Sorry for the confusion with the shoes, I guess I was going for the dramatic reveal in this chapter. If it makes you feel any better the team is just as confused to start off with...Hopefully it will make sense soon. Although to be honest I don't even know if what I imagined would work. But the thought of it amused me and the joke potential was there so please bear with me as I run (or more aptly swim) with it.

Also full disclosure that I started doing research about oxygen levels and all that good stuff for this chapter and then saw a bunch of math, chemistry and big words and my eyes glazed over. So if anyone actually knows about those things… Sorry in advance if I butchered it :)

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Adam was no longer amused with this. It had started off fun. Kind of like one of the war games they engaged in from time to time with other Omega teams. An opportunity to push their creativity and hone their skills in a controlled environment with low stakes. He had to admit he had enjoyed working through the prison break and coordinating it in real time. He had been slightly disappointed at their luck with the car and that they would have to play their the get out of jail free card … aka calling in Patricia to explain everything away. Sometimes it would be nice to have that kind of a safety net on some of their missions, but that probably would take some of the fun out of it too if he was honest with himself.

All in all It had been enjoyable, right up until the real guns were pointed at his operatives. Right up until he realized something wasn't right and that his team wasn't surrendering smoothly as they should have been. Jaz had been down on her knees but now was back up and fighting someone by the looks of things.

"Jaz what's going on?"

He gathered around the screen with Preach and McG trying to sort out the jumbled images from her body cam. Jaz's jerky struggles and restless movements made things more confusing. Where was Amir though? Why wasn't he doing something if she was being attacked. All they could see off her feed was the ring of police with their weapons drawn and pointed squarely at her. Strangely though the officers also looked as confused as he felt about the situation.

"Noah where is my footage?" Dalton asked impatiently.

"Amir, what are you doing?"Jaz's voice was tight and her anger easily recognized even through the comms. All of them had been on the receiving end of that tone at some point or another from the fiery sniper and had regretted it.

That was unexpected revelation though. Amir seemed to be the cause of whatever was happening. And Jaz was clearly not impressed with him.

"She isn't impressed with much he does so that doesn't exactly narrow things down much" McG muttered in response, only half joking.

Dalton grimaced, he hadn't realized he had voiced his thought process out loud. But he also couldnt deny that McG was right.

"News footage is up." Noah's voice distracted him and he hungrily turned to the extra monitors where Noah was expertly combining various news feeds that he had "borrowed" onto the screen.

Preach let out a low whistle as realization quickly set in of why exactly Jaz was so irate.

Oh boy. This was not good on so many levels. He wasn't sure exactly when he had lost control of this whole situation but somehow he now has one operative using the other as a human shield against dozens of armed officers.

Dalton leaned into the monitor, tracking the movement of the pair as they inched backwards away from the police. What was Amir doing? Clearly there was nowhere to go.

McG questioned "Is he thinking what I think he's thinking…" pointing to the river on the map in front of them.

Dalton knows in an instant that McG is 's exactly what their desperate teammate was planning. He doesn't need the confirmation in their coms listening to Amir and Jaz snipe at each other.

But this has gone far enough and it's time to pull the plug.

"Amir… Don't do anything stupid….." But before he can finish his sentence he watches the pair plunge over the side

… Like that" he grits out, shaking his head feeling his blood pressure rise.

Shit this was a mess.

Preach waited a beat and then ever the calm one tried to keep things in perspective "one might say stupidity is relative"

"I think we can label this one pretty objectively" he said sarcastically.

But he took the point, and took a deep breath to try to center himself and find some perspective on the situation. He rubbed a hand slowly down over his beard releasing some of the tension in his face before he called out to them

"Amir… Jaz?"

Soft static met his queries.

"Jaz… Amir…. Report"

"Our earwigs are good, but even they probably didn't stay in with that kind of dive" Preach commented reassuringly.

Dalton's mouth twisted, hoping the man was right.

"Noah get me all the footage possible let's see if we can figure out where they came up". He ignored the voice in the back of his head that added dubiously if they come up.

There was silence again as they all scanned the screens looking for any sign of their teammates breaking the surface. He was happy now for the excessive media response as there were plenty of camera angles to view and spotlights were being shone in all directions illuminating the dark water as if for their benefit.

After several minutes he grew tired of watching the still water and turned his attention to the police movement. They were in the same boat as his team staring at the water just waiting for any signs of life.

"There" Preach pointed to one of the feeds. "Something splashed." The police had clearly seen it too as their activity increased and shifted down stream towards that area.

But when there were no further signs of activity his frustration and concern began to mount again. It could have been a fish for all they knew. Were there even fish in that channel. Probably not. He shook his head. Why was he even thinking about this. His brain was completely scattered. He needed to get himself back in the game.

"Wait a minute…" Hannah's voice broke him out of his self recrimination.

"What?" he demanded impatiently.

"They didn't.." Noah sounded aghast responding to whatever Hannah was showing him.

She chuckled "I think they did"

"How did you even catch that"

"Lucky I guess, Ok lets pan out and track that direction"

"Where are they going"

He looked incredulously at McG and Preach. They looked as confused as he was.

"Hannah" he tried to catch her attention, but her and Noah were lost in their excitement and seemed to have forgotten they were even on the line.

"Guys!" ….. his frustration had it coming out in a slightly louder growl than he intended. But still it wasn't their fault and he tried to soften his next words "care to share with the class?"

"Sorry captain" Hannah responded contritely, although it still sounded like she was trying hard not to laugh.

"What is so funny" he was taking it as a good sign that they were so amused.

"Sorry, here look" Noah cleared the monitors remotely and pulled up one feed with video footage of the channel on the other side of the bridge. He zoomed it in for them until they could see random bits of garbage floating in the water. Adam watched for a few seconds, seeing floating banana peels, discarded wrappers, old shoes and wrinkled plastic bags floating in the lovely parisian waters but nothing that indicated any signs of Jaz or Amir.

"And what am I looking at exactly…" fighting to keep the impatience from creeping back into his voice. He had had enough of being in the dark when it came to his team.

Hannah's voice rushed to explain, perhaps sensing he was at the end of his rope "the current is flowing this way" an arrow magically appeared on their screen as someone in the DIA illustrated for them. "And if you look here…" two circles appeared on their screens "you can see that these shoe are moving that way" another arrow pointed the opposite direction of the first one. "So the shoes are going upstream meaning….

"That someone is propelling them" he finished her explanation with a smile.

He had to admit it was a pretty genius catch. There was so much crap in that water. A couple shoes didn't look out of place unless you were really looking. He was always impressed by what the great analytical minds at the DIA could figure out and this was certainly no exception.

McG broke in "So let me get this straight, they are floating underneath the surface and what, breathing through the shoe?" he said dubiously

"Well not through the shoe per say" Noah eagerly launched into an explanation "we did some quick math and in theory a Men's size 11 could hold around 6 cubic feet of oxygen which would get you around 120 breaths give or take. There probably wouldn't be a perfect seal so you might get a little more and you could get some extra breaths in before the C02 levels got too high."

There was silence for a second as everyone digested the information overload before McG snickered "Well that's a bit generous on the shoe size for Amir so you might need to recalculate"

Then his eyes grew wide thinking the implications through further. "So wait Jaz is breathing out of Amir's shoe…" He turned to Preach, eyes gleaming "First the plunge, now this….100 bucks she kills him in his sleep when we get back."

"You are assuming he even makes it back" Preach responded with a grin "and I'm not worried about the French Police."

Dalton shot them a withering glare, but the corners of this lips told a different story as they fought to stay straight. He could find a little humour in the situation now that he knew the pair had survived the drop but he still wasn't happy with the situation.

"Alright let's work on some new exfil routes for when they make contact"

"Ah yeah, about that. They are going to need to be pretty creative" Noah says hesitantly.

"Noah…."He groans knowing he won't like this. Their monitors quickly flash up the latest news story that the DIA has found and Dalton lifts his head skywards in exasperation when he sees his sniper's picture prominently displayed as wanted in connection to known terrorist Hamid Khedani.

A small part of him is actually kind of impressed. They already have video footage of Jaz and Amir walking arm in arm at the market prior to Amir's arrest as well as a still frame of her on her knees next to Amir on the bridge. Where was this level of competency during the original mission when they almost screwed everything up with their ill timed raid of the terrorist compound?

"Yes, who'd have thought they could put two and two together" Patricia's voice came back on the line, evidently having returned from being briefed by the French on Khedani's escape, and apparently reading her team leader's mind. He was used to her doing that, it wasn't the first time and probably wouldn't be the last.

She continued on "Dalton sometimes you are too good at your job. In the pursuit of protecting one terrorist cover identity you somehow managed to create a second for Sgt. Khan"

Dalton 's teeth pulled at his bottom lip as he considered the somewhat facetious compliment and veiled reprimand all in one. He knew he was lucky that she gave him the latitude that she did but even he couldn't deny this mission had gone off the rails. Thankfully their previous history counted for a lot and he knew he could rely on her to run interference until he had things back on track.

"I guess we can talk about a raise for exceeding expectations when we all get back" He shot back wryly.

He could have sworn he heard a slight huff that sounded suspiciously like a smothered laugh before she responded as dryly as ever "don't hold your breath."

He turned away from the screens and refocused on the map in front of him. Now how exactly were they going to smuggle out two highly publicized terrorists from Paris?