The Survivor of the 27

Chapter twenty five

  After ten and a half hours, we finally land. We landed on the roof of the building where it all began. The building is made up of complete concrete. There's nothing around this place except for sand, army men, and army vehicles.

  As we get out, I follow Hassan into the building. I have two guards in front of me and two guards behind me. The two behind have their guns pointed at me.

  They're clearly scared about what I can do and what I'm capable of. The moment I walk through that door fear washes over me. I end up freezing in my place, completely petrified.

  "Keep it moving!" The guard behind me yells. I get my act together and force my legs to walk.

  As I'm walking down the halls of the concrete, windowless building, the memories start flooding my brain. I push it back and try to focus on just being present. As we're walking we go into a hall with big metal doors. Cells. We stop at one cell that reads: Cell 218. The same cell as before.

  Hassan opens the door and puts his hand out. Referring to me to go in. I obliged and walk into my old cell. I turn around to face Hassan. I hate this I hate this I hate this. I want nothing more than to rip his spine out of his back and shoot him right in between the eyes. But my family is at stake.

  "This is where you will be staying. The box on your bed, try it on. Someone will come get you in about thirty minutes," he says, then closes the door with a bang. I jump back a little, I take a deep breath and count to thirty-five.

  "One, two, three," and so forth.

  Once I've calmed down, I take in my surroundings. There's a toilet in the corner and an open sink with a mirror above it. I walk over to the bed in the corner of the room. The bed is more of a green cot with stains. And just like everything else in this building, it's all concrete except for the metal door. There's no windows, I only saw like five walking down here.

  I inspect the box on the cot and open it up with caution. It's the black suit that Gener- or Hassan showed me. I slide the black leather suit on me, and surprisingly, it fits perfectly to my body. I grab the boots and put them on. They hug my feet, but not too tight.

  How did he get my size so perfectly? I grab the gloves and slide them on. The right hand has the fingers cut off and on the palm of the glove, there's an opening. The left glove though is normal.

  "Why have one hand with fingers and the other without?" I ask myself. I grab the shemagh and wrap it around my face. It's a soft material, it's como greens with some black mixed in. I walk over to the mirror and look at myself. I look... different. I don't even know who I am anymore.

  "I'm doing this for my family," I remind myself. Suddenly there's a knock on the door, I move away from the mirror and straighten up.

  The door opens with it sliding on the floor. Making a screeching sound. A man is standing in the doorway. He has black hair and tan skin. He's about 5'10 and probably about 198 pounds. Can't be any older than thirty one. He has on his green military outfit, with a gun in hand.

  "Time to go," he commands in Persian. I follow him out of the cell and down the hall.

  We walk down to the end of the hall where an elevator stood. Once we get there, there are about seven guards waiting at the elevator. Somehow, we all fit in the elevator and I'm surrounded by eight guards, all holding M16 rifles. I'm so glad that I have this shemagh to hide my face. Cause if I'm being honest, I'm scared.

  Once we reach the floor, we walk down another hall and stop at a door. The guard from before opens the door.

  "Go in," he orders me. I walk in and see that it's a conference room.

  There's about a ten foot table in the middle of the room with ten chairs. Four on each side and then one on each end. There's a chalkboard on the right side of the room and maps all over the place. Some maps have pins or markers on them and others are plain. In the back of the room, are a bunch of older looking computers. They're like the kinds that were in the 80's or 90's.

  There' papers scattered all over the table. Each seat has a candle in front of it, this is some sort of special meeting room. I walk a little farther into the room and wait for a command. I spot Hassan and another soldier by the chalkboard, writing something down. I can tell that the soldier next to him is a higher rank, due to the medals that he's wearing. I'm not really able to get a good look at his face though.

   "Khor Khoreh, come," Hassan commands. I do as I'm told and walk over to him. "Lieutenant Bukhari, this is our new weapon. She will lead us into many great victories," Hassan says with confidence. Lieutenant Bukhari has short gray hair, with a graying beard. He's a little under 6'1, but still taller than Hassan.

  "How are you certain of this?" Lieutenant Bukhari asks.

  "She will be a loyal asset to this operation. She has had 539 kills in the matter of nine years, not including some of my men," he whispers the last part under his breath.

  "Where did you find her?" Bukhari asks.

  "That is a long story, best for another time my friend. I want to deploy her on her first mission tomorrow," general Hassan tells him.

  "How much training does she have?" Bukhari asks.

  "Would you like to answer that Khor Khoreh?" Hassan more so tells me, then asks. That's how this went, you weren't asked, you were told. It was like that back in boot camp as well. He gives me a look of: to know your place.

  "Since I was a child I've been fighting. I'm skilled in every and any type of weaponry," I respond. My back straight and my eyes looking Lieutenant Bukhari right in the eyes. Not breaking eye contact for even a millisecond.

  "We'll see about that. Where are you planning on departing her?" The lieutenant asks.

  "Kandovan Village. President Rashid's right hand man, governor Zahar will be there tomorrow. He has been getting too close to our weapon system. Khor Khoreh will eliminate him and steal back the information that belongs to us," Hassan informs lieutenant Bukhari. Lieutenant Bukhari looks at me and then back to Hassan.

  "Fine, this is war and we will do whatever it takes to win this fight. But if this girl does not do her job right, then the operation will be shot down." The lieutenant grants. I can see that Hassan is more relieved and calmer after hearing this news.

  "Tell Abder that I won't fail him," Hassan says with a solute. The man solute's Hassan back and leaves the room. Leaving it to be just me and Hassan.

  "Khor Khoren, have a seat," Hassan commands. I do as he says and sit down in the closest chair. Hassan walks over to the map on the opposite wall from me and goes into the filing cabinet and throws a file at me.

  "Prove to me your worth. You will eliminate this man," Hassan says, pointing to the man in the photo. "His name is governor Zahar Baldikave. He is President Rashid's right hand man. He stole some important information from us and you will get it back. After you kill him of course. You will succeed. Do you understand?" Hassan asks.

  "Sir yes sir!" I yell. I see him smile.

  "Good, remember though. If you fail, someone you love will die," he threatens. This just puts me back into reality.

  "I won't let you down, General Hassan," I reassured him. Oh no. I can feel my face go white. I meant that. I'm ready to kill for him.  Once the meeting is done, I grab my weapons and head out to my next destination. The vehicle storage unit.