Chapter Text
Blackburn waited for the laughter to die down before he started the briefing. “Alright, you all have known for months this Op was going to happen, and tonight is the night. Multiple HVT’s will be in the city tonight, but we don't know for how long. If we don't grab them fast we may never get another chance. Let’s all take a look at the updated intelligence package Davis put together and make sure we don’t have any surprises.”
Sonny snorted. “And just where is Mandy at? Isn’t it her job to get us these things?”
“Miss Ellis is away visiting her family. And Davis is perfectly capable of compiling this intelligence package.”
Davis stepped forward and dropped a stack of files on the table. “Don’t doubt me till you see what’s inside okay?” She handed everyone a file including Blackburn, who took his with a smile and a nod of thanks.
“I’m not doubting you, Davis, but I just think-” Sonny trailed off as he flicked through the pages. “Well damn. This ain’t half bad Davis.”
“If half bad is all you have to say then give me that file back and you can learn from everyone else what’s going on.”
“Now hold on,” Sonny rolled his chair out of Davis’ reach as she reached for his file. “Davis this file is, is..” He held his hand out for some help from the team.
“Impeccable.” Ray said as he flipped through the pages.
“Solid work.” Jason glanced up at her. “Very solid work, Davis.”
“Very solid, impeccable work Davis. Thank you for service.” Sonny raised his voice over the smaller chorus of praise from Trent and Brock.
She sent a glare his way as she returned to the front of the room to stand next to Blackburn.
There was silence for a few minutes as everyone read through the files. Once everyone appeared to be done Blackburn clicked to the next slide of the presentation and a large, detailed map filled the screen. “This compound-
Clay snorted and tossed his pen down on the table. “A compound? Seriously?” He gestured at the map. “That’s a-
“Huge area.” Jason turned around and gave Clay a pointed look. “Spenser, I know you’ve never done a mission like this with Bravo. Have any of your other units done a mission like this?”
Clay raised his eyebrows. “No, nothing like this.”
“That’s because they’re not amazing like we are.” Sonny said as he rolled his chair slowly back up the table keeping a cautious eye on Davis.
Blackburn continued on. “As I was saying, this compound here is our primary location. It has several infil and exfil points, but you’ll go in through the main entrance so as not to draw attention to yourself. Once inside you’ll split up. Once everyone has secured your assigned HVT’s, you will all regroup at the front of the compound. Then you will all exfil together. There will be a scooby van waiting in front of the compound to pick you up. Any questions?”
Sonny tilted his hat back to stare at the map of the compound on the screen. “What about contact with hostiles? There’s gonna be a lot of people in that compound, gonna be hard to tell if anyone’s a threat. And if someone is, there’s gonna be a lot of civilians to get around.”
Blackburn shared a look with Davis. “Rules of Engagement are clear. No contact with anyone unless they’re a direct threat. Remember you’ll be going in as civilians. But,” Blackburn closed his eyes and said a silent prayer that what he was about to say wouldn’t happen, “if someone poses a direct threat to you or other civilians you may restrain them until local law enforcement shows up. Try and avoid going that route if you can, there should be an increased security presence in the area, so hopefully it won’t come to that. Just keep your heads down and secure the HVT’s.”
“What if all the HVT’s aren’t in the compound?” Ray flipped through the pages of the file in front of him. “With this many it’s going to be challenging to get our hands on every one of them.”
Davis stepped forward. “There are possible secondary locations-” The team gave a collective groan, even Cerberus joined in with a well-timed growl-yawn. Davis continued the briefing over their grumbling. “Multiple intel sources confirm that ALL HVT’s will be inside that compound at some point tonight. If for some reason you fail to secure an HVT, radio me and I will have the scooby van take you to the secondary location where you may have a second chance at securing them.”
Ray nodded. “Sounds good.”
Blackburn looked at the men seated at the table in front of him. The emotion on their faces ranged from deadly serious to completely incredulous.
Jason and Ray had spent the last hour going over the maps of the city and blueprints of buildings, covering everything from the best traffic routes to take through the city, to the best routes to take once inside the building.They had done missions like this before, but it was still extremely personal for them. Clay just sat there looking through the file and would occasionally glance over at Ray and Jason as they talked through the finer points of infil and exfil.
Blackburn leaned closer to Davis. “Would you please go discreetly explain to Mr. Spenser why this is such a big deal for Bravo 1 and 2? Just make sure he understands the gravity of the situation please.”
Davis nodded and walked purposefully to the back of the briefing room and poured two cups of coffee. On her way back she set the cups on the table and squatted down so she could pet Cerberus. The dog who had been laying between Clay and Brock looked up at her happily as she rubbed her hands over his fur. She glanced up and caught Clay’s eye before looking down at Cerberus and smiled. To anyone else it would look like she was just giving some well earned praise to the four-legged member of their team. “They have kids, Clay. Ops like this are always going to be important to them.” She said quietly and soothingly to the dog. She knew Brock wouldn’t mind her talking to the hair missile as long as she didn’t babytalk. “Ops like this don’t happen very often, and when they do it’s important that you treat this seriously.”
Clay nodded.
Davis finished petting Cerberus and stood, grabbing the coffee off the table before heading back to Blackburn and handing him a cup.
“Well done Davis.”
When nothing was left to plan Blackburn decided to dismiss the briefing so everyone could get ready for tonight. He cleared his throat before stepping forward to the head of the table. “This mission is extremely high risk. As I said earlier, if we do not succeed in securing ALL HVT’s tonight, there may not be another opportunity to do so. Failure is not an option here. For some of you this is more personal than others, I understand that,” He looked over at Jason and Ray, “but we all need to stay focused and not let our emotions get the best of us. Be ready to leave here in one hour.”