Chapter 13
After Smith made that declaration time seems to slow down for Kate. Everyone was preparing. However, she just sat there almost in a catatonic state. Three hours has passed when Smith approaches the sitting Kate. She looks lost in her thoughts.
"Kate?" He asks then gently shook her.
Kate slowly looks at him.
"Kate the surgery is over…He is resting. He made it fine." Smith says smiling.
Kate nods then is directed to his recovery room. All this time she was eerily silent. Smith guides her then she steps into the room.
Rick was covered with a white sheet, tubes were entering his arms and bags were hanging near him. Wires were leading away from him to the monitoring equipment. The same nurse as before was attending him. She is checking his blood pressure. She notices that she has company she turns to Kate.
"He did very well with the surgery. He might possibly be at 100% sooner than we thought." She replies to the unvoiced question.
Kate finally found her voice. Though, it was overcome with emotions. It was a mixture of grief and relief.
"I'm glad that he came through it Okay." She says as she continues to gaze at him.
She reaches slowly to that his hand then whispers something only Rick could hear. She straightens up the turns toward the door as Leader and Smith enters.
"Kate we need to have everything tactical ready in 5 minutes and wheels up in 10." Smith says.
Kate nods with a grim determination. Her guys are in trouble she would be there for them.
"Kate I need to make sure that you are up for this? There is no telling how this will work out even with the way we are trained." Smith says as if he was allowing Kate an out.
Kate looks at him and nods again with a steely look to her eye. She needs no out.
"We have intel that the two members of your team are being held at an old abandoned warehouse in the Bronx. You need to know that within the last 24 hours that they have been held hostage we could be facing anything including their murders." Leader reports.
"Well then let's get going." Kate responds.
Kate looks back at Castle's sleeping body one last time not knowing if she will be back to see him again. Kate follows Smith to the ready room. There she is issued a Glock 23 .40 caliber handgun, an H&K MP7 with 4 magazines plus various flash bang grenades and other things like knives. She checks over the weapons and finds that they are ready. Changing into black fatigues, she slips into a Kevlar vest and looks herself over. She's ready. They load up into a blackened Yukon and leave. They speed through the city streets.
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Within 20 minutes they are alongside the other tactical team that had been on the surveillance detail. They have been watching the warehouse in an identical black Yukon.
"Status report." Leader asks.
"Status unchanged target remains with two friendlies." the observer reports.
Leader thinks for a second before he assigns his men going through each of their skills. He divides the 6 men from the second team into 3 men teams. The first 3 man team will take the role of being his sniper team designated Bravo team 1. The second three will be part of the rooftop team and if needed they will be the ones to repel down to the side of the warehouse and join in on the op designated Bravo team 2. That leaves himself, Smith, Kate and another operative. Deciding they will be the ones through the doors first Leader explains the plan.
"We, hopefully, will have the element of surprise on our side. Intel tells us that the target went into the warehouse 6 hours ago and has not left." Leader says.
"We could be facing anything. This target would stop at nothing to kill the hostages." Smith says as he faces with member of the breaching team then continues. "We also need to consider that the target might be forced into a corner with no way of escaping and have the place rigged to come crumbling down around us."
Kate shudders at that statement.
"Smith don't you think that's a little extreme?" Kate asks.
"Kate we are trained to expect the worst and hope that it never happens." He replies.
Leader finishes by explaining each of their roles in the op. He hopes that this raw recruit is up for this challenge.
"Smith and I will take the lead sweeping the main entry to the warehouse. Kate, you and Phil next you will take up a reserve position behind us. After we clear the entry way our team will conduct a room to room search for the target. Kate, you and Phil will head directly to where we believe your team members are being held." Leader points out.
Leader picks up the thermal imagining touchpad and he shows her exactly her team is being held. She looks intently at the image and looks back to Smith who has a copy of the blueprints for the warehouse on his tablet. He shows Kate and Phil exactly where they are inside the warehouse.
With the plan in place, Leader looks to the other team next to him and nods.
"Bravo Team you will use TAC-2 for this op. Smith and I will be monitoring Kate and Phil. We will be on TAC-5. If a situation arises everyone needs to use TAC 4. Is everyone ready?" Leader asks.
Everyone nods. They exit the Yukon's and stealthy move to the east side of the warehouse. Finding the main entry sliding door partially open they stop and Smith switches to TAC-2.
"Bravo teams 1 & 2 are you in position?" Smith asks.
A crackle over the secure channel is heard.
"Roger, standing by." Bravo team 1 reports then followed by second.
"Bravo team 2 affirmative." They respond.
"We are going in." Smith replies.
Smith's team breaches the partially open door and are clearing rooms quickly. Smith and Phil take the left side while Leader and Kate take the right. Separated for about 3 minutes they meet at the end of the warehouse.
"All clear…?" whispers Smith.
Both Leader and Kate nod yes.
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Tyson has been watching their every move. He has had enough. The cameras on the warehouse opposite roof had picked out the snipers along with the other team ready to vault over the wall. They were poised to join in when the word is given.
"Did they not think I would anticipate their every move?" He asks himself as he realizes he is way out manned.
He needs to do a strategic retreat. Tyson snarls.
"You've won this round Beckett but the war still continues" Tyson drops into maniacal laughter as he presses the button to bring down the building. He screams in frustration as the building stood.
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"Leader we caught an incoming signal. It was blocked and tracing commencing. Having teams sweep for hidden explosives." Bravo two reports.
"Good work heading to target now." Leader says.
He knew bringing that jamming equipment and blocking the landlines plus cable was a good idea.
In the silence that filled the area Kate heard the faint sounds of screaming. Tapping Leader on the shoulder, she held up 2 fingers and pointed to where the screams were coming. He understood and then they all moved to the sounds. Entering what could have been an office area complete with old dusty cubicles they hastily cleared them as they moved. With the screams getting louder, they hold up right outside a large steel door.
Smith checks for any trip wires that could possibly be in place to set off an explosive. Finding one across the lower door sill, he follows the wire to the source of the explosive. It was a small block of C-4. It would have taken out all of them. He carefully removes the detonator. Giving the all clear hand signal they open the steel door then toss in a flash bang grenade and enter. Leader cringes at what he sees inside the room. Smith follows then gasps at what he sees. There were at least 100 rats. They all appear to be dead. In the center of the room were the two hostages tied to the bolted down chairs. They had two black bags covering their heads. The wounds were horrific.
Kate is the third person to enter. She almost breaks down right there. She pulls it together. They all quickly move to Ryan and Espo. Leader is checking Ryan for a pulse while at the same time tossing dead rats away from Ryan's legs and stomach area.
Ryan is barely breathing and his pulse is almost non-existent. Kate cuts the zip ties away from Ryan and removes the black bags. Smith and Phil take care of Espo's. Kate moves to check out Espo. He has the same amount of cuts as Ryan. She notices he has been shot twice both in each thigh but his left thigh looks like the skin is just about exposing the bone. It could have been from the rats eating his flesh. But thinks otherwise.
Espo shows no signs of life. Smith tells the team...
"We need to move right now if we are going to have any chance at saving him." He orders.
Kate and Smith bring Espo to standing and shoulder each of his arms and drag him out of the room. Leader and Phil take Ryan and they bug out quickly. Smith calls Bravo team 2 and has them sweep the office area they past on the way in for the target. Getting back to the Yukon, they spare no time getting them loaded into the SUV.
"Medical needs to be ready for two patients." Leader barks into the handset.
"Medical is ready, Leader." the voice replies.
"ETA 10 minutes out" Leader responds.
"Roger Leader Medical standing by." The voice affirms.
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Arriving at the warehouse Bravo teams finds the targets base of operation. After a complete search, they find no evidence that he is still there. They confiscate all materials he had left behind along with 50 pounds of C-4 high explosive. They were right to be cautious. All teams return to their Yukon then left.
Within 20 minutes they are back at their base sifting through the materials they found.
"We need to get Ryan stable." Kate urges as she watches both her team members exit the Yukon.
"Kate don't worry we have the best team working on him right now." Smith reassures her.
While the first team gets Ryan taken care of the second team is working frantically to resuscitate Esposito. Kate looks at their efforts concerned. Within seconds, they have administered adrenalin and shocked him 3 times with no results. It's then when they stop and the nurse checks for his pulse.
"I have a very faint pulse. It's weak but there." She screams.
Without wasting any time, they roll him into the surgical room and get him prepped for surgery. They need to repair his gunshot wound first so blood loss will no longer be a factor.
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4 hours later the doctors had repaired the damage inflicted to both patients. They are optimistic about Esposito. His surgery went off without any complications. He was still critical but stable considering what he went through. Ryan was in the recovery room and fared a little better then Espo. The flesh on his pinky and ring finger had been removed by the rats and those two fingers needed to be amputated at the second knuckle. His cuts had been stitched and dressed. They were both checked for rabies and any type of blood disorder. The results were negative.
"Smith did you find who did this to them?" Kate asks.
"Teams are still out after that trace signal. I do not expect any results. There were signs the target was present until we arrived. We confiscated many things including recordings of you." Smith replies.
"Smith I need to tell you something concerning this op." She said reluctantly.
Smith walks over to Leader as they head to the ready room where all the confiscated materials were located.
"Smith I have intel on who might be the person responsible for taking Ryan and Esposito and made the attempt on Rick's life." Kate states.
Smith's jaw drops...