Chapter 6
The speakers crackled with interference from the man's radio whilst the screen, an array of black and green, flickered in its transmition.
"Entering the building now." A man's voice filled the room until it seemed to surround them, leaving them on the edge of their seats.
A one-floor building filled the main screen. Its sand walls were awash with green from the night-scope vision of the cameras.
A dozen smaller screens to the right were transmitting similar video feeds from the six other cameras which were attached to the soldier's vests as they surrounded the site.
The image bobbed up and down slightly as the man it was attached to approached the building at a fast pace, beside him other soldiers were visible as they too entered the building.
A tense silence had fallen over the operations room as everyone watched with anticipation. They did not know what to expect; would a gunman be on the opposite side of that wall, were there explosives present?
Turning in his chair, Commander Strong cast a glance at the others around him. Everyone visible in the room were of vital importance to the security and safeguarding of the operation, and they were transfixed by to the screen with hope.
Strong could sense how badly they wanted this to be the end of the matter, to be able to go back to their superiors and say that the situation, which had erupted over a month earlier, had been dealt with.
However, Strong rather thought he wanted a good outcome more than any of them combined.
Turning back to the main screen when someone caught him staring, Strong watched the various video feeds of separate rooms in the building and saw that, except for the soldiers, they were all empty.
His hand balled into a fist on the table beside him when he saw, on the third screen to the right, a bare room with a blanket and a teddy bear discarded in the corner.
"Clear," A disappointed voice reported back through the mic, "It's all clear here, sir."
A dozen peopled let out small sighs of frustration when a naval commander on the opposite end of the table spoke to the soldier, "How long?"
The video showed the lead soldier turning around and heading outside where another man seemed to be waving him across, pointing to something on the ground.
Torchlight highlighted the spot on the ground, the night-vision turning it automatically green for those sat in a room back in London.
"Tyre tracks, sir, and oil deposits." The soldier knelt down and touched the oil, "It's still warm. We couldn't have long missed them."
"Right," An older man dressed in yellowed white shirt and slack blue tie got to his feet, "Return to your base and await further orders. We have this now, Captain."
"Sir, if I may," The captain on the other end of the call answered, "We could follow the tracks and-"
"-Those tracks, Captain, will only last until the vehicle reaches a road and then I'll have a Spec Ops team on a wild goose chase. No, Captain, return to your base. I'll make a call and get a drone in the sky."
"Perhaps they ought to stay out there," A representative of the Prime Minister suggested as he sat in his crisp suit, "Then when your drone finds anything they would be able to act immediately. We are talking about the lives of over twenty children-"
"-I am well aware of what is at stake, more than you perhaps!" The man shouted, "Our intel tells us that these terrorists are heavily armed. If our men do catch up with them, it'll be like the Wild West with twenty-six children stuck in the middle of it!"
The representative looked down into his lap.
"If nothing else, it'll be an international disaster!" The head of MI5 barked at the man before he turned back to the screen, "Return to base, Captain."
"Yes, sir. Over and out."
The video feed and communications were turned off and people began to slowly exit the room.
Commander Strong was one of them and he was feeling as if he was at the end of his rope. This was the third operation in which they had caught the tail ends of the terrorists and he could no longer lie.
All the security agencies were too scared to make a move in case they were forced to take responsibility for the death of a child.
Strong understood their misgivings but it had been over a month and if they continued to sit on their hands then they could lose all of the children.
Not to mention, that something much bigger was at play here, why else would they abduct children from the orphanage?
However, they could not make any lead way on their intelligence until the children had been moved to safety.
He was also sick of lying to two of his best Marines.
*
"That's just unrealistic," Jules frowned at the double page spread of celebrity women's bodies, "I mean, all of that is just photoshopped, it's ridiculous."
She turned the magazine around to show Marc, who was sat opposite her, but only for a few seconds.
Julia didn't need him thinking that she was out of shape on top of everything else they had going on. But he didn't seem to even notice.
"Did Strong tell you why he wanted us here?" Marc looked around the metallic lobby as people in suits and badges walked past.
Julia shook her head, "He just caught me on the way in to the base and said he wanted us with him. I assumed it would be for security."
"Maybe," Marc muttered, leaning back in the chair, but somehow that didn't fit right with him when he looked back across at Julia and saw her still frowning at the gossip magazine.
She never read those things and she definitely never stared at the same page for over five minutes. Marc shifted uncomfortably upon the grey sofa as he realised that Julia was trying to avoid him.
"I think we should go on holiday," Marc blurted out before he had a chance to connect his mouth with his brain.
Jules lowered the magazine until it only covered the lower half of her face, "A holiday?" Her eyebrow arched.
Marc nodded, "Have some time to ourselves; get away from everything."
You mean bury your head in the sand. Julia thought to herself but she didn't voice it.
Instead she nodded her head, "Yeah, maybe."
She was saved from elaborating on her answer when the elevator across the lobby pinged open and she spotted the Commander among its occupants.
Throwing the magazine back onto the table, she got to her feet and went to meet the commander.
Marc was by her side instantly. Their backs were straight, their uniform ironed to within an inch of its life and their hair presented perfectly; Jules's in a tight bun and Marc's combed back.
"Commander," They greeted Strong with a salute.
He gave them a firm nod and moved straight past them. Julia and Marc shared a look at the Commander's sharp attitude.
Whatever it was that Strong needed to do here hadn't gone well but it wasn't their place to ask, so they followed him across the desk and prepared to sign themselves out, handing over their visitors badges as they did so.
Their boots clicked against the tiled floor as they approached the front desk but when they were less than ten feet away Strong came to a sudden halt.
He made a show of patting down each of his pockets before turning to them with an exclamation passing his lips, just loud enough so that those closest to them overheard him.
"I've forgotten my wallet upstairs in the briefing room," Strong rolled his eyes theatrically, "Would you two mind going to fetch it for me, I'm awaiting an important phone call."
Strong removed a small swipe card from his pocket, conveniently not housed in his wallet, and handed it to Julia, "Sixth floor, second room at the end."
"Sir, one of us should stay with you." Marc told Strong. Two people weren't needed in collecting a lone wallet.
"That won't be necessary, Lieutenant," Strong pulled out his phone and began to mutter about the annoyance of waiting for phone calls, "I do however require my wallet," Strong nodded towards the elevator.
"I'll get the wallet, Commander" Jules suggested, "And Marc can wait with you for your phone call."
Jules did not fancy standing around for a phone call, besides a glance at the backstage of MI5 was something she couldn't miss.
Catching the elevator before the doors slid shut Jules turned around and glimpsed Marc watching her leave with a slight narrowing of his eyes.
Julia chuckled to herself as she pressed the button for the sixth floor.
Orchestral music played in the elevator as it came to a halt at the second and third floors.
As people exited and entered the metal cube, Julia could not help but looked at them from the corner of the eye. Were these people spies? Were they about to leave on a mission?
Her mind was running through loops when the elevator stopped once more upon the fifth floor. This time when the doors open there were three people waiting to enter the already crowded lift.
The first two, one man and a younger woman, entered with no difficulty but the third, a woman in a her late twenties with mousy-brown hair and wearing a navy suit, seemed glued to the spot, her eyes locked onto Julia.
Jules frowned as she stared at the woman and saw surprise glittering in her light blue eyes. Julia said nothing as someone pressed a button on the keypad and the doors closed shut once again, leaving the woman behind on the fifth floor.
Julia was beginning to grow annoyed by the amount of people in the small elevator that by the time it stopped on the sixth floor, Julia was already out of the doors before they had fully opened.
Following the Commander's instructions, Julia went to the second door to the end and found it locked. A small LED light set inside a piece of black rectangular plastic beside the door glowed red.
Lifting the swipe card, Julia hovered it in front of the plastic strip and watched the red light turn green.
This time the door opened with ease and she walked into a large room with television screens set up on the far wall and a large oval oak table in the centre. There was even a white board in the corner.
Julia felt like she was back at school.
Letting the door shut behind her, Julia started looking around for the Commander's wallet but nearly everything in the room had been stripped clean except, Jules realised, for the whiteboard which still harboured a few dozen photos.
Her curiosity getting the better of her once again and, forgetting all about the wallet, Julia walked around the table before coming to a halt in front of the screen.
Now that she was closer she could see that all the photographs, laid out in four neat rows, were images of children. Some had names written beneath them in black pen and others were simply blank.
Glancing over her shoulder to double check she was alone, Julia looked along each of the rows of photos until she reached the fourth and final row.
It was there that the breath seemed to leave her body.
Squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head, Jules tried to dislodge whatever it was that was in her eyes which was making her see things.
However, when she opened her eyes again the photograph of Safia Karzai was still taped to the board.
"Safia?" Julia reached out and trailed her fingers over the photograph. It was grainy and had been taken by a long-scope camera but Jules recognised her dark hair and sweet face from anywhere.
She had gotten a lot bigger since the last time Julia had seen her.
Her fingers curled around the photograph and ripped it from the board, leaving a large blank space in the row but Julia didn't care.
Turning on her heel, Julia stalked from the room. Commander Strong hadn't left his wallet in the room; he wanted Julia to see this, but why!?
Hurrying out of the elevator when it reached the ground floor, Jules looked around for her Commander and found him and Marc by the desk where she had left them.
Julia stalked across the lobby and, not bothering about formalities, pushed the photograph and his swipe card into his hand.
She didn't utter a word when Strong looked up at her and Marc with guilt, "Let's go somewhere more private."