Meant to Be (29 page)

“
No more of your stupid
tricks!”

The officer seated at the head of the
table stopped the video and went back to the photo.

“
We have a team working on
this now. Anyone recognize the building she said is a
hospital?”

It was blurry. No one did. But Rad was
not looking at the building. He was staring at her face, at her
eyes, completely devoid of fear. Yet he could see in them the
knowledge of impending doom as he stared at her face frozen in
time.

Before the general restarted the video
he gazed concernedly around the table. “This next segment… it is
the last… and I must warn you it is graphic.”

Rad saw McDunna glance sideways at
him, but he kept his eyes on the screen.

When the video started again, Lauren
was sitting in a chair at the same table, but her hands were now
tied behind her back, and her face was bent down to her chest. She
no longer wore civilian clothes, but the plain clothes of a
prisoner, and these appeared torn and bloodied.

“
Aminah Umar.”

There was no answer.

“
Aminah Umar.”

“
Yes,” came the weak
reply.

“
I apologize if my men
have been a little rough with you. They are not like American men,
eh?”

He laughed when she failed to respond,
but it sounded more sinister than humorous. Rad closed his eyes and
clenched his fists on the table.

“
I understand you are
quite a fighter… but those tranquilizers quieted you down,
eh?”

No one failed to notice that the
target of his jests began to shiver. There was no sound for a few
moments except the heavy breathing of the prisoner and the
sickening sound of her teeth chattering with pain or
repugnance.

“
Would you be surprised to
learn, Aminah Umar, that I watch CNN?”

It sounded like the interviewer was
standing now and pacing back and forth in front of the table, but
he could not be seen on camera. His voice seemed to be getting
louder and angrier as he talked.

“
And on CNN they talk
about this spy who helped American forces kill my friend, Ahmed
Hasan Arif.” His voice sounded almost jovial now.

Rad felt all the blood in his body
surge and throb in his head.

“
And I
think, no, it cannot be. Too much a coincidence that I have this
innocent Aminah Umar who takes such nice picture.” He laughed. “But
then I see your picture… on the TV.” He leaned across the table and
pushed her head back violently so she was looking at him. “And I
think, good news!
I have American
spy!
”

Lauren’s eyes were watchful and
guarded now, as if depending on senses rather than thought. Yet the
spark in them spoke of defiance without saying a word.

Her silence seemed to infuriate the
man even more. “American woman,” he spat, letting go of her head.
“You wish now you stay home and be a good wife, eh? Act like a
woman should? What you say to this?”

Lauren’s forehead lowered again as if
she were too tired to keep it up, but the words were easily
understandable. “I knew the risks.”

The man pounded his fist on the
table.

“
Yes, and
you have encountered your risk… your
nightmare
.” He appeared to think of
something funny and began to laugh. “Do you know what Aminah means
in my culture?”

Again she did not respond, but Rad
entertained little doubt she had picked the name herself and knew
well its meaning.

“
Trustworthy. Faithful.” The interrogator’s voice grew loud
again. “I believe you will wish you did not serve your country to
ruin mine, my
faithful
friend.”

Lauren lifted her head. “My country…
will avenge any wrong.” She talked painfully as blood dripped from
a split lip.

So steadfast was her gaze, so calm and
defiant her tone, it seemed to Rad she was speaking to each man in
the room, acknowledging her probable demise and challenging them to
action and vengeance on her behalf.

“
Oh, no, no, no. You are
wrong.” The interviewer’s voice sounded gleeful now. “We have
contacted the American authorities. They will not admit even
knowing you. Your people will not negotiate for your
life.”

“
Didn’t
say…
negotiate
.” She struggled to speak, yet her eyes showed no fear.
“
Get even
.”

The tape went to black as if the
camera was turned off but soon flickered back to life. It appeared
to be the same interview, but Lauren’s forehead now rested on the
table, not on her chest, and she was breathing hard as if she’d
just run a race. Her hands remained tied behind her
back.

“
This is
last time Aminah…
Last
chance
. Understand?”

The loud, gasping sound of her panting
breath was all that could be heard as she nodded weakly. Without
warning, a man standing behind her wearing a dark mask jerked her
head up by her hair. When the camera zoomed in, it took a strong
man not to groan.

The left side of her face was so
swollen the eye could not be seen. Her lips and mouth were bleeding
and puffy as if she’d been punched. The right side of her face was
purplish black and blue. There was little to recognize, save the
spirit of that which was Lauren that flickered, albeit dimly, in
her remaining eye.

“
You
understand?”

Her eye focused on the camera for a
moment as if pondering how to respond. Then she turned her head
slightly to the side and bent down to spit bright red fluid out of
her mouth so she could speak.

“
Yes.” Her response was
calm, but she began to cough violently as if trying to clear blood
from her windpipe. When she was done, she rested her forehead on
the table again as if too weak to lift it up.

“
Listen to me now, spy.
You answer me like this when I ask question. You read this.” He
stabbed a piece of paper with his finger. “You say ‘I apologize for
helping American soldiers kill innocent Pakistani people.’ You say,
‘I am sorry the infidel Americans make war with sovereign
country.”

He paused a moment as if watching her
try to breathe. “Then, Aminah Umar, you say this, and we let you go
home.”

The sound of rustling paper could be
heard as if they were placing the paper so Lauren could read it for
the camera, without it being seen. Rad held his breath as he
watched Lauren nod with her head still resting on the
table.

When the man pulled her head back up
with a jerk, her eye drifted away from the camera, apparently
toward the script she was being commanded to read. Again, she
showed no sign of fear. Yet neither did she show any sign of
hope.

Rad found himself leaning
forward, breathless, a low roar building in his ears.
Do it Lauren. For the love of God, just to do
it.

But deep inside he knew this was not a
woman who would consent to being used as propaganda by the enemy as
long as breath remained. His heart beat frantically for what was
about to come on a piece of recorded video that he knew was now
part of the past. Something inside him tried to prepare his mind
for the possibility he was watching her last moments on
earth.

“
Lauren
Cantrell of the USA, I ask you to tell the world—” The
interrogator’s voice was so angry and loud it cracked.
“
What are you doing in MY
COUNTRY?”

The man behind Lauren pulled her head
back further, which caused her to jerk with a painful, reflexive
wince. Otherwise, her face appeared completely unemotional as she
stared at the piece of paper.

You could have heard a pin drop in the
conference room as every man leaned forward and drew a collective
breath. No one expected the loud, clear voice that came out of the
battered prisoner as she shifted her gaze away from the paper she
was supposed to read and instead looked calmly into the camera with
an expression so impassioned, it both comforted and alarmed
everyone watching.

“
PROUDLY… DYING… for
MINE!”

She had just enough time to spit a
mouthful of bloody saliva in the direction of the interrogator
before her head was slammed into the table from behind with such
violent force that it lifted her out of the chair and sent a spray
of fresh blood running in crimson droplets down the glass of the
camera lens. Her body went instantly limp, as if it were suddenly
filled with nothing but sand, and slid lifelessly to the cement
below.

There were a few excited and angry
voices in the background as the camera jerked and then panned down
to the unmoving figure lying in an unnatural position on the dirty
floor. A pool of dark blood had already formed beside her parted
lips and under her nose, and was running in tiny rivulets to
coagulate in her hair.

Rad leaned forward to see if she was
breathing, but the tape came to an abrupt end and the screen went
black as if a piece of light had left the world.

Not a man in the room moved. No one it
seemed even breathed. Many had closed their eyes in shock and
disbelief. Veteran military men who had witnessed the destruction
and ravishes of the battlefield were sickened beyond words and
appeared incapable of speaking.

Rad stood abruptly and walked outside
where he vomited off the side of the porch. Everyone within knew it
wasn’t what he had just seen that had made him physically ill. It
was the fact there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about
it.

Chapter
28

One week later

Rad picked up his
vibrating phone and saw it was McDunna.

“
What’s up?”

“
We may have something.
Get up here.”

Click
.

Rad jumped in his truck and drove
faster than he should have, bursting through the office door in
less than ten minutes. McDunna appeared mildly surprised but didn’t
wait for formalities.

“
They picked up some
communication with Afghanistan.”

“
What does that mean?” Rad
asked impatiently.

McDunna paused a moment to light a
cigarette. “The CIA thinks the White House has put enough pressure
on Pakistan that they don’t want the liability anymore. They likely
sold Cantrell to the Taliban and are going to be moving
her.

Rad’s heart sank and rose all at the
same time. She was still alive. And if she made it to Afghanistan
they had a chance of getting to her. But what the Taliban would do
to her was unthinkable.

“
When do I
leave?”

McDunna took a deep breath and blew
smoke out slowly. “The in-country team will be handling this one.
I’m not sure you should be involved, attached as you
are.”

Rad could not have felt more pain or
raw torment if someone had just stabbed him in the heart with a
dull blade. “You can’t be serious.”

McDunna lifted his gaze and stared at
him with slit-eyed scrutiny, seeming to rethink his decision.
“Jenkins is the lead on this. If I let you go and he says pull out
and you don’t have her, you sure as hell better follow his
orders.”

Rad swallowed hard. He did not even
allow himself to contemplate the possibility they would not have
her. “Yes, sir. I will.”

Rad was in the air that same day while
a plan was being prepared with a rushed special operations tempo.
The adrenaline surge and anxiety he felt for this mission was
stronger than usual, making the plane ride feel like
days.

Once on the ground and back in
familiar territory he felt a little more in control, even though in
reality he was in limbo. All action and orders were out of his
hands now. Being acquainted with Jenkins from a previous mission,
Rad had no trouble assimilating into his command, but Jenkins made
it clear Rad’s job was to ID the prisoner and otherwise lie
low.

There was nothing he could do but
wait…and try to force down the dull ache of foreboding that
threatened to overtake him. The old saying, “so close, yet so far
away,” had never so accurately reflected his circumstances.
Missions like this had a way of stalling or even dissolving before
they made it off the ground. And even if everything did move as
planned, there would be no do-overs. As usual, everything had to go
perfectly

After a few more days of intercepted
phone calls, it appeared the operation was going to be a go. The
kidnappers would be taking their “package” through the Khyber Pass,
mixing in with a wagon train of farmers transporting their produce.
When the line of farmers made it completely out of Pakistan, a unit
of Marines would temporarily close up the pass behind them while
Jenkins’ men would search the wagons for the special cargo they
were seeking.

Once the wheels of the operation
started turning, everything began to unfold at lightning speed. Rad
and the team were dropped in the area under cover of darkness and
watched the caravan proceed through the valley. When the word came
to move, they used trucks and all-terrain vehicles to stop and
surround the procession of wagons, carts, and donkeys loaded down
with produce. Half of the men formed a security perimeter while the
rest began to round up the farmers and go through the
wagons.