Author's Note: You guys are fab-U-lous! Your funny comments and reviews and feedback motivate me to keep moving this story along. I'm also really enjoying all the great fan fic on this site, especially in the Rated M category. mmm-mmm-good! (lol) Keep up the good work, everyone!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…. :)

Chapter 8: Drag Me to Hell

Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing in Islamabad, Pakistan in approximately 30 minutes. In preparation for our final descent and landing at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, we ask that you please turn off all mobile and electronic devices and return any baggage you may have removed from the overhead bin…."

The smooth professional voice of the flight attendant drifted through to Stephen's consciousness. With the exception of a bathroom break and the meal service, he had pretty much slept through the entire British Airways flight from London Heathrow.

Stephen was in the middle seat. To his right, in the window seat, was Huck, who was awake but was just staring straight ahead. Stephen drowsily turned his head to the left to look at Olivia, who had the aisle seat. She was tapping away on her iPad. He wasn't exactly sure what she was writing but she was in a zone of intense concentration.

"So, Liv, what's the game plan when we land," Stephen asked, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"A driver will pick us up and take us to the hotel. We'll have the rest of the day to decompress, adjust to the jet lag and then have an early start tomorrow morning to go to the girl's school," Olivia replied. "It's approximately a two day's journey by car to get there because of the remote location."

"Olivia, I still can't believe we're doing this," Stephen sighed. "Is this really worth it? I mean, you haven't even officially signed them as a client so this entire trip is just another expense for the firm."

Olivia didn't say anything and continued to tap on the screen of her iPad. She still hadn't told Stephen how much the potential retainer was going to be. $125,000 a month! She felt that Stephen was on a need to know basis when it came to the firm's finances, and at this point, he didn't need to know.

"Look, Stephen, you've got to trust me on this. If this potential client weren't capable of paying, and paying big bucks, we wouldn't be sitting here right now. I told you that Huck did a background check and the check came back clean."

Stephen frowned. He could sense that Olivia wasn't giving him the full story, but what could he do at this point? Nothing. He leaned back in his seat and brought it back up to its upright position. "OK, Liv," he said.

And that was that.

Halfway across the world it was 3 a.m. in Washington, D.C. It had been 10 days since Fitz had last seen Olivia and his insomnia was back with a vengeance. He was restless and felt like going for a run, but it was 3 o'clock in the morning and it would've caused too much of a commotion with the Secret Service to even arrange to go down to the White House gym at this hour.

It was one of life's biggest ironies that Fitz was the most powerful man on the planet and yet he couldn't do some of the most basic things, like going for a run when he felt like it, that regular people took for granted. He sighed. He was restless and bored. Fitz decided to go shoot some pool in the library of the private residence of the White House. It had been several months since he had been in that room.

When he entered, he noticed a package sitting on the side table. It was addressed to him and a quizzical look crossed his face when he picked it up. He saw the return address. It was Olivia's office address and then Fitz remembered. She had sent this package to him months ago; the day after she and Mellie had ambushed him into not resigning. Fitz had been so angry and disgusted he played hooky from work the next day. He recalled how Mrs. Hadley, his secretary, had come up from the West Wing to hand deliver him the package. Once Fitz saw who it was from, he had put it aside in disgust without opening it. He had completely forgotten about it.

But now Fitz was in a different frame of mind. He was bored, restless and curious to see what Olivia had sent to him several months before. He eagerly tore the padded envelope open. Inside was a book, one of the greatest presidential biographies of all time: "Truman" by David McCullough.

Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president, was a man who wasn't supposed to be president and initially was written off by everyone. Truman, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's vice president, became president during World War II when FDR died in office. During his presidency, Truman made a lot of tough, unpopular decisions - decisions that changed the fate of mankind, like dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. But he also did a lot of good, like desegregating the U.S. military and creating the Marshall Plan, which gave Europe the money it needed to rebuild its economy after World War II.

Truman left office with terrible approval ratings, lower than Nixon's, but history has validated many of his decisions and with the passing of time he is now considered one of America's most courageous presidents.

Inside the book, Olivia had stuck a Polaroid photo of herself as a bookmark. It was a picture of her the night Fitz won Super Tuesday and in the photo Olivia was smiling brightly and raising a plastic cup filled with champagne in celebration.

Fitz opened to the book's first page and read the inscription Olivia had written there. It was a paraphrase of a quote by Shakespeare –

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."

Mr. President – Go be great.

And underneath, it was signed simply: "O.P."

Fitz smiled. He was glad that he was seeing this gift now because he certainly wouldn't have appreciated it six months ago. Although he still disagreed with her methods for keeping him in office, Fitz acknowledged that his administration was well on its way to accomplishing a lot during his first term in office. He had already passed the Dream Act, which gave undocumented young immigrants a path to legal U.S. residency. He still wished that he had Olivia by his side but he was trying hard to live up to her expectations. No, scratch that, he wanted to exceed her expectations. He wanted to be the man that she had voted for.

Olivia reached into her purse and pulled out the elegant Hermes silk scarf and wrapped it carefully around her head. Although she wasn't Muslim, she knew that the custom in Pakistan was for women to dress conservatively, and that meant covered arms, legs and head.

Olivia, Stephen and Huck sailed through customs and their driver was waiting for them when they left the baggage claim area. He quickly loaded their luggage into the trunk of the car. It was early afternoon and traffic was what one would expect for a bustling metropolis. Islamabad, however, was surprisingly green and suburban looking, and Olivia took a moment to enjoy the view that passed quickly by her window as the car sped to their hotel.

Very early the following morning, the trio checked out of the hotel and met a different driver who had a van. It was going to be a long journey ahead of them to arrive at the school located in a remote area several hundred miles north of the city, but Olivia, Stephen and Huck were prepared for it. They left Islamabad under cover of darkness and eventually watched the sun rise across the horizon as they traveled up Karakoram Highway.

Their driver, Mohammed, was a real character. He was a huge fan of Rocky movies and made them laugh with his awful Sylvester Stallone impression. His English was fluent and he obviously enjoyed talking because he kept asking Stephen, Olivia and Huck a lot of questions about America. It all seemed to be quite innocent, so Olivia and Stephen were happy to pass the time in this manner, but Huck was his usual quiet, socially awkward self and didn't say anything.

When Olivia asked Mohammed about himself he said he was from Islamabad, born and raised, and that he earned a living driving Westerners around the country. However, when Stephen asked him about the girl's school they were going to visit, Mohammed didn't seem to know much about it.

They had been on the road about three hours when Mohammed's cell phone rang. He answered it and began speaking in Pashto, the national language of Afghanistan and some tribal areas in Pakistan. Huck raised an eyebrow and shot Olivia a look. Huck didn't speak Pashto but he recognized the language. Olivia could read Huck without him having to say a word. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small notepad. She handed it to Huck along with a pen.

Huck quickly scribbled: "something not right."

Underneath Olivia wrote: "?"

Then Huck wrote: "we go back to airport. leave." Olivia's eyebrows shot up.

In that moment, she happened to catch Mohammed looking at them in the rear view mirror. When he realized that Olivia saw him looking at them, he quickly averted his gaze back to the highway. The group continued to drive on in silence. Stephen, who had been looking out the window, was oblivious to the note exchange between Huck and Olivia, but Olivia knew she needed to find some way to signal to Stephen that there had been a change in plans.

"Mohammed, would it be possible for us to stop somewhere to get something to eat? I need to use a bathroom," Olivia asked politely.

"Yes, we will stop for lunch soon," came the reply. A few minutes later, Mohammed made a call on his phone that lasted only a few seconds. "My wife. She likes to hear from me when I'm working," he said, by way of explanation.

That was the shortest conversation ever. Olivia shot Huck a questioning look and Huck quickly nodded.

About a half hour later they finally stopped at a roadside restaurant along the highway. Actually, it wasn't really a restaurant but more like a roadside food stand with a small shack where a column of steam and smoke was coming out. Somebody was cooking inside. Outside were a couple of plastic tables and old rickety chairs set up in a sort of crude approximation of an outdoor café. It was clear there were no conventional restroom facilities and that if Olivia were going to use the "facilities" they would be primitive.

The trio sat down at one of the plastic tables. Mohammed asked them what they wanted to eat and Olivia and Stephen said they'd just take whatever sodas the food shack had. When Mohammed walked away to get the drinks, Olivia turned to Huck and said, "What the heck is going on?"

Stephen raised an eyebrow and shot a glance at both Olivia and Huck as if to say, "what are you two talking about?"

Huck, in a very calm but fast voice replied, "Weird vibe from the driver. Said he was born and raised in Islamabad but he speaks Pashto, language spoken in tribal areas of Pakistan which have served as a training area and operational base for militants who have been wanting to attack the U.S. and other countries. Just doesn't feel right. Don't think he is who he says he is. Security situation here is not good, especially for people like us. Americans."

"So, what do we do? We're in the middle of nowhere. How on earth are we going to ditch this driver and hitch a ride back to Islamabad?" Olivia asked.

"You have money on you, don't you?" Huck asked. "Pay the driver $100 to leave us here. Take our chances on hitching a ride back to the city."

"Huck, maybe he really was just speaking to his wife and she's from Afghanistan or he has family there," Olivia said, trying to fix a situation that wasn't fixable.

"Olivia, we're in a country that is hostile to U.S. citizens. You can never be too safe here," Huck replied.

"But Huck, are you 100% sure? I feel like we've come too far to turn back now," Olivia said.

"Olivia, you trust me, right? Have I ever steered you wrong?"

And with that, Olivia knew she had to listen to what Huck's gut was saying.

By this time, Mohammed returned to their table with three bottles of Coca-Cola. They were warm, but the trio accepted them without complaint. Mohammed sat down to join them but instead of drinking a soda, he pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket. He lit a cigarette and took a slow drag on it. As his lungs exhaled the smoke, Mohammed put the lighter and the keys to the van on the table. He leaned back in the rickety plastic chair and enjoyed his smoke.

They had been sitting there less than 10 minutes when a vehicle pulled up in a cloud of dust. It was an old, beat-up Toyota Corolla and when the car rolled to a stop, three women dressed in cerulean blue burkhas came tumbling out. "How very odd," Olivia thought to herself, "three Muslim women in burkhas traveling without men and driving a car."

She looked at Huck. Huck's eyes gave her the signal that they needed to leave RIGHT NOW. In one swift, ninja-like move, Huck smashed the Coke bottle down on Mohammed's hand. The thick glass shattered into multiple shards and the jagged edge of one large piece impaled Mohammed's hand. He screamed in agony. Huck then grabbed the van keys, jumped up and yelled at Stephen and Olivia: "RUN!"

Huck had gotten a bit of a head start and Olivia was right behind him, but Stephen hadn't picked up on the signal and was caught flatfooted. When he saw Olivia and Huck running, he got up to run after them, but Mohammed, whose hand was bleeding profusely, chased after Stephen, grabbed him by the collar and threw him down on the gravel road. There was a flurry of dialogue between Mohammed and two of the women in burkhas who were speaking in a language that Stephen did not understand. To Stephen's ears their voices were just a jumble of noise, not a coherent language.

Huck hopped into the front seat of the van and Olivia was climbing in on the passenger side when she turned back to look for Stephen. She saw Mohammed pull Stephen down by the collar and she screamed, "STEPHEN!"

"Olivia, let's go! We've got to get out of here. NOW!" Huck yelled, jamming the key into the ignition.

"Huck, NO! We can't leave Stephen here," Olivia said, sliding out of the van and running toward Stephen.

"O-LI-VIAAA!" Huck screamed. He gunned the engine and was about to turn the van around to drive toward Stephen's attackers when a hand from outside reached up, opened the van door and dragged Huck out of the front seat and threw him to the ground. Huck struggled to get back up but then he was knocked in the head with a rock and fell to the ground like a fallen oak tree.

Olivia was running back toward Stephen, who was pinned to the ground by Mohammed. Without warning, one of the women in a burkha pulled out a gun from somewhere underneath her sleeve and shot Mohammed at point blank range in the head. He fell to the ground, dead.

Stephen jumped to his feet but the woman threw a hood over Stephen's head and then quickly tied a rope around his neck to hold the hood in place. Olivia, who was still several feet away from Stephen, stopped dead in her tracks and looked on in horror as the other woman wearing a burkha lifted Stephen up as though he weighed nothing and slung him over her shoulder like he was a 30-lb. sack of chicken feed.

"Oh. My. God," Olivia whispered under her breath. "Those aren't women. Those are men!" And she turned to run. But before she could put any distance between her and the attackers, her view went black. Another one of the burka-clad attackers, the one who had assaulted Huck, sneaked up behind Olivia and threw a hood over her head. Olivia heard the side door of the van slide open and then she and Stephen were carelessly tossed her into the back of the vehicle as though they were bags of garbage.

Through the open window up front, Olivia heard the angry voices of her attackers. They were all male voices. She couldn't understand them, of course, but then she heard the jangle of car keys. They must've been searching for the keys on Huck's body. HUCK! Olivia silently screamed. "Oh God, please, Huck, please be alive. Please, be alive, please be alive," she chanted under her breath.

And then the van door slid shut. The sound was like the door to a tomb closing.

Author's Note: OK, that's all folks! Consider this chapter the equivalent of a mid-season hiatus. I'm going on vacation and although I'll be taking my laptop with me, I'm not sure I'm going to have reliable internet service where I'm going. So the next chapter update probably won't occur until after July 4th when I come home. Please subscribe to this story so you can get an email alert the minute I post the next chapter.

Thanks for reading and, as always, thanks for the positive vibes and reviews and feedback.

Later, gators,

Neo