Sharpe looked with a satisfied smile towards the two men, who were wrapped up in ropes, flexi cuffs and duct tape over the mouths. If he would bring them down like this, it would be just like Christmas: Sharpe as Santa, Joop and Silantia as the happy kids, the hostages as their presents. Backstabber, next to the two presents, was tying them up now to one of the 4 poles that were in the room. These iron poles were placed for extra fundament and part of the roof rested on these so called "safety constructions".

Backstabber backed away from them, inspecting the knots, making sure they couldn't escape. He then gave Sharpe a thumbs-up and Sharpe nodded. He walked softly and slowly around the prisoners and concluded that they were ready to be transported to prison, or something that would look like a jail. Sharpe thought back when he had visited Leavenworth as a trip allot of higher ranked soldiers do. At expenses of the division, watching how the soldiers who violate the Rules Of Engagement get punished and how they live. Iron barred doors, 3 times a day a small nutrition, working with laundry, alarms, drills, prisoner fights and, off course, the ugly suits. Sharpe remembered all of it as he was escorted by several guards and instructed by the director.

He nodded to Backstabber and looked around the room. The only thing that could endanger their mission right now, was actually if the glass windows, placed against the wall, would suddenly just break. But Backstabber had assured the two could never reach them, by cuffing them around a pillar.

Sharpe grabbed his gear, and slid down into the vent, trying not to make to much noise as he went prone and crawled on his elbows slowly yet soundless through the ventilation shaft. Lowering his night vision goggles, Sharpe saw everything in a blur of green in front of him and could count the screws along the side of the ventilation shaft. Also the pile of dust in front of him. He already seen it before when he slid for the first time into the ventilation shaft when he was at the elevator. The dust was pilled up and when he touched down with his hand, he noticed the dust would stick to his fingers, leaving a deep mark in the dust it self.

Backstabber now lowered himself into the shaft and checked up one time more on his packaging project before he crouched and swinging his riffle over his back. Then he grabbed the pistol he had looted from Hamid. Hamid had carried a HK USP Compact, with silencer and two magazines. Besides his own pistol, maybe this one would be handy. Then he went prone as well and followed Sharpe on a safe distance, also making sure he couldn't be heard.

Sharpe chuckled to himself and let a smile fall over his face as he crawled further into the ventilation shaft. He felt now like the Splinter cell Sam Fisher, Dorvalla's hero. Sharpe once see Dorvalla having the whole Splinter Cell series, books and games. Dorvalla read allot anyway. Sharpe knew from back of the days that Dorvalla read allot of Tom Clancy's work and when Sharpe went once to his house just a few miles outside the base, he had noticed the big study room, with the bookcases. Dorvalla had told him, reading was one of the few ways he could relax.

Too bad Sharpe didn't had a weapon like Sam Fisher, although he was happy with his own weapon. He modified it with a 203 launcher under the main barrel and had replaced the regular iron sight with an improved one and had made sure he had an enhanced zoom, so he could see far away with it. Pinpointing and setting the gun to a single shot modus, he would become a deadly sniper. And with the silencer on top of the barrel, he worked in silence.

Backstabber had an enhanced riffle himself, as well with 203 launcher under the barrel and silencer, yet his iron sight was different the Sharpe's. He had a crosshair in his iron sight, with a clear cross in it, pinpointing exactly the middle, while Sharpe had a so called aim-dot. It didn't really matter why they had it, they just had it to shoot accurate with it.

Sharpe stopped and peeked around the corner with his flexi camera, as he had done it a million times before. The shaft in front of him was empty, besides of the mice that ran around in it. Sharpe crawled then around the corner and leaned for a few seconds on his elbows, checking the shaft. In the middle of the shaft was a crossing. This meant that there were more alternative routes, cause he knew the ventilation system well enough. The left shaft would bring him above west offices, while the right one brought him above the stinger depot. Although these 2 routes required to get early out of the ventilation system, and Sharpe wanted to keep the element of surprise. After all, if he would be discovered, there was a possibility he would be executed or when he would survive, he might bump into a executed Silantia. The element of surprise would be the best strategy according Sharpe and he crawled forward towards the crossing.

He peeked around the corners from left to right with his flexi camera and he was happy to see it was all clear. The mice he had spotted earlier with his camera were running through the shaft towards the west offices. Sharpe didn't pay attention to it and crawled straight ahead, since that shaft would bring him directly above east offices, the offices where Silantia was being kept.

As quiet as possible, Backstabber followed Sharpe and checked the rear from time to time if he heard something that was uncomfortable with him. Although the noise of the ventilation system running softly on spare power, there was nothing other then the running mice in the ventilation shaft. Backstabber figured out, that this cache had to be cleaned pretty soon and put a cat in the shafts. It was crawling with mice around here. Not that Backstabber minded, in the end, it were just animals, but whenever mice are present, a building deteriorates quicker then normal.

Sharpe now reached another corner and saw in the end a light, that fel into the ventilation shaft. It meant there was a roster there, so he could move it. If it was the same one as he had encountered before, he would not have any problems with it.

Sharpe moved slowly forward and could now hear voices. It was Arabic, but Sharpe understood it actually partly. It seemed two men were guarding the three Sharpe was looking for, but they didn't seem happy. Sharpe laid down on his tummy and held still for a minute and listened to the conversation he tried to translate.

"I have no idea why I got talked into doing this!" Said the guard Sharpe defined as guard 1, "This job is more dangerous then ……. on the battlefield."

"I did it because I thought, and still think Tarik has a waterproof plan. They don't even know what will happen to them as soon as we get the chance to strike fully whenever our informant comes with the necessary information and you ……. " A loud scream from the other side of the hallway was heard, followed by a few gun shots ……

"Damn mice," a third person shouted, "They are everywhere!"

Allot of rumour came down from the hallway now, since obvious the leader had stept out of his little office. A door got slammed closed, and Sharpe couldn't understand the man, since he talked to fast.

Sharpe counted voices, so he could define the amount of guards, but he knew already he was horribly outgunned.

Sharpe listened still carefully to the voice that came from below him. The conversation seemed to take his interest, as the two guards went back to the conversation after the little interruption. Sharpe felt his elbows getting painful and tired. But this conversation may proved to be useful.

"Anyway, "guard two went on after the gunshots faded away as well the screaming, "You will be rewarded well for this, and I know Tarik's plan actually will work. We have the information we needed. Our man probably has already given the information via the internet or so!"

Sharpe tried to make sense of the conversation, but it didn't for him. He was caught now in a web of conspiracies and lies. This wasn't about Silantia. This was all about information. But information from what? And who was their man? The more Sharpe thought about it, the more confused he became.

Sharpe felt a tap on his boot and looked around. Backstabber gestured to move on. For some odd reason, Sharpe had all forgotten for a bit about to free Silantia, EvilSpark and 3rd. He nodded and crawled further, deciding these were all questions for later, for debriefing and maybe interrogation.

In silence he moved forward towards the roster at the end of the ventilation shaft. He felt like a snake, manoeuvring himself through this dusty pipe system towards it's destiny, keeping his eyes fixed on his target, while he suck up every sound like a sponge. The voices of the two guards faded slowly away to a soft background noise, while a radio seemed now became louder. It seemed to be the popular show from Howard Stern that Sharpe heard and he tried not to listen to it. Not that he didn't like the pranks Howard Stern did, but he was afraid it might trigger something in his mind that made him laugh or chuckle, or something else that would make sound.

He reached the roster and leaned carefully over it, to see what was down. The curtains were closed, and the only light that was in the room was a small green emergency exit light, that obvious was placed above the door. Sharpe's night vision detected more. He detected immediately the two bodies of EvilSpark and 3rd. Silantia wasn't in his sight from here, and Sharpe decided to peek around with the flexi camera. He slide it through the roster and peeked around. He saw Silantia in the other corner. Obvious he was beaten up cause even with night vision Sharpe could detect that his cheeks were a mingle of red, blue and purple. He pulled out again his flexi camera and pressed in the button of his radio system.

"Santa Claus to happy boy, do you copy?"

After some static the voice of Joop sounded through Sharpe's earpiece. "We now having codenames?"

"I don't know, it sounded appropriate… I just found the three packages you want to be opened! Can I proceed?"

Joop confirmed it and Sharpe signed out again, waiting if anybody heard it. Although Sharpe had talked really loud, it was more whispering, he wanted to make sure nobody heard him. He then slid again the camera through the roster and twisted it 360 degrees to check if the room was totally clear.

After making sure nobody was else in the room, he tried to open the roster, but it didn't gave away. After Sharpe pulled a few times he finally saw that 4 screws kept the roster on it's place. Sharpe cursed to himself a little too loud and felt the tap on his boot from Backstabber. Sharpe zipped his lips and checked if somebody heard the sound. Obviously not, since the sound was merely covert now by one of Howard Sterns prank calls. Sharpe reached down to his boot and drew from the side his army knife. The Scykes military knife was one of the standard issued equipment that you would get when you entered the division. Modifications were easy to do, since the blade was detachable from the handle and could be replaced by any other blade. Sharpe had swapped his blade with another one. The top side was a little more smaller and had holes in the blade itself, to release some of the pressure.

Sharpe checked the knife, flipped the sharp side up and placed the top part of the blade on the first screw. He placed his fingers around the top of the knife, making sure he wouldn't cut himself and gave a gentle, yet powerful yank to it. The screw moved. Sharpe started to use the knife as a screwdriver and within thirty seconds, he could pull out the first screw.

Slowly and soundless, he moved towards the next screw and repeated the procedure. His creativity had not obviously left him, using his knife for a purpose the knife wasn't really designed for, but yet, the deadly iron thing did just fine as screwdriver and didn't complain either about it: it didn't break.

Sharpe now had reached the third screw and started working slowly on it, yet placing it again on the screws top and started twisting it until he could grab the screw and twist it manually out of the hole. He did the screw in one of his pockets so he wouldn't lose them. You never knew if they would be handy later.

While he was leaning over to do the last screw, Backstabber tapped him on the shoe and Sharpe withdrew himself from the roster, crawling back. Backstabber was right 'cause he could hear somebody walking in the direction of the office. 'Better be safe then sorry', was Sharpe's motto and held still in the vent.

The keys twisted and the door went open. Somebody walked to the radio and turned it off. Then he started yelling in Arabic against the three down in the room. Sharpe didn't recognize the accent, it must been from somewhere from the south or against the Iraqi border.

"Calm down!" said another voice. Sharpe was surprised, since this person had a typical American accent. He used slang that was typical in New York. Sharpe guessed Queens, but wasn't sure, but it didn't matter right now.

"Now now, what is going on Mustapha?" said the voice again and waited till Mustapha started talking again.

Now Mustapha talked in English, Sharpe and Backstabber could easily understand him.

"Something is wrong. I can't find Ahmet or Hamid!"

"Hamid went to get the power generator, and probably Ahmet is grabbing coffee from the vending machine on the second floor… You are overreacting, my friend!"

Mustapha tried to say something but the other person calmed him down. "I assure you… there is no one in this building besides our group and these 3 morons!"

The door closed again, and somebody twisted the keys, locking the door, and then the two walked through the corridor.

Sharpe remembered suddenly again how to breath and inhaled and exhaled gently. He was for a second certain that they would get discovered. However faith was now obviously on their side. The guy should have known better off course to make sure this Mustapha guy was saying the truth, but he trusted on his own guts and thought really the army withdrew all their men.

However, their cover was blown now. The radio was off so every sound could be heard now, so Sharpe leaned over the roster again and proceeded softly and soundless unscrewing the screw. This one seem to be more stuck then the others and Sharpe had to actually put force on the blade to actually make the screw move, but in the end, it all went fine and Sharpe retrieved the screw. He put the knife back in the holder next to his right boot and gave then Backstabber a thumbs up.

He lifted up the roster and he crossed passed the place where the roster had been. Then he placed it down behind him, after he turned around and looked now at the entrance of the room if he peeked down. Backstabber moved forward and peeked down, now seeing his two team mates and in the other corner Silantia.

Sharpe didn't hesitated further and slid out of the vent, and let himself drop on the floor. He crouched as he landed and drew immediately his own pistol, aiming it at the door. He saw out of the corner of his eyes Silantia had opened his eyes and followed his movements, while EvilSpark and thirds were faced away from Sharpe's position and had no clue what was going on.

Backstabber had crossed by now and laid now prone in Sharpe's previous position with his riffle steady, looking at the door, making sure Sharpe wouldn't be surprised and get shot while he would free the three down there. He aimed the crosshair of his iron sight towards the door and held it steady at about the height of a humans head, so he wouldn't have the chance to do something if Backstabber pulled the trigger.

Sharpe walked, aiming at the door, towards Silantia, and looked towards the robes Silantia was tied with. Thick oiled robes, probably from a ship were used to make sure Silantia couldn't use his hands, and were kept together on his back. Sharpe had for a second eye contact with his commanding officer and then crouched to grab his Scykes again, this time using the knife for a more appropriate purpose. He placed them against the ropes and started cutting through the ropes. The knife sunk through the ropes as a hot knife through butter and Silantia's hands was within no time free.

Silantia rubbed his arms and removed the piece of duct tape from his mouth. His face was in pain, and dead serious as Sharpe hold up his ten finger. Silantia repeated 'ten' soundless, and Sharpe nodded. Silantia started working on the ropes that were placed around his feet, so he wasn't able to walk normally. Sharpe placed his pistol next to him and walked silently to the other side of the room where EvilSpark and third were placed.

Sharpe placed his knife against the ropes of EvilSpark's hands and let the knife do the work, so Sparky's hands were in no time free of movement. He rubbed his arms for a second where the rope had been. It had left a red mark on his arms and he looked painfully at it. Then he pulled the duct tape of his mouth and he breathed gently the air in and out. The look towards Sharpe gave Sharpe enough information. It was a mere thanks, but it would do for now. Sharpe didn't expected presents at this moment anyway.

He moved over to 3rd and repeated the same procedure, cutting him free of his hands. While 3rd enjoyed the freedom what had been taken away from him about thirty minutes ago, Sharpe moved back to the ventilation shaft and made with his hand a pistol sign. Backstabber reached down and grabbed his pistol, as well the looted USP he had from Hamid earlier. He gave it down to Sharpe while he kept watching the door through his scope.

Sharpe took the gun and looked towards Spark and 3rd how they were untying themselves. Silantia was already free. Not that he was a master in untying knots, but for some odd reason, the person who had tied him up, wasn't good at it, since the knots were dead simple. Silantia walked softly towards Sharpe and gave him a thankful look. Sharpe nodded back, and watched then back towards EvilSpark, who was helping now 3rd with his ropes, but it seemed nothing special and within twenty seconds, 3rd was standing as well. Sharpe handed them both a pistol.

EvilSpark looked a bit confused to the pistol he got. He never shot with an USP and aimed it, wondering if it would how bad the recoil would be. The silencer that was placed on the barrel was a bit old, and didn't looked really like it would cover up any sound. 3rd tapped on his shoulders and offered to trade. 3rd was a pistol maniac and seemed to know the pistol, so EvilSpark traded it for the standard issued ES Five Seven 3rd had received from. Sparky loved the pistol. Not because it was just merely half a kilogram in his hands, and because it could shoot twenty rounds out of one magazine, but because it was a gun with it's origin in Belgium. Sparky's roots were in Belgium as well.

Although a standard issued pistol was been handed out, allot of soldiers used different pistols. Sharpe knew that Joop was a fan of the 228 Compact, created in Germany and Switzerland, while Dorvalla carried on missions or training a Nighthawk 50C, also nicked as the Desert Eagle, with him. Sharpe wasn't that font of that pistol, it was pretty heavy for a pistol with it's 1,5 kilogram, and had only seven bullets in it's magazine. He somewhere heard that Obrien carried a single 0.40 Elite and that RC-Rally used a Glock, short termed for 9x19 mm.

Sharpe looked around the room and his eyes stopped at a big bag of sand and some crates that were placed in a corner. He gestured to Spark to help. Silantia understood it and looked if he could find also a shelter, in case of a fire fight. It was obvious, they couldn't return with 5 people through a ventilation shaft. The chance it would break down was to big, as well there was a chance of sound while getting in it.

In merely a minute, Sharpe, Sparky and 3rd had set up a small wall, where they could hide behind if there would be a bullet spray. The bag of sand was placed before the crates, so they had some protection from the bullets. The crates were full of junk and Sharpe hoped it would stop the bullets or at least made sure it wouldn't hit them.

Silantia found his shelter behind the pillar he had been tied to, although it wasn't much as a cover. 3rd had found an old desk he had gently flipped over. It was hard wood and it could take a while before it would be penetrated.

Alright, they had their cover, but it was still ten armed to the teeth against two riffles and three pistols with limited magazines.

"Okay, " whispered Sharpe as they had set up their defensive perimeter, "There is to much of us to move through the ventilation shaft, and going through the hallway is not really an option, since we are limited on ammo. Yet if we can tie all these ropes together, we can go through the window and climb down. As far as I know there are no windows on that side…"

Sparky nodded… "No windows, just stone and wood!"

"Good," said Silantia and he opened the curtains. Light fell in the room and Silantia had to let his eyes get used to it, as well the rest of the team. Bright light filled up the room and made them all aware it had started raining. "I am dying for a hamburger, so let's do this"

Sharpe chuckled and decided to tell Joop their plan. He also asked the man in charge of the operation if any people give them cover while the would go down through the window.

"So you want how many people at the east perimeter?" Joops voice sounded, crackled through the earpiece of Sharpe, not totally sure if he understood it right.

"Just make sure we don't get shot as we make our way out of the window, Joop" Sharpe replied in his little microphone. "Just place there a few guys and a sniper or so.. that way we have more chance then you just watch us climbing down!"

Sharpe signed out and looked around. Sparky had picked up the ropes that were used to tie them all up, and started tying them together, while 3rd and Backstabber kept their eyes on the door.

Then suddenly the loud sound of shattered glass was heard. Sharpe looked up to Backstabber and then to Silantia, who shrugged. The sound came from top, although it couldn't be done by the two guys up there, or had they found a way to escape from the flexi cuffs.

The noise alarmed not only the five, but also the terrorists. They were shouting at each other. Sharpe couldn't make much sense at it, but he realized they were now in danger, and looked around him.

Suddenly the sound of keys in the door, made Sharpe aware to duck behind his imaginary wall, and to draw his riffle he had on his back, while Silantia stepped behind the pillar. Sparky, who sat on the ground behind the crates, drew his pistol and 3rd crouched as he took aim with his pistol to the door. Backstabber placed his finger on the trigger…..