United Under Fire

At The Tip of The Spear

Jace was never going to live this one down, his girlfriend and childhood friend, Kara Blair was one of the case agents assigned to a joint FBI-CIA-JSOC operation. The difference between this and working with Sharon Patterson was that he wasn't romantically involved with the DEA agent. The operation was a manhunt to track down a mercenary bomb-maker, Azlaan Osmani, a Pakistani national who fled his native country after Operation Fairplay. He had ties to Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS. When the latter three started fighting Osmani sought asylum in Yemen, hiding with trusted contacts. His bombs had killed service members all over the Middle East and most recently the U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan. Before the latter, Osmani's bombs were used in many assassinations across Europe.

The FBI could never get an extradition, but the bombmaker was traveling to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with a client. November Team was going to conduct a cross-border body snatch, they were going to ambush him as he crossed the border and EXFIL. It was all going to be under the cover of night.

Jace went over mission plans with Rhodes when Kara asked to speak with him.

"What's up?" asked Jace.

"I was going over the Osmani's profile," said Kara. "And it suggests that despite not being a true believer, he's willing to die to avoid capture."

"He might be wearing an S-Vest?" asked the SEAL. "If that's the case it might not be possible to take him alive."

"Might be safer to take him out with a sniper rifle," concluded Kara.

"What do your bosses say?"

"They want to prosecute him," answered Kara. "And he has intel on incoming terror attacks."

They used the American Embassy to get into Saudi Arabia under the radar. After collecting their gear from the diplomatic carriers they made their way to the target area. They surveyed the safehouse where the client was staying.

"TOC to all stations, be advised, the target is fifteen mikes out, over."

Everyone got to work, Jace and Rhodes set up overwatch and a team of six made their way to the safe house. The ground team breached the side door, clearing every space of the house, they caught three detainees and sat tight waiting for their main target.

The two snipers watched as Osmani pulled up to the house. He traveled alone, not trusting anyone. Jace focused his scope on his head.

"TOC, November One has eyes on the target."

"Copy November One, orders have not changed. Capture the target alive, over."

Those damned, bureaucrats.

Back at Dam Neck, Kara watched as ISR relayed everything back to them. She looked to her SAC.

"Sir, if Osmani is wearing an S-Vest shouldn't we let November team take the shot?"

"We need him alive for questioning, Blair," replied Supervisory Special Agent Wilcox.

He was nine years older than Kara and politically savvy.

Kara didn't like this, it would take two operators to restrain Osmani while the EOD rendered the device safe. One wrong move and Jace would lose almost his entire team.

Was the field office scoring political brownie points worth their lives?

Jace watched as the bomb maker entered the house.

Inside Dodd and Foreman grabbed Osmani, trapping him in armlocks while the EOD clocked him in the jaw. Once he was out cold the bomb tech removed the blasting cap and separated the charge from the explosives.

"Jackpot."

Jace exhaled in relief, the team dragged the detainees back and everyone made their way to the EXFIL vehicles.

On their way to the LZ, Jace noticed that Osmani had awoken.

"What is this?!" demanded the bomb maker. "Who are you?!"

Jace looked at Osmani with cold disdain.

A family trait.

"Sit back and shut up," Jace let his helmet cam relay everything to the TOC. The detainee's desperation would only drive him to speak more.

"I know things," offered the desperate man. "I will tell you in exchange for my freedom."

"You're responsible for the deaths of American lives," said Jace. "You aren't going anywhere except a prison cell."

"The people who want me dead are planning to cripple Europe," continued Osmani. "And they will take out as many American targets as part of this."

"Alright, keep talking it may just save your life."

Before the bomb maker could continue the convoy was cut off by an IED. They took on automatic gunfire from the northwest and northeast. Everyone took on defensive positions and returned fire.

Jace counted eight enemy combatants that he could see. He threw an M67 at the combatants to the northeast, taking out three of the four on that side. Rhodes took out the straggler reloading his weapon. They managed to focus on the other four with no casualties on their end. Jace started to reload his weapon when a round grazed his shoulder.

The shot came from the southeast, Jace scanned potential points of fire for the shooter. He saw nothing, there was nothing he hated more than not seeing an enemy sniper that had him in their sights.

The others had finished off the enemy combatants, Jace checked on the detainees and saw that Osmani had been shot in the neck. Judging by the direction of the blood splatter and Jace's flesh wound, the sniper that grazed Julian had killed their HVT.

Jace relayed their situation to the TOC.

Whoever staged this ambush was looking to kill Osmani and take out as many Americans as possible. They continued to the LZ and EXFILed to Afghanistan to wait for further transport.

Back at Dam Neck, everyone went over ISR and satellite footage. They managed to piece together that the ambushers surveyed the EXFIL route hours before November Team got to the target building. Since the roads they took were the only quick exit out of the valley the SEALs had no choice but to use this route.

Jace was changing his bandages went Kara checked in on him.

"How are you holding up?"

"Can't complain," said the SEAL. "How are your bosses taking the news that the Osmani died in the ambush."

"Not very well," responded Kara. "But the Bureau isn't willing to duke it out with SOCOM or the CIA over this."

"We were all taken by surprise. Did you get anything from the other detainees?"

"Yeah, they were going to kill Osmani when he got there."

Jace was not expecting that.

"He was that popular?"

"He had already given them what they wanted, they just wanted to keep him quiet and avoid paying another fortune."

"They say anything else?"

"Not yet."

They needed more information if they were going to stop the attacks. The US had military installations and foreign offices all over Europe. If they didn't stop the attack, everyone was going to lose.

Back at the Washington Navy Yard, the entire squad room was on red alert. Bishop was still focused on her manhunt for Kai Chen when they got the orders to augment the Joint Terrorism Task Forces. This was when she got an idea, Chen was connected all over terror networks, what if there was a connection to him?