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.
Disclaimer: I do not ow...
Gibbs looked to the new agent assigned to the team, Special Agent Raya Amato. She transferred in from the Diplomatic Security Service, before that she served as an enlisted Marine counterintelligence and HUMINT specialist. Despite being at the office for a few months she never bothered to personalize it as if she knew her place on the team wasn't concrete. Jace was one of the people who voted in her favor on her recommendations, he had given her a glowing review. They served together on a handful of joint operations and worked together again after she started working in the DSS. Gibbs had been checking in on Julian more often than usual since Kathleen died, he wanted to make sure his son and grandkids were okay.
They had just closed a drug case involving sailors dying from overdoses. She got along with McGee and DiNozzo and did her work well.
"Boss," Amato got up from the desk. "I just heard back from some friends in State and I think there's something you should know."
"What is it?"
She motioned him to follow her, he did so. They stopped at the corner stairwell.
"Mossad has been running clean-up operations in the Sahara for the past few months," Amato exhaled. "Looks like they had a mission go south."
"How bad?"
"There was a cargo freighter, the Damocles. It sank off the coast of Somalia, there were no survivors."
. . .
Jace sat back in the Blackhawk, prepping his Knight's Armament SR-25 Enhanced Carbine. He watched as the others jumped out, landing five miles away from the compound. The operators, save for Reese manned an M110 as opposed to his usual MK 43 SAW. Jace focused his night vision on the guards at the watchtowers. Once they were in his sights he took them out, Reese did the same with the guards at the south side. He watched as his squad breached the gate, he then dispatched the guards at the post out of their field of view.
"Echo-One to Echo-Three, ISR will take care of visual overwatch, you and Echo-Four are to dismount and regroup with us, over."
"WILCO, Echo-One, over."
Jace swapped his SR-25 with an HK-416 and rappelled from the aircraft landing near the others, so far all outside forces were eliminated. He waited as Reese rappelled down, he had switched his rifle out for an MP7. The Blackhawks we're responsible for overwatch now.
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They stacked together against the entrance wall, and Reese set the breaches. On Hall's mark, he set them off. They cleared their way through the halls, splitting into elements. Rider and Grey stuck with Jace, Reese, Bennett, and Hall. The informant was staying on the same floor as Azza, in the event of an escape, he would stall until they arrived.
They made their way to the main floor, with no contact or signs of life so far. The SEALs pulled security while Grey and Rider went to get their informant. When they came back it was just them, no Muhammad.
"He's not in his room," said Rider. "All the doors are open except for the one at the end on the right."
Jace went for his radio. "Echo-Three to Echo-Actual, I need ISR focus on my pos, over."
"Echo-Three, ISR shows that there are several armed fighting age males and what looks like a hostage in the last room to the right."
Jace relayed this back to the others, they stacked against the door and prepared to breach. Reese breached the door, Jace was the first to enter followed by the others. Jace engaged one of the gunmen, and the others followed through engaging their opponents. Jace became physically engaged with another hostile, he used his primary weapon to maneuver his opponent into a corner and prevented the gunmen from using his weapon, Jace managed to grab him by the throat. He used his secondary weapon to deliver a shot to the head.
Everyone gave out the 'all-clear'. Rider and Grey went to check on Muhammed, freeing him of his binds and treating his injuries. Jace focused his night vision on his more recent opponent's face, he did a double-take at the sight of the man's face.
It was Abbas Azza.
"Echo-Three to Actual, EKIA. Azza is dead."
. . .
Once they got back to the FOB Jace immediately went to the operations center. He met with a few of the Intelligence Officers about terror activity in North Africa and anything involving Mossad. So far the only thing they could confirm was that Mossad was looking for anything that could confirm whether or not an operative was KIA.
Hang in there Ziva, just hang in there.
During the flight home the guys were celebrating their victory, they congratulated Jace on taking down one of the most notorious terrorists of the 21st century since the rise of Bin Laden. The intel officers were pleased with the results of their SSE efforts. Jace was simply relieved that the worst terrorist organization since Al-Qaeda had been majorly hindered, but the fight was far from over. Aside from all this, the biggest thing that occupied his thoughts was Ziva. He had an objective and he was determined to follow through, he owed her that much.
. . .
Amato, Abby, Tony, and McGee were going over the intelligence they had compiled. After months of intel gathering, they had found the location of the terror cell. Tony, McGee, and Amato were prepping to leave.
Meanwhile, Gibbs and Vance were discussing plans of attack.
"DEVGRU's Gold Squadron is sending a team to Northern Africa for a reconnaissance operation to sniff out infantile terror cells," said Gibbs. "Wouldn't be surprised if they wound up engaging Saleem's compound."
"Especially if they knew that there was a hostage," replied Vance. "One with knowledge of the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Navy."
"Jace's team will meet with ours when they touch down in Africa."
. . .
Captain Dawes, the Commanding Officer of DEVGRU, called Jace into his office. He was aware of the possibility that Dawes noticed the strings being pulled were connected to him. Jace was prepared for any repercussions as long as the operation was greenlit.
"Gibbs," Dawes had been in charge for about the same time as Jace came in. "I take you to know what this meeting is about?"
"Sir, I guess that it's about the Mossad presence in our AO."
"Mossad Officer Ziva David, you know her personally?"
"Yes, sir. She's a colleague of my father's and we worked together on the Sword and Shield taskforce."
"She knows how we work," said Dawes. "I'm going to be blunt, I know you've got a personal stake in this, will it be an issue?"
Jace looked the Captain in the eye. "Sir my involvement won't be a problem no one is more dedicated to this operation than me."
Dawes returned Jace's gaze and smiled. "Tell the team the operation is a go."
