Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs, its particular characters, or the plots of its episodes. All I own are the plots of my specific stories and a few original characters.

A/N: All information on FBI's Hostage Rescue Team has been garnered from online sources available to the public. While this story strives for as great as accuracy as possible, there will be unavoidable inaccuracies. No disrespect is intended to the members of HRT who put their lives on the line to keep Americans safe.


The Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia covers a staggering 55,148 acres of land. The Base is home to the Marine Corps Office Candidate School, the Marine Corps Brig, and the DEA training academy. Besides being a Marine Corps Base, Quantico is probably most well-known for housing the FBI: its academy (along with Hogan's Alley), its main laboratory, and HRT (Hostage Rescue Team).

HRT is the FBI's elite tactical unit, tasked with resolving hostage situations around the United States, assisting with manhunts, and executing high-risk search-warrants, among many other scenarios. Three teams of thirty men each rotate through three cycles of 120 days (training, operations, and support).

HRT operates out of a small compound on Quantico Base near the FBI Academy. Near HRT Headquarters, a large plainly-built building, the operators have an outdoor range all to themselves to practice on. At Tactical Firearms Training Center, they practice close-combat encounters in a simulated environment. They even have a mock-up of a jetliner to practice for hostage situations on aircrafts.

This story begins on a cold winter's day in December 2007, when Red Team was on its operation cycle. Not currently deployed, the operators were spending the day training, unaware that their normal day was about to take a drastic turn, leaving the Team in a race to save one of their own.