Colonel Sumner stopped jogging at the end of the parking lot. It looked like a good enough spot to wind down after his exercise. He took long, slow steps, stretching his muscles as he went. He'd need a shower, but that probably wouldn't be an issue. He liked to work out early and Ella-Louise seemed to be a bit of an early bird herself.
He worked his way across the long, narrow parking lot toward their shared hotel room. It was nice enough for a clandestine operation. Separate beds that were reasonably soft. Comfortable padded chairs, a TV with a decent supply of channels, and a WiFi connection. Probably couldn't stream a movie on it or anything, but it was luxurious compared to the ops he performed in third-world countries.
"Hey," Ella-Louise greeted him from one of the chairs, without looking up. He usually found her like this in the morning, her legs tucked underneath her and her nose in a book.
"I don't know how you can stand to look at the inside of another book right now," Sumner replied by way of greeting. It almost felt routine by now.
"Fiction is different than research, Marshal, but then you wouldn't know that, would you?" A soft chuckle escaped her lips at that jab, and he couldn't help but smile back, even if she did call him by his first name. That wasn't something he was in the habit of hearing.
Hell, he was pretty sure that if his mother was still alive, she'd call him Sumner, too. It didn't bug him too much coming from her, though. "I'm gonna shower, be out in a minute."
"Thank god," she said. It was the same thing she said after every workout.
The shower was nice and he let it go on a few moments longer than was necessary. It was an indulgence that he wasn't proud of, but sometimes that cascading water was just too tempting to pass up.
He dried off quickly and was about to put some shaving cream on to round out his morning routine when he heard the room phone ring. He quickly rushed out.
Over the last several weeks, they had looked through the books and the little bit of data they had access to, but came up short. The think-tank at Fort Bragg had been working with the same information, but slower and with the investigatory background that gave them a better chance at getting some results.
Ella-Louise stood with the phone to her ear for what seemed like a very long time, not speaking. After a while, a length of parchment appeared in the air in front of her and she began to write on it as though it were flat on a desk. The magic thing still tripped him out a bit.
When she finally hung up the phone and plucked the parchment out of the air, Sumner could hardly stand it.
"Well?" he asked.
"It seems the common denominator is a former student of his by the name of Tom Riddle. We don't know much more than that, they're looking into Riddle's past now. They said they should be able to give us a list of spots to check soon."
It stood to logic that this Tom Riddle was either a high profile Death Eater or perhaps Voldemort himself. It was hard to imagine a mother naming her child Voldemort, but then someone named their kid Being away from his command for so long had a grating effect. There was work to do Severus, so anything was possible.
Still, he'd hoped for something a little more actionable. It was progress, but it was slow and he yearned to get a move on.
"Celebratory drink?" she asked. A set of glasses and a jug of orange juice appeared on the dining table, her favorite morning beverage. "Perhaps some clothes?" She eyed him conspicuously and for the first time, Sumner realized that in his zeal to come get the update, he'd charged out in his boxers.
Brad could hear the din of the briefing room before they'd even reached the door, and it was, of course, only worse inside. It had to be the largest gathering of personnel since he'd come back to the FOB. He and his team took a corner of the room, near Phantom and Spectre teams.
Around them, the room was filled with additional personnel. The briefing room was one of the larger buildings in the FOB, which wasn't saying much. Still, it was packed to the brim. Major Samara, Echo Company commander, was present and everyone else looked to be a section leader or higher. Something big looked to be going down.
After a few more minutes of speculation, Colonel Boyd stepped in, flanked by some of his support staff. The sound immediately died out.
"Thank you all for joining me," the Colonel started, not waiting for his aide to get the power point set up.
"By now, I'm sure you've heard rumors that the Ministry of Magic here in Britain may be supporting the Death Eaters. While we cannot confirm this directly, we can be certain that there are supportive elements within the Ministry."
A slide finally appeared, showing a number of familiar faces, and more that Brad didn't recognize. Sirius Black was among the first in the list.
"Shown is a list of people known to be loyal to Headmaster Dumbledore, primarily in his speaking out against the Ministry over it's steadfast denial about the return of Voldemort." His aide, seemingly waiting for the cue, clicked. A series of red x's covered well over half of the pictures.
"The ones covered by an X are the ones we know to have been arrested by the Auror's office. Until recently, we were uncertain where they were being held." The next slide showed a map of the North Sea.
"Thanks to the efforts of our intelligence personnel, we have learned that they are being held at Azkaban Prison. This is the same place where a number of Death Eaters recently escaped. We have also confirmed that the prison remains guarded solely by Dementors."
There was a murmur among the ranks as the troops put two-and-two together. "As you've no doubt surmised, we are going to be rescuing our allies. It is the consensus among the brass at Fort Bragg and in MACUSA that, were Headmaster Dumbledore here, he would not allow his supporters to remain locked with Dementors."
A Lieutenant that Brad didn't recognize by name raised a hand, and the Colonel gestured to him, allowing the question.
"Sir," the Lieutenant had to clear his throat before continuing, "how are we locating the island? It's supposed to be impossible to mark on a map."
"Good question, thank you." The Colonel gestured to his aide, who went to the next slide, a map of the North Sea, and took over for the Colonel. Evidently, he was more familiar with the details.
"That was brought up by our Auror friend, actually." The color of the map changed, leaving a large area of water in the North Sea blue. "While we can't plot the location on a map, we can narrow it down a bit. We know for certain that Azkaban is not in the greyed out sections. That leaves us with a large, but not impossibly large area to hunt from." From there, Boyd took back over.
"We will begin departing the FOB starting tonight at 1800 hours. By squad, you will report to OP Hogsmeade, where we will Floo to Fort Bragg, and in turn back to RAF Lossiemouth, where the assault is being staged from."
"Tomorrow at 2200 hours, the Navy will scramble a pair of F/A-18s for a training operation. The details are unimportant, but they will be softening the island for us prior to our landing."
"We will launch at 2100 hours from Lossiemouth-"
For the next hour and a half, Colonel Boyd delivered detailed unit assignments. The operation was the largest he'd seen, at least as far as their task force was concerned. The operator teams would make entry, supported by one of Echo Company's platoons. The other three platoons of Echo Company were split into Interdiction Teams that would hold the perimeter outside of Azkaban, a team to create and hold a helicopter landing zone for extraction, and a team that would be held in reserve, either for search and rescue or as a QRF. All together, over two hundred soldiers would be making landfall, not to mention the aircraft and support personnel.
They had no idea which cells would contain the friendlies, let alone if they had a comprehensive list of who had been taken. Instead of targeted rescues, the op had morphed into a full-scale jail-break. Every cell would be opened, and every prisoner stunned for transport back to Lossiemouth, where they would be sent to the US for continued detention pending identification. A pain in the ass, to be sure, but better than leaving potential allies behind to be tormented by Dementors.
The equipment cost looked high, too. Each of the operators would be carrying several patronus packs, and they were going to scatter the rest among the infantry squads. They were also being kitted out with experimental patronus enchanted ammunition. The rounds were not expected to be particularly powerful and they only had enough for each operator to carry a single magazine, with a few distributed to the interdiction teams. It wasn't a ton, but they expected it would be enough.
"Get your shit in order," Colonel Boyd said, concluding the briefing. "Major Perkins will have the unit departure schedule, make sure you're on time. Don't fuck it up for everyone else. Dismissed."
A swirling rustle of leaves at the edge of the Forbidden Forest was the first and only indication that something was out of the ordinary. Without another sound, a short and rather unpleasant looking Goblin and a tall, beautiful quarter-Veela, appeared.
The Goblin had a sour look on his face. "I don't know how you stand it," he grumbled, squinting and holding a long-fingered hand to block the sun.
"It's not so bad when you're used to it," Fleur replied melodically, unfazed by the sour attitude. "Thank you for bringing me here."
"I still think it's a mistake," Bogurd muttered. "It's a long way to France, and I'm not coming back to get you. Gringotts allots you one trip."
"Yes, I know," Fleur replied again. "I'm certain he'll be glad to see me." She hoped she sounded sure.
They'd been over this before when she had first approached him about it. Bogurd was in charge of receiving out-of-country shipments for the English branch of Gringotts. She'd brought him a lock box from France.
Her original plan had been to drop off the box and then schedule a train ticket to Hogsmeade, where she could walk to the castle to surprise Brad. Unfortunately, the next trip to Hogsmeade wasn't scheduled until the end of the month. She didn't want to wait that long.
Instead, she asked Bogurd to bring her to the castle. She could always Floo back to the Chateau from the castle. It had been done before, after all.
"Au revoir, Ms. Delacour." Fleur felt a gentle wind flash around her legs, and without another sound, Bogurd disappeared.
Somehow, that ratcheted the apprehension up a bit. She was still sure that Brad would be glad to see her, but the reality of it was starting to sink in for her and a fist twisting her insides.
Fleur forced her feet forward, walking past a large hut and toward the main doors. She hadn't talked to him in a long time. As if that wasn't enough to make her nervous, she remembered that he was working. She hadn't thought about how her visit might be read by his command.
Of course, she wasn't planning on staying at the castle very long. She figured that it wasn't likely that all of the rooms in Hogsmeade were taken. It would probably be a small matter to rent a room for a week, maybe a bit longer. She could visit him whenever he had time off.
Hogsmeade was a nice enough town, after all. Cold and wet, much like the rest of this country, but still. She remembered liking the people when she was there last.
As she started up the steps to the entrance doors, she recognized another thing that had started bothering her. She hadn't expected to make it this far without someone stopping her. The soldiers were usually very thorough. She didn't even see them standing outside the doors.
At the top of the steps, she stood outside for a moment, contemplating on whether or not she should knock. It seemed rude not to, but then this was also a large public school. No one knocked when they visited Beauxbatons, so it probably wasn't necessary here. She let herself in.
Surprisingly, there wasn't anyone standing around. It was the middle of the day, so perhaps they were in classes. But finding no one was a bit strange.
"Hello?" she called out tentatively. Fleur tried to ignore the churning in her abdomen. The castle felt nothing like when she'd been here last. It wasn't inviting, but cold and distant. She told herself she was being ridiculous. "Hello!"
A quartet of students in green robes jogged down the stairs and Fleur smiled at them in greeting. She stepped forward, intending to greet them, but cut her greeting short as they hit the bottom of the stairs and fanned out around her. Something was very wrong here.
"Well, well, well," a familiar voice said. It took her a second, but she recognized him as one of the irritating boys that had fawned over her when she'd first arrived. "A trespasser."
"I was hoping to see Brad," Fleur said, choosing not to go after the bait. Still, something was off. She expected to be greeted by the soldiers, not these boys.
"Interesting, seeing as how he shouldn't be here anymore," the blonde boy said.
"Wha'd'we do with 'er, Malfoy?" one of the others asked, a dense looking meathead.
"Headmistress will want to talk with her." As one, the four drew their wands. Fleur felt her heart leap up into her throat. Headmistress? And what were they doing drawing wands? She wanted to pull hers and show these brats a real fight, but she was outnumbered and they'd already drawn. She was good, but not that good. "My friend here is going to take your wand and you'll be coming with us. If you resist...well, I kinda hope you do, actually."
Credit where it was due, they kept her well covered. One took her wand, and they escorted her downstairs. She was pretty sure that was away from the Headmasters office, but mentioning that didn't seem like a good idea. These guys looked and sounded like thugs, and with no one else around, she didn't want to take any chances.
It wasn't until they made it to their destination that she realized she'd wasted her chance. She was deep under the castle now and the room they'd led her to was a dungeon. The wrought iron bars for each cell stood wide open, she'd be alone down here.
"I don't think so," Fleur said. "Bring me to this Headmistress-" she started to turn, but one of them hit her in the back with a stunning spell. It wasn't a strong one, but it was enough. A pair of them grabbed her by the legs and dragged her into one of the cells as she tried to regain sensation in her limbs. They dropped her legs and stepped out, slamming the door shut.
"I do think so, actually," Malfoy said. "I'll let her know you're here though. She's been looking forward to meeting you." With that, the four of them left.