SEAL Team B was still on a mission in Africa, and the details were naturally kept secret. Jason Hayes had only hinted to Jack about a barbecue in Virginia Beach in three days.
So, Jack spent two days with Hannah, and on the third day, he drove his Firebird to Virginia Beach. However, something seemed to have gone awry. He waited all day at the hotel, but received no call from Jason.
This made him uneasy. Clay's last battle was a bit of a slam dunk, so he wondered if Team B would encounter any mishaps.
Jack called all the Team B contact numbers, ultimately landing on Jason's wife, Alana.
Half an hour later, he was at Jason's house, meeting Alana, Clay's six-month-pregnant girlfriend, Stella, and Team B Vice Captain Ray Perry's wife, Naima. They were accompanied by Team B's logistics officer, Lisa Davis.
"Tell me something you can say?" Although the women looked distraught, at least they weren't crying. Jack felt the worst wasn't yet here.
Lisa Davis and Jack walked out into the hallway. "I can't say much," she whispered, "The mission is classified. Clay's seriously injured, and the other team members aren't looking good."
"Where are they now?" Jack didn't intend to ask questions that would inevitably go unanswered. Instead, he directly inquired about the whereabouts of Team B.
"Just sent to Ramstein," Lisa Davis said, her expression glum. "I'm sorry I can't reveal too much."
"It's okay. Take care of Stella. I'll be there right away," Jack said, understanding.
Ramstein, in Germany, is NATO's largest air base in Europe. Jack knew who to contact at a time like this.
As they spoke, several cars pulled up in front of Jason's house, and the families of the other Team B members got out. Most of them had met Jack at the party. Seeing the two men standing at the door, they forced a smile and greeted them.
Jack went back inside to comfort Stella, telling her to wait for news, and then he left. Once in his car, he called a female CIA agent.
Unfortunately, Mandy Ellis wasn't involved in Team B's operation and didn't know the details. However, with her skills, she could arrange for Jack to board the nearest military transport plane and head to Ramstein.
Jack's eagerness wasn't surprising to her. After all, he had just recently fought alongside Team B in Mexico, and she had witnessed their close relationship firsthand.
Moreover, she owed Jack a big favor during the previous operation, so this small favor was nothing to worry about. As Team B's intelligence officer and Jason's friend, Mandy Ellis was eager to learn about Team B's current situation as quickly as possible.
Six hours later, a C-17 Globemaster landed at Ramstein Air Base. Jack disembarked and headed straight for the military hospital.
In the hospital corridor, he bumped into Jason, who was coming towards him.
"What the hell, how could you?" Jason, dressed in a hospital gown, his right arm in a cast and sling around his neck, was limping anxiously down the hallway. Seeing Jack, he was speechless.
"Someone offered to buy me a beer, but I waited all day and no one showed up, so I just came straight here." Jack smiled and gave him a hug, whispering, "Were you ambushed?"
"We were caught off guard by a rocket," Jason muttered back, subconsciously glancing at the soldiers and nurses coming and going, then pulled Jack into a break room.
2, 3, 4, 5—four of the six members of Team B were inside. Although everyone, including Jason, was injured, at least they were still able to move.
"I should have been the one hit by the rocket. I promised Clay a bachelor party, but I never got around to it." Sonny's mouth dropped open the moment he saw Jack, his self-pitying words catching in his throat.
"This isn't like the tough Texas guy I know. When did you start babbling like a little girl?" Jack gave the stocky Texan a hug and shook hands with everyone.
"Are you all okay?"
Lieutenant Ray Perry raised his bandaged left hand. "It's nothing serious, just burns and broken bones. Right now, we're most worried about Clay. He's been in the operating room for six hours. You know, the longer it takes, the worse it gets. Sonny's frantic."
His words made Jack's heart skip a beat. "Can you tell me what happened?"
He absolutely couldn't let Clay lose any limbs. Even if he was paralyzed, he could secretly save him. He could blame it on a medical miracle, but a disability would be a problem. He absolutely couldn't reveal his healing skills. This had nothing to do with friendship.
Jason glanced at Sonny, who stood at the entrance to the lounge, observing the situation outside.
"This was supposed to be a low-intensity operation. We were ordered to travel from Burkina Faso to Mali to capture a leader of a terrorist organization in the Sahel region."
After listening to Jason's story, Jack roughly understood what had happened. Mali is a small, landlocked country in West Africa. Neighboring Burkina Faso is the country where Sankara, known as the African Che Guevara, once fought. The
so-called Sahel region is a narrow strip of land over 3,800 kilometers long, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Horn of Africa in the east, between the Sahara Desert in northern Africa and the Sudanese savannah in central Africa.
It includes ten countries: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, and Eritrea.
The names of these countries suggest the turbulent nature of this region. Although rich in mineral resources, a long history of colonization and climate change have made it one of the poorest regions in the world.
This region is also one of the most active areas for terrorists from a certain religion in Africa, and forces from at least four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council have been active there.
The SEALs were ordered to drive two armored pickup trucks disguised as civilian vehicles to their destination to rendezvous with the other two task forces and carry out a decapitation operation. However, they were ambushed en route before they could reach their destination.
The enemy's precise objectives involved placing an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) on the roadside, overturning the lead vehicle. Then, at least thirty or forty men launched a surprise attack from the ridge. The torrent of automatic fire, coupled with occasional individual rockets, caught Team B completely off guard.
Team B carried only their personal ammunition, and the nearest Reaper drone took nearly 20 minutes to arrive.
Had Jason not single-handedly taken down the enemy's rocket battery and then used the remaining rockets there to eliminate two blocking positions, Team B might have been completely wiped out due to lack of ammunition and food.
Clay's luck was terrible. Although the first car that was blown over contained local guides and task force members, allowing the SEALs in the second car to survive the first wave of attacks, they were still severely damaged by the subsequent rockets.
One of the rockets landed right next to Clay, and the shockwave immediately knocked him unconscious. He woke up from the coma nearly five minutes later.
His left leg was torn apart by shrapnel, and the open fracture caused heavy blood loss. If Sonny hadn't helped him apply a tourniquet in time, he would have almost died on the spot in the chaos.