Chapter 8

Colonel O'Neill paused for a few seconds before standing and continuing, hands in his pockets.

"However, Agent Gibbs, this is a military operation, as I'm sure you understand. Therefore I will be the one running the show. I need to know now if that will be a problem for you"

"No sir". Gibbs didn't need much time to answer that. He was confident in his abilities and knew he a was a very good lead agent, but even with all his military training he wasn't a strategist, and planning an assault was not his thing. The fact that he came to respect and even trust O'Neill in such a short time (Sam's previously expressed opinions of her CO probably contributed to that, he thought) made his answer even easier.

"Good. Here's how things stand. I spoke to General Hammond while you were away; he agreed that the warehouse Carter mentioned looks like our most likely bet. The SGC is keeping an eye, well, satellite, on it - there are fourteen people inside and around at the moment. We'll see it soon for ourselves in MTAC anyway. SGs 5 and 13 are already airborne, they'll be here shortly. You might want to let the people at the gates know about that. A Major Davis from the Pentagon is giving them a lift from the airport and he'll remain here to coordinate from MTAC. We'll be twelve, which is more than enough. Carter, you did tell Daniel and Abby to stop searching for that Jerry character, didn't you?"

"Yes sir"

"Then where is our resident archeologist?"

"Well, sir, last I heard they were discussing the symbolism of specific tattoos…"

"Ah" both O'Neill and Gibbs smirked.

…..

Capturing the two men guarding Susie Kent was indeed "a piece of cake", as O'Neill had put it.

The first one had his back to the door and his gun holstered, obviously expecting his partner to be the one entering. "All done?" "Yes you are" Tony dangled the handcuffs in front of his face.

Said partner was outside facing a tree, apparently answering nature's call. His hands were nowhere near his gun when he heard the click of the safety being lifted. Ziva just pursed her lips, eyes sweeping over the kidnapper and stopping at the same area his hands were. "It is rather cold outside, is it not?" she smiled sweetly before disarming and handcuffing him.

They found the girl in a decent shape, dirty and scared but not injured. Half an hour later she was on her way to the hospital to be checked up and the two unfortunate bad guys in the local police's custody.

"OK, what now?" Ziva was restless, balancing from one foot to the other.

"Now we go home, get some sleep…" Tony mock-sniffed his arm-pit "...take a shower"

"So what, we're just going to drop this?"

"There's nothing to drop, Ziva, we did our part. You heard the boss" McGee warned, albeit somehow half-heartedly.

"Yes, I have heard him. I have also heard Director Shepard saying something similar once. And look how good that turned out!"

"That's not fair Ziva!" Tony couldn't believe she would drag that up again.

"Life is not fair Tony. And neither is death. We cannot stay behind while Gibbs is out there, doing God knows what with those people"

"He can take care of himself quite aptly, Ziva, and besides, 'those people' are not some rookies. They seem to be pretty good at what they're doing"

"I don't care how good they are!" she almost yelled. "They do not care about Gibbs, none of them would put their lives on the line to save him. I… we would!"

Both men were silent. "Tony?" McGee turned to his partner.

"I don't know, Probie, this is something we should each decide for ourselves".

He looked at Ziva "I'll admit you do have a point. However, you do realize we could make things much worse by showing up in the middle of a fire-fight? Without our presence previously known?"

"We would not just jump in there Tony! We could…assess the situation from a relative distance first and take it from there"

"McGee, what do you say?" Tony was not convinced.

"I guess we could see how things look, from a relative distance, I mean"

Ziva threw her arms sideways "See, even McGee agrees. So, you're in or out, Tony?"

He couldn't believe he was going to go along with this, and didn't even want to think about his reasons. It was not because he was worried about Gibbs' safety, and not even because Ziva was kind of forcing his hand. No, it was strictly because going at the warehouse made sense, right?

"Let's go"

…..

Sixteen people stood in front of the large screen in MTAC, eight of them having just arrived.

"Director Vance, Agent Gibbs – Major Paul Davis, our Pentagon liaison, Colonel Dixon, SG-13, Major Castleman, SG-5 and their teams"

Vance greeted them and kept behind, aware he wasn't going to have an active role in this. Gibbs nodded to each of the men, noting the SG teams' full battle gear, complete with P90s, night-vision goggles and some strange shaped objects he assumed were weapons.

The warehouse was up on the screen, an infrared image on the right and what Gibbs assumed it was some sort of a thermal scan on the left, the people inside and around the building visible as reddish spots.

O'Neill looked focused, no more slouching posture and seemingly bored attitude. "Getting into battle mode". They all looked different, Gibbs thought, Sam included, and he wasn't referring only to the black BDUs and gear. He also noticed how every person in the room, including the other colonel deferred to O'Neill, his role as the leader apparently implicit. He had already gone through the assault plan once, now summing up for clarity.

"The idea is to not let Bitner and whoever else is inside escape again. As you all know, last time they had a ship in orbit to pick them up. Now, as far as Carter's been able to determine there's no ship, but it might be well hidden. Or they could employ other means of getting away, they can be quite resourceful. So we have to take out the goons on the outside without those inside hearing or seeing a thing. That means not even zats, unless of course there's no other way. We do want these sons-of-bitches but not at the expense of safety. Agent Gibbs, you'll take position here" pointing to a slightly elevated area quite a distance away, to the left of the building "and take out as many as you can. It's the only proper spot for sniping, so the rest of them we'll have to take out by hand. Dixon, have SG-13 spread on the right side, advance towards the building when we've finished with those on the outside. See that no one can get through, don't leave blind spots. Castleman, same thing for SG-5, you take the left side; since there're only three of you SG-1 will spread a bit in your direction. We'll take the front; no entrances in the back, only these three – sides and front. Blow the locks, we go in all at once. Once inside, we'll have to move fast, not give them time to split or blow us up. Davis will be watching from here. Questions? Okay, helo's waiting. Move out!"

…..

The flight went smoothly, the camaraderie and light banter between the Air Force and Marine teams refreshing, Gibbs thought. The members of SG-5 were keeping more to themselves, having just lost a team member obviously weighing on them, although he heard Lieutenant Kent had joined the team only about a month ago.

Gibbs was also clad in black now, carrying his own service weapon and one of those 'zat' things beside his carefully packed sniper's rifle. Sam joined him, dragging a box to sit on it.

"So I hear your people made the arrests and got the girl. That's a really good job"

"Yeah, they're really good agents" he sounded proud. "I spoke to Tony a while back, they were heading home"

"That's good, it's been a very long day. And it's not over yet"

Right on cue, the pilot announced they were landing, a good distance from the warehouse. He squeezed her hand, about the only outward sign of affection they could afford in this situation. "I'll be careful Jethro, no worries. See you later" she smiled at him and went to join her team, preparing to disembark.

…..

Gibbs laid face down on top of the ridge, a few small bushes covering him and making him invisible to everyone, like a silent but lethal ghost waiting to strike.

"In position" he announced quietly, waiting for the others to take their places and get this show going. This still felt frighteningly familiar to him, laying in waiting for his cue to shoot, the steady slow breathing, the unnatural calmness and unidirectional focus he learned to achieve right before that slight movement of his finger that would end another life.

His earphone came to life, the words short and low.

"This is SG-1 niner, we're in position. Dixon, Castleman?"

"Same here, SG-13 in place"

"SG-5 good to go sir"

"Two targets acquired, the rest not visible" Gibbs filled them in.

"We see one, we'll take him" Dixon announced.

"Fine. Castleman?"

"None here"

O'Neill signaled to Teal'c towards the two guards in front of them. They had to coordinate their attack to the second so no one had enough time to make a noise.

"Hold…Go!"

He stood abruptly from his cover behind the bushes, reaching his target in seconds. With the corner of his eyes he saw another go down to his left, probably Gibbs' first mark. Less than 20 seconds since the order was issued, no guards remained on the outside of the warehouse.

"Davis?"

"Nine inside, no one else sir"

"Good. Move forward"

"Wait, colonel" Davis' urgent voice came back in the earphones.

"What?"

"You have three bogeys about 200 yards behind you, just showed up on the screen. What the… Something's wrong with the image, all life signs are fading… shit! Sorry sir, we just lost transmission from the thermal scanner"

"What do you mean Davis? What the hell happened? Is this connected to our three new additions?"

"I don't think so sir. Some sort of jamming device seems to have been activated from inside the warehouse"

"Crap! They made us, and we're blind. Castleman, have SG-5 go back and take care of the bogeys. Gibbs, you cover the left entrance from there, nobody leaves. Got it?"

"Yes sir"

"Got it O'Neill"

"Move in now!"