The body moved and tried to sit up. They heard a groan, then the body was still. “Uncle Steve... I’m so sorry...”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Steve looked to John for help. Using his feet, John dragged himself closer.
“Mia, my name is John. I am Steve’s friend. I’m going to help you.”
Mia didn’t say anything.
“We’ll remove your hood, so you can see each other. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Steve, I’m going to turn my back, so my hands are facing her. Guide me so I can grip the hood, and I’ll pull it off.”
Steve nodded, his face filled with emotion. John shuffled around until his back was to Mia, then pushed himself closer until he felt his fingertips touching the rough hessian cloth of the hood.
“Is that it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, Mia, I’ll pull it off now.” John gripped the cloth with his fingertips, then shuffled away from her.
“Keep going,” Steve encouraged, “keep going, keep...” Steve’s voice trailed off, and John turned to see what had happened. Tears streamed from Steve’s eyes as he looked down at the young lady lying on the floor. She was pale as if she hadn’t seen the sun for a long time, her hair lank and greasy, and her face was thin and hard. A single tear trickled from a swollen eye and tracked a path down over the livid black and green bruise on the side of her face.
“Oh, Mia, what have they done to you?”
“Uncle Steve,” Mia’s voice came out as a whisper. “You are here.”
“I’m here, Mia. I’m here.”
John exchanged glances with Mansur. They had found her, or rather, she had found them, but what was the point? It didn’t mean anything if they didn’t get out of there. He shuffled his butt away from Steve toward Mansur, giving the pair what little privacy they could in the confined space.
“We have to get out of here, Mansur,” John muttered. “Otherwise, they’ll kill us.”
“They won’t do it until tomorrow.”
John looked at Mansur with surprise. “How do you know?”
Mansur sighed. “They will want an audience. It will be a public execution. So, they will wait until daylight.”
“Fuck.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry, Mansur. I should never have asked you to come.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not up to you.” Mansur smiled at John. “The time and place of my death is already written. Maybe it is tomorrow, maybe it isn’t.”
John sighed. “I wish I had your faith, Mansur, but I’m not going to sit here and wait. We have to try something.”
“John, I never said we shouldn’t try, but the end result is not up to us.”
“Hmmm, okay.” John struggled his hands against the rope binding his wrist together. “How tight are your hands bound?”
“Tight. I’ve tried already.”
“Mine, too.” John thought for a bit. “Do you think if we backed up to each other, we could untie them?”
“We can try.”
Both men adjusted their positions until their backs were to each other.
“I’ll try yours first,” John said. His fingers probed the knot on the rope holding Mansur’s wrists together. The rope was hard, possibly nylon, and the knot was tight. John couldn’t get his fingertips to loosen the knot, and after several minutes’ struggle, he had to admit defeat. “I can’t do it.”
“I will try yours.”
John felt Mansur’s fingers exploring his restraints, but after a minute or two, he gave up as well.
“It’s too tight, John. The rope is very hard. It needs to be cut.”
“Shit.” John looked over at Steve and Mia. Mia was sitting up, leaning her head against Steve’s shoulder as they carried on a quiet conversation.
“Maybe there is something in here we can use?” John swung his feet to the side and rolled onto his knees. He looked around the room as Mansur did the same. “You look that side, I’ll search this side.”
John maneuvered himself across the floor on his knees, peering into the darkness, looking for anything that could be used as a sharp edge. He lost balance twice and fell to his side, and by the time he had checked his side of the room, he was out of breath, and his knees were bruised.
“Nothing.”
“Same here,” Mansur replied from the other side of the room.
“Shit,” John cursed under his breath. What the fuck did they do now?
70
Adriana chewed her lip as she waited for the phone to connect. Maadhavi stood in front of her, waiting nervously, her hands clasped together in front of her chest.
When they hadn’t received a reply to their text messages by seven, they had both tried calling John’s and Steve’s phones. Maadhavi tried first, but all she got was a recorded message in another language. Adriana got the same result.
Adriana was struggling to keep herself together, but she had to put on a confident front for Maadhavi and had decided to ask for help.
The phone connected, and she heard the ringing tone in her ear.
“It’s ringing.” She smiled at Maadhavi.
“Hello?”
“Craig, it’s Adriana.”
“Adriana, hi, what’s happening? Where are you?”
“Craig, I’m putting the phone on speaker. Maadhavi is here with me.” Adriana tapped the screen and then held the phone out between them.
“Hello, Craig.”
“Hi, Maadhavi. Is everything okay?”
“We...” Maadhavi’s voice broke.
Adriana took over. “Craig, we haven’t heard from John and Steve all day. They haven’t replied to our messages, and their phones aren’t ringing.”
“Okay, okay, let’s take a step back. Tell me from the beginning. Where are they?”
Adriana took a deep breath and realized the hand holding the phone was shaking.
“They messaged this morning, saying they were heading to a location near Saraqib. They were going to pick up Mia, then head back here.”
“Okay, well... there could be any reason why you can’t get hold of them. The signal can be terrible. Their phone batteries might have died. Sometimes, there is no electricity, and you can’t charge the phone.”
“Yes, okay.”
“You are in Cizre, right?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a long way from Saraqib to the border there. It will take a full day of driving, maybe more. There are checkpoints everywhere. The road is terrible in places. What time were they meeting her?”
“Ten o’clock.”
“Hmmm, okay... Assume
