by Bryan Murray
Further along the road Steve stopped again to get out and talk to an old man who was out shovelling the snow off his driveway. He asked the same questions and again he got a negative answer.
Steve got back in the car, a despondent look on his face. “Just great, 0 for 2!” he drove off again and when they came around the next bend on the icy road, Sarah suddenly grabbed Steve’s arm and screamed out, pointing at a house up the hillside.
“Look, up there!”
Steve stopped the car at the bottom of the driveway and looked up the drive to where Sarah was pointing at a red SUV!
Jake looked across at Steve. “Well, it’s red all right, but is it a Fiat? I’m not that into European cars?”
Steve was already palming his Glock and getting ready to get out of the car. “I guess there’s only one way to find out!” he looked at Jake. “Take over the wheel and be ready to haul ass if anything goes wrong, okay?”
Jake nodded and moved over as Steve got out of the car and made his way stealthily up through the snow covered trees alongside the upward-sloping driveway.
When he got closer and he could see the back of the vehicle more clearly, he realized that it was a BMW and not a Fiat. “Damn!” he whispered before making his way back down towards the road. Suddenly, he heard a guttural snarl behind him and he turned to see a huge, salivating Rottweiler barrelling down through the snow towards him.
“Oh, shit!” he gasped and he started to sprint back towards the SUV. As soon as Jake saw what was happening, he already had the car door open and he was moving slowly forward as a breathless Steve literally dived on board and slammed the door behind him, just seconds before the salivating animal almost scratched the paintwork off trying to get at him.
“My God!” Steve gasped.
Jake had a wry smile on his face as they accelerated away from the irate dog. “I guess it wasn’t a Fiat, then?”
Steve was catching his breath. “Damn straight, it was a goddamned BMW!”
“That’s 0 for 3.” Jake replied, but as he drove around the next bend, he didn’t realize that the odds were about to change when they all looked ahead.
There, parked at the side of the road was a Fed-Ex delivery van. The Driver was walking back to his van, down the driveway from a cabin after delivering a package. As he got closer he saw a smiling Steve standing there waiting for him.
Once again, Steve gave him the spiel in Italian about searching for their friends and to his amazement, the Driver told him he had seen a red Fiat SUV outside a cabin about a mile up the road. He told Steve the cabin had two large pine trees at the bottom of the driveway on the far side of the road from the lake.
When Steve asked the Driver how he could be certain, he told him that he had just delivered a package to the house next door, not ten minutes earlier.
Steve thanked him profusely and rushed back to the SUV, climbing in a smile on his face.
“Well?” Sarah inquired.
“He said they’re parked a mile up the road. A cabin on the left, up in the trees with two large pine trees at each side of the driveway down at the road below the house.”
Jake was already moving off. “Keep your finger’s crossed, guys, let’s hope this is it.”
CHAPTER 14
In sharp contrast to the pristine chill of the Apennine Mountains in Italy, the weather along the southeastern coast of Cuba was warmly humid outside the Guantanamo Detention Camp inside the US Naval Base, with a perfect sunrise just about making itself known.
In the office of the Base Commander Ben Jarvis, the phone rang and Jarvis, in his fifties with a greying crew cut, answered it.
“Commander Jarvis?” he inquired.
It was John Mulroney on the line from the White House. “Good morning, Commander, this is John Mulroney, Chief-of-Staff at the White House.”
Jarvis immediately leaned forward an interested look on his face. It wasn’t every day that the White House came calling. “Yes, sir, what can I do for you?” he inquired.
“This is a confidential call, Commander,” Mulroney began. “I am calling to get an update on the incarceration of the Al-Qaeda leader Jamal al-Midari. Keeping daily tabs on these terrorist guys is a full time job!”
Jarvis smiled. “I understand, sir and this guy is a real prince!”
“He is?” Mulroney inquired.
“Yes, sir. He’s almost immune to interrogation. Seems to switch himself off inside when we begin and there is no way we have found yet to loosen him up.”
“I understand, Commander,” Mulroney continued. “So, there is something you can do to help us on a very special project we are working on concerning this guy.”
“No problem, sir. What would you like me to do?”
Mulroney quickly told the Base Commander what he wanted done.
* * *
In the White House, Mulroney then explained what was going on to the still stressed-out President and Vice-President, both of whom were totally consumed by their present dilemma.
As parents, they would have turned over al-Midari in a heartbeat to get their sons back, but as leaders of the civilized, terror-ridden world, they were totally committed to ensuring that there could be no dealing with terrorists.
* * *
In his heavily-guarded cell in Guantanamo Detention Camp, Jamal al-Midari, a dark, dangerous-looking man, continued to meditate, clearing his mind of all the stressful things surrounding him, totally unaware that help to ensure his release was coming from a most unusual direction.
He listened to the screams of other prisoners under interrogation nearby, but his mind was totally calm and his meditation level to enable him to absorb the pain administered by the infidel Americans, was as strong as ever.
He was suddenly surprised when a group of guards appeared and unlocked his cell before marching him out under close supervision. He was even more surprised when they marched him straight past the customary interrogation center and out towards the exit of the detention camp.
The second he was outside the main door, inside the compound, an armed Humvee drove up with a military escort vehicle on each side of it. The guard detail were deliberate in the way they brought out al-Midari to the outside of the vehicle, facing the camp fence, before pushing him inside the Humvee.
Way across the foothills nearby, a powerful telescope mounted in the window of an inconspicuous cabin in some trees, was already focused on the movements in the camp and the undercover Al-Qaeda operative was already on his cell phone back to Iraq, advising his superiors that it looked like the leader was being moved from the detention camp.
The operative continued to watch as the convoy, including al-Midari drove across towards the airstrip buildings of the adjoining US Naval Base and out of sight of the telescope in the cabin in the trees.
Unknown to the Al-Qaeda operative, the NSA were already monitoring all calls from Guantanamo towards the Middle East and to Iraq in particular and the interception of the hoped for message to the Al-Qaeda top brass was also recorded and relayed to John Mulroney in the White House.
Mulroney put the phone down and turned to the President. “That was the NSA, Mr. President. They intercepted a call from Guantanamo to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, telling them that al-Midari was on the move.”
The President looked pleased. “Good, that’s what Jake wanted. It could buy him the extra time he needs if they think we are still considering an exchange.”
“Exactly, sir.” Mulroney was feeling the President’s pain as he left him when a party of visiting delegates arrived and the President had to have some photographs taken with the visitors.
* * *
What the Al-Qaeda operative watching the base in Guantanamo didn’t realize, was that al-Midari had merely been transferred from one heavily-guarded cell in the Detention Camp to one that was equally heavily-guarded in the Naval Base. He was going nowhere!
CHAPTER 15
Driving along the road beside the lake, Jake, Sarah and Steve were now fully armed with t
heir weapons cocked and loaded with spare clips of ammo at the ready. Their game plan was to proceed with caution, hopefully gain the element of surprise, but with the overriding objective that whatever happened, the boys would not be compromised or injured.
This was a tall order and as they neared the location of the cabin that the Fed-Ex Driver had given them, they realized that it was on a hillside with a snow-covered driveway leading up to the cabin. They parked the car down the road about twenty yards past the driveway, out of sight from the cabin and they quickly made their way undetected, up through the heavy snow-laden trees in the direction of the cabin.
Moving along, their breath showing in the cold air, Sarah still needed to know exactly what the game plan was. “So, how do you want to play it, Jake?” she whispered.
He thought a moment. “Well, my guess is that there could be at least five or six of the bad guys in there in addition to the boys, so Steve and I will try and take them out while you run interference on getting the boys to safety and take out any retaliatory hostile attempt to take out the boys if those bastards sense they are losing the battle.” A tall order all around but they all nodded in agreement.
When they got closer and saw the red SUV parked in the driveway, they had to move back quickly out of sight when they suddenly heard voices and saw the first two masked guards moving out of the cabin to check that the driveway was clear, automatic weapons in their hands.
Steve looked at Jake and whispered. “Definitely Arabs!”
Jake nodded in agreement.
The first two guards were quickly followed by two other armed, masked guards carrying their tote bags with them and escorting an unarmed white Caucasian male, the Doctor. So far there were no signs of the boys, but the hairs on the back of Jake’s neck were telling him that they had hit pay dirt!
What was already giving Jake concern was that judging by the weaponry in the hands of the terrorists, the trio were heavily outgunned and it would take some serious precision shooting to make an impact on the men above.
Then, on the signal back to the house from the first guard that the coast was clear, Genaro and the remaining guard, both of them also masked and armed, prodded the boys out at gunpoint with their arms tied behind their backs in the direction of the SUV.
From their cover, Jake whispered to Sarah and Steve to make each shot count and make sure the boys weren’t hit. They both nodded in agreement and on Jake’s signal, they emerged from the cover of the trees and Jake screamed at the two startled boys.
“Jeff, Andrew, hit the ground!” he yelled and Jake shot the first guard and Sarah shot the second, both of whom fell dead on the driveway. Genaro quickly returned fire with his remaining guards and as the trio backed away from the heavy gunfire, the surviving guards pushed the startled boys into the open door of the SUV while Genaro still peppered the snow around the trio with gunfire, The terrorists clambered into the SUV that roared off down the driveway, with the shots of Jake, Sarah and Steve bouncing off the bodywork, shattering the rear windshield as the Fiat skidded out and onto the road. It was obvious that Genaro was not concerned about his dead colleagues on the driveway, clearly he just needed to get away with his captives!
Jake turned to look at his team, and he saw that Steve had been hit and he was on the ground. Sarah was already rushing over to help him.
“Damn!” Jake cursed as he also rushed over to check on Steve.
Sarah could see that Steve had been hit in the ribs. “We need to get him inside!” she urged as Jake was watching the Fiat heading down the driveway and out onto the road below.
When the Fiat hit the road, Genaro spotted the rental car just yards ahead and he quickly wound down the window of the SUV and sprayed the tires of the vehicle with gunfire so that the trio could not follow them before the Fiat quickly disappeared into the distance. Inside the vehicle, both the Doctor and the boys were in shock when Genaro drove on as if it were just another day at the office. The boys had however realized one thing. The cavalry were at least trying to free them from these deadly Arabs.
* * *
Up the driveway, with Steve still bleeding profusely, Jake and Sarah helped him up to the cabin and Jake kicked the door in as they went in gun first to make sure the place was empty. They then settled Steve on an old sofa while Sarah quickly looked for something to tend his wound.
Jake inspected the wound closely. “You’re a lucky man Steve,” he began. “Looks like the bullet went straight through the flesh below your ribs and out the other side.”
Steve gave a wry grin. “That’s me, lucky old Steve!”
Sarah returned with a medical kit she had found and started to dress Steve’s wound. Jake spotted a half full bottle of scotch on the table and passed it to Steve. “Take a swig of this, it’ll help the pain.”
Steve looked at the bottle, a curious look on his face. “Unusual stuff for the goddamned Arabs to be drinking?”
Jake looked at the bottle again. “You got that right!”
Sarah was now finishing dressing Steve’s wound. “That should hold it for a while.”
Steve nodded. “Thanks.”
She then started to check out the rest of the cabin. When she walked into the room where Jeff had been kept, she looked around closely and Jake joined her.
“Looks like this was one of the rooms where the boys were kept.” she commented when she looked at the bindings on the floor and the shackles on the bed.
“I guess you’re right.” Jake replied and when he approached the single cot where Jeff had slept, something caught his attention on the wall at the side of the cot. “What’s that?” he pointed.
They looked closer and there, scratched in the old paint on the wall, were a series of the same two word phrases, one above the other.
Sarah looked at the words. “It’s Showtime! What the heck does that mean?”
Jake nodded his head in confusion. “Haven’t a clue, but since it’s written in English, it’s a good bet that it was written by one of the boys!”
They both looked at each other, shrugged and continued to search the rest of the cabin for clues. When they moved back into the main room, Sarah walked over to the window. She looked outside and her expression changed. “Jake, check this out?” she called to him.
He walked over and Sarah pointed to the window, where, in the residual steam on the window the same two words ‘It’s Showtime’ could be seen.
“There it is again!” she whispered.
“Strange!” Jake shook his head in confusion.
Just as Sarah was about to move away from the window, she looked outside and her expression suddenly changed. Out on the driveway, the second guard, who Jake and Sarah and even Genaro had assumed was dead, was actually moving, and struggling to get to his feet.
“Look out there!” she screamed and both Sarah and Jake rushed out onto the driveway, guns at the ready and over to the badly wounded terrorist.
They quickly dragged the wounded man inside at gunpoint and dumped him on the floor of the main room in front of Steve, who was slowly recovering.
“Looks like we’ve got a live one, Steve,” Jake began. “Now we need to know where they’re taking the boys.”
Steve nodded and started to speak to the guard in Arabic, but the man looked at him in total confusion.
Steve looked at Jake. “Well, he sure as hell don’t understand Arabic!”
“Try Italian?” Jake answered.
The second Steve started to speak Italian, it was immediately obvious that the man understood every word that Steve was saying, but when Steve asked the frightened man where they had taken the boys he refused to answer.
Sarah was looking more closely at the man in front of them and she suddenly pointed to the man’s neck where his jacket had come open when they had dragged him inside, “Check out the guy’s neck, Jake?” she said. “That’s a Christian crucifix he’s wearing. No way is this guy an Arab Muslim!”
Jake nodded. “Right, so ask him one more tim
e, Steve?”
Steve nodded and spoke quickly to the man and again he nodded his head negatively. Steve looked at Jake who immediately shot the man’s kneecap off and the man screamed in agony and then started to babble like a baby.
He told Steve that the kidnappers were heading to a safe house in the City of L’Aquila on the main highway back to Rome. When Jake threatened to shoot off his other kneecap, the guard told them that the boys had been taken to a Baroque-style three-storey building in the center of the city, in the street behind the San Silvestro Church that was being rebuilt.
After checking out the cabin for any other weapons without success and realizing that the SUV at the bottom of the driveway was not drivable with busted tires, they then checked out the locked garage at the rear of the cabin. After shooting off the lock, they found a Mercedes SUV in good condition and fortunately with a full tank of gas. Jake assumed that the Arabs had planned ahead to make sure that they had standby transport in case anything happened to the red Fiat.
With the terrorist guard still whining in pain, Jake decided to give him something for the pain and a bullet between the eyes seemed to work. While Sarah helped Steve and changed his dressing a second time, Jake quickly went down the drive and moved the SUV off the road and out of sight of passing traffic. He also dragged the other dead guard back up into the cabin. He noticed as he dumped the guard on the floor next to his buddy that he also had a Christian crucifix around his neck.
They now knew the boys were still alive and they also knew where they had been taken. What they also had to hope was that the Arabs had not retaliated by killing the boys, but with what was at stake, Jake and Sarah assumed that this would be counter-productive for them.
They also surmised that the Arabs were under the impression that the two guards left behind were both dead when they escaped with the boys and therefore they would be totally unaware that their pursuers now knew where they were heading.
