Bound by Blood, Forged in Fire

Strategize

The radicals collected Jace first thing in the morning, they had suspended him from the ceiling with chains. Jace minded his SERE training, he remembered what was at stake and maintained his silence. Even as one of his captors drove a fist into his back Jace said nothing. Over and over again they continued to question him about troop locations, his mission, and the intelligence SOCOM had gathered on them. When they gave up on interrogating him they tossed him back into his cell like a bag of rocks.

"How are you holding up Chief?" asked Gunnery Sergeant Megan McHugh, she had been captured in the Helmand Province while her unit was building schools and providing safe havens for women and children.

"Easy day, Gunny," Jace groaned, lying against the cell wall. "They're trying to figure out what we've gathered on Taliban and GTNE relations."

"Didn't think they had any kind of relations with the Taliban," said Watson. "Especially since they clashed with ISIS."

"The U.S. has been more than glad to let the two duke it out in the past," said Jace. "Maybe they don't just want to know our play against them, but our plans against other terrorists."

"From what I gathered, we're still in the Laghman Province," said Watson. "It's where the weapons thefts first started."

"I noticed some of them carrying Marine-issued M16A4s, others had M4A1s," responded Jace.

"They didn't care about weapons when they torched the school my unit was building," said McHugh. "They just lit the place up."

"They were probably doing a test run."

Jace pondered over all this, if this was about weapons why take hostages at all?

. . .

Ziva, Amato, and McGee were going over the scene of the attack, Julian had been stripped of his gear when he was taken. His weapons and other armaments were all accounted for.

"The armory's on the other side of the base," said Raya. "ISR showed that all enemy forces were focused here."

"So it wasn't a heist, they weren't here for weapons," said McGee.

"Then what were they after?" asked Ziva. "They couldn't have known Jace was JSOC and they didn't seem to be after anyone in particular."

"He was a victim of opportunity."

"They left his gear to remove anything that could have been a tracker," said Amato. "Left his weapons because they didn't want him to have any means of escape."

Gibbs and Tony were going over ISR and combat footage from the attack with Senior Chief Rider and Officer Grey. They finished interviewing Rhodes and Reese, and both they and ISR confirmed that the GTNE took Jace south, the drone followed them until it was shot down with an RPG. Jethro's emotions were in conflict, rage, worry, and disbelief had been fighting for control of his mind. He broke the news of Jace's abduction to Zoey and Walt, they had told the triplets that Julian's deployment had been extended.

"QRF arrived fifteen minutes later, by the time they began conducting CSAR the militants were gone," said Rider.

"They didn't want anyone specific, they just took Jace because he had been separated from the others by the RPG blast," said Grey.

"Now that we know how he was targeted we need to determine his location," said Gibbs.

"We have the name of a known local gun runner with business affiliations with the GTNE," said Rider. "If we leave now we can catch up with them before they can skip town."

"We'll notify the Director and JSOC on the way," said the senior investigator, marching out.

. . .

The captive operators had been going over the intel they had gathered, building layout, force size, and guard shifts. Jace had procured a shell casing from a guard, he had grabbed the magazine, forcing the guard to struggle, resulting in him accidentally hitting the release. Once he had it he swiped a few rounds and threw the magazine back at the guard, it got him a jolt with a cattle prod, but it was a small price to pay. Julian passed the extra ammo to the other and used the pin McHugh gave him to separate the bullet from the casing and crushed the shell. Watson and McHugh did the same.

The locks clicked open, and McHugh set up as a look-out while Jace and Watson worked to free the others.

. . .

The NCIS agents and the JSOCs arrived at the village of the weapons dealer, when they got there the dealer tried the flee the scene but was cut off by November Team. The SEALs restrained him to a chair. Gibbs sat in a chair adjacent to the man, and Ziva stood behind him for translation.

"Tell us about the American weapons you've been selling," said Gibbs. "The ones that were stolen by the GTNE."

"I do not know anything, they bring me half of what they stole and I pay them a share of the sales!" said the dealer, he was frantic. He wasn't a jihadist, just a profiteer.

"Where do these meetings take place? Where do they take their share of the weapons?"

"A storage house in the outskirts of the province."

The agents prepped the dealer for transport while the SEALs conducted SSE.

. . .

Once everyone was free they stacked against both sides of the door, once a team of two guards arrived Jace and Blake put them both in chokeholds. They helped themselves to the M4s the guards were using and the gear they were carrying. They made their way to the armory full of stolen U.S. weapons, everyone helped themselves to the arsenal. They took rifles, pistols, ammo, and night-vision goggles; they made their way to the garage. Blake and a few of the Rangers worked to hot-wire three technicals; before they could finish the sentries sounded the alarm. The others provided cover while the soldiers got to work.

Once they were finished, everyone loaded into the trucks and blasted out. One of the Marines used an M203 to knock down the compound doors while another took out the other vehicles. They made their way into the desert, leaving their prison in their rearview mirror.