#bad intel

Thanks to bad Intel, Jack and Mac are ambushed.

Prompt: Unconsciousness

Part 10 of “Love + Angst”

Ao3 Link

Jack felt his heart leap into his throat as he struggled against the two burly men who were forcing him to stay on his knees. They had gotten bad Intel and their target and his Russian bodybuilder guards had been waiting for them.

Jack had tried to get Mac out in front of him so if they attacked he would take the brunt of the danger, but that plan had failed. The bodyguards had grabbed him first, subduing him with painful punches to the gut and twisting his arms up behind him. Mac had faced their target head-on and had been holding his own for a bit before he was blindsided by a punch to the face by a new man.

Jack watched as Mac collapsed onto the ground, a cut forming above his eyebrow and Jack had screamed at them when the man gripped Mac’s blond hair roughly in his fists and slammed Mac’s head against the ground three times. Mac was unconscious and blood was seeping down both sides of his face from where his body was lying prone between the newcomer’s legs as the man rose up in triumph.

“Now I think it’s time we have a little talk, who do you work for?” Their target asked, adjusting the cuffs of his sleeve looking unruffled by the fight and the bleeding unconscious blond mere feet from him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack gritted out and his head snapped to the side, blood exploding in his mouth as their target stepped back, shaking out his hand.

“I’ll ask one more time before I get Daryl here have some fun with your associate.” The target nodded at the man who was still straddling Mac’s limp form. Daryl grinned wildly as he knelt down and fisted the front of Mac’s shirt, lifting the top half of Mac’s body up off the floor. His head lolling to the side, the blood staining the blond hair and pale skin, Jack felt something roll in his gut and he strained against the two who were keeping him held down.

Jack opened his mouth to speak as Daryl pulled his fist back in an obvious move to punch the unconscious blond agent. Suddenly glass broke and smoke erupted from the floor, it threw the room into chaos. Jack used this chance to buck and throw the men holding him down off and he charged at Daryl as the doors burst open and the Phoenix tactical team charged in, shouting at the target and his men.

With a solid powerful punch to the chin, Jack had Daryl flying off of Mac and unconscious on the floor where a Phoenix agent handled the rest. Jack was kneeling next to Mac and had his fingers shakily pressed against his throat for a pulse and almost collapsed when he felt one, he knew head wounds bled a lot but this was Mac.

“Agent Dalton, EMT’s are waiting outside.” One of the agents told Jack, gun at the ready as he guarded the two agents.

“Thanks, make sure these scumbags are taken care of.” Jack nodded his thanks and gently slipped his arms under Mac’s knees and shoulders before standing up with the unconscious blond in his arms.

Mac’s head rolled until it came to rest against Jack’s chest while his left arm dangled free by his side and right arm resting across his own stomach. Jack pursed his lips and headed towards the door and out of the building to where the EMT’s had to be waiting.

It took everything Jack had in him not to snarl at the EMT’s who took Mac’s bloodied and unconscious body from his arms. Jack sank down onto the step of the ambulance, accepting the wet cloth from one of the EMT’s to rid his skin of any blood and dirt he had picked up. He kept his eyes on Mac, the blond on a stretcher getting his head wound looked at and an oxygen mask strapped over his mouth and nose, the little white exhales keeping Jack from freaking out completely.

“Agent Dalton,” Another agent handed him a phone, giving him a small smile as they all knew how much Mac and Jack meant to each other.

“Thanks for the help Matty, it could have gone really bad in there if they hadn’t shown up when they did,” Jack said in lieu of a greeting knowing it would be Matty on the other end.

“Of course, how’s blondie doing?” Matty asked and Jack glanced back at Mac whose head was bandaged properly and his face clean of his own blood.

“He’s still unconscious but looks like he’ll be fine,” Jack said once one of the EMT’s nodded at him firmly.

barrels of cement roll lazily like sticky chocolate down the driveway of your premonitions

fire-tipped hair she’ll have you say

blue fingertips and lemon zest you say

she’ll have more than i can reuse or recycle

and i hold this vision of a stranger new to town

cradling a fiddle under one arm a pickaxe dangling at the waist

and i say there’s no room for carpenter musicians at this inn

and that’s when you say oh but the fingers are false and the lemon zest is artificial

the fiddle is but a case and the axe couldn’t slice  open bread

and i just want to know what inspired the proclamation of what was never there to begin with?

So for curiosity sake, I decided to check around online to see what sites there are regarding witch classification. I prefer a tangible book myself, but I know my children are growing up in the age of computers and I just wanted to get a glimpse at how much I really need to be worried about the possibly less-than-informative information highway. It wasn’t so bad at first....

Then I found this gem....

Q:Can one be a Christian, or a Jew, or a Muslim, or other religious affiliation, and still be a Witch?

A:Witchcraft is a practice within Earth based religions. It is a re-linking with the life force of nature, both on this planet and in the stars and space beyond. Witches are women and men who gather on the new and full Moons and at festival times to join energy and bring themselves in tune with these natural forces. They honor the old Goddesses and Gods, including the Triple Goddess of the Moon and the Horned God of the Sun and the spirits of the animals  as visualizations of transcendent nature. If these concepts are not a part your religious belief system then you cannot consider yourself as practicing the basic credos associated with witchcraft.

That is a FAQ entry on the official (I use the term loosely) website for Spirit Walk Ministry  http://www.spiritwalkministry.com/traditional_witchcraft/traditional_witchcraft_faqs

...... Kinda annoying......

First of all..... has any Admin on this site read a Bible? The Bible is literally packed full of witches that also profess to be followers of the “Christian God”!!!! What the heck do you think Moses was? Solomon? Yeah, they may be described differently in the Christian circle, but as a witch that was raised Christian.... Christian Witches most certainly did and DO exist! S#!t, Moses even had a friggen staff that his deity empowered him to use as a magickal tool for Pete’s Sake!!! And Solomon was a bonafide bad ass demon summoning AND controlling sorcerer!!! And those are just 2 of the more famous examples.

Secondly, and this may come as a bit of a punch to the face...... Here’s a hoot of an idea, if you want to see a Legalistic Christian explode.... and this also reiterates my point that Christian witches exist even more than the Christians would like to think..... Ask a Christian to define “Spell” for you.... Then ask them to define “Prayer”.... now tell them in many cases they are the same thing and watch the fireworks.....Think about it.... Both call on a deity/force/power. Both call on strength, wisdom or any other form of assistance from said deity/force/power in whatever it is they wish to accomplish at the time... And typically, both thank said deity/force/power for the assist. At it’s core, the purpose served and the way one goes about it.... They are essentially the same. And yes, this also encompasses those that do not personify any particular god/goddess/whatever and do not actively worship or even lack belief in such bc if not utilizing a second party, in essence the second party becomes you, Self.... So Sorry Spirit Walk Meat-Head..... Mind blown. I know.

Thirdly... Oh I would love to see you try to tell one they don’t exist. I really truly would... I’d bring popcorn and a sarcastic grin.... But since you quoted John Reder, you must be right... oh crap, I repeated it, did another Christian Witch just dropped dead? Sorry, this crap brings to mind Tinker Bell.

I want to go on, I really really do, but my posts get too long already... anyone that checks this site out... pls tag me if you find more malarkey on there and vent about it.

On Christmas Eve, Sudarsan Raghavan of the Washington Post wrote a detailed article about a September air strike in which the US attempted to kill ‘Abd al-Rauf al-Dhahab, whom it believes to be a regional al-Qaeda commander.

That strike missed al-Dhahab and killed several innocent people and has, in turn, pushed more people into the arms of al-Qaeda.

The day before Raghavan published his article the US apparently tried to kill al-Dhahab again in yet another drone strike on December 23. Again, the US missed, killing two men who may or may not have been members of al-Qaeda.

On Saturday December 29 the US tried a third time (that we know of) to kill al-Dhahab. And for a third time it missed. This time killing three members of a local tribe who, again, may or may not be members of al-Qaeda. At least one local report has identified one of the dead as an 11-year-old boy, although as is often the case there are other reports that give different names and ages for the victims.

Even with all the sketchy details from the ground, this case raises several questions.

First, how did ‘Abd al-Rauf al-Dhahab make it onto the US kill list?

His family, as many readers of Waq al-waq will remember, was heavily involved in the Ansar al-Shariah takeover of Rada’a in early 2012 - on both sides actually, as one pro-government brother killed another pro-al-Qaeda brother before the pro-government brother was killed by yet another pro-al-Qaeda brother.

Confused yet?

Well it gets even messier the deeper one delves into the internal politics of the al-Dhahab family.

So why is the US convinced that ‘Abd al-Rauf al-Dhahab needs to be killed? Is he a bad guy? Maybe, maybe not. I’m not sure, but being a bad guy or even a member of al-Qaeda isn’t - at least it isn’t supposed to be - the test the US uses to put someone on the kill list. The US is only supposed to be going after people that it believes are targeting US interests in Yemen or plotting attacks on the US homeland.