A/N: Sorry for how long it's taken me to update. I've been struggling a bit with this chapter so I apologise if it seems a bit 'scatty'. I was writing a few paragraphs at a time whereas before I would write a chapter in one sitting. I hope you still enjoy it. 

Chapter 24

They breached the compound through the site of the explosion in an orchestrated assault, entering in single file before spanning out to cover more area. Marc led them in, followed by Jules whilst Ridgeway and McAndrew kept close to the other soldiers at the rear.
Carefully climbing over chunks of brick and burning debris which lay scattered across the floor they kept their rifles raised and scopes fixed ahead. Thick smoke clung to the dark, dense air in the room providing them with a small amount of cover whilst also blinding them.

The light from outside filtered in through the gaping hole in the wall in which they entered through but it barely penetrated the smoke that surrounded them. Jules could feel particles of pulverised brick dust clinging to the inside of her nostrils and the back of her throat as she breathed in. Moving her scarf up so that it covered her mouth and nose, Jules peered back through the scope of her rifle which offered her a better view of her surroundings, and saw that they seemed to be in a large hall.
As she looked to the floor to check where she was walking she saw pieces of paper burning on the ground from where they had been caught in the explosion.

Hoping that they did not contain any vital Intel she lifted her head back up and spotted movement from the corner of her eye. Turning around slowly she peered through her scope when her heart gave a small start as she suddenly saw a Middle Eastern man in light coloured clothes emerge from the smoke.
He was holding a machete raised in his left hand but before Jules could react a red dot suddenly illuminated the centre of the man's forehead and a single gunshot rang out from behind her.

Jules watched as a bullet ripped through the man's skull and scattered his brain matter over the debris behind him before his body crumpled to the ground in a heap. His back was arched as he landed over a pile of rubble and the machete clattered along the cement ground from his fingertips, the noise echoing through the hall. Glancing over her shoulder, Jules followed the line of the red laser back to the rifle of Ridgeway's only female recruit. As she began to lower her rifle, the recruit looked across quizzically at Julia.

Turning back to face the front Julia took a step when she heard screams filtering towards them through the smoke. They sounded like the high-pitched screams of children.

"Safia," Jules whispered to herself. Hurrying forward, Jules started to reach Marc's side and overtake him when he stretched an arm out in front of her, preventing her from going any further.

"It could be a trap," He told her logically, lowering his arm when he saw the look upon her face, "We stick together."

Knowing he was right, Jules dipped her head a little in a small nod and waited for him to walk back in front of her.
As he did so Marc took a deep breath, his heart beating against his ribcage as his senses were on high alert. At any moment someone could step out from the shadows and shoot him dead. He wasn't wearing any of his usual protection which offered some peace of mind as this was not a sanctioned mission and there was no rescue helicopter they could call in to medevac them. Any step he took could be his last but he took them anyway because there were people that needed him. More importantly, it was his family that needed him.

*

Someone was shaking his shoulder violently. Grunting against their presence, Carlos inhaled and instantly started to cough as thick dust clung to his throat, making it hard to breathe. Gasping for air his eyes flew open and he looked up to see a young woman knelt over him, her face was blurred by smoke but he could see her green eyes staring down at him.

Her face may have been unclear but her voice was loud and insistent, "You need to get up!" She tugged at his shoulder, trying to pull him up but he was too heavy for her to move.

Carlos blinked in a daze as he started to regain some oxygen into his lungs and his memory began to flood back whilst he heard screaming all around him.

"You need to get up now-" the woman shouted, her voice pleading with him when she was yanked back and she faded back into the background, disappearing into the smoke.

Sitting up a little as the fog in his mind cleared but the smoke around him persisted making it difficult to see when a hostile hand shot out from the mist and grabbed him by the shirt. Carlos could make out the end of a rifle being pointed at his face when a gunshot rang out and his eyes clenched shut instinctively as a warm liquid sprayed over him. A second later something heavy fell on top of him, flattening him to the ground.

Opening his eyes, Carlos stared straight into the eyes of the dead terrorist lying on top of him. Reaching out Carlos rolled the man's body to the side before he unsteadily got to his feet and tried to gain some sense of where he was.

"Twitch?" Carlos called, "Twitch, where-" Before Carlos could finish his sentence the unmistakeable form of Twitch emerged from the smoke, his red hair standing out.

"Here," Twitch handed him his rifle back which Carlos took gratefully, "The roof and a part of the outside wall caved in when the bomb went off," Twitch explained as he nodded to the space behind him, "You were under it."

Carlos looked over his shoulder at a gaping hole in the corner of the building where the rickety ceiling had given way and taken a part of the wall with it before he looked down and saw where the ceiling had ended up in a pile on the ground.

"Huh," Carlos huffed as he raised a hand and pressed it to the side of his temple where a fierce headache was beginning to rear its ugly head, "She really did blow it up with us inside."

Twitch gave a nonchalant shrug as he stepped forward and pressed a hand to Carlos's head, examining the wound, "We kind of did tell her to."

"I suppose," Carlos muttered as he tried to shrug Twitch off of him but Twitch simply swatted Carlos's hand away and carried on examining his head.

Carlos narrowed his eyes at him, "Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Shut up," Twitch muttered as he gave Carlos's big head one last look before stepping back, "You're gonna be fine. Good thing you've got a thick skull." Twitch chuckled.

Carlos mimicked his laughter before he turned serious, "The children?"

"They're fine. They're just over there," He pointed over his shoulder to the corner where, through the dissipating smoke, Carlos could see the group of children huddled together in the corner. They were all alive and they had found them. It was a beautiful sight.

"Excuse me," A female voice called from behind them and Carlos spun around to see the woman who had been knelt over him. Her hair was stuck out at all ends in a strange endearing way, her skin and ripped clothes were covered in brick dust, "Who are you?" Her green eyes viewed their clothes and weapons sceptically as she picked up on the fact that they were not in military uniform but had yet shot their captors. She did not know whether to fear them or trust them.

"Isn't it obvious, we're here to rescue you" Twitch winked as he raised his rifle and rested it against his shoulder.

The girl's face looked between the pair of them in shock, her mouth opening and closing a few times as she tried to think of how to respond. After a moment she found her words, "Just the two of you?"

Twitch and Carlos would have expressed their hurt feelings at her remark except for at that moment they heard the children start to scream before they saw a flurry of movement as someone charged through the group and barrelled into the back of the woman, wrapping their arm around her throat and pressing a gun to her temple.

Carlos and Twitch immediately pointed their rifles at him as he tried to use the girl as a human shield. Carlos could see his ruffled dark hair as his turban came loose from the explosion. The handgun pointed to the girl's temple and his presence here seemed to suggest that he was part of the terrorist cell they were tracking.

"How many of these fuckers are there!?" Twitch exclaimed as they were faced with yet another terrorist who seemed to have come out of nowhere. Twitch thought that they must have killed upwards of twenty men since they entered the compound and there was only so much killing one man could take before his mind started to fray at the edges but Twitch kept his mind.

"Soon there will be ten times as many," the man replied in a thick Middle Eastern accent as he twisted the barrel of his gun into the woman's temple, her eyes squeezing shut in fear, "I managed to send a message before that bomb went off. You are both dead men." He rasped.

"Listen to me," Carlos flashed his eyes towards the girl who was being pulled back onto her tip toes from where the man was holding her throat, "You're going to be okay."

The man laughed at Carlos, "She is going to die like all of you infidels will. You cannot stop it." At his words the girl let out a small sob, her mouth parting to let in a large sobering breath.

Twitch shook his head, "The only one going to die here right now is you unless you stop this."

"How?" The man sneered, taking a step back and yanking the girl with him, "You have no line of shot. You would have to kill us both."

"Who said it was going to be us?" Carlos replied as he jutted his chin towards the corner of the room.

The man's brow furrowed with confusion before he looked over his shoulder towards the corner of the room. As he did so the man froze when he saw someone stood in the middle of the hole in the wall atop a pile of rubble, their face was hidden in shadow whilst light from outside surrounded their silhouette. Realising that it was not one of his own men, he took the gun from the girl's temple and raised it towards the intruder.

Carlos itched to shoot him but he was still partly hidden by the girl when a single gunshot rang out and the man screamed in agony and collapsed to the floor in front of them, dragging the girl along with him. Screaming in surprise she felt herself falling backwards before landing on top of the man who had been holding a gun to her head. Reacting before she had time to think about what she was doing she weaselled her arm between them and rammed her elbow back into the man's ribs until she heard him grunt and his arm loosened around her neck.

Rolling away as fast as she could she began to stumble to her feet, her heart pounding inside of her ears, when she felt hands grip her arms from behind her. Exclaiming in shock she spun around with her arm swung out wide to hit her attacker when she saw that it was the man who had been knocked unconscious in the explosion. He barely flinched as he caught her arm by the wrist before she could hit him.

She stared from her hand to his face with wide eyes, "Sorry." She saw his lips spread into a smile before he slowly lowered her arm back to her side when she looked behind her and saw her captor lying on the ground, blood pouring from his leg, when the other man rushed forward and kicked the gun away. She watched as it spun across the floor and came to a halt in front of her boot. She watched it for a moment, unsure what to do.

Stood over him, Twitch saw that the gunshot had hit him in the thigh and blood was pouring profusely from the wound. He hesitated just a moment before he removed his rucksack and began to look for his medical supplies. Looking up Twitch raised a hand to shield his eyes as he saw Jules begin to climb down from atop the pile of rubble.

"Losing your aim?" Twitch arched an eyebrow at her as she jumped down from a rock and stepped towards him. He had half expected her to shoot the man in the head when Marc leapt into the room and hurried past her.

"I told her not to," Marc explained, to which Julia made a face behind him, "We can use him."

That'll explain it, Twitch thought as he removed a dagger from his boot and lifted it towards the man's leg when he saw him staring at Twitch with wide, terrified eyes.
Twitch chuckled darkly, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing," He winked as he raised the knife and ripped the man's trouser leg apart so that he could get to the wound and pressed a gauze to the wound, a little harder than what was necessary when the man let out a scream.

"You will all die!" The man cried out, "You cannot escape! All you infidels will die!"

As he heard his words Twitch pressed down harder on his leg until he could only scream in agony when a small, terrified voice filled their ears.

"Step away from him."

Still applying pressure to the wound, Twitch looked up and saw the Prime Minister's niece aiming the same gun at his head which had been aimed at her own. She was holding the gun in both hands and they were shaking as her entire body trembled, her green eyes blazing wildly.

"It's okay," Twitch reached out a hand towards her, "Why don't you just give me the gun?"

"Stop helping him!" She snapped.

"I can't do that," Twitch told her as he looked at the others. Marc, Jules and Carlos were all watching her carefully, trying to figure out what to do next but none of them had a gun trained on her.

"Stop working on him . . . please," She begged shuffling closer to the body, tears streaming down her cheeks, "Just walk away and let him bleed out."

Twitch watched as Carlos took a step towards her. "Hey," Carlos murmured and she flinched, stepping back a little as her gun switched from him to Twitch and back again, "Why don't you just give me the gun?"

"No," She shook her head, "Do you have any idea what he did to us!?"

"I can imagine," Carlos muttered.

"No you can't," She screamed, pointing the gun at Carlos long enough for Twitch to remove another gauze from his bag and press to the wound, "He doesn't deserve to live!"

Carlos's face grew stern, "If we start making decisions like that then it makes us no better than him."

The girl sobbed as she clenched her eyes shut, "But he-"

"-I know he hurt you," Carlos took a careful step forward, "But think of the children. You've spent so long protecting them, so protect them from this. Don't let them see this."

She looked across the room at the children holding on to each other and she saw their little faces watching her in fear. They were afraid of her. It was such a sobering sight that the anger left the limbs in an instant and she dropped her arm, lowering the gun. She was exhausted and as the gun was taken from her fingers she wanted to collapse to the ground when she remembered the children and ran across the room.

Everyone watched as she ran knelt in front of the children and wrapped her arms around as many of them as she could. Carlos could see her shoulders rising and lowering in little movements as if she was crying. He stared down at the gun in his hand before he slipped it into the back waistband of his trousers.

For a moment there was nothing but silence between them all when it was broken by a coarse laughter. Looking towards where it came from they stared down at the man under Twitch's care and saw that he had his head resting on the ground and he was laughing so much that his throat had begun to swell.

"What's so funny?" Marc asked him.

"You," He gasped, "You are all ridiculous and weak. You shall die."

Jules stepped forward until her boots were less than a few inches from his head and the barrel of her rifle was just brushing the tip of his nose, "She might not have shot you but it doesn't mean that I won't, so shut it."

"You got any tranquilizer in that bag, Twitch?" Carlos asked.

"You can't tranquilize him," A voice called righteously across the room.

"And why's that?" Carlos sighed, raising his head to look at who spoke when he froze.

"We need to talk to him," General Ridgeway declared, stepping down from the debris carefully before striding across to join them as if they were stood in his office and they were his clients rather than being stuck in the middle of a dessert.

Carlos stared at him as he approached to see if his mind was playing tricks on him but the closer he got the more he realised that what he was seeing was reality. He turned and looked at Jules in slight betrayal, "What the hell is he doing here!?"

Jules parted her lips to speak when Ridgeway filled the gap.

"I'm here to help," Ridgeway declared.

"The only person you help is yourself," Carlos snapped, "But I guess if you're with us then no one will send in an air strike." Carlos shrugged. His comment made Ridgeway bristle as he straightened his shoulders and narrowed his eyes in Carlos's direction in warning.
"And who are the ninja wannabes over there?" Carlos exclaimed, raising a hand towards the four man team following Ridgeway.

Julia chuckled at Carlos, "They're Ridgeway's tactical team."

Carlos scoffed, "Didn't take you long to replace us then?"

Ridgeway's chest expanded as he stalked towards Carlos, "Watch what you say."

"I've not been having the best last few days," Carlos told him, "So if I were you I'd get out of my face." A tense stand-off existed between them for a few seconds before Ridgeway saw the best way to avoid a scandal was to retreat so that was what he did.

"Why did you not radio and tell us that you'd found them?" One of the ninja-wannabes asked, looking towards Julia and Marc.

"Oops?" Jules shrugged a single shoulder, earning her a glare from the other operative and a small smile from Marc. Lifting the strap of her rifle over her head so that her rifle rested across her back, she turned and headed towards the children all stood huddled in the corner. As she approached a few of them began to cry and try to escape but the PM's niece kept them close by.

"It's okay, she's our friend," She told them and they stopped screaming but they still watched her warily. Getting to her feet she turned and held out a hand to Julia, "Thank you, for saving us."

Jules nodded, "You're welcome Jasmine,"

Jasmine frowned, "How did you know my name?"

She smiled, "We were sent to come and get you. Your uncle will be very glad to hear that you're okay."

Jasmine looked down, "I'm sure he's just happy to avoid an international scandal."

"Maybe," Julia shrugged, "But from what I see he may have started one just to get you home safe." When Jasmine looked up there was a smile on her lips and Jules rather thought that she hadn't seen a lot of family affection.

"But I must admit that it wasn't entirely one-sided," Julia felt a smile spreading across her lips as she looked out across the children, "Where is Safia?"

"Safia?" Jasmine frowned.

"Safia?" Julia called out across the children, "Where is she?" She turned to Jasmine.

"Do you know Safia?" Jasmine asked, the smile gone from her lips and replaced with an expression of worry.

"Yes I know her, I put her in the orphanage myself on my last tour in Afghanistan," Jules explained, "Where is she?"

"When the attack happened some of the men fled and took some of the children with them," Jasmine looked at the ground, "Safia was one of them."

Julia stared at Jasmine as if she had sprouted two heads, "What?"

"They- They took her," Jasmine cried, "Her and four others. They took them and left."

Julia stumbled back a step, her eyes raking over the faces of the children. She was supposed to be here. "Safia? Safia!?" Jules shouted.

"She's not here," Jasmine cried.

"Jules, what is it?" Marc spoke behind her.

Spinning around Julia stared up at him and saw the happiness in his eyes that she was about to trample on, "She's gone, Marc. Safia is gone."