BEHIND BARS
HIDEOUT
SOMEWHERE IN RIYADH
Liandra looked over at Mac, "I don't like this…" She looked around the cell to see if there was any way of removing the door lock. No luck.
"Neither do I." Mac replied quietly assessing their confinement area, "But they took our weapons, and we have no idea of where we are."
Harm and A.J. looked at each other. "Any ideas?" Harm asked. "Admiral?"
A.J. looked at him dourly in response. "I should have retired last year." The cell was about six feet across and six feet long – and spartan except for the addition of four bunks to sleep on.
Admiral Al-Fahid smiled grimly as he entered the cell. "Welcome to our accommodations. Forgive us…it is rather not to the lavish style of American accommodation." The animosity of the Saudi admiral towards his captives was palpable.
A.J. replied, "You call this…Joint Operations? Al-Fahid?"
"No, Admiral Chegwidden, I call this aggressive negotiations." The Saudi Admiral replied with no small amount of enmity. "For many years, the Americans have meddled in the affairs of the Arab world, and now this is payback. We will be turning you over to Al Qaeda if your Undersecretary of State does not negotiate the removal of all Americans from Saudi Arabia and provides funding for a million dollars to our defense treasury." He casually shrugged his shoulders. "And if the American government fails to pay…" he left the ominous threat hanging unsaid.
Mac rolled her eyes. "And guess where that is going to line the pockets of?" she said sarcastically.
"SILENCE WOMAN!" Admiral Al-Fahid snapped back at Mac, resisting the urge to hit her. "You Americans are so pathetic, you let your women speak nonsense. In Saudi Arabia, we know better."
Mac bristled, but kept her silence. Knowing her husband's temper, he would come charging into that stronghold hell-bent on wreaking vengeance if he knew she had been killed. After all, he was of the same culture who had spent WWII crashing their aircraft into U.S. warships. Suicidal charges meant nothing to him. The blue-button he had earned, was a result of a near-suicidal charge somewhere in the mountains of North Korea. Mac shivered at the thought of the admiral being enraged enough to charge a whole battalion of Al Qaeda terrorists. Her eyes welled up as she quietly thought about her husband and she turned away from the rest of the group to look at the wall of the cell. She knew how lost her husband would be without her and it would be like him to mount a suicidal charge at Al-Qaeda solo.
RIYADH/KHALED
TOWER
Animal kept his M-16A2 at the ready, when he heard a voice behind him. "Admiral…?" He nearly whirled around, dropping the M-16 and simultaneously reaching for his fighting knife, when he heard the rather sound of Colonel Hossein's voice. "I do not agree with Admiral Al-Fahid's dealings. I should like to assist you."
Animal raised his left eyebrow. "Well, Colonel, First thing I want to know is where's Al-Fahid's office?"
"Follow me." The Colonel motioned them towards a door located by the base of the air traffic control tower. "The admiral has an office in this building. We may find information about the admiral's whereabouts and dealings in his office. It is locked however."
Metalman grinned evilly. "That's easily rectified…" he said hefting his rifle meaningly. Wild Bill hefted his pack and withdrew a clayish brick.
"Naw, Metalman, I got somethin' better."
"What? You plannin' on taking the whole building down?"
"Naw, back in my days on the farm in Granton, we used this stuff, thanks to my Pappy in the Marines, to blow tree stumps. Only took a li'l bit. I'll jus' stick this li'l ol bit'a C4 to the door and we're gonna make whoopee!" Wild Bill grinned. "Any y'all dogies got some det cord and a detonator cap?"
Kimber smiled, holding up a fifteen foot length of det-cord and a det-cap. "Will this help?"
Wild Bill gave her a brilliant smile as he raised a thumbs-up and Metalman rolled his eyes.
2 minutes and a brilliant flash later, the door was removed by force from the building. It blew in about 30 feet. "Nice parabolic arc. Wild Bill!" Metalman grinned as the door cart-wheeled through the air blowing a hole through a wall with the impact. The Aces, M-16s at the ready, entered the building, each providing others cover as they one by one headed up the staircase.
BEHIND BARS
HIDEOUT
SOMEWHERE IN RIYADH
The food was gruel…not much better than what was given to the goats, of which seemed to be at least numbering fifty surrounding the building. Evidently whoever was holding them captive was trying to make it seem as if they were an Iraqi goat herder.
The captor noticed their looks of disgust at the food and said sarcastically in broken English "Many thousand pardons. Food not look good. But better food than death."
AJ looked at his officers "Well…" he said "Let's eat." Harm looked at the food as if it would leap up and throttle him. Mac sighed, as she dipped the eating utensil in the gruel, wishing that it would turn into bowl of Animal's famed sukiyaki repasts. She smiled to herself as she imagined biting into the pineapple rings and the strips of chicken and beef that floated around an absolutely delicious broth and the vegetables; the bok choy which established a nice little counterpoint to the meat. Animal had learned that recipe from his father. She could taste the sukiyaki already and she sighed wistfully. A cough brought her back to their current situation.
"Excuse me, Colonel?" AJ's voice interrupted her train of throught. "Is there something you'd like to share?"
"Sir, just missing my husband's meals. He cooks a really mean sukiyaki dish." Mac said wistfully imagining the meal in her mind. "I remember that dish from my stint in Okinawa, but since his family roots are from Kochi, he makes the dish differently from Okinawans."
Well, Lieutenant Colonel, keep that in mind, hold strength from it. Trust me, you'll get to taste that sukiyaki again." AJ said with a determined tone of voice, wishing inside that he believed in that as well. Hopefully the one person who wasn't captured up in this whole situation that the JAG lawyers found themselves in had the situation covered and would manage to get them out of it. At least that's what AJ hoped.
ZNN ON TV
JCS
PENTAGON
"This is not a joke, we have several members of an military envoy captured hostage. Admiral Chegwidden, Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, Commodore Harmon Rabb and Captain O'Hara." The bearded Arab terrorist speaking on the TV had an AK-47 prominently leaning against a nearby wall. "You will deliver $1,000,000.00 into our hands, they will be executed by beheading. You have 24 hours."
"Bin Laden's expecting a million dollars in 24 hours?" asked a vice admiral, "Is he nuts?"
"Bob, I think he already proved that significantly with his attack on the World Trade Center with the bomb in the parkade and with 9-11." Said the CNO. "Do we have a fix on his position?"
"No." came the deflating response. "We've never had any sort of fix on him since the September 11th attacks in 2001. Sources say he's in Pakistan, but even so, every transmission is a blank wall and no clues as to his whereabouts."
The Chief of Naval Operations swore clearly and loudly as the transmission from the bearded terrorist leader ended.
"We have to do something, sir." Another admiral stated. "We can't just leave our JAG in the hands of the enemy."
"No, we can't and we won't. What about the CIA asset in the region?"
"Evidently he's not in communication with the CIA, until further notice, we're going to have to assume he's been compromised." The admiral in charge of military intelligence informed the CNO of even more bad news.
The general consensus of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was that "We're screwed!"
"What happened to the asset's satellite phone?" the CNO asked.
"Evidently since he's been compromised, he's hiding and has turned off his satellite phone to make sure that Al Qaeda doesn't get a fix on his position. If he communicates, he's in even more problems." The admiral in charge of intelligence responded, his arms crossed, his eyebrows knotted in concentration, trying to think of something that the Chiefs of Staff could do.
Looking at the map, another admiral said. "We could send the USS Nimitz battlegroup in to strike known Al Qaeda targets in retaliation."
The CNO shook his head vehemently blowing up that idea. "We can't do that. If we escalate by attacking a member of the UN, we will have Russia raining nukes down on our head."
RIYADH/KHALED
TOWER
The door to Admiral Al-Fahid's office was kicked in – the SEAL team were covering the door – the Aces quickly rushed in, M-16s at the ready, and came face to face with…
"NOTHING!" Metalman shouted, a note of frustration in his voice. "DAMNIT!"
The room was empty, except for a few maps scattered on the desk and a computer system.
Kimber was the first to volunteer. "I can hack this computer and find out what's in there."
Animal said. "Good thing, go ahead. CAG."
Kimber grinned. "Ah…good thing, this is a Win95 OS, I can hack it inside of 10 seconds flat. All I need to find out is what the password is." The Aces scrambled around to find items around the office that could possibly serve as ideas for passwords. Kimber grinned about a minute and a half later. "Ah…got it."
"What was it." the Aces asked.
"Baklava."
Animal groaned.
"I've got a fix on their location." Kimber said. "Anybody remember to bring a thumb-drive?" Three hands thrust forward with thumb-drives. "Great." Kimber said, taking two of them. "Thanks." She opened up a window and threw some folders into the thumb-drive folder. "There we go." She affirmed the download was done quickly quickly and removed the thumb-drive from the USB port. She looked over at Animal "I have their GPS co-ordinates and I brought our GPS units along with us." Her smile was smug.
Animal looked at her admiringly. "Gee, Cap'n, you think of everything, don't you?"
"I try to, Admiral." She grinned at him, eerily similar to a female version of Metalman's wise-ass grin. Animal thought to himself that those two were hanging out too much with each other.
"Well, let's get out of here before we have company." Animal said as he grabbed his M-16A2 and ushered the rest of the group out, bringing up the rear. Retreating back to their cover (the C-141 Starlifter) the SEALs and the Aces pulled up the pilfered information on the laptop that the SEALs had brought with them. There was a comprehensive list of sites that the Saudi Liberation Front had in the Riyadh area.
Animal paced the Starlifter's floor not liking the situation one bit. There were too many places to hit at one time and if they hit one at a time, all the enemy needed was advance notice and the hostages could be moved. It seemed like an exercise in futility, but Animal wasn't about to give up on trying. His wife's life was on the line and every second counted. Turning to the SEAL Commander he asked, "Commander Wills, which one do you think is most likely?"
HIDEOUT
SOMEWHERE IN RIYADH
Animal looked coldly out at the structure that his wife, his friend and other members of the Judge Advocate General office were being held prisoner in. There seemed to be no activity at all at the building. This could mean one of two things. Either the terrorists had fled taking their hostages with them or the hostages could be inside…more than likely dead. If the terrorists had done anything to Mac, Animal swore to himself, that he would make the terrorists wish for a quick death. He had sworn to uphold his officer's oath, but that did not extend to extending mercy to those who would do injury to his wife.
Pulling the arming handle of the M-16A2 to jack a round into the chamber, he looked at the members of his team. "We're going in." he said shortly.
"Yes, sir." The team members had their weapons at the ready and deployed themselves around the door in a manner to take the building quickly. Kicking the door in, the unit entered the building. The room was empty.
"Check every square inch of it." Animal barked as he looked over at his friends. "Look under the rug to see if there's a trapdoor."
Wild Bill looked up and said, "Admiral, I found something. It looks like there's a trapdoor leading down into what appears to be a larger area."
"The bastards have gone to ground." Animal snarled looking down the length of corridor. "OK. Drop yourself in, we'll be coming down right after you. Cover us when you get down there."
Wild Bill lifted up the trapdoor, took his M-16 at the ready and dropped through the door. Rolling he came to his knees, his M-16 aimed down the corridor. The Aces and SEALs one-by-one dropped through the trap-door and took up positions beside him. Animal dropped last through the trap door into a crouch. "OK…clear." Wild Bill raised his fist up in the air to signify that the area was clear. The damned trapdoor led into a corridor.
The Aces, weapons aimed down the length of the corridor, headed down it.
(half an hour later)
"Does this corridor lead anywhere?" Metalman grumbled irritatedly. "The dust is doing wonders for my sinuses."
"Oh, quit'cher gripin'." Wild Bill snarled. "At least there's no one shootin' at us."
"Perish the thought." grumbled one of the other Aces.
They could hear voices speaking down at the far end of the corridor. The voices were Arabic. Animal drew his index finger across his throat in a cutting motion. That meant 'go silent'. The Aces and SEALs shut their mouths putting their weapons at the ready.
When they got to the end of the corridor they found a door. Animal motioned to Wild Bill who brought out a small bit of C4 and attached it to the door hinges. He also connected two detonators to the charges. They moved back through the tunnel about 400 meters. When Wild Bill twisted the switch in the detonator, the door blew in, startling the speakers, who took a few moments, fatal moments to reach for weapons. Animal's crew had their weapons at the ready and within seconds had taken the majority of the terrorists out.
Metalman had his Beretta at the head of a terrorist who was wounded, "I've got one that can talk still. He speaks passable English"
Animal looked at the terrorist with a predatory smile. "OK…"
"Where are the prisoners." Kimber asked.
"The prisoners were removed an hour ago." The terrorist replied, pain coloring his voice, as he sat slumped in the corner of the room. He knew that it would possibly go better with him if he co-operated. "But you will never find them."
"Ask him if he knows where they went." Animal growled, pulling out his combat knife, a USMC Ka-Bar, a gift from his wife and running it along the edge of his trousers. That drew the eyes of the terrorist towards the knife, a thin bead of sweat trickling down his forehead from his hairline. "Tell him my culture knows creative ways of using a knife to torture someone if they don't co-operate." Giving the terrorist an opaque stare – the terrorist unable to read any intent in the action.
"They were taken to a house. The map is on the table." The terrorist gasped out. The gut shot had taken a lot of energy out of him. He was a hopeless case. No doctor would be able to save him. But it had been said that the Americans were a merciful bunch. Perhaps they would take mercy on him and not kill him outright but grant him a martyr's death.
"And how long are they supposed to stay there before they are taken to Bin Laden." Animal snarled, no sympathy at all coloring his voice. Take his wife, would they? Kindness would not be forthcoming from him.
"There is no contact with Bin Laden." The terrorist gasped. "They will be…executed…at the…house …if the conditions are not met." Shaking fingers pointed out the location on the map.
"So they will not be moved from there?" Animal looked at the terrorist. He held up the knife and contemplated it, causing the terrorist to twist in fear.
"No." was the answer. Within a split-second Animal flipped the knife, and then threw it. A gasp from the rest of the Aces as they saw the butt of the Ka-Bar protruding from the throat of the terrorist, as the terrorist's eyes rolled up into the back of his head. The SEALs kept silent – they knew what the cost of their business entailed – sometimes it meant coldly killing the terrorist involved – it was worth the cost if it meant that one more innocent couldn't be harmed by the terrorist.
"What the-" Kimber gasped at Animal's cold-blooded execution of the terrorist.
"He had a gut shot, he wouldn't have survived." Animal responded coldly. "And I'm not about to drag Abdul the Butcher with us. Get the map. We're going to have to hurry." He stood up and strode over to the now dead terrorist, pulled out the Ka-Bar and wiped it clean on the fatigues of the dead terrorist.
"Yes, sir." Kimber said.
"Listen up…Aces." Animal said coldly. "These people kidnapped people we care about and love and they will kill the people we love if we do not act. They deserve NO mercy from us and they will get no mercy from me. Does anyone have a problem with that?"
"No, sir." was their unified response.