The team Jack accompanied ranged the wider area around the abandoned houses at the hills and the gravel on the other side of the road for four days. The EOD-patch crumpled more and more in Jacks hand. A severe storm ruined their hope to find some hints.
"We can't give up! Mac's the best EOD in the whole army! We need to do something!"
Jack was desperate.
"What can we do? The traces that we followed lead to nothing. The storm destroyed everything that maybe was left. We go back to the camp and concentrate on the satellite feeds. Especially the last days, I think that's more promising than running around senselessly. The people won't tell us something, even if they knew. They're too afraid of the Taliban."
The Lieutenant was right. Jack knew that, but he wasn't ready to leave Mac behind. Where ever Mac was right now! It was the fifth day in the hands of their enemies where his partner was on his own. Was he still alive? Was he injured? How was he treated? What wanted his kidnappers from him? All questions without an answer.
The Taliban didn't contact the army for ransom, so that wasn't the reason they held Mac captive. Jack also experienced that dead soldiers were placed where their comrades would find them, their corpses mangled. Luckily that wasn't the case either. No sign of Mac and as long as Jack didn't saw his body he would search for him! He would never give up! Never!
An hour later Lieutenant Myers convinced Jack to return to their base. Everyone was relieved although they felt pity for Jack.
Captain Morrows allowed the Texan to watch the satellite feeds on the big screen. He could easier detect a hint than on the small monitors of their laptops. He also gave him two experts which worked in shifts. Although they knew the time of Mac's kidnapping very well, the evaluation of the pictures was not that easy. There weren't any videos of that time, only a few single shots more or less around the place the Taliban took him. Late at night Jack finally could find a trace of the group nearly 70 miles away from the region they searched the last days. On the picture there were two cars and the Pick-up. On the zoom they saw a laying person on the platform with five men sitting around. Even though they couldn't identify Mac as the laying one a hundred percent sure they all agreed that it had to be him.
"Excellent, Sergeant." Captain Morrows complimented. „Well done, great work. You should rest now for some hours, we will go on. As soon as we find something I let you know instantly."
Jack would never confess, but he was really exhausted. Therefore accepted the offer thankfully, because he knew the other two experts were nearly as interested to find Mac as he was. First Jack went to the shower, than he grabbed some food and fell down on his cot.
"We'll find you, Mac. Hold on, kid."
He whispered to himself when he tried to sleep.