

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A couple of hours later, Miguel clambered onto a helicopter, along with Eli, Tyler and their platoon of nervous rookies. Miguel's stomach was in turmoil, but he forced himself to stay calm, not only for himself, but also for the platoon of rookies who were on their first mission, and were incredibly anxious. They had not yet seen gunfire, not yet killed a man, not yet experienced any of the horrors of warfare. Miguel almost felt sorry for them. Half an hour later, Miguel and his platoon arrived at the compound, and they hovered over. It was 4 am, so the compound was dead silent. Miguel and his recruits stealthily shimmied down a rope and they prepared to storm the compound. Miguel silently mouthed and gestured to his troops.

"3…"

They all cocked their guns.

"2…"

"1…"

"Go… go… go."

The breacher blasted a hole through the door, and half of the troops stormed into the building, while the other half stayed outside, securing the perimeter. The minute they entered the building, Miguel knew that something was wrong. There were A LOT of men pointing their guns at them. A hell of a lot more than they expected. Miguel and his men immediately split up and dived for cover. They were spread pretty thin, and Miguel dragged one of his men down next to him for cover: Tyler.

"You okay?" Miguel asked quickly. Tyler shakily nodded.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Miguel screamed into his mic that was connected to the officers in their military base. A calm, collected voice entered the line.

"Miguel, we were fed bad intel. There are approximately double the hostiles we thought there were. We might have enough manpower to complete the mission, we might not. You have eyes on the situation. It's your call. Do we proceed or do we extract? Proceeding risks the lives of our men, but extracting would just make us look like a bunch of cunts on the world stage. Also, there's no guarantee we get out alive if we pull out now"

Miguel's brain was working at a mile a minute, weighing up the pros and cons of proceeding vs extracting early. Finally he came to a decision.

"We're continuing as planned." He said in a grave but stern voice. Tyler's eyes widened as he looked at Miguel, but didn't dare argue with his commanding officer.

"Affirmative." the Lieutenant confirmed.

Miguel dragged himself out of his flashback as he drove towards the church/cemetery where Tyler's family were holding the ceremony. Tyler's death was all Miguel's fault. Miguel made the call to continue the mission so in his eyes and in Tyler's family's eyes, Tyler's blood was on his hands. Miguel, who used to be an extremely close friend to Tyler and his wife, was now his wife's enemy. He wasn't even invited to pay his respects to his late best friend, but he wanted to go anyway. He wanted to say a final goodbye.

Almost as soon as Miguel parked his car at the church and got out, he saw Eli walking over to him, a frown on his face.

"Hey." Miguel murmured.

"Hey. Um… what are you doing here?" Eli asked, nervously. Miguel sighed.

"I wanted to say a final goodbye to him because I never got to go to the funeral." Miguel replied. "Look, I know I'm not the family's favourite person in the world, but…"

"Yeah, you're NOT their favourite person in the world! In fact, you're probably their least favourite person in the world!"

"You don't think I know that?!" Miguel shouted. "You don't think I feel guilty?! You don't think I want to kill myself every time I think about the mission?! I became the person I swore I'd never become… the person who prioritizes a mission over people! We completed the mission but at what cost? 11/16 soldiers died! Me, you and only 3 other people survived! You don't think that weighs on me every day?!"

"Miguel, you made the difficult decision that not many commanders can make. That bastard we took out was the mastermind behind the suicide bombings in Paris, Kabul and Kenya. He killed hundreds of innocent civilians. We lost 11 soldiers who knew exactly what they were getting into when they enlisted. That's what war is! There are always casualties!"

Miguel eventually nodded, a stray tear rolling down his face.

"Look, I want to go inside." Miguel firmly said, pointing to the door of the chapel. Eli sighed and reluctantly led Miguel into the church. Miguel stood in the corner of the room and listened as Tyler's old Lieutenant gave a eulogy.

"Tyler Manson was a good man. A true soldier. And one of the best shots I ever encountered. Tyler was the opposite of pretentious… whatever that was. He was humble. He just wanted to get the job done and see his family."

Suddenly, Tyler's Lieutenant was cut off when Tyler's late wife Sarah stood up with a start. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the corner of the room, where Miguel was standing. Slowly, everyone turned around to follow her gaze, and they all gasped when they saw Miguel there, and started muttering quietly amongst themselves. Sarah slowly walked towards Miguel, who stared at the ground in shame as he could feel the hate that all of Tyler's family and friends had towards him radiating off of them. As Sarah approached him, Miguel looked at her.

"Look, Sarah, I, um… I…"

Miguel never got a chance to speak. Before he could, a deafening SLAP rang out across the room, and Miguel felt a stinging pain to his cheek.

"How dare you come here, you son of a bitch!" Sarah growled. "You're the reason he's not here!"

"I know. I'm so sorry." Miguel whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Get out." Sarah snapped. "GET OUT NOW!"

At this point, Miguel nodded and slowly retreated out of the chapel…

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"Listen up, men. We're continuing with this mission. We're not pulling out." Miguel said calmly into his ear piece as he spoke to his troops. "They've got us out-numbered and out-gunned so we need to approach this tactically. We need to regroup."

Moments later, Miguel, Tyler, Eli and 2 other soldiers managed to regroup in one of the rooms. They knew they didn't have much time before Abu Bakar Bin Asif managed to escape the compound so they needed to move FAST. After giving them careful instructions, Miguel took a deep, calming breath. He needed to make it out the mission alive. He had just started dating Sam and he couldn't afford to die.

"Okay, ready?" Miguel murmured, cocking his gun and looking at his troops. They nodded. "Let's do this…"

Miguel fired a couple of rounds of cover fire to halt the hostiles and the group of SEALs charged out of their hiding spot, shooting anyone they could see but staying in their tight formation like they had been taught millions of times in BUDs.

The elite SEALs quickly turned the first corner. There was a man standing there, holding an Uzi. Miguel quickly put two bullets between his eyes. He crumpled like a rag doll and didn't get up. They continued and reached a fork. Miguel and Tyler went left and Eli and the other two soldiers went right. Miguel and Tyler proceeded to a staircase, where two men were waiting. Miguel took out one and Tyler took out another. They climbed the staircase to the second floor and approached a large room. There was one man in that room but Miguel didn't have a shot as he was holding a child in front of him, like a shield. Miguel thought fast and shot him in the shin. He yelled and dropped the child. Tyler and Miguel both shot the man in the head. The innocent child watched with a terrified expression on his face as the two men advanced past him and to the staircase.

They climbed to the third floor where they were met by Eli and the two rookies. They could hear many loud voices in the room so they tensed up, ready for a battle. Miguel quickly kicked the door open. All hell broke loose…