Savvy
I keep going in and out of consciousness, we’re on a plane now and I can hear someone talking but I do not understand the language. I try to open my eyes, but they feel like someone glued my eyelids shut. I have to get them to think I’m out longer, so they aren’t giving me as many drugs. Before I can continue to formulate a plan, I’m sucked back under, with one thing on my mind…. Jag.
Joshua
We land in record time but still after Savannah, and we’re in Somalia. Fuck! Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. We debark and General Berkley arranges for a deep cover Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance operative to pick us up. He brings weapons, equipment, transportation and information.
We jump in the jeeps and head towards the dot on the screen of my phone. They are taking her deeper into Somalia. If I don’t hurry up, I will lose her here. Damn shame the world is going to miss Africa because I will destroy every inch of this country. It’ll be nothing more than a barren waste land. I’m hoping Savvy fights and then I hope she doesn’t with no back up they would most likely just kill her if she fights them. Be smart Savvy.
Stranger
“Ha ha ha I made it to Africa with his greatest possession, he’ll never find her here. But intend to get some money for her. Maybe I’ll whore her out, they’re plenty who would pay to fuck her but no I have already made arrangements to sell her. The sooner I can get her away from me the better.” Then he can chase down this jackass I am selling her to. We reach the meeting spot and I do not see Cumar, but someone else. “Who the hell are you?” I ask.
“I’m Diric, Cumar sent me, he’s been delayed. He'll be here to meet you the day after tomorrow. “We’ll need a safe place to hold up and supplies then” I tell him. I did not plan to be here for more than it took to make the trade.
“I’ll need payment”, he tells me as he looks at my captive. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen”, I tell him.
“Then I want her bracelet,” he tells me.
I reach over and snatch it off and give it to him. He takes us about thirty miles deeper into Somalia to a two-room house in the middle of nowhere. It sits out in the open making it easy to see if someone is approaching. She is still unconscious; I dump her in the room and go to other room to eat and plot.
Joshua
We are almost to Savvy, I think as close in. When we get to the coordinates I am out of the car before it comes to a complete stop. My brothers are right behind us. We kick in the door and quickly realize this is not where Savvy is. Inside is a family with three young children. On the wife’s arm is Savannah’s bracelet.
“Where did you get the bracelet?” I asked in Swahili.
The husband answers and tells me some guy came to the marketplace to get food and provisions and paid with the bracelet. I give him some money and take Savannah’s bracelet from them. I walk back outside and damn near pass-out, I can’t breathe how the hell am I supposed to find her now? All the husbands could give me was the direction he saw the guy go in once he left.
“We’ll find her Joshua,” Jaasiel tells me.
“How?”
“We will find her,” he tells me.
We head in the direction the husband told us. I don’t even know if he was telling us the truth but what other information do I have?
As we drive Joseph asks me, “Josh didn’t you have a mission over here years ago?”
“Yeah, it was a deep cover long term assignment. We ended up killing the leader of the gun runners who thought selling little girls and boys into sexual slavery was ok. We rescued as many of the kids as we could, one was his own daughter. She was barely twelve years old. We gave them new lives and homes in America. It was one of the hardest missions I had ever been on and the only one I went on without Joseph.”
“That’s when you learned Swahili right?” Aryon asks.
“Yes,” I answer.
We drive for about an hour when we stop at a safe house, it’s night now and with no way to know if we’re even going in the correct direction it’s better, we stop and rest. I will get no rest until I have hatima yangu with me, but I know my brothers need to rest. We go inside and Jabarri pulls up satellite images of this area, and literally they could’ve gone in any direction. We grab something to eat, and Joseph comes over to talk to me, the other brothers are asleep.
“You should sleep, Savannah needs you in peak fighting shape,” he tells me.
“I’ll try,” I say even though I’m lying, and I know he knows I’m lying. I sit back in the chair and let sleep take me. I dream of Savannah:
Come get me Jag.
I’m trying to Savvy; I’m trying to find you.
Can’t you feel me, baby? Follow that feeling, and I’ll be there.
I wake up with a start, and it feels like Savvy is with me. I go back to sleep at peace, knowing I am going to find her.