CHAPTER 26

Upstairs on the main floor of the embassy, Haqqani and the rest of the terrorists had lined up 10 hostages in the main Command Center and forced them to their knees, guns aimed to the back of their heads. Haqqani was angry. Him and his men had searched the entire Command Center and still hadn't found the list they were looking for. He knew full well that the list was somewhere in the embassy; he just didn't know where. And he sure as hell wasn't leaving without it, as the people on the list were basically the Taliban's last resistance to completely controlling Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Haqqani paced up and down the line of hostages, and he eventually stopped at a young, Iranian-American woman, no older than 23. She was just out of college, and had been recruited by the CIA. She never could have imagined that her basic desk job would end up with her staring down the barrel of a gun, being glared at by one of the most fearsome terrorists in the world.

"Stand up." Haqqani growled. The woman, trembling, got to her feet and faced him. "Tell me who has the list."

"What list?" She stammered.

"The list of traitors who help you to kill our women and children." Haqqani spat.

The woman, despite being absolutely petrified, didn't say anything. Haqqani stood over her and she started sweating in fear.

"You're Muslim, yes?" Haqqani remarked as he looked at the young Iranian-American woman.

"Yes." She eventually stammered in reply.

"And yet you kill Muslims." Haqqani growled. "Does your family know what you're doing here? What you've done?"

"They know." The woman responded, trying to appear strong but the tremor in her voice and the tears in her eyes gave her away.

"Well, if you won't tell me where to find the list… perhaps he will." Haqqani snarled, raising his gun to the head of the man next to her…

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"Sir." The Marine breathed, pointing at a shadow a couple of feet away from them.

Miguel looked left and saw another terrorist, holding his gun, his back thankfully to them. Miguel noted the man's presence, but his main focus was trying to listen to the extremely quiet Pashto radio chatter that was coming from the terrorists' walkie talkies.

"What are they saying?" The Marine whispered to Miguel.

"They're going to the embassy floor." Miguel murmured in reply.

"Why?" The Marine asked.

"Because that's where the bunker is." Miguel replied. "The Ambassador has a list they want. We gotta get up there."

"Did they say how many men they've got?" The Private asked. Miguel looked at him and smirked.

"Guess we'll find out soon enough." He replied. "You ready?"

"Ready."

With that, the Marine aimed his pistol at the terrorist to the far left of them, and Miguel aimed at the 3 terrorists directly in front of him. They took out the four men with relative ease, and they then slowly emerged from their hiding spot.

"Good." Miguel murmured, standing up and walking towards one of the corpses. "Now, let's get one of their radios…"

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"I'm sorry, so you have an action hero Navy SEAL boyfriend?!" Robby asked. When Sam nodded, Robby whistled. "Damn, that really puts my architecture career to shame."

"Well, I mean… wait, what? Architecture career? I thought you were a handyman." Sam said. Robby nodded.

"I was. But after we broke up, it forced me to take a look at my life and I realised that it was going nowhere. I was lost. So I decided to go back to college, get my degree, and I just started working at an architecture firm here."

"Wow, Robby, that's amazing! I'm really happy for you!" Sam exclaimed. She couldn't help but smile. Robby had clearly turned around his life, and she could see a new-found energy, enthusiasm and pride in him that she had never seen before.

"Thanks." Robby smiled. "What about you? Are you still in the child psychology business?"

Sam nodded.

"Yeah, I actually have my own clinic here now." Sam replied. Robby's eyes widened.

"You live here now?! No way! You're no longer in New York?!" Robby asked.

"Yeah, I moved 6 months ago with my boyfriend." Sam said, her voice slightly trailing off when she said the word 'boyfriend'. Her and Miguel were NOT on good terms right now. Not just because he had hung up on her on the phone. Their relationship of him being away for months was not enough anymore.

Sam was honestly, genuinely thinking about ending their relationship…

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Meanwhile, the Ambassador and all of the other high-level government personnel gathered in the security bunker in the embassy, safe and locked away from the terrorists roaming the halls around them, but leaving all of the hostages at their mercy. The ambassador was on the phone with the Pakistani government, asking, pleading with them to send troops to the embassy to drive the terrorists out of the embassy. However, the call was seeming to be more and more unsuccessful with every second.

"I'm in the bunker right now. I was at the embassy when it was overrun." Martha said. She listened to the unhelpful voice of the Pakistani General in reply and she growled. "Yes, we're under attack, what the hell do you think I've been saying?! We have heavily armed fighters inside the compound. Gunfire, casualties… we need your immediate help!"

There was no response on the other end of the line and Martha put her head in her hands.

"Goddammit, General! This is your country!" She shouted. "The safety of this embassy is your responsibility. I don't care what you have to do; just get them here!"

Martha's voice trailed off and her trembling hand dropped the phone as her and everyone else in the bunker watched the monitor that portrayed the CCTV camera footage from right outside the room. They watched as Haqqani and his gang of terrorists led the group of hostages down the hall and stopped them right by the camera, forcing all of them back to their knees.

Haqqani stared at the camera that was connected to the security bunker and he nodded.

"Open the door!" He demanded. Everyone in the bunker looked at each other in fear and no one spoke. Haqqani chuckled. "We know you're in there!"

When there was no response again, Haqqani turned to his right-hand-man, who had his gun to the head of the first hostage in the line. At Haqqani's nod, the man fired a bullet through the skull of the first hostage. All of the hostages outside and the government officials cried out in fear and alarm as they watched the first man's blood splatter all over the floor and begin to seep out of the hole in his head.

"I said open the door." Haqqani continued. Eventually Martha got over her shock and turned on the microphone connected to the speaker right outside so she could talk to Haqqani.

"This is Ambassador Martha Edwards." She shouted, trying to gain some authority in her voice but failing miserably. After all, she didn't have the power in the situation and she knew it. She couldn't not try though. "You are in violation of international law!"

"Open the door!" Haqqani repeated. Martha took a deep breath and continued.

"The Pakistan Armed Forces are on their way." She lied. "You will all be killed!"

"I will ask you one more time only… Open the door!" Haqqani continued, ignoring Martha's attempts to establish authority and scare them.

"I can't do it!" Martha stammered. "I'm under strict protocol. The door won't open until I get an all-clear from the Diplomatic Security Command Center in Washington."

Haqqani sighed and turned back to his right-hand-men. All it took was a curt nod for the lieutenant to put a bullet into the back of the head of the second hostage. The remaining hostages cried out in fear. Two out of ten hostages were dead, and Haqqani was showing now signs of stopping.

"I believe you have in your possession, a certain list. That's all I want." Haqqani called. "Give it to me and no one else dies."

"I told you, I can't do it!" Martha cried.

BANG! Another hostage down.

"You can execute them all, there's not a damn thing I can do!" Martha sobbed. The next hostage in line was the young Iranian-American woman, but rather than executing her, Haqqani dragged her to her feet and pulled her over to the camera so they were right in front of it. Haqqani then drew a knife and put it to the woman's neck.

"Give me the list, or I will kill her right here, right now." Haqqani growled. The assistant director of the CIA, who was hiding in the bunker, stood up and walked towards the door. Because Haqqani and his hostage were standing right in front of the camera, he could see with vivid details the tears and sweat on the woman's face as she trembled, knowing her life could easily end at that moment.

As the assistant director made his way towards the door, Martha stopped him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Martha shouted.

"What does it look like?" He said, grabbing the list that the terrorists so desperately wanted and heading towards the door. "I'm giving him what he wants."

"Are you fucking kidding me? Open that door and we're all dead!" Martha snapped. "Including the assets on that list!"

"You don't know that!" The man shot back. Martha looked at the screen, at Haqqani holding the knife to the young girl's throat, and then she looked back at her colleague.

"I can damn well guess." She replied.

"You have ten seconds!" Haqqani suddenly called.

"He's gonna cut her head off, for Christ's sake!" The assistant director cried.

"It's a war." Martha whispered.

"Well, I can't just stand here and watch." The assistant director growled, before shoving Martha out the way and placing a hand on the vault handle. Taking a deep breath, he slowly started to spin it counter-clockwise, unlocking it…

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As Sam and Robby were chatting, catching up on everything they had missed in each other's lives, Sam lost track of time. As they downed drink after drink together, laughing and telling anecdotes of their lives during the past two years, Sam looked at her watch, and she suddenly realised that it was 6 in the morning. Her eyes widened. 7 hours had gone by. 7 hours and Miguel had not once tried to call her back. Not even a simple text message. Sam sighed. Maybe her relationship with him really was a lost cause.

Sam slowly stood up from the bar.

"Okay, Robby, it was great catching up with you, but I gotta go get some sleep." Sam murmured, a little bit drunk but not too much so that she would make an extremely stupid decision that night. Robby stood up too.

"Okay. Can I walk you home?" Robby asked. Sam looked at him, unsure.

"Robby, you know nothing's going to happen between us, right? I mean I have a boyfriend." Sam stammered. Robby smiled and nodded.

"I know, and I'm happy with that. It's just you seem pretty drunk and I don't think you walking alone, or even getting in a cab alone right now is a good idea. Please let me just walk you home."

Sam eventually nodded.

"Okay, sure. Let's go." She said, and she started to walk towards the door, but immediately stumbled and nearly fell due to her drunkenness. However, she didn't fall because Robby caught her hand and held her hand to support her.

"Don't worry. I got you." Robby said, reassuringly. Sam couldn't help but smile at this new Robby. He seemed kinder. More considerate. Had she made a mistake letting him go all those years ago?

Twenty minutes later, they made it back to Sam's place, and they stopped at the door.

"All right. I guess this is where I leave you." Robby said. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, this was nice. Thank you so much for tonight. I really needed a fun night. Good night, Robby." She replied, and she began fumbling in her bag for keys.

"Hey, Sam?" Robby mumbled, and Sam looked up at him with her gorgeous, ocean-blue eyes.

"Yeah?" She asked. Robby took a deep breath.

"Okay, look, tonight, I had a lot of fun. But I told one lie… that I'm happy with you dating that Miguel guy. I'm not. You should be with me instead."

"Robby…" Sam sighed. Robby held up a hand to stop her.

"Look, just please hear me out okay. I can tell that you aren't happy with Miguel." Robby said. Sam raised an eyebrow.

"What makes you say that?" She asked. Robby shrugged.

"Because we just spent 7 hours together and the only things you told me about Miguel were that he's a SEAL, and he's NEVER home. And you said that second fact A LOT. It doesn't take a psychologist to read your emotions."

"Look, Miguel and I are going through a rough patch right now, I'll admit, but…"

"I've changed, Sam." Robby continued, cutting her off. "I've become a more whole person. I've become more mature, I've grown, and I owe that all to you. If you give me the chance, this time around, I won't screw up. I'll be the boyfriend you deserve. Because you deserve the world, Sam."

Sam was left speechless by her ex's romantic profession. After Robby finished talking, he looked down awkwardly, not wanting to make eye contact, and shifting from foot to foot.

"Look, that's all I have to say. Here's my number if you ever want to start things up again." Robby said, slipping a card with his name and number on it into her pocket. "Good night, Sam."

With that, Robby kissed her gently on the cheek, before walking away from her house, leaving a very emotionally discombobulated Sam behind…