Thank you so much to those of you who take the time to review, it really does help inspire the writing. x
Chapter 3
Cameron Stephens put down his phone, he was beaming. The Lanes looked at him eagerly awaiting his news. Grace clutching her husband's arm, asked Cameron. "Well, what did they say?"
"They've heard from one of their operatives who is undercover in a terrorist cell in Raqqa, he's found her, she's alive!" Cameron advised them, with excitement. "She's alive!"
Grace's hands flew to her mouth to stifle the cry of shock mingled with joy that gurgled up in her throat. She looked up at her husband, who was struggling to rein in his own emotions. "He's sure it's her, it's definitely our Georgie?" Max wanted to know.
"Yes, he has spoken to her and they traded code words. They're sure it's her." Cameron confirmed.
"When can they get her out of there? When can we bring our girl home?" Grace asked eagerly. Cameron's face clouded over. "That's not quite so straightforward Grace." Cameron replied, not meeting her eyes. "It's one thing locating her, it's quite another extracting her from a terrorist compound, in the centre of a terrorist held city. The Brigadier assured me they have their best man in the compound with her, an extremely experienced Special Forces officer by the name of Harte, Elvis Harte. He said they are quite confident that, with time, he will find a way to get her out. We just have to be patient I'm afraid."
Grace looked crestfallen, she had known all this but with the excitement of hearing that Georgie was alive, after waiting all this time for news, her emotions had carried her away making her believe that it would now be easy to extract her little girl from that hellhole. She turned her face into Max's shoulder to hide her tears. Max hugged her to him and sighed. "So I guess we just go back to waiting and praying." He said, dejectedly to his son in law.
"I'm afraid so." Cameron agreed. "We will get her back, I know we will. We just have to put our faith in this Harte chap doing his job. The Brigadier seemed to have a very high regard for his abilities. I just hope he is as good as they say he is."
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Elvis was surveying the scene before him, he was out on a raid with Ghaazi and half a dozen of the others to basically terrorise the local community and appropriate food or anything else of value that they came across. It made him want to vomit, being involved in such barbarous activities but he was under strict instructions from his superiors, not to break his cover unless absolutely necessary.
It was also during these sorties that he was sometimes able to meet up with his contact to pass information back to London. It had been several weeks since he had confirmed the identity of Georgina Stephens and he had managed to get a message back to her family that she was alive. He had however, since then, had few opportunities to talk to her.
Ghaazi was currently parading a young man up and down the street, accusing him of being a spy for the Syrian Democratic Forces who were seeking to liberate the city. A crowd had gathered and there was much shouting and jeering. Elvis could feel the tension rising in the crowd. The young man, it appeared, was the son of one of the town elders, a very well respected family. Suddenly all hell broke loose, gunfire erupted from the crowd and Ghaazi was hit, he went down screaming. His men opened fire on all around them, men, women and children! Elvis considered what to do. He didn't want to kill any of the townspeople but by the same token, he didn't want to be killed by one of them. He decided to try to win some brownie points by saving Ghaazi, if he was still alive.
When the shooting had started he had ducked down behind a truck parked on the street, he peered through between the cab and the trailer. He could see Ghaazi writhing about on the floor, his guards had completely deserted him in the chaos. Elvis smiled to himself. He could milk this opportunity if he played it right. The truck they had arrived in from the compound was unattended nearby. Elvis decided that the best move was to get to the truck and to pick Ghaazi up on his way past. As he made a dash for the truck, he let off a few rounds of gunfire just above the heads of some of the townspeople just in case he was being watched by any of Ghaazi's men. He needed to make it look like he was actively involved in the battle. As he reached the truck he looked back to see where the other men from the compound were. They were all busy trading gunfire with whoever had opened fire on them earlier. Elvis guessed they were a small cell of SDF who had managed to infiltrate the city. Elvis put the truck into gear and screeched up to where the cell commander was lying on the ground, writhing in agony. Luckily, the battle had moved on down the street a little way and Elvis leapt from the truck to drag the wounded man into the passenger seat. He screeched off picking up a couple of other members of the cell who had broken away from the fighting and were running towards him.
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Georgie had been dragged in to administer first aid to Ghaazi's wounds, whilst a doctor was being sought locally. She had a little medical experience from her time volunteering at the Red Cross camps. He was bleeding profusely from the hole in his shoulder where the bullet had passed straight through. She was able to clean up his wound and he was now shouting and cursing at her as she bandaged it. She was trying her best to be gentle but her hands were shaking and the wound had to be bandaged tightly in order to staunch the bleeding. Elvis was watching her with sympathy, whatever she did would not be right, she could not win. As she finished, Elvis winced as Ghaazi kicked her away from him in his pain and fury at having been shot.
"I'll return the woman to her cell." Elvis offered, stepping forward and grabbing her by the arm to help her up. The commander just grunted and turned to his second in command to discuss the retribution he intended to wreak upon the townspeople that had harboured the SDF cell. Just as Elvis got Georgie to the door Ghaazi shouted. "Wait!" Elvis and Georgie both froze. Elvis turned slowly to face him.
"You did well today Eshan, you deserve a reward. Take the woman for the night and enjoy yourself." Ghaazi gave him a salacious grin that turned Elvis' stomach. But he managed to nod his acceptance of the gift before he turned and gently pushed Georgie out of the door ahead of him.
So, finally, a little alone time for them to hatch their escape plan maybe? x
