by Claire Adams
That was exactly what I needed. A phone that wasn’t being traced and wouldn’t have people listening in on it. We jumped up and looked out the window as the sun shone strong in the streets. The store across the street was still closed for the night, but probably not for too much longer. People would be arriving to work shortly, if the business was still open during the war, and I needed to get into that building and use their phone before they arrived.
“Any chance someone here knows how to break into buildings?” I joked as I looked at the group.
Most of the women just stared at me, but one of them raised her hand slowly. I looked shocked at her and then at Danita. How was it possible that a woman from this culture would know how to do something so sinister as breaking into a building?
“Translate for me and make sure she understands what I’m asking,” I said to Danita.
“It’s my mother; she understands. She can understand English very well, but struggles with talking.”
“She knows how to break into a building?” I asked.
“Into a door, yes. My grandfather was a drinker and she often had to get into a locked room to help him when he drank too much. It was not right in our culture for him to do that and she snuck in secretly to help him.”
“Okay, then come with me.” I motioned to the woman. “We are breaking into that building right there.”
I pointed to the business across the street and she shook her head. We were going to get ourselves out of this mess and then I was going to make sure Nate was safe. Nothing could be worse than finding out that Nate had been killed in that firefight, absolutely nothing. I needed to keep moving forward and ensure we made it to safety.
The woman I brought with me across the street was indeed very good at breaking into doors. We went around to the back door and she used a small hairpin that she had to open the door. I told her to wait outside and keep watch as I ran inside to make my phone call.
There was only one person whose number I had with me, and that was Timothy Anders from the Red Crescent. I wasn’t exactly sure what I would say to him. I didn’t know if he would be able to help at all or not, but he was my only hope.
“Tim, it’s Ana,” I whispered in the phone.
I wasn’t sure why I was whispering since I was in the building alone, but I whispered all the same.
“Ana, are you all right?”
“I have a group of women and teenagers, our convoy was attacked and my co-workers separated from me. If you can get word to them that we are all right, that would be great. We are hiding out in a building until dark and will make our way toward the airport at first night.”
There was a long pause as Timothy took in the information I was giving him. He wasn’t used to this sort of danger and I could tell by his delayed response that he didn’t exactly know what to say or do.
“I know the company Resolve Oil; I can let them know your information and they could notify your team. You don’t have their contact information?”
It sounded ridiculous and I knew it, but my pretending to be on the team didn’t mean I actually knew where they were or what they were doing. I didn’t know how to contact any of them and that was a huge mistake on my part.
“Our normal communication is down. I’m not even sure they made it through the firefight.”
“Where are you? I can send some Red Crescent vehicles to get you guys.”
“Absolutely not; the rebels are only a few blocks away, we can’t risk any more lives. We are somewhere between the office building and the airport. I believe about one mile out, but not really sure.”
“I could try and do some sort of distraction to draw their attention so you all could make a run for it?” Timothy said with a questioning tone.
I appreciated his ideas, and they were good ones, but I didn’t want to be responsible for something happening to any Red Crescent volunteers. On the other hand, I also didn’t want to be responsible for something happening to any of the women and teenagers I had with me.
“Get with Nathan Foster from my team; he will guide you in what to do. If you can’t reach him, then talk with a guy name Baller. He is at the safe house and should have the most intel. I have to go. We will lay low for the day and move out at first dark.”
“Okay, I’ll see you tonight then,” Timothy said optimistically.
“Yeah, see you tonight.”
Neither of us sounded sure in our statements at all. There was a distinct chance we wouldn’t see each other that night at all. The odds were against us for sure. The women and teenagers were going to be led to safety by me, a woman who only days before had been shaken to my core over a raccoon that had slipped into the house. Nothing about that moment seemed to instill confidence that we were going to make it through it alive.
I didn’t need to know the outcome of our next twenty-four hours in order to push through it though. That was something I had done often at Stephano’s house. Each day brought something new and horrible to deal with, and each day I pushed through and made it to the next day. That was all we could do at that moment as well.
Sure, we were just a bunch of women and teenagers who didn’t know what we were doing. But we were also a group of survivors who had been through so much that we knew how important we were to each other. The language barrier didn’t matter to us; we were together and I was going to make sure we all made it to the airport alive.
No, I didn’t have the proper training to lead those women and teenagers to safety, but that didn’t matter at all. I didn’t need to be trained to know that if we didn’t succeed in our goals, we were all going to be murdered. That was enough motivation for me and I knew it was enough for them as well.
My focus was clear and with the help of the group we were all going to make it to the airport. When we got there, Nate would be waiting for me and I made a mental note to myself that I would tell him how much I cared about him. No more fear about putting my heart out there; if I lived through the ordeal we were in, I was going to live my life with such abandonment that everyone around me would be jealous.
Chapter Twenty-Two
NATE
“I’m going back,” I said over the radio to Baller.
“No, wait until we know what’s going on,” Baller replied.
“I can’t wait; it could be too late.”
I jumped out of our SUV to make my way back to the area where the firefight had just happened. I took care to go a different route so I could get first sight on the rebels and wouldn’t get ambushed by them.
“Wait,” I heard a man’s voice say.
When I turned around, it was Roane running after me. I didn’t have time to babysit anyone and I certainly didn’t want to risk the life of one of the office workers.
“Go back to the SUV; they will get you to the airport.”
“I can’t leave the women,” Roane said firmly.
The look in his eyes told me he was totally serious and there was no way I was going to convince him of anything else. What Roane may have lacked in tactical skill, he made up for in heart, and it would be good to have an extra set of hands if we got engaged. I glanced down and saw that Roane was carrying the semi-automatic gun from Sandbag, which I hadn’t grabbed when I left. So that was another positive to keeping Roane with me.
“All right, stay close and follow my lead.”
We went two blocks out of the way and then approached the square from the west side. But before we got there, we ran across the SUV that the women had been in. Rake was shot dead in the front seat and the radiator looked like it had taken a shot as well.
“Baller, get a cleanup crew to retrieve Rake; he’s dead.”
“What?”
“Now. I’m not leaving until someone is here. I don’t want his body being used for some sick games by the rebels.”
“I’ll be there in five,” Baller said.
It wasn’t the ideal option to have to wait there for Baller, but I had seen rebels string up troops in the middle of the st
reets as propaganda and I wouldn’t let that happen to my friend.
“Roane, look around and see if we can get some clues as to where the women were taken, or where they went.”
“You think they were kidnapped?”
“No idea yet. They could have been forced out of the vehicle at gunpoint and brought with the rebels, or they could be on the run.”
Roane made a strained face as he contemplated either of those options and the potential results of what would happen to the women. Neither of us had enough information to know what had happened, so there was no use in getting worked up until we had some more information.
“I’m going to walk up the street and see if I find anything,” Roane said.
“I’ll catch up to you as soon as Baller comes for Rake.”
I stayed with Rake and looked through the SUV to make sure I took anything valuable out of it. It looked like his handgun was missing as well as the extra rounds that he would have had with him. My first instinct was to hope that the women had taken off on foot and were using his gun for their protection, but I still had no real proof.
“Ah, shit,” Baller said when he pulled up next to us. He had gone around the area where we were attached and came from the west. But there was no telling if the rebels were watching us or not.
“Straight to the temple. He didn’t have a chance,” I said as I helped him load Rake into his vehicle.
We had protocol for getting a wounded or killed member out of a war zone and Baller would have to start that process as I continued on trying to find the women. Hopefully, Sandbag had the men safely to the airport by then. It was going to be a long day if we didn’t find the women soon though. They wouldn’t last long if they were out on their own in the daylight.
“Where are the ladies?” Baller asked.
“Not sure yet, I’ll try to track them through these footprints.”
“Let me know as soon as you can. Or radio if you need assistance. But I wouldn’t give too much information over the radio; I don’t trust the signal right now.”
“Understood,” I said and gave Baller a quick handshake before he left with Rake.
Rake had a wife and child back at home and it killed me that his life had been cut short. I wanted to go right back to that square and blow the whole damn thing up to kill the bastards, but I didn’t have the time. I needed to find Ana and the women. They didn’t know what to do or how to stay out of harm’s way. If they started hiking through the city in the middle of the daylight, there were likely to get kidnapped and held by the rebels.
I didn’t want to think about what the rebels would do with a beautiful woman like Ana. Certainly they would keep her as a show of their power and try to get some sort of ransom from her family or country. The only thing that might help her was that she wasn’t American. If she had been American, they certainly would have killed her live on television to prove their power.
I had to stop thinking about the women getting captured. They were probably running for their life toward the airport and hopefully they would make it. Perhaps, they would even realize that they needed to hide until dark again. That was the only way they could actually make it to the airport. I desperately wished I could find them and be there to help Ana and the women get to the airport. I felt helpless knowing that they were out there all alone.
“There’s lots of footprints over here,” Roane said when I finally caught up to him. “Do you think it’s the women?”
I had been following the footprints from the SUV to where Roane was standing. I definitely thought it was the women and teenagers. They must have stopped for a minute, probably to regroup and decide which direction to head out in.
As we started to follow the tracks, I took special care to cover them up behind us. The last thing I wanted was for the rebels to use the same tracks. There was no guarantee that we would find the women, but as the night started to wear off we did need to either find them or hide ourselves until the morning.
We continued through the streets and followed what we thought were the women’s tracks before they dissipated into the cement sidewalks. I thought I could still see some of their tracks going up to a building, but I didn’t feel confident enough to try and break into the building to see if they were in there. The sun was fully up by that point and Roane and I needed to hide right away.
There weren’t many totally abandoned buildings on the street we were on, but we were able to climb to the roof of one building and sought shelter under some clotheslines. It wasn’t a perfect hiding spot, but it did give us a great vantage point to look out over the streets and see if we found the women moving anywhere along the neighborhood. If they were within a half of a mile of us, we were going to see them.
“Nitro, I’ve got a message for you,” Baller said on the radio.
“What’s up?”
“Ana has the women and teenagers; they are heading to the airport. She called some Red Crescent guy who got a hold of Resolve Oil, who then contacted Blankenship. They are hiding out in an abandoned building for the day and will head out as soon as it’s night again.”
“No idea where they are hiding out?”
“Nope, but the call came in only about an hour after the firefight, so they couldn’t have gotten that far.”
“We are sitting tight until night as well. Hopefully we will see them when they take off; I’ve got my night vision with me.”
“Good deal. Stay safe, Nitro.”
“We will.”
Baller sounded shaken by everything that had happened so far. I had forgotten to ask about the men getting to the airport, but I assumed he would have told me if they were in trouble. Now all we had to do was wait out in the 100-degree heat until evening came again, then we could hopefully find the women and help them get to the airport.
“Do you think they are all right?” Roane asked.
“Yes, if they found a place to hide out for the day, I think they will be all right.”
Roane didn’t seem to be convinced by my opinion, but then again, I wasn’t all that convinced by myself either. We didn’t really know if the women were safe and neither of us could predict what the rebels were up to.
It was hot on that roof. Probably ten degrees hotter than it was on the ground. It made the perfect place to dry clothing, but not really the best place for two men to hide out for the day. We tried to stay under the shade of the sheets and other clothing items that were on the clothing lines, but the sun still seemed to find its way to us and beat down on our heads.
We hadn’t been prepared and neither of us had water; we were going to need some if we planned to make it through the day. I climbed into the main building and made my way down the small hallway. I was looking for an apartment where no one was home. There were two apartments on each floor and none of them had noises coming from them, but that wasn’t a guarantee that people were away.
It was a war zone; anyone who was home was probably hiding and that meant they weren’t going to be making a ton of noise at all.
I knocked on a door and waited to see if anyone came to answer. After a few moments of no one answering, I used my knife to get into the apartment. Quickly, I pillaged through the kitchen and found a large container I could fill up with water and got out of the apartment and back up to the roof without leaving a trace. If the family did return home, it wasn’t likely that they would realize their container was gone for a while, and by that time we would be long gone.
When I reached the roof again, Roane had spread the sheets out over the clothing lines to give us better shade. It wasn’t perfect, but it would keep us a few degrees cooler as we waited out the day.
“You have a wife and children with the other group?” I asked Roane.
I hadn’t really thought about all the men and how upset they must have been about their wives and children. It was probably pretty difficult on them to not know if they were safe or not. But if it was at all possible to keep them safe, I was going to do it.
�
�Yes. My wife, Marini, and my daughter, Danita, are both in that group. I have two smaller children who are safe at the airport now.”
“I’m sorry, Roane, I’ll do what I can to keep them safe. My girlfriend, Ana, is with them. I trust she is also doing what she can to keep them safe.”
I wasn’t about to explain to him that Ana had zero experience in a war zone. It certainly wouldn’t have made him feel better. Although Ana didn’t have experience, she had been doing everything almost exactly as I would have done if I was with the women. Except for covering her tracks, but that was something you learned with time. I was impressed with her skills so far, but I still wasn’t going to have her working in my profession for a living; it was too dangerous.
“Your girlfriend is very skilled. You must be proud of her.”
It seemed an odd statement coming from a man like Roane. In his country, they didn’t let women do very many things outside of the house and women weren’t seen as equals. But he could see that Ana was different. She was a powerful woman and I was happy to see her overcoming her intense fear.
“Yes, she’s tougher than most women I know.”
“I can see that, and very smart.”
“Thank you.”
“Most women wouldn’t be able to come to a place like this and help others like she is. It’s a brave thing.”
“Yes, I think I’m lucky to have her.”
Roane and I spent the rest of the day talking about his family and mine. We talked about what life might be like for him and his family after they left Syria and if they would ever see an end to the war that was going on. It was sad to see how his entire life had to be left behind all because of a war that had continued on without an end. But I had a feeling we were going to be able to get him out alive, as well as his family; so that was good.
As sun moved across the sky and started to dip down into a sunset, I kept my eyes peeled on the streets around us. I hoped that the women wouldn’t take off for the airport just yet, but I didn’t want to miss them if they started early.