CTU had officially taken over the case—or more precisely, Omega Division had. Owen wasn't going to leave this in the hands of the Los Angeles branch of CTU; he intended to have Omega directly supervise the investigation.
"Becky, that's the situation. The man who was kidnapped is named David Blanchett. I want everything on him," Owen said.
"Got it, Owen. I'll get back to you soon," Becky replied.
After ending that call, Owen immediately dialed Chloe. As part of Omega, he had access to any branch's resources, and being in Los Angeles meant Chloe was right there—why not use her?
"Chloe, pull the surveillance footage around the suspect's residence. I need to know where they took him."
"Understood."
Owen felt a sense of calm. He had worked with both Becky and Chloe for years—they had never let him down.
The local police had already left, and Owen had sent Joshua back as well. He stayed behind to question the woman who had filed the report—David Blanchett's girlfriend.
"Officer, I've only known him for a few days. He told me he was a SEAL himself, and that's why I agreed to date him. I haven't told anyone else, I swear!" the girl said frantically, afraid Owen might accuse her of leaking classified information. She even opened her laptop in a desperate attempt to prove her innocence. "I'm not lying, look for yourself—he had training photos on his Facebook."
She pulled up the profile, and Owen leaned in to look. Sure enough, there were plenty of photos: ID cards showing Navy SEAL affiliation, dog tags, photos in uniform, rappelling shots, crawling through barbed wire, firing ranges, shots of the base...
There was even a full resume that detailed his rank, SEAL Team Six unit, and the specific role he played.
But something didn't sit right with Owen. A lot of the details in the photos felt off. The way he wore his uniform was sloppy. Owen had trained at the SEAL base in Colorado—even just going through the first two phases, he knew how absurdly strict those instructors were. No way a real SEAL would present himself like this.
Then there was the guy's build. His muscles weren't clearly visible under his clothes, but just judging by his face, David looked slightly chubby—something practically unheard of in SEAL teams, especially SEAL Team Six.
With the level of physical conditioning required, fat simply didn't exist in their ranks. You might get thick, but not soft. David's facial structure looked puffy, his posture lacked the tautness of elite soldiers, and his overall aura was just... off.
Owen scrolled through more of the photos. One shot caught his eye—David supposedly rappelling from a Black Hawk helicopter. But on closer inspection, it was clearly a fake. He was sliding down a rope from a climbing pole at WG Training Grounds. The Black Hawk had been digitally inserted into the background. It might fool regular people, but not Owen—he'd been trained to spot this sort of thing.
Right then, Becky called back.
"Owen, I confirmed everything with the military. This David Blanchett isn't part of SEAL Team Six. In fact, he's never even served in the military. He's a high school graduate working as a dishwasher at a diner. If he has anything going for him, it's nerve—this bottom-feeding scumbag has been dating several girls at once."
Owen looked back at the girl. "You said he told you he was in SEAL Team Six?"
"Yes, he said so the first time we met. He even shared military stories with me. Oh, and he showed me all those photos..."
"And then you slept with him that same night?"
"Uh... yes, but that's my personal business..." she stammered.
Owen rolled his eyes and stopped paying her any attention. By now, the entire situation had more or less taken shape in his mind.
The guy was a military-obsessed poser. Using Photoshop and other tricks, he'd created fake images to pose as a SEAL Team Six operator, luring in girls who were fascinated by special forces—all probably just to get laid.
Owen wanted to bury his face in his hands. What a disaster. Just another hormone-fueled moron who'd now managed to get himself abducted by terrorists. And now Owen had to figure out how to explain this to the military. What was he supposed to say? "Some jackass faked being a SEAL so he could get laid, and now he's been kidnapped by real terrorists."
These idiots only ever saw the glamour of being a SEAL. They never thought about the enemies they'd make, or the price of being in that world. If this incident went public, it might ironically make for the best recruitment campaign in history—SEAL offices would be flooded by testosterone-filled fools trying to emulate him.
Honestly, Owen thought maybe it would be better to let the guy die. Spending manpower and resources to save him felt like a waste. But he had to go through with it anyway. If nothing else, it was good training. And if terrorists were daring enough to kidnap someone in the U.S. for revenge, that kind of threat had to be nipped in the bud.
Still, he was surprised Chloe hadn't sent back anything yet. That wasn't like her. Apparently, tracking the surveillance footage hadn't been going smoothly.
Owen didn't press her for updates. Instead, he called Becky again, hoping maybe the satellites had happened to be over L.A. at the time. Maybe, just maybe, one of the cameras caught something.
No luck.
Satellite operations weren't that simple. You couldn't just "rewind the tape." To track anything, you had to anticipate it ahead of time—adjust the satellite's orbit, angle the cameras, fine-tune the resolution. Hoping to get lucky was basically impossible.
Owen wandered around David's apartment some more. The guy really was a military fanatic. One room was filled with his collection of gear: replica firearms, uniforms, helmets, scopes, and all kinds of tactical equipment. It all looked fairly convincing—until you took a closer look and realized it was all fake.
Owen eventually brought the girl back to CTU, where Tony assigned someone to interrogate her further. But Owen didn't have high hopes.
Chloe still hadn't found a solid lead. It turned out the kidnappers had come prepared—they had deliberately destroyed several surveillance cameras along their escape route.
Because of that, Chloe couldn't reconstruct their path from street cams. She had to change strategies, cross-referencing footage from private security cameras on nearby businesses. But this process was far more time-consuming. Since those feeds weren't online, CTU had to send agents out to physically retrieve the data.
By the time all the footage had been collected, hours had passed. Then Chloe's team had to sort it, analyze it, and reconstruct a timeline. It was well into the next day when they finally had something useful.
After an entire night of work, they had a lead: the data showed that David had been taken to Pier 1 and put aboard a commercial cargo ship bound for Yemen.
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