Love and Lies
By: AliasCWN
Chapter 2
After the meeting Troy and Moffitt left the Captain's office to head to their quarters. Neither spoke as they made the short trek to their assigned room. Passing the building where the privates were billeted, Troy paused to look up toward their window. He glanced at his watch and then back at the dark opening. "They should be back by now." An uneasy feeling twisted his gut.
"They should." Moffitt agreed. "We were in with the Captain long enough for them to have had their beer and gotten back in plenty of time."
Troy took another step and stopped again. He glanced worriedly at the dark window with a frown on his face.
"What's wrong Troy? You told them one beer, I'm sure they stopped at one. They're probably asleep in their quarters by now." Moffitt eyed Troy curiously. "Don't tell me you don't trust them."
"I trust them," Troy shook his head, "it's just that I have this odd feeling…. I don't know. You're right." He started walking again, heading toward his own quarters.
"But you can't shake the feeling?" Moffitt guessed.
"Yeah." Troy grinned sheepishly.
"Then let's go check on them. If I know you, you won't get any sleep until you know for sure." Moffitt smiled at Troy, knowing that it was true. Troy would be restless and uneasy until he knew for certain that the two younger 'rats' were indeed in their room.
Troy nodded gratefully for the understanding and entered the building. Climbing the stairs two at a time, they made their way down the dim hall. Troy hesitated at the door to the private's room, listening for the sound of snoring. There was no sound from inside and no one answered his knock. Moffitt tried the knob but it refused to turn.
"Hitch! Tully!" There was no response. "Hitch! Tully!"
"Perhaps they're asleep." Moffitt suggested, his own gut telling him otherwise.
"Hitch! Tully!"
The door across the hall opened and a tousled head appeared in the opening. "Can you keep it down? Those guys aren't in there." The sleepy soldier informed them. "They went out on patrol five days ago and they aren't back yet."
"Are you sure?" Troy turned to the annoyed neighbor.
"Positive. I've been here all day and I'm a very light sleeper." He stressed the word 'light' in irritation. "Can I go back to sleep now?"
"Yeah sure." Troy replied, already forgetting the other man. "Something is wrong." Troy stated with certainty.
Moffitt nodded his agreement. The two spun on their heels and headed for the bar where the two privates would have gone for their allotted drink.
Twenty minutes later their frustration was rising; no one at the bar remembered seeing either of them all day. Not sure where else to look, the sergeants headed to the motor pool and the jeeps.
"What the….?" Troy looked at the supplies piled into the jeeps haphazardly. Usually stowed neatly, things looked like they had just been dumped into the vehicles.
"Definitely not their usual style." Moffitt added with a hint of worry.
"I'm going to check the motor pool, maybe someone saw something." Troy called over his shoulder, already walking that way.
Moffitt nodded and reached for the supplies to stow them properly, looking for anything to take his mind off the missing privates. Moving some of the boxes, a glint caught his eye.
Troy returned shaking his head at what the mechanics had told him. "The mechanics saw them bring supplies to the jeeps but they didn't see them leave." Troy was looking around as he walked, not looking at Moffitt. As he approached and Moffitt hadn't responded, Troy looked at the British sergeant. He stopped when he saw the look on his face. "What's wrong?"
In answer, Moffitt held out the two knives he had found among the supplies in the back of the jeep. Troy's eyes fell to the knives and his concern intensified. "I also found these." Moffitt opened his other hand to display four matchsticks.
"We know they were here Jack, they left their knives. They left the supplies that they had when we saw them last. Heck, we saw them here just before we went to see the Captain. Those things could have fallen out of his pocket at any time.
"No." Moffitt responded positively. He turned and walked several feet and pointed toward the ground.
Troy followed him and looked down, to see another matchstick lying by itself. A few feet further away was another one, and another several feet beyond that. They followed the matches around the jeeps to the front and beyond by a short distance….where they stopped. Both sergeants searched the ground for more but they didn't find any.
"Now what?" Troy growled in frustration. He glanced at the British sergeant to see him staring at the ground.
"Now I suggest that we follow these truck tracks." Moffitt raised his eyes to explain his reasoning. "The matchsticks stopped right here and there are footprints leading from the jeeps to these tracks. See here, someone was dragging his feet a bit. Perhaps not enough to be noticed by say,… a captor?"
"You're thinking they were captured and loaded into a truck in broad daylight, in the middle of our own base, and no one noticed?"
"If they didn't make a fuss, who would pay attention? I count maybe five sets of boots here, six if you count the driver."
Troy nodded and waited for Moffitt to continue.
"Hitch, Tully, and four assailants."
Troy nodded again, understanding the British sergeants' meaning. "Four matchsticks, four bad guys."
Moffitt smiled, "I think that that is what he was trying to tell us."