Chapter 33
I wake up several hours later in an old abandoned warehouse tied to a chair. My clothes had been stripped off except my pants. The floor was cold and wet. I felt a pain in my side below my ribs. Obviously, my digital tracker had been removed from underneath my skin. My vision was blurred as I looked across the room I saw Natalia hanging from chains in the ceiling. She had blood running down her ribs as well. Vince and Maurice both had chains around their feet and hands binding them to the brick wall. Both of them were unconscious, bleeding and dirty. Their shirts and shoes had been removed and both of them had small cuts on the side of their body and their wrists as well. They obviously removed all our digital trackers. But how did they know about them? We now only had each other. The rest of the team would have no idea where we were. I was praying Ryan, Chase and Nick weren’t captured as well. A door opened and in walked Boris Valchek with five men with automatic weapons. I noticed Boris’s neck was wrapped with gauze I looked over and Maurice and Vince were now awake.
“Well, Commander Armell, you have caused a lot of trouble for me!” A man stated.
“I am a troublemaker for sure. Why so many men Valchek? You scared to face me alone?”
“Don’t talk to him, talk to me.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Alexi Valchek, his son.”
“Not possible. Valchek has no children.”
“Well it seems your intelligence was incomplete, Commander,” Alexi stated.
“Well, why am I speaking to you and not your father? Cat got his tongue? Or did it get shot out?”
I couldn’t believe Boris was still alive! Chase has never missed a kill shot.
“Short setback I assure you Commander. My father has some of the best doctors in the world at his disposal so accept that you and your team have failed.”
Boris was staring at me.
“Hey mate, it seems insanity runs in the family,” Vince laughed.
“Hey dickhead over here. I’m gonna fucking kill you and feed you and your son to the crocodiles when I get outta here.” Maurice stated.
Alexi walks over and punches Maurice in the face splitting his lip.
“Your subordinates need to learn some manners, Commander.”
“Commander, you and your team have cost my family a lot of money interfering with our businesses. We have known for some time that your team was coming for us. Things are not always as they seem. I will make sure you die slowly for that, but first I will make sure you see her suffer!” Boris stated as he looked over at Natalia.
Boris looked at me with a smirk on his face.
As he spoke those words, tears of anger ran down my face. Natalia had now woken up and was making eye contact with only me. Alexi started pacing around Natalia’s body holding a knife in his hand with a deadly look in his eyes. He suddenly started to make small deliberate cuts all over her body. As I watched the streams of blood begin to trickle down Natalia’s body, her eyes locked with mine and her lips moved. As I read them she was saying “I love you”. Natalia screamed in pain.
“Trust me, Alexi! I will fucking kill you if keep touching her! Natalia! Look at me! Look at me baby! Focus on my eyes Natalia! There is no pain!”
Natalia and I never broke eye contact as streams of tears ran down her cheeks.
“Natalia, I will never stop looking for you! I love you!”
“Hey mate, I will be seeing you soon!” Vince said to Alexi.
Two men walked over and began beating Maurice and Vince and they once again lost consciousness. I watched as Alexi took the chains off Natalia and one of his men carried her out of the room.
Boris walked over to whisper in my ear.
“Well, Commander, it has been a pleasure. Now you must DIE! Kill them all and bury the bodies,” Boris instructed.
Boris left and one of his men started to walk toward me. What they didn’t know is that I had already broken my thumb and slipped my hands out of the chains behind my back. The man pointed the gun at me when I suddenly slipped out of the chair and kicking his legs out from under him knocking him to the ground. The gun slid across the floor and landed near Vince and Maurice. I wrapped my legs around the man’s neck and quickly broke it.
I picked up the gun and shot the chains off Maurice and Vince freeing them. The sound of the gunshot woke up Vince and Maurice.
“Well, what took you so long Commander?” Vince said.
“What the hell is going on?” Maurice said.
“I don’t know but come on we gotta get out here. I thought Boris was dead. But when I find him I’m gonna finish the job. I have to find Natalia.”
I opened the door to the hallway. We found a few more guns laying in the hallway. We searched the whole building, but they were gone.
“Don’t worry Commander we will find her. We just gotta reach the rest of the team and let them know where we are.”
“Well, that’s only if they are still alive Maurice.”
Vince, Maurice and I cleared the building. Boris and his people had gotten away with Natalia.
Once we reached the U. S. Embassy we were taken to the medical unit where I had a bullet removed from my arm and a blood transfusion. My arm quickly began to heal and after a few hours I was feeling normal. I was anxiously waiting for further instructions. Suddenly the door unlocked and Admiral Thompson walked in.
“Welcome back, Commander.”
“Thank you, sir. Where’s my team?”
“Everyone is fine except for Natalia, she is still missing. Your team is debriefing right now.”
“What the hell happened out there Commander?”
“I don’t know, sir! When can I get outta here? I need to find Natalia.”
“Listen Commander, during the mission all of your trackers were somehow disabled. Looking at the intel from the mission we are trying to figure out what happened out there.”
“No! What happened to Natalia? Did you reach out to our contacts in Moscow?”
“Yes, but there is there is no new information on her whereabouts.”
I turned my head and looked away as Chase, Nick, Maurice, Vince and Ryan walked into the room.
“Commander, good to see you awake,” Chase said.
“Guys, what the hell happened out there? Chase, what did you see from your position?” I said.
“When I shot Boris, I saw him go down and the lights went out. I know I hit Boris in the neck for sure in the carotid artery. He should have bled out in seconds. I left my position and headed toward the house, but once I got there you and Natalia were already gone so I met Nick and Ryan at the extraction point.”
“Your orders were to make the kill shot Chase!”
“And I did Commander. With all the chaos going on I wanted to make sure I got him.”
“Ryan what happened to our communications?” I asked.
“There was something that jammed the communications signal right before the lights went out. I think they knew we were coming.” Ryan said.
“Maurice what happened with the explosives you planted around the property?” I said.
“Whatever jammer they were using interfered with my detonation signal as well.”
“Nick, where were you when me and Natalia were being taken?”
“When the lights went out and the gunfire started, I was exchanging gunfire with some of Boris’s guys and I was pinned down in the living room. But I got out the back door and retreated to the pool house. I saw them throw you, Vince and Maurice in the back of a van with no plates and sped away.”
“Commander, I have been in touch with the President and he has ordered that the mission be cancelled immediately,” Admiral Thompson said.
“No Admiral, I will not be able to obey that order. That means I will have to abandon Natalia and I would never do that! I love her and I will hunt those motherfuckers to the ends of the earth if I have to! I promised her I would be by her side forever and I intend on keeping my promise to her.”
“Commander, as you know there may be consequences for disobeying my direct order”
“I understand that Admiral, but I will do anything to find her.”
“I’m in, Commander,” Nick said
“I got your back as always mate, I’m in,” Vince said
“We’re in this together, right brother?” Ryan asked.
“Thi feels like a suicide mission. I hope she is still alive,” Maurice said.
“She is Maurice. Boris wants me, and he knows I will come for her.”
“We will run down every lead,” Chase said.