Chapter 17
The limited intelligence they could gather about the group behind the kidnapping of Safia and the other orphans spoke of an abandoned compound in the heart of Al-Qaeda territory as to the most probable location where they were being held.
As they packed up the jeeps and headed out of town with Kazeem and his brother at the wheels, Julia finally began to feel as if they were catching up with the perpetrators.
Marc looked at her from across the back seat. Neither of them spoke a word but their hands found each other in the middle and Jules smiled a little at the way his fingers gripped her.
His skin had bronzed under the middle-eastern sun almost immediately highlighting the soft dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose. Nobody would know they were there if they didn't look closely but Julia did, she knew they were there and it soothed her to think that only she knew it.
Perhaps it was bad of her but it helped to have something that was just hers, not the military's, not Carlos's or Twitch's, her own. Maybe there was a chance for them still.
Julia didn't know how long they had been driving for, she would zone out at times, only waking up when they stopped to refuel from petrol cans pre-packed in the boot but when she looked up again she was shocked to find that it was dark outside.
When she looked out the window now she no longer saw the broken and jagged outline of half-demolished buildings but rather she saw her own haggered reflection gazing back at her.
She stared at the lines on her face only starting to realise how old she felt. She had lost years of memories but her body remembered even if her conscious didn't. The x-rays her doctor had taken told their own story of a life on a battlefield. There were scars from explosions and gunshots. Her body read like an Andy McNab novel, and yet there were scars she still could not explain.
Her eyes lowered towards her abdomen where unseen scars inside of her caused the most damage. Memory loss she could get over, but what if she could not past this?
"We can't go any further or else we risk them seeing us," Kazeem shut off the headlights as they rolled to a stop. The other jeep pulled up alongside them and Carlos stepped out.
"Where are we?" Jules asked as she slipped out of the vehicle and looked around them but all she could see was darkness.
Turning in a circle, Jules felt sand and small stones crunch beneath her boots and she felt the warm air brush her cheeks.
"The compound is due north," Hasan walked around the front of the jeep with Twitch carrying a roll of paper, "It was abandoned after the army drew too close."
Julia looked due north but she could not see anything. Turning to look at the sky, she saw that the moon was partly covered by cloud which could be good for them or bad for them, only time would tell.
"This is a map of the compound," Twitch rolled it out across the bonnet of the jeep.
"Where did you get a map?" Marc walked over.
Twitch looked at Carlos.
"Don't ask," Twitch murmured as he stepped to the side for them all to take a look, "But it's not up to date."
Letting her rifle hang by her side, she removed a small torch from her pocket and shone it across the map. It was a professional map but the paper had begun to grow yellow from age and the edges seemed to have been eaten away by mice but the main drawings of the compound remained intact.
"It says there's three buildings here," Julia frowned, "How do we know which one they're in."
"We don't," Marc placed his hands on his hips.
"Sweep and trace?" Carlos suggested referring to a method of clearing a building. They covertly enter a building and sweep it room to room, clearing them as they go.
Jules nodded, it was their only option. There was no way they would be able to get anyone inside for reconnaissance and they were running out of time.
"Alright, mount up, we do this quietly," Marc reminded them.
Carlos nodded and headed for the rear of the jeep, "Julia?"
Jules followed him and helped him unload various weapons from the boot. She pocketed a handgun with a silencer attached, slipping it into the waistband of her trousers, and a grenade she found rocking back and forth in the corner.
"Kazeem, Hassan," Julia called them over and handed them each a rifle with extra cartridges.
Kazeem took the rifle with familiarity, releasing the magazine cartridge with a click and checking the ammo before sliding it back into place.
Hassan watched his brother with fascination before looking at his own rifle with uncertainty.
"Hey, its alright, just put one hand here and your other there. Hold it against your shoulder," Twitch shifted the rifle into place until it was firmly nestled against Hassan's shoulder.
Hassan stumbled slightly as he did so.
"And when you fire just be careful not to dislocate your shoulder. Okay?" Twitch gave him a wide grin before slapping him on the shoulder. Hassan stared at Twitch's back in horror.
Carlos laughed.
"Take everything you need," Marc called over as he checked the sight on his rifle, "We may not be coming back here."
Jules, Carlos and Twitch took this fact in their stride whilst Hassan looked to Kazeem in worry.
Kazeem reached across and squeezed his brother's shoulder.
"Alright, let's go," Marc announced but Julia was already heading up the road.
*
The three buildings which made up the compound were all one level with sand-coloured walls and loosely tiled roofs. They were in close proximity to each other, barely twenty feet apart at any one point.
If they had had ariel shots at their disposal they would see that the buildings formed the shape of a backwards letter 'L'.
Everything else around them was just pure flat desert. There were some mountains in the distance but they were too far away to be of any strategical significance to them.
They stopped and crouched at Marc's signal when they drew close to the compound, "Jules, Kazeem and Hassan you take the perimeter-"
"-Uh uh," Jules interrupted looking straight at Marc, "I'm not staying out here. If she's in there, I'm going in."
Marc stared at his wife. He wanted to keep her safe, he did not know what was in those buildings. They could be empty or they could be . . . Marc couldn't think of what else might be in there.
"I'll stay out here," Carlos offered, knowing Jules torment.
"Okay," Marc nodded, "Carlos, Kazeem and Hassan you stay out and watch the perimeter. The rest of us, we take it one building at a time. Quietly, so no gunshots unless absolutely necessary. We can't risk being found before we locate them."
Julia, Twitch and Carlos nodded in unison to let Marc know that they understood. Kazeem and Hassan followed their actions and nodded too a moment later.
"Take your positions," Marc whispered as he rose to his feet and raised his rifle, using the night vision scope to see through the dark.
Julia did the same as she and Twitch fell in behind Marc and crossed the gap to the first building.
Their boots scuffed the ground quietly as they hurried but kept themselves slow enough so as to judge their surroundings.
Twitch watched their rears whilst Jules glanced around them but so far the buildings appeared deserted. However, Jules knew that appearances could be deceptive.
They reached the front door to the first building.
Pausing before the doorway, Julia removed the night scope from the top of her rifle.
Swinging the rifle around on its strap until it was lying diagonally across her back, she pulled a handgun from the waistband of her jeans with a silencer attached.
Marc looked to them each in turn before he mouthed 'three, two, one.'
When he reached one he opened the door and watched their backs as she and Twitch entered the building first. Holding the night scope to her eye with her left hand and the gun in her right, she made her way through the building.
As they entered she could see that it was square in shape and that it was simply one large vacant room.
"Clear," Jules whispered back to them and they quickly extracted themselves.
Crossing over to the second building, Julia could feel her palms sweating as she looked down the gap between the buildings and saw a large truck parked there.
She signalled to the others and they approached the vehicle.
Keeping their backs to the wall, they approached the truck. When they drew near, Julia crossed over to the other side whilst Marc slipped between the wall and cab.
Twitch checked beneath the vehicle and saw that it was clear. Walking over to the side, he checked behind the wheel and saw the tyre marks in the ground. They were fresh.
Reaching out, he pulled as softly as possible on the handle. It clicked open and he pointed his rifle inside but it was pitch black, all he saw the was nodding head of a canine figurine on the dashboard.
Letting the door click shut, he could not get the fresh tracks out of his mind.
Frowning, he went back to the front of the cab and rested the back of his hand against the metal. It was warm.
He met Marc and Julia at the rear, "There's fresh tracks and the engines warm. It hasn't been here long."
Julia looked to Marc with hope.
"Okay, lets go," Marc motioned for them to head back towards the second building after clearing the rear trailer attached to the truck.
The moment Marc laid his hand on the handle and gently pried the door open, Julia knew that this building was different to the first. She felt a soft wall of warmth greet her as she stepped inside which had been missing from the first building and there was a soft, inaudible noise she didn't quite understand.
Holding her gun steady, she slipped inside and found herself in a long corridor. She checked around her and noted the strips of wood, three high, that rang along the walls but nothing else stood out to her.
Halfway down the corridor and she heard the door click softly shut behind them and she knew that they were all inside. Nearing the end of the corridor, Jules's heart rate was picking up as the inaudible noise she had heard grew more audible by the second.
What before had been one big strange noise became half a dozen smaller, more recognisable noises. She could hear male voices, feet against the floor and tiny whimpers filtering through the walls.
Her eyes widened in horror as she realised that they were here! She wanted to run and burst into the room but her training kept her back as her body seemed to click into combat mode.
Walking past the first and only door in the corridor, she turned and aimed her gun at the entrance. Twitch stepped to the side of Marc so that he wasn't directly in front of the door but could get a good aim inside whilst Marc reached for the handle.
She knew they both heard the noises too so she did not need to warn them.
Marc's fingers curled around the handle and pulled it down when a gunshot cracked through the air like lightning.
They looked at each other and then down the corridor before they realised that it had come from the other side of the door.
A second gun shot followed by a short burst of gunfire from a rife.
Kazeem, Carlos and Hassan.
Julia swapped her handgun for her rifle. Re-attaching her night scope, Marc threw the door open and they stormed inside.
It was another larger room except there was light being emitted from lanterns pressed up along the wall. The amber glow was enough for Julia to see without the scope and she saw the numerous blankets and pillows sprawled along the floor along with food wrappers and plastic plates.
Her eyes were drawn to the commotion at the back of the room where a heavy set man had just left through, dragging a young child along behind him before the door slammed shut in their faces.
"Hey!" Marc ran after them, the sound of popping gunfire still coming from outside.
Twitch followed, his rifle scanning the room as he went.
"Help me," Marc grunted as he released his rifle, letting it hang by his side, whilst he rammed his shoulder against the door trying to get it open.
"Out of the way!" Twitch shouted as he raised his boot and began to kick at the door.
Julia was hurrying over to help when she heard something bleep behind her. It was the smallest noise and yet it did not belong here.
Stopping, she turned and narrowed her eyes in the direction it had come from but she could see only blankets and general rubbish accumulated from someone being kept inside all day.
She could hear Marc and Twitch grunting behind her as she approached the blankets. Something wasn't sitting right in her stomach about this.
Lifting up blankets, Julia tried to push from her mind the fact that one of these was Safia's blanket.
Pushing rubbish aside with her boot, Jules bent over to check one of the lanterns near the wall when she turned her head and froze.
"Marc?" Julia whispered, her brain not yet registering the danger that her eyes perceived.
Tilting her head slightly to get a better look, Julia nearly had her cheek pressed against the wall to look up underneath one of the beams of wood that lined the wall.
At first it was a single wire. Innocent enough, it could have been left over from when someone had tried to install some electricity to the building.
Following the wire, Julia's mouth grew dry as she saw that it led to a cluster of other wires, a few of which were pushed into a block of C4 taped to the wall behind the plank of wood.
"Marc," Julia growled as she looked further down the length of the wall.
For every five feet a block of C4 had been rigged up behind the wood panelling and it seemed to run the circumference of the building but when she saw what she saw next it felt as if her heart had dropped into her stomach.
"Marc!"
On a small black screen nestled on top a block of C4, in bright red angry lights, Julia could see a timer and it was counting down from 15 seconds.
"What?!" Marc shouted.
"Get out! GET OUT NOW!" Julia screamed, her eyes glued to the screen. 13 seconds.
"I can't! The doors jammed! What is it?" Twitch looked to her.
"The rooms rigged with C4! 10 seconds!"
"The front door!" Marc shouted as he hurried over and grabbed her arm, pulling her away, "GO!"
Panting, Julia pushed her body forward, not caring about the rifle that bounced against her back and hit her shoulder every time she took a step.
"Go, go, go, go!"
She could see the door, it was right there!
Come on!
She could see the timer counting down in her head.
When she was a few feet away, she reached out her hands and barrelled into the door with her whole body. Pain flared up her arm and across her shoulder as she threw herself out of the building.
The cool night air felt like the finish line but she knew they had to get further away.
Looking over her shoulder Jules saw Twitch emerging through the door with Marc hurrying behind him.
He was nearly at the door when the timer ran out in her head.
"MARC!" Julia screamed as his body flew through the doorway, the building exploding behind him as the C4 was detonated.
The explosion tore through the building. A tidal wave of flames erupted though the doorway just before large chunks of brick and mortar exploded outwards.
The force of the explosion knocked Julia off of her feet.
She felt the wind whip around her body before the sudden, brutal impact as she hit the ground, her head splitting open against a jagged piece of rock.
The pain in her head was unbearable as she eyes were clenched shut. She could feel something hard underneath her chest, digging into her lungs making it hard to breath whilst her arms were splayed out beside her.
She felt debris and warm ash raining down on her back, the sound of whooshing flames in her ears.
Disorientated, Julia could barely open her eyes to see through. Sand and ash covered her face and something wet was pouring into her right eye but she managed to wipe them enough to be able make out some shapes.
She wasn't sure where she was. Grunting, her fingers tried to reach for her gun as she looked around her but she couldn't recognise anything.
"M- Marc?" She coughed.
Breathing hard, Jules curled her fingers into the sand beneath her and pushed herself up. As she brought her knees up underneath her and sat back, the pressure on her chest was instantly released.
Looking down she saw her rifle laying on the ground in front of her. The strap must have come off from around neck and she'd landed on it.
Wiping at her eyes again when her vision grew blurry once more, she reached out and picked up the rifle.
"Twitch?" She coughed as she looked around her.
The entire building had been wiped out in the explosion until the only part that lasted was a bit of the far wall, the rest was lying in a pile of rubble in the middle.
As she tried to struggled to get to her feet two bright lights blinded her and the sound of a revving engine came to her as if through a long tunnel.
Looking up, Jules saw the two bright yellow headlights of the truck driving towards her.
Fumbling with the rifle in her lap, Jules grunted as her fingers pulled back on the catch before she lifted it into her arms.
She tried to take aim at the driver but the vehicle was going too fast and her vision began to grow blurry.
"NO!" Julia screamed in frustration as the truck screamed past her, turning on her knees she watched the back of the truck leave.
Through the blurriness she could see the outline of children in the back of the truck.
"No," Julia whispered as she watched them get away, thumping the ground pathetically as her vision began to grow dark.
"Jules!"
Julia recognised Carlos's voice just as she collapsed to the ground unconscious.