Pentagon. She had reserve duty once a month and TDY that was usually only two weeks a year. She’d been deployed a month this time to Bagram Airfield. She’d been excited to know she’d been heading the same place her friend Hailey was working. What were the chances her friend from home would be where the Army sent Kim?
Hailey was a civilian DOD contractor. She didn’t deploy the way Kim did but had accepted a year-long assignment in Afghanistan. She was supposed to move out to San Diego for a new position, but Kim had no idea what had happened to her.
Had Hailey escaped the explosion? Was she wounded or killed?
Kim didn’t know what had happened to any of the women who lived in her building. She didn’t know if any of her friends had survived the explosion.
And now she was a prisoner.
The men talking in Farsi drew her mind back to the present. Her gaze shifted to the gun aiming at her and the cell phone that would record every word she said.
Crooked Nose glared at her. “Now!” he yelled as he pushed a button on his phone.
Kim’s mouth felt dry, and she nervously swallowed. It was hard to even think over the roaring in her ears. Her heart pounded so quickly that she could barely focus on anything else. She felt dizzy with the bright sun beating down and no food or water in her stomach. Her palms grew damp with sweat, and she frantically realized she needed to talk.
“My name is Kimberly Turner.” She cleared her throat, trying to speak louder. “I’m a U.S. Army reservist stationed at Bagram Airfield. I was kidnapped by a group of armed men after the explosion. I’m being held somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan. The men holding me demand for you to pay a ransom for my release. They’ve threatened to hurt me if they don’t receive the money. Please do whatever they say.”
The guy abruptly cut off the video, and she listened as the three men argued some more as they played back the video they’d recorded.
Would her family see that? Her friends?
Her image would be splashed all over the news worldwide. She hadn’t looked in a mirror in months, but she knew her uniform was dirty and worn. She’d lost weight, and her hair was a matted, tangled mess.
Maybe it was a good thing the world would see her now. If they had proof that she was still alive, the U.S. Army would come looking for her. They’d send in the Special Forces to rescue her. They’d find her. That’s what those guys did—the impossible.
The men began arguing again, and Kim thought she heard one of them utter the general’s name. That was impossible though. They couldn’t know the names of the U.S. officers stationed at Bagram.
“You! Come over here!” one of the men demanded.
Kim warily moved toward them.
Crooked Nose grabbed her arm, yanking her back toward the cave she’d slept in. The men who’d been eating were gone, and uneasiness washed over her again. She’d been used to a large group, to lots of activity every day. The men usually hunkered together, discussing things in low voices. Not that she’d understand if they yelled it from the mountaintops.
Were they plotting another attack? Planning to kidnap others?
Kim assumed someone had snuck onto base to plant explosives at her building. There’d been a suicide bomber at the front gate preceding the attack. That’s when she’d seen her friend Hailey being escorted back to their housing by a tall, buff soldier. Or sailor. She wasn’t sure. When deployed, some of the Special Forces guys wore the same uniform as the others to blend in. She wasn’t certain that guy had been Special Forces, of course. But when Hailey said he’d tackled her to the ground after the first explosion, she’d gotten that impression. He’d seemed the protective sort. He’d insisted on walking Hailey back to their building, and her friend had said she’d just met the guy. Kim had even joked she needed her own superhero.
What she wouldn’t give for someone to storm in and rescue her now.
Maybe if the video footage was aired, the U.S. would come looking for her. She had no idea if she’d been presumed dead. But if her kidnappers had demanded a ransom, that gave her a sliver of hope.
Although she hated that her friends and family would see her looking scared and awful on the video her kidnappers had taken, at least it proved