-"I can hypnotize him just fine, why do you need to resort to such primitive means when a more sophisticated approach is available?"

I groaned into my palms.
-"Rin, we already went over this twelve times before. The less magic we use, the less traceable we are. You must save your mojo for a real emergency."

-"Mo-Jo?"

My eyes bored onto her.
-"Just...just wait here. This is child's play."

-"What type of messed-up childhood did you have?"

The glare I sent her would have made mum proud, the kind that peels paint off the wall.

She made a zipping up motion and kept silent.

The night was almost pitch black, only a sliver of moonlight and the occasional stray lamp. A couple of guards were chatting, a mismatched mix of Arabic with some French sprinkled on top. They were a notch above your standard irregular, from their kit, maybe even paid by the Edelfelts proper.

I ignored them and scouted ahead, looking for extra cans of gas. If we got stranded in the middle of nowhere while they were hot on our heels, it would be too much for Rin.
I mean, if I were on my own, I could go directly into the minefields. Few were mad enough to follow me there.
Annnnd for the second time on this trip, I saw some modicum of sense in dad's craziness. There was a hint of a method to his madness.
I shook my head, no time to dwell on that.
Jeep, gas, escape.

The guards had an argument, from what I could understand, some kind of unpaid debt. The scraggliest of them left his rifle and whipped his tool to take a leak.

I snuck behind him and got him in a chokehold.
Thx for the rifle.

I signaled for Rin to get into the jeep.

She approached it gagged. It seemed the previous passenger had an accident of too-much-alcohol variety.

Grabbing an extra can of gas from a pile, I snuck inside the jeep, behind the wheel.
-"Rin, come on!"

She covered her mouth and refused to look at the sad remains of some poor bastard's meal.
-"I can't! Its its...ohmy..it's all disgusting...oh I'm going to puke."

Her retching sounds were drowned in the overpowering wail of an alarm. The entire camp lights came to life.

The gig was up.

I hotwired the car.
-"GET IN!"

Rin cleaned the remains of her bile on the torn sleeve of her arm.
-"I CAN'T! IT STINKS!"

A burst of gunfire ripping across the night ricocheted over the nearby vehicles.

-"GET IN THE FUCKING JEEEP!"
I flipped the stolen rifle to full auto. A jolt of savage glee overcame me.
My returning fire went all over the place, but it had the desired outcome, forcing the incoming baddies to duck for cover.

Rin dived into the jeep, headfirst into the skeeted puddle.

I hit the pedal to the metal and we made a run for it.
-"I hate Syria."