TBITC Chp. 43

Jack watched the water from the window looking out of the master bedroom of the two-story home he and Alex had purchased one month before. Juggling the hunt for Clavo Cruz, wedding plans and house hunting was a struggle but they made it work.

A joint surveillance operation between DEA, CIA and Department of Homeland Security SITU agents had spotted Clavo three days earlier in Bogota, Columbia. The team watched their target's every move and when it was clear he was staying put, Jack, Mike and Kenny were contacted. The three operators had wanted to be involved in the hunt for Clavo Cruz from the beginning, but the women in their lives had other ideas. They compromised that others would hunt for Clavo, but Jack and Mike had both put their foot down and said they would be the ones to kill Clavo.

Shortly after Natalia had decided to formally adopt Anya, Mike proposed and Alexx and Natalia were both dragging their warrior men from one store to another to pick out different things for the big day. After a couple of really bad crying jags from their women and dirty looks from most of their unit and the other CSI's the two men put the hunt for Clavo out of their minds and focused on wedding planning. But Jack still received daily progress reports from the lead agent on the surveillance team and he passed their reports on the Mike.

Jack turned from the window and watched his fiancée sleep. He'd gotten good at not waking her when he was restless. He, Mike and Ken were scheduled to fly to Columbia at 0700, just four short hours away. They were traveling incognito, as businessmen, and would meet up with the surveillance unit already in place. It would be difficult traveling without weapons, but they'd all done it before many times. Going into the bathroom, Jack turned on the shower, stripped and stepped under the water. As the water washed over him, he went over every aspect of the mission in his head.

000

Sam sat in his car seat in the back of Alexx's Mercedes SUV as he and his parents waited for his grandpa and uncles to arrive at the airfield. His stomach was in knots and he didn't want his daddy to go, but he knew that daddy was going to do his job and protect him and mommy. And he knew daddy was very good at his job because when the bad men had taken him from mommy, daddy and his uncles had come to rescue him. The rear door opened and Sam jerked out of his thoughts, then relaxed when he saw it was just daddy. Jack reached over, unbuckled him and picked him up. "Hey, bud. You ok?"

Sam's throat tightened and big tears welled in his eyes and he could only shake his head 'no'. Sam cried openly now as he saw the headlights of the other cars knew his daddy would be leaving soon. Jack just held him with one arm and rocked back and forth. Jack's other arm was around Alexx, who was fighting to keep her emotions in check.

"Hey Sam, can you hear me, bud?" Jack asked, even as he felt his son's tears on his neck. Jack felt Sam nod against him and sighed. This sucked, no two ways about it. "Ok, I want you to listen to me. Can you do that?" Another nod.

"Ok. I know you're scared and that's ok. Uncle Mike and Uncle Kenny are going with daddy. We back each other up. We'll do everything we can to…" Jack felt his own throat close and told himself to maintain his composure. "We'll do everything we can to come back to you and mommy and everyone else, ok?"

"Why you goin'?" Sam asked, pulling back and looking at his father. The look on his son's face was enough to make Jack scrub the mission and just drop a missile on Clavo from 5000 feet above.

"Daddy's going to make sure the job gets done right." Alexx said, taking Sam from Jack as the others walked up. Jack could see Natalia and Anya were just as reluctant to see Mike go as Sam and Alexx were for him to leave.

"Gentlemen," Horatio said in greeting.

Jack shook his father's hand. "Dad; thanks for coming."

"Wouldn't miss it."

They all turned as the Cessna Citation X executive jet that would carry the men to Bogata taxied closer. Anya threw her arms around Mike's neck and hugged him tightly. She leaned up and whispered, "Be safe, papa."

"I will."

The former Navy Seal reluctantly let go of his daughter and turned to his fiancée. Natalia smiled in an effort to keep the tears at bay. "You better say it."

Mike smiled tightly. "I will be safe. I will come back to you and our daughter. I will marry you."

Natalia hugged him and let the tears she'd been holding back fall. "You better."

Chlorinda and Pavel Delko hugged their son and wished him well, as did Eric and Calleigh. Calleigh hugged her brother as well. Normally, a covert operation wouldn't have that big send off, but this one had special circumstances. After finishing their goodbyes, the three warriors turned and walked the short distance to the plane. As they walked, each man seemed to change. Their warrior selves, dormant and waiting, emerged to take control. By the time they boarded the plane, their roles as fiancées, fathers, boyfriends, brothers and sons were no more. For the time being, until they arrived in Miami again, they were killers.

000

The safe house was a two story derelict building across the street from the sprawling mansion Clavo now called home. The man had everything he could want, it appeared, and didn't have to leave the property. "Any civilians inside that we know of?" Jack asked he, Mike and Ken stood in front of a cork board with photos and diagrams of Clavo's safehouse. Behind them was a scale model that they had used to plan the assault. It was decided among the three men on their flight from Miami to Bogata that the DEA, CIA and SITU personal already in place would be invited to join the assault if they so desired. They brought the number to trained shooters from three to fifteen. Once the men arrived in Bogata, they decided to conduct the assault by attacking from three directions. Even though Mike, Jack and Ken had never operated with any of the agents on the surveillance team, they'd all come from the same units in the military and had similar training.

"A gardener, two cooks and a maid. They've all been accounted for." The head of the surveillance unit told them

"Alright, get some shut eye. We go at 0400."

The group dispersed to find somewhere to catch a few short hours of sleep. The mission was a simple one. Once they hit the house, with the exception of the gardener, cooks and maid, the Special Forces shooters would kill everyone inside. Their orders were to bring Clavo back to the United States for trial, but "accidents" happened in combat all the time. Mike and Jack knew if they brought Clavo back to be tried for his crimes, Sam and Anya would be forced to relive what had been done to them when they were called to testify. And neither father was about to let that happen.

000

The covert operators, armed to the teeth and clad completely in black, moved through the night toward their assigned targets. Jack and Mike were on the team that would hit Clavo's bedroom. The word had been passed down that, barring extreme circumstances like Clavo escaping, he was Jack and Mike's alone. This hadn't caused as much friction as the two men thought it would. To a man the agents on the surveillance, now assault, team knew what they would do if Clavo had hurt their children the way he'd hurt Sam and Anya.

The dogs and guards around the compound were taken out by snipers just as the three assault teams breached the gates and sprinted to the main house. Two of the teams blew the front and rear doors and entered the house, while the third stayed outside in case anyone made it past the shooters inside. The team's made short work of any opposition they came across as Jack and Mike's team pushed through the house to the bedroom. Kenny was in command of the team on perimeter security.

They'd used flashbang distraction grenades upon entering the house and by the time they reached Clavo's bedroom on the second floor and kicked the door in, their target was sitting up in bed, a dazed look on his face. Jack and Mike had planned what they would say to him when they finally caught up with Clavo, but now that they finally had the man in their sights, words didn't seem appropriate. Bullets, however, seemed very much appropriate. The two men looked at each other, both thinking about their children and the other children the piece of human waste in front of them had hurt. Alexx's anguished face when Sam had been taken from them flashed before Jack's mind. As one, the two men turned and raised the MP5SD 9mm submachine guns they'd been issued for the operations.

Clavo, fully awake now, realized what was about to happen and attempted to beg for his life. "Wait! Wait, we can…"

But he never finished the sentence as he was thrown back onto the bed by a fusillade of 9mm bullets. Two hours later, Jack, Mike and Kenny were on a plane back to Miami. The three men slept the sleep of righteous as the jet passed over the Gulf of Mexico. A score had finally been settled.

000