Tatsu - The Threat

Chapter 30 - Resurgence

Life doesn't care who you are and when it's time, it will lead you to see death in the face. This was the second time for Brian that he'd had the pleasure, but this time he flipped death off and took his heart back from her. He came back from the dead, like a miracle, like the doing of an Almighty, one with authority over death, yet some would call it luck. And if that was the case, Brian was one lucky son of gun. He got a second chance.

Brian felt invincible for several years and getting shot the way he did was disconcerting on so many levels. Many questions needed answers. It was time for Brian to face himself knowing that there was indeed a price to pay for his transgressions. Regret and repentance were finally at his door, calling with a soft and gentle knock. A soon to be husband, about to be a father, Brian was bracing for what was coming.

The following months brought a long and excruciating recovery while Will and Quentin investigated who was responsible for the attack in Mexico. Hundreds were brutally killed and tortured in the process, and after weeks of merciless and relentless bloodshed, the truth was found. Javier Cisneros, Silvio Cisneros's younger brother, was the one who ordered Brian's assassination. There was a plan in place to extract Javier Cisneros and bring him to HEG, but Will chose to wait until Brian's health improved so Brian himself could give the order. In the meantime, there was surveillance on Javier 24 hours a day.

Will was running operations on all fronts while Brian recovered, acting like a true brother since the day Brian gave him the opportunity to join the black ops team.

Back in August 1999, the US military tasked a Special Forces team to extract a group of five American spies, three men and two women, posing as missionaries who had been kidnapped by an Afghan militia group. The mission was to recover all Americans and minimize casualties at all cost.

At a black ops facility in washing footage was played showing the Americans beaten, with bruises on their faces and burns on their body, blind folded, screaming for help. The camera then focused on the author of the scene, a middle eastern man with his faced covered. He stared at the camera with eyes conveying pain and suffering distorted by hate.

"Don't be surprised by the cruelty you see. Your people do worse things. You call us terrorists because our acts are committed out in the open, but you do far worse, and you do it in the dark, pretending to be the good of the world. And both of us might be wrong, you and us. But these Americans are suffering because of you and your government. I don't want money and have no demands. Only a message. These American lives are on you, NOT US!"

The morning of August 15th, 1999 a team of seven Navy Seals arrived at the site. The operation seemed promising with everyone in position. The sound of breath was intense. The blood flowing in those soldier bodies was charged with adrenaline.

The young sergeant gave the signal to proceed into the old deteriorated building. The first floor was dusty and the drops of sweat ran down the soldiers' faces. The place was clear, but something felt wrong. The young sergeant then signaled to proceed to the second floor up using what left of the stairs. When they reached the second floor, they noticed the five Americans tied up trying to tell them something. In a matter of seconds, the first floor was filled with a hundred militia soldiers and dozens of militia vehicles surrounded the entire building. Information had been leaked about the rescue.

General James Hardin was a war hero and responsible for funding the rescue operation. His military curriculum was impressive, but he naively got involved with crooked politicians toward the end of his career and was lured to corruption and black ops. Mobs aren't just in the underworld amongst the nefarious. Mobs also run the governments of the world and good people like General Hardin get sucked into dark, treacherous schemes, out of fervor to serve their country. The funds General Harding oversaw were serviced by HEG.