| "Proving the Point" | |||
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Sunday 27th April 2008 16.55hrs As the time for the briefing came, she found that she had feelings that she had never known before. Small butterflies of tension fluttered around in her stomach, making her feel sick; her mouth was dry and no matter how much she drank she continued to feel thirsty. She scanned the sheets again, knowing that the plan was good, the mission was set, but the lives of the men and women of the joint agencies rested on her shoulders. If she had made the wrong calculations, or had forgotten anything then she knew she would find it hard to live with herself afterwards. When she passed Paige, she tried to act more confident that she really was, "Piece of cake this one," a smile on her face. It obviously worked reasonably well as Paige smiled back, "piece of cake or easy peasy?" Automatically she kicked in her strength and laughed lightly, "definitely not easy peasy but certainly qualifies as piece of cake." She walked on, feeling the strain already of holding this veneer over her true weakness. The briefing went well, between Gray and herself they handled the questions. It was noticeable that the Section operatives were easily the most attentive asking least questions, accepting that the plan would work, trusting in her to have proved her worth; she just wished she felt as confident. When Paige started biting her lip that she worried most, Paige had spotted something, it was as though she were shouting it loud from the rooftops. Saf interrupted the briefing, unable to keep quiet any longer, "What's the matter, Paige?" It was as if the room contained just the two of them, their eyes connected, Saf could see the indecision in Paige's eyes, meanwhile the rest of the room fell silent, waiting. Finally, after a pause, Paige spoke, stating her concern. Saf instantly reacted, checking the overlays, putting them on the table in front of Paige, all the time concentrating on this moment, the one after. Nothing mattered except this moment, eventually the details became clearer. Putting the satpics up on the overhead, it became clear that a pile had been moved. A small detail, but it was likely to be important. Gray contacted Baz on the phone, to try and find out more intel, and meanwhile they waited. Saf used the time to save the overlay on the picture, knowing they would want it kept for reference, she was relieved to be doing something, anything to kill the tension that was building up inside her. She concentrated hard on her task, and checking out the other data in case something else had slipped by them, knowing that fingers would be pointing at them, perhaps wanting them to fail, to be found wanting by the test of their first case. When she looked up again, the room had fallen silent, the main participants had gone. She looked around, concerned, but she caught sight of Paige apparently doing an evaluation of Joshua's upper arm. Something about the way Paige was holding herself, tense, was unusual, but then she found everything about the SIA to be unusual. She walked by the door, to make sure everything was ok, and saw Paige smile at her and nod slightly. Relieved, by the normality of the scene, she returned to what she called her den, and continued with the data matching. They were due to move out in less than an hour, and she had so little time to make sure that all the variables were checked. Now the proving ground was near to hand, the butterflies had turned into biting insects and she wanted to throw up even more, but she held on, her training, her experience, it would all work out in the end. 18.00hrs She would have preferred to go with the others, her heart was beating in her chest, wanting to be in action and not helpless at the back with Gray, waiting for the voices over the comms units saying how the mission was progressing. Rebecca had watched her with detachment throughout the briefing, only speaking in quiet tones to Jackson, but Saf got the distinct feeling that she was being watched and it had made her more than a little uncomfortable. She was relieved when it was just her and Gray getting into one van, while Rebecca, Joshua and Jackson got into another. Gray saw her look of relief, "we need to be closer to the action" he said as an explanation, she shrugged, it wasn't important now. En-route to the location, she could imagine the other groups, preparing, waiting for the signal to move out. The screens were live in front of her and displayed satellite pictures as well as surveillance photos, and overlaid on top of the locations were the position of the agents already out on the ground. Their designations had been set; she would be Tactical 1, or Tac 1. Baz was Alpha 1, Paige was Alpha 2, and Jordan was Alpha 3. Riley would be Romeo 1 and his groups would be Delta and Echo. She watched as Paige and Jordan made their way to the bag drop. She listened intently as the two signals fell stationary, and then she heard Paige's quiet voice, "Tac 1, Alpha 2 & 3 on line." It was as though a robot had taken over, when the time came she spoke into the comms unit, "Alpha 2 & 3, move to position 2," Paige clicked twice to indicate she had heard and understood. She watched as two signals made their way across to the rear of building 127 and then into the building. Once inside, the voices changed, professional now, "Tac 1, Alpha 2 & 3 in position." Sara took note of the positions of the guards, updating the overlays with the new information relayed by Paige and Jordan and linked up the direct feed via the DOD Satcom to a camera they had placed. She didn't realize until later, that she had taken control completely, excluding Gray, but it had seemed so natural a thing to do at the time that she had assumed the right to do so without thinking twice. "Romeo 1. You are cleared to move into position." Riley acknowledged the transmission with a double click but she watched carefully as signals showed his men moving across the displays in front of her. She bit her lip and watched the situation unfold, it was so much waiting, so much tension that she found it hard to breathe. She remained focused on the scene, even when Riley questioned whether money had exchanged hands, she was able to answer him calmly, even though she knew that Paige and Jordan would be itching to force contact. "Tac 1, situation is go." Riley's voice was soft, but she pressed the signal that would release the rest of the guys, "Alpha, Delta, Echo. Go" she didn't wait for any acknowledgement; the guys knew what to do. Her job was to monitor each unit's transmission and let the plan flow, unfurling like sails in the wind, taking up the slack, watching for any anomalies. Automatically with one ear, she listened to the threads, moved people into position, stopping any of the targets (X-rays) from making an escape, guiding the teams to their locations. She felt so alive that she swore her skin was tingling, this is what she did best; she itched to be out there, firing her weapon, and damn it she was missing the action. Return |
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