Page 55 of SEAL's Spitfire
All the guards Meghan had seen were dressed alike in black with most of their faces covered. It made it impossible to tell who they were. She’d lost her head scarf in the desert and was surprised they hadn’t given her something to cover her head. Or maybe it wouldn’t matter because they planned to remove it from her shoulders soon.
While following the guard through the various corridors, she tried to come up with what she would say to Azfaar. How to reason with him, and hopefully get him to release the captives. It was a long shot, but she’d come too far not to try at least.
The guard in front of her stopped and opened another door. At least it wasn’t metal, but her heart sank when she followed him into the room. It was some sort of a recording studio. A single chair was in the center of the room against a gray cement wall similar to the cell she’d just left. A video camera set up on a tripod and an easel were across from the chair.
“Sit,” Guard number one said. Then he pointed to a poster balanced on the easel. “You will read this, exactly as written, or we will shoot you.”
Meghan cringed as she looked at what they wanted her to read.
“Say the words.”
“I won’t. Go ahead and shoot me.”
“Azfaar expected that response. If you don’t cooperate, we will shoot her.” A young girl, maybe ten, stood next to guard number two. He had his gun held against the child’s head. What was wrong with these people?
“Please, don’t hurt her.” She had been a fool to think she could outsmart or even reason with them. They were ruthless and she was an infidel as far as they were concerned.
“Then read. Make it convincing.” Guard number three moved from the doorway to the tripod and repositioned the camera until it was focused on her position, then started the recording. “Say the words or she will die.”
The words were traitorous and untrue, but if she didn’t do as they asked an innocent child would die, and it would be her fault. This was not one of the scenarios Tex had discussed. The Taliban usually just demanded ransoms, or they’d sell the captives for arms. This was more of an ISIS tactic.
“You’re trying my patience. Say the words.” The girl had tears running down her cheeks, but she didn’t make a sound. God knows what they’d already put her through.
“Let her go and I will do it. But I want you to promise she won’t be hurt.”
“You have no say here. Read it or she dies.” She’d exhausted all the options she’d been able to come up with and had no choice but to give in to their demands. They slid the easel a bit closer to the camera, which would ensure they captured her full face and would make it look like she was just speaking and not reading their prompts. Sighing, Meghan looked at the camera and read what was written on the poster board. The hate laden words sickened her.
“I am a non-believer and one of the foreign occupiers. Americans are greedy infidels who want to take over the world. You have no right to be here and no right to take our people prisoner. You will release the ten prisoners taken yesterday or they will kill me. You have three days to comply.”
Meghan didn’t know how she got through it. But they weren’t happy with her performance. After her first attempt, the second guard who’d been holding the gun on the child, punched her in the face hard enough to knock her out of the chair. Her eye swelled up almost immediately. While she was on the ground, he kicked her over and over until the one in charge told him to stop.
“Do it again.”
It was hard to read the words with her eye swollen and the pain radiating from her ribs. She got through it again, but they still weren’t satisfied. The only saving grace for Meghan was that the little girl was gone, and she prayed that they had let her go.
She lost track of how many times she repeated the words or how many beatings she endured. By the time they were done, the room was spinning, she was nauseated from the blood in her mouth, and was unable to see clearly. Excruciating pain racked her body with every breath. Tears slid down her cheeks, but she no longer cared. All she wanted was for the pain to stop.
As her captors argued, probably about how to kill her, she prayed for a bullet in the head. Something fast, that would end the pain. One of them approached her but her vision was too blurred to know if it was the one who’d been beating her. Bracing herself for whatever was coming next, she was surprised when he grabbed her wrists and tied them to the chair behind her, then tied her ankles to the legs. It was kind of comical that they actually believed she could walk let alone try to escape.
She must have passed out at some point. Blinking a few times, she attempted to clear her vision. It was blurry but she could make out enough of her surroundings to know she was alone. The rumbling sound of an explosion rocked the building. Then it happened again, this time closer and ten times louder. The floor shook and dust filled the air making it harder for her to breathe.
It had to be Rafe and his team. Joy filled her heart that he’d come to save her, to save them all. Her pain addled mind never took into account that he wouldn’t expect her to be in Afghanistan or to even look for her. Instead, she struggled with her bindings, trying to release her hands but all she did was make them bleed.
Then a third bomb exploded, and part of the ceiling came down, hitting her. As she lost consciousness, she prayed, “Please God, I need to tell Rafe I love him.”
Chapter 17
The team reviewed the plan and tweaked it once Rafe and Murph returned from their exploration of the compound. It was just a matter of waiting for the bombers to be in range. Expecting to get the go order, instead Jake received a secure call from Captain Knox. That usually meant something went sideways. It happened more often than not, and they were used to it. But this time it was different for Rafe. This time the woman he loved was suffering through who knows what and he needed to save her.
For the last hour, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Meghan was in extreme danger. It ate away at his self-discipline and chiseled away at his focus. Only his years of training kept him from storming the walls and rescuing his woman. Instead, he remained alert and ready to move as soon as they were given the go order. He had no choice, he’d be no good to her or his team if he ran off half-cocked.
While Jake was talking to the captain, the team went over the plan one more time looking for any holes they could fill. It was about as tight as they could make it without knowing how the tangos would respond once the bombs started falling. The drones used thermal imaging on each pass overhead to give them the location of everyone in the compound. There was a cluster of people in the right wing of the main building. From the schematics TOC sent, it had double walls and then a central location of inner cells and that was their destination. Rafe just prayed that they had Meghan with the other captives.
“TOC confirmed that Meghan was brought to the compound. Our latest scans show there are still only the nine hostages together in the one cell. So, she’s there but not being held with the others as of the last scan of the location.”
“Do they have confirmation of her death?” Rafe asked through gritted teeth and a tight jaw.
“No.”
