Chapter 17

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"I'm out of air."

"Two percent."

"Couple of minutes, max!"

Danny heard the worried voices from his team members. Cossetti had already been pretty green as they had entered to the building and now the stress and fear of dying inside the the death trap they were in was getting to him even more. He was still a Newbie. Luckily Bivas, Benz and Cruz were showing more maturity over the situation, being more experienced on the field. Danny glanced at his own oxygen amount left and saw it was almost on red.

Almost right after he had informed Commander Slattery to cease all attempts to help them, they heard sounds from coming outside. He listened to the sounds through his heavy breathing, and thought he recognized the familiar sound of a McMillan rifle. Then it became quiet.

"Cobra Team, Nathan James, the threat in the vicinity of the hospital is neutralized." They heard Commander Slattery state, making the observation that he was sounding slightly surprised over the situation.

They slowly moved towards the main door and Cruz used a cutting tool to cut the chains blocking their way and they got out. They were all gasping for air at the moment.

"Let's move!" He rushed his voice and gave the sign for them to rally back to the James.

They didn't get far when Cruz heard a gun fire at short range behind them. He turned around and saw Kara using her service gun to kill one of the hostiles on the ground.

"Just like in the Academy. Saved your ass again." Kara joked as she walked by Cruz giving him playful slap on his behind.

"Hey! It's a great ass to save!" Cruz teased her back with a grin.

Danny looked at the sight in front of him, Kara carrying a McMillan rifle on her back. He glanced at the scenery, she must've been on the top of the hill to take out the hostiles. But she missed one of the head shots clearly, he thought.

"Did Slattery send you?" He asked as they began hurrying back to the ship.

"When I heard about the hostiles on the base, I thought backup was needed." She explained.

They reached the pier where the James was docked and all the land teams were returning back.

He saw the Captain approach his team. Noticing a rugged looking civilian with Captain Chandler's group.

"Why is Lieutenant Foster with you?" He heard Chandler ask sharply.

At the moment he didn't have an explanation to why she was with them. He glanced briefly at Kara who didn't give any answer either, she was looking down at her feet right now.

"I want you both in my office at 1600 hours." He registered the steely voice of Chandler and saw him aboard the ship. He shook his head as he glanced at Kara again, feeling frustrated by her.

He got to the deck and heard her following after him. He turned around and looked at her.

"You disobeyed a direct order from the Captain!"

"I saved your asses!" He heard her say in her defense. He had a plan and he didn't need her there.

"I had the situation under control." He stated angrily and got a small grunt out of her.

"You're part of my team. Everything you do, reflects on me." He said with a calmer voice. Hoping she would get it, but instead she seemed to be confused over his behavior.

She looked at him as she thought about his words. Not really understanding why he was so angry at her.

"Why are you so worked up about this?"

"I don't want to let him down." He answered honestly after a moment of silence.

She was puzzled over why he felt that way. At the moment it didn't matter career wise, who knew if they ever got back and what kind of a world would they be returning to? Even their punishment had been more like a slap on the wrist with the words "Don't do it again". In a normal world the consequences of their actions would've been more severe.

But then it struck her. This wasn't about their commanding officer. It was about the fact that he was her father.

"I didn't realize you cared that much.." She began saying. "I mean we haven't really discussed what we are." She tried to rectify her words but the damage was already done.

"I said I love you! And to me that means something." She heard his disappointed voice say and he left looking sad. She leaned against the hull of the ship and hit her head repeatedly backwards against the metal in frustration. The look on his face, the hurt in his eyes got to her as she felt her heart aching. He thought she hadn't really meant what she had said to him and it seemed he was completely head over heels for her if he cared what her father would think of him. Even if that father hadn't been the one to raise her.

Tom stepped inside the bridge where he noticed Mike looking rather pale, but his XO got up and gave him the report of how things were running on the ship.

"Chief Engineer took some shrapnel. I had Dr. Scott assist Doc Rios." He heard Mike explain and he understood why he wasn't his usual self.

"She going to be okay?" He asked worried.

"She'll be just fine. There was a larger piece that pierced her lower abdomen, just under the vest. It was rather touch and go, but she's going to be fine." Rachel entered to the bridge and Mike followed her like a hawk as he listened to her words.

"Doc Rios is tending to her minor injury on her leg as we speak." Rachel gave a faint smile to Mike.

"Tough as nails that one." Mike stated and Tom smiled at his comment.

"She or your wife?" Tom asked glancing briefly at Rachel.

"Both I suppose." Mike gave an awkward glance towards Rachel who didn't know how to react to such a appraisal.

They were interrupted when OOD Granderson informed them that Dr. Tophet needed to calibrate a equipment that was knocked over in the lab, and it would require time and the ship couldn't move due to the sensitive calibration process.

Before Rachel could even ask Granderson which equipment Dr. Tophet had said, she heard Lieutenant Mejia alert the Captain about another ship heading for the harbor.

Tom took a few steps as he placed himself on the CO's chair and took the radio in his hands "Vessel 21 miles southeast, Guantanamo Bay, this is U.S warship one-five-one.."

She stood in the middle of the bridge staring at Tom as he was doing his job and waiting for a reply.

"This is British Naval vessel HMS Suffolk hull number five-two-five, IMO call sign whiskey-echo-bravo-two-three-six."

She saw Mike hand Granderson a folder to confirm that the ship was who they were saying they were, but as she listened to the voice on the comm. It was familiar.

"None of us have been infected, but we're running low on food."

"We've been searching for weeks for a place to replenish and repair our radar.

"Confirmed sir." She noted Granderson's voice from behind her and saw Tom ponder over the situation. She thought about the voice she just had heard, could it be..?

"This is Commander Tom Chandler, Commanding Officer, USS Nathan James. We welcome you to Guantanamo Bay, although we wish you would've been here a few hours ago. We could've used the help." She heard Tom's friendly reply.

"I assure you that next time we will be there for you, should you choose to accept an association."

Kelly! It was Kelly speaking on the other end of the call and she was most certainly not a commanding officer of any British Naval Vessel. She felt baffled over her discovery.

"Well, we'll put some pot pies in the oven and some fish and chips in the fryer. Come on in." Tom ended the call and came down from his seat.

"I know that voice." Rachel said out loud and got a concerned look from both Tom and Mike.

They moved to have their conversation behind closed doors in the wardroom. She stood in front of both Mike and Tom.

"What exactly do you mean by you know that voice?" Mike asked glancing at her suspiciously.

"I'm almost certain that the voice we just heard belongs to Kelly Tophet. Quincy's wife. And she's not a commanding officer." She explained and saw the shared look between Tom and Mike.

"This equipment that got tipped over.." Mike began thinking.

"He's stalling us from leaving." Tom made the connection.

"Question is, who is it that is coming?" Mike wondered.

Rachel seated herself on a chair and couldn't believe that Quincy might have betrayed them.

"I'm guessing you didn't know about this." Tom said out loud as he walked around in the wardroom. Pondering their next move.

"No!" Rachel felt like shouting, this was the one thing she didn't know anything about. Quincy? Her partner for almost ten years. How could he? She kept thinking if there had been any signs she should have seen.

"I know he was against the idea of going on a secret mission and not sharing the information with others, but.." Rachel thought about the past few months and suddenly realized how naive she had been.

"What?" Mike asked as he saw the lights turn on inside of Rachel's head.

"I.. I thought it was rather strange that he suddenly was totally onboard with our mission. I expected at least some grumbling but there wasn't any." Rachel told them.

"We need to detain him!" Mike raised his voice and met Tom's thinking eyes.

"No. Not yet." Tom said.

"We act normally, we can't leave the harbor without them seeing us." Tom explained and Mike began thinking "You're right, they're already in radar range and it's broad daylight."

"Get Lieutenants Mejia, Green, Burk and Foster in here." Tom gave the order and Mike left the wardroom.

"I can't go to the lab." Rachel said in a state of shock and Tom went to pour a glass of water for her.

"You can stay in Medical, I'm sure Doc Rios has something for you to do there." Tom placed the half filled water glass in front of Rachel and she took it, drinking all the water immediately. He saw she was distraught about the betrayal done by Quincy but it seemed that his wife might be a captive on the vessel approaching them.

Standing beside the young Lieutenants who were discussing possible options, Tom glanced the map in front of him. The only other way out of the harbor was a narrow canal the Navy used to send frigates through.

"It's too shallow."

"For a DDG."

Tom listened as his crew members were discussing over the only other way out of Gitmo. Hearing that they had hit a bottleneck with the logistics.

"From what I heard, it's all gunked up with coral and rock." Tex came into the conversation, sitting slightly away from the group as he was assessing the situation.

Tom met the man's gaze, Mike had come in with him as well thinking he could be useful as they planned for their.. escape? Attack? He wasn't sure what they needed to plan for, but somehow he knew an exit strategy was what they needed.

The situation got more tense as Mike got the message through the comm that the ship was now at their sight. They were coming towards them at flank speed, he thought. Quincy's timeline of three to four hours had been extremely generous.

"I want that canal scouted." Tom stated and the group met his glare.

"And we need to take other precautions too."

"Lieutenant Burk, you'll be guarding Dr. Scott from now on. She will not leave your sight."

"Yes, sir." Burk said and Rachel shared a look with Tom. Feeling slightly better that she wouldn't be alone and the worried tone in Tom's voice hadn't gone unnoticed by her.

The room cleared and everyone left except the young Lieutenants he was going to have a chat with.

"Sir." He saw Danny straighten up in front of him.

"What happened today?"

"There was hostiles blocking our way out of the hospital. I came up with a plan, but before I could execute.." Danny started explaining.

"I heard about the hostiles on the base and left the ship, sir. Thought I was needed on the field. " Kara continued to explain.

"I aided Lieutenant Green, sir. But this was all on me, I did it against your order, sir." Kara took the blame.

"You had the situation under control?" Tom met Danny's eyes and he nodded.

"Lieutenant Foster, when were done with the situation we have now, you'll be cataloging everything we got from Gitmo.."

"But sir.." He heard her voice but he lifted his finger up to make a statement that he was still talking. She was a real firecracker and he wondered how she had been as a teen. She was a grownup now and still causing trouble.

"Following orders are what we do on this ship." Tom gave her a stern look and she nodded reluctantly.

"And right now Lieutenant Green is going be your protective detail."

"What?" Kara let out in wonder.

"Sir.." Danny began saying. "Are you sure it's a good idea? Lieutenant Benz or Bivas.."

"What did I just say?" Tom looked at the two.

"But why?" Kara detained herself and asked the obvious question, wondering why she was being guarded.

"Dr. Tophet knows you're immune. We don't know our enemy just yet, but we need to be prepared." Tom explained.

"Captain to the bridge." They heard through the comm and Captain Chandler left the room.

Danny let out a scoff as he heard the door close behind them.

"What?" Kara immediately felt irritated by Danny's behavior.

"I hope you can follow orders now." He stated sarcastically as he briefly met her glare, still feeling his blood boil at this woman. She was literally getting under his skin and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Well, it's you who's suppose to follow me." Kara met his tone with the same sarcasm and stared him down.

"We don't have time for this. We need to make a plan to scout the canal." Danny went to the door and opened it.

Kara stood there and looked at him with a scowl. She would have to move along, follow him.

"You coming?" Danny asked victoriously as it meant she would have to come with him.

Tom walked up to Rachel and Burk who waited on the narrow P-Way.

"It's the Russians." Tom said angrily.

Rachel opened her mouth a little, only to close it as she thought about the meaning of it all.

"That's how the Russians have been able to follow us." She then said and Tom briefly stopped in his tracks as he was walking back and forth.

"I'm going to meet with the Captain." Tom said.

"No! It's too dangerous." Rachel felt worry wash over her as she thought of him going out there again.

"We don't have much of a choice here. But I need something from you.." Tom met her eyes and she wondered what was it.

Rachel entered to the lab and glanced briefly around for Quincy. She wasn't sure how well she could act her role right now, but she hoped she wouldn't give away her fear. Somehow a man she had worked together with for years had become her greatest fear right now.

"There you are." Quincy came and she was startled, thinking immediately that he was onto her. That she knew about him.

"I.. I was helping in the Medical." She managed to force out the words. Noticing her voice shake a little.

Luckily for her Tom walked in and she felt she could breath, she wasn't alone with him.

"Who else has been working on a vaccine?" Tom asked sounding pretty angry.

"What, in the world? Everyone." She let out her memorized line. Feeling confident all of a sudden.

"What about the Russians? Were they close?" Tom continued his forceful way of finding out answers. She noticed Quincy glance the other way and realized that it was all true.

"I mean nobody was making any real progress and I hate to say it, but they're probably all dead." She explained.

"If somebody had the primordial strain of the virus, the stuff you found in the ice could they make a vaccine?" Tom calmed down a bit.

"If they had the right equipment and someone qualified to run it but they'd be months behind us."

"I need to borrow Dr. Tophet." Tom gave a look at Quincy.

"Can you spare him?"

"The world is ours for the taking."

"So the uniform we wear matters no more."

He walked out of the place where he had just met the Captain of the Russian ship. His words haunting in his mind. Thinking about his words. The world is ours.. Bodies piled up.. Turned country against country..

"Do you know what was going on in the world while you were playing your war games in the Arctic?"

"The virus spread like an invisible fire.." "bodies piled up sky-high."

"Turned country against country, brother against brother, governments against their own people."

"The world is not worth saving."

The world is not worth saving. The last words got to him. As he for a split second wondered if his decision to continue the mission was the right thing to do? What was left of the world they once knew? France was gone, several countries were without any leadership. There was a rogue Russian Captain patrolling the seas, what more could they expect to encounter? But as he thought about it, what kind of a life would it have been if he had given up? Not fight for his family, the families of his crewmen, and the future of humankind? It was a thought he pushed back in his mind. He was a fighter and he wouldn't bow in front of Ruskov, that was for sure.

They got back to the James from their meeting and he shared a look with Lieutenant Benz and Bivas before addressing to Quincy.

He let out the words in a foreign language all the while glaring at the scientist in front of him "Your game is done."

The devastation in his eyes was imminent as Quincy understood the situation for what it was.

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