“Cold canned beans or hot canned beans?”
“No, we aren’t following that road,” Yousef Ahmadzai told Roddy while the others patiently waited for them to sort the route out.
It was not the first time he made changes in the plan. During the early days of the hike, they hadn’t agreed with each other on anything. Indirectly, that made Yousef Phil’s accomplice. It seemed the men had formed teams; Roddy and Ismail against Yousef and Phil. Shahzad remained neutral and tried to be the referee, though Phil did think he was partial to their point of view.
“I must do everything different to the plan,” Yousef explained. “There are just five of us alone now; only we must know what we’re doing!”
“You think the spy is onto us?” Phil was surprised. “We were among our closest friends when we spoke!”
“Let’s not argue; the point is that until now we have been closely observed, and our plans have leaked,” Yousef retorted. “Do you know the guy who owns the cigarette kiosk asked me how many cartons I’d need for the trip?”
The group was speechless, and Yousef added, “Only Naseer Sahib and John Clooney know where we are! And by the way, I had the backpacks swept for bugs; we’re clean so far!”
Two days of climbing and camping in the merciless terrain were finally taking its toll on Roddy and Phil. The other three looked like they could go on forever. The scenery was breathtaking, but Phil’s patience was wearing thin. The monotony of trudging up and down the mountains was driving him crazy.
Yousef and Shahzad were trying to explain to Roddy the advantages of going around the mountain so that they were not spotted. Roddy did not see a need for it as they had not seen any suspicious activity so far. Like Phil, he wanted to reach the destination as soon as possible, through the fastest route there.
“Roddy, it’s better to be safe rather than take chances. Come on, two more days of eating tinned food won’t be so bad,” he tried to make a joke of their unpalatable, inadequate meals.
Phil always had a good appetite and was dying for a proper meal right now. Hunger dictated his mood, and he became peevish. He shrugged as he tried to see sense in what Yousef was saying; they had come this far in their search for Rebecca; better to be safe than sorry; the mission was the top priority; he was not leaving without her.
Phil sat down on a flat rock and removed his heavy backpack. That felt good. Everyone seemed to be settling down. It was afternoon and time for a meal; Phil assumed everyone agreed this was as good a place to eat. He ventured about to gather some twigs. Roddy helped him while Phil assembled the kindling into a pile, and Roddy lit up a match and tried to get a fire going. Phil looked at the tins and wondered whether they should have kidney beans or chickpeas.
“It isn’t a good idea to light a fire now that we’re nearing our target,” Shahzad said.
“What’s worse? Cold canned beans or hot canned beans?” Ismail laughed.
“You have a valid argument, but I still think we should be careful at this point. Besides..,” Shahzad was cut off by the deep bleeps and pulsing red light of the satellite phone he was carrying. Most probably, it was Chief Naseer checking on their progress. It was.
“Yes, Abba. Yes, we’re in that area. Less than six hours away.” Shahzad responded. “What? Ya Allah! Yes, he’s right here.”
Shahzad handed the phone to Yousef. His demeanor changed instantly, and Phil realized something serious had happened; this was not a regular checkup call from the chief. Phil felt safe around Yousef. Though they were almost the same age, the maturity of his traveling companion impressed him. In Yousef, he sensed the calmness of the sea before a storm. Phil listened, trying to figure out what was going on.
Yousef listened intently. He tried not to speak over the caller since it caused a disconcerting echo, but at this moment, the wait to get his questions out was frustrating.
“So, we’ll head straight for the location and hide. Yes, yes, we’ll continue without stopping and be there tonight. Yes, stay in touch. We’ll let you know once we’ve reached the site. Yes, I promise. No taking chances.”
Yousef ended the conversation and was deep in thought. Even Roddy understood this was not a good time to bombard the man with questions.
“Aisha and Zeina saw Rebecca this morning,” Shahzad explained.
“What? Really?” asked Phil, not believing it. “They saw her?”
“Yes, as strange as it sounds, that’s what happened,” Yousef elaborated. “At the hospital, there was a woman in a burka who said she was Rebecca. She tried to escape; Zeina and Aisha tried to help her, but her captors got away, taking her with them. But she gave Aisha a note; the important thing is that we’re on the right track according to the map she drew… which is different to the one that was first drawn up for us, makes one think, doesn’t it?”
“She’s alive!” Phil whispered as tears filled his eyes. “My Rebecca is alive!”
“Yes, she is,” Ismail put his arms around his friend, who was overwhelmed by the good news. “Stay strong; she’ll be with you soon!”
“They’re still at the camp we’re going towards, the place where someone had seen the smoke. We must reach this place before they move away, which they’ll do for sure now. The Lashkar are on their way, but we can reach the camp before them and give them an exact location.”
Roddy was already helping Ismail throw sand on the fire to put it out. Forgetting their hunger, they picked up their backpacks and were ready to move on.
“No, wait; let’s eat first, but make it quick,” Yousef proposed. “We’re all hungry and need our energy; we may not be able to eat any other time soon.”
At least Rebecca was alive this morning; will she still be alive after what happened at the hospital? Phil thought, feeling tormented by the wait to rescue his friend.
There was a half-moon to their right, but the cloud cover was not helping much, and most of the group had tripped several times despite their night-vision goggles. They walked for hours, and Phil could feel his legs complaining, but his mind was not listening. He stumbled again when a rock turned under his foot. He uttered a silent curse as Shahzad helped steady him. Ismail and Roddy were ahead of him while Yousef was leading. The wind was getting stronger and colder as they climbed higher. Their ascent up the mountain was exhausting, but they moved on with their focus on Ahmad and Rebecca.
“In another hour, we should be where the Intel suggests the Talib-e-Azad camp is,” Shahzad insisted, and that fact spurred them on.
Ismail had spent time in the Israeli Army and had been training Phil since the start of their trip. Who would they encounter? How many? What awaited them? Would they find Rebecca here? How would she be? Phil held on tightly to his gun; he was a peacemaker, not a fighter, and yet his trigger finger itched to put a bullet in the person who held Rebecca. He wondered how he would react at crunch time.
“Will I be able to kill?” he asked himself and answered his question without a moment’s hesitation. “For Rebecca, yes!”
He could not imagine the horror Rebecca had gone through. Surely it could have shattered anyone, but equally, he could not imagine anyone controlling Rebecca for too long. Phil liked his bossy Rebecca as she was and hoped the beasts and circumstances had not broken her spirit, though he could not see her come out of this traumatic experience unscathed. The instinct to survive and protect Rebecca kicked in, and he would not let her down. His heartbeat increased as they neared their destination.
The reality that Rebecca might be so close was making him very impatient. More
than a few times, he had collided with Ismail in his rush to move on. Once Ismail had put an arm around his shoulders and given him a few pats to calm him down.
“I thought we might have seen some lookouts or some activity by now,” Roddy whispered, looking at Yousef.
“Yes, that thought has been worrying me since we started our ascent. It’s too quiet,” Yousef agreed. “Usually, there would be two to three lookouts at night for these camps; I was sure we’d see at least two.”
“Are we at the wrong place?” Phil questioned.
“Now we’re right on track; we’ll be there shortly. Let us continue,” Shahzad encouraged, moving on again as a nervous tension ran through the men.
In a short while, they came to a clearing hidden at first by several large rocks. Phil could see the remains of fire pits, and despite the sharp breeze, the ash was still there, an indication it was probably from that day. There were some broken earthen pots, but otherwise, the place looked abandoned. The cave behind the debris showed it had been used to cook meals for quite a few people, but now there were no signs of life. Still, they waited behind the rock until further instructions.
Yousef and Ismail carefully moved out into the open space and bent low as they crept forward to explore.
“Usually, there are caves where the people live,” Shahzad whispered in Phil’s ear. “Yousef must first check to see that this isn’t an ambush situation.”
Yousef disappeared, and Phil held his breath until the chieftain reappeared and beckoned them to follow. Some 20 feet from the fire pits, they could see the openings for several caves.
“They’ve gone; they left in a hurry,” Yousef announced as he shone his flashlight around the labyrinth of caves. The terrorists had gone, and now there was no need for stealth. Phil took out his flashlight and examined the caverns. They were like natural rooms, and each could comfortably sleep four to eight people. Gaps in the rocks made spaces for storing things, but except for a few plastic bags and broken pottery, there was no one around.
The occupants were gone, and therefore, so was Rebecca. Phil kicked out at a rock in frustration, and his fear for her safety came rushing back.
“They must have known we were coming, maybe warned by the spy. And, they sure left in a hurry,” Ismail noted.
“They fled after the hospital situation; they knew we’d be coming after them! If we’re quick, we can follow their tracks; we can still get them!” Yousef said.
“Let’s go!” Shahzad urged. Phil could see the same disappointment as his on the young man’s face. Rebecca was still missing, but so was his little brother.
“Yes, we need to follow them, but before that, let’s do a quick check of the whole camp and inform Naseer Sahib,” Youse advised, always the voice of reason. “In their haste to leave, they may have left some clues as to where they’re going next. I remember one time, we were looking for several men, and they foolishly discarded a map; we found them easily! Be careful, though. There might be a bomb or some other unpleasant surprise. They knew we were coming!”
“I think they were in too much of a hurry to plan anything,” Roddy added, choosing to disagree yet again. “Let’s make it quick and get after them before they go too far away.”
“It’s not going to be very easy,” Yousef warned with his counterargument. “These people are good at hiding and know how to cover their tracks.”
“I know how to track people on the run,” Ismail offered. “My skills will hopefully come in handy here. Let’s move on as soon as we inform the base camp.”
“Not the base camp! Only Naseer Sahib!” Yousef barked. They split up to look around the camp. Phil and Ismail headed into another cave in the corner of the camp. The cave showed signs of being used recently, though it looked empty now. On the dusty ground, Ismail could see a lot of tracks.
“There has been a lot of activity here,” Ismail frowned. “The earth has been disturbed; look at the deep furrows and footprints in the sand; was there a fight? Was something dragged out? Are those bloodstains on the walls?”
Phil shone his torch around the walls and then up at the roof. There was nothing but plain rock walls.
“Go back to the left,” Ismail instructed. “Slowly…”
As a beam of light swung back, Ismail pointed to the wall. There was a narrow opening there; it was high on the wall, but the rocks formed an easy route to step up. They shone their torches and climbed through to discover yet another cave; this one much larger than the others, and it even had a passage back to the clearing and another one that went to a ravine out of the camp.
Shining their torches around the cave, they both saw it at the same time. There was something or someone there, wrapped in a quilt against the wall. It looked like someone sleeping, but the figure did not move. They stood motionless. Was it a trap? Would a bomb explode and blow them to bits?
“Be careful!” Ismail warned. “Stand back, Phil and let me check; this could be a booby trap!”
Holding his gun, Ismail eased himself towards the motionless figure, and Phil rushed through the passage to alert the others who came rushing back into the cave, their weapons ready.
Ismail prodded the figure’s shoulder, but nothing happened. He nudged the body with his foot, and still, there was no movement.
“It could be a suicide bomber,” Yousef predicted. “Don’t touch anything; let’s get the hell out of here!” From a safe distance, Ismail moved his flashlight over the body and up to the covered head. It was then that Phil saw the hair.