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What America’s highest leaders had to say about Jessica Buchanan’s dramatic kidnapping and rescue . . .

“Jessica Buchanan was selflessly serving her fellow human beings when she was taken hostage by criminals and pirates who showed no regard for her health and well-being. The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice.”

—P
RESIDENT
B
ARACK
O
BAMA

“This successful hostage rescue, undertaken in a hostile environment, is a testament to the superb skills of courageous service members who risked their lives to save others. I applaud their efforts. . . . This mission demonstrates our military’s commitment to the safety of our fellow citizens wherever they may be around the world.”

—L
EON
P
ANETTA,
U
NITED
S
TATES
S
ECRETARY OF
D
EFENSE

“Last night’s mission, boldly conducted by some of our nation’s most courageous, competent, and committed special operations forces, exemplifies United States Africa Command’s mission to protect Americans and American interests in Africa. We should remember that Ms. Buchanan . . . [was] working to protect the people of Somalia when violently kidnapped.”

—G
ENERAL
C
ARTER
F. H
AM
, C
OMMANDING
G
ENERAL
, U.S. A
FRICA
C
OMMAND

PART ONE:

Dying Badly in Exotic Locales

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

PART TWO:

Concealed under Open Sky

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

PART THREE:

Dance of the Green-Teeth Zombies

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

PART FOUR:

Night of the Black Magic Sleep

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Afterword

Selected References

Acknowledgments

Photographs

About Jessica Buchanan, Erik Landemalm, and Anthony Flacco

Index

To our son, August.

Before you even existed, you helped us survive the most trying time in our lives.

Jessica:

Erik tells me for the umpteenth time, “I just don’t like it, Jess.”

“And I still agree,” I tell him. “I’ve just got no choice.”

“Oh, come on. There’s always a choice. You can get around it.”

“I’ve canceled three times already and I
can’t
get around it, at least not by complaining about security anymore. I’m not sick, so what do I tell them?”

This stops him for a minute, but I can see it does nothing to make him feel better. The sense of danger has gotten to us. It’s no help that neither of us has been sleeping well. We acknowledge that much; the question is what to do about it. I know it’s not the best time to leave our home in the city of Hargeisa, Somalia, and make the journey 480 miles southeast. My NGO (nongovernmental organization) keeps a field office there, next to a dangerous border called the Green Line separating territories partially controlled by the Islamists from those still controlled by the official Somali government. The Green Line is invisible, known best by the people it divides, never included on official maps of Somalia. I’ve had my eye on the violence down there for a long time. It isn’t something I actively fear; I watch it the way a farmer keeps an eye on the horizon.

Our destination is only a short distance from territories controlled by the Islamist group Al-Shabaab, which rules major parts of southern Somalia and imposes Sharia law with terror tactics. Local unrest is potentially explosive, rolling across the region in waves, but I’ve never been the soldier of fortune type. I started my life in Kenya as a grade school teacher a few years ago and ended up here in Somalia, developing classroom materials for a Danish NGO and working throughout eastern Africa. Our mission is to instruct local people how to avoid the rampant war munitions and land mines that have created a generation of amputees here.

But I realize doing charitable work is no protection from local violence. Criminals are indifferent to social work, and to those who traffic in hate I am a Westerner, which is bad—an American, which is worse, and both my appearance and my occupation are equally repellent in my status as
infidel
. To me this morning’s destination feels too close to their home territory, where many of their people are violently opposed to the presence of Westerners in their region. No matter how modestly a Western woman dresses or covers her hair, those who traffic in hate don’t see a gesture of cultural cooperation. They see an example of Westerners wearing disguises aimed at lulling the faithful into accepting foreign sacrilege in their homeland. And while bigotry exists all over the world, this is a region where people can really lose their heads over it, generally between the chin and the shoulders.

My continuing concern is getting caught in the crossfire of any one of the countless acts of clan warfare or random hooliganism that plague southern Somalia and keep it in a state of general anarchy. For potential robbers, Westerners may represent a chance at fast money. This is a part of the world where hardly anyone has any, with an average per capita income of $600 USD. Many people have far less. But then that’s why we never wander the region without good cause and we always travel with security.

The sticking point is simple: My NGO thinks this is an
important staff training session, while on top of my concerns over civil unrest, my husband Erik’s concerns are stronger still. He has worked in the local political arena here for the last six years, and his sense of the local mindset is good.

My NGO’s plan is for me to fly from Hargeisa to North Galkayo where, for safety, the excursion from North to South is to be made in a three-car caravan. The security caravan is our standard mode of travel, and I’m not at all surprised to be using it now. But what my colleagues have neglected to tell me is that there is a kidnapping threat for expats in the area, and that our destination is situated about five hundred meters from a known pirate den. My sense of dread is strong, even without factoring that into my decision.

Nevertheless, I love my job in spite of these moments of concern. The very fact that it is unsafe is what maintains my concern for the children who have no choice but to live there. Every time I think of quitting, I consider the lives we’re saving with this mine awareness program and the mutilations we can prevent in the future with this work.

I realize Erik’s back is to the wall with his concern for me. Most of the time he is a big teddy bear who embraces the role of taking care of me, and I can see he’s trying hard to do that now. But six months earlier, a busload of passengers—including women and children—was bombed on the same road we’ll be using, innocently caught up in someone else’s dispute. He reminds me, now; it’s only been six months. I have to resist his objections. I tell him (and myself) that in the months since the attack on that bus, the roads between North and South Galkayo have remained calm. I add the helpful fact that earlier today, my NGO’s security advisor cleared me for safe travel in that region. After all, if we don’t rely on their information we can’t do the work.

Shortly before my scheduled departure Erik reluctantly gives in and turns to me with a heavy sigh. “Look, Jess,” he tells me, “you
know I want you to do the best work you can, to feel right about it. I don’t know, maybe I’m being too protective . . .”