allyb646
11-14-2013, 07:36 PM
“Well Jason you certainly bought extras. Come in come in.”
Jason walked through the house behind Phillip and into a large kitchen area.
“Nadine we have visitors, lots of them.”
Nadine was a tall, thin woman with long black hair; she spoke with a flowing Italian accent.
“Jason do you remember my wife Nadine.”
“It’s a pleasure Mrs Duddle.”
“The same.”
“And these are my children, as I see your friends have already met them.”
Jim and Southman were sitting on plastic chairs in a play room showing the eldest Isabella and the youngest Tomas how to pull a coin out their ear.
“Come onto the balcony we will talk there.”
Jason followed Phillip out onto the wooden veranda.
“So Jason what trouble have you gotten yourself into now?”
“Do you know of a person by the name of Colonel Peter Eln?”
“Yes I do and I can tell you, he’s an arsehole.”
“Yeah I found that out the hard way.”
“Why what’s happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
Jason explained the events that took place in the past two months and particularly the ones in the past week.
“Well my friend if you have come looking for help you have come to the right place. You and your men can stay here as long as you need.”
“Thank you Phil.”
Phillip leaned against the railing of the balcony and looked through the glass door into the busy house. Phillip took a long draw on his cigarette.
“You know you should give that up.”
“Yes I know, but it’s not that easy you know.”
Jason gazed through the glass door at Liv, who was standing in the kitchen talking to Nadine.
“I see you looking at her you know.”
“I was just glad I didn’t lose her this time.”
“Do you like her, Jason?”
“Like her? I love her; she’s someone that when I’m around I don’t feel normal.”
“My friend you are not mistaken, when you feel like that around a woman it means love. I myself feel that way around Nadine, the only question is though; does she love you?”
“I hope so; I guess we will find out soon wont we?”
Jason walked inside and stood in the kitchen next to Liv.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing, I would just like to thank Mrs Duddle for her hospitality as it looks like we will be staying here for a couple of days.”
“Jason anything for you, and please call me Nadine, you have known Phillip and I for years you can call me by my first name.”
“Hang on Jase how are we going to fit all the men in this house?”
“Ha-ha Olivia, you are funny, Jason and Phillip have had twice as many men stay in the house, we are always prepared you know. Jason, show Olivia the cellar.”
Jason grabbed Liv’s hand and showed her to the cellar. The cellar was much bigger than Liv had expected, it stretched for the length and width of the house and then further, the walls were lined with beds which each had set of drawers and a lamp beside them.
“What?”
“As Nadine said, they are always prepared.”
“This is huge!”
“Oh. That’s not all.”
Jason led Liv through a door and into an even bigger living area which was secretly buried beneath a quiet suburban street.
“What the…”
“I’m not finished.”
Jason took Liv through another this time leading into a tiled room which had six separated showers and six toilet cubicles on the other side of the room.
“I’m very familiar with this place.”
“Why?”
“Because on a previous mission, me and twenty three other men were wanted criminals in three of Germany’s sounding countries, and at that time German officials were looking for us too, so we lived down here for four months, Phillip and Nadine brought us supplies once a week.”
“Wow.”
“Well this time we are only going to be in here for a few days.”
Jason and Liv headed back up the stairs toward the noisy house. Jason summoned Nadine and Phillip into an empty sitting room. Phillip sat down on an arm chair next to Nadine, Jason and Liv sat down on a brown leather lounge.
“What did you want to speak to us about Jason?”
“Well Phil, I want to tell you that this is probably some of the worst **** I’ve ever been in.”
“And?”
“And I want you, Nadine and the kids to have some security, as my presence here may be endangering your lives. Phil, we are going to leave you with €1000, and we are leaving you with our armoured vehicle and a few pistols, just in case Eln comes here looking for me. If he does come here I want you to get across the border and into France, I have a friend who will protect you, he’s in Strasbourg and his name is Jonathan Stevenson.”
“Jason if anything happens I want to go with you.”
“But what about Nadine and the kids?”
“They will flee to Strasbourg like you said.”
“Alright.”
“Hang on what makes you think Eln will come? I mean, you told me Lachlan shot him.”
“Yeah but we’ve already got word that said that Eln is alive, Colonel Eln is like a savage dog, if you kick him he wants to bite you, and by my guesses he wants to bite me pretty hard.”
It was late at night and Nadine had cooked up a feast for the men to have. So by eleven o’ clock all the men had gone down into the cellar and gone to bed. It was almost two o’ clock when Jason was woken by a loud banging sound coming from the door. Phillip appeared in the door of the cellar and tiptoed over toward Jason and spoke to him in a whisper.
“Jason what do I do? There is a man standing at the front door.”
“What does he look like?”
“Short grey hair, average height, kind of muscly.”
“That’s Eln. Phillip get Nadine and the kids I need to speak to them.”
Jason woke up Liv first and went from bed to bed waking up all of the men. He then headed up the stairs to the sitting room where he had spoken to Nadine and Phillip. When he arrived he saw Nadine and the kids sitting on the leather lounge in their pyjamas.
“Nadine I need you to get the kids and their clothes and anything you want to take.”
“Why Jason? What’s happened?”
“Eln is here.”
Jason ushered the children into their bedrooms and helped them shove all of their clothes and some toys into their suit cases, when the eldest: Isabella stopped and looked at Jason.
“Jason?” She asked while rubbing her eyes.
“What is it Izzy?”
“Where are we going?”
“You and your mother are going on a holiday to a place called Strasbourg in France.”
Isabella nodded drowsily at Jason and started putting on fresh clothes.
When Jason was done he went back to the sitting room with the kids who had their suitcases packed tightly and Nadine walked into the room carrying a small suitcase.
“Nadine here is the €1000 I promised you earlier, use it in emergencies, oh and I would like you to carry this at all times.”
Jason handed Nadine a glock pistol. She took it carefully and placed it in her hand bag. Jason and Phillip then rushed them to the downstairs garage where the armoured vehicle was parked. Nadine and the children got into the car and buckled themselves in.
“Nadine I don’t want you to go until I give you the message. Okay.”
Jason handed Nadine a compact hand UHF frequency radio. Phillip kissed both of his children and his wife and left up to go and get ready.
Jason left the garage and headed up stairs, Eln was banging on the door impatiently.
“Bowen! I know you’re in there you little ****! And if you don’t come out soon, I’m coming in.”
Ten minutes had passed and all of Jason’s unit were upstairs, wearing black combats Liv signalled that they were ready. Jason waved Southman over.
“Southman I want you to go with Nadine and the kids. Get them across the border safely and keep them out of harm’s way.”
“Yes Sir, oh and good luck on the road ahead.”
“You too.”
Southman headed down into the garage and got into the driver’s seat of the car. Jason spoke into his radio.
“Can you hear me Southman?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Okay don’t leave until I give the signal okay.”
“Righto.”
Jason walked over to the front door and waved everyone over.
“Jason what do we do about Eln?”
“Okay we wait till he busts down the door, you guys get out then and I’ll hold him back for a few minutes.”
“No! You can’t do that! I’m not going to lose you again.”
“Liv, you’re not going to lose me; Eln is by himself and he’s injured, I can take him.”
“But you are injured too.”
“Not as badly as him.”
“Alright.”
Just as Liv said that Eln busted down the door with his foot. Jason leapt on to Eln, tackling him to the concrete just outside the door. When Jason got a free hand he called into his radio.
“Southman! Go go go! Get out of here!”
And with that Jason saw the light weight car burst out of the garage and zoom off down the road at breakneck speed.
When Jason went back to fighting with Eln, they had brought the fight out on to lawn in the driving rain; eventually the whole neighbourhood was awake.
Eln drove his fist hard into Jason’s nose and Jason retaliated by driving Eln into the brick fence, Eln let out a painful scream just as he hit the wall, his wounds causing him pain.
No sooner than two minutes after the fight had started men from all of the neighbouring houses started to come out with flash lights and wooden bats.
“Welche’s üblich auf? “ The first man called.
Trans: What’s going on?
Another man tried to separate Eln and Jason.
“Fick weg!”
Trans: **** off!
The man that tried to intervene stepped away and let Jason and Eln fight it out. Jason had made one vital mistake, when he had left the house he had left all of his weapons with Liv. Jason rolled around in the mud before landing a blow that knocked Eln out cold. Jase stood up and bound Eln’s hands together with handcuffs before stealing an unlocked car on the street and driving toward the airport, leaving his spectators in the rain, their mouths agape at what they had just seen.
Jason’s stolen Honda Civic busted through the airport gates catching the security guards by surprise. Two Humvees whizzed past the guards after the civic chasing it down the runway towards the waiting 747. Jason keyed his radio.
“James I’m not going to be able to board while you’re stationary with these Humvees on my tail, I want you to start taxiing now.”
“Righto Boss.”
James pushed forward on the plane’s throttle, and Jason gave chase in the tiny Honda civic.
“Liv!”
“Yes Jason?”
“I want you to open the door of the plane and lower a rope ladder down for me.”
“On it!”
Jason saw Liv open the door carefully and lower the rope ladder so that it skimmed along the ground.
Jason accelerated and lined up the small car with the rope ladder. Jason planted a house brick that he had stopped to steal from a construction site on the accelerator and started to climb out the window. Bullets whizzed past Jason as ascended on the ladder. Jason then heard his radio crackle.
“Jason I can’t do this anymore, I have to power up to take off, and I’m running out of runway.”
“Do it then James!”
Jason quickly climbed the last rungs of the ladder and landed on the floor of the plane, his chest heaving. When he opened his eyes he saw Liv standing over him smiling.
“Well you just made quite an entrance.”
“Yeah it felt like it.”
“Oi Jase where are we off to now? James called from the cockpit.
“Back to Australia.”
The silver 747 made a bee line straight for Australia.
“Hey how are you going?”
Liv sat down beside Jason who was sitting at a table with his head in his hands.
“Fine.”
Jason’s voice sounded cagey.
“Jason what’s on your mind?”
Jason sighed. “Liv I just don’t know what to do next.”
“Don’t worry about it, you’ll find out as soon as we get back.”
“Yeah I hope so.”
The silver 747 was flying over India when at around 0500 hours the plane’s instruments started screaming at James.
“Sir we have a missile locked on to us. What do I do?”
Lachlan’s eyes darted back and forth searching for answers. But before he could reply an enormous boom was heard back in the cargo hold. Everyone was woken by the explosion but in a blink of an eye the great plane had careered in the side of a mountain, no one had time to brace themselves.
In the crash Jason was thrown from his bunk, he landed safely but when the plane impacted with the earth it brought down the steel frame of the bunks on top of Jason’s right leg with crushing force.
When Jason wearily opened his eyes he saw the plane in total disarray. There were bodies everywhere and other people who had not been harmed in the crash rushed about the plane helping the wounded. All Jason could hear was the ringing in his ears and beyond that a faint, painful scream. At first he thought it was someone else but then as he came to his senses he realised that the painful scream was indeed his own.
“Jase!” Liv screamed as she ran to Jason’s side. “We need a medivac here now, we have six wounded men.” Liv was shouting into her headset.
It only took ten minutes for the medivac plane to arrive, but to Jason who was lying trapped under the crushing weight of the bunk in his world of agony; it seemed like a life time.
When the paramedics arrived in the wreckage, two headed straight for Jason who was lying on the floor screaming. The bunk was too heavy for just two men to lift so the paramedics used a hydraulic jack to lift the beds of Jason’s broken leg. As soon as the beds lifted of his leg Jason let out a high pitched shriek; the pain worsening as the pressure was released. When the beds were off Jason, the paramedics got to work and within ten minutes he was being loaded into medical plane only to meet a wiry haired doctor with an English accent.
The doctor looked Jason up and down, and then his attention was drawn to Jason’s severely broken leg. Jason’s leg was coloured black and it had a grotesque bone sticking out of his calf muscle. There wasn’t much the doctor could do for him until he arrived at hospital, so morphine was injected and the pain dulled. Two hours later Jason went into shock; the wound on his leg was slowly giving him blood poisoning.
“Alright doc what can you do to save him?”
“Colonel, I’m sure you’re not going to like my answer but it’s the only option.”
“Well?”
The doctor took a deep breath as if preparing for a beating.
“Sir, I'm going to have to amputate his leg just below the knee.”
Liv looked at the doctor with a look of horror spread across her face.
“The only thing is Colonel, We ran out of anaesthetic; we are going to have to do it now and he will be awake to see it.”
The Colonel sighed and agreed to help.
Two of the paramedics moved Jason to an improvised operation table while Liv stood back still horrified as to what they were going to do to her Jason. The doctor turned around and looked at Liv.
“Oi do you know him? Is he your boyfriend or something?”
Liv nodded.
“Well then I’m going to need you over here.’
Liv walked over to Jason.
“Alright if I’m going to do this I need you to hold his hand and talk to him, try to keep him calm, alright?”
Liv took Jason’s pale hand and held it tight.
“Alright Jase you’re going to get through this.”
The doctor put a tourniquet around Jason’s leg, cutting off the blood supply.
“Alright I’m going in.”
The operation took twenty minutes, but after five Jason passed out. When the doctor was done he dressed the bloody stump that was the remains of Jason’s leg. In four more hours the medivac plane would be landing in Melbourne airport.
“****!”
“What is it?”
“Sir due to the Melbourne Cup we can’t get the ambulances through the gates.”
“Why?”
“Because apparently the loading bay is packed with horse floats.”
“Well can we try to get them out?”
“Colonel I've already tried that, and even if they did try, they wouldn’t be out in time.”
“Well what can we do?”
“Sir the only thing we can do is take them directly through the airport. The ambulances are waiting out the front.”
“Alright then.”
The plane was coming down to land and Liv was on the phone to the airport trying to clear a path through the airport. Shortly after the plane landed it taxied to the passenger ramp. When the doors opened paramedics pushed six stretchers through the airport, ignoring customs who obviously were not alerted about what was going on.
After the stretchers were off the plane the rest of the soldiers poured off, still in full combat attire, still holding their F88’s. At the sight of the soldiers who were wearing face masks and no identification, a woman screamed. Liv walked wirily over to the hysterical woman.
“Ma’am can you please calm down, nothing is happening.”
“What’s with the guns?” The woman screamed.
“Ma’am we are Australian army, and if you don’t calm down, you’ll put the whole airport into lockdown. We have some seriously wounded men who need to get to hospital so please calm down.”
Liv left the woman and headed towards Jason’s stretcher and walked along side. Bystanders stood and watched the slow precession, some disgusted at the sight others peering over shoulders to get a glance at the injured. The stretchers were wheeled out into the sunlight and loaded into the ambulances, Liv was about to climb into the ambulance with Jase when someone stopped her.
“Excuse me ma’am you can’t come in, it’s for wounded only.”
“I’m his girlfriend, so I’m going with him whether you like it or not.”
“We can’t take you. There’s not enough room.”
Excuse me, is there a problem?” Lachlan stood over the two paramedics. “I believe that Lieutenant Coln requested to travel with Captain Bowen.”
“Fine, she can come.”
The paramedic walked away swearing under his breath. Jason and Liv where then driven to the hospital where Jason’s leg was cleaned up and two weeks later he was fitted with a brand new carbon fibre leg. Jason’s new leg wasn’t like others it had been customised, it didn’t have a standard foot, instead it was a modified athlete’s leg like the ones you see in the Paralympics, except it was less curved and had a flat rubber stopper on the end enabling Jason to run, walk, ride a motorcycle, drive a car and other things. He was also given a normal carbon fibre leg with a foot for formal purposes.
Another week had passed and the doctor cleared Jason to attempt walking. Jason clipped the leg to the metal rod protruding from his knee and slowly stood up beside the bed using liv as support. Jim and Southman had also taken a day off work to come and see the milestone. Jim stood at the end of the bed next to Southman holding a video recorder, capturing the event on camera.
Jason stood up and made an attempt to step, but he was too wobbly; he miss judged his step and tumbled to the floor. After having a leg removed, walking was proving to be more of a challenge than anticipated. After he collected himself Jason stood up and took another careful step and then another, he was walking.
Days passed and with each day Jason walked further, from walking a few steps in the first days to walking to the nurses’ station to then walking all the way down to the main reception of the hospital.
After a few days of this Jason was discharged from hospital. He travelled straight to his barracks where in his apartment he found a note on the pillow. It read:
Captain Jason Bowen,
Well that last incident was absolutely spectacular, I didn’t think you would pull through that one, turns out you are quite the escape artist. What I would like you to know is that I’m watching you right now, I can see you reading this note.
Now it might seem confusing that at the beginning of all this my men fired a hail of bullets at you, seemingly aiming to kill, but in fact my bullets only maim, they are coated in a dry acid that when it comes into contact with moister it causes excruciating pain; you were lucky Jason, on that first night when you were hit, you got a dud round, lucky; well your luck has run out, so when I get that password, I’m going to make it my goal to make you watch me have my way with your girl and then I’m going to kill her slowly, in the most painful way possible.
Colonel Peter Eln
P.S do you know where your girl is right now? Here’s a clue she’s unconscious on the floor of a holding cell.
The letter was haunting. When Jason finished reading he noticed two cameras in the corner of his room, in an instant Jason had plugged in a device that played a loop of Jason moving around the room and leaving and then returning. The cameras were blind to what was going on.
Jason stood up and took a deep breath before he heard an ear piercing shatter. A black hummer zoomed past Jason’s flat, the occupants hurling a brick through the window of Jason’s apartment.
When Jason picked up the brick it had an envelope tied to it, he bent over and tore open the envelope to have a small USB drive fall out onto his hand. Jason powered up his laptop and plugged in the USB, he then clicked on a video file to be greeted by Colonel Eln.
“Hello Jason, now I am sure that you are wondering where your beloved Olivia is. Are you? Well I would just like you to see this just so you know how serious I am about this. Jason I didn’t want this to be personal at the beginning; it wasn’t me who made it personal, it was you.”
The screen then changed to a security shot of a small room which had a person sitting on a chair their head slumped. When Jason looked closer to his horror he realized that it was the battered body of liv, a moment later he saw Eln walk in to the room, and after ten minutes of watching Jason could bear no more. Eln was torturing Liv and he wanted Jason to see it. To Jason’s horror; when he looked at the video file he noticed that it continued for two hours.
Jason immediately unplugged the USB and rushed over to Jim’s apartment.
He didn’t even knock; Jason just rushed in the door and found Jim standing in his kitchen holding his six month old son Heath, standing beside his wife Sarah.
“I’m sorry Sarah, I've got to talk to Jim it’s urgent.”
“That’s alright Jason.”
Sarah took up Heath from Jim and left the room.
“Jim you need to watch this.”
Jason pulled out his laptop and showed Jim the video. Turning away so he didn’t have to watch what Eln was doing to the lady he loved so much.
“Jase make yourself a cuppa or something, I’m going to have to watch the whole video file.”
Jason sat down while Jim watched the video. At one point Jason looked over his shoulder at the computer screen, in the corner of the video he saw a sign in another language.
“Jim pause the video now.” Jim paused the clip. “Okay now screen shot.” Jim made a screen shot and Jason took over on the computer. He opened the photo and zoomed into the sign in the corner.
“Holy ****.”
“What?”
“The sign, it’s in Arabic, it says interrogation room number three.”
“And…”
“And that’s the same room that Eln had me in back in Saudi Arabia.”
“You remember that?”
“How could I not?”
“Well what do we do now?”
“Get Lachlan, Southman and James, and tell them to meet me at my apartment.”
Twenty minutes later Jason was pacing the floor of his apartment when he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in!”
Challen, Southman and James stepped in the front door.
“What is it Jason?”
“Eln has Liv.”
“How can you be sure? I mean she only been gone a few days.”
“Yeah didn’t she go to see her mum or something?”
“I’m getting to it, you need to watch this.”
Jason showed the group the video, and after watching fifteen minutes of it, could bear no more.
“Do we know where he is holding her?”
“Yes we do, see the sign in the corner of the room.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s in Arabic. It translates to ‘interrogation room number three’”
“And this helps us how.”
“Be patient Kennelly, it helps us because that is the same room Eln had me in Back in Saudi Arabia.”
“Okay then, well when are we going to go and get her out.”
“As soon as we have the man power we need.”
“Who else do want to come with us?”
“Markus.”
As Challen, Southman and James left Jason had a thought to himself.
“Sit tight Liv, I’m coming for you.”
The group had landed in Saudi Arabia the night before and were now waiting patiently for nightfall in an underground drain underneath a private airstrip. The building in which held Liv, was 100 metres away from the man hole for the drain.
Why were they waiting? They were waiting for the sentries guarding the entrances to change shift; only then would there be an opening. Jason didn’t plan on just going in guns blazing, he had made a tactical plan, all six of the men had disguised themselves with the same uniform as the sentries, so when the shift changed over, they would all some out and wander the airstrip before coming toward the building for the shift change.
Markus sat in front of Jason inside the cramped drain, holding a small periscope out of the man hole.
“Alright they’re about to make the swap lets go.”
All six men climbed out of the drain one by one. Jason did one lap of the airstrip before heading toward the building.
When at the door Jason was about to walk past the guard, when he was stopped.
“Hold it!” Jason stopped and looked the sentry square in the eye. “I haven’t seen you before; are you new?”
“Yeah I just got here.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lieutenant Jonathan Hamilton. And yours.”
“Sergeant Louis Dapper.”
Jason walked in the door of the building and headed straight for what looked like the guard’s mess.
Liv sat bruised and battered in the tiny interrogation room. There was one peculiar thing about the room though, unlike the rest of the building this room wasn’t under surveillance. Liv was still alive but only just, all because of the guard that had been appointed to her. For the past week the young soldier had been giving Liv half of his rations, he had known that Liv was innocent.
Jason was in the mess room scoping out the building; across the room he saw Jim speaking to one of the soldiers. Jason turned and headed down the spiralling staircase toward the lower level interrogation rooms. When he had reached the lower level he looked for the number three room; when he found it he saw a guard in front of the door speaking into the open hatch.
“Ahem.”
“Yes.”
“I’m here to relieve you for this shift.”
“And you are?”
“Lieutenant Jonathan Hamilton.”
“You must be the new guy.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway you need to check her pulse every fifteen minutes.”
“Okay.”
The young guard turned and left. Jason waited until he knew the guard was well and truly up the stairs and out of earshot, before quickly unlocking the door and falling to Liv’s side. For the next five minutes Jason sat with Liv in his arms, telling her he’d never let her go again.
Boom! Jason whipped around and heard a loud explosion and the angry shouts of men. He then heard his radio crackle.
“Jason it’s a bust, get Liv and get out of here!”
Jason scooped up liv and headed for the stairs before he was nearly knocked over by the Liv’s door guard from earlier.
“I don’t know who you guys are but your friends are in trouble up there.”
“Thank you.”
Jason went to walk past he guard when he was halted.
“Stop. Leave her here.”
“No.”
“Sir leave her here and get your friends out, I’ll look after her.”
“Then how will I know where to find her after I leave?”
“They are taking her to the Takla Makan desert after here.”
“Thank you, if you ever need a hand call me, my name’s Jason Bowen.”
Jason gave liv a quick kiss and handed her over to the guard. He then raced up the stairs to find Jim and a soldier brandishing a hunting knife in a close hand to hand combat battle. The soldier pulled a swift duck and weave manoeuvre and lodged the knife into Jim’s lower back. Jason wasn’t quick enough to stop the attack but he was quick enough to blow the brains of the man out with his pistol.
Jason pulled out his radio and called in the others.
“Southman, Markus, James, where are you?”
“We are outside on the tarmac in the white sukhoi.”
Jason put the wounded Jim over his shoulder and raced out onto the tarmac and darted straight for the waiting plane. Once inside Jason put Jim down who was bleeding profusely and screaming in agony. Jason ripped off Jim’s flak vest and located the wound; as soon as Jason applied pressure to the wound Jim stopped crying out and stopped moving around.
“Jim?”
Markus cut in. “Jim can you feel your legs?”
“No.”
“Can you wiggle your toes?”
“No.”
“****!”
“Alright can you use your arms?”
Jim responded by wiggling his fingers and waving his arms.
“Jason keep pressure on the wound.”
“Southman help me put him on a spinal board.”
Southman and Markus log rolled Jim onto a spinal board; careful as to not move his head around too much.
A week later Jim was in the hospital and the doctors a diagnosed him as paralysed; Jim would spend the rest of his days in a wheel chair and Jason blamed himself for it.
Every night when Jason attempted sleeping, he thought about Liv and how because of him; Jim would never walk again. Jason didn’t know what to do; he knew that Liv was rotting in a cell in the middle of the cold unforgiving Takla Makan desert in western China, and he knew that Jim was stuck in a rigid hospital bed unable to move the lower half of his body.
In the middle of the night Jason heard a knock on the door, he was surprised to see a familiar face when he opened it.
“Crash.”
“Lachlan.”
“Sorry to wake you Jase but it turns out the door guard was correct.”
“Yep Liv really is in the middle of the Takla Makan desert.”
“Do we know where?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay then I’m leaving tonight.”
“Jase, you’re not going alone.”
“No I won’t endanger anyone else.”
“Jason you don’t have a choice, Southman, Markus and I are coming with you.”
“No you’re not.”
“Too late I’ve already booked tickets to China.”
Jason sat on top of a four wheeled motorbike. He looked out into the vastness of the Takla Makan, the place was 1600, 000Km in total. The name said it all, Takla Makan means “place from which there is no return.”
Jason shivered at the sight of the snow covered sand dunes and the occasional shrub covered with icicles. In the distance Jason spotted a convoy of cargo trucks through his digital binoculars. He turned to Lachlan who was on his own ATV.
“I think we’ve found it.”
“Yep, when we arrive, send the coordinates to James he’s been flying around waiting for a signal.”
“Right, Southman we are going to follow but at a 1km radius ok?”
“Righto Boss.”
Jason, Lachlan, Markus and Southman powered up their four wheelers and followed the convoy to a setting of ancient ruins, but once the trucks drove in they didn’t come out the other side. Something suss was going on.
When Jason felt it was safe to go and explore the ruins he saw what was inside…
Nothing just a bare patch of dirt, no tire tracks or anything. Where could have convoy gone if it wasn’t here? Jason and Markus searched the area for anything that looked suspicious.
Jason was walking around the main area when he stumbled on a ledge in the floor, when Jason looked closer he saw that there was an empty void underneath the ledge.
“Oi have a look at this.”
The others came over and Markus helped Jason lift the ledge. When it opened Jason saw that it was an underground ramp. It wasn’t anything fancy just a well-disguised hatch.
The four ventured forward into the pitch blackness of the tunnel. At the end the group came to a cavern of some sort. Southman had been about to light a flare when Jason stopped him.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because. Can you see the yellow glow?”
“Yeah.”
“That means someone was here not that long ago.”
The group donned their NVG’s and the cavern was plunged into a neon green vortex.
“You were right Jase they’re still here.”
Through the night vision Jason could see six white figures in the distance, but one was carrying something on their shoulder it looked like a limp human.
“Liv.”
That one word echoed around the cavern and in an instant the place erupted in gun fire. The man carrying Liv dropped her next to the wall as Lachlan returned fire.
“Jason! Disappear and go get Liv!”
Jason sunk back and skirted around the cavern walls and until he saw Liv. When he saw her he was shocked, she was battered and bruised and barely alive, she still wore the blue jeans and white T-shirt she had worn to go and see her mother two weeks ago.
Jason picked her up and ran as fast as he could. He could hear Eln shouting in the distance.
“What the **** are you doing he’s getting away!”
Jason called in to James who was waiting for the signal in a C-17 globe master cargo jet.
“James I need you to land now, it’s gonna be a hairy take off.”
“Yes Sir. I’ll be on the ground by the time you’re out.”
“Lachlan, Southman, Markus! Let’s go.”
The group headed back up the eerie black ramp toward he ruins where James would be waiting.
When they reached the top a whole unit of men were waiting and firing on them. Jason and the others had to duck behind some cargo crates for cover. They were trapped; the men waiting for them were between themselves and the C-17 and Eln and the rest of his men were coming up the ramp. Jason only had thirty seconds to make a decision. Too late Eln’s men came out of the hatch and fired on the Jason and the others. They were cut down by the F88 assault rifles all but one, Eln. Eln dove for cover behind the ancient stone wall.
“Alright, we’re going nowhere like this we need to run now.”
Lachlan gave Jason a quick no before getting up on his haunches and running behind Jason firing at the same time. Jason was running behind Southman when Southman’s back exploded in a splash of red.
“Lachlan get Liv to the plane.”
Jason handed Liv over to Lachlan before dragging Southman back toward the cargo crates. When he turned his head he saw the man who had shot Southman, Eln was standing across the battlefield with a sawn-off shotgun and a grin on his face. Jason stood up and raised his Desert Eagle and pulled the trigger.
“You slimy mother ****er.” BAM!
Eln was blown off his feet; his entire chest exploding with the impact of the 50. Calibre round.
Jason turned back toward Southman who was on the ground, the life slowly seeping out in the form of blood.
“Southman? Jayden answer me.”
“Jase. It’s all over now we have Liv back.”
“Don’t worry about that now. We’re going to get you out of here.”
Southman stopped writhing in pain and broad smile stretched across his face, he was in another place now; he wasn’t dying in a cold unforgiving desert amongst a fire fight, but he was somewhere else somewhere where he was happy.
And without ceremony Corporal Jayden ‘Southman’ Cobalt died. Jason scooped up his body and just walked out into the battle field. All the gunfire ceased as it was over and everyone just watched as a lone soldier carry his dead friend to the waiting plane.
When Jason got back to Australia he made his personal mission to deliver the news to Southman’s parents personally. He didn’t want them to receive a letter telling them that their only son had been killed in action. So Jason dressed in his dress uniform stood at the front door of the Cobalt’s house with a folded Australian flag. He then rang the doorbell.
In the coming months Southman’s military and family funerals were held and soon after Jason and Liv both resigned from the Special Forces. Three weeks after they resigned Jason and Liv were married on a small farm just outside Olivia’s hometown.
Jason walked through the house behind Phillip and into a large kitchen area.
“Nadine we have visitors, lots of them.”
Nadine was a tall, thin woman with long black hair; she spoke with a flowing Italian accent.
“Jason do you remember my wife Nadine.”
“It’s a pleasure Mrs Duddle.”
“The same.”
“And these are my children, as I see your friends have already met them.”
Jim and Southman were sitting on plastic chairs in a play room showing the eldest Isabella and the youngest Tomas how to pull a coin out their ear.
“Come onto the balcony we will talk there.”
Jason followed Phillip out onto the wooden veranda.
“So Jason what trouble have you gotten yourself into now?”
“Do you know of a person by the name of Colonel Peter Eln?”
“Yes I do and I can tell you, he’s an arsehole.”
“Yeah I found that out the hard way.”
“Why what’s happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
Jason explained the events that took place in the past two months and particularly the ones in the past week.
“Well my friend if you have come looking for help you have come to the right place. You and your men can stay here as long as you need.”
“Thank you Phil.”
Phillip leaned against the railing of the balcony and looked through the glass door into the busy house. Phillip took a long draw on his cigarette.
“You know you should give that up.”
“Yes I know, but it’s not that easy you know.”
Jason gazed through the glass door at Liv, who was standing in the kitchen talking to Nadine.
“I see you looking at her you know.”
“I was just glad I didn’t lose her this time.”
“Do you like her, Jason?”
“Like her? I love her; she’s someone that when I’m around I don’t feel normal.”
“My friend you are not mistaken, when you feel like that around a woman it means love. I myself feel that way around Nadine, the only question is though; does she love you?”
“I hope so; I guess we will find out soon wont we?”
Jason walked inside and stood in the kitchen next to Liv.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing, I would just like to thank Mrs Duddle for her hospitality as it looks like we will be staying here for a couple of days.”
“Jason anything for you, and please call me Nadine, you have known Phillip and I for years you can call me by my first name.”
“Hang on Jase how are we going to fit all the men in this house?”
“Ha-ha Olivia, you are funny, Jason and Phillip have had twice as many men stay in the house, we are always prepared you know. Jason, show Olivia the cellar.”
Jason grabbed Liv’s hand and showed her to the cellar. The cellar was much bigger than Liv had expected, it stretched for the length and width of the house and then further, the walls were lined with beds which each had set of drawers and a lamp beside them.
“What?”
“As Nadine said, they are always prepared.”
“This is huge!”
“Oh. That’s not all.”
Jason led Liv through a door and into an even bigger living area which was secretly buried beneath a quiet suburban street.
“What the…”
“I’m not finished.”
Jason took Liv through another this time leading into a tiled room which had six separated showers and six toilet cubicles on the other side of the room.
“I’m very familiar with this place.”
“Why?”
“Because on a previous mission, me and twenty three other men were wanted criminals in three of Germany’s sounding countries, and at that time German officials were looking for us too, so we lived down here for four months, Phillip and Nadine brought us supplies once a week.”
“Wow.”
“Well this time we are only going to be in here for a few days.”
Jason and Liv headed back up the stairs toward the noisy house. Jason summoned Nadine and Phillip into an empty sitting room. Phillip sat down on an arm chair next to Nadine, Jason and Liv sat down on a brown leather lounge.
“What did you want to speak to us about Jason?”
“Well Phil, I want to tell you that this is probably some of the worst **** I’ve ever been in.”
“And?”
“And I want you, Nadine and the kids to have some security, as my presence here may be endangering your lives. Phil, we are going to leave you with €1000, and we are leaving you with our armoured vehicle and a few pistols, just in case Eln comes here looking for me. If he does come here I want you to get across the border and into France, I have a friend who will protect you, he’s in Strasbourg and his name is Jonathan Stevenson.”
“Jason if anything happens I want to go with you.”
“But what about Nadine and the kids?”
“They will flee to Strasbourg like you said.”
“Alright.”
“Hang on what makes you think Eln will come? I mean, you told me Lachlan shot him.”
“Yeah but we’ve already got word that said that Eln is alive, Colonel Eln is like a savage dog, if you kick him he wants to bite you, and by my guesses he wants to bite me pretty hard.”
It was late at night and Nadine had cooked up a feast for the men to have. So by eleven o’ clock all the men had gone down into the cellar and gone to bed. It was almost two o’ clock when Jason was woken by a loud banging sound coming from the door. Phillip appeared in the door of the cellar and tiptoed over toward Jason and spoke to him in a whisper.
“Jason what do I do? There is a man standing at the front door.”
“What does he look like?”
“Short grey hair, average height, kind of muscly.”
“That’s Eln. Phillip get Nadine and the kids I need to speak to them.”
Jason woke up Liv first and went from bed to bed waking up all of the men. He then headed up the stairs to the sitting room where he had spoken to Nadine and Phillip. When he arrived he saw Nadine and the kids sitting on the leather lounge in their pyjamas.
“Nadine I need you to get the kids and their clothes and anything you want to take.”
“Why Jason? What’s happened?”
“Eln is here.”
Jason ushered the children into their bedrooms and helped them shove all of their clothes and some toys into their suit cases, when the eldest: Isabella stopped and looked at Jason.
“Jason?” She asked while rubbing her eyes.
“What is it Izzy?”
“Where are we going?”
“You and your mother are going on a holiday to a place called Strasbourg in France.”
Isabella nodded drowsily at Jason and started putting on fresh clothes.
When Jason was done he went back to the sitting room with the kids who had their suitcases packed tightly and Nadine walked into the room carrying a small suitcase.
“Nadine here is the €1000 I promised you earlier, use it in emergencies, oh and I would like you to carry this at all times.”
Jason handed Nadine a glock pistol. She took it carefully and placed it in her hand bag. Jason and Phillip then rushed them to the downstairs garage where the armoured vehicle was parked. Nadine and the children got into the car and buckled themselves in.
“Nadine I don’t want you to go until I give you the message. Okay.”
Jason handed Nadine a compact hand UHF frequency radio. Phillip kissed both of his children and his wife and left up to go and get ready.
Jason left the garage and headed up stairs, Eln was banging on the door impatiently.
“Bowen! I know you’re in there you little ****! And if you don’t come out soon, I’m coming in.”
Ten minutes had passed and all of Jason’s unit were upstairs, wearing black combats Liv signalled that they were ready. Jason waved Southman over.
“Southman I want you to go with Nadine and the kids. Get them across the border safely and keep them out of harm’s way.”
“Yes Sir, oh and good luck on the road ahead.”
“You too.”
Southman headed down into the garage and got into the driver’s seat of the car. Jason spoke into his radio.
“Can you hear me Southman?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Okay don’t leave until I give the signal okay.”
“Righto.”
Jason walked over to the front door and waved everyone over.
“Jason what do we do about Eln?”
“Okay we wait till he busts down the door, you guys get out then and I’ll hold him back for a few minutes.”
“No! You can’t do that! I’m not going to lose you again.”
“Liv, you’re not going to lose me; Eln is by himself and he’s injured, I can take him.”
“But you are injured too.”
“Not as badly as him.”
“Alright.”
Just as Liv said that Eln busted down the door with his foot. Jason leapt on to Eln, tackling him to the concrete just outside the door. When Jason got a free hand he called into his radio.
“Southman! Go go go! Get out of here!”
And with that Jason saw the light weight car burst out of the garage and zoom off down the road at breakneck speed.
When Jason went back to fighting with Eln, they had brought the fight out on to lawn in the driving rain; eventually the whole neighbourhood was awake.
Eln drove his fist hard into Jason’s nose and Jason retaliated by driving Eln into the brick fence, Eln let out a painful scream just as he hit the wall, his wounds causing him pain.
No sooner than two minutes after the fight had started men from all of the neighbouring houses started to come out with flash lights and wooden bats.
“Welche’s üblich auf? “ The first man called.
Trans: What’s going on?
Another man tried to separate Eln and Jason.
“Fick weg!”
Trans: **** off!
The man that tried to intervene stepped away and let Jason and Eln fight it out. Jason had made one vital mistake, when he had left the house he had left all of his weapons with Liv. Jason rolled around in the mud before landing a blow that knocked Eln out cold. Jase stood up and bound Eln’s hands together with handcuffs before stealing an unlocked car on the street and driving toward the airport, leaving his spectators in the rain, their mouths agape at what they had just seen.
Jason’s stolen Honda Civic busted through the airport gates catching the security guards by surprise. Two Humvees whizzed past the guards after the civic chasing it down the runway towards the waiting 747. Jason keyed his radio.
“James I’m not going to be able to board while you’re stationary with these Humvees on my tail, I want you to start taxiing now.”
“Righto Boss.”
James pushed forward on the plane’s throttle, and Jason gave chase in the tiny Honda civic.
“Liv!”
“Yes Jason?”
“I want you to open the door of the plane and lower a rope ladder down for me.”
“On it!”
Jason saw Liv open the door carefully and lower the rope ladder so that it skimmed along the ground.
Jason accelerated and lined up the small car with the rope ladder. Jason planted a house brick that he had stopped to steal from a construction site on the accelerator and started to climb out the window. Bullets whizzed past Jason as ascended on the ladder. Jason then heard his radio crackle.
“Jason I can’t do this anymore, I have to power up to take off, and I’m running out of runway.”
“Do it then James!”
Jason quickly climbed the last rungs of the ladder and landed on the floor of the plane, his chest heaving. When he opened his eyes he saw Liv standing over him smiling.
“Well you just made quite an entrance.”
“Yeah it felt like it.”
“Oi Jase where are we off to now? James called from the cockpit.
“Back to Australia.”
The silver 747 made a bee line straight for Australia.
“Hey how are you going?”
Liv sat down beside Jason who was sitting at a table with his head in his hands.
“Fine.”
Jason’s voice sounded cagey.
“Jason what’s on your mind?”
Jason sighed. “Liv I just don’t know what to do next.”
“Don’t worry about it, you’ll find out as soon as we get back.”
“Yeah I hope so.”
The silver 747 was flying over India when at around 0500 hours the plane’s instruments started screaming at James.
“Sir we have a missile locked on to us. What do I do?”
Lachlan’s eyes darted back and forth searching for answers. But before he could reply an enormous boom was heard back in the cargo hold. Everyone was woken by the explosion but in a blink of an eye the great plane had careered in the side of a mountain, no one had time to brace themselves.
In the crash Jason was thrown from his bunk, he landed safely but when the plane impacted with the earth it brought down the steel frame of the bunks on top of Jason’s right leg with crushing force.
When Jason wearily opened his eyes he saw the plane in total disarray. There were bodies everywhere and other people who had not been harmed in the crash rushed about the plane helping the wounded. All Jason could hear was the ringing in his ears and beyond that a faint, painful scream. At first he thought it was someone else but then as he came to his senses he realised that the painful scream was indeed his own.
“Jase!” Liv screamed as she ran to Jason’s side. “We need a medivac here now, we have six wounded men.” Liv was shouting into her headset.
It only took ten minutes for the medivac plane to arrive, but to Jason who was lying trapped under the crushing weight of the bunk in his world of agony; it seemed like a life time.
When the paramedics arrived in the wreckage, two headed straight for Jason who was lying on the floor screaming. The bunk was too heavy for just two men to lift so the paramedics used a hydraulic jack to lift the beds of Jason’s broken leg. As soon as the beds lifted of his leg Jason let out a high pitched shriek; the pain worsening as the pressure was released. When the beds were off Jason, the paramedics got to work and within ten minutes he was being loaded into medical plane only to meet a wiry haired doctor with an English accent.
The doctor looked Jason up and down, and then his attention was drawn to Jason’s severely broken leg. Jason’s leg was coloured black and it had a grotesque bone sticking out of his calf muscle. There wasn’t much the doctor could do for him until he arrived at hospital, so morphine was injected and the pain dulled. Two hours later Jason went into shock; the wound on his leg was slowly giving him blood poisoning.
“Alright doc what can you do to save him?”
“Colonel, I’m sure you’re not going to like my answer but it’s the only option.”
“Well?”
The doctor took a deep breath as if preparing for a beating.
“Sir, I'm going to have to amputate his leg just below the knee.”
Liv looked at the doctor with a look of horror spread across her face.
“The only thing is Colonel, We ran out of anaesthetic; we are going to have to do it now and he will be awake to see it.”
The Colonel sighed and agreed to help.
Two of the paramedics moved Jason to an improvised operation table while Liv stood back still horrified as to what they were going to do to her Jason. The doctor turned around and looked at Liv.
“Oi do you know him? Is he your boyfriend or something?”
Liv nodded.
“Well then I’m going to need you over here.’
Liv walked over to Jason.
“Alright if I’m going to do this I need you to hold his hand and talk to him, try to keep him calm, alright?”
Liv took Jason’s pale hand and held it tight.
“Alright Jase you’re going to get through this.”
The doctor put a tourniquet around Jason’s leg, cutting off the blood supply.
“Alright I’m going in.”
The operation took twenty minutes, but after five Jason passed out. When the doctor was done he dressed the bloody stump that was the remains of Jason’s leg. In four more hours the medivac plane would be landing in Melbourne airport.
“****!”
“What is it?”
“Sir due to the Melbourne Cup we can’t get the ambulances through the gates.”
“Why?”
“Because apparently the loading bay is packed with horse floats.”
“Well can we try to get them out?”
“Colonel I've already tried that, and even if they did try, they wouldn’t be out in time.”
“Well what can we do?”
“Sir the only thing we can do is take them directly through the airport. The ambulances are waiting out the front.”
“Alright then.”
The plane was coming down to land and Liv was on the phone to the airport trying to clear a path through the airport. Shortly after the plane landed it taxied to the passenger ramp. When the doors opened paramedics pushed six stretchers through the airport, ignoring customs who obviously were not alerted about what was going on.
After the stretchers were off the plane the rest of the soldiers poured off, still in full combat attire, still holding their F88’s. At the sight of the soldiers who were wearing face masks and no identification, a woman screamed. Liv walked wirily over to the hysterical woman.
“Ma’am can you please calm down, nothing is happening.”
“What’s with the guns?” The woman screamed.
“Ma’am we are Australian army, and if you don’t calm down, you’ll put the whole airport into lockdown. We have some seriously wounded men who need to get to hospital so please calm down.”
Liv left the woman and headed towards Jason’s stretcher and walked along side. Bystanders stood and watched the slow precession, some disgusted at the sight others peering over shoulders to get a glance at the injured. The stretchers were wheeled out into the sunlight and loaded into the ambulances, Liv was about to climb into the ambulance with Jase when someone stopped her.
“Excuse me ma’am you can’t come in, it’s for wounded only.”
“I’m his girlfriend, so I’m going with him whether you like it or not.”
“We can’t take you. There’s not enough room.”
Excuse me, is there a problem?” Lachlan stood over the two paramedics. “I believe that Lieutenant Coln requested to travel with Captain Bowen.”
“Fine, she can come.”
The paramedic walked away swearing under his breath. Jason and Liv where then driven to the hospital where Jason’s leg was cleaned up and two weeks later he was fitted with a brand new carbon fibre leg. Jason’s new leg wasn’t like others it had been customised, it didn’t have a standard foot, instead it was a modified athlete’s leg like the ones you see in the Paralympics, except it was less curved and had a flat rubber stopper on the end enabling Jason to run, walk, ride a motorcycle, drive a car and other things. He was also given a normal carbon fibre leg with a foot for formal purposes.
Another week had passed and the doctor cleared Jason to attempt walking. Jason clipped the leg to the metal rod protruding from his knee and slowly stood up beside the bed using liv as support. Jim and Southman had also taken a day off work to come and see the milestone. Jim stood at the end of the bed next to Southman holding a video recorder, capturing the event on camera.
Jason stood up and made an attempt to step, but he was too wobbly; he miss judged his step and tumbled to the floor. After having a leg removed, walking was proving to be more of a challenge than anticipated. After he collected himself Jason stood up and took another careful step and then another, he was walking.
Days passed and with each day Jason walked further, from walking a few steps in the first days to walking to the nurses’ station to then walking all the way down to the main reception of the hospital.
After a few days of this Jason was discharged from hospital. He travelled straight to his barracks where in his apartment he found a note on the pillow. It read:
Captain Jason Bowen,
Well that last incident was absolutely spectacular, I didn’t think you would pull through that one, turns out you are quite the escape artist. What I would like you to know is that I’m watching you right now, I can see you reading this note.
Now it might seem confusing that at the beginning of all this my men fired a hail of bullets at you, seemingly aiming to kill, but in fact my bullets only maim, they are coated in a dry acid that when it comes into contact with moister it causes excruciating pain; you were lucky Jason, on that first night when you were hit, you got a dud round, lucky; well your luck has run out, so when I get that password, I’m going to make it my goal to make you watch me have my way with your girl and then I’m going to kill her slowly, in the most painful way possible.
Colonel Peter Eln
P.S do you know where your girl is right now? Here’s a clue she’s unconscious on the floor of a holding cell.
The letter was haunting. When Jason finished reading he noticed two cameras in the corner of his room, in an instant Jason had plugged in a device that played a loop of Jason moving around the room and leaving and then returning. The cameras were blind to what was going on.
Jason stood up and took a deep breath before he heard an ear piercing shatter. A black hummer zoomed past Jason’s flat, the occupants hurling a brick through the window of Jason’s apartment.
When Jason picked up the brick it had an envelope tied to it, he bent over and tore open the envelope to have a small USB drive fall out onto his hand. Jason powered up his laptop and plugged in the USB, he then clicked on a video file to be greeted by Colonel Eln.
“Hello Jason, now I am sure that you are wondering where your beloved Olivia is. Are you? Well I would just like you to see this just so you know how serious I am about this. Jason I didn’t want this to be personal at the beginning; it wasn’t me who made it personal, it was you.”
The screen then changed to a security shot of a small room which had a person sitting on a chair their head slumped. When Jason looked closer to his horror he realized that it was the battered body of liv, a moment later he saw Eln walk in to the room, and after ten minutes of watching Jason could bear no more. Eln was torturing Liv and he wanted Jason to see it. To Jason’s horror; when he looked at the video file he noticed that it continued for two hours.
Jason immediately unplugged the USB and rushed over to Jim’s apartment.
He didn’t even knock; Jason just rushed in the door and found Jim standing in his kitchen holding his six month old son Heath, standing beside his wife Sarah.
“I’m sorry Sarah, I've got to talk to Jim it’s urgent.”
“That’s alright Jason.”
Sarah took up Heath from Jim and left the room.
“Jim you need to watch this.”
Jason pulled out his laptop and showed Jim the video. Turning away so he didn’t have to watch what Eln was doing to the lady he loved so much.
“Jase make yourself a cuppa or something, I’m going to have to watch the whole video file.”
Jason sat down while Jim watched the video. At one point Jason looked over his shoulder at the computer screen, in the corner of the video he saw a sign in another language.
“Jim pause the video now.” Jim paused the clip. “Okay now screen shot.” Jim made a screen shot and Jason took over on the computer. He opened the photo and zoomed into the sign in the corner.
“Holy ****.”
“What?”
“The sign, it’s in Arabic, it says interrogation room number three.”
“And…”
“And that’s the same room that Eln had me in back in Saudi Arabia.”
“You remember that?”
“How could I not?”
“Well what do we do now?”
“Get Lachlan, Southman and James, and tell them to meet me at my apartment.”
Twenty minutes later Jason was pacing the floor of his apartment when he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in!”
Challen, Southman and James stepped in the front door.
“What is it Jason?”
“Eln has Liv.”
“How can you be sure? I mean she only been gone a few days.”
“Yeah didn’t she go to see her mum or something?”
“I’m getting to it, you need to watch this.”
Jason showed the group the video, and after watching fifteen minutes of it, could bear no more.
“Do we know where he is holding her?”
“Yes we do, see the sign in the corner of the room.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s in Arabic. It translates to ‘interrogation room number three’”
“And this helps us how.”
“Be patient Kennelly, it helps us because that is the same room Eln had me in Back in Saudi Arabia.”
“Okay then, well when are we going to go and get her out.”
“As soon as we have the man power we need.”
“Who else do want to come with us?”
“Markus.”
As Challen, Southman and James left Jason had a thought to himself.
“Sit tight Liv, I’m coming for you.”
The group had landed in Saudi Arabia the night before and were now waiting patiently for nightfall in an underground drain underneath a private airstrip. The building in which held Liv, was 100 metres away from the man hole for the drain.
Why were they waiting? They were waiting for the sentries guarding the entrances to change shift; only then would there be an opening. Jason didn’t plan on just going in guns blazing, he had made a tactical plan, all six of the men had disguised themselves with the same uniform as the sentries, so when the shift changed over, they would all some out and wander the airstrip before coming toward the building for the shift change.
Markus sat in front of Jason inside the cramped drain, holding a small periscope out of the man hole.
“Alright they’re about to make the swap lets go.”
All six men climbed out of the drain one by one. Jason did one lap of the airstrip before heading toward the building.
When at the door Jason was about to walk past the guard, when he was stopped.
“Hold it!” Jason stopped and looked the sentry square in the eye. “I haven’t seen you before; are you new?”
“Yeah I just got here.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lieutenant Jonathan Hamilton. And yours.”
“Sergeant Louis Dapper.”
Jason walked in the door of the building and headed straight for what looked like the guard’s mess.
Liv sat bruised and battered in the tiny interrogation room. There was one peculiar thing about the room though, unlike the rest of the building this room wasn’t under surveillance. Liv was still alive but only just, all because of the guard that had been appointed to her. For the past week the young soldier had been giving Liv half of his rations, he had known that Liv was innocent.
Jason was in the mess room scoping out the building; across the room he saw Jim speaking to one of the soldiers. Jason turned and headed down the spiralling staircase toward the lower level interrogation rooms. When he had reached the lower level he looked for the number three room; when he found it he saw a guard in front of the door speaking into the open hatch.
“Ahem.”
“Yes.”
“I’m here to relieve you for this shift.”
“And you are?”
“Lieutenant Jonathan Hamilton.”
“You must be the new guy.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway you need to check her pulse every fifteen minutes.”
“Okay.”
The young guard turned and left. Jason waited until he knew the guard was well and truly up the stairs and out of earshot, before quickly unlocking the door and falling to Liv’s side. For the next five minutes Jason sat with Liv in his arms, telling her he’d never let her go again.
Boom! Jason whipped around and heard a loud explosion and the angry shouts of men. He then heard his radio crackle.
“Jason it’s a bust, get Liv and get out of here!”
Jason scooped up liv and headed for the stairs before he was nearly knocked over by the Liv’s door guard from earlier.
“I don’t know who you guys are but your friends are in trouble up there.”
“Thank you.”
Jason went to walk past he guard when he was halted.
“Stop. Leave her here.”
“No.”
“Sir leave her here and get your friends out, I’ll look after her.”
“Then how will I know where to find her after I leave?”
“They are taking her to the Takla Makan desert after here.”
“Thank you, if you ever need a hand call me, my name’s Jason Bowen.”
Jason gave liv a quick kiss and handed her over to the guard. He then raced up the stairs to find Jim and a soldier brandishing a hunting knife in a close hand to hand combat battle. The soldier pulled a swift duck and weave manoeuvre and lodged the knife into Jim’s lower back. Jason wasn’t quick enough to stop the attack but he was quick enough to blow the brains of the man out with his pistol.
Jason pulled out his radio and called in the others.
“Southman, Markus, James, where are you?”
“We are outside on the tarmac in the white sukhoi.”
Jason put the wounded Jim over his shoulder and raced out onto the tarmac and darted straight for the waiting plane. Once inside Jason put Jim down who was bleeding profusely and screaming in agony. Jason ripped off Jim’s flak vest and located the wound; as soon as Jason applied pressure to the wound Jim stopped crying out and stopped moving around.
“Jim?”
Markus cut in. “Jim can you feel your legs?”
“No.”
“Can you wiggle your toes?”
“No.”
“****!”
“Alright can you use your arms?”
Jim responded by wiggling his fingers and waving his arms.
“Jason keep pressure on the wound.”
“Southman help me put him on a spinal board.”
Southman and Markus log rolled Jim onto a spinal board; careful as to not move his head around too much.
A week later Jim was in the hospital and the doctors a diagnosed him as paralysed; Jim would spend the rest of his days in a wheel chair and Jason blamed himself for it.
Every night when Jason attempted sleeping, he thought about Liv and how because of him; Jim would never walk again. Jason didn’t know what to do; he knew that Liv was rotting in a cell in the middle of the cold unforgiving Takla Makan desert in western China, and he knew that Jim was stuck in a rigid hospital bed unable to move the lower half of his body.
In the middle of the night Jason heard a knock on the door, he was surprised to see a familiar face when he opened it.
“Crash.”
“Lachlan.”
“Sorry to wake you Jase but it turns out the door guard was correct.”
“Yep Liv really is in the middle of the Takla Makan desert.”
“Do we know where?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay then I’m leaving tonight.”
“Jase, you’re not going alone.”
“No I won’t endanger anyone else.”
“Jason you don’t have a choice, Southman, Markus and I are coming with you.”
“No you’re not.”
“Too late I’ve already booked tickets to China.”
Jason sat on top of a four wheeled motorbike. He looked out into the vastness of the Takla Makan, the place was 1600, 000Km in total. The name said it all, Takla Makan means “place from which there is no return.”
Jason shivered at the sight of the snow covered sand dunes and the occasional shrub covered with icicles. In the distance Jason spotted a convoy of cargo trucks through his digital binoculars. He turned to Lachlan who was on his own ATV.
“I think we’ve found it.”
“Yep, when we arrive, send the coordinates to James he’s been flying around waiting for a signal.”
“Right, Southman we are going to follow but at a 1km radius ok?”
“Righto Boss.”
Jason, Lachlan, Markus and Southman powered up their four wheelers and followed the convoy to a setting of ancient ruins, but once the trucks drove in they didn’t come out the other side. Something suss was going on.
When Jason felt it was safe to go and explore the ruins he saw what was inside…
Nothing just a bare patch of dirt, no tire tracks or anything. Where could have convoy gone if it wasn’t here? Jason and Markus searched the area for anything that looked suspicious.
Jason was walking around the main area when he stumbled on a ledge in the floor, when Jason looked closer he saw that there was an empty void underneath the ledge.
“Oi have a look at this.”
The others came over and Markus helped Jason lift the ledge. When it opened Jason saw that it was an underground ramp. It wasn’t anything fancy just a well-disguised hatch.
The four ventured forward into the pitch blackness of the tunnel. At the end the group came to a cavern of some sort. Southman had been about to light a flare when Jason stopped him.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because. Can you see the yellow glow?”
“Yeah.”
“That means someone was here not that long ago.”
The group donned their NVG’s and the cavern was plunged into a neon green vortex.
“You were right Jase they’re still here.”
Through the night vision Jason could see six white figures in the distance, but one was carrying something on their shoulder it looked like a limp human.
“Liv.”
That one word echoed around the cavern and in an instant the place erupted in gun fire. The man carrying Liv dropped her next to the wall as Lachlan returned fire.
“Jason! Disappear and go get Liv!”
Jason sunk back and skirted around the cavern walls and until he saw Liv. When he saw her he was shocked, she was battered and bruised and barely alive, she still wore the blue jeans and white T-shirt she had worn to go and see her mother two weeks ago.
Jason picked her up and ran as fast as he could. He could hear Eln shouting in the distance.
“What the **** are you doing he’s getting away!”
Jason called in to James who was waiting for the signal in a C-17 globe master cargo jet.
“James I need you to land now, it’s gonna be a hairy take off.”
“Yes Sir. I’ll be on the ground by the time you’re out.”
“Lachlan, Southman, Markus! Let’s go.”
The group headed back up the eerie black ramp toward he ruins where James would be waiting.
When they reached the top a whole unit of men were waiting and firing on them. Jason and the others had to duck behind some cargo crates for cover. They were trapped; the men waiting for them were between themselves and the C-17 and Eln and the rest of his men were coming up the ramp. Jason only had thirty seconds to make a decision. Too late Eln’s men came out of the hatch and fired on the Jason and the others. They were cut down by the F88 assault rifles all but one, Eln. Eln dove for cover behind the ancient stone wall.
“Alright, we’re going nowhere like this we need to run now.”
Lachlan gave Jason a quick no before getting up on his haunches and running behind Jason firing at the same time. Jason was running behind Southman when Southman’s back exploded in a splash of red.
“Lachlan get Liv to the plane.”
Jason handed Liv over to Lachlan before dragging Southman back toward the cargo crates. When he turned his head he saw the man who had shot Southman, Eln was standing across the battlefield with a sawn-off shotgun and a grin on his face. Jason stood up and raised his Desert Eagle and pulled the trigger.
“You slimy mother ****er.” BAM!
Eln was blown off his feet; his entire chest exploding with the impact of the 50. Calibre round.
Jason turned back toward Southman who was on the ground, the life slowly seeping out in the form of blood.
“Southman? Jayden answer me.”
“Jase. It’s all over now we have Liv back.”
“Don’t worry about that now. We’re going to get you out of here.”
Southman stopped writhing in pain and broad smile stretched across his face, he was in another place now; he wasn’t dying in a cold unforgiving desert amongst a fire fight, but he was somewhere else somewhere where he was happy.
And without ceremony Corporal Jayden ‘Southman’ Cobalt died. Jason scooped up his body and just walked out into the battle field. All the gunfire ceased as it was over and everyone just watched as a lone soldier carry his dead friend to the waiting plane.
When Jason got back to Australia he made his personal mission to deliver the news to Southman’s parents personally. He didn’t want them to receive a letter telling them that their only son had been killed in action. So Jason dressed in his dress uniform stood at the front door of the Cobalt’s house with a folded Australian flag. He then rang the doorbell.
In the coming months Southman’s military and family funerals were held and soon after Jason and Liv both resigned from the Special Forces. Three weeks after they resigned Jason and Liv were married on a small farm just outside Olivia’s hometown.