Daris and his men were too late. Yesterday when he asked him men to investigate, he didn't know his son would sneak out to seek the enemies along with some of his other men's children. He was beating himself for not asking someone to look after them knowing how fired up, his son, Hamza was yesterday.
In the morning when they found the kids missing, he gathered some of his men and immediately rushed out toward the location. All throughout his journey he hoped nothing happened to them. He was his only son and if he were to lost him...he didn't even want to think about that.
" Hurry! They have several hours headstart on us!" He urged the driver.
" I am going as fast as I can. It's the terrain, if I force it our vehicle could flip." the driver yelled. He knew why the leader was desperate but it was a car not a plane, it's best if they tread carefully or else if it broke down, they would completely miss the window.
What was a three hour journey at max speed took them two with Daris constant persistence, even Ahmed had to meddle in and hearing his calm words, he finally settled down. But everything came to the surface again, when they saw the kid's abandoned vehicle few miles off the target.
Daris jumped down and started inspecting it, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was not damaged. He was mostly looking for bullet holes and any sign of struggle but there was none other than all their backup supplies like food and water.
" It appears they left in a hurry." Ahmed said after looking at clues.
" Just wait for me to catch those brats! I will straighten them up this time for sure!" Daris was furious. There were many valuables left behind that were essential for survival. What if they got into a tricky situation and had to hole up in some rundown building for several days? Without food and water they were bound to be discovered when they got desperate.
" We don't have time. Let's head out." Ahmed began following their tracks. It was right outside the small town but there were some footprints left behind.
Soon they entered the town which meant there were no tracks left to follow. Daris ordered his men to fan out but as they were too close to the coordinate, they needed constant communication if anyone stumbled onto the enemy.
" Sir! I found something!" A young man radioed in. Everyone converged to his location to find the dilapidated building where Steve and his team fought few hours earlier.
" It's blood!" Ahmed exclaimed fearing for the worse. He could see from the clues that someone was hit right outside the building and the trail led them inside the building.
When they went upstair, they saw a lot more blood dying the rotting carpet in the living room. There were also some grenade shards littered inside the room. But Daris was looking at something at the corner of the room with gloomy expression.
" What about the kids?" Ahmed had always been the brain of their operation. He was trained overseas and even served with several elite special forces in his time in the military.
" I think they are fine. It's only a hunch but a strong one since we are not seeing any of the 'goods' lying here."
" You mean.."
" Yes, the captives. These are all well fed men and hardly look like someone enduring these hard conditions. Which begs the questions where are the merchandise? Even if a rival force was responsible for this, at least the boys are young to you know...remain valuable."
Daris knew what he was talking about. It was a gut wrenching thought but at least they had to be alive and in the country with how little time passed. It was crucial they start their search as soon as possible!
" We should head further inside the territory. It could at least give us a direction." Daris ordered but first they burned the bodies and the whole base too. It was a small fire to better mask the smoke, there were also people stationed on every corner of town on a lookout. There was no possibility of them being ambushed.
Meanwhile, others started searching for clues, but no matter how much they tried they couldn't seem to find anything. It was because, Steven called a airlift for extraction. The dust cloud had settled hours ago and airspace being not being Daris and his men's priority, there was no way they could have known about it.
" Nothing, it's like their track vanished when they exited the town. There is also a lot of debris making it impossible for me to track anything." Ahmed said frustratingly.
" The direction is also further inside those bastard's territory. But we can't march there with this many people." Daris knew he had a lot on his shoulder. He couldn't risk his men's lives blindly. Since they established that kids might be alive, they could use diplomacy, giving the other party some resources.
But due to recent incursions, he knew they would ask a sky high price that could effectively cripple their small town and the government would never interfere in turf wars because they had to save their own asses.
On the surface, it was because they wanted to remain neural because they had contacts with both forces but the real reason was to let them wipe each other off having one less mess to deal with. Daris completely understood it.
Suddenly they heard their radio chirping, Daris thought they were discovered but it was someone from their base.
" Sir, we got some important information. I thought you like to know about it."
" Don't you know we are working here?" He didn't want to deal with small matters when his son's life hangs in balance.
" It's about your son sir."
" What?"
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