’t have experience, she had been doing everything almost exactly as I would have done if I was with the women. Except for covering her tracks, but that was something you learned with time. I was impressed with her skills so far, but I still wasn’t going to have her working in my profession for a living; it was too dangerous.
“Your girlfriend is very skilled. You must be proud of her.”
It seemed an odd statement coming from a man like Roane. In his country, they didn’t let women do very many things outside of the house and women weren’t seen as equals. But he could see that Ana was different. She was a powerful woman and I was happy to see her overcoming her intense fear.
“Yes, she’s tougher than most women I know.”
“I can see that, and very smart.”
“Thank you.”
“Most women wouldn’t be able to come to a place like this and help others like she is. It’s a brave thing.”
“Yes, I think I’m lucky to have her.”
Roane and I spent the rest of the day talking about his family and mine. We talked about what life might be like for him and his family after they left Syria and if they would ever see an end to the war that was going on. It was sad to see how his entire life had to be left behind all because of a war that had continued on without an end. But I had a feeling we were going to be able to get him out alive, as well as his family; so that was good.
As sun moved across the sky and started to dip down into a sunset, I kept my eyes peeled on the streets around us. I hoped that the women wouldn’t take off for the airport just yet, but I didn’t want to miss them if they started early.
We both drank the last of the water and prepared to head out after the women. It was going to be tricky to track them down and catch their attention without the rebels finding us or them. But once we caught up to them, then we could help get everyone to the airport before morning.
The next ten hours were going to be intense; we were going to have to keep our wits about us if we were going to get through it without having any more injuries or deaths. The death of Rake still didn’t seem real at all and probably wouldn’t until we were safe and on our way home with his body. I dreaded the thought of talking to his family. It wasn’t a conversation I ever wanted to have.
“Look,” Roane said as we saw a building a few blocks away. “Do you think that’s them?”
There was movement in the windows; we could see the curtains moving and they hadn’t moved at all during the entire day. The curtains weren’t just moving a little bit, they were being bumped into and jolted around like people weren’t paying attention at all to the fact that someone could be watching them.
If it was Ana, I wanted to yell out to her that they needed to knock it off. In a town full of rebels, a simple thing like moving curtains was enough to get a rocket through the house. The tricky thing was we hadn’t seen any rebels throughout the day, either. I would have expected to see them coming or going a little bit, but the streets had been relatively quiet except for a few military convoys that had rolled through.
The military were our friends, and if needed, we could call on a local group for help, but they couldn’t officially be our allies. The military had long hated that private contractors were in their war zones and doing business right under their noses. We sometimes caused the rebels to get worked up and then left them to be dealt with by the military. It was an unfortunate side effect of our job and we tried to prevent it as much as possible.
Whenever we could avoid contacting them or using the military as a resource, we tried to. There were too many political side effects of getting into bed with them during an ongoing war.
The only person I wanted in my bed was Ana. I had fantasized about her for months while she was in the rehab facility and then worried about her at my house in Atlanta. But after seeing here there in Damascus, I realized she wasn’t that fragile woman who I had thought she was. Not that I thought she would always need me, but she had needed me in Atlanta and she had needed me when I rescued her from Stephano. It was a much different dynamic in Syria between the two of us. Ana clearly didn’t need me at all. She was a strong woman and had some pretty big plans for her life. I only hoped that we could continue with our life and see where things went between us.
There was also the pesky task of dealing with Stephano. His goons had been stalking us and I knew it. Even if I tried to pretend like it could have been anyone, I knew in my gut it was Stephano and I wasn’t about to let him get away with it. When both Ana and I got home safely, I was going to make sure Stephano paid for all that he had put Ana and the other women through.
“There,” I said as I looked through my night vision glasses. “Look, they are leaving that building.”
I handed my glasses to Roane so he could see what the women were doing. From our vantage point on the roof, we could see a clear path to the airport. It was at least seven miles away, but totally possible if everyone was healthy and able to run.
“Let’s catch up to them,” Roane said.
“Yes, let’s get out ladies to safety.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
ANA
“Okay, let’s get this furniture moved and get everyone packed up and ready to go. Everyone drink some water before we go too; we need to stay hydrated,” I said to the group.
I felt like I knew what I was doing, but deep down I really had no idea at all. The day had been long and hot, but luckily we all caught some sleep. We rotated with a few people staying awake at a time while the others slept.
Most of the women and teenagers were very well behaved. There were a couple of boys who got bored earlier in the day and were wresting each other in one of the rooms, but overall, it had been relatively uneventful.
As we all got ready to leave, I took a moment to myself to think about the best plan of attack to get us to the airport. If the rebels knew we were on the loose, they also knew that a group of younger children had made it the airport and hopefully the group of men as well. That meant that the rebels were going to try and head us off. I couldn’t describe my logic beyond feeling like there was something in my gut that told me we needed to move north and then cut over to the airport.
If we went north instead of directly west, it was going to be a much longer route, but once we got about five or six miles north, the rest of the area had very minimal rebel activity in it. It felt like a better option to me and I called Danita over to talk to her about it.