Dramatis Personæ

Search and Rescue

After the freighter had exploded, the team was forced to ditch their gear, and swim for their fishing boat, where the still-recovering Mahoney was supposed to be waiting for them. They found it unoccupied, with signs of a struggle, and small-arms damage. Vega determined the engine was beyond repair, while the others searched the boat for clues to Mahoney’s fate, finding a GPS-tracker missing. Some hours later, they were picked up by Omani coast guard responding to sightings of the freighter. The team was questioned, and eventually returned to Port of Salalah, where they were put up in a local hotel while the coast guard figured out what to do with them. Individually, the team evaded their guards and discreetly exited the hotel.

Ilan and Chana went to the hotel the team had secured the day before and found it to be under surveillance by Russians. Lynch and Vega want to the team’s seaplane at the airport and found it similarly observed; they sneaked aboard, and using the tracker frequency, determined Mahoney’s probable location to be in Muscat. Meanwhile, the watchers at the hotel were suddenly called away. Ilan and Chana followed in a taxi, observing the Russians arriving at a local residence and assaulting it; the Baums decided not to participate, and instead returned to the airport to join the others. Once regrouped, the team flew to Muscat.

Mahoney had been captured at the fishing boat by the Russians. Earlier, at an unknown location, he resisted interrogation. After the interrogator was suddenly called away, the guard left behind got a mysterious phone call that stunned him with a deafening screech. Mahoney, still handcuffed to the table, subdued the guard, and freed himself. He answered another ring from the phone, and discovered McKay, a hacker who worked with the team in the past, on the other end. McKay guided Mahoney out of the building—the Russian embassy in Muscat—where he stole the ambassador’s limo and fled.