Sunday, June 25th, 2017

Desert Base
Northern Mali

09:12 GMT+2 (07:12 GMT June 25th)

The battle was heated.

Fury was in the southwest tower with Arbiter and the pair were engaging a HMMWV which was fitted with a turret-mounted heavy machinegun. The half-inch bullets were pounding into the sandstone wall sending sharp shards flying. Both girls had received multiple cuts which stung with the salty sweat covering their skin and the sand which clung to absolutely everything. The sand was in their mouths and in their clothing. The sand was a constant threat to the operation of their weapons, and everyone hated the damn stuff. Fury fired off a pair of forty-millimetre grenades, one of which struck the left wheel of the HMMWV, blasting the tyre to shreds and killing two men who were taking cover alongside the lightly armoured vehicle.

They were still digesting reports of armoured personnel carriers engaging Sierra Bravo. That news had been devastating as it meant that they were alone and that a counterattack was not coming anytime soon. Then, as Arbiter was fitting a new belt of ammunition into her Minimi machinegun, there was a whooshing sound followed by a very loud explosion which originated from just above and behind them. That explosion was overshadowed by a loud rumbling sound and then both girls were engulfed in an explosive cloud of dust and sand as chunks of sandstone struck them both and they hunkered down under their helmets close to the crenelated wall of the tower.

Down below, in the courtyard of the fort, Shadow looked up in horror as she saw the top of the watchtower shift and crumble. Rage was up there! The horrific thought struck her as clouds of sand and dust erupted upwards. Then worse occurred as the section of wall between the southwest tower and the main gate was struck by falling beams and the already weakened structure collapsed into a ten-foot pile of rubble. There was a chorus of coughing and choking which may have been funny at any other time as the sandy, dusty cloud enveloped the entire fort. The incoming tracer bullets could be easily seen as they zipped through the swirling cloud. The defensive fight had been difficult before, but the defensive fight was now all but impossible. With the wall down, a route inside the fort was available to the attackers. With the wall down, their defensive strategy was, quite literally, shattered.

As Shadow looked around her, she saw dust-clad vigilantes everywhere, wiping their faces and weapons clear so that they could continue to fight. Splinter and Spark were digging through the wreckage of the collapsed tower to assist Rage who was yelling for help. La Coccinelle was shifting defenders to where the breach in the wall was being pounded further by the attackers. If those attackers broke through, then they were done for. Astute was running around the battlements, keeping the defenders firing, knowing that they could not stop firing if they were to survive the day.

Fury cleared the billowing sand and dust from the goggles covering her eyes and she began firing again with the grenade launcher in her hands. Beside her, Arbiter was extremely angry, and, despite her wound, she kept up a steady stream of fire, cutting down two men with a single burst and dissuading several others from advancing. Pyrrha was running from person to person seeking out injuries that needed her attention. Inside, she was scared shitless, and part of her knew that they were all living, fighting actually, on borrowed time. She found Nemesis with Resolute at the main gates which were looking more like two thick slices of Swiss cheese rather than something intended to keep everything, including the bad guys, out.

"They're about to fail," Nemesis commented. "We have minutes, guys."

Hal stuck her head out from the barracks, several yards away, and she saw Nemesis standing with Pyrrha and Resolute. The girl came running over and she faced Nemesis.

"We need to start destroying secrets," she stated.

"I agree," Shadow said as she scrambled over part of the collapsed wall. "The bastards are just on the other side...," Shadow ducked as a forty-millimetre grenade exploded on the rear wall of the fort having travelled the full length of the fort interior through the demolished section of wall, "... of the wall. Get it done!"

It did not take long for Hal to destroy the encryption for their communications and other classified items in every vehicle and all the spare equipment that had been brought into the desert. At the same time, every member of the strike team was destroying everything confidential. It was not a pleasant task, an easy task, but not a pleasant task as it meant that they were going to be laying down their arms. It was not a time to sacrifice anyone in a final pointless counterattack on their attackers – that would serve nobody. Instead, everyone had faith in Hit Girl and the single fact that she would come for them. If not that day, then the next day, or the next day after that, but they all knew that she would come.

However, they were going to fight until given the order to lay down their arms.

..._...

The collapse of the watchtower had brought the defence of the fort, quite literally, to a crashing halt.

As Spark pulled Rage out of the wreckage of the watchtower, she saw the enemy crawling over the demolished wall. Then the gates fell inwards, and the nose of an APC poked through. She knew that her time had come. The conversation from the previous night rang through the girl's mind as Piranha pushed her forward. 'I can't,' she thought. But she knew that she had to. A single look at Piranha, and she bolted from cover, before she then worked her way around to the east side of the fort where she threw a half dozen ropes over the wall. She slid down a rope and then ran over to where the enemy had their frontline. She pushed through and, very swiftly, she found herself immediately grabbed and thrown to the sandy ground.

"Renegade! Renegade!" she called out and with a smirk, she allowed herself to be lifted to her feet – if she was going to play the game then she was damn well going to do it to the best of her ability.

After a brief word with a Russian lieutenant, Amber Dawson led a small team of men back to the ropes and then up onto the battlements. The team, with Amber in the lead, stopped behind where Piranha, Foxtail, Ajax, Splinter and Astute were maintaining a defence.

"Stand down!" came a familiar voice and Ajax turned around to see Amber standing above her, four armed men on either side of her.

"You fucking traitor!" Ajax screamed as she threw down her weapon.

Piranha saw a hurt look appear on Amber's face but only for a second before it vanished. Nobody stood a chance as they rapidly found themselves surrounded and outgunned. It did not help that they saw one of their own – or someone they had thought to be one of their own – was collaborating with the enemy. Reluctantly, Sierra Alpha stood down and they allowed themselves to be disarmed by the Russian troops. There was surprise and respect amongst the victorious attackers when they discovered that they had been fighting children. One by one, they were disarmed and forced to their knees where they were each bound with plastic ties at their wrists which secured their hands behind their backs. Shadow was the very last to be forced to her knees beside Astute. She glared up at the soldier standing before her as she felt the plastic ties being pulled tight on her wrists.

"Well, well, well, this is not your year, Miss Bennett."

Chloe froze, and despite the forty-degree weather, she felt a distinctly cold chill run down her back.

Axis of Evil
Deadlight Facility

09:25 GMT+2 (07:25 GMT June 25th)

Joshua & Eva

Things were not going well for either of them.

Joshua was the male, so he was receiving the lion's share of the fists which pummelled them both. To make things worse, Joshua and Eva had been hung so that they could see one another, Joshua hated seeing the girl in such a vulnerable position as her clothing was further removed, exposing her chest and more. Joshua consoled himself with the knowledge that Eva could care less about being naked – something her captors knew not. Despite that knowledge, Joshua still hated invading Eva's privacy. He had tried to put off the pain by figuring out a plan to escape with Eva, but he had not found a way to escape his bindings, let alone fight his way out of the room. Okay, he had faced worse odds, but he generally did not begin to fight with his body beaten to a pulp. Every scream from Eva upset Joshua. He was never one to let a female suffer, but not being able to protect her or even to help her in a small way was getting to him. He had also figured out that those hurting them were much more interested in being sadistic than they were at asking questions.

Finally, the beatings stopped, and Joshua was horrified to find his eyes filling with tears of relief. But he was not alone; Eva too was sobbing as they were both cut down and then left alone. Joshua moved over to Eva, ignoring the fact that she was naked but for her lower clothing which was gathered around her lower legs. Eva leaned into Joshua and she sobbed even harder.

It did not take long for them both to fall asleep in a heap on the concrete floor.

Desert Base

10:32 GMT+2 (08:32 GMT June 25th)

They had been kneeling in a line for almost an hour, facing the back wall of the fort some twenty feet or so in front of them.

The heat was extreme, and many were feeling the beginning of heatstroke setting in. No one had said much to them in that time and their queries had gone unacknowledged. Everyone just felt miserable. However, no one felt more miserable than Chloe. She was shaking and she could not help it. She had felt a mixture of emotions: anger, fear, concern, all because of that voice. That voice had haunted her nightmares for weeks and weeks. It had taken all of her considerable willpower to turn her head to face the owner of that voice. Even now, the bastard was just finishing his tour of the fort and had just emerged from the former barracks building. Colonel Dimitri Petrovich Priabin smiled cordially at Chloe, a look of triumph in his eyes. Beside the man, a small girl stood, cowering. She was dressed in little more than rags – most probably the very same clothing she had been taken in, a long time before.

"Miss Bennett, I will be leaving you in the hands of Junior Lieutenant Vasily Dulov. He will use you to demonstrate what will happen should anyone choose not to cooperate."

Chloe felt fear course through her body as she was yanked to her feet by two soldiers at the behest of the junior lieutenant. The colonel remained standing to the side, obviously keen to watch his minion at work. The plastic ties at her wrists were cut with a pair of wire cutters and then she was hauled forward towards where four posts set about seven feet apart supported the wooden battlements above. The posts were about ten feet in height providing plenty of space below. There were four steel rings affixed to each of the six-inch diameter poles at equidistant points by a steel collar, except for the far-right post which was part set into the wall of the magazine exposing just three rings. Chloe was stood between two of the posts and turned to face her team of fourteen pissed off vigilantes.

Chloe knew what was going to happen, even as she was forcibly stripped of her clothing. Once all her upper clothing, including her sports bra had been removed, and the junior lieutenant had enjoyed a good look at her bare breasts, a rope was secured to her left wrist and this was pulled tight through one of the steel rings and tied off to the post. The same was done to her right wrist and Chloe felt the hot sun on her bare chest for the first time as she stood on the balls of her feet. The two soldiers continued, removing her boots and her socks, then her combat trousers before they both stood back as Chloe stood there in just her boy shorts. The junior lieutenant stepped forward, and he took his time sliding a sharp combat knife into the shorts and he cut them away. Chloe felt humiliated, but she stared ahead, not giving the smirking Russian colonel a glace as she was forced to stand there, restrained before everyone – friends and enemy – stark naked.

At that point, Chloe was left alone, standing half in and half out of the blazing sun, her discarded clothing piled up on the sand just a few feet ahead of her.

..._...

Chloe had lost track of time as she hung there.

Her feet could only just touch the sand with her toes, and she was desperate for water. In reality, just forty minutes had passed, and she was not the only one needing water. On her side, not wearing any clothing was keeping her cooler than those kneeling before her who still wore their combat gear. The junior lieutenant reappeared, and he took a minute to leer at the naked young woman before him. He was pleased. He could see the anger in the eyes and expressions of the fourteen combatants kneeling on the hot sand. He was about to make them angrier as he stepped behind Chloe and he let his eyes wander across the agreeable curves which formed her thighs and bottom. Then, without warning, Chloe felt an intense pain across her backside, and her ears registered the sharp snap which she knew to be that of a cane connecting with her flesh. Chloe did not scream out, but she winced at the sharp pain.

"Why are you doing this?" Chloe demanded through clenched teeth as the cane struck again.

"I need information," Vasily Dulov growled. "The Colonel needs the information I dig out of you. He is not a happy man. It seems that you keep appearing where you are not welcome."

After the eighth strike, Chloe could not contain her screams as she felt her bottom and thighs throbbing with pain at each strike. The cane came down across previous welts, causing worse pain and Chloe screamed out, sagging against the ropes binding her wrists as her legs gave way. Dulov stopped and he turned to face those kneeling down to watch the horrific display.

"Take that woman's pain as a warning to you all," he stated before he strode forwards, grabbing up Jake who was at the end of the line.

"Fuck you!" Jake hissed as he was half-dragged into the barracks.

Jake saw that a chair was sitting in between the camp beds and a soldier stood behind it with ropes held in his hands.

Several hours later...

Modibo Keita International Airport

16:18 GMT+2 (14:18 GMT June 25th)

THE PHOENIX

A small group of people stood around the wall-mounted display screen watching what appeared to be sand rushing past.

"Okay," Marty advised. "We're coming into range . . . now!"

The image sharpened as the old abandoned fort came into sight. The camera, ten thousand feet above, zoomed in and took note of the devastation, as well as the scattered enemy forces, both dead and alive. There was plenty of activity as bodies were being collected and taken away. In the compound of the fort, a line of people could be made out. As the camera focussed and zoomed in, they counted a dozen people kneeling on the sand facing what appeared to be two or three pale objects.

"Oh, my God!" Hailee exclaimed, horrified as she saw that there was what looked to be two naked women tied up. "Chloe – that's Chloe! Is that Cassie?"

Of those kneeling, at least four were also pale, demonstrating that they too were probably naked. As they watched, the naked women were cut down and they both fell to the sand without any further movement.

"Are you seeing this, Hit Girl?" Marty asked.

"Yes," Hit Girl hissed from thirteen-hundred kilometres away. "We need to go in, now!"

"We are not ready," Hailee reminded her friend.

"For God's sake!" Hit Girl responded. "They're being tortured!"

"We attack too soon, and our people will get used as human shields," Jennifer pointed out.

Hit Girl knew that Jennifer was right, but that was not the point.

Axis of Evil
Deadlight Facility

"Joshua!"

"Joshua!"

"Huh?"

Joshua opened his eyes, shaking his head against his groggy state. He found himself lying on his side and as he looked around him, he did a classic doubletake at the sight of the man standing a few feet away from him.

"You are not alone, Joshua."

"Dad!?"

Paul Williams looked over at his son as they young man forced himself into a sitting position on the floor.

"You look like you've been put through the wringer, my boy."

"How?"

"I am here as a figment of your tortured imagination," Paul explained. "I am here to give you moral support in your time of need."

"I suppose I do need it," Joshua conceded.

"You're a brave young man, and I'm damn proud of you. I've been watching you and Chloe and little Rebecca. I approve and wish that I could have met them both."

"They're both wonderful, Dad."

"You've grown up so much, my boy, and you are going to get through this little road hump – you have to, for everyone's sake."

Joshua frowned at the cryptic addition to the sentence.

"I thought my beating in Cambodia was bad, but this is really pushing it."

"That's a bit of an understatement," Paul chuckled.

"Eva's not doing so well, though."

"She is a lot younger than you and, despite her upbringing, she has her limits which are much less than your own."

"I need to get her the hell out of here before they kill her."

"Yes, you do."

"Any ideas how I can do that, Dad?"

"Actually, I might..."

Desert Base

16:50 GMT+2 (14:50 GMT June 25th)

Jake was suffering.

He was in a lot of pain, thanks to that bastard and his men. After the usual plethora of punches, they had tortured him with the output from an electrical generator, leaving him with painful electrical burns to his chest and stomach. He knew that he had screamed and screamed, before he had passed out, but he had not broken. To be honest he had suffered much worse at the hands of Urban Predator instructors. Then they had thrown him outside onto the sand with the others and forced to kneel back in his place. After Jake, they had worked over Jamie and Tommy. Age had not been a barrier to the harsh treatment and torture. Jake had felt ashamed to emerge from his torture with tears flooding down his face, but he was not alone when Jamie and Tommy emerged. As with him, the boys received looks of encouragement from the girls who must have been dreading their own torture sessions. The torture was straight out of the book, and degrading females in front of their male colleagues was a classic method for inducing anger and thus the chance for someone to slip during questioning.

However, Jake had not been ready for when Cassie had emerged from her own questioning. He had heard her screams and he had felt tears in his eyes as he had heard her suffer. However, Cassie had not begged, she had sworn violently, but she had never begged. But what was worse, Jake considered, was when Cassie had been shoved out of the barracks. She had stumbled and fallen into the sand. Then she had been brutally kicked in the thigh and chest before she had been dragged by her hair to the next wooden post down from Chloe and she was hauled to her feet, sobbing with the pain. Her arms were pulled up behind her head and then her wrists were bound and tied to one of the steel rings with her back to the post. Jake was horrified. Seeing his adoptive mother being tortured and so brutally beaten was bad enough, but to make things worse for the boy, he was seeing Cassie stark naked, something he hated to see, and something which was not right in his mind.

He was not alone in his thoughts as there was some angry muttering from the others awaiting their fate.

..._...

Cassie had not been alone during her torture; they had taken Marinette in at the same time.

Both women had been tied to chairs facing one another. They had been smacked around, lightly at first, but then more heavily. The questions had been thrown in between the punches. But neither one of them uttered a word, beyond displaying their contempt for their torturers. As for the answers, they were not what their interrogators wanted to hear, but both women enjoyed telling the bastards what they thought of them. Then things had escalated as their clothing was ripped off them, leaving both women completely naked. Neither showed their humiliation; not wanting to give the enemy any satisfaction. Both had heard the screaming of the boys and the sizzling of the electricity as it was applied to the sweaty, salty skin of the boys. Then it was their turn as electrodes were shoved into their chests and then their stomachs. They both screamed at the sharp intense pain, which was short, but incredibly painful. Cassie passed out before Marinette and had to be brought back to consciousness by a face full of water. Cassie had barely been conscious when she had been untied and dragged outside, not able to resist as she had been beaten and then hung up on display.

That had left Marinette to endure more pain and suffering, alone. The young woman had never endured so much physical punishment, not to mention the torture. Every touch from the electrodes had shaken her to her very core and the pain had been unbelievable at every touch. For the twenty-year-old woman, being stripped naked by the men was humiliating, as was being struck and touched on her breasts and elsewhere. However, Marinette was made from tough French stock and she was not about to let some Russian bastard get one over on her. In between her screaming, she threw out every crude French and English epithet she could muster. Then she had been thrown out before everyone which was more humiliating, if that were possible, being naked, but she saw the anger on every face and knew she was amongst friends. Marinette was not strung up like Cassie, instead, she was forced to kneel beside Cassie with her hands bound behind her.

Then it was the turn of Saoirse and Olivia, however, the Russian junior lieutenant had different ideas for his amusement involving the two girls, and one other.

..._...

Olivia knew what it felt like to be humiliated before her peers.

She herself had been stripped and humiliated by her boyfriend with everyone watching. She had been imprisoned, handcuffed and naked, for days. She had had to be fed by someone else as she could not use her own hands. She had had to suffer the indignity of being taken to the toilet and then watched while she had pissed. Even worse, someone else had then done the wiping. That episode had hurt Olivia, even though she had deserved every bit of it for inadvertently betraying Vengeance.

Olivia felt so deeply about what she had endured that when Amber had been deemed to have stepped out of line as a traitor, she had jumped in with both feet to humiliate the girl. Olivia had always hated Amber, especially knowing where they had found her. Humiliating the younger girl had felt so good, especially making her piss on the floor while she had watched. But then she had felt bad about Amber – slightly – when she had then been deemed innocent. But right at that moment, as she knelt on the hard sand, where she had been kneeling for over six hours of the day, her eyes bored into that bitch as she strutted around them. That resentment had built over the hours and had worsened when Olivia had been forced to piss herself as none of them had been allowed to move during that time.

Unfortunately for Olivia, Dulov had very keen eyes and he had registered Olivia firing daggers from both eyes at the turncoat, Amber Dawson. Everyone had been trying to kill Amber with their eyes, but Olivia's hatred appeared to be much more deeply felt than the others. Therefore, Dulov could see some entertainment, not to mention the first of several tests for that Dawson girl's loyalty.

"Dawson!" Dulov called out.

"Yes," Amber responded insolently as she walked around the line of her former friends and faced Dulov.

"Who is this girl?" Dulov demanded, pointing down at Olivia.

Amber looked down at the older girl and she grimaced.

"That's Olivia."

"Take Olivia and get her trussed up beside the French slut over there, then we can all have some fun. Take that one too."

Dulov pointed at Saoirse who scowled, knowing what was about to happen. She and Olivia were dragged to their feet and ten minutes later, both were standing, facing one another, bound at the wrists. Their wrists were tied to steel rings above their heads.

Both girls were also completely naked.

Axis of Evil
Deadlight Facility

17:15 GMT+2 (15:15 GMT June 25th)

Joshua & Eva

Eva awoke to find herself cuddled into Joshua, still half naked, but with her wrists free.

Apparently, the pair had been left to rest and sleep by their guards. On the floor, beside her, there were two plastic plates, each with a loaf of bread, some meat, and a banana. There were also two 500-millimetre bottles of water. Eva proceeded to pull her clothing back into place and she found her sports bra and was just pulling it on as Joshua awoke.

"I have a plan," he advised Eva. "Ah! Scran!"

"Men and food!" Eva growled as she reached for the bread and ripped a chunk off before stuffing it in her mouth.

"Predators and food!" Joshua grinned as Eva smiled.

Both were starving and very thirsty, and it did not take long for them both to finish their food and drink. Then Eva stood up and she looked at Joshua expectantly.

"What?" he asked as he too stood up.

"Your plan, Joshua."

"Oh, my plan! Yes."

"Well?" Eva pushed as Joshua moved around the room, examining the concrete walls.

Joshua flexed his joints somewhat as he worked out some of the bruises from the beating. Eva was growing impatient as Joshua made his way over to the door to their detention area. It was made of wood and a closer inspection showed that the door had not been intended to be a security door. The three hinges supporting the door were large and steel, but the two parts of each hinge were held in place by a single steel pin with a rounded top.

"We need something flat," Joshua said as he looked around.

"Try this," Eva suggested as she reached into her dishevelled hair and pulled out a displaced hair clip.

"A bit too fragile, I think," Joshua commented.

"Excuse me!" Eva responded. "I was not born yesterday – my hair clips are slightly more rigid than most."

Joshua took the hair clip and was surprised to find it to be very solid with bevelled tips. He grinned as he considered that there was obviously much more to Eva then he had first thought, and he thanked his lucky stars that Predators were always prepared.

It did not take them long to jimmy the pins loose, just enough so that the door was held in place by the top and bottom pins only, and then only by about a centimetre of pin. Then, after a good listen at the door, they pulled the final pair of pins. Actually, Eva pulled the pins while Joshua held the door against the jam. Once clear, Joshua eased the door to one side, opening up a gap large enough for the pair of them to pass through into the corridor beyond which was mercifully clear.

"Which direction?" Eva asked.

"This way," Joshua said as he turned left and jogged, bare foot, down the concrete corridor.

Eva followed, jogging backwards for time to time, to check their rear. Surprisingly, they saw nobody, which was slightly concerning. After several minutes, they reached an elevator and a set of fire stairs. Between the fire door and the elevator was their floor: (-2) indicating that they were two stories below ground. Ahead of them, a set of double doors opened up into a tunnel beyond which presumably led to the next building.

"Up?" Eva queried and Joshua nodded.

They pushed through the fire door and then raced up the fire stairs. They passed through the next level and then stopped at the ground level. They found themselves in a small lobby with just the fire door, the elevator, and a solid door which they presumed led outside – it was a proper security door and the electronic security lock was not one which they could bypass. Instead, they raced up to the first floor, exiting out from the fire stairs into a similar lobby but with windows overlooking the facility.

"What's going on over there?" Eva asked, pointing into the distance where men and machinery were moving around.

"I can't see enough from here," Joshua stated as she ran up several more flights of steps until he exited atop the eight-storey building.

"Nice view," Eva commented as she shielded her eyes from the sun, which was extremely low in the sky, indicating that it was not far from sunset.

Joshua did the same as he gazed over at the activity. It was a train; a long train of flatbed cars being loaded with forty-foot containers. Several trucks loaded with those same containers were queuing up to be unloaded beside the train.

"Someone is packing," Joshua commented unnecessarily.

"They're runnin'," Eva agreed. "But why?"

"Whatever they are doing here is obviously complete, so they don't need the facility any longer."

"I don't know; I have a bad feeling about this," Eva responded.

"Me too, princess," Joshua chuckled. "Let's move."

Eva and Joshua swiftly ran back down the fire stairs.

Desert Base

17:40 GMT+2 (15:40 GMT June 25th)

The strikes had started light but then Olivia had quickly realised that Amber was putting everything she had into them and as a result, her backside stung.

Her mind had told her that Amber had every right to beat the crap out of her abuser with the tawse in her hand, but it still damn well hurt. The twin-tailed tawse had left dozens of red stripes on Olivia's buttocks and thighs which had had the girl screaming out in pain. It pained Olivia, but she soon found herself begging for the torture to stop as the tips of the tawse curled around her sides and caught her stomach. Unlike a Predator, Olivia had not been seasoned to fight pain and while she could take a certain amount, what Amber was dishing out was beyond anything which the fourteen-year-old could handle. So, she was relieved when the strikes finally stopped, and she sagged down on the rope tying her wrists to the steel ring. She sobbed and sobbed as she hung there before her friends, feelings of intense humiliation flooding over her.

Olivia jumped as she heard the tawse cracking down again followed by a grunt of pain from Saoirse. Olivia also sensed that the blows were not landing as strongly as they had on her. The minutes passed and Saoirse was soon screaming out in pain with each strike of the leather tawse, but she still took a good percentage more strikes than Olivia had before her pain threshold was breached. However, Saoirse's mind was compartmentalised and the pain from Amber's onslaught was filed away and instead, Saoirse was figuring out what she had seen in the younger girl's eyes as Amber had turned to face Saoirse before stepping behind her. The eyes were full of apology and duress. Saoirse recognised coercion when she saw it and she had seen Lucy signalling to Amber. Then it struck her, and she realised that Amber was playing an extremely dangerous game, an extremely dangerous game indeed.

Several people had been left out from the initial round of punishments and interrogation that day: Lucy, Abby, Dakota, Abigail, Scarlett, and Patrick. That had been on purpose. Patrick had been forced to watch each member of his team as they were abused, humiliated, and hurt. That had been painful and Dulov had worked the torture to enrage the man. As for Lucy, she had not been touched because her emotions had been caught by Dulov and he had seen how hurt she was when he had caused pain to her associates. The man could see that the girl was seething – anger could work well when it came to interrogations – and the Russian was simply biding his time before he went to town on the girl and the man.

As for the other four girls, he had plans.

Axis of Evil
Deadlight Facility

18:05 GMT+2 (16:05 GMT June 25th)

Joshua & Eva

They had descended back to the second basement level before proceeding into the subterranean tunnel which led deeper into the facility.

The tunnel was rectangular in cross section and a good ten feet in height and about twenty feet in width. Most of one side of the tunnel was occupied by piping and electrical conduits. The pair headed along the tunnel, hoping to find a site plan or something similar, but they had seen nothing. Then, as they approached a T-junction after having walked about two hundred yards, someone saw them.

"Hey! Stop right there!"

The voice spoke in English but with a trace of a French accent. Joshua span around to see two men emerge from the T-junction. He and Eva ran at the men, striking before either man could react further. The two men were guards – mercenaries – and both carried a pistol in a holster plus a baton. Both reached for their batons, but neither had the baton raised before the first went down as a terribly angry Eva rammed her right foot into the chest of the man on the right. Hours of being beaten had made Eva desperate to return the favour and she went all out on her man. Nothing he could do could detract Eva from her fight as she kicked, punched, twisted, and turned. The baton had been sent spinning across the red-painted concrete floor of the tunnel evening out the fight. Eva was weak thanks to the beating and lack of food over the past few hours, but her intensive training gave her the edge she needed to put down a grown man.

Joshua had strength and brawn to assist him as his powerful punches quickly made the man whom he was fighting regret taking him on. Joshua was incredibly angry, and he wanted someone to suffer for what he and Eva had endured. However, the man was good, and Joshua felt himself thrown across the tunnel, crashing into the pipework running down one side. Joshua rolled away from the incoming kick and quickly regained his feet, sweeping up one of the discarded batons and striking the man in the chest. Joshua grinned as he heard the satisfying snap of a rib as he struck again and again, beating the man down to the concrete beneath their feet. A final blow cracked the man's skull and blood ran out across the concrete, contrasting nicely with the red paint. As Joshua turned towards Eva, he saw he go down with a kick to her head.

Joshua saw red as he ran at the man who was grinning broadly as Eva collapsed to the concrete.