When Gibbs gets hospitalized the NCIS team meets someone with more insight about him than anyone. Set in the episode Hiatus Part I (S3, E22), will continue onward.
Warning: Some content may be too graphic for younger readers.
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"You want to do what?!"
Jace couldn't believe what he was hearing, Sheperd wanted the Bainbridge to tail the ship. He hadn't been in Surface Warfare for years but this wasn't like tailing an HVT on the roads of Bahrain. They had to assume that the ship had a radar or sonar system and given the size of the destroyer he couldn't see how that would be possible.
"You want to use my ship, an Arleigh-Burke Class Destroyer, to tail a ship outfitted with God knows what kind of weaponry or other equipment?" asked Commander Paxton, the ship's captain. "This is a US Navy vessel, not a police cruiser."
"Commander, I understand your concerns but if we lose that ship it'll be months before we find it again, years even," replied Sheperd, not relenting.
"Director Sheperd I understand that but I agree with Commander Paxton, even under the cover of night tailing that vessel is tactically risky." voiced Blackwell, he and Sheperd were using secured channels to converse with Paxton in the task-force TOC aboard the ship.
"I already spoke with the Task-Force Chiefs, they know what's at stake," said the Director.
"Well, we can't just board the damn thing without knowing how many people are on board or what kind of armed resistance we'll face," said Blackwell.
"Even with my crew's VBSS and SCAT teams augmenting the SEALs, there might not be bodies for the operation," said Paxton.
"I feel the same even with the addition of SWCCs and MARSOC Marines," added Blackwell. "Exactly how much did you tell the other Task-Force Chiefs?"
Director Sheperd didn't directly answer this, simply telling them to keep tailing the ship before cutting the feed.
. . .
After three days of following the technical ship, they came across a new development: a communication feed between the ship and an unknown vessel.
"Once you've made port dispose of everything."
"Confirmed."
They managed to trace the signal to a small vessel in the west of the Arabian Sea. The vessel was making its way out of the Gulf of Aden, they had to seize the vessel while it was still in Arabian waters since they didn't have permission to pass their AO. They were tracking the unknown vessel via satellite, it was a small yacht moving at cruising speed with four assault vessels guarding it.
The platoon and the agents gathered in their war room, they were going over the plan to seize the yacht. Julian and Holloway had drawn it up and had already run it by with Blackwell and were given the go.
"Our HVT is Roderick Brandt, a British national known to handle La Grenouille's logistics," said Marrows. "He made plans to evacuate the Middle East when we apprehended Qassam."
"We'll cut it off before it reaches international waters, SWCCs will handle the security vessels while we go for the yacht," said Holloway.
"We'll split into two teams, one going in one RHIBs and another going in via helo," said Jace taking over. "The helo team will first draw fire from the vessel's security, there are at least twelve armed guards aboard."
