CHAPTER 24

6 months later…

"Tensions have never been higher between Pakistan and the United States. More and more U.S soldiers are being transferred each day to the American Embassy in Islamabad to ensure extra security and safety to those living and working in the embassy. The troops will be there for an indeterminate amount of time, at least 3 months, and…"

"Fuck!" Eli swore as him and Miguel sat in the mess hall among all of the other soldiers and watched the news on the small TV in the corner of the room. Miguel and Eli had been stationed at the embassy for nearly 3 months due to the rising unrest in Islamabad between Pakistani government, U.S government, and extremist groups such as the Taliban. Miguel hadn't been back to his and Sam's new place in San Diego in 3 whole months, and both him and Sam were not happy at all. Miguel was supposed to have the next two weeks in June off and him and Sam were supposed to spend that time together, but with Miguel and all of the troops frozen in Pakistan indefinitely and tensions between the nations escalating with every passing day, he wasn't about to be released anytime soon.

"What an absolute shit show." Miguel's other friend, a SEAL named Ben, growled.

"Man, just turn the TV off please." Miguel muttered. Eli nodded and did so, and the two sat back and groaned. So it was official. They were stuck in Pakistan for God knows how long, ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"Well this sucks." Eli grumbled. "Three months in this shithole and now they tell us we're staying longer!"

"I swear to God, we're basically glorified babysitters with guns!" Miguel spat. "We just follow the ambassador around all day and stand outside whatever room he's in. It's so stupid!"

"You're telling me." Eli chuckled, mirthlessly. "You ready to tell Sam?"

Miguel groaned.

"She's going to dump me. Like she's literally going to dump me." Miguel murmured. Eli raised an eyebrow.

"You really think so?" He asked, worried for his friend. Miguel shrugged and looked down.

"I really don't know, man. I can tell she's unhappy. I am two. We're meant to be in a relationship and live together but it's kinda hard for our relationship to blossom with one of us living a world away."

Eli raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not even going to pretend I understood half the words you said there." Eli remarked in reply. Miguel rolled his eyes. "But you just gotta tell her. Rip off the bandaid. And if she dumps you, so be it. Suck it up and deal with it. Nothing you can do. She chose to get involved with you. She wants to pull out now, that's on her."

Miguel sighed and shook his head.

"I wish it were that easy." He murmured as he pulled out his phone and dialled. Sam answered the phone moments later. Sam wasn't happy with their relationship. Not at all. Although she knew that it wasn't Miguel's fault that he had to stay in Pakistan for the past three months, it didn't take away the loneliness she felt. They had just finished moving all of their stuff in together and a month later, Miguel was whisked out of the country. Moreover, because of the time difference, they only managed to find the chance to chat once every couple of days - not nearly enough for a healthy couple to function.

"Hello?" Sam said into the phone.

"Hey, Sam." Miguel said glumly into the phone. Sam sighed. She could immediately tell from his tone that he wasn't coming home anytime soon.

"Hey, Miguel." Sam murmured. "Let me guess… you're not coming home."

Miguel sighed, ran his hand through his hair and eventually nodded.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. They're freezing us here indefinitely. At least 3 months but could easily be more."

"3 MONTHS!" Sam shouted, her eyes widening and her heart dropping. "Miguel, you can't possibly be serious?!"

"Unfortunately, I am." Miguel replied. "The unrest is escalating rather than de-escalating here between the U.S and Pakistan. There's a good chance a fight might happen, so they're keeping us until the conflict's over."

"So… what? You're just never coming home?!" Sam snapped, anger and upset starting to overtake her shock and sadness.

"Sam, I don't have a choice." Miguel stammered. "I wish I could be at home with you, trust me. But I'm stuck here, whether I like it or not. It's my job."

Sam put her head in her hands and felt angry tears prickling in the back of her eyes. She couldn't believe this. She was reaching the end of her patience with Miguel's job. She couldn't deal with this for much longer. The being away. The danger he put himself in. The not knowing when he would be back. It was all too much. She didn't want to break up, but they needed to

"Look, Miguel, we have to talk. I'll be honest… I'm not happy with our relationship right now." Sam eventually said, but just as the words left her lips, she heard a loud BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! and realised that Miguel had hung up on her.

"What the hell?" Sam growled under her breath. No way in hell Miguel had just hung up on her! Sam tried calling him back two more times but both times he didn't answer. Sam swore under her breath. Seriously Miguel? She was trying to have a mature, adult conversation with him and he just hung up?! Sam threw her phone onto the table in a fit of anger. She wanted to go and drink herself blind to forget all about this for one night, so she grabbed her purse and keys and stormed out of the apartment, not calling up a friend to come to the bar with her to look out for her…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Look, Miguel, we have to talk. I'll be honest… I'm not happy with our relationship right now."

No sooner than Sam had dropped that bombshell on him, Miguel's phone suddenly disconnected. Miguel raised an eyebrow in confusion and realised that the cell signal in the embassy had just been jammed for some reason. Manually, not a fluke. Miguel walked over to a confused Eli and Ben and realised that they were having the same issue.

Suddenly, a loud siren shrieked through the Embassy compound mess hall and every Marine and SEAL in the room shot to their feet. They all knew exactly what that siren meant. Something was going down, either inside the embassy or outside. They needed to report to their commanders to hear instructions. Because Miguel, Eli and Ben were three of few SEALs among mainly Marines, they probably would be getting separate instructions to everyone else.

They ran to the main lobby of the embassy, where they could tell all of the CIA and other government operatives were in a panic. Miguel had worked with the CIA for almost his whole career as a SEAL. They were the ones who would gather the intelligence the SEALs needed to complete the mission. Miguel, Eli and Ben ran over to Lieutenant Anderson, who had quickly gathered up his SEAL platoon.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Miguel shouted, his voice struggling to rise above the frenzy.

"A convoy containing the director of the CIA and his wife was hit by Rocket Launcher fire in a town square four blocks from the Embassy." Anderson announced. Everyone gasped.

"Holy shit." Eli murmured under his breath.

"We don't know if he's dead or alive. It is presumed to be Taliban. All Marines and SEALs are to be deployed to the scene right now in case of further attacks." Anderson continued. The men nodded and all simultaneously clicked into action. They all quickly armed up and put on their bulletproof armor in a matter of seconds, and were soon ready to leave. However, before Miguel could get ready to go, Lieutenant Anderson pulled him back.

"Sir?" Miguel asked, confused. Why wasn't he allowed to get ready and get deployed like the rest of them.

"I'm gonna need you to hang back, Diaz." Lieutenant Anderson ordered. "Because the whole platoon is being deployed right now, I need to be in the field to command the men. This isn't an ordinary mission. You're the next highest ranking soldier in the platoon so you're in charge of military actions from here."

"Yes, sir." Miguel nodded, and he took off towards the Command Center of the CIA in the embassy, leaving the other soldiers to storm out of the embassy moments later, leaving the embassy floor deathly quiet…

10 minutes later, Miguel sat in the Command Center alongside many high-level CIA employees (Miguel was the highest ranking of the few soldiers on site), and he watched the scene unfold from a variety of soldier body-cams and drone footage. The SEALs and Marines were quickly advancing towards the square where the convoy had been hit, and there was no sign of any further attack so far. The director still hadn't emerged from his overturned car, but the car hadn't exploded yet so that was a good sign.

Miguel was standing next to another friend of his - none other than the elderly Ambassador herself, Martha Edwards. Suddenly, Martha's phone rang and she looked at it. Her eyes widened. It was a call from the one source the Americans had inside the Taliban. The mole they had used to stay one step ahead of the Taliban up to that point. They had told the double agent never to contact them so as to not arouse suspicion of his actions among his fellow terrorists, so the fact that he was calling must have meant that it was important.

Martha quickly stepped out of the extremely loud control room and answered the phone.

"Hello? Ahmad?" Martha asked, confused, as she answered the phone.

"BRING THE SOLDIERS BACK TO THE EMBASSY NOW!" Ahmad's desperate shout bellowed into the phone. Martha's eyes widened.

"What?" She stammered.

"The Taliban… they're coming! They're using the explosion as a diversion to draw out the Marines from the Embassy and are going to charge into the Embassy tonight!"

Martha's heart dropped. She rushed back into the room and turned to Miguel.

"Miguel! You need to call your men back!" Martha shouted.

"Why?" Miguel asked in his calm, cool tone.

"Because ambushing the director's convoy may have been a diversion to draw the soldiers away from here."

"Draw them away?" Miguel asked.

"From the embassy. They want to invade us right now! With no soldiers here, we are completely defenseless."

Miguel snapped into action. They had been training for situations like these ever since they had arrived in Pakistan, but he never expected something like this to actually happen. He ran out of the room, followed by the ambassador, and immediately saw a Marine Corps Private standing at attention outside the room.

"Private, give me your comms." Miguel demanded. Seeing Miguel's urgentness and his authority, the Marine Corps Private immediately handed Miguel his radio.

"Here, sir." The Marine said, giving it to him.

"How many soldiers were deployed to the ambush site?" Miguel asked.

"Pretty much everyone on the duty roster, except me, you and a couple of men posted at the gate." The Marine replied. Miguel nodded and held the walkie talkie to his lips.

"Marine dispatch, this is Miguel Diaz. Get me the Commanding Officer deployed to the ambush site." Miguel said, calmly into the walkie talkie. He then turned to Martha. "Ambassador, you need to get to the safety bunker, follow lockdown two protocols till you get the all clear."

Miguel then finally turned to the young Marine Corps Private, who was still standing at attention. Miguel could tell the man was extremely nervous, but Miguel didn't have time to help the man. For all they knew, the Taliban could be converging on the embassy at any second.

"Private, stay with me." Miguel said. The Private nodded and followed Miguel out of the command center. Miguel quickly grabbed a pistol from the armory and cocked it. He took a slow, calming breath. He was about to have to protect the entire embassy from a whole army of Taliban terrorists. It was going to be the most dangerous fight of his life, and yet his mind was still partly distracted on Sam. Not good. Not good at all…