Inside, people were lying on the dirty ground. There were cries and whimpers, and so many people had injuries from when they had been taken captive. Others were suffering from severe dehydration. Some had already been in there for days, and there had clearly been no attempt to keep anyone alive longer than the length of time that remained until the attack. People inside were simply puppets in this macabre show.
Ned was on his knees, his head in his hands. Then, he tried to pull himself together. This thing had been hastily constructed, and he had to at least try to find a way out. But as he looked around, the structure seemed more sturdy than he had thought. The Butcher wouldn’t leave anything like this to chance. As Ned looked from end to end, a distance of around one hundred meters, he saw that one lone figure was standing. A tall, slender Asian woman. And then it hit him. His mouth fell open.
His momentary delight at seeing a friend turned to devastation when he realized that Tsu was facing the same fate as himself. But right now, he just wanted to be with her. He found the strength to stand and, stepping between prostrate humans, he made his way towards his friend. She saw him approaching. Her eyes widened, and Ned knew she was experiencing the same emotions he had been seconds earlier. They reached each other and embraced.
“How did they take you?” Ned then asked.
“Overwhelming force. It was quick; well executed.”
“It must have been. I know you wouldn’t let yourself get taken easily.”
There was a moment of silence.
“What do you think will happen to us?” Ned asked. It was a stupid question as it was obvious what the plan was. But somehow he hoped for an optimistic answer.
Tsu was not in an optimistic mood.
“The Butcher intends to demonstrate the power of these weapons by using them on human guinea pigs,” she said straightforwardly. “In a few hours from now, this place will be turned into an inferno.”
“I’ve been speaking to a Swiss girl who was being held in the palace. She became a favorite of one of the generals, and the man took delight in describing to her in great detail, while he was drunk, what the plan was for the destruction of Americans and other foreign nationals. As he told the girl how she would meet her fate, in horrific circumstances, she was still expected to fawn over him and drink with him.”
“At least it will be quick,” a woman said close by. Ned turned and immediately could see that she was heavily pregnant. He recognized her from TV news he had seen in Egypt before he crossed the Sahara. Her optimism soon fell away and she began to sob. She tried to continue, persuading herself and anyone who would listen that at least they had the small mercy of a quick death.
“These weapons are worse when you are on the outer radius,” her husband picked up. It was as if they were both considering in great detail exactly what was going to happen to them, which may be expected but was not a good idea. Probably everybody in that room had done the same thing. “We will be at the epicenter, and we will be killed instantly. It’s better than dying slowly.”
Tsu had a look of extreme sorrow and sympathy on her face. Ned admired how she felt more sorry for others than she did for herself.
They moved away from the couple without answering. There was no need to explain that, unlike neutron bombs, these weapons were all about the blast. Although people outside the initial blast zone would not suffer, it was undoubtedly true that everyone inside it would be killed in a terrible manner.
Tsu and Ned sat down with their backs against the metal wall. A wall that had only been constructed a short time earlier. There seemed little point in talking. They had no energy left to be philosophical or for gallows humor. With their shoulders touching, they fell asleep.
They were abruptly woken. A loud, forceful voice was blaring out from a loudspeaker.
“Prepare the weapons!”
Although it should not have been the first thing she thought of, Tsu wondered why the voice, which has no doubt one of The Butcher’s generals, was speaking in English. Then it hit her. It was to instill terror in the intended targets and to provide a show to the watching world.
“Fire in t-minus one minute!” Yet more evidence of a show to the world: using NASA terminology to begin the countdown.
Tsu looked up towards the roof and saw cameras dotted along the top of the walls. Her death was to be broadcast around the world, along with the deaths of so many others.
36 Slipping Away
Chris jabbed his elbow to the base of the Butcher’s throat. He knew that a blow to the lower trachea is both extremely painful and panic-inducing, making the victim realize how close death can be.
“Next, I will cut out your eyes. Make the call.”
Whimpering, The Butcher pushed down on the red button of the handheld radio. The first thing he said was a series of numbers and letters. Chris knew it was a code. Aside from the code, The Butcher was only speaking in his native language, and Chris could not understand what he was saying. But the confused, questioning tone of the man on the other end of the line suggested that The Butcher had done as Chris had instructed.
“Good,” Chris said. “Now, when we leave this tunnel, you are going to tell your men that they will be escorting me away from the area. You will be in the vehicle also. The first thing you should do when we leave this hole is to instruct them to drop their weapons. Only mine shall be raised. Do you understand?”
The Butcher had hate in his eyes, but he nodded. Chris was not surprised to find there was a weakness inside the supposed strongman. It was the case with so many bullies.
“Let’s go,” he said.
When Chris emerged from the tunnel, with a gun to The Butcher’s head, three weapons were quickly trained on him. The fourth guard appeared to have been a casualty of the grenade. So be it.
The Butcher issued instructions, and the men looked shocked. The instructions were issued again. Slowly and reluctantly, the men lowered their weapons. Chris began to march The Butcher towards the waiting vehicle.
The men climbed inside first. Chris forced The Butcher’s head down and pushed him into the vehicle. Then, the roar of engines. Chris turned to see four open-top trucks moving fast across rough ground towards his position. Reinforcements had arrived at precisely the wrong time.
Gunfire filled the air. The men inside the trucks were firing into the sky, a show of force. Chris was still outside of the SUV, but The Butcher was inside. Chris was an easy target without a human shield. Bullets began to zip off the ground next to his feet. He dashed around the vehicle and ducked down for cover.
The three guards exited the SUV. Chris could see that one of them was escorting The Butcher away. He could not let that happen. He knew The Butcher would very soon have his hands on another radio and could issue a command to resume the attack. But there were so many bullets raining in that Chris could not move. He was pinned down.
Expecting his hand to be blown off, he cautiously poked his weapon around the side of the SUV. He fired. No bullets came. He was out of ammo. He could make out The Butcher’s oddly shaped frame as the leader ran and stumbled towards the safety of one of the vehicles in the convoy.
His last chance was slipping away.
He imagined Tsu being burned alive, the victim of an appalling spectacle broadcast live around the world. The news stations would not be able to stop themselves from gorging on it. They would show images from the sky of an enormous sea of flames brought about by nuclear weapons. He would lose the love of his life at the same time as many other lives were being incinerated. He would never recover.
His hand moved towards his belt. He was judging the distance between himself and The Butcher. He again thought of Tsu, and her ability to throw so straight and true. He could not let her down.
But it was a long way. The vehicle The Butcher was now approaching must have been at least thirty meters away. Chris gripped the handle of the knife. He knew that in a few seconds, The Butcher would turn to get into the vehicle and would be side-on to Chris instead of having his back t
o him. He might just get a look at The Butcher’s throat. The men reached the vehicle. The Butcher turned his huge, grotesque head. He couldn’t resist a glance to confirm that he had made it to safety. Chris thrust forward his arm. He released the blade and it sliced through the air. Time seemed to stand still.
The Butcher began to duck through the door, but Chris had accounted for that. He knew that the man’s jugular vein would be a couple of inches lower than when the blade was released. The blade sliced through flesh and bone. Blood exploded, spraying the guards around The Butcher. The leader clutched his throat, but the knife was embedded deep. There was total panic as The Butcher collapsed to the ground.
“For Haley Henry and for Travis Raines,” Chris said quietly.
He knew The Butcher would not be able to speak again, and soon would not be able to take any more breaths into his body. The leader had not ordered a resumption of the nuclear attack.
The aim had been perfect and the merciless dictator would soon be dead. But that was nowhere near the end of Chris’s problems.
The bullets came again, tearing up the SUV that was his only protection. The men were advancing. Only two remained to tend to The Butcher and the others, all enraged, were bearing down on Chris. As he searched his mind for a way out, he saw a giant explosion at the location of the palace.
37 A Touch Of Green
Silence. A stifling, unbearable silence. Tsu was sure that more than one minute had passed. Why were they still alive?
There was an almighty explosion. Tsu and Ned hit the ground, covering their heads with their hands. They waited for death. It did not come. More explosions followed. But the building was intact. The explosions seemed to be coming from outside of the structure. The front of the building caved in. There was a flash of fire, and jagged pieces of metal arrowed through the air. People were screaming, but nobody was running. They were all on the ground, like they too were waiting for death. But the feeling in the space began to change. People could hear the sound of aircraft overhead.
“That was not a nuclear weapon!” Tsu shouted over the noise.
“Damn right!” Ned agreed.
There was an attack from the air. An attack on who was not exactly clear, but everyone hoped to hell it was directed at The Butcher.
Right now though, it didn’t matter who was the target. The bombing was indiscriminate. And heavy. The biggest bomb yet landed right next to the compound. Tsu and Ned were knocked off their feet and catapulted through the air until their helpless bodies slammed into the metal wall. Desperately trying to get a breath, Tsu looked up and saw that the place was collapsing under a barrage.
People wailed in terror, still pinned to the ground. Tsu’s hearing slowly returned, and she was sure that the sound of jets was becoming more distant. Then, more shouts of panic...but this time some distance away from her location. The cracked and smoldering compound was now gripped by a strange stillness. Tsu took a look around to assess the extent of injuries. No bombs had fallen directly on the compound, and it appeared most people had been spared...at least physically. There was a wave of sobbing as loved ones held each other. Among them, some fifty meters away from Tsu, Ned was getting slowly to his feet. She saw him and smiled.
Lying face-down on the ground, she then turned her head towards the front of the compound. A blast had blown it right off, leaving the place wide open. She could see flames coming from the palace. And then, against a backdrop of fire, a strong figure emerged.
Tsu heard herself gasp. Those broad shoulders and the wide stance. She knew immediately that it was Chris.
Somehow, he spotted her right away. She felt joy rushing up through her body.
She was on her feet like a sprinter out of the blocks. She was still running when she reached Chris and fell into his arms.
“You’re safe!” she said.
“And so are you, thank God,” he replied, holding her head to his chest.
“Ned is here too, but he’s all good.”
“Really, wow!” Chris scanned the area. Then, he caught a glimpse of his friend making his way over much more slowly than Tsu had.
They clasped hands like they were about to arm wrestle, both grinning widely.
“Let’s get out of here,” Chris said. “The Ethiopian military is about to overrun this place. They saved my life, but they might still end it if we hang around too long.”
“So that’s who was bombing us from the air!” Ned replied.
“They were supposed to be bombing The Butcher, but I guess they weren’t being all that cautious.”
“I guess his reign is over then,” Tsu suggested.
“I’m pretty sure it is. I stuck a knife in his neck.”
“That's why the nuclear attack never came?” Tsu said as it dawned on her. She looked at Chris with admiration as she thought about how many lives he had saved.
“You know there’s a pregnant woman here?” Ned asked, equally impressed. “That baby will have a life because of you.”
“And because of Haley.”
Ned’s eyes filled with tears.
“Let’s get home, buddy,” Chris told him. “Give her that send off she deserves.”
As Ned followed Chris away from the scene, he momentarily locked glances with a woman who was walking past him. He couldn’t help but notice her beautiful brown eyes with just a touch of green….
Epilogue - Always
In the sunlit cemetery, Chris Collins watched with admiration as his old friend finished an eloquent, heartwarming eulogy for his sister. What he did not know was that right now, Ned was wishing he had Chris’s military posture, the straight back and broad shoulders, as he felt hunched and vulnerable delivering his speech to the many people in attendance. But his posture mattered nothing. His words were a fitting tribute to his beloved sister who was today being laid to rest beside her father.
Ned ended with a quote he had been reminded of during his time in Egypt, which was inscribed upon a chalice from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
May your spirit live, may you spend millions of years sitting with your face to the north wind, your eyes beholding happiness. May night spread its wings over thee as the imperishable stars.
The speech was so moving that it had stopped Frank from doing what he had been doing for the past thirty minutes: trying to suppress a strange smile-frown combination that took over his face whenever he laid eyes on Tsu. Now was not the time to be thinking only of outward beauty, but he couldn’t help being astounded by how stunning Chris’s partner was. He was delighted for his buddy.
Tsu now locked her arm around Chris’s. The occasion had made both of them realize there was no time to waste on negativity and doubts. Love had to win.
After hugging his closest relatives, Ned approached his three friends, who all congratulated him on his wonderful words.
“Let me buy you a drink,” Frank told Ned.
“Thanks, Frank. But only one. I’m cutting back.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. There’s a lot of evil out there, and I for one am not going to sit around doing nothing about it. You can all make your own choices, of course, but I’d be eternally grateful if you’re on board with me.”
Frank nodded and Tsu smiled to say you know we are.
“Always, brother,” Chris confirmed. “Always.”
Also by David Berens
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Sahara Dawn
A Chris Collins CIA Thriller #3
All Rights Reserved © 2017 by David F. Berens
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