"You noticed he was giving hand signals?",asked Steve, examining the soldier's posture.
"Yes. Approximately four hours drive, no physical violence against him, yet, unknown number of enemies, but many. No names. So far, the video has not been circulating on the Internet."
"Where did you get it from?" Sara asked.
"From a Taliban network we recently cracked. The exact origin of the video itself cannot be determined, we found IP addresses over half the globe, which we are still pursuing."
"If they drove four hours from the crash site, the area of possible whereabouts is huge. It's a bare room, where do we get a clue from where Masterson is being held?"
While Steve was speaking, Sara had moved the admiral window onto one of the side monitors and put a map of the area on the large monitor. She inserted a radius of the possible target area.
"There are no roads down there, just sandy slopes. When they drove east into the mountains, they made slow progress. But the room has straight walls and a straight ceiling. It doesn't look like a cave, even if it doesn't have windows. The walls are completely bare. You don't see any of the attackers. Do you have any more?", she asked the man on the monitor.
"Unfortunately yes. There's another video, about nine hours later, four hours ago. It originates from the same source. We are undecided what to think about it. The technicians at Fort Meade have been looking for it on the Internet since it was discovered, but so far nothing has appeared."
"So no big announcements, no demands, threats?", said Steve.
"Exactly. And I also realize this is odd. I'm not sure if they don't know who or what Masterson is, or if they don't care. Their usual course of action would have been to kill him on site. Or very promptly. Best of all very photogenic and recorded on video for posterity on the Internet. But four hours ago, Masterson was still alive. I'll send the video to you. It's not a nice view," he warned before nodding to someone outside the field of vision.
Another window opened on the monitor, a loading bar appeared, then a still image. Steve heard a short noise from Sara and turned. She was sitting on the chair with her head down to her knees. He grabbed his ear and muted the headset. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. Just dizzy. There is water in the cupboard, bottom left."
Ignoring the admiral who continued to speak in his ear, he went to the designated closet and discovered a small fridge with water bottles. With quick hand movements, he opened one and gave it to his wife, who took it and drank several small sips. After putting the cap back on it, she put it in a holder at the bottom of one of the table legs. He put his hand briefly on her back, then she seemed to have regained her composure and she turned back to the monitor. The picture showed another room, there were four people in dark shirts and beige cargo pants. They had dark scarves wrapped around their heads and arms on their sides. The room had no windows, but there were slits just below the ceiling that apparently let in daylight. Photos and sketches hung on the walls. In a half-standing position, Masterson was tied to a wooden structure in the middle of the room and practically naked. His upper body had bloody cuts and hematomas, his face was swollen. His left arm hung in the shackles at an unnatural angle. The men around him seemed to be ignoring him, one standing next to him, the others looking at a table on the side wall, handling papers and a notebook, but the screen of which was invisible. Steve waited for Sara to start the video and stood aside so that he didn't block her view. He took turns watching her and the monitor that was running a five-minute video sequence. Sara had turned off the sound and was concentrating on the pictures. The admiral apparently was familiar with the way she worked, because their headsets were almost silent and only heard very muffled background noises. The only sounds in the room were her breathing and the soft whir of technology. On the monitor he saw the man in the situation center was also watching her. About half of the film had played when another man came into the room on the monitor and he heard Sara cursing softly. For not to put her out of concentration, he saved his question until the sequence was over. He didn't get to put it because she started it right a second time. But this time she stopped at the spot from before and enlarged the image section. "This is Amar. The new arrival. Can someone please explain this to me?"
"You sound very sure," said Steve.
"Because I am sure." She moved the picture back a few seconds. "This step sequence, this short grinding with the right leg. That is Amar. How can he be there, Admiral? "
"He disappeared in an attack on a military convoy eleven months ago."
"Nice," Steve commented softly.
"My people here also suspected that it was him, that's why I called you. You spent a long time working on him."
"His former hiding place was blown up when he was taken. These were caves. This is not like the room in the first video. The position of the sun and thus the orientation of the house can be clearly seen. The question is where is this house. Following the traces on the ground, Chief Masterson was tortured here, which makes me suspect that it is relatively lonely because he is not gagged," Sara continued. She restarted the video and turned on the sound. Steve watched the concentration and apparent calm with that she went through the film sequence again and again. She paused some times and described further details that she took from what was happening on the monitor. From time to time she got up, went closer to the monitor to take a closer look, or took a few steps up and down. After what felt like a hundred more passes, sometimes with or without sound, she surprisingly started typing on her table, a new window opened, and a picture appeared on it, which she pushed next to one of the men on the monitor. "It seems to me that Djawad has worked his way up. And teamed up with Amar."
The admiral looked surprised. "Djawad? How do you come up with him? Are you sure this is him?"
"Pretty sure. The movements and the language. The environment also fits. I don't know much about him, but he hates caves."
"There have been repeated sightings of him and a few of his 'friends' in a relatively limited area in recent weeks. I will send you satellite images right away. Take a break." The monitor the admiral had been on went black and the voice in the headset was silent. Sara tapped again so the table went black too, then put her arms on the platter and head on top and closed her eyes. Steve went to his wife and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry I was so aggressive earlier. It was unnecessary. It's been a long time since I spent my nights with Navy intelligence. These masses of data were exhausting. You've been watching this video again and again for over four hours now. And I'm sure you've seen worse ones. You never lied to me, but the confidentiality rules prevented you from informing me of the extent of your work. That's right, isn't it?"
"Mhm." Sara opened her eyes. "You know I can't tell you much more now," she said quietly. "Assisting with the capture of Amar was my last analysis related to Afghanistan, two months before Ponders. You heard Brown why he called me, because I've become more involved in politics since then. If you like, it's calmer and safer."
"I have a little doubt about the calmer part, as I think of Thanksgiving two years ago. You were so done after the European tour ... Do you think Masterson still has a chance?"
"Amar is a tactician. He is a clever head, but not particularly violent. He knows killing a soldier gives him one good show and then he's worthless. I cannot assess Djawad well. He was just a little soldier the last time I had him on the radar. You can see on the last video that Masterson has been injured but is still alive. That's a lot for an American soldier fourteen hours after he was captured, especially in this case, "she alluded to Masterson's membership of a special force.
"That's right," Steve said quietly.
"If there's anything else I can do from here so they can get him out, I'll do it. I promise you, Steve."
"Are you sure you can do this? It is after three-thirty in the morning. You are..."
Sara cut him off before he could continue talking. "Tired. I'm fine. You know, no man is left behind. We'll try everything." He padded her shoulder, he didn't dare to kiss her because he was not sure to what extent the cameras were active. "The admiral is back online," his wife explained after touching her headset.