The Nathan James
Rachel was practically tied to Slattery's side. It was nerve wracking not being able to go get the seeds herself, but they already had enough risk on this mission. There was no reason to put her in the middle of danger and possibly come out without the seeds or their scientist needed to help use those seeds to help end global hunger. Slattery made sure though she knew exactly what was going on, by keeping her by his side.
When they came into the CIC, Rachel breathed a little differently. She had spent so much time in here working on the ways to make the world work again. It was different now, but they were practically in the same position.
"Lieutenant Granderson, an ETA on sunshine." He said as loped through the room.
Alisha went right to work getting him that information. "Sunshine, Navy Spear, request updated ETA to Wendy,"
While things like Wendy seemed like odd terms, Rachel actually understood most of it. They were making sure that the helicopter was where it was supposed to be. And that everything would be going alright. Rachel held her breath.
"Copy," Alisha said as she looked a little less than pleased with the information. She looked to Slattery and Rachel who were both anxious for the news. "Sunshine's twenty minutes outside of Oran, Algeria, sir. No sign of hostiles,"
Rachel let out the breath that she'd been holding and looked to Slattery, "So twenty minutes?"
He nodded. "That's what the fine lady said, twenty minutes,"
Slattery had a few more things to do in the CIC, mainly to make sure that all the guns were back online. And Kara informed him that they were indeed all operational again. It was something to be on this ship again. To be so in place and yet to be constantly reminded that it was kind of a place that she didn't belong.
Under normal circumstances, she would never be here. But then again, nothing anymore was ever a normal circumstance. It hadn't been for over two years. They were trying to get back the world they had climbed out of, but who knew if that world would ever truly be back? It never seemed to stay for very long.
And then of course, there was the battle damage from Omar's missiles. Omar, so far as anyone could tell her a thug of the region who had made a name for himself, but now was stealing basically priceless seeds from the global seed bank. None of the other seed banks had had enough of what the world needed to make it worth it. These were necessary.
"Sir, engineering reports damage at Gibraltar was more severe than initial DC estimates suggested. Hull tech's on the scene, still welding a patch in place,"
"Burning fuel we don't have carrying that drag," Slattery thought out loud.
And to think that so much fuel had been spent on her journey to the strait to begin with. It was maybe foolish of her to insist on being here, but she was here now. What was done was done and now she had to live with the strange mix of guilt by herself. If this all went to shit, well, she would have a lot to repent for.
Oran, Algeria
"Oran hasn't seen a westerner in over a year," Sasha told the group.
Tex laughed, "So all of us, we're going to just fit right in,"
She shot Tex a look and took Kandie, as she adjusted her headscarf and pulled away from the group. He went with Wolf, trying to find Mahmoud's family. They all carried pictures of him as they went in duos trying to find any trace of Mahmoud in the city. It wasn't going to be easy. Even though they had a large group, they were covering a lot of ground.
"Mahmoud Zaddam," Wolf asked people on the street. None of them seemed to recognize his face or his name. And it wasn't like a lot of them were going to speak English. Thankfully, they had all been immersed in a crash course on the language and they all tried to speak it as much as they could to each other. It wasn't easy, but it turned out to be pretty fascinating.
When they had a minute, Wolf took Tex to the side, "You had any idea that Rachel and Ravi were coming?"
He shook his head, "Believe you me, I would have tried to talk her out of it. She was doing important work in St. Louis. Then again, Sasha told me that there was rioting and the president was having trouble. Maybe this was an insurance policy thing. Put his most valued scientist aboard the mission,"
"You've been thinking about this," Wolf grinned at him.
Tex huffed. "Of course, I have man," He said, kicking a rock out of his way, "That's my girl. Hell, that's your girl too. I just…" He looked out and blew out a puff of air, like he was deflating, "I just want them to be safe."
Wolf understood. The conversation was done. They were in a hard place making hard choices. They were trying to save the world and none of that was easy. He clapped a hand on Tex's shoulder and pushed them back into the city where he continued to questions residents about Mahmoud.
They were having zero luck. People seemed scared of them. It made sense. They didn't exactly look like they belonged. But he also had a feeling that people didn't exactly get questioned on the street that often and when they didn't have answers, they were probably scared of what kind of repercussions could be brought. It made sense. That all slung guns around them. It wasn't exactly rocket science to believe that a man with a gun and a quick temper who didn't like an answer would use it in retribution.
"Vulture, rally on me," Sasha said into the radio, "Got a lock on Mahmoud's neighborhood."
So that's exactly where they went. They went to Sasha and Kandie and hoped that they wouldn't be too late, getting to Mahmoud's family. Hopefully this meant getting the seeds and getting out of there without running into Omar or his men again.
They searched the neighborhood with more discretion, no asking people where Mahmoud could be. But instead Sasha seemed to have an instinctual feeling and kept going in directions that made little sense to him. He was not the leader on this one and he didn't need to be. He just wished it could be simpler.
Finding these seeds, they were precious and why they were in Algeria in the first place. He knew that Mahmoud had done them a great service, keeping them so safe, but it also meant that they had to further their search.
Everyone stopped, mainly because Sasha stopped and hid by the wall.
"Omar's already here,"
"Well, damn," Tex said under his breath. He tried not to immediately go for a weapon, but had apparently failed in that quest, because he felt Wolf put a hand on his. He looked down to see that he had practically already drawn his pistol.
"And there's his ride," She said, further looking toward a helicopter that was parked in the middle of the square around them. That meant that if he got the seeds, they'd be screwed. He'd be out of there in no time flat.
"Wolf, Green, up top," Sasha said, giving people positions, "Azima, Burke bring up the rear. And Tex, Fletch, you're with me." She moved quickly and silently. He was impressed that even with the bustle going on around them that they could do that. He never said any of that, simply followed her like he followed Rachel. They both knew their stuff.
"Bravo has a clear shot over,"
"Bravo you have green light, over,"
And things inside went fubar. Danny didn't have the shot anymore. So they had to wait. And the longer that they waited, the longer they would look out of place. Tex got nervous waiting. He always did.
"Things are going south, take the shot,"
But they didn't hear a gunshot. What's more, they heard the slice of some sort of sharp blade and then nothing. And then the worse news, that Omar had the seeds and he had some buddies with him. That made getting the seeds harder. They weren't going to get them here without a scene and being americans here, well, it wouldn't exactly be the easiest scene to cover up.
"Charlie on the move, heading northeast to intercept," Burke called for him and Azima. Wolf and Danny were doing the same thing, trying to make an intercept. He, Fletcher, and Sasha started on foot to try and get the seeds too.
"Charlie be advised, two more males joining him," Fletcher said.
Tex held up his weapon and looked over to Sasha, "You just say the word," He said as he looked through the scope and to Omar, but nothing that would be lethal. And with four buddies, they would have to take them all out. And there was no way to do that with just Sasha and Tex, well easily anyway.
"Prepare to engage them all. The seeds do not leave here," Sasha said into her radio. She needed to make sure that everyone got the message.
Tex set himself up on the opposite side of Sasha and Fletcher in the street. They looked for Omar and his guys. But they were simply too squirmy for any clean shots. And then Azima got a clean shot. She should have gone for it.
Except there were kids.
A whole fleet of kids swarmed Omar like he was the second coming. In this place, maybe he was. He had money and power and that was enough for some people to be fawning. And kids, they were taught. Maybe he was even good with kids. Lots of bad people were great with children.
"We're losing him," Tex muttered.
Sasha scoffed, but then she smiled. "You're right." She said as she gave her gun to Fletcher. What the hell was that woman thinking? She pushed a vase into her hand and was running towards Omar's helicopter. She gave it to one of his body men, who broke it within two seconds of having it in his hand. And then he got her on the ground, but she seemed to find the small modicum of mercy these people had.
The Nathan James
"Bring them back to the boat, sunshine," Slattery ordered and then he slammed the phone down. This was supposed to be easy. Get the seeds, save the world. And yet, again, they were circling the planet for something impossible, trying to get the world to see that what they wanted, it was not simply for the west. It was for the whole world. They would help the whole world. If they could just get their hands on those seeds.
She looked out at the sea. She had seen this scene so many times when they were on the Nathan James trying to save the world from the Red Flu. And now it was the Red Rust. She couldn't believe that they didn't get the seeds.
Sasha had done something, so all hope was not lost. But it was something that felt unreal in so many ways. They lost the seeds. She had to tell the president that Omar had the seeds and that she would still be on the Nathan James until they were retrieved. It was not a fun call.
She dove into the CIC after a while, where everyone was looking for where the seeds might have gone. They only had so much information. "On this bearing there aren't too many options," One of the sailors said as he gave her a weak smile. "Omar could be heading to Corsica," He said.
Master Chief shook his head. "No," He said in that sage voice of his. "There's nothing there and he still needs to refuel."
"The most neutral fueling station is going to be here," Rachel said as she put a finger on the map, "But there's nothing of interest besides the fueling station there," She shrugged. Master Chief nodded, an affirmation that he got her message.
She looked over at Slattery. He was so frustrated over the loss of the seeds. They weren't lost forever. Sasha had made sure of that. But they were still using a lot of guesswork to get to the seeds. It wasn't fair.
"You okay with this?" Tex asked as he looked at her looking at all the maps that were everywhere, getting every possible angle covered to find the seeds.
She shook her head. "I just," She sighed. "I can't believe that we were that close,"
"Yeah," Tex said as he brought her into an embrace, being very careful not to kiss her in front of a room full of sailors, but god he wanted to. "And we're gonna get them. So you can save the world. Again."
"Track 12771 descending," Alisha said out loud.
"Bearing and Range."
"357 at 200 miles."
Rachel looked closer at the screen.
"...Correlates to the island of Sardinia," Alisha finished.
"Did you say Sardinia?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, ma'am, any ideas?"
Rachel shook her head. "It's just not very expected. Has a couple of airstrips, but it's really known for its beaches. I mean it used to be, anyway,"
"Mr. Fletcher, does Omar have any friends in that neighborhood?"
Fletcher shook his head, "His strongest ties are North African," He said, "But with these city states popping up all over the Med, it's hard to say."
Damn. There was no real way to know who he was meeting up with. And that meant nothing that she could do to help with this whole debacle. She didn't want another fight for the seeds. All she wanted was the seeds in her possession.
"If the buyer's Italian, he's not on our radar," Sasha confirmed the mess they were in.
"Sardinia is an open island. If Omar is looking to close the deal, it could just be neutral ground,"
Rachel felt a surge of anger, "So we're actually behind in terms of information. We have no idea who Omar is selling the seeds to. Or why he picked this island in particular to settle down into."
Slattery cleared his throat, "Yes, that is our current predicament, but Sardinia," He said looking at the computer, where the map very clearly showed the island, "It's not going to be neutral for long." He stood sharper. "Lieutenant, tell sunshine to prep the huey,"
Sardinia
It was a beautiful island, he gave it that much. It might have been even better looking if things were growing, but it was still impossible for it not to be beautiful. And this time, he didn't have to look down the barrel of a gun to see its beauty.
Slattery had come with them on this mission. It was Rachel's insistence. She needed more people she trusted going after the seeds. She really wanted to go herself, but that was dead in the water. Keeping her alive to make sure that she could use the seeds when they got them, that was of the utmost importance. Which meant she stayed on the ship, with Ravit by her side.
They walked an empty path, keeping their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary when they met up with the other team.
"How's it lookin'?"
"We found Omar's Helo sir, but no signs of the big man or the seeds."
With that, Tex thought, it was a good thing that Rachel wasn't here. If she heard that, she'd just get frustrated. The seeds were supposed to be a simple job. And they were turning out to be one of the hardest jobs they had gone after.
"Clocked a few of his soldiers headed to a venue, a mile inland," Fletcher told them.
Now, that could be interesting. Who knew why Omar did anything, but staying at a venue for longer than necessary, that could be very interesting. Maybe the seeds were there. Maybe this thing wouldn't be so difficult after all, but he wasn't exactly counting on that.
"Well, then guess we should pay 'em a visit," Tex said, revving to move.
Slattery grinned. "I think you're right, Tex," He said, before moving to his radio. "All stations, sitrep."
"Bravo on station, standing by, over."
"All set up here, waiting for your call."
That was good enough for Slattery, "Let's move," He said to the group as they moved more inland to hopefully have some better luck than they'd been having.
The mile was quick enough for all of them to hoof on foot. When they got closer, they could hear some cheering of some kind.
"Got eyes on Omar's man," Sasha said.
No one was exactly convinced, "You sure?" Slattery asked for the whole of the group.
Sasha nodded. "Been spitting up blood all morning, yeah, I'm sure," She said, scoffing at the question. No one said anything else to it. What could they say? None of them ever got close enough that they would have been able to definitively ID someone like that, except her.
They took a set of stairs down, and now that they had that kind of information. Slattery decided it was time to do something with it. "Burke take Cobra team round back, Vulture team you're with me," He said as he descended the stairs quickly and quietly.
For Tex that meant staying with Slattery, doing the same thing as him. Which he was okay with. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, what they saw was a cheering crowd, for some sort of sporting event? He couldn't exactly tell. The fans were so tightly packed together, but they seemed to be looking down at something.
"I count eleven hostiles, plus Omar on top," Danny told them as they walked through the crowd. There had been some yelling from someone but they didn't pay too much attention to it.
"What about the people he's with?" Asked Slattery.
Danny shrugged. Sasha intervened. "Could be the buyers,"
"All right," Slattery said, "Nobody makes a move till we got eyes on the package,"
They were looking around when Tex stopped, because he recognized the face of the man in the pit that all these people were cheering for. It was Tom Chandler. Son of a bitch. Spent practically a year and a half, radio silent, only to find him on some 'neutral ground' island as a fighter who Omar, their target had been watching.
"Well, I'll be," Tex said.
Everyone looked to where he was looking. But Sasha and Slattery first. Sasha said nothing. She just kept looking at him. Tex knew that look. It was a look that meant so much. Slattery looked over and couldn't believe his eyes. "...Of all the gin joints, in all the towns," he muttered under his breath.
It was an extraordinary sight, on that they could all agree. But this changed the game a little. They had to find a way to get Tom out of here too.
"Why am I not surprised?" Sasha finally asked.
Tex smiled a little. "Because you knew he couldn't just sit back sipping pina coladas," He whispered to her.
The ringmaster was trying to get someone to fight 'Hercules' and there was no one stepping up yet. He wondered if that was because the ringmaster gave him such a wonderful performance review, it scared people.
"Should we try to make contact?" Danny asked.
"Probably," Tex said.
"He looks a little busy," Sasha said. And that was true. It wasn't exactly going to be easy to make contact when he was literally the center of attention.
"Yeah, well, it looks like he doesn't have any takers," Wolf said to the group. That part was true. He seemed to be given such an opulent opening by the ringmaster that no one was eager to take him on.
Tex looked over to Slattery with his elbow on the butt of his gun. "One of us could do it," He said. It was sort of a joke that one of them could take him on. But there was a little bit of a serious undertone to it. A drunk and slurring man took his shot at the whole thing, but the whole being drunk and slurring thing did not add to his charm among the public.
Slattery moved for them to move out of the way and find somewhere hidden. They all did so. Mike gave them his gun, his hat, and his jacket. They were to stow those away for him. And then they all made their way back to the courtyard.
"I'll fight him," Mike's voice boomed from the background. It took him a minute to get up to the courtyard, but once he did, he looked mean and sullen. A perfect man to fight Hercules. A man who already knew him.
This was not something that Mike opened up about, but he got into the ring to fight him. The ringmaster was thoroughly impressed with Mike's shape, size, and let's admit sobriety. He rang the bell and that was it. Mike and 'Hercules' were going to fight.
And fight they did. But not before some talking that Tex and the rest of the group could hear. All he could see was the moving of their mouths. And he hoped that this went the way it was supposed to. Tom being here was no accident, he thought. Tom always found his way into the center of the action. He might not have a choice in the matter. He was just that kind of guy.
The fight started with punches. Mike getting a good one to Tom's gut. But then they were back at it. And it turned to grapples. Hopefully, something would come out of this. He wasn't sure. Even though he had said it, he didn't really mean it. Slattery was into it though. This fight wasn't going to be easy for the great Hercules. They were going to make him really fight it. They were going to get some information out of it.
The crowd booed and Tex looked around. Well, damn. These people really liked Hercules. Had he been here before? Would it be easy to get him out? Did he want to get out? He had disappeared for sixteen months. Maybe this was intentional.
Mike gave him several successive punches. He could see Tom looking at them all. When their eyes locked, he nodded and looked away, looking at each of the gazes that were given. His eyes hit Sasha and well, wouldn't you know? There was still a soft spot there.
It all looked good and the people chanted for their dear Hercules, but Mike was holding his own. Until the last minute. It looked like they had settled on a way the fight was going to go, but still they made it look real. They made it look like everything was working out in Tom's favor by force of will and maybe a little luck.
He finished Slattery off with a few quick punches to the face, something that they hadn't been expecting. And then the real punches came and Slattery fell to the edge of the arena. Sasha came closer, "Let's go," She said as she moved past him.
He did as asked and wondered what the hell was going to happen next. But he could see that they were going to have the seeds. It would be a good day.
Danny was on one side with Wolf and the others, he and Sasha were on the other, making their way into the basement, surrounding it on all sides. The fact that Slattery had fallen down here, it wasn't a chance move. It was a way that they could get the seeds.
They shot indiscriminately at both Omar and the buyer's men. It wasn't like they had a stake in keeping these people alive to try and come after them again. This was to get the seeds back to America. Back to Rachel on the Nathan James and hopefully save the world again. So a few dead bodies in their midst, it really wasn't even a thought. They took the hallway easily.
"Clear!" Tom said, "All clear,"
Tex put down his gun and looked up at the scene, unfolding. Him and the girl from the top, fighting over the seeds. It was very much a stick up event. But Tom got them the seeds. He gave Slattery the seeds.
"How long were we shooting at you?" Slattery asked Tom.
"Long enough to make us even."
There was still the noise of the gunfire in the distance. While Tex had made it through this hallway, Sasha had gone down another to flush out all the potential hostiles in the area. And it didn't sound like she was having a good time.
Tex looked over his shoulder and Tom asked, "Where are the others?"
"Pinned down. Inside the south entrance," Tex replied. "Omar's got 'em on both sides,"
Tom nodded gravely. They all knew about Omar. This much was obvious. He looked to Slattery. "Take the seeds and Lucia back to the ship. Tex and I will back up the others," For his first day back on the job, he said those things with the confidence of a man that was never really gone from it.
"Just like old times, Tex and Tommy boy," Tex said as he patted Tom on the back and gave him another gun to work with. "Just you know, in case."
Slattery was moving too. "We'll use the helo, Tex call in the Exfil."
"You got it, boss." He said, and then he put his mouth to the radio. "This is green team. Leader has package in hand. All teams exfil to your rally points, over."
As soon as they got Sasha's message. She was not doing well, pinned down. They moved from the premises down to the Southern exit. They moved quickly and precisely, making sure to use as much teamwork as they could muster.
"So Sardinia?" Tex asked.
"It was Greece, but we can talk about that later," Tom replied, before putting several guys down. "Alright, Clear."
They did the dance of clearing rooms and pockets of people and Tom needing ammo a couple of times before they got to Sasha. They didn't say a word about how weird it was that they had found their captain, my captain, out here in Sardinia.
They got to Sasha and the others though. There wasn't a lot of time to talk about it though, because they heard shouting in the distance, a sign of things to come. "What the hell is that?" Wolf asked.
"Giorgio's reinforcements," Tom explained.
"And Omar will bring more," Azima added on.
This was stuff that they should have known. It would get messy. This was the reason that Rachel had to stay on the boat. That they weren't just moseying off with the seeds yet. That they had brought so many guns to a retrieval.
"This will take you out," Tom pointed to a hallway. "I'll hold 'em off."
"Are you sure?"
"Giorgio trusts me," Tom insisted. "Go. Now."
"Everybody, on me," Danny said and they left. They got out of the way as quickly as possible and down the hill. They were going to exfil points as soon as they could. But they were worried about Mike. He was supposed to be here by now and he definitely wasn't.
They looked everywhere as they went down the hill, but it was too late. Kathleen and Sunshine were widening their search for him, but who knew where he could be.
"Anyone else getting a bad feeling about this one?" Tex asked.
"You're not the only one," Sasha replied.
"He should have been here by now," Danny bellowed.
They all knew that. It still wasn't looking good. They had to get to an exfil point without being noticed by Omar or Giorgio's guys. This was not going to be an easy task.
"Hey!" Tom said as he loped across the hill at them. "Slattery has the seeds, but something's happened to him. Lucia got away,"